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墨書 Inktalez
The rain had little effect on swimming; it was just uncomfortable to look up in its direction, as the droplets hit my face and made it hard to open my eyes. The Lao people had an advantage in the water; their swimming style may not have looked graceful, but it was efficient, and they quickly swam ahead of me. I followed behind them, adopting a more energy-efficient freestyle that allowed me to keep pace.
At that moment, I sensed a change in the water. It felt stagnant, like a pool of still water. Throughout our journey, we hadn't encountered any flowing water; if there were signs of it, they would have been in the dry land where we had camped overnight. That area, shaped like an egg, resembled a riverbank formed by sediment accumulation. Now, I could feel the unique flow of living water.
This sensation came swiftly. Without any warning, I suddenly felt less water on my right side as a drop-off formed. I watched as this drop-off created a slope, and my body was overturned by the rushing water from the other side. The stagnant pool transformed into a torrent, sweeping me away in one direction.
The water turned murky almost instantly; the silt from the swamp was stirred up, creating a vast expanse of black mud that surged forward with turbulent waves. I was in a semi-conscious state, gasping for air but unable to do much else. The two Lao people managed to push a log toward me; they seemed far less distressed than I was, having found this dead tree early on and bringing it over to rescue me.
The water had completely turned black, and the muddy sludge from the swamp churned violently around us. I struggled to maintain my balance; sometimes my feet could touch the muddy bottom, but my eyes couldn't see anything through the murky water. It felt as if there were hidden currents pulling me down, making it incredibly difficult to lift my head above the surface for air. I felt like I was teetering between life and death.
I don't know how long it took, but eventually, my hand grasped something that allowed me to surface—a thick tree trunk. Two Lao people were pushing it; they had clearly found it earlier and were now using it to help me.
The water was pitch black now, with swirling mud creating a chaotic scene around us. I was barely conscious, only able to gasp for breath while clinging to the log they had brought over. They exerted considerable effort pushing it toward higher ground.
We three clung to the log as we were swept along by the current. Holding onto it was challenging for me; I felt someone lifting me up from below. Focusing my attention revealed it was Buasong trying to hoist me onto the log. With some effort, I managed to crawl onto it.
The log wasn't round; its surface had a dip in the middle where I awkwardly draped my legs over the sides like a dog lying down. My body and face were covered in sticky black mud, and so was the trunk itself. I lay there amidst this mess, dazed and unable to open my eyes.
I think I dozed off for a moment until I was jolted awake by violent shaking that sent me tumbling back into the water. Fortunately, Buasong was quick enough to grab me just as I fell in. When I opened my eyes again, he was pulling me out by my hair.
It was dark; our makeshift raft had been smashed apart and was rolling away with the current. Yet we weren't disheartened; I even suspected that Buasong and his companion had intentionally pushed the log into something massive to break it apart. A giant banyan tree had collided with our log, providing us with a new place to cling to.
This banyan tree was the largest I had ever seen. Its thick trunk was too large for all three of us to wrap our arms around, and countless aerial roots hung down from its branches, spreading out like an enormous umbrella above us. Vines coiled around its trunk made climbing easy. At one of its largest forks, there was enough space for us to sit comfortably or even lie down.
I pulled out a rain cover from my backpack and secured it over our heads with its corners tied up tight. The rainwater was effectively blocked by both the banyan tree and the rain cover above us, finally giving us a place to rest. Quickly shedding my clothes to wring them out seemed unnecessary since everything was soaked through—including what remained in my backpack. Even without clothes on, I felt slightly chilled; putting on half-dry clothes made me feel better as I hung one of my One-Eyed Beasts upside down beneath the rain cover and turned on my flashlight at full brightness.
This Flashlight will generate high heat while producing strong light. Although this will quickly consume the power of the battery inside, it is nothing compared to getting sick due to humidity and cold. Because I need sleep so urgently that I no longer have the ability to hold on. The body temperature produced during sleep is not enough to withstand this cold environment. After doing all this, I curled up and fell among the branches of a tree and fell asleep quickly. I didn't feel very cold when I woke up. The Flashlight had already been extinguished and it was so dark that I couldn't see anything. I could hear the sound of water flowing under the tree and the sound of rain hitting the Rain Cover. I touched the clothes on my body and they were already dry. It seemed that the clothes had been dried under the double heating of Flashlight and body temperature. I woke up from hunger, and the growling sound in my stomach could drown out the sound of the rain. I took out a Glow Stick from the backpack under my head and lit it up. Only then did I see two Lao People sleeping leaning on a tree branch. I don't know when they went to bed, but I don't think they lasted much longer than me, and they hadn't gotten any rest for a long time. The mud on my hands and body had dried and formed a hard crust. I washed my face and hands with the rainwater dripping from the side of Rain Cover, and took out a pack of compressed food to fill my stomach. The compressed food we prepared this time is very hard and tastes as unpalatable as ever. However, the nutritional content of today’s compressed food is comprehensive enough and can not only fill the stomach. This pack of compressed food can sustain a person’s survival for a long time, which is enough Provides more than ten hours of heat. After filling my stomach, I looked at my watch. The hand pointed at two in the morning, which meant I had slept for more than one hour. Fatty issued a danger warning to me and asked me to run northeast. But this heavy rain changed our direction. Now think about it, when we were first swept into the current, the direction of the current should be southeast. Although my mind was muddled all the way down, I also felt that the direction of the water was not static, but flowing between the hills. I have lost my sense of direction for a long time now, and I don't even know where I am. However, judging from the Banyan Tree where I live, we seem to have come to a hill, at least near it. This should be the flooded part. The main part of the hill is the part that is not flooded. Somewhere around, even within my line of sight. This Banyan Tree is very tall, and the Glow Stick in my hand is not enough to illuminate the Pavement, let alone the hills in the distance. I decided to use One-Eyed Beast to understand the surrounding environment first. I threw away the dead batteries in the One-Eyed Beast Flashlight tube and put new ones in. At this time I discovered that there was no fog tonight, maybe it was because of the rain.
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