3/3
Chapter 34 The Price of Survival
Chapter 34 The Price of Survival
+10 Free Coins
Faced with Louis’s sudden attack, I caught his wrist and drove a heavy kick into his chest.
He was knocked backward, slamming hard into a tree.
I rose to my feet and thrust my knife toward his heart without hesitation.
I had waited a long time for the chance to kill Louis–and now it had come.
This blow was meant to end his life.
Just as the blade neared its mark, Elsa sprang up from the ground, lunging at me with the sharpened tree branch.
In that instant, I made a cold calculation: Louis was the greater threat. Elsa didn’t have his strength or danger level.
So I plunged the knife into Louis’s chest, pinning him to the tree, then turned just in time to deflect Elsa’s strike.
Her branch was sharpened into a crude weapon.
It sliced open my skin as I blocked it, but the wound wasn’t deep.
My strength easily overpowered hers, and the weapon was knocked from her hand.
Seeing things turn against her, Elsa ran.
The injury wasn’t bad–but from the look on their faces, they were smug about something.
Elsa’s voice echoed from a distance: “Ha! Leon, you idiot, you’re dead! That branch was poisoned! You won’t last long!”
I looked at Louis, still pinned beneath my blade.
“Is it true?” I asked.
1/4
Chapter 34 The Price of Survival
He nodded smugly.
+10 Free Coins
“What kind of poison?” I pressed, twisting the knife to open the wound wider.
He gasped, groaning in pain. “A red mushroom… soaked the branch in it for days… we don’t even know exactly what it does…”
My stomach clenched.
We’d seen those mushrooms before–bright red, sprouting after rain.
Hailey had warned us: the color alone screamed danger. She’d insisted we crush them and bury them far from camp. Never eat them.
Now Louis and Elsa had made them into weapons.
I picked up the branch and rammed it deep into Louis’s gut.
Whatever he’d made, he could taste it himself.
He let out a terrible scream. Blood gushed freely.
When I pulled my knife from his chest, another torrent burst from the wound.
Whether here or in the city, no one could survive injuries like that.
Louis was finished.
Lily ran up and inspected my arm.
When she heard the branch was poisoned, she immediately started sucking at the wound, spitting the blood onto the ground.
The blood looked normal. No blackening, no strange color.
But Lily was still anxious. “We can’t take any chances. Mushroom toxins usually affect the nervous system. They mess with your brain, not your blood. Hallucinations, seizures, death…”
2/4
12:40 Tue, Sep 9 G …
Chapter 34 The Price of Survival
:
She insisted I get back to camp immediately and lie down.
I nodded, rinsed the wound with water, and we all headed back.
Louis was dying. Elsa had vanished. We were done chasing ghosts for now.
At camp, Alice brought over a cloth to wrap my arm.
56
+10 Free Coins
I shook my head. “No good. It’s not sterile. If you wrap it like that, it’ll just fester faster.”
Alice panicked. “Then what do we do?”
Lily answered, “Flush it with seawater. Keep it cool and dry. Hopefully Leon’s immune system can fight it off.”
I cut in, “There’s one more way to deal with it.”
Lily looked puzzled. “There is? What way?”
My eyes drifted to the campfire behind her.
Her face paled. “You mean cauterization? No… that’s inhumane!”
I gave her a bitter smile. “There’s nothing humane about infection. This island is hot and humid. A wound like this could turn septic fast. Then the only option is amputation. Compared to that, a little fire is nothing.”
I asked Alice to bring me a burning stick from the fire,
I knew this would hurt more than anything. But it was the only way.
No antibiotics. No disinfectants. Not even clean gauze.
Fire was all I had.
A searing flame could kill the bacteria and close the wound in seconds.
I’d seen heroes in movies cauterize wounds with gunpowder or fire. I used to
3/4
12:40 Tue, Sep 9 B…
Chapter 34 The Price of Survival
admire their courage.
Now it was my turn. And I was scared.
Alice clung to Hailey, crying softly, unable to watch.
Jean covered her face.
Lily, half a doctor, stood frozen in worry.
56
+10 Free Coins
Only Ginnie from Harovia kept her eyes on me–watching with something like awe… or something darker.
12:41 Tue, Sep
Chapter 35 Burn and Heal
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
