**Wrench** was the first to break the silence, pointing his gun at the group of ten. "You guys go first."
The ten people, trembling, immediately started crawling through the opening.
"Ano, you go too!" Wrench ordered after they were out.
We stayed behind to make sure he didn't shoot us from behind.
Ano was silent for two seconds. "You go ahead. I'm not going."
At this moment, Abu stepped forward and questioned, "Are you planning to take them back to your uncle's tea plantation as slaves?"
What? Ano's uncle is a local landowner?
No wonder Ano wanted to take advantage of the chaos to get people out for his own benefit. He was just like Liu Eleven and his gang.
Unexpectedly, Ano changed the subject, "Don't ask so much. I've changed my mind. They are also pitiful. Take them and go quickly!"
The ten people outside, mostly in their twenties, were too scared to move in the pitch-darkness.
Would Ano really let them go? I found it hard to believe.
"You go first, I'll stay behind," Wrench looked at me and signaled for Eight-One and me to go ahead.
He stayed back, clearly with a plan, and there was no time to argue.
After Eight-One and I quickly crawled out, Chen Weiqiang followed.
Then came Screwdriver, who couldn't bear to leave the wire cutters behind, and Li Jianguo, who looked murderous.
"Ah! You... you are so cruel..."
Ano suddenly screamed and collapsed to the ground.
It turned out that Abu had taken the opportunity to stab him in the side.
Blood mixed with the rain and soaked into the yellow mud.
By the light of the flashlight, I saw female bodies washed out from under the bamboo trees by the rain—a sight too horrible to look at.
"You should have died a long time ago. It's not us who are cruel; you shouldn't have come here and found us."
Wrench took Ano's AK, then hit him in the head with the butt of the gun, knocking him to the ground.
"Cruel? When you supervised us, did you ever think about today? If we don't kill you, you'll call for reinforcements to kill us!"
Abu spat on the ground and then slit Ano's throat with his knife, crushing the phone Ano was holding, ready to call for help.
I shouted to the ten people outside, "If you want to follow us, then come along."
Since we had already escaped, it was better to take a few people with us if we could.
"We'll head northeast."
Wrench and Abu were familiar with the area, so we followed them.
The ten people hesitated, then slowly followed us. It was better to escape with us than stay behind to die or be sold by Ano.
Because the rain was heavy and it was pitch-dark, the ground was slippery. We couldn't run fast or use flashlights, fearing the bandits might notice us.
So we helped each other and groped our way through the dense forest.
The boys were relatively okay, but the two girls kept crying. Eight-One and Screwdriver had to support them as we ran.
"Our pace is too slow. At this rate, we'll be caught."
Wrench sighed worriedly. The gunfire behind us was gradually stopping, suggesting the battle was over.
In less than half an hour, Liu Eleven's thugs would find Ano's body and follow our tracks into the mountains to hunt us down.
"I'm not going any further. I'm so tired! I'll cross the river to Yunnan."
Three boys sat down under a tree, hitting their legs and complaining.
"I'm not going with you either..." the two girls whispered.
They were likely afraid of Abu and Wrench and had been keeping their distance.
After some questioning, we found out they were classmates, tricked by another student into coming to Myawaddy with promises of high-paying jobs.
"What about you?" I asked the remaining five boys, wanting to hear their decision.
I'm not a charity or a savior. They had the right to choose. Besides, following us didn't guarantee survival.
The boys thought for a moment and said, "We'll take another route. Too many people make it easier to get caught."
"Fine, then we'll part ways here. I have some biscuits; ration them carefully and you should make it through the jungle."
I took out two packs of compressed biscuits from my bag, giving one to each group of five.
How they divided them was not my concern. As fellow Chinese escapees, I had done my best.
"Let's go, don't waste any more time," Chen Weiqiang urged, pulling my arm.
I didn't need reminding. I knew better than anyone that whether they followed us or not, survival wasn't guaranteed.
Their physical condition was poor, and the environment here was harsh. Hoping to make it back to China alive was almost a fantasy.
We hurried into the depths of the forest.
Without them slowing us down, our speed increased significantly. We didn't dare relax for a moment and kept running...
We ran until dawn and finally rested under a towering tree.
I wrung out my soaked clothes and shivered, "I wonder if the sun will come out today?"
In our panic to escape, we had sweated a lot. Now, with rain and sweat clinging to our skin, the wind made us feel extremely cold.
We looked as though we had just been pulled out of the water.
"As long as it stops raining, the primitive forest is quite cold," Abu sneezed, taking off his soaked uniform.
His family had left Myawaddy a month ago, which was part of why he decided to join our escape.
"Rest here. Everyone wring out your clothes and warm up, or you'll catch a cold."
Wrench put down his gun and poured water out of his shoes.
Eight-One's feet were covered in cuts from thorns and broken branches, as he was wearing leather sandals.
We didn't have any spare shoes, so we tore off strips of cloth to wrap his feet for some protection.
After a while, we wrung the water from our clothes and opened the heavy bag to share some dry food.
We collected some water from the leaves to drink, replenishing our energy before continuing.
Screwdriver and Wrench were former soldiers; jungle running and wilderness survival were no problem for them.
I had practiced martial arts since childhood, so my body was strong.
So after walking all night, apart from being tired and having numb legs, I felt fine.
Abu and Li Jianguo were also in good shape, but Eight-One and Chen Weiqiang were struggling due to lack of exercise.
They could barely walk, limping along, and would have collapsed without our help.
The morning forest was misty, the cold wind chilling us to the bone.
Only the thought of going home kept us moving.
Wrench said that although the route through the jungle was long and mountainous, it would take us straight to the Fourth Special Zone.