"I also crouched down and I could feel a faint breeze blowing out of the ventilation duct. When I shone the flashlight down, it was pitch black and I didn't see what I imagined. The deep end of the pipe was filled with a strange smell, and I didn't know where it led to."
"What impressed me deeply was that in the gentle breeze, I caught a whiff of a familiar chemical smell. Although much fainter than at the power station in the flooded cave, I was sure it was the same smell. I didn't know what it was, but its appearance at that moment made me feel uneasy."
"Could it be that someone used this piece of clothing to block this opening? Maybe the ventilation system is leaking, and now that we've removed it, the toxic gas outside is slowly leaking in?"
I felt uneasy thinking about it, so Ma Zaihai and I cleaned up a pile of debris and symbolically blocked the ventilation duct to give us a little sense of security.
When they all sat down, they were all seriously tired, and the continuous string of scares really wore down their willpower.
"The horse softly asked in the sea, 'If he didn't leave from here, then where did Mr. Yuan go?'"
"I looked at the opening and shook my head subconsciously. In fact, we were all deceiving ourselves. With a passage that small, even if Yuan Xile could squeeze in, it would still be impossible to move forward. That was the premise - it was impossible. But if it wasn't here, then where? This was a sealed space. Except for this opening, it's unlikely that any other holes or crevices could be accessed, not even by cockroaches."
Thinking about these things, I instinctively shone my flashlight around the surrounding area.
The chaos just now left the entire room in a mess, in complete disarray. It was evident how panicked we were. Without Yuan Xilei, there were only the four of us left.
Just as I was thinking about four people, my mind suddenly jumped again, and I noticed something strange. This feeling of inexplicable weirdness was extremely familiar, as if I had experienced it just now.
"I shone the room once again, and after much confusion, suddenly realized the unusual occurrence."
"I had just thought that there were four people left here, besides the three of us, the fourth person being Chen Luohu who was always hiding in the corner. But during the sweeping process, I suddenly realized that I haven't seen him for I don't know how long."
I stood up, and my already defeated heart began to race again. The flashlight kept shining back and forth, and the eerie feeling became more and more apparent. Finally, I almost broke down when I realized: Chen Lu Hu was also gone!
At that moment, I really collapsed, blood rushed up, couldn't hold on any longer, feeling dizzy. I was so unsteady that I wanted to sit on the ground. Fortunately, Ma Zaohai supported me and asked me what happened. I stuttered and called out, and a few people changed color again. The flashlight immediately swept across the iron cabin, and Ma Zaohai shouted, "Chen Gong."
The cumulative stimulation feels like a chess game set up by a mastermind behind the scenes, leading our emotions towards breakdown step by step. Each move is just right, and soon everyone is in a hysterical state under the flashing spotlight of the flashlight.
"We couldn't remember what we were thinking at the time, but fear was inevitable. Looking back now, we encountered an inexplicable phenomenon that human power couldn't explain. I didn't even know what I was afraid of - disappearing or being abandoned by someone here. All of this was engulfed in chaotic emotions."
"We knocked on the walls of the steel chamber, making a harsh sound, calling out loudly, and crouching down to inspect the floor. The originally chaotic steel chamber became even more disorderly."
However, all of these are futile. The solid, flawless walls only increase the panic in our hearts.
We were exhausted by the constant struggle until the deputy team leader finally calmed down first, and we gradually regained our composure. Ma Hai grabbed his hair tightly and slumped onto the chair, while I leaned my head against the wall and hit it hard.
"All of this has already lost order, goodness gracious, could there be ghosts here?"
The three of us fell silent and stayed in our respective positions. We could hear each other's heavy breathing. The atmosphere was blank - our minds were void of any feeling or mood.
Time passed slowly, maybe two hours, maybe four hours. Nobody said a word. After the excitement, exhaustion hit us like a tide.
"That was a long period of mental blankness. I wasn't sleeping, but the tiredness was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. During my career in geological exploration, I had gone through many sleepless nights, but physical fatigue can be regulated. We were all born shortly after the start of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and our childhoods had already undergone unimaginable hardship and labor, so we didn't pay much attention to physical exhaustion, but this kind of mental fatigue was the hardest to endure."
However, this long period of calm and rest did indeed gradually ease our state of mind.
I don't know exactly how long it had been, but I think it was the cold sweat and shivers that brought me back to consciousness, or maybe it was hunger.
"I took a deep breath, turned off the flashlight in my hand, found a place to sit down, and started thinking about how long it has been since I last ate. How much time have I already spent in this sealed metal compartment?"
There is no distinction between day and night here, everything is in chaos. I don't have a watch, in that era watches were considered household appliances, limited in supply like lighters, let alone watches.
As various sensations returned, I began to ponder almost compulsively. The entire incident began to replay in my mind, and there was no way to stop it.
Later on, I told the old cat that in this whole incident, the consideration I had at that time was what I believed to be the real consideration. I can say that the way I considered the problem at that time was truly enlightening. I have always believed that my current small achievements in my career are due to the catalytic effect of this experience.
Here's a brief explanation. In our time, perhaps many people cannot understand that many people like us are actually very simple-minded, and we consider problems in a very straightforward way. This is also related to the fact that at that time, we could only access very limited information. You can ask your parents to recall the movies and dramas at that time. The plots were very simple, and it was easy to tell who are the good guys and who are the bad guys just by their appearance. Therefore, we hardly considered complex issues at that time. This is also the reason why the ten years of disaster had such a devastating impact.
"At first, my mind was filled with the images of those two people disappearing, with the flickering flashlight beams. I felt dizzy and forced myself not to think about it, instead turning my thoughts towards the whole situation."
"This is definitely an unusual airlock chamber, or rather, there must be something strange that we don't know about it. Inside this airlock chamber, which is located 1200 meters deep underground, in a strange abandoned Japanese facility that has been abandoned for decades, two large living beings suddenly disappeared under impossible circumstances. Assuming this proposition exists, during the few minutes when our attention is diverted, something must have happened inside this airlock chamber behind us, which we are not aware of."
"So what exactly is the matter?"
"My painful memories, at that time even a tiny feeling that made me feel something was wrong."
The first time Yuan Xile vanished was in complete darkness. Our attention was focused on searching for a flashlight and we didn't pay attention to any sound around us. It can be said that Yuan Xile could have used that time to do anything.
The second disappearance of Chen Luohu occurred in partial darkness, our attention fixed on the ventilation duct while behind us was a complete visual blind spot.
It can be said that the timing of their disappearance was just too perfect, as it happened when we were all focused on one thing.
I sighed and a ridiculous thought naturally came to my mind: Could it be that in this iron cabin, as long as you lose focus, people around you will disappear?
"This is truly an absurd and outrageous thing."
However, at this point, I suddenly felt goosebumps all over my body and realized that my current state was also a form of distraction. I quickly snapped out of it, looked around to find the deputy leader and Ma Zaihai.
What came into my sight was darkness. I didn't know when, but the beams of their two flashlights had already gone out. In my baffled state, I did not realize when it happened.
A sudden inexplicable fear swept over me, and I couldn't help but let out a groan from my throat.
At the thought of this, for no reason, I suddenly fell into extreme fear, and my whole body shrank in fear. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't speak. I barely managed to make a call, and I couldn't even recognize what I was saying, only able to call it a sound.
"There was no response, and in the pitch black space, it seemed that there was really only me left."
"My mind suddenly started exploding again, and the moment of calm that I had obtained during my previous hysteria vanished. I made an effort and shouted again, while simultaneously turning on my flashlight."
In an instant, I really thought I would see an empty iron cabin. I was left alone in this hell-like ruins, trapped in a dark secret room with toxic fog outside. The person who came with me disappeared mysteriously like a ghost. This is really a terrifying situation. If it really happens, I'm afraid I will go crazy immediately.
The difference between reality and fiction often lies in the fact that fiction tends to present extreme scenarios, while in reality, people are often not pushed to such extremes. When I turned on my flashlight, I saw a horse almost right in front of me in the sea, with a face as pale as a dead person, seemingly searching for something. I was so scared that I screamed, and he recoiled several meters back in fear.
Another flashlight lit up and shone towards me. I saw the deputy leader on the other side of the iron cabin looking at us in confusion.
After I let out a breath of relief, I became angry and asked, "What are you doing, turning off the flashlight and not saying a word?"
The horse on the sea scared me half to death, I couldn't speak. The deputy team leader explained that when two people were not around, the whole iron cabin was in a basic state of darkness. He was thinking if there was any mechanism here that would open in total darkness, so he turned off the flashlight to search. At that time, when he said that, I also turned off the flashlight and he thought I was also searching.
"I must have been daydreaming at that time, I had no impression of what he was saying. It was only when I saw both of them still in the iron cabin that I breathed a sigh of relief and said to them that I thought they had disappeared just now."
Both of them looked pale and seemed to understand my feelings very well. Obviously, they had the same concerns themselves. However, as official soldiers, they were different from me. They simply kept these things in their hearts.
"I then asked them if they had touched anything in the dark. The horse in the sea just shook its head."
This is actually a kind of self-deception. Normally, flaws that cannot be found in bright light will be even harder to spot in the dark. But it is already impressive for the deputy team leader to have thought of these things, as the engineering troops of the time did not have a very high level of education or culture. At most, they received some training in their profession. The most typical example of this was the hero railway engineer troops of that time, who had a saying: "Three treasures of the railway engineers: iron shovel, foreign hoe, and cotton-padded jacket with holes." This reflects the situation of the special engineering troops of that time.
"We sat down together with solemn faces. I told them not to panic and that from now on, the three of us would stick together. If anyone else went missing, we would know what happened."
Several people nodded, and what pleased me was that our emotions had stabilized, and there was no change in the situation. The strong feeling of hunger in my stomach also told me that we still face many, many problems, but we cannot think about them now. The two warriors in front of me made me feel at ease.
Under the guidance of materialism, many strange things we encountered in the mountains can be explained afterwards with very far-fetched reasons. However, in many cases, we eventually found that these far-fetched interpretations were correct. It is unclear how much was added and how much was correct. But the current situation probably makes it unlikely to simply explain it with materialism.
I started wondering, if Yuan Xile and Chen Luohu never appeared again and I also made it back alive, how would I tell this story to others in the future?
Where did these two people who disappeared like ghosts go? Have they completely vanished or gone somewhere else?
"I looked around and realized that I had never considered what this iron cabin meant. This former Japanese military base, dating back several decades, was all so unfamiliar. The iron cabin seemed just as unfamiliar, and I had never thought whether it was also a very special place within this base."
"What is this iron compartment used for?" I suddenly thought.
Looking at the furnishings here, it seems like a temporary command or shelter room. This iron compartment is located in a corner of the dam's mid-level engine room, completely constructed of iron sheets, with a transition preparation room outside. From the outside, it appears that this iron compartment is used as a temporary shelter during the ascension of toxic fog.
"But is it really like this?"
The Japanese have created an unimaginable situation here, with huge dams and fighter jets appearing at the end of this giant natural cave that can hardly be explained. We have no idea what their purpose is, and it's possible that this iron chamber is also part of their plan.
"I stood up and looked at the iron walls around me. Suddenly, a question popped up in my mind. What is behind these iron walls of the cabin? Concrete, or something I don't know?"
I stood up and instead of knocking, I touched the iron wall with my hand. The rust marks here were uneven and pitted, as if they were corroded by strong acid. I could see outside the iron wall that there was a trace of white paint. But it could only be called a trace, because even the size of a fingernail painting had disappeared. The iron wall was very cold. When I touched it, all warmth was instantly sucked away.
"Wrong! I suddenly realized it's too cold! This temperature is as cold as the temperature of icy underground river water, it's so cold that one can't bear it."
I stuck my ear to the wall again to listen to the sound behind the iron wall. At this time, the deputy squad leader and Ma Hai were both very surprised by my actions. Ma Hai asked me what was wrong.
"I raised my hand to signal him to be quiet, because when I pasted it on, I already heard a perplexing sound."
At first, I couldn't recognize what it was, but soon I found out a huge question mark appeared in my brain.
I heard the sound of water. It wasn't the kind of roar from water hitting rocks, which I am familiar with because my family are fishermen. I know this sound - it's the dull, muffled sound of water rubbing against the hull of a boat from the flow below the waterline.
"This discovery was unexpected to me. I was very surprised and listened for a while longer. It was indeed that kind of sound. However, I knew this was impossible. The iron cabin was above the engine room. I clearly remember that the water surface was several layers below our feet, and there was no possibility of water around the iron cabin. This is the "backwater face" of the dam. Even if the water gate is closed during the process and the water level in the underground river rises, the water level cannot rise so high."
"I told my discovery to Vice Captain Ma and the others, they were all curious and leaned over to listen. They heard it too. Ma chuckled bitterly and said, 'Are we currently underwater?'"
"I picked up the iron rod he had just used to hook clothes and smashed the iron wall with force. There was a loud bang as sparks flew off from my blow, but the sound was very dull. There was no metallic ring at all."
"It seems like there is really water all around."
I was stunned. At this moment, I thought of one thing: outside this iron cabin, there was a huge iron wall.
"That is to say, obviously the equipment in this iron cabin is independent of the concrete structure of the entire dam. This iron cabin is enclosed by a huge square iron box. Oh my god, I slapped myself and wondered why I didn't think of it earlier. What device in the dam requires such a metal shell? It's too simple. In my impression, there is only one type of equipment that requires such a metal shell!"