"My mind buzzed and I quickly shone my flashlight into the water. At first we couldn't see anything, but as we crouched down to look more closely, we were all shocked. The water below us was filled with locusts, but their color closely resembled the color of the water, making them difficult to spot without looking closely."
These locusts were almost crowded at our feet, crawling one by one into the gaps in our shoes. The feeling of movement made me shudder all over, and we all lifted our feet and shook hard. Wang Sichuan even shook one into my neck.
"I cursed and said to quickly swat them away, then the deputy squad leader rolled up his pants and we were shocked to see that there were so many grasshoppers suctioned onto them. When we rolled up ours, they were all over too. Wang Sichuan was puzzled and asked, 'Why are there so many of these things here?'"
"A soldier said, "It's the water temperature. The temperature of the water here is high, not so cold that it's bone-chilling."
Although locusts are disgusting, they are not deadly. We just feel uncomfortable when we see them everywhere, and it's difficult to deal with them once they burrow into the skin. When I was in the south, I heard that leeches could burrow into male genitalia without anyone noticing, so I was quite afraid and kept touching my thighs. Wang Sichuan asked me what was wrong, and I told him about it. He was shocked and suggested tying a knot to prevent it.
"I said, can you be more civilized? The deputy team leader on the side said, let's just leave quickly. There are too many locusts here and we can't stay."
"We knew that dealing with it now was useless, so we had to speed up and run. Due to the pressure under our feet, we ran very fast, and nobody noticed the situation underwater. After running only a few dozen meters, the deputy squad leader who was leading suddenly disappeared."
"Wang Sichuan and I hadn't realized what was happening and suddenly found ourselves falling. I panicked, but it was too late. It turned out that there was a sudden slope ahead of us. We were walking too fast and all stepped into the air."
Immediately afterwards, it was pitch black and I tumbled down with Wang Sichuan. We rolled over and over, and bumped our heads, joints, and bottoms against countless things in a split second. The constant impact made me feel nauseous.
"The flashlight was knocked off, Wang Sichuan had great strength, he desperately tried to grab onto one side with his hands, but the cave wall was too slippery and he couldn't hold on. There was a chaotic light in front of my eyes, and I finally stabilized my body by rolling to the end. Before I could stop myself, I suddenly felt a void beneath me, and my butt was suddenly empty. I was transformed into a free fall."
"I thought to myself in an instant, could this be a cliff below? Am I really going to fall to my death this time?"
However, before I even had time to imagine the miserable state of my fatal fall, with a loud boom and a chill passing through my body, I had already fallen into the water. As my buttocks hit the water, I was shocked by a tingling sensation, followed by a sudden surge of powerful water currents pushing me forward.
"Wang Sichuan hugged me tightly and wouldn't let go. I kicked him hard and pushed myself to the surface of the water with all my strength."
The surroundings were pitch black, and I felt like I was spinning in water nonstop. Judging by the sound in my ears and my own speed, I must have fallen into another turbulent and dark river. What surprised me was the scale and flow of this river, which was far greater than the one I had entered. This was a real dark river with the sound of roaring water all around.
"Oh God! I struggled in panic and shouted out loud, but was instantly swallowed up by the roaring water. I was swept away, not knowing how far I had gone, and plunged into the dark depths."
This kind of experience is definitely unpleasant. To be honest, I have no direct memory of it because I couldn't see anything at the time and could only hear the sound of water. Therefore, the surroundings were all based on my imagination and not very profound. The only feeling I remember now is the panic that I was about to be swept into the depths of the earth. In the darkness, I kept being carried away by the current, not knowing when I would die or where I would die in the end.
Until the other side, the first deputy platoon leader to be rushed down held up a flashlight. Only then did I escape from this nightmare. In the extreme darkness, the beam of the flashlight was like a glimmer of hope. I swam with all my strength and found that the deputy platoon leader was covered in blood, but he seemed to be okay.
Two people paddled in the water, searching for the remaining people. Wang Sichuan's whereabouts were unknown, and the other three young warriors were behind us, unsure if they also fell down.
"The deputy leader used a flashlight to shine around, and I found that the dark river was exceptionally wide, just as I had imagined in the darkness. I couldn't see the edge, only a turbulent expanse of water."
"What place is this?!" the deputy squad leader exclaimed in shock, his voice hoarse as he asked me.
I couldn't make sense of it at all, so I had to hold onto him tightly. We both struggled to maintain our balance so that we could barely float on the surface of the water.
The speed of the torrent is too astonishing, and we quickly poured down the dark river. Soon, I felt powerless, and the cold river water and vortex rapidly consumed my strength.
Fortunately, the deputy squad leader had amazing physical strength. In the end, he almost single-handedly swam and pulled the two of us. I wanted him to stop worrying about me, but I didn't even have the strength to say those words.
I don't know how long we drifted for. When we were both out of fuel, we suddenly hit something with our backs and stopped in the torrent.
"I'm already numb from the cold. This impact should be very powerful. I feel a suffocating sensation, but it doesn't hurt at all."
After struggling to touch it, we found out that there was a wire mesh barrier under the strong current, pressing things underwater. We couldn't see it, but it seemed to be used to intercept debris in the water flow. I felt a lot of twigs and other things stuck on the wire mesh.
"God bless, tears streamed down my face as I lunged forward and landed on the iron mesh. The deputy leader quickly shone his flashlight to check the underwater situation. The iron mesh was already in tatters, and it was lucky we were able to collide with it."
I met his gaze, and we both had an indescribable expression - not laughter, nor tears. I felt puzzled, wondering why there was a fence blocking the way. Had Japanese people been here too?
Just as I was thinking that, both the deputy squad leader and I felt that something was wrong, as if the flashlight beam was reflecting in front of us. The deputy squad leader raised the flashlight and shone it behind the wire mesh.
"Upon taking a photo, both he and I were suddenly left with open mouths, in a scene that I never could have imagined appearing right in front of me."
I only saw a huge Japanese "Shinzan" bomber sinking in the river behind this iron net. Most of its body was underwater, leaving a huge black shadow, with the nose and one wing protruding above the water. What surprised me the most was that this giant bomber had clearly crashed completely, and what was in front of me was an intact wreckage.