Anyway, I believe the deputy team leader's words. The air raid warning should be correct, after all, the unit almost had drills every day at that time. I have been in the field for many years, so I don't know much about it. Although there were mandatory evacuation drills one to two times a year when I was in school, I only knew that it was fun to complete the training with the teacher, and who would listen to the frequency of the alarm.
"But it's definitely impossible for there to be an air raid here, that's beyond doubt. I believe more that the alarms here serve some other functional purpose, such as someone escaping or a situation I'm not aware of."
The deputy squad leader told me that now it is an air raid warning, with a 36-second siren and a 24-second stop, which is an advance warning of the possibility of an air raid. When an air raid is imminent, the siren will accelerate to 6 seconds of sounding and 6 seconds of stopping.
While listening to the alarm inside the dam, it was terrifying. We went out and climbed back up the dam, facing the wind and returning to the top of the searchlight. We found that the searchlight had turned direction and was scanning the sky above this huge cavity.
In theory, the height of the top of this abyss cannot exceed 1,200 meters. Therefore, at the end of this searchlight, one can vaguely see the uplifted rocky mountain. However, the illuminated area is too small to clearly see the true appearance of those rocks. However, in any case, we can know that this is definitely the bottom of a big mountain.
"There were no signs of airstrikes, the frantic alarms seemed like a joke, and the searchlights swept back and forth, revealing nothing but rocks."
After sweeping for a while, it seemed that we realized it was a waste of time. We saw the light move back to the horizontal and then down, beginning to shine into the depths of the abyss.
The depth of this abyss is unimaginable. Even though the water is pouring down, no sound can be heard when it hits the ground. At the time, I thought it was impossible to see the bottom, but when I leaned over the edge of the dam and looked down, it exceeded my expectations.
The beam of the spotlight shone down, albeit blurry, we realized that it could penetrate deep into the abyss - the abyss did not seem so deep.
Upon closer inspection, I immediately realized that the spotlight was not shining on the bottom of the abyss, but rather on a huge gray fog slowly rising.
It's like a searchlight shining on clouds in the sky, the light cannot penetrate through and can only sweep across the cloud layer. When I was young, I didn't understand this phenomenon and thought the sky was covered by a lid.
We, from that era, were very familiar with such a phenomenon. What surprised me was that the thick fog was not still. You could vaguely feel that the fog was slowly but rhythmically rolling and drifting upwards.
"This is a wonder, especially with such a huge and bizarre background, which makes people feel creepy. I wonder how this fog is generated? What kind of geological conditions are there beneath this layer of fog?"
Ashamedly, under such chaotic alarms at the time, seeing such a situation, I didn't connect the two together. I was still watching, feeling only awe and surprise. It wasn't until the fog approached bit by bit, the distance illuminated by the searchlight getting shorter and shorter, that the warning alarm suddenly stopped and then abruptly shifted to an urgent air raid alarm. In my shock, I suddenly realized that the alarm seemed to be triggered by the approaching fog! By then, the fog had risen to a point less than two hundred meters below the dam.
At the time, I also thought, could this dense fog be dangerous? Immediately I thought of the corpse with blackened gums that I had seen in the water cave, and a cold sweat broke out from head to toe. My legs suddenly became weak, and I felt like slapping myself, thinking why didn't I think of this earlier!
"This thick fog is most likely highly toxic!"
Suddenly, I couldn't stay still anymore. Cold sweat broke out in waves. I grabbed the deputy squad leader and wanted to retreat. We should go back to the wreckage of the plane, the farther away from this thick fog, the better. He was even more stunned than me and didn't expect it. When I told him, he also turned pale with fright.
"But when I tried to pull him away, he held onto me and said, 'No! Wang Sichuan is still down there. We have to go save him, otherwise we'll be failing to help in time of need. How can we live with ourselves if we don't pass this test?'"
"I suddenly realized and felt both ashamed and anxious. There was no time to find the way to get there. When I looked again, there was no sign that the kid had awakened. The beam of the flashlight still shone on the dense fog below, flickering inside it. I didn't know what he was looking for."
However, as soon as I looked, I saw the wire ladder outside the dam going all the way down. I looked at the deputy squad leader and he looked at me back, immediately putting his foot down and telling me, "Run! I'll go inform them."
Just as he was not done talking, suddenly the wire ladder under his feet broke. He stepped into the air, sank down and fell all at once.