Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 102
【Face? 】

Kupp took a few steps back, leaned against Kraft, and stared intently. Peter was standing on the edge of the light. Behind him was a dark background beyond the reach of the torch light, a uniform area of ​​no light.

Seeing that Yvonne was safe and sound, William held the torch and walked back to the head of the team. The red and yellow circle of light expanded forward, approaching the distance where the thing emerged.

He removed the hammer from his waist and held it in his hand. He took a half step away to get into a stance, and moved to the side to make room for Kraft to react.

This is an early arrangement.As a beginner, I don't expect him to provide much help directly. Once something happens, the first response must be and can only be a well-trained main force.

He believed that Kraft knew what was going on and would react, but there was still the chill of sweat and night wind blowing behind the thin shirt.

The night receded like the water in the bow of a boat, and the torches illuminated the space behind Peter. The gray-yellow road surface was the same as before, and the bare sand and stones like a low-tide beach were separated out of the darkness inch by inch.

The largest thing is but a piece of rubble, with no flat face, nor retrograde peepers.The tense spirit was empty, as if one side suddenly pulled back in a confrontation, the strength that had been so hard to muster was in vain and wasted in indifferent places.

Kupp stepped forward to kick the gravel away, and the stones that were not deeply embedded in the ground were easily lifted up, rolling on the road for a few weeks and disappearing into the light-dark boundary.

There was a faint chuckle in his ears, which sounded somewhat similar to the treacherous sneer of the dock owner. He was dazed and unconsciously angry, and his eyes swept over everyone present. A look of shock.

The voice dissipated, and the face-like image emerged, the details were not recorded enough, making people question whether their senses were wrong.It is even impossible to confirm whether it is really a face or a laugh, it only evokes a momentary association, linking the impression in the memory to supplement it.

It is so close that there is no distance, it is closer than the ear, and it is not enough to describe it as being blown into the ear hole, and the nearest Peter is still turning his back to him in a daze.

William whispered something to the guide, and pulled him forward, the torch in his hand burning brightly.The sailors returned to the back of the line, and Kraft pulled Yvonne up and dusted her cloak, and no one seemed to notice.

The circle of light moved toward Cooper, and William raised the torch to bring him into the center of the circle.This only guarantee can't make him feel at ease, and the sense of isolation with nowhere to rest arises, as if he is isolated from other people, alone in an infinitely close but completely different realm.

This feeling is stronger than those hallucinations and auditory hallucinations, even to the point of being clearly identifiable, like going astray in a certain side road, turning around and finding that you are far away from your companions.

The road under my feet is the same as before, but there are indeed subtle and indescribable differences. At that "fork in the road", a transformation from familiarity to unfamiliarity took place.

But the mountain road has no forks. William and Peter are walking by him, looking at his hand holding the hammer handle hesitantly. The closer distance conflicts with the intuitive distance, and the subjective feeling seems to be separated from the audiovisual.

He became vigilant like never before, and the sense of crisis forced his memory to dig out similar experiences buried deep in order to deal with the threat.

In his life as a hired worker, Kupp hadn't realized that he had such a wealth of experience, which could be compared to the weird perception he had now.

No, there are still.

To be connected with something clearly unrelated, it should be waking up from the bed, the folds of the comfortable sheets are the same as when you fell asleep, and what you hold in your hand is not the handle of a hammer, but half of your property—a complete silver coin.

A window similar to that before sleep, with light streaming out for no reason, like faces emerging from the emptiness of the darkness.

The melancholy of leaving home is even worse than standing on the stern of the Iceberg and watching Wendeng Port disappear into the horizon.There was no sign that he had left the place he was used to, only at a certain moment, there was a sudden grief, panic, full of heart, full of soreness and tingling pain, and... fear of going to an unknown place.

Fear that everything has already drifted in an unfamiliar direction, and people will only notice it halfway, and it is too late at this moment.

Immediately, things that did not conform to cognition happened, something broke through the window from the height of the attic, or a mocking and mocking voice broke into the ears.

"No, no, it shouldn't be like this." The fingers that clenched the weapon rubbed the straps, and the arms were tense and trembling.It was probably the same thing, and he vaguely recognized the meaning of this feeling—even though he still didn't understand its deep meaning, he only knew that he was far away from familiar places and was approaching them.

A voice like laughter stuck to the eardrums, penetrated deeper, and scratched the inside of the skull.I heard it clearly this time, it came from the leader of the team, the way forward that William's torch halo hadn't illuminated yet.

Shortness of breath, arm trying to swing a weapon, smashing something, swaying the invisible minions that were about to close together, but it coincided with the experience in memory, unable to move, being firmly grasped, the hand under the black cuff The strong pinch made the flesh and blood ache.

"Kup, look this way!" Grabbing his hand with more strength, the dull pain pierced under the collarbone, the palm was forced to let go, and the hammer fell to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The field of vision was refocused, and Kraft stood in front of him, clasped his right shoulder, and restrained the entire shoulder joint.

His right hand was raised high, and just as he was about to swing the hammer down, his heel retreated to the edge of the mountain path, and behind him was a steep rocky cliff.

The others looked at him nervously, and they didn't dare to step forward to save people because of the weapons they held high in their hands before. Seeing that Kraft had removed the hammer, they stepped forward carefully and pulled him back to the mountain path from the edge.

"I..." Kupp, who realized what might have happened, hastily explained, trying to explain what happened to him.

"Walking at night for too long is prone to hysteria, you follow me next." The unfounded conclusion stopped the explanation, blocked the unformed second half of the sentence, and Kraft made a "I know" behind everyone's back Mouth.

He let go of the page hammer, held the near end of the hammer head, and handed the hammer handle back to Kupp.

Kupp hurriedly went to pick up his weapon, and did not let go of the hand that was holding the handle. After making sure that he was conscious, he added, "Remember as much as possible, don't use the weapon blindly, and don't move blindly."

The fingers let go, and the page hammer returned to Coop's hand.

The team continued to move forward on the mountain road. After several twists and turns, the road finally showed a downward trend, heading towards the valley in a zigzag shape.

It was estimated that when it was near the bottom, a faint fire appeared at the end of the slope.

A pottery lamp with a strange shape, molded into a lifting style, placed in front of rocks of different colors above and below, filled with lamp oil.

The vertical section of the rock is illuminated by lights. The upper half is yellow-brown stone, which is common on mountain roads, and the lower half is continued by another diametrically opposite gray-white rock mass, which is clearly divided into two parts.

The meandering strips are painted with some kind of red and black mineral pigment, which are connected by countless segments and twisted at the bottom, so dense that they are indistinguishable from each other.Stickman-like patterns pile up inside the strips, swimming or crawling in all directions in a haphazard manner.

The head, and possibly the tail, of the strip rises obliquely upwards.The segment ends here, and the open structure between the valve and the calyx emerges, just at the dividing line of the upper and lower heterochromia.

The little figures in those strips seemed to find their way out here, releasing into the tawny void.The limbs only use scribbled and minimalist lines, or they are hidden, but the head and face part is particularly prominent, portrayed with exaggerated proportions.

The painter made full use of the upper half of the space to draw these people with unbalanced proportions, and even included the details of the facial features on each face. The painting skills are average but each has its own characteristics.

Kupp didn't see the pattern clearly until he got close to the stone surface. Perhaps it was due to the limitation of the painting tools. To accommodate more content, the area had to be spread out. Those faces were drawn fat and not three-dimensional, so that they appeared wide and flat.

The road bypasses the rocks, and there are clusters of houses made of stone and mud. There is no light in the small windows that are opened high, and the village is sleeping.

(End of this chapter)