When the salty sea water poured into his nostrils, Lu Chen vaguely saw the wreckage of the cabin floating in the inky waves. He grabbed a floating seat back and made out the cries for help from other drowning people in the heavy rain. Just before his consciousness faded, his back hit rough gravel.
When I opened my eyes again, it was dusk, and the pink and purple sunset covered the entire beach. Five figures staggered together in the intertidal zone - flight attendant Lin Xiaoman's right arm drooped unnaturally, real estate developer Wang Zhenhai, who was wearing a high-end suit, had a bloody face, geology student Zhou Qian was bandaging an unconscious pregnant woman with a shirt, and the one who was always The silent German engineer Hans.
"This is a volcanic island." Zhou Qian pointed to the jagged peaks in the distance, "but this area has never been marked on the map." His voice suddenly trembled. Lu Chen followed his gaze and saw the beach was covered with The inner wall of the fist-sized shell glows a strange fluorescent blue.
After nightfall, a sticky, creeping sound was heard from deep in the forest. When Hans lit the camp with a torch made from the cabin's aluminum panels, everyone could see the footprints - three-toed, webbed, and emitting a faint black mist on the wet sand. The pregnant woman suddenly woke up and screamed, pointing at the sea. In the moonlight, groups of translucent creatures were crawling out of the waves, their hunched bodies covered with scaly protrusions, and their glowing compound eyes flickered like stars in the darkness.
"Into the jungle!" Lu Chen carried the pregnant woman on his back and rushed towards the ruins of the observatory. The moment the rusty iron door slammed shut behind him, some sticky liquid splashed onto the door panel. With the cold light of the emergency flashlight, they could see the words "Don't go out on the night of the full moon" scrawled in Japanese on the wall, and the calendar was forever stuck on August 15, 1945.
The research log in the safe records an even more terrifying fact: these creatures are the product of underwater volcanic eruptions, and they shed their skin and evolve every full moon. The last page was covered with a yellowed photo. Behind a researcher in a chemical protective suit, a huge shadow was distorting outside the glass window.
On the seventh night, the blood moon arrived as expected. The observatory's generator suddenly started up and intermittent Morse code came over the radio. When Hans deciphered that "living DNA is required to activate the self-destruct device", Lin Xiaoman's screams came from the ventilation duct - her right arm was transforming into a tentacle covered with suction cups.
"There is a submarine base at the crater." Zhou Qian smashed open the sealed filing cabinet with a geological hammer, "but someone must stay behind to monitor the alarm system." Everyone fell into silence until Wang Zhenhai suddenly rushed to the control console. This developer who had forced people to death due to forced demolition Shang was grinning like a madman at this point: "Someone has to be the hero, right?"
Amid the roar of the explosion, the lifeboat rushed into the morning mist. Lu Chen looked back and saw that the entire island was collapsing in blue flames, and those twisted creatures turned to ashes in the glow of the sunset. Wang Zhenhai's final roar still echoes in my ears. He said, "You have to go and see the cherry blossoms in Tokyo for me."
Zhenhai's fingers twitched convulsively on the console keyboard, and sweat dripped down his suit tie onto the yellowed Japanese keys. A holographic projection suddenly descended from the ceiling, and the experimental record of 1945 unfolded before everyone's eyes like a ghost: a researcher in protective clothing was inserting a syringe into the octopus's tentacles. The picture suddenly shook violently, and an object identical to Lin Xiaoman's mutated arm appeared outside the glass curtain wall. of creatures.
"The alarm system is connected to the seafloor crater." Zhou Qian dug his nails into his palm, "The self-destruct program will trigger a chain reaction, but..." He looked at Lin Xiaoman who was curled up in the corner. The pink suction cups had spread To the clavicle.
There was a sound of nails scraping against metal outside the observatory. The moment Hans sealed the vent with a welding torch, half of the fluorescent tentacle fell at the feet of the pregnant woman. Lu Chen picked up the twitching pregnant woman and retreated to the radio, only to find that the signal light on the receiver was flickering with her pulse.
"The fetus' heartbeat...is resonating with the volcano." Zhou Qian's portable device made a sharp beep. "This island is selecting a host!"
When the blood moon rose to the zenith, the entire building began to shake violently. Wang Zhenhai suddenly ripped open his shirt, revealing the spider-web-like blue veins on his chest: "Why do you think I know the control console password?" He laughed wildly and lifted up the simulated skin on his left arm. The mechanical joints glowed coldly in the moonlight. "Thirty years ago, After the plane crash, someone should have completed this ritual. "
Lin Xiaoman's scream and the roar of the volcano exploded at the same time. Her right arm completely transformed into a tentacle with rainbow light, but it suddenly stopped when it was about to pierce Wang Zhenhai's throat - the infrasound waves emitted from the pregnant woman's belly created ripples in the air, and all the mutant creatures suddenly turned to the shore and knelt down.
"In the 19th year of the Showa era, we awakened the gene god that should not be touched." Wang Zhenhai read out the words that appeared on the console in Japanese, his eyes losing their human luster, "but you should not take away his container." He suddenly pounced on the pregnant woman, but was pierced through the shoulder blade by Lu Chen's umbrella knife.
Hans took the opportunity to input the deciphered code into the terminal. As the twelve locks popped open at the same time, the secret compartment on the floor of the observatory slowly rose, revealing the fetus specimens soaked in formalin - each had the same three-toed webbed feet as the creatures on the island. .
"Hurry up!" Zhou Qian handed the lifeboat key to Lu Chen, "The coordinates of the submarine base are..." His voice stopped abruptly, and a bone spur pierced through his chest. Behind him was the completely alienated Lin Xiaoman. The German engineer used his body to block the second round of attack and smashed the geological hammer into the transformer with his backhand.
Amid the flames of the exploding circuit, Lu Chen rushed into the secret passage holding the pregnant woman. Wang Zhenhai's wild laughter resounded throughout the island through the broadcasting system: "Do you think you can escape? Everyone who has come into contact with him will..." The voice suddenly twisted into an inhuman howl. Lu Chen did not dare to look back. He knew that those Fluorescent blue blood is flowing in his veins.
The moment the lifeboat broke through the waves, the entire island shrank like a living thing. Under the blood-red moonlight, Lu Chen saw countless glowing tentacles emerging from the crater, wrapping around the ruins of the observatory to form a huge cocoon. The pregnant woman suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils split into a compound eye structure, and the movement of her stroking her abdomen caused strange ripples in the sea.
Three months later, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department intercepted Lu Chen at Haneda Airport. The umbilical cord of the baby in his arms had been soaked in sea water for too long, and the forensic doctor wrote "stillbirth" on the autopsy report. But when the surveillance video showed that the body in the freezer was missing, the nurse on duty said she had heard wet footsteps coming from the nursery.
The sea breeze blew up the police report, and the last page was attached with a note recovered from the lifeboat, on which was a warning written in shocking blood by Lu Chen: "He is waiting for the next blood moon."