Uncle Li and his wife, along with Bai Tian and his family of three, have been staying by Jin Lake for seven days.
Since Uncle Li's life pod is for three people, four adults and one child is considered overcrowded. Despite trying to save money as much as possible, starting a week ago, everyone only eats a small piece of bread and drinks half a bottle of water each day.
However, the food and water prepared in advance in the cabin were running out.
At night, they would take one of the two remaining compressed biscuits from the daytime, break it into several small pieces, and give one piece to each person.
Li Wenyuan: "Leave it for the child."
Daytime: "Eat up, we'll die together."
"If we all die, will Niu Niu survive alone?"
Niu Niu has had a fever for several days, on and off, without any improvement, and it started again today.
My aunt is also not feeling well, but she is still forcing herself to stay awake.
They sneak out every night to see if they can go up the mountain to find something to eat, and occasionally they might find some grass roots or something.
It's not that they haven't thought about going back; the distance and having their families with them are factors, but the main reason is that it's too dangerous outside.
One night, Li Wenyuan and his wife went out to find something to eat and encountered a group of people. Li's wife was almost dragged away and slaughtered.
Two weeks ago, before the extreme heat arrived, Li Wenyuan did everything he could to prepare.
He even considered that the rapid melting of ice and snow in extreme heat could cause floods.
They added guardrails to the coal yard, raised and thickened the walls at the entrance of the warehouse, and built a small dam.
The workers were informed of the possible scenarios, and then all were given a holiday to prepare.
We initially thought the escape pod wouldn't be needed, and even my wife said it wouldn't be necessary in such extreme heat.
But thinking of Shuangshuang, the child, and the idea of taking them to the Kyoto base, I thought it was no big deal. The coal mines there could still be mined when it was extremely hot, so I decided not to go.
When the child left, I repeatedly reminded him not to be careless.
So we placed the life pod in an easily accessible location and prepared the necessary food, water, and other supplies inside.
The only unexpected event was the hurricane.
At that moment, he was thinking, what if the flood is too big?
Later, as temperatures rose, the floods became more severe, but he had already made preparations beforehand, so it wasn't a big deal.
Then the wind picked up; it was light at first, but then it suddenly got strong.
He pulled his wife along, called out to the others, and they quickly crawled into the rescue cabin.
Just as the women's cabin door was closed, the hurricane ripped off the roof and swept the life pod into the water.
Subsequently, the life pod was swept along by the torrent, bumping and tumbling through the air.
Despite being strapped into their seatbelts, the people inside the cabin were shaken so badly they felt dizzy and as if their internal organs were about to be thrown out.
Bai Di gritted his teeth, holding Niu Niu tightly. Bai Tian gripped their seatbelt tightly as it was about to break. Uncle Li held onto the water bottle to prevent it from bursting. Aunt Li vomited incessantly...
Finally, the escape pod was blocked by a hillside, but then it got stuck by a dead tree.
The group thought to themselves that they could finally breathe a sigh of relief, and were even thinking that once they recovered, they could have some water and something to eat.
They had been stumbling and falling in the storm for two days and two nights without a drop of water.
But before long, several survivors swam past.
At first, they begged them to open the hatch.
But none of them dared to open it. Survival resources inside the cabin were limited, and every additional person meant one less chance of survival for their own people.
Besides, who knows whether the person who comes in is good or bad?
When they saw that the men had no intention of opening the door, they picked up stones and sticks and smashed the door with all their might.
Even more tragically, a few more people swam over from a distance and joined the smashing of the cabin.
If the life pod hadn't been sturdy enough, they might have perished there.
That place was the only high ground in the area, and with dead trees blocking the way, so anyone who was alive nearby would swim towards it as if grasping at a straw.
Just as the number of people who had smashed the life pod had reached about ten, the wind outside picked up again, a wave crashed over, and the life pod was submerged again, drifting away with the current.
The people inside the cabin breathed a sigh of relief. Rather than being smashed open, beaten to death, or perhaps eaten by those people, they preferred to die in the water.
They have never had a moment to thank the storms.
Then life went on with its ups and downs again, but this time the group seemed to have resigned themselves to their fate and no longer had any expectations.
Finally, after a few days, the wind died down, and they were stranded in a river.
After regaining his composure, Bai Di quickly shook Niu Niu awake, gave her some water, and fed her a few bites of bread.
Because of the constant shaking, even the adults couldn't eat, worried about choking, and dared not easily feed the child.
It's been a day and a half since I last ate anything.
At this moment, Aunt Li was lying in the cabin, completely powerless.
Bai Di had to take care of Niu Niu, so Li Wenyuan and Bai Tian barely managed to get up and tidy up the cabin.
After finding the medicine box and feeding Aunt Li her medicine, he forced himself to eat and drink.
At this moment, they were floating on the water. Li Wenyuan tried to open the hatch, but as soon as he opened it a crack, a wave of heat choked him so much that he couldn't breathe. He quickly closed it again.
The escape capsule has a heat preservation function and can automatically regulate the temperature, but it is extremely hot outside, at fifty or sixty degrees Celsius.
The group had to wait until nightfall, when the temperature dropped, before opening the cabin door, roughly observing the outside situation and their location, and then bringing the cabin ashore.
The next day, Aunt Li recovered a little, and Bai Niu Niu was able to get up on her own. Li Wenyuan and Bai Tian discussed how to get back.
When they could see their surroundings clearly, they realized that the river they were on was at least 500 miles away from the coal mine.
Moreover, the escape pod cannot move on land.
If they abandoned the cabin, they would have to walk back, a journey that would take at least half a month. The food and water in the cabin, even if each person ate one meal a day, would not last more than a week.
What's more, there are children and the frail Aunt Li.
One night, Li Wenyuan and Bai Tian drove the escape pod, trying to move as close to Longcheng as possible.
After traveling more than a hundred miles, we reached the point where the river was closest to Longcheng, and we could not go any further.
That evening, Uncle Li and his wife tried to go ashore to see if they could find something to eat.
Not long after, they encountered a few people who said they were a government rescue team.
Li Wenyuan was a little suspicious. After confirming the address, he said he needed to think about it and then took his wife back.
Seeing that they wouldn't leave, the men swarmed forward and grabbed the two men.
Uncle Li was quite skilled in martial arts; he fought them while also protecting his wife.
But there are many of them, and it's not easy to get rid of them in a short time.
Later, during the day, someone came to help and managed to defeat the men, then pulled out a dagger and killed them.
At this time, Aunt Li was already injured. Her head had been smashed open with a stone, and blood was gushing out continuously.
Li Wenyuan tore off his clothes and used them to stop the wound, and the two quickly took her back to the cabin.
Then I took out the first-aid kit to disinfect her, apply medicine, and bandage her wound.
Just as Aunt Li's wounds were starting to heal, Bai Niu Niu fell ill again...
Now the food was all gone, with only a compressed biscuit and half a bottle of water left. None of them dared to drink a drop, saving it for the dying Niu Niu.
Am I really going to die here?
On the second night after they completely ran out of food, Bai Tian and Li Wenyuan were looking for food on a nearby hillside when they discovered that there were quite a few people searching for something.
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