Search for the Buried Bomber

by Xu, Lei

  Ma Zaihai looked embarrassed. "Actually, we've got plenty of rations," he said. They had abandoned the majority of the equipment in their hurry to come rescue us but had kept the food, bringing along several bundles of hardtack and condensed vegetables. But he and Chen Luohu only had two canteens between them, one of which wasn't even full. My heart fell as I heard this. At once my throat felt parched. Our pant legs were already dry, otherwise we could have wrung the water out of them. I remembered how, shortly after entering the cave, I'd wondered what I would do should we run out of water and whether, if need be, I could drink my own urine. I cursed my naïveté. Now I would be put to the test. My mind turned at a dizzying speed, but it was no use and I soon despaired.

  I had had only a few similar experiences being trapped, the most dangerous being one time in eastern Sichuan in 1959. I'd only recently begun working as a prospector. On a cave-prospecting job organized by the local geological bureau, we were trapped inside an air cavity by rising water for three days and two nights. Luckily, the water finally receded. There were ten or twenty of us at the time, and our food and water rations were abundant. What we had lacked most was experience, and soon the tears began to flow. Really, though, it wasn't so bad. Now we were full of experience, but had almost no water. Compared to this, being stuck for a few days and going on a bit of a crying jag was hardly a big deal.

  "Waiting in here until the mist retreats will require a huge amount of luck," said Ma Zaihai, "but if one of us can get out, he might find something useful. What if we find an old-fashioned water or steam pipe, for example, and there's still water inside? Shouldn't we give it a try?"

  Where are we going to find something like that, I thought to myself, only to see him squat down and point to the air vent running along the baseboard. "This vent is connected to the filtration system," he said. "The technology was used by the Germans during World War II and later studied by the Soviet Union. Today, the majority of our underground fortifications use an improved version of this system. There's probably a water pipe somewhere inside." Hearing this, I seemed to catch sight of survival, but the vent was just wide enough for a person's head. How was anyone supposed to wriggle his way in?

  Ma Zaihai said he had a small frame, so it shouldn't pose too great a problem. He lay facedown, removed the anti-mouse grate, and began to squirm into the vent opening. I too dropped down, but with one glance I knew he'd never make it. He was a man, after all, and a small soldier is still not that small. After performing a number of odd and amusing movements, Ma Zaihai could still do no more than stick his head in sideways, while the rest of his body remained outside. At last he wrenched his neck and gave up. As for the rest of us, Chen Luohu had a large head, I've got wide shoulders, and the deputy squad leader already had a head injury. Yuan Xile was hardly worth mentioning. This idea was a dead end.

  Disheartened, I slumped to the floor. No one spoke. Chen Luohu madly hugged his water canteen to his chest, seemingly afraid we'd snatch it from him. I was not in the mood to deal with him. My mind had gone blank. Then there was a sudden bang. As if only to further compound the hopelessness of our situation, the chamber's emergency light abruptly went out. A scorched odor wafted through the air. The decayed electrical wires must have finally shorted.

  CHAPTER 35

  Vanished

  The sudden darkness caught us all unawares. In the blink of an eye we could see nothing. Chen Luohu was so shocked he fell over. The rest of us were left stupefied for a moment. I heard Ma Zaihai curse "gousheng" from within the darkness. Whatever this meant, it wasn't polite. The deputy squad leader sighed. I could hear him laugh bitterly to himself. I felt a sudden annoyance. We'd already been at an impasse. Was it necessary that we be more thoroughly screwed? At least it fit our profession to die in the dark.

  After about five minutes, I heard what sounded like small broken objects being fumbled about. Not long after, a flashlight beam shot across the room. The sudden brightness left us unable to open our eyes. Ma Zaihai had flipped it on. He brought the iron chair underneath the emergency light and stood on it, examining the lighting case. I knew this sort of emergency light—and especially one so rarely used—wouldn't ordinarily break. Even after being left alone for dozens of years, its simple design meant it should still be good as new. Breaking open the power storage box underneath the light, Ma Zaihai discovered there'd been a short in the old electrical line.

  We had none of the tools or parts required for its repair. Using his bare hands, Ma Zaihai fiddled about with it, burning himself as a result. He swore again from the pain and was berated by the deputy squad leader. Neither recklessness nor cursing is encouraged in soldiers. Ma Zaihai was very submissive toward the deputy squad leader and apologized for his mistake at once.

  We were all greatly disheartened and felt at a loss. Being knocked down over and over like this wears on a person's willpower. Our sole source of consolation was that, now that the chamber was dark, we could see a very faint ray of light shooting into the room through the aperture in the door. Before it had barely been visible, but now it was quite conspicuous. The light in the ready room was still on.

  The deputy squad leader had Ma Zaihai turn off his flashlight to preserve the batteries. It was already low on power, the beam very dim. Ma Zaihai waved it gloomily about, lit at last upon that old-fashioned emergency light, then turned it off. Watching the light sweep around the room, I had the sudden feeling that something strange was afoot. I seemed to have caught sight of something, as if the room had somehow changed now that the light was off. Though I couldn't be sure what it was, a cold sweat broke out across my entire body, as if by reflex.

  What was it? I wondered. I yelled for Ma Zaihai to turn his flashlight back on and shine it around the room. Ma Zaihai jumped in surprise, then immediately switched on the flashlight and scanned the chamber. This time all of us could see the problem. The deputy squad leader began to cough violently. A backpack was all that remained in the corner where Yuan Xile had been. She was nowhere to be seen.

  Without wasting a second we jumped up and circled the room, shining about with the flashlight. We checked the corners, under the desk, even the ceiling, but Yuan Xile had disappeared! How much time had passed since the light went out? I counted it out on my fingers and was sure it hadn't been more than ten minutes. In that dark time, we'd sunk into such a state of gloom and depression that no one had paid any attention to the sound of Yuan Xile's movements. Logically, however, I knew that no matter what she did, there was no way she could have left this sealed-up chamber.

  At first we couldn't believe it. Ma Zaihai's light was already dim. We were sure we must have simply missed her. Chen Luohu took out his flashlight and we searched the room for nearly twenty minutes. The chamber was not large. After I'd scanned it once and then again, my whole body was soon soaked in a cold sweat. "She's really gone," groaned Chen Luohu.

  I had a sudden splitting headache—none of this made any sense. What the Japanese had done down here was already abnormal to the extreme, and now someone had inexplicably vanished from within a darkened room? It was more than I could take. I put my head in my hands and shrank against the wall. Was I having another nightmare? I suddenly wondered. Even this question felt beyond me.

  The deputy squad leader was deathly pale. Each of us turned from one man to the next, our expressions dumbfounded. Ma Zaihai and the deputy squad leader both squatted down and looked back into the air vent. I felt as if I were losing my mind. There was absolutely no way a person could wriggle into a space that small. It was truly preposterous. But the iron chamber was far from large, and besides the main door, there was no other way out. We'd just watched Ma Zaihai attempt to squeeze inside before the light went out. Our eyes were all drawn to this spot. I thought of Yuan Xile's build. People back then were generally quite slight, especially young women, though I didn't know exactly what kind of physique she had. Still, no way was she petite enough to fit into a space like this.

  Ma Zaihai was first to lie
flat in front of the opening. He switched on his flashlight. Sweat ran down his face. We watched in silence, our attention concentrated on the beam of light. Rather than fading, the sudden terror we felt had only increased. My heartbeat was like thunder. I'd felt like this only once before: the first time I stole an egg from the production brigade. Still, we never would have expected that the moment Ma Zaihai shined his light down the shaft, he would suddenly scream out in fear.

  It was a terrifying sound. Ma Zaihai jumped up as if he'd been given an electric shock, his face ashen. He stumbled and fell back down. Despite being scared half to death, I quickly scooped up his flashlight and crouched down to take a look. My mind was buzzing. Goose bumps ran from the top of my head down to my heels. My whole body was so cold it was like I'd fallen into a giant icehouse. While the emergency light was on, we'd been unable to see anything past the mouth of the air vent. Now the beam shot into the air vent, illuminating its deepest recesses. Then it appeared. It was a face, crushed and terribly deformed—whether it belonged to a person or to some "thing," whether it was that of Yuan Xile, I couldn't tell, but in my heart I found it impossible to believe that whatever was stuffed back there could really be human.

  CHAPTER 36

  The Air Shaft

  The three of us gulped. It took me a long time before I was brave enough to take another look. I don't know whether it was from the buildup of psychological pressure or if the face really was that terrifying, but as I examined it in detail my fear somehow became even more intense. I felt as if I were suff ocating.

  It had a nose like an eagle's beak and an abnormally tall forehead. Had it been squashed into this form or did it normally appear this strange? If it was a person, he had to be dead, his brain matter crushed into tiny pieces. There was not the slightest trace of Yuan Xile in this demonic face. That was good at least. A long time passed as we looked at one another in blank dismay. No one knew what to say.

  Ma Zaihai was first to react. He stood up, went over to his backpack, and pulled out a rope with a three-pronged pig-iron hook at the end. Then he made to dismantle the long iron desk. He wanted to use one of the desk legs as a handle for the hook. Unfortunately, the desk was too solid. It was welded to the floor. Though we tried for a long time to move it, the thing never even flexed. We rummaged about for a while, until at last the deputy squad leader found a length of iron wire—thick as a thumb—welded to the wall. We tore it down and wrapped it around the base of the grapnel. Then we all squatted down, curious to see what was really back there.

  It was a chaotic scene. The deputy squad leader was still injured, so it was I who took the flashlight and illuminated the vent, while Ma Zaihai reached in with the hook. In fact, Ma Zaihai was far from willing, but he had to obey orders. His lips trembled as he lay prone. We told him to be careful, but what use was that? All three of us lay down in front of the opening and watched as bit by bit the hook moved farther in.

  The whole thing took less than half a minute, but I felt as if I'd been staring for a whole day. At last, when the hook was about to bump into the strange face, my eyes were already sore. By then we were ready for anything—the thing suddenly moving or dodging quickly backward—but the hook knocked into it and the face didn't move in the slightest. No matter how we prodded it, the thing made no reaction. "It seems all flopped over," said Ma Zaihai. "The feel of it is wrong." He finally caught the grapnel around the thing's neck. The point dug in, giving him a tight hold around the head. There was almost no resistance as it came sliding toward us. My heartbeat abruptly quickened its pace. All of us stood up at the same time, each preparing to jump backward at a moment's notice. No one wanted to react too late.

  The pale white head was first to emerge. Next came the body. I saw things like feet and hands and in that moment my mind went numb. How incredibly strange, I thought. Its whole body has gone soft, like some enormous mollusk. My heart gave a leap. Then I realized what it was.

  This was no monster. It was a strange rubber suit. It was timeworn and probably left by the Japanese. The twisted face was no more than a squished gas mask attached to the top of the suit. The mask was really more of a helmet. It had a very high forehead and an odd-looking design. The clothing and mask were one piece. It was a model I'd never seen before and presumably protected against much more than just poison gas. Ma Zaihai poked at it with the iron hook. There appeared to be nothing inside. Seeing this, he relaxed and made to swear once more, but he seemed to remember what the deputy squad leader had said and his jaw snapped shut. The deputy squad leader's countenance remained imposing. Ma Zaihai wanted to take a closer look, but the deputy squad leader grabbed him. "Leave it alone for a moment," he said.

  But nothing happened, so we crowded back around it and the mood eased up. Spreading it open with the hook, Ma Zaihai poked and shined his flashlight over the thing. I remembered the time a gold-striped snake had gotten into my clothing. My mother had whacked at the clothes until the snake slithered back out. There was nothing like that, nothing hidden or the least bit amiss, about this suit.

  At last Ma Zaihai turned the suit over. The spot where the rubber body connected to the helmet was already torn, most likely the autograph of Ma Zaihai's hook. The area around the suit's chest was also rotted. It had probably been sticking to the bottom of the shaft and ripped open when we yanked it. Inside was absolutely empty. Everyone relaxed. False alarm. Ma Zaihai knelt down and began ripping off sections of the suit. He tore it to shreds. There truly was nothing inside.

  "Strange," said the deputy squad leader, "who would have stuffed this thing back there, and toward what purpose?" As he said this, Ma Zaihai squatted back down and shined his flashlight into the air shaft.

  CHAPTER 37

  Another One Gone

  Isquatted down beside him. A faint breeze was blowing out of the air shaft as we shined our flashlights inside. It was utter blackness. Who knew where it led? A strange odor floated up from somewhere far down the shaft. I still remember that scent. It was much lighter than what I'd smelled in the sinkhole, but I could tell it was the same odor. Although I had no idea what it came from, that odor appearing at this moment made me feel uneasy. Had someone used the suit to seal up the opening? Was there a leak in the ventilation system? This blockage had been merely a temporary measure, but now that we'd removed it, would the poison outside begin to leak slowly into the room? As I thought about this I began to feel a little unwell. Ma Zaihai and I piled up a stack of odds and ends and, in a symbolic gesture, used them to block up the air shaft. At least this way we felt somewhat more secure. We sat down, all of us severely dispirited. Such a succession of frights was far too wearing.

  In a soft voice, Ma Zaihai asked, "If she didn't leave through here, then how exactly did Engineer Yuan get out?"

  Looking at the opening, I shook my head. We'd been deceiving ourselves. Even if Yuan Xile had managed to crawl inside, she was too big to have advanced any farther. So where had she gone? After all, this was a sealed room. Besides the vent, none of the other openings were big enough for even a cockroach to crawl through. As I thought about this, I involuntarily raised my flashlight and shined it once more around the chamber. The chaos of our search had thrown the entire room into a terrific mess. The extent of our alarm could be seen from the complete disorder, but there was still no Yuan Xile. The four of us were all that were left.

  As this thought of "the four of us" occurred to me, I felt a sudden mental jolt. Something had changed. This sensation felt very familiar, as if I'd just experienced it. Again I shined my flashlight around the room. For a long time I was puzzled. Then, all of a sudden, I realized what it was: in addition to us three, the fourth person was Chen Luohu. I assumed he'd been curled up in a corner this whole time. As I swept my flashlight across the chamber, I realized that—for who knows how long—I hadn't seen him at all. I stood up. Once more I shined the flashlight around the room. Chen Luohu had vanished as well!

  Then I really began to fall apart. My blood pulsed in m
y veins and I could no longer support my own weight. I was rocked by a burst of dizziness and felt as if my brain was swelling in my skull. I was tottering, hanging on by only a thread. I wanted to slump directly to the floor. Luckily, Ma Zaihai helped steady me. "What is it?" he and the deputy squad leader both asked. Stammering, I managed to get it out. I watched as the color drained from their faces. In an instant Ma Zaihai was sweeping his flashlight around the room and calling out, "Engineer Chen!"

  The way our excitation continued to increase made us seem like mere pieces on a chessboard, being manipulated by some unseen, diabolical hand, led little by little toward the point of collapse. Every move was perfect. In the flickering flashlight beam, all of us quickly sank into a state of hysteria. I have already forgotten what we felt in those moments, though dread was certain. Thinking back on it now, however, given that we'd encountered something that went beyond any rational explanation, what was there for us to dread? Was I scared of disappearing myself, or scared of being abandoned here?

  We pounded our fists against the walls of the iron chamber and yelled at the top of our lungs. Then we lay down and examined the floorboards. The already messy room became even more chaotic, but all our efforts were futile, and the sturdy, utterly flawless walls only increased our panic. We did this again and again until we were completely exhausted. The deputy squad leader was the first to stop, then the two of us gradually calmed down. Ma Zaihai grabbed at his short hair and sat dejectedly in the chair. I rested my head against the wall, brought it back, then smashed it savagely back down.