A broken metal bracket was stuck under the wooden board. Chen Hao reached out to pull it out, but his wet gloves slipped, and it took him two tries to pry it off. He took a breath, threw the bracket aside, and water seeped into his collar from his sleeves.
“The south drain is blocked.” He shouted back, “All the water is accumulating on the roof. If we don’t do anything about it, it will really collapse.”
Nana's voice came from behind: "An increase of 1.3 percent in the curvature of the load-bearing beam in zone B has been detected, exceeding the safety threshold."
“That means they’re about to collapse.” Chen Hao wiped the rain off his face. “We need to reinforce the outer perimeter as soon as possible, otherwise all the things we just salvaged from inside will be wasted.”
He climbed down the slippery ladder, nearly slipped and fell, but luckily grabbed the wall for support. Carl, who was squatting by the door piling sandbags, looked up when he heard the noise.
"You still say your leg is fine?" Carl asked.
"Did I say that?" Chen Hao retorted.
“You said ‘it won’t affect operations.’” Nana stood by the control panel, her right leg trembling slightly. “The exact words were ‘as long as you don’t dance, you can walk.’”
"I did that to stabilize morale." Chen Hao walked to her side. "Now that morale is stable, we can fix what needs fixing."
"Insufficient lubricant." Nana looked down at her joints. "Last time I only used a third of the bottle, and the remaining lubricant became ineffective after being soaked in water."
"Let's wait until the rain stops." Chen Hao patted her shoulder. "Keep an eye on that outer waterproof wall for me. I don't think it will hold for long."
They walked around the outer wall of the base. Half of the sandbags in the low-lying area on the south side had collapsed, and the plastic sheeting had been torn by the water, with muddy water seeping in through the gaps. Susan squatted there, using a piece of scrap metal to block the water; her hands were red with cold.
“This place won’t do,” she said. “The water is accumulating too quickly and can’t drain away at all.”
Chen Hao bent down and touched the cracks in the foundation, his fingers covered in mud. "We didn't pile it high enough, and the angle was wrong," he said. "The water pressure washed the joints away."
Nana pulled up a topographic map and projected it onto the screen in her palm: "The current rainfall is 67 millimeters per hour. The terrain on the south side is 0.8 meters below the baseline, forming a natural runoff area."
"I don't understand." Chen Hao waved his hand. "Speak human language."
“This is where it’s most likely to flood.” Nana pointed to the ground. “Where we’re standing now, it might be knee-deep in half an hour.”
“Then why bother building a barrier?” Carl walked over carrying another bag of sand. “We might as well just move the stuff upstairs.”
“The upstairs isn’t a foolproof shelter.” Chen Hao shook his head. “The electrical circuits, water pumps, and communication modules are all on the first floor. If we lose any of them, we won’t survive until tomorrow.”
“But the existing materials can’t hold up.” Susan stood up and shook the mud off her trousers. “The steel plate of the hatch is too thin, the plastic sheeting will tear with a scratch, and the sandbags are not dense enough.”
“Then let’s try a different approach.” Chen Hao picked up a broken support rod. “We won’t use it to block the water; we’ll use it to divert the flow.”
How do we introduce it?
“Dig a ditch,” he said. “Drain the water to the low-lying area to the east, so it doesn’t all get stuck on the wall.”
Nana immediately responded: "The soil in the eastern area has a high permeability rate. Historical data shows that this area was once a temporary reservoir with short-term water storage capacity."
"Look," Chen Hao laughed, "the robot can come up with evidence for anything it says."
The four split up. Carl and Susan continued reinforcing the west wall to prevent lateral leakage; Chen Hao, with Nana, dug a shallow ditch outside the south wall, attempting to change the direction of the water flow. The soil was saturated with water, and each shovelful was like stirring tofu.
"This soil absorbs water too quickly." Chen Hao shook the clump of mud off the shovel handle. "It was filled up after we dug only halfway."
Nana crouched down and reached her arm into the bottom of the ditch: "I suggest deepening it to forty centimeters and setting up a gravel filter layer at the outlet to slow down the accumulation of silt."
"How do you know everything?" Chen Hao muttered as he dug. "Are you a robot or a former construction worker?"
“The knowledge base includes basic civil engineering construction specifications,” she said. “Article 347 clearly states that temporary drainage ditches should have slopes, depths, and anti-collapse measures.”
"Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Nobody asked.
Chen Hao stopped what he was doing and glanced at her. "You robots are really something else when it comes to logic."
The ditch had just been dug when a strong gust of wind, accompanied by torrential rain, swept in. The newly patched plastic sheeting on the south wall suddenly bulged, inflating like a balloon, before ripping open with a loud "rip." Muddy water sprayed in, instantly washing away two bags of sand.
"It's over!" Carl ran over. "We can't stop them!"
The three rushed over to try and plug the breach, but the water pressure was too great, and the sandbags they had just piled up were washed away. Chen Hao threw himself on the ground to block the flow, but was overturned by a gust of water and slid two meters away.
"Don't waste your energy," Susan said, pulling him up. "This method won't work."
An alarm suddenly went off inside the building. Nana quickly returned to the control panel, where the screen flashed red.
"The flood warning has been activated," she said. "Structural cracks have appeared in the dam of the upstream reservoir, and it is expected to burst in five hours and forty-seven minutes, with a water volume more than three times the current rainfall."
"Three times?" Karl was stunned. "Does that mean we'll have to convert this house into a submarine?"
“It’s a possibility,” Nana nodded. “Without effective defenses, the base will be completely submerged within twelve minutes of the flood arriving.”
The air suddenly turned cold.
Chen Hao sat on the ground, his clothes completely soaked, his old arm injury throbbing. He stared at the ground for a while, then suddenly stood up and walked towards the whiteboard.
“It’s no use fixing it now,” he said. “We need to rethink it.”
He picked up a marker and drew the outline of the base on the whiteboard, marking the high and low areas. "Abandon the defense of the non-core areas on the first floor, and prioritize the transfer of all supplies to the second floor and above." He then crossed out a few more rooms, "Encapsulate the equipment, cut off the power, and only retain the main control room and emergency power supply system."
“The elevated platform on the west side can serve as a secondary evacuation point,” Nana added. “The original design indicated that its flood resistance level was B, which theoretically can withstand a water depth of two meters.”
"Theoretically?" Chen Hao raised an eyebrow.
"Actual performance depends on the quality of execution on site," she said.
"Alright." Chen Hao continued writing, "Increase the sandbag thickness, focusing on sealing the main entrance and ventilation openings; dig deeper diversion ditches to try to discharge more water; everyone should take turns working and no one should act alone."
“What about the lighting?” Susan asked. “The backup battery only lasts for twenty hours.”
"Use it sparingly," Chen Hao said. "Finish the main tasks before dark, and then leave it as inactive as possible."
"What about the food?" Karl asked in a low voice. "Are the wild berries still edible?"
“You can’t eat it if it’s been soaked in water,” Nana said. “Those that are properly sealed can be kept.”
“I thought I could survive on ‘Haoge Fruit’,” Karl said with a wry smile.
“You can only rely on your own life to survive now.” Chen Hao slammed his pen on the table. “Listen up, every minute from now on is precious. If anyone slacks off, I’ll carve their name on a compressed biscuit.”
No one laughed.
They went out again. This time, their goal was not to patch the vulnerabilities, but to comprehensively upgrade the defense system. Chen Hao led the way in moving the abandoned hatches, preparing to nail them to the outside of the main wall as a rigid barrier; Carl and Susan cleared the clogged drain pipes, attempting to restore some of the self-draining function; Nana stayed inside to monitor data changes and simultaneously tried to repair the lubrication system on her right leg.
The heater restarted, and hot air blew onto her casing, causing water droplets to slowly evaporate. She opened the access panel and found that there was still some grime inside the gears.
"The cleaning wasn't thorough enough," she muttered to herself. "The filter needs to be replaced."
Chen Hao saw her fiddling with her leg as he passed by. "Still not fixed?"
“The environmental conditions are inadequate,” she said. “We need dry space and a complete tool kit.”
"Let's wait until the rain subsides a bit more." Chen Hao glanced out the window. "Let's take care of things outside first."
They piled the last row of sandbags at the entrance and secured several metal plates with steel cables. The wind was still blowing, the rain was getting heavier, and thunder rumbled in the distance.
Nana suddenly rushed out of the house, her voice urgent: "The upstream hydrological model has been updated, and the time for the breakout has been brought forward to four hours and fifteen minutes."
"So fast?" Susan stopped what she was doing.
“The rainfall intensity exceeded the forecast,” Nana said. “The soil is saturating faster, and runoff is increasing exponentially.”
Chen Hao stood in front of the control room, a whiteboard marker in his hand, looking at the newly drawn defense layout diagram. His clothes were still dripping wet, and his right arm was trembling slightly from prolonged exertion.
“Then speed things up,” he said. “Everyone, stop all non-urgent tasks and focus on three things: sealing off the entrance, diverting traffic, and relocating equipment.”
Susan nodded and turned to pack her toolbox. Carl finished piling up the last bag of sand, looked up at the gray sky, and saw rain streaming down his forehead.
Nana stood in front of the control panel, her indicator lights flashing as she tracked the latest data stream. A slight rubbing sound came from her right leg; the lubrication system was still operating inefficiently.
Chen Hao picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the call button: "Attention all points, highest response level activated. Now it's time to race against time."
Before he could put down the walkie-talkie, a muffled thud came from the roof.
It felt like a heavy object falling.
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