One hundred and seventy

CHAPTER 170

"I can't help it-HUEK! HUEK!"

Ethan spit out his guts because this was the first time he saw a corpse for real.

"Huek! Huek!" Ethan coughed up everything he had eaten from the farm, including the milk processed directly at the ice cream factory. His body fell backward and he landed on his butt in the grass behind him. Her head was spinning fast. She lost her balance, but tried to stay conscious. "Huek- oh my! My stomach hurts like hell."

Uncle Chuck quickly approached Ethan. He patted the young man's back lightly as he crouched down. "Are you okay?"

Ethan bowed his head, almost fainting had Uncle Chuck not braced him there. Alicia looked at the corpse stuck in the riverbank bushes with the flashlight coming from her cell phone. Her face turned pale. She knew her condition was not very good. The girl scanned the surroundings until the sound of Nicholas' car distracted Alicia.

Nicholas yelled to a stop, dust billowing around his car as he hurriedly parked his car near the scene. He rushed over, worry written all over his face. "What happened? Is everyone okay?"

Alicia composed herself, her focus shifting from the gruesome discovery to Nicholas. "We found a body, Nicholas. This... this is not something you want to see."

Ethan, still recovering from his nausea, managed to sit up straight. Uncle Chuck continued to pat him on the shoulder. "We found it while exploring the riverbank. Poor Ethan didn't get to see that sight."

Nicholas furrowed his brow, glancing towards the bushes where the flashlight illuminated the lifeless form. "Who is it? I'll call an ambulance."

Ambulance sirens filled the cold, dark riverbank. In addition to the ambulance, there was a police car driven by Noel. The river, which should have been quiet, was now busy as the unidentified man's body was moved from the riverbank to the surface. The field forensics team consisting of three officers tried to remove the body. The smell, which was already foul, made Ethan, who was standing not far from the ambulance, again vomit his stomach contents there.

"Huek! Huek!"

The ambulance door closed and the head of the field forensics team spoke with Nicholas about the possible cause of death of the man's corpse. They talked for about five minutes, before the ambulance finally left the scene. Noel took the police line out of the car and started to put it up, going around the bushes where the man's body was found.

Noel aimed the flashlight he was holding at the grass on the high bank of the river, but found nothing. He went back up and found Nicholas. "I couldn't check clearly because it was very dark down below and the surrounding grass was too tall."

Nicholas nodded in understanding. He then took out his cell phone from his pants pocket and started calling other police officers to help with the crime scene investigation. Nicholas also asked his team to call another field forensics team so they could comb the area in more detail.

"They're on their way," Nicholas said, as he tapped Noel on the shoulder and said, "I'll talk to Alicia first."

"Okay."

In the midst of the terrible darkness, Nicholas approached Alicia who was standing with Ethan and Uncle Chuck. Ethan looked like a living corpse as he vomited all the guts, while Uncle Chuck was trying to hold Ethan's hand. It looked like Ethan was going to pass out because he smelled the stench of the corpse of the man who passed by him earlier.

"Are you okay, Alicia?" Nicholas confirmed Alicia's condition, then looked at Ethan and Uncle Chuck. Alicia nodded her head in affirmation. "Your friend looks sick. You'd better come with me, we're going to the hospital. While I take care of your friend, I need your witness."

"I'll go to the hospital after delivering the milk to the orphanage. Will that be a problem?"

Alicia answered before Nicholas. "No, Uncle Chuck. You can deliver the milk first. I will call you."

"All right," Uncle Chuck replied.

Nicholas nodded at Uncle Chuck's decision, understanding the importance of delivering the milk to the orphanage. He turned his attention back to Alicia. "Okay, let's get your friend to the hospital. We'll sort everything out later."

As Nicholas led the way to his car, Ethan leaned on Uncle Chuck for support, his face still looking pale. The night air was thick with tension as they left the eerie riverbank.

At the hospital, the doctors tended to Ethan while Nicholas and Alicia waited anxiously. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting a sterile glow around them. Finally, a doctor approached them with a serious expression.

"She is physically fine, just experiencing severe nausea and shock. She will recover with rest," the doctor assured them.

Alicia breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Nicholas gratefully. "Thank you for taking care of us."

Nicholas nodded, his mind still fixed on the disturbing discovery by the river. "I need to get back to the crime scene. We need to find out who that man is and what happened to him."

Alicia hesitated, then spoke up, "I want to help. I can't just sit here and watch something terrible happen."

"You can help me by telling me what really happened. Why were you in the river at night and how did you find the body?"

The girl shoved both hands into her jacket pockets, she glanced at Ethan who was still lying limp from the incident earlier. Before she finally turned around and nodded in front of Nicholas. "Uncle Chuck took us to see the farm and the ice cream factory, he took us to visit the river close to the farm area to get some fresh air. Everything was fine until... I saw a human hand in the distance. Ethan, wanting to help, thought it was serious and started shining his flashlight in the direction I was looking and... well, we ended up finding a dead man there. Ethan immediately had food in his stomach because we had just finished dinner before finding the body."

Nicholas chuckled in disbelief, then looked at Ethan with concern. "Your friend is very unfortunate. But once he's conscious, I'll talk to him."