by Xu, Lei
"I don't know," he replied, shaking his head. "You Chinese are always so secretive, though, of course, there are Soviets who are the same way. I hope to see you again soon." Then, pointing to my cigarette, he continued. "Don't waste that. Xile always said that a good man does not waste his tobacco."
We strolled back toward camp as he continued to speak. "Right now I am doing my utmost to convince them to let Xile return to the surface," he said. "As soon as this is over, she and I will be married in China. I'm sure you mean a great deal to her. I hope that you can attend."
My heart plummeted. A million thoughts swirled through my mind. "I...um...I..."
"No matter what," he continued, "when the time comes, I hope that you will not refuse. Goodnight." Saying this, he turned on his heel and continued off in another direction.
I remained fixed to the spot, surprised at how abruptly our conversation had concluded. All the courage I'd filled myself with fell away. I felt like an empty shell. I stood there for a long time, depressed and humiliated. Suddenly, I knew what to do. It was a foolish idea, but the moment I thought of it I began to feel better.
CHAPTER
33
Into the Abyss
Our fireproof asbestos suits were extremely cumbersome. We looked like members of the Soviet Red Army, ready to defend our country from the Germans in wintertime. I've definitely seen too many movies. Just from looking at our heavy gas masks I could tell they'd be uncomfortable. When I thought about the environment we were soon to enter, though, I made no objection. The thicker the better, I figured. Pei Qing was so skinny our gear was almost too heavy for him. His face became pale and his breathing ragged, but his expression was no less determined than before. He seemed able to ignore these annoyances. Seeing this, I began to feel calmer myself. There was no way I was being put to shame by some bookworm.
The dam's sluice gates had been shut for three days and the mist had thinned out considerably. The time had come. Command had wanted to send some engineering soldiers with us as well, but Pei Qing had refused. We were moments away from descending.
Just before shutting his mask, Pei Qing glanced over at me. His eyes were filled with a steely resolve. "I hope you won't regret this," he said.
"Why?" I asked. "Worried I'll blame you?"
"No," he said, "you won't have the chance. By then your goose will be cooked. But don't worry. I'm confident we'll make it out of this alive. Just prepare yourself. We don't know what we're going to find down there."
Save your breath, I said to myself. Even death doesn't scare me now. I waited as Wang Sichuan made a final few adjustments to my suit. He patted me on the shoulder. "You be careful down there," he said.
I nodded and signaled that I was ready. Without another word, one of the soldiers gave me a push. A moment later my feet were free of the dam and treading circles in the air. By the time I steadied myself we were already flying over the dark abyss. A fierce wind shrieked out of nowhere, rocking us back and forth, but we were locked into the cable overhead and could not be blown free. The dam's searchlights tracked our course, their four beams illuminating the darkness around us. For an instant I could still see the people on the dam and hear their cries. Then they were gone.
By now I thoroughly regretted my decision. My heart was practically beating out of my chest. As I looked at my feet swaying in the wind and the mist below, I couldn't understand how I ever thought Yuan Xile could be so important. My recriminations lasted no more than half a minute. We dropped into the mist. It was no longer dense at all. I could hear Pei Qing breathing nervously, but the wind stole my words as soon as they left my mouth. I signaled to him that it was all right, hoping to calm him down. He looked at his thermometer. The temperature had not risen. The searchlight beams reached us only dimly. Before long they had vanished altogether.
Turning on our flashlights, we scanned our surroundings. The darkness pressed in on us. We could see nothing but the light of our twin beams. So long as I survived, I knew I'd never forget this experience for the rest of my life. We were dropping into an impenetrable blackness, with neither ground below nor sky above, with a wild wind blasting us from every direction. It was like nothing in this world. For an instant I asked myself, where am I? It was as if I'd died without realizing it and was already in the dark-land beyond.
As we continued to fall, the wind died down and all was quiet. Our beams now lit upon the surrounding mist. We were sinking into a vast cloud of cotton. Gradually Pei Qing and I became aware of the heat. We'd been dripping sweat from the start in our heavy asbestos suits, but now the temperature was clearly rising fast.
"Careful," he said. "If we see steam you need to hit the brakes immediately."
I nodded, keeping one eye on the pressure gauge as I reached for my flare gun. It was already covered in drops of water.
"If the mist becomes too thick it will be difficult to breathe," said Pei Qing. "And at this depth the flare won't fire—or if it does, it won't light up. You're wasting your time."
The temperature was now at 158 degrees Fahrenheit. I wanted to tear off the suit, but I knew that without it I would be far hotter. And once I took it off I'd never be able to get it back on. Pei Qing pulled the brake. If the temperature continued to rise it might be wisest to stop here and turn around. As he studied the thermometer, I noticed something clinging to the cable ahead of us. Shining my flashlight across it, I realized at once what it was.
A man.
He'd been cooked into a congealed mass. His flesh had melded with the cable and liquid fat dripped from him like wax. I wanted to vomit. Pei Qing was silent, but I'm sure he was feeling the same.
"You see that?" he asked me.
"Yeah. This shows it used to be far hotter than it is now. One hundred fifty-eight degrees or not, the temperature has dropped way down. You were right."
He ignored my compliment. "What I meant was, this thing's blocking our way. We need to get it off."
Such talk about a dead comrade was a little callous for my liking, but there was no use in criticizing Pei Qing. The only thing he cared about was confirming his theory and triumphing over Old Tian. And he was right after all; this was no time to get sentimental.
I shined my flashlight across the body. We weren't going to be able to just pull him free. He was too wrapped around the line. We had to sever the man's limbs one by one, then cut loose what remained. I knew Pei Qing wasn't going to be able to do it. I told him to stay put, then swung my legs up and hooked them around the cable. I unclipped my safety harness and wrestled my body up atop the line. It rocked with my movements, swinging us back and forth.
"Be careful!" Pei Qing yelled up to me.
The melted man became even more horrifying as I crawled closer. His face had sunk into the upper part of the cable, his mouth wide open as if in unimaginable pain. His features had melted together like a shrunken candle. His singed hair was fused to his face, strangely motionless in the wind. I closed my eyes.
"Forgive me," I said. I hoisted my machine gun, took aim, and carefully fired three short bursts into his right arm, severing it. As the arm dropped soundlessly into the abyss, I took aim at the other. It too cleanly fell away. When I tried the same thing on his legs, though, they held fast, each remaining tightly coiled around the cable. And his upper body was glued in place. Slinging my gun over my shoulder, I pulled out my dagger and crawled closer.
Even through my mask the stink was overpowering. Forcing back the urge to vomit, I held my breath and began cutting into the corpse where it met the cable, trying to scrape the flesh free. Our faces were pressed so close that they almost touched. I did my best not to think about him, all the while cutting deeper and deeper. Eventually the weight of his body gradually dragged his torso from the cable, until from waist to head he was hanging in mid-air. Where his body slid from the cable, all that remained was viscous fat. Proceeding slowly to keep from slipping, I crawled forward and began cutting his lower half free. With each cut more of his body weighed a
gainst him. Soon those sections still stuck to the cable began to tear. Before long he was hanging on by only a thread of skin. I gave him a push and watched as he tumbled into the abyss.
That's when I noticed something black wrapped around the cable where the corpse had been. It took no more than a glance to recognize a bandoleer of hand grenades. A string looped through the firing pins of each grenade and trailed down into the abyss. The other end, I realized with horror, must be attached to the corpse. I froze, my heart hammering in my chest, my body straight as a board.
Then I watched in dumb animal terror as, all at once, each of the firing pins flew free and the grenades began belching smoke.
CHAPTER
34
Falling
I was only an arm's length away from the bundle of grenades about to be blown into scattered heaps of smoking flesh. I couldn't say how much time remained. Wood-handled grenades like these were unlikely to have more than a five-second fuse. What was I supposed to do up here, sitting atop this narrow cable? Even on level ground, five seconds was barely enough time to respond. I kicked hard against the grenades, then kicked again with both feet. The grenades just slid a little farther down the cable, where they wedged against one of the soldier's still-stuck severed legs. Now I was really done for.
I scrambled up the cable toward Pei Qing. Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I managed to climb almost nine feet before the boom resounded behind me and the whole cable twisted like a snake with the force of a steel whip.
My body shook. A pile driver slammed into my legs and back. The next moment I felt something smack viciously against me. There was barely time to feel any pain. I'd already been blasted off the cable and was sailing through the air. Falling, I suddenly realized something was rushing up towards me. It was the ground. Knocking into it practically headfirst, my brain buzzed from the impact. A wave of dizziness rushed over me. I managed a single, astonished thought.
How had the ground come up so fast?
Minutes passed before I realized I was still conscious. At last I became aware of the pain. It was excruciating, covering every inch of my body. I struggled to sit up. All around me was darkness. The drop had shattered my headlamp. Still I could barely believe my luck. I had been only a few feet from the grenades when they exploded. Not only did I avoid being blown to bits, I'd also survived the fall into the abyss. Or maybe not. Maybe I really had died this time and was now in hell. No, that couldn't be. I was still wearing the same asbestos suit, its exterior shredded.
Pain shot through my body with my every movement. Gritting my teeth, I pulled out my flashlight and switched it on. Cracks striated the lenses of my gas mask. I found myself in a field of shattered stones. Each was black and covered in small holes like the one He Ruping had retrieved. A dense mist shrouded everything. I shined the light across my body. The suit was in pieces and blood had begun to seep through, much of it from my legs. When I touched them the pain was so severe I almost fainted. I coughed violently, feeling like blood was in my throat. I had no idea how serious my injuries were. I needed to think of something quick. Thankfully, Pei Qing's theory had been correct. Hot as it was down here, the temperature had nonetheless fallen dramatically.
I immediately wondered where he was. Had the cable snapped and rocketed him into the darkness? Forcing myself to endure the pain, I rose to my feet. A light was shining up ahead. I staggered closer. It was Pei Qing's cable harness. His helmet was lying on the ground, its light still shining. He was nowhere to be seen. I gasped for breath as I called out his name, stumbling on the rocks underfoot. He was sprawled on the ground behind a large boulder. His gas mask had fallen off and his face was covered in blood. I covered his nose and mouth with a piece of cloth and put his gas mask back on. He'd been higher up on the cable and had clearly fallen hard. I had to shake him a few times before he woke up. He blinked open his eyes, wrinkled his forehead in pain and glared at me.
"What the hell did you do?" he asked. "Why did that guy suddenly explode?"
When I told him what happened, he cursed in disbelief.
"That soldier must have wanted to sever the line so no one else could descend," he said. "He died before he could finish, but you managed to complete the job for him."
Looking into the darkness overhead, I smiled wryly to myself. Command was surely going nuts this time. Not only had we disappeared, but the cable itself had also snapped. Pei Qing pulled out his flashlight. The iron mound that had anchored the cable sat less than 30 feet away from us. Now I understood. We'd been almost at the bottom. If we'd simply unclipped and jumped down we'd probably be in much better shape. I looked around. No survivors, no corpses, no sign of human presence at all. If the other soldiers were still alive then I had no idea where they had gone.
I asked Pei Qing what we should do next. Looking around, he said he didn't know. Then he laughed. "How about that," he said. "I was right after all. This is exactly the environment I theorized."
"You're fucking amazing," I said, "and I really mean that, but this isn't the time to celebrate. Command has no idea we're still alive. If we don't tell them soon, they're going to think you were wrong and reopen the floodgates. And that would be an unjust death."
Pei Qing grimaced. "You're right."
I helped him to his feet. Once he was standing, it was clear his injuries were much less severe than my own. Composing myself, I pulled out my flare gun, flipped open the barrel, and let the loaded flare slide into my hand. At a glance I could tell that it wouldn't fire. The flare looked like it had been soaked in water, the gunpowder sodden. I checked my extra flares, as well as Pei Qing's. They were all useless. It was just as we'd feared—this place was far too damp. I didn't want to give up. I loaded one of the flares, aimed my gun at the sky and pulled the trigger. Nothing. Not even a spark. Cursing beneath my breath, I shook the flare from the chamber and replaced it with another. This too failed to fire. I tried several more, all duds. The PLA had better start making some better equipment, I thought, my heart sinking. Pei Qing didn't seem worried in the least. Picking up his flashlight, he began walking into the depths of the mist. I did my best to hobble after him.
"What are we supposed to do now?" I asked.
"Don't worry," he said, "we have time. There will be several days of meetings before command decides to do anything. All we need to do is find somewhere free of moisture to dry these flares. Look, there have clearly been people here before." He swept his flashlight across the broken rocks underfoot. They were all different sizes, some as big as a dining room table. "These rocks are leftovers from the construction of the base up top," Pei Qing continued. "Look how level they are. After dumping them into the abyss, the Japanese smoothed them into a road. I'll bet we'll find something ahead."
By now my leg was hurting so bad I could barely stand upright. Pei Qing didn't seem to care. His callousness frustrated me, but it wasn't like I could say anything. We walked for several more minutes. A vague shape appeared in the mist ahead. We drew closer.
It was a three-story cement tower, so corroded it was nearly unrecognizable.
CHAPTER
35
On the Edge
I gasped. All along I'd been unwilling to believe the devils actually had a base down here, but this crumbling tower was proof. It also appeared to be all that was left. Cement structures fall apart easily in an environment this damp. We walked closer. The tower was tilted to one side, its exterior riven with cracks. It probably wouldn't even hold the two of us. We shined our flashlights inside. The first floor was empty save for a ladder leading upwards.
I glanced over at Pei Qing. Perhaps we'd better not enter, I was thinking. The tower was narrow, nothing appeared to be inside, and exploring it would be very dangerous. But Pei Qing's flashlight revealed scattered footprints across the floor and they appeared fresh. Before I could respond, he'd already stepped inside and begun climbing toward the second floor. I followed after him.
The second floor was cramped and windowless,
about the size of a small attic. Three men were huddled together in the corner. I sighed. They were our comrades, their bodies covered in terrible burns and their eyes now closed. Kneeling beside them, Pei Qing prodded the men one by one. He looked back at me and shook his head.
"Had Old Tian listened to me sooner we probably could have saved these men," he said.
I was staring at the three young soldiers in silence when Pei Qing turned around and motioned for me to follow him back outside. We walked around the tower and kept going, but there was nothing else to see. The makeshift road stopped there, the rocks becoming as jagged as sharp teeth and terribly uneven. These rocks must have fallen from the ceiling during a cave-in, as the gaps between them were dark and deep. We could go no farther. This ruined tower was likely the devils' only achievement down here. Pei Qing refused to give up. He continued on, crossing one gap after another. Gritting my teeth, I followed after him, but the pain in my leg soon made walking too difficult. I called out for him to wait. He glanced back at me, annoyed. Then he grudgingly made his way over, helped me up, and supported me as we continued on.
