233. Claustrophobia

It's horribly cramped here!

You can only squeeze forward with your body as best you can.

Mo Lei struggled forward, while thinking about what Lindsay said, how the resistance army they organized back then went out day and night, taking advantage of this cave. Those guys undoubtedly have real courage and determination, otherwise they would definitely not be able to cross such a road again and again to enter the manor. No wonder they still want a little boy like Lindsey, because it's only the child who gets in and out effortlessly.

Of course, Mo Lei did not have the experience of crawling through this kind of hole, but at that time, there were life and death brothers in front of and behind him, fully armed to protect each other, and at most crawled dozens of meters ahead, and the front would suddenly open up. At the moment, he had to crawl alone for a few hundred meters in the narrow tunnel.

It was only now that he fully understood why the veteran caving experts always said that underground adventures could lead to the most primitive fears—the fear of darkness, the fear of falling into the void, the fear of being trapped in a labyrinth, the fear of being buried alive, the fear of loneliness. But he had no other choice now, the girl, the innocent person was in danger, he didn't know whether he was alive or dead, and this matter occupied all his mind.

It's all your own fault!

Tina won't die.

She always has an amazing explosive power at the critical moment, and will find a chance to survive on the verge of collapse. She is calmer and more resilient than most women in the world, and more courageous and decisive than many men!

…… The front and back are black holes, and there are no other creatures but themselves!

Mo Lei took off his backpack and pushed it in front of him, he pushed his body with his feet, and dragged his body with his arms, there was an inch of water on the ground, and his pants were quickly soaked, and a gust of wind blew, and the cold hit people. Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, forcing him to twist his body like an earthworm.

Eventually, the passage widened, and the roof of the cave rose to about 1.2 meters. He lifted his cold, aching abdomen away from the standing water on the ground, stood up, bent over and continued walking. But it didn't take long for this posture to make his back start to throb, Mo Lei did not force himself to continue walking, but stopped to rest for a while, he threw away the backpack he was holding, and held his thighs with both hands to breathe for a moment.

The word claustrophobia came to mind for no reason.

When he regained some strength and continued to move on, he noticed that the roof of the cave had dropped again, back to less than a meter in height. He lay down, hands and knees, and moved forward in a standard prostrate forward position.

But he didn't last long, the craggy ground bruised his knee, and he tried to use his elbows and toes to share the weight to reduce the pressure on his knees. The roof of the cave was getting lower and lower, and he turned sideways, tugging his feet and hands on his hands, and made his way down the winding hole.

The height of the roof of the cave dropped again and again, the lowest point was less than fifty centimeters, and it hurt his spine, and he had to pause for a moment to suppress the panic in his heart. At this moment, he had to resume his prostrate posture with his abdomen on the ground again. There is no end in sight to the hole in front, and the pillar of light from the headlamp illuminates the space more than ten meters in front of it, but the hole that is similar in size and shape to a coffin seems to be endless, and the gap between the two walls is getting narrower and narrower!

Claustrophobia!

Fear and anxiety are like a thin veil, overwhelming and impatient. Mo Lei's stomach churned, and his temples seemed to be beating hard with two giant hammers.

Shaking his head, Mo Lei tried his best to calm himself down, and he found that the winding passage seemed to be slowly rising, and although the ground was still wet, there was no more standing water. The rock rubbed against his abdomen and back at the same time, and the pistol on his waist occasionally collided with the rock wall, making a slight sound.

He still put his backpack on the front, and the height of the hole suddenly decreased at this moment, only about thirty centimeters.

Trapped!

Lindsays!

No, not yet trapped, at least not yet. But feeling like this, fear and anxiety hit Mo Lei like a tide, and he had to squeeze hard before he could move forward. His heart was beating wildly, his ears were buzzing, and he had to stop again.

Lindsays.

It won't be him, this old man looks very cunning, but Mo Lei knows that Lindsey has too many opportunities to kill himself, and he doesn't need to use this method.

What if?

He kept denying, constantly reaffirming.

The most terrible thing is one's own panic, which causes the whole body to stiffen and lose the ability to move.

Mo Lei exhaled slowly, exhaled slowly, and so on several times, and finally exhaled the air in his lungs, he was trying to reduce the diameter of his bust, and finally drilled out of this narrow passage.

Sweaty and cold, he forced himself to move forward, focusing on the goal and motivation for the action: no matter how difficult it was, get the job done!

I am the best soldier in the world, the invincible army.

He was distracted and began to think about his next steps, what should he do after entering the manor?

The upward slope became steeper and steeper, and Mo Lei inhaled deeply, feeling the rocks squeeze against his chest, making it impossible for him to send air into his ribcage. This shows that the adrenaline is working, increasing the breathing rate and making the breathing shallower and shorter, making him feel like he could suffocate at any moment, and he must not stop again.

Don't think about it!

Just relax!

No one knew they would be here, coyotes, soldiers, monsters.

Nobody knows! Tina didn't know either.

Will I be buried alive in this dark hell where there is no day or night?

Claustrophobia!

How the can I be claustrophobic? I was able to advance and retreat in a more brutal and harsh environment than this.

Something from the past in his mind regained control, and Mo Lei found himself reluctant to believe those pessimistic thoughts. He felt his heart beat slow, and the refreshing cold air reached deep into his lungs again, and his calmness spread throughout his body like ink on blotting paper.

Emotions calm down and the mind is calm. Mo Lei put the pain in his back behind him and urged his body to continue to move forward, snaking like an earthworm.

The roof of the cave suddenly rose, and the two walls suddenly parted. Mo Lei propped himself up with his sore hands and knees, climbed up the slope, and finally, he came to an artificial cave bathed in a faint light. With mixed feelings, he straightened his waist and stood up in place.

The light felt in both eyes was so faint that it was difficult to perceive.

The light came from a distance, dim to the extreme. But at this moment, Mo Lei was as bright as the sun, and he was as excited as seeing the sunrise.

The exit from the cave in front of you is indeed shaped like an old-fashioned keyhole. Mo Lei stepped on a pile of gravel, climbed to a high place, and then climbed the platform at the entrance like a big bird fluttering its wings, pressed down hard with both hands, and finally supported his body with his hard arms.

A tightly arranged, rusty iron railing came into view, and behind the iron railing was a wooden door. It was an old door, embedded in an irregularly shaped opening, so tight that it looked like the lid of a boiler manhole. He couldn't see what was behind the door, only a rectangular light faintly shining through it, like light leaking from under the door.

Carrying the backpack behind his back and fastening the strap, Mo Lei first reached out and touched the railing door and touched the hinge on the side of the door frame. He took out the master key that Lindsey had given him, inserted it into the keyhole, and turned the key.

No response!

Turn the key again, and this time the force is still well controlled.

The key card is in place, not moving.

The lock on the door is rusty. Surely this is the case, the old locks have never been replaced in these decades, and no one will come to maintain them. Mo Lei looked carefully and found that the entire lock had turned into a ball of rust, and he moved the position of the key back and forth, but there was still no progress, and the key seemed to be inserted into the iron without moving.

"Holy!" Mo Lei cursed fiercely.

Mo Lei was at a loss.

It was a puzzle that neither he nor Lindsey had thought about.

There was no other way for him to get in, and even if he had tools, he couldn't get around the door, which was embedded in solid rock. Blow it up? So what is fried?

Are you going to go back the way?

Beads of sweat rolled down Mo Lei's head.

Maybe......

Maybe one of those railings has rusted through? Can I break it by pushing hard? Mo Lei started to try, waving his gloved fist, smashing one iron railing after another, knowing that his hands hurt so much that he couldn't bear the position. But the result was far from ideal, the door was very strong, and the rust was only a confinement and appearance.

In desperation, Mo Lei was like a trapped prisoner, reaching out to grab the railing and shaking desperately, and suddenly, he heard the sound of metal shattering.

One hinge is broken.

Mo Lei raised his hand to wipe the beads of sweat on his face, stabilized his breathing, grabbed the railing with both hands again, shook it vigorously with all his strength, and the other hinge also broke under his madness.

He continued to shake the railing, exerting all his strength, until finally, the third and final hinge landed on the ground.

Grabbing the railing door with both hands, Mo Lei lifted it up and nudged it forward, moving his body in.

Come in!

Mo Lei leaned against the wall like a collapsed body.