Defying Fate: The Unstoppable Eileen novel Chapter 96

Elaine's words must've been a hell of a shocker, 'cause everyone around fell silent.

Burton felt embarrassed, his face turning red. He quickly approached and pulled Elaine away.

Elaine struggled all the way.

Eileen stood still for a moment before gently patting Egbert's arm. He turned to look at her.

Eileen looked puzzled and asked, "What's her deal?”

"She wants to team up with you." Before Egbert could speak, Eddie chimed in with a laugh.

As soon as Eddie finished speaking, he seemed to get a bright idea. He threw his arm around Lucas' shoulder and said, "Let's form an alliance too. We've been through hell and back together."

Lucas shrugged off Eddie's arm and walked towards Egbert, saying, "Mr. Reed, I want to take another look at the map.”

Egbert put his pocketknife away. He glanced back at Eileen, then he and Lucas went off to the side to discuss their route.

After a while, Burton and Elaine returned.

Eileen was lounging in the branches of a large tree. With her legs crossed and a blade of grass in her mouth, she was sneakily watching the siblings below.

Seeing her gaze, Burton called out, "Auntie."

Elaine stood behind Burton, and she also seemed a bit shy now, sneakily watching Eileen and mumbling along, "Auntie."

Eileen laughed, ignored them, and beckoned two little white monkeys over.

A few minutes passe. Egbert folded up the map and said, "There are two paths, one short and one long."

Eddie was stumped, asking, "What's the difference?"

Lucas said, "The longer way around might take three or four days to reach the exit. But the shorter route is much closer. If we go fast, we may reach the exit by tonight."

Eddie immediately said, "Then we should take the short route."

Eileen, cradling a little monkey while lounging in the tree, casually asked, "Is the short route difficult?"

Egbert looked at her and said, "There's a river. We need to cross it."

Eileen raised an eyebrow, "Is the river wide?"

Egbert shook his head, "It's not marked on the map."

Eileen let go of the little white monkey, jumped down from the tree, hands on hips, and said, "Then let's take the short route. No matter how wide the river is, we can always swim across. That's better than walking a few more days."

Besides, if they kept walking for a few more days, they'd lose too much time. If other teams got out first, they'd lose the prize money.

In the end, everyone agreed to take the short route.

The short route was indeed shorter. They had been walking for less than an hour when they saw the bridgeless river, which seemed to be more than ten meters wide.

Eddie sighed in relief, saying, "That's manageable. We can swim across."

Eileen stood on the bank, observing the river, shaking her head and saying, "We can't swim across."

Eddie was puzzled, "Why not?"

At that moment, Egbert picked up a stone from the other side and threw it into the river.

Almost instantly, a crocodile with sharp teeth emerged from the water, snapped up the stone in its mouth, and slowly sank back to the bottom.