Chapter 327: Into the Forest (7)
Now that they had decided to infiltrate the cannibals’ stronghold together and rescue the captives, the next step was to come up with a rescue plan.
As an anthropologist, Sophia was intimately familiar with the power structures and social organization of primitive tribes.
Judging from the stone axes and bone-tipped spears Everly had previously seized, she concluded that the Caribs’ level of productivity was still comparable to the Late Paleolithic Age. At that stage, tribes generally practiced communal ownership. The means of production belonged to the entire tribe, while only personal weapons such as stone axes and spears were privately owned. Everyone worked together, and the fruits of their labor were shared equally.
The cannibal tribe had carried away every corpse from the crashed plane. The forest was warm and humid, so unless they possessed a large supply of salt, the cannibals would have to eat the bodies quickly before the “food” spoiled.
Paradoxically, that gave Terry and the other eight captives a better chance of surviving.
“To keep their food fresh, the Caribs will most likely keep Terry and the others locked up somewhere in the village, saving them until they’ve finished eating the bodies from the plane. That means we don’t have to rush. We can wait until nightfall, when most of them are asleep, sneak into the village, locate the place where Terry and the others are being held, and free them.”
As for the mysterious force concealing the cannibals within the forest, Sophia, not being an expert in such matters, had no useful suggestions.
Fortunately, there was still the well-traveled Everly.
Since everyone’s interests were aligned, she no longer saw any reason to conceal what she knew. Stepping forward, she asked, “Have any of you ever heard of the concept of cognitive distortion? I suspect the ‘concealment barrier’ covering this forest is essentially a force that distorts people’s perception.”