Xu Lei - Search for the Buried Bomber

“Thank goodness,” said Wang Sichuan, “and may Tengri protect us. Old Cat, you’re like a father to me. Come here and let me give you a kiss.”

Old Cat just laughed and said nothing. He continued to look at us, first Pei Qing and then me, his face deep and inscrutable.

Suddenly I realized we had not turned back toward the surface, but instead were continuing deeper into the cave. “Old Cat,” I asked, lips trembling, “where are we going? This cave runs into a dead end.”

As soon as they heard my question, the rest of our group chimed in. “He’s right!” they called out, their faces pale. “The cave dead-ends up ahead.”

“The terrain here is too low,” said Wang Sichuan. “We’d better head for the top of the cave. If the water rises too high, this place will become an underground water cavity. The path back will be entirely submerged and we’ll be stuck here.”

The corpsmen manning the rafts all looked at Old Cat. Not paying us the slightest bit of attention, he took a puff on his cigarette and said, “Keep going.”

Like assault boats, the four oxskin rafts charged forward. We all raised ourselves up to see where we were going. Wang Sichuan’s face shook with worry. We had just barely escaped with our lives and had no desire to risk them once more. The rafts sped over the waves. Soon we reached the end of the cave. Old Cat gestured for us to be quiet and pointed at a spot on the cave wall. Floating atop the rising water, we were now at least ninety feet above where we’d discovered the iron door. From the start we’d paid little attention to the uppermost reaches of the cave, for the darkness there was at its most impenetrable. Here the roof of the cave was dim but visible. It formed an acute angle with the cave walls. Countless rows of shadowy stalactites hung down like the pearly teeth of some wild beast. There, at the top of the rock wall we’d taken for the end of the cave, gaped a thirty-foot hole in the rock. Water rushed in with the force of a galloping horse, obscuring the opening behind a sheet of white spray.

We understood: The tectonic activity that had occurred here had not completely sealed off the cave, just blocked off the bottom. The cavern with the iron door was a water cavity. Though too small be called an underground lake, it served the same purpose: helping to regulate overflow from the underground river. Because of successive years of drought, the river was already at its lowest point when we arrived. It was only natural that we had been unable to locate the path onward—we had been searching for it on the lake bottom. Who would have thought that the path onward had actually been on the cavern’s roof?

I wanted to ask Old Cat how he’d known where to go, but there was no time. We were rushed forward by the speed of the current, and as we charged toward the opening, our raft began to spin. One of the corpsmen yelled for us to get down and hold tight. Hardly had his voice faded when we burst through the opening and smashed into a wall along the narrow channel within. One of the corpsmen was knocked halfway out of the raft. Luckily Pei Qing’s reflexes were lightning fast. In an instant he’d grabbed the soldier and dragged him back into the boat. Then, spinning along in total darkness, we continued down the channel.

By the end I couldn’t tell if the raft was vertical or horizontal. After experiencing the extremes of exhaustion and terror and then having to contend with the speed and violence of the rapids, I had nothing left. Gritting my teeth, I attempted to rouse myself, but darkness filled my vision once more and I gave in.

By the time I awoke, the roar of water was gone and all around me was quiet. Wrapped in blankets, I felt warmth like I hadn’t in days. Wang Sichuan and the rest had fallen fast asleep. They were pressed close together and looked much more comfortable than they had ever been sleeping alone. I carefully sat up and looked around. Through the hazy lamplight, I discovered I was sitting on a pebbly shoal. Blankets had been laid to suck up the groundwater. Nearby a very small fire flickered in the dark. Several indistinct shapes sat beside it, evidently the sentries on watch. As soon as one of the figures saw I was awake, he came running over. It was one of the engineering corpsmen Old Cat had brought along. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

Stretching out my limbs, I noticed my hands and feet felt unusually stiff . Reaching down, I discovered they’d been tightly bandaged. Except for this I felt all right. I’m fine, I told him.

The corpsman helped me to my feet and I walked with him over to the campfire. “Where is this place?” I asked.

He told me we were still beside the river, on a piece of jutting rock. We had floated for four hours after I fainted. He wasn’t sure where exactly we were either. Saying this, he handed me a plate of food. I looked around the cave as I ate. The ground was terraced like rice paddies, like steps climbing out of the river till they met the steep walls. Originally, the rock would have been smooth and sloped at a gradual angle, but over the last ten thousand years it had eroded into these angled formations. We were camped in the middle of one of the terraces. The upper levels were driest, so that’s where our belongings were stacked. Though the terraces were not wide, they ran for a very long way. The rafts had been run aground off to the side. I discovered that the bumps beneath my feet were not pebbles, but rather tumorlike protrusions in the rock that jutted sharply upward. It was lucky we’d been able to fall asleep at all. I shined my flashlight across the water, but it failed to illuminate the cave wall opposite. The river had widened significantly. Those still awake staggered about in a daze, while snores from the sleepers rose and fell. Except for the sound of our voices, everything here was quiet. Even the burble of the river had been silenced. It was rare to come upon such a tranquil place. It would be a waste to not rest up here. Gradually, I felt myself relax. After eating my fill, I took a piss and curled up beside Wang Sichuan. After a moment I was in dreamland once more.

This time when I awoke everyone was already up. Water for tea and food was being boiled on three vigorously burning bonfires. Several of our group sat around the flames tending their wounds. Our clothes had also been toasted more or less dry. Old Cat was over by the fire, sitting across from Pei Qing. Wang Sichuan was there too. Rubbing my eyes, I walked over and joined them.

Wang Sichuan clapped me on the back. “Goddamn if you don’t enjoy a life of ease and comfort!” he said. “You passed out at just the right time, giving me, your close comrade in arms, a chance to render great and meritorious service! Do you know who hauled your ass all the way up here yesterday? It was me. So remember to tell the higher-ups I deserve a third-class merit when we get back!”

I nodded my head in embarrassment. It’s not like I wanted to faint, I thought to myself. I was born this way. To be honest, my body was never suited for this line of work. When it came time to enlist, I forced myself to drink three big bottles of water and just barely managed to make weight. The recruitment officer thought I had contracted some stomach-swelling illness. Normally I was so thin my ribs stuck out like piano keys. But whenever I was ordered to go all out, whatever I lacked in physical power I made up for in spirit. This is where my strength has always lain. Fortunately my body has also become much hardier.