tkworld Chapter 479 It's Raining
Chapter 479 It's Raining
"I heard that we have to cross a river ahead."
The speaker was a young man, who looked to be in his early twenties. He was tall and thin, and carried a hiking backpack that was about half his height, covered with various odds and ends.
A water bottle, a flashlight, a rolled-up sleeping mat, and the ear of a plush toy peeking out from the side pocket.
He somehow moved closer to Xu Xiaoyan and Lan Yue, his voice low as if he were sharing a secret.
He introduced himself as Xiao Li, from a town under Qing City, and said he was heading back with all his belongings.
Lan Yue glanced at him sideways, her brows furrowing slightly: "Crossing the river? Isn't there a bridge?"
"There used to be a bridge," Xiao Li squatted down, picked up a twig, and gestured on the ground to indicate the name.
"It's about ten miles ahead. I walked across it last year. It's a cement bridge. It's not very wide, but trucks can cross it."
But the mudslide a few days ago... I heard it directly knocked the bridge piers askew, half of the bridge deck collapsed, and the remaining half was also cracked, making it impossible for people to walk on it."
"What should we do then?" Lan Yue's voice tightened.
"Let's wade through the water," Xiao Li said casually, but the forced calm smile on his face couldn't hide the unease in his eyes.
"The command center has already scouted ahead, looking for shallow water and slow-moving water. If all else fails, we'll have to wade through."
"Is the water deep?" Xu Xiaoyan finally spoke, squatting down and looking at the simple topographical map on the ground.
The winding lines drawn by Xiao Li with a twig represent the direction of the river.
Xiao Li shook his head, poking a hole in the ground with a twig. "I don't know, the command center hasn't sent any messages back yet. But..."
He looked up at the gray sky and lowered his voice, "After raining for so long, the river must have risen."
The mudslides on the mountain eventually flowed into the river below, and the water level was at least one or two meters higher than usual, and possibly more.
Xu Xiaoyan's heart sank; wading through the mud was difficult enough.
When she walked through those three mudslide areas today, every muscle in her calf was screaming, and it still aches faintly now.
Although mud is viscous, it is at least static. Water is different; it flows and has direction. The elderly, children, the injured, and those who are physically exhausted simply cannot withstand it.
She glanced at Blue Moon.
Lan Yue's expression was also not good; her lips were pressed into a thin line, and her gaze, fixed on the picture on the ground, was filled with unease.
Xiao Li seemed to realize that he hadn't brought good news, and gave a dry laugh.
He stood up, patted the mud off his knees, said, "I hope the water isn't deep," and shrank back to his position.
His back looked somewhat forlorn; the backpack on his back was too big and disproportionate to his thin frame.
The bag swayed as it walked, and the plush toy's ears swayed along with it.
A breeze began to blow in the valley. At first, it was just a gentle breeze, but soon it grew stronger.
The mountain wind, carrying fine sand and gravel, rushed in from the entrance of the valley, howling through the narrow passage and crashing against the steep mountain walls on both sides with a sharp sound.
The loose rocks on the mountainside were loosened by the wind and fell down with a rustling sound, small pieces hitting the ground and making a crackling sound.
A stone the size of a walnut landed less than a meter away from Xu Xiaoyan, bounced twice, and rolled into a mud puddle by the roadside.
She subconsciously took half a step in the opposite direction of the mountain wall.
Team Leader Gu stood in the middle of the valley, looking up at the towering mountain walls on both sides, his brows furrowed in worry.
He walked back and forth in the valley several times.
He would stop every now and then, shine his flashlight into the cracks in the mountain wall, squat down and pinch the soil on the ground, muttering something to himself.
After assigning the personnel to duty, Team Leader Gu gathered the remaining people together:
"If it rains at night, everyone should immediately move to higher ground in the valley and not stay in low-lying areas!"
The mountainside is steep, and the loose rocks and soil on it have been softened by the rainwater and could easily collapse. Beware of falling rocks!
He raised his hand and pointed towards the inside of the valley: "There is a slightly higher open area over there, about seven or eight meters higher than here."
I took some people up there to check, and there was no obvious risk of falling rocks; it was relatively safe.
Remember this: when it rains, run up there without hesitation or packing anything. Your life is more important than anything else.
Everyone nodded, some responded with "Understood," while most listened in silence.
Their faces were etched with exhaustion and numbness; the long journey of the past few days had dulled their nerves.
The crowd dispersed, each finding a place to rest.
Team Leader Gu led several soldiers to scout the way at the entrance of the valley. The beam of their flashlights flickered a few times in the darkness before disappearing around the bend in the mountain road.
The campsite fell silent, save for the whistling wind whistling through the mountainside and the distant sound of flowing water.
The people around him closed their eyes one after another. Some began to snore softly, while others turned over in their sleep and murmured something indistinct.
Xu Xiaoyan couldn't sleep; she lay there with her eyes open, staring at the sky above.
The wind was still blowing, even stronger than before, whipping up sand and gravel that stung her face. Rocks were still falling from the mountainside, much more frequently than before, with a crackling sound.
She felt uneasy, with a vague sense of unease. She tried to close her eyes to relax, but her heart was still racing and her temples were throbbing.
This wasn't the first time she'd felt this way; the last time she felt this way was the night she left Jin City.
It's unusual that seeing the news about the tsunami kept her up at night; she felt anxious and worried that something bad was about to happen.
Not long after, she personally experienced an earthquake in the suburbs. If she had stayed in the city, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
She felt that her intuition was always accurate, and there was no reason for her to be so uneasy if nothing was wrong.
Xu Xiaoyan sat up and listened. The sound of the wind, the sound of gravel, and the faint sound of flowing water in the distance were all normal, but she was still very agitated.
She glanced at her watch; it was 1:20 a.m.
Then she realized it seemed to be raining, at first just a few drops, pattering on the ground.
"Get up," she nudged Lan Yue.
Blue Moon groggily opened her eyes, and before she could ask what was wrong, the raindrops began to fall heavily.
"It's raining!" someone shouted, and then everyone scrambled to their feet, frantically packing their things and looking for shelter from the rain.
Some people held their backpacks over their heads as umbrellas.
Some people wrapped themselves and their children together in a moisture-proof mat.
Some people huddled down the cliff face, trying to use that small protruding rock to shield themselves from the rain.
But the rain was too heavy. The large raindrops hit my body, icy cold, and my clothes were soaked through in an instant. When the wind blew, I shivered from the cold.