Chapter 698: Sandstorm
Chapter 698: Chapter 698: Sandstorm
The four of them set out again. Perhaps the shock from the eight mummified bodies was too great, because everyone was quiet for this leg of the journey. As they ventured deeper into the Whispwood, the wind grew stronger. Dead trees were blown over by the gale, threatening to crush them and their horses at any moment. Evelyn Ford had a bad feeling. ’This damn weather is about to cause trouble again.’
"Speed up! We need to get out of the Whispwood right now. There might actually be a sandstorm coming."
Evelyn Ford didn’t care if Flynn Hansen saw. She pulled helmets directly from her space and tossed one to each of them. After putting on her helmet, she whipped the horse’s rump. The horse immediately shot forward. Evelyn leaned low, gripping the reins tightly to avoid being thrown off.
"Looks like that jinx Captain Hansen’s prediction is coming true. If a sandstorm does hit, Captain Hansen can forget about dinner tonight."
Flynn Hansen...
"This has nothing to do with me! It’s not like I can control a sandstorm."
"Stop chatting and keep up."
Evelyn Ford’s horse shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, taking the lead at top speed. Ronan Kendrick was not to be outdone, following closely behind her. Seeing this, Ryan Rowe and Flynn Hansen’s expressions turned serious. They tightened their reins and quickly followed suit.
However, when your luck runs out, it doesn’t matter how fast you run.
The sound of snapping tree trunks echoed around them. Evelyn Ford looked back but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just then, Ronan Kendrick shouted, "Watch out!" Evelyn whipped her head around to look ahead. A few hundred meters away, a ferocious wind was swirling yellow sand into a spiral, hurtling toward them.
"Whoa..." Evelyn Ford urgently reined her horse to a stop, then shouted for the two behind to catch up. The horses stomped nervously in place as Evelyn reached out and patted her horse’s head, trying to calm it.
The moment Ryan Rowe and Flynn Hansen caught up, the sandstorm was only ten meters away. Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick leaped from their horses. Each of them grabbed one of the other men, and in the instant the sandstorm hit, they vanished into the space.
As they entered the space, Flynn Hansen was knocked unconscious by Ronan Kendrick. He lay limp on the ground, next to the four anxious horses.
"That scared me to death! I thought the sandstorm was going to sweep me away. Mr. Kendrick, Joy Ford, you’re my saviors."
Evelyn Ford noticed something: Ryan Rowe was always quiet and reserved around Liam Sterling and Rhys Chase. Away from those two, however, he seemed much more talkative.
Ryan Rowe was still panting with lingering fear. The others were still working in the fields, and no one else was in the wooden house. Ronan Kendrick went to feed the four horses, Evelyn Ford went to the kitchen to find something to eat, and Ryan dragged Flynn Hansen into the living room.
The group working in the vegetable patch was chatting when Zoe suddenly shouted, "Uncle!" Just as Quincy was about to say they shouldn’t be seeing their uncle at this hour, Ronan Kendrick appeared behind them.
"Is your trip over for the day?" Quincy glanced behind Ronan but didn’t see anyone else. He was confused. "Where are Evelyn Ford and the others?"
"We ran into a sandstorm. We probably can’t travel this afternoon, so we had to retreat into the space to hide. They’re in the wooden house."
"A sandstorm?"
Taylor Vance hurried forward to check if Ronan Kendrick was hurt. A warmth spread through Ronan’s heart as he smiled and shook his head. "Mr. Vance, we got away in time. None of us are injured."
"That’s good to hear. By the way, you haven’t had lunch yet, have you? Come on, let’s go back and I’ll cook for you. Sigh, you’ve gotten thinner."
Ronan Kendrick raised an eyebrow. ’Have I gotten thinner?’ he thought. ’Evelyn Ford just said I’d bulked up quite a bit.’
"Mr. Kendrick, why don’t you guys rest for a couple of days? We can go out and cover the distance for you," Liam Sterling said, unable to bear seeing them work so hard.
"It’s no use for you to go out. If Evelyn Ford isn’t outside, we’d still be in the Whispwood even if you walked a thousand kilometers."
Back in the wooden house, just as Evelyn Ford finished slicing a watermelon, the group from the vegetable patch returned with Ronan Kendrick.
Officer Graham and Taylor Vance went straight into the kitchen to cook as soon as they got back. Seeing the unconscious Flynn Hansen, everyone felt a bit of sympathy for him.
"Shouldn’t we wake him up? We’re giving him sleeping pills every day. What if he becomes an idiot?" Quincy patted Flynn Hansen’s shoulder, but Flynn was sleeping like a log. No matter how much he called out, there was no response.
"We didn’t give him any pills. We gave him a sleeping pill the first night, but last night he had a fever and was delirious. Just now, Ronan Kendrick just chopped the back of his neck, and he passed out."
Wyatt Vaughn came over and pulled Quincy away. "Stop patting him. If you wake him up, how are we supposed to explain all this to him?"
"Good point. Let’s just let him sleep then."
"Evelyn, Ronan Kendrick said there was a sandstorm outside. You weren’t hurt, were you?"
"I wasn’t hurt." Evelyn Ford did a little spin. Seeing that she was unharmed, everyone finally relaxed.
Liam Sterling saw Ryan Rowe’s still-shaken expression and poured him a glass of water.
"Ryan Rowe, are you okay?"
Ryan Rowe shook his head. "I’m fine. Just as the sandstorm was about to swallow us, Mr. Kendrick grabbed me."
"You’re lucky to be on a mission with Mr. Kendrick and his wife. They’re incredibly capable. With them around, you can rest easy."
Ryan Rowe slapped Liam Sterling’s hand off his shoulder. "I do feel safe. It’s just... I’m still spooked. Another second and I would have been swept away by the sandstorm. Today was just too intense."
Evelyn Ford passed around the sliced watermelon, then told them about the mummified bodies they had found in the sand.
"Mummified bodies? Don’t tell me they’re the mummies of Aethel?" Miles Vaughn’s imagination ran wild.
Evelyn Ford burst out laughing. "How could they be? They’re just regular mummified bodies. And they were all students. Their deaths weren’t from natural causes, and they didn’t starve. They were stabbed to death with a fruit knife."
"My god, all eight of them were students?"
"Yep. We found their student IDs and regular IDs in a backpack nearby. They were all students, around twenty years old."
"How pitiful," Joelle Finch said, feeling sad just hearing about it.
"Pitiful? Maybe they were the bad guys and someone just turned the tables on them," Wyatt Vaughn countered, already analyzing the case and even imagining a whole scenario.
Quincy looked at her disapprovingly. "Whether they were good or bad, they were driven to it by the natural disasters. To die so young... it’s truly a shame."
Seeing the two were about to start bickering, Evelyn Ford made a "truce" gesture. "You two, quiet down."
"Dinner’s ready!" Officer Graham announced, bringing out the food. Evelyn Ford shot up from her seat. Nothing in the world was more important than eating.
’Let’s eat first and talk later.’
"Should we wake Captain Hansen up?"
Evelyn Ford shook her head. "No need. Let him sleep. The dark circles under his eyes are worse than a panda’s. Just save him some food."
"You guys should eat some more with us."
"We won’t. We just ate. You guys hurry up and eat so you don’t starve."
Evelyn Ford didn’t stand on ceremony any longer. She picked up her chopsticks and began to dig in.
Watching her devour bowl after bowl, Ryan Rowe was stunned. But Ronan Kendrick’s appetite was even bigger than Evelyn Ford’s. In that moment, Ryan finally understood why those two were a match.
As they were all eating voraciously, no one noticed that in the living room, the aroma of the food had woken Flynn Hansen.