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墨書 Inktalez
After resting for a while and taking a sip of water, I gestured while using a few Lao words I had just learned to tell the Lao person not to move. I would go ten steps away, and the two of us would form a line, increasing our chances of blocking Jack. The Lao person understood my intention, and I rummaged through his backpack to pull out a specialized outdoor flashlight.
We referred to this flashlight as the One-Eyed Beast. Its defining features were its high brightness and long range; when set to high, its brightness rivaled that of a car headlight. However, it had a fatal flaw: the duration of illumination was short, lasting no more than two hours on high before the batteries drained. We had refrained from using it for lighting because the fog was too thick; the One-Eyed Beast struggled to penetrate dense fog, and its beam was directional, making it far less practical than a Glow Stick in such conditions. But now, things were different. I needed to clearly identify the Lao person's location, and the One-Eyed Beast was much more effective than the Glow Stick.
I instructed the Lao person to hold up the Glow Stick in one hand while using the One-Eyed Beast to shine at me with the other. I stepped out about ten meters under the glaring light of the One-Eyed Beast. Here, the Glow Stick's light had become too faint to see clearly, but the One-Eyed Beast still illuminated my face brightly, making it feel blinding. At that moment, I stopped. Although the light from the One-Eyed Beast still allowed me to move forward a bit further, I relied more on the Glow Stick; in terms of sustained brightness, the One-Eyed Beast was far inferior and could not compare to the Glow Stick. I pulled another One-Eyed Beast from the same backpack; its waterproof design meant I didn’t have to worry about water affecting it.
I flashed the One-Eyed Beast at the Lao person twice to signal that I was ready and told him he didn’t need to keep shining it at me—just flash it occasionally so as not to waste battery or blind me. Meanwhile, I set my One-Eyed Beast to high brightness and waved it in Jack's likely direction; this was currently our best option. In grass that reached my waist, I had to raise the One-Eyed Beast to eye level to ensure that it wasn’t obstructed by distant aquatic plants.
The aquatic plants were dense, and I needed to keep a close watch on that direction while periodically responding to flashes from the Lao person's flashlight. After standing in the water for over an hour like this, I was utterly exhausted; my arm holding up the One-Eyed Beast felt numb, yet Jack's figure remained elusive. The intervals between flashes from the Lao person's One-Eyed Beast grew longer; it seemed he too had reached his physical limit, and it was uncertain how much longer he could hold on. We had run around fruitlessly and spent most of the night in water; everyone was drained of energy, and in temperatures over thirty degrees Celsius, I felt waves of cold wash over me.
We could not wait any longer; if we didn’t find higher ground to rest soon, we would both collapse. I pulled out my pistol and signaled with the One-Eyed Beast towards the Lao person before firing a shot into the air. The gunshot echoed loudly in the quiet night, carrying far away; I could even hear its reverberation ringing in my ears. This was my last effort—if Jack was nearby, he would be able to locate us by following the sound of gunfire. Otherwise, we would have to leave this place in search of higher ground.
At my call, the Lao person waded through the water with a splash and staggered towards me as if he might fall at any moment. We stood back-to-back for support; I knew we couldn’t maintain this state for long. I set myself a limit: if we didn’t get any response from Jack within twenty minutes, we would leave this place in search of somewhere to rest.
To my surprise, things went more smoothly than I had imagined. After more than ten minutes since firing my shot, I heard splashing sounds coming from afar. I quickly turned my neck to discern where it was coming from; almost simultaneously with me, the Lao person pointed in one direction and shouted out loud. Indeed, the splashing grew louder as if someone were running towards us.
My heart filled with both anticipation and fear—two completely opposite emotions surged through my mind. Quietly, I drew my pistol again and chambered a round. The splashing sound did not come from where I initially expected Jack should appear but rather from almost directly opposite that direction.
The Lao person and I raised our One-Eyed Beasts as high as possible and turned their brightness up to maximum, directing two beams of bright light toward the source of the splashing sound. The penetrating power of white light through dense fog was frustrating; this splashing sound seemed almost right in front of us—I could even hear loud footsteps crushing pavement—but at the edge of the One-Eyed Beast’s beam lay only darkness.
Whether from excitement or tension, my throat felt dry as I swallowed hard repeatedly without relief from that strange sensation in my throat. Almost instinctively driven by urgency, I shouted out: “Jack?”
“Buasong! Quickly! Buasong!”
Hearing that voice made me feel a wave of dizziness, whether from excitement or disappointment. Although I couldn't fully understand the meaning of those words, I recognized the voice; I knew who it belonged to.
The Lao person standing next to me jumped up in excitement upon hearing the voice and ran toward it. In the blink of an eye, his figure disappeared into the darkness, and then two figures emerged from the shadows, embracing each other and grinning widely at me.
It was Buasong. Despite losing Jack, we had achieved our initial goal: we found Buasong. The two Lao people chatted animatedly, their voices chattering until they reached me. It seemed that the other Lao person had insisted on coming out to find him, even having a falling out with the Vietnamese over it. Buasong expressed his gratitude to me with a gesture of prayer, hands pressed together in a Buddhist manner.
I waved my hand to indicate that we needed to rest and find a place to do so. Buasong immediately patted his chest, signaling for us to follow him, as if he had found a suitable resting spot.
Under Buasong's guidance, we quickly arrived at a piece of land about an acre in size, sparsely dotted with a few bushes while the grass grew lushly. After soaking in the water for most of the night, I felt like my lower body was about to fall apart. As soon as I reached the shore, I rummaged through my backpack for a rain cover to lay down and began stripping off my pants, followed by my boots and socks. Under the light, the skin below my thighs appeared pale and wrinkled from being soaked, while my feet were swollen and pruney. The only relief was that no leeches had gotten inside; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to endure being in the water for so long.
Buasong seemed to have rested here for a while; however, as soon as I and the other Lao person reached dry land, we collapsed onto the ground. We gathered some dry grass and branches from around us and built a small fire next to my rain cover.
With fire came life. Despite our exhaustion, none of us dared to sleep easily in such conditions. We huddled around the fire with our clothes and shoes nearby, along with our pale legs from being soaked.
Thank you all for your comments and support. Seeing that you enjoy reading this makes me feel like my words are not in vain.
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