Free Web NovelChapter 329: Chapter 263: Difficult Arrival
"Whoo, whoo, whoo..."
As soon as they got off the vehicle, everyone saw a girl about seventeen or eighteen years old squatting on an open space by the road, breaking down in tears.
"The road that was just cleared... it’s been destroyed again! We can’t leave, we can’t leave..."
The girl’s father sighed and patted her, "It’s okay, Yangyang, we will make it out!" freeωebnovēl.c૦m
The girl cried even louder, "Our home is gone, the car’s gone too! Mom, mom is gone as well!"
Seeing this, everyone stepped forward to comfort them.
"Did your house collapse? Where is your mom? We will help you rescue her!"
But the girl continued to cry without responding.
The man, however, glanced at He Yongjun’s military uniform, his eyes filled with sorrow, lifted his hands to reveal a pair of wounded, clotted hands, and then pointed toward a small sedan behind a large rock:
"It’s too late... she’s already... gone. She was in the car; I dug her out by myself last night.
The whole town has collapsed. We wanted to take her to the city to get her cremated, but the road was blocked by rocks from a landslide for half a day.
There were seven quakes last night.
Everyone had a hard time clearing the road, and just now, there was another shake. That big rock fell from the mountain, and completely destroyed the road; our car was almost crushed beneath it."
Everyone understood.
That’s why it was so congested, why those cars were desperately squeezing through the narrow road to get out.
With such frequent aftershocks, everyone wanted to take advantage of the open road to escape in their cars.
And because the road was cut off by the recent aftershock, the traffic behind them had sped up a bit.
"How far are we from the town?" asked He Yongjun.
The man hurriedly shook his head, "Don’t go this way! The whole way is mountainside. If there’s another quake like the one before, a landslide could happen, and rocks would fall everywhere. You won’t have anywhere to hide!"
At this moment, the leadership of the head of the corps, who were also in the back, had already been briefed by two locals, and Zhang Zhongting yelled to the three special duty officers and soldiers from the detachment who had gotten out of their vehicles:
"Everyone! Gear up! Get ready to run through the highway!"
Upon hearing this, the instructor immediately shouted, "Yes!"
Then, facing everyone, he spoke loudly:
"Everyone, go to the pickup truck, get the squadron’s equipment, and get ready to run through the highway!"
"Yes!"
The soldiers’ voices were loud and clear, and upon receiving the instructions, they moved quickly into action.
The man became a bit panicked, "It’s really dangerous! Don’t go! Your lives matter too!"
However, He Yongjun shouldered his bag and smiled at him, "Thank you, mate. This is our task.
Behind us are our leaders; they will contact the engineering troops to come and clear the road. You all stand back a bit, someone will come soon... take care."
...
On the road, there was the sound of shovels and equipment clashing, the heavy marching footfalls of nearly a hundred people, but notably, no voices.
Without marching orders, everyone maintained silence, afraid to trigger a landslide from the fragile mountainside beside the road.
The heads of the corps’ orders to press on towards Tiger Mountain had made it clear to everyone that from this moment, their lives were no longer their own.
In the face of great disaster, all personal safety had to be set aside.
Luckily, their good fortune held, as there had been no collapses since they left the last township, and so they were only jammed up here; they just had to run five kilometers to get into Hanwang.
Wearing camouflage uniforms, Instructor He and leaders from other battalions all ran behind; they had no room for complaints either.
And Fang Huai, carrying two shovels and a steel pike, ran ahead on recon duty, recognizing quite a few familiar faces.
Wei Lijie from Anshun, She Wencang, Gui Qiang from ZunY, all were present.
The entire team was divided into three echelons.
The first echelon was Fang Huai’s recon group, spaced about ten meters apart per person, stretched out long to check the road conditions and warn those behind.
The second echelon consisted of those carrying equipment; each of them held several pieces of machinery.
The third echelon comprised the cadres and three search-and-rescue dogs.
Of course, Fang Huai also had one in his backpack—Little White. Aside from going to the toilet once and eating once on the road, he had almost been sleeping the entire time. Now, resting his head outside the backpack to breathe, he had already fallen asleep.
There were other vehicles still coming up behind, slowing down to warn them of the dangerous road; there had been frequent collapses these past two days.
They, in turn, were alerting the drivers coming their way, letting them know the road was cut off behind them and to not go that way for the time being.
Both groups were advising the other to turn back.
And so, along the way, they encountered several vehicles convinced by their warnings to turn around.
From the attire of those in the cars, it was clear that they were not much different from those in Guiyang, the provincial city. Moreover, those who could afford cars in those times were at least considered middle-class families.
There were quite a few people driving.
It was evident that Hanwang Town, just 30 kilometers away from the poorer WC County, was truly a fertile land.
They were fortunate that there were no frequent aftershocks like last night; everyone passed the three-kilometer mountain road leading into the town undisturbedly, and soon they reached an open area.
But, the closer they got, the more shocking the sights became.
Not far away, a woman sat on the ground, crying pitifully.
A man was pulling a cart, mumbling to himself as he approached them.
"Locals! You can’t get through behind us! Better to go back first!" Fang Huai shouted loudly to the man as he ran at the front.
The path they had come down was barely a meter wide on each side, and judging by their pace, it would take at least an hour to cross the danger-prone stretch of the road, which was highly perilous.
That man just looked up at Fang Huai, then lowered his head and continued walking forward, seeming to call out a name.
It was only when Fang Huai got closer that he noticed behind the cart were two small children, lying side by side, dirty and lifeless, with white cloths covering their faces.
Seeing this scene, his heart sank.
"Uncle, it’s impassable, we should head back, it’s dangerous!"
Fang Huai was ready to step forward to pull him back.
"Guanyin Bodhisattva, Om Amideva Hrih... Guanyin..."
The man was muttering not a name, but some kind of mantra, and whenever Fang Huai approached, he would evade, revealing a fierce look on his face.
Keeping his distance, he even laughed.
"Hehe... Om Amideva Hrih..."
Fang Huai felt a chill down his spine.
Before coming here, he had spent a long time reading psychology books, mainly for psychological comfort during the rescue and psychological counseling after the disaster.
This man had just shown aggressive desires, poor facial expression management, was talking to himself, and didn’t listen to others.
He must be insane.
"Can I get two people to help?" Fang Huai called back.
Gui Qiang ran over from behind.
"What’s wrong?"
Fang Huai glanced at the man who was dodging to the side, crying and laughing, and frowned:
"He’s gone mad. We need to take him back to the town. Otherwise, who knows where he might end up running with that handcart."
Gui Qiang’s expression instantly became solemn.
They hadn’t even entered the town yet and had already encountered a madman.
"His child, dead. He might attack people," Fang Huai pointed to the handcart and added.
Gui Qiang swallowed hard and took out a 20-meter rope.
"Should we... tie him up and take him back?"
...
Twenty minutes later.
They had arrived, at last.
The journey hadn’t been as fraught with the envisioned eighty-one trials; there were surprises but no dangers.
Fang Huai and Gui Qiang walked at the front, using the handcart to pull the deranged man and the bodies of two children. As they crossed a bridge, they saw the rectangular outline of Hanwang, formed by individual rectangular buildings.
But the deeper they went, the more heartbreaking it became.
The building marked "Police" at the entrance was relatively intact.
But those rectangles inside, though still standing, were all distorted now.
Some, with their outer walls gone, allowed clear views of the sofas, appliances inside, and a refrigerator that had fallen from the splintered floor above. Standing outside looking in was like being an audience who had seen through the fourth wall, able to glimpse the entirety of the apartment’s situation at a glance.
Like that broken staircase.
At the corner, they could faintly see an elderly man lying there, his hat fallen beside him.
If this were a sitcom, he would surely be the best actor.
Because he lay there motionless, presumably for more than a day.
But no one could call "cut" to make him stand up again.
And some buildings had lost part of their height. It was obviously the first floor, yet one could still see the outline of the stairs leading downward.
It was unclear whether that area had originally been the second or third floor.
But beneath that rubble, they were sure that there were people.
Lots of people.
Perhaps it was the lack of rescue equipment, no one could help, and they were left there, or perhaps there were too few rescuers, and it was not yet their turn to be saved.
Everyone at the entrance to Hanwang Town slowed their steps, lost for words for a long time.
A living hell.
A City of Tears.
Standing just at this entrance, they could hear the cries emanating from inside.
"The People’s Liberation Army is here! The People’s Liberation Army is here!"
They, in orange clothes at the front, weren’t given much attention by the passing crowd, but soon someone noticed the green camouflages of the cadres at the back of the procession, and the place erupted.
The entire street was abuzz.
"Help! Comrades of the People’s Liberation Army, help! You’re finally here!"
In the distance, a woman who was entangled with a policeman immediately started crying and running towards them.
"My man is in that building, right there in that building, this is his bag! He must be underneath!"
Fang Huai looked back at the cadres.
Old Teacher He quickly stepped forward to communicate with the person in the police uniform.
"Comrade, have any other rescue teams arrived?"
The policeman sized him up, then glanced at the orange uniforms next to him, and with a bit of confusion said:
"Are you from the National Earthquake Rescue Team or from Firefighting?"
Old Teacher He showed his sleeve insignia.
"Firefighting!"
(At one glance, before 12 o’clock, I managed to cobble together 6000 words, so I am sending this out.)
