She suddenly felt that Hughes was a bit pathetic.
Faced with the pterosaur's ambush, this Captain of the national archery team hadn't played any role; instead, he had completely exposed his own weak nature.
For someone like him who had always lived amidst applause and honor, this was worse than death.
He probably hadn't expected that the gold-medal archery skills he had spent years of sweat honing would, in the face of a real life-or-death struggle, turn out to be nothing more than an acrobatic performance—good to look at but useless for killing enemies.
It was cruel, but this was reality.
Competitive sports in a time of peace and life-or-death combat in the jungle were never the same thing.
"If you want to go back, just follow the path we came from; I've already marked the way."
Alice broke the stalemate. Her voice was calm, without blame or mockery, only a sense of indifference that had seen through life and death.
"If you still want to follow, then hurry up and stand up. The Sun is setting, and we don't have much time to waste here mourning or arguing."
Hughes's face flushed red, as if he had been slapped hard in the face.
He scrambled up from the ground in a sorry state, brushing the dirt off his body.
Never in his life had he hated his own cowardice and weakness as much as he did in this moment.
"The island is very dangerous, and I am afraid too."
Alice glanced at him and added.
"But precisely because I am afraid, I must summon my courage. Because fear cannot save your life; only action can."
Having said this, she spoke no more, turned around, and walked away.
A word or two of encouragement was enough.
Everyone was an adult; if someone was truly hopeless, saying anything more would be useless.
In this place, it was good enough that she could protect herself; she had no obligation to act as a babysitter.
Alice and Banner continued forward, their backs resolute.
"Sigh, the scenery is so beautiful, yet so dangerous. It's a real pity about this iPod."
Strange sighed, lamenting the ruined outing, but he didn't hesitate in the slightest and strode after them.
As a Doctor, he was accustomed to life and death, and his mental fortitude was much stronger than the average person's.
Hughes stood there, hesitating, looking at the backs of the three people in front, then looking at the bloodstains Donald had left on the ground.
"If Donald hadn't gone out to pick up his luggage bag just now, he might not have been taken by the pterosaur."
He said this faintly, as if looking for an excuse for himself, or as if summarizing a painful lesson.
Then, he gritted his teeth and followed after them.
Because if he didn't go, he felt that his entire life would be overshadowed by this incident.
He would always remember that he was a coward who abandoned his teammate and would be pathetic until his death.
After all, even a little girl went, and he, a grown man and a former Captain of the national team who had received countless honors, absolutely could not just slink back to the camp in disgrace and be laughed at.
Thus, only Arthur was left alone in the end.
He looked at the four people walking away, then looked at the terrifyingly silent forest behind him.
"Lunatics, they're all lunatics!"
Arthur muttered curses. He picked up a thick wooden stick that Donald had dropped and gripped it tightly in his hand to bolster his courage.
"I'm not as stupid as you all, knowing there are beasts ahead and still insisting on going to die. I'm going back; I'm going back to the camp to wait for rescue."
He looked left and right, muttering to himself as he walked, trying to use his voice to dispel the fear.
But after walking for a while, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
The path he had come from seemed to have disappeared.
The markings Alice had made became blurry in his panicked gaze, or perhaps he had simply gone in the wrong direction.
The surrounding trees all looked exactly the same, gloomy and eerie, like ghosts baring their fangs and brandishing their claws.
"Damn it, where is the path?"
Just as he was hesitating about which direction to go, the bushes in front suddenly emitted a hair-raising rustle.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
Arthur stopped abruptly, his heart in his throat.
"Who, who's there?"
There was no answer, only a low hiss.
Immediately after, a head covered in green scales, with double crests and an incredibly ugly appearance, poked out from the bushes.
Those yellow eyes stared fixedly at him, and the skin around its neck instantly spread open like an umbrella, revealing a bright red color, as it opened its bloody maw full of poisonous fangs toward him.
Before Arthur could even scream, a glob of black venom sprayed onto his face.