Chapter 374

Chapter 374: Chapter 374

Before the sound of Suzy’s voice had completely faded, Mark had already eased off the accelerator.

Ahead on the road, several vehicles were indeed brought to a halt. Their headlights flickered bright, sending blurred pillars of light cutting through the swirling morning mist.

The vehicles were parked haphazardly, looking as if they had pulled over on a whim.

Mark reduced their speed until the RV was moving at a near-crawling pace, his eyes locked on the illuminated cars up front.

"No one’s coming down," he said.

Suzy couldn’t help feeling a strong sense of déjà vu.

"Doesn’t this scene feel eerily familiar?" she remarked.

Mark turned his head to cast a brief look at her, remaining silent.

The two gradually drew closer to the cluster of vehicles ahead, choosing not to step out immediately.

However, the closer they got, the more intense the bizarre, suffocating atmosphere became.

"Did something happen up front?"

"Likely, but we can’t see a thing from here."

The two cars directly in front completely obstructed their view, preventing Suzy and Mark from seeing whatever lay beyond.

It wasn’t until their RV pulled up right beside one of the parked cars that they came to a complete stop.

Suzy rolled her window all the way down, allowing a gust of chilly morning air to surge into the cabin.

She turned her head to look at the dark grey sedan idling beside them.

The windows were heavily tinted, obscuring the occupants inside. However, a narrow crack had been rolled down on the driver’s side, revealing someone peering out through the sliver.

"Hello!" Suzy called out toward the crack. Her voice wasn’t overly loud, but it carried clearly through the quiet morning fog. "What’s the situation up ahead?"

The gap remained silent for two full seconds before the window was rolled down a bit further, revealing the face of a middle-aged man.

He looked thoroughly exhausted, dark circles bruised beneath his eyes as if he had stayed awake all night without a wink of sleep.

He cast a glance at Suzy, then shifted his eyes to the beat-up van beside her, seemingly gauging her identity and intentions.

Finally, he spoke up: "It’s blocked. Can’t pass through."

"Blocked?" Suzy repeated the word. "Blocked by what? Vehicles, or..."

The middle-aged man shook his head, looking uncertain as to how to describe it himself. "Not vehicles, not a landslide, and not a roadblock either. It’s just... a stretch of the road up ahead simply can’t be crossed."

After a short pause, he added, "We just got here ourselves and couldn’t drive any further. The vehicles up front are in the exact same boat—no one’s stepping out, and no one’s moving forward."

Suzy didn’t immediately reply.

Her gaze swept over the roof of the dark grey sedan, attempting to peer through the narrow gaps between the vehicles ahead to get a clear look at the road further out.

The morning light was gradually breaking, but the vehicles remained lined up in the same loose, silent formation, as though halted by some invisible force.

The gaps were too narrow to discern anything far off, but that distinct sensation that something was up ahead grew sharper and more concrete by the second.

Retracting her gaze, Suzy offered a quick "Thank you" to the man before rolling the window back up.

She didn’t immediately explain the situation to Mark, simply leaning back against her seat in silence as she processed the information in her head.

Then, she spoke up: "Let me get out and take a look."

Asking no questions, Mark opened his door and stepped out with her.

The middle-aged man noticed their movement, rolling down his window once more to warn them in a hushed, pressed voice: "You two had better not go over there."

Suzy’s eyes flickered. "Why? Do you know something?"

The middle-aged man opened his mouth as if to speak, but swallowed his words back down at the last second.

His eyes darted back and forth between Suzy and Mark before he ultimately shook his head:

"...It’s nothing, I just feel like something’s wrong. If you want to go over, go ahead, but I’m definitely not stepping foot out of this car."

With that, he rolled his window back up.

Suzy stood in place staring at the window for a couple of seconds. Without pressing him further, she turned and walked toward the front.

Mark followed close behind her at a steady pace, cautiously scanning their surroundings.

The crunch of their footsteps sounded exceptionally clear against the empty asphalt, crunching over fine gravel and cracks in the road.

The vehicles ahead remained parked in silence, their headlights casting beams across the greyish-white pavement.

No one honked; no one got out.

After taking seven or eight steps, Suzy’s pace suddenly slowed.

A gust of wind blew in from up front, carrying a strange scent with it.

Suzy instinctively knit her brows, holding her breath by reflex.

Disgusting! That smell was absurdly foul!

It reeked like something that had been rotting for a long time—a pungent, nauseating stench.

Suzy turned her head back and asked in a low voice, "Do you smell that?"

Behind her, Mark nodded. He had clearly caught the sharp odor as well, his eyebrows locked in a tight frown.

If anything, he looked even more repulsed by it than she was.

Covering her nose and mouth, Suzy quickened her pace toward the front.

Mark followed right on her heels.

As the two wove past the surrounding vehicles, they could see the occupants watching them through the windows.

Suzy didn’t linger on their gazes, pressing forward until she reached the very front line.

The moment she took in the scene before her, she froze dead in her tracks.

Parked at the very front were two military off-roaders.

Standing beside one of them was a soldier clad in camouflage fatigue, his expression grave as he gripped his firearm tightly.

And roughly one hundred meters ahead of the vehicles, a black tear was slowly spreading open.

Suzy’s breathing turned extraordinarily faint in an instant.

Standing beside the military off-roader, her eyes swept over the hood, staring unblinkingly at the fissure.

It didn’t look like a crack caused by the ground splitting apart; rather, it resembled an opening torn directly out of thin air onto the road.

Its edges were jagged and irregular, as if shredded open from the inside by something, expanding outward at an agonizingly slow speed.

By now, it had opened to about the height of a person, and its height was still gradually increasing. The darkness at its edges was creeping outward along the ground on both sides, resembling a living entity slowly growing.

"What... on earth is that?" Suzy murmured in disbelief.

Behind her, Mark kept his brows tightly furrowed, his eyes glued to the tear in total silence. ℴ

Before long, Suzy realized that the foul, pungent stench saturating the air was emanating directly from that slit.

Just then, the soldier standing beside the off-roader noticed Suzy and Mark drawing near. He barked a warning: "Fall back! Don’t get close!"

Suzy looked toward the soldier and pressed, "What is that thing?!"

The soldier cast a cold glance at her. Skipping her question entirely, he simply warned in a deep, booming tone: "It’s still expanding. Stand back!"

Before Suzy could react, Mark took her hand and pulled her back.

The two only halted after retreating a meter or so.

Since the soldier didn’t force them away completely, Suzy and Mark remained standing where they were, their eyes locked on the expanding tear ahead.

The larger the tear expanded, the more familiar its shape became.

"It’s the dark curtain!"