Chapter Twenty-Three: Two Women's Outdoor Survival
A heavy rain extinguished Jin Junmei's hope of sending a distress signal.
The fires and explosions caused by Mrs. Zhuang's mistakes destroyed their drinking water and food, and the sudden thunderstorm caused floods, turning the once clear waterfall into a muddy yellow mud soup, so that nature's bounty of potable water was gone, and the opportunity to catch small creatures for food on the gravel beach was also lost due to the rapid current.
Almost instantly, whether it was Mrs. Zhuang on the rich side or Jin Junmei, they all suddenly became nothing.
That night, two poor women hid under the burned wreckage of the airship, hugged each other and warmed each other's body heat, and finally reached dawn.
Although the sky was bright, the rain did not stop, but it turned from pouring rain to dripping.
Jin Junmei and Mrs. Zhuang cheered up and encouraged each other, collected food that had not been completely burned, and unexpectedly found a few bottles of scattered drinking water.
They were cold, hungry, and scared now, so they couldn't care about it anymore, so they drank water first, and then swallowed some burnt food indiscriminately.
Suddenly, Jin Junmei cried aggrievedly, and Mrs. Zhuang hurriedly hugged her and coaxed her.
In fact, from the landing to the present, it is Jin Junmei who has shown the ability to survive, but she is young after all, and it is the first time for her to survive outdoors, so she has lost control of her emotions. After all, Mrs. Zhuang is old and has a lot of experience in this half of her life, so it was she who comforted Jin Junmei and let her emotions slowly calm down.
After Jin Junmei regained his senses, he began to think, and then said to Mrs. Zhuang: "If we continue like this now, we will only wait until our physical strength is exhausted and we will die, so we must move now." ”
Mrs. Zhuang asked, "But we have almost nothing now, and we don't know where we are, so how can we go back?" ”
Jin Junmei looked at the surging flood and said: "Follow the water, follow the water, we can find a way to purify the water and solve the problem of drinking water, in addition, water is the source of life, as long as we use our brains more, water can also bring us food; Third, human settlements are inseparable from water, and flowing water can take us to places where people have settled. ”
Although Jin Junmei said the truth, Mrs. Zhuang felt that staying in place would have a better chance of being rescued, after all, such a big explosion and thick smoke might attract the attention of nearby humans, and the wreckage of the airship would be easier to be found in the air, but if you venture into the jungle, in the boundless forest, how small are the traces of two humans.
What's more, although the airship was blown up, the wreckage of its hull was still able to provide a certain degree of shelter for the two women, and a careful search could probably find the remnants of drinking water and food, and the wreckage of the airship could also provide parts as raw materials for making simple tools, and once they entered the forest, the two of them were really left with nothing.
Jin Junmei wanted to convince Mrs. Zhuang, but Mrs. Zhuang in turn also wanted to convince Jin Junmei. As a result, the two were evenly matched, and no one could convince anyone, but it was officially, and Mrs. Zhuang was considered to have won. Because Jin Junmei was hired to protect Mrs. Zhuang, if Mrs. Zhuang insisted on not leaving, Jin Junmei had to stay to help her.
Mrs. Zhuang also made a little concession, sacrificing a few water bottles to make a drifting bottle of water flowing down, but Jin Junmei knew that the probability of relying on the drifting bottle for help was almost zero.
But once the plan is set, the person becomes purposeful. The two women gathered resources, and looked at the branches and large leaves of plants, and built a shelter with the airship as the center, and then it was time to make a fire.
It's been raining all day and night, everything in the forest is getting wet, and the conventional way of making a fire is definitely not going to work. Mrs. Zhuang knew a little bit of mechanical knowledge, so she was fiddling around in the wreckage of the airship, and actually found a ball of lubricating oil in the core of a part, or because it was close to the core of the machine, there was no oxygen to support combustion, and after the heavy rain cooled down, this precious oil miraculously survived.
With this mass of grease, it was easier to start a fire, and after that, they found a broken metal jar that could be used to keep out the moisture.
Finding these things, Jin Junmei saw hope, she braved the rain with great interest, rushed to the forest again, found a plant called mille-feuille, cut it down, dragged it back to their shelter, peeled off layer by layer, although the inside of the plant is still very wet, but it is finally stronger than the wet outside.
After another afternoon of hard work, their shelter was finally on fire.
Fire can take away the cold and dampness, dry clothes, and boost morale, although the smoke of this fire is so great that it smokes both women to tears, and it also sends a foul smell into the air, but fire is fire after all, and it has many uses, and the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
With fire, there's dryness – at least you feel warm, but at the same time there's a burden. In such a rainy season, it is difficult to make a fire, it is even more difficult to save it with fire, and it is even more difficult to find fuel for fire in this wet jungle.
So the two women found out everything that could still be burned in the wreckage of the spaceship and burned it, but accidentally vacated the interior of the airship, so the two of them dried the water in the thunder cabin, strengthened the upper shield, spread it with dried leaves, and used a metal pipe to save the fire, and then the two curled up and slept inside.
Although the cabin was still damp and leaky, it was always better than squatting in muddy water on the ground.
And so they survived the second night.
On the third day, Jin Junmei found a long bundle of wire, which should be from a certain motor, so she tried to weave a fishing trap out of wire.
Every child in Fort Town receives some outdoor survival training during their Boy Scout days, which is traditional, but most people forget about these skills before they reach adulthood. Jin Junmei is still young, so she still remembers some of them, but she forgot the key steps, so her fish basket is a little strangely shaped, but it is quite sturdy, after all, it is not used for exhibitions.
Jin Junmei put the fish cage into the muddy water, hoping that the fish would also be some eyeless, and the small animals that carried it were washed into the fish basket by the turbulent stream.
Mrs. Zhuang readjusted the state of the campfire - it was not easy. After that, she continued her work - reinforcing the "roof" and drying the branches and leaves so that the evening would be more comfortable.
Jin Junmei also came back to help after putting the fish basket away. However, she still insisted on her active strategy of calling for help: "According to the current state of existence, you and I will only get weaker and weaker day by day, so we must act while we still have the strength." Otherwise, when your physical strength is exhausted, you won't be able to leave even if you want to. ”
But Mrs. Zhuang still insisted on staying, and when the rain stopped, she would build a fire and throw some smoke-emitting branches and leaves in as a distress signal.
Jin Junmei retorted: "This was my earliest idea, but you detonated the airship and set off such a big fireworks, did anyone find it?" ”
Mrs. Zhuang said: "Maybe it's raining, it's not easy to search and rescue, let's put a fire when the rain stops." ”
Jin Junmei was a little anxious, and said loudly: "Sunny and sunny, I have endured you long enough, and you don't look at what season this is!" Sunny day, I believe you are a ghost, can I get to this point without you? ”
Before she could finish speaking, Mrs. Zhuang's eyes suddenly lit up, and she pointed to the outside of the shelter and said, "Ah, the rain has stopped!" ”
Jin Junmei looked back, didn't he stop? The droplets that continued to fall were just droplets of water on the branches and leaves of the tall trees, and now the weather was not only clearer, but also much brighter, and the most outrageous thing was that the sun also cast sunlight into the depths of the forest through the gaps between the clouds and the dense canopy of the forest.
Jin Junmei almost didn't cry, heaven is unfair, although Mrs. Zhuang is also struggling to survive, but I am the main force of this duo to survive, she is just a second knife, but how can this mouth be so accurate?
Mrs. Zhuang happily ran outside the shelter, stretched out her hands to test it, and then smiled: "Oh, it's really sunny, Meimei, go and see if you have any catch from your fishing trap?" I'll prepare a big fire and put a good handful of cigarettes. ”
Jin Junmei glanced at her angrily, and then walked slowly towards the waterfall stream.
The moment she picked up the fish basket from the muddy water, Jin Junmei felt disappointed - the fish basket was full of all kinds of leaf garbage, but then she found that something was moving in the garbage, she excitedly picked up the leaves, and found that the fish basket actually bumped into three demersal fish and several aquatic insects of unknown species, enough for her and Mrs. Zhuang to have a full meal.
The excitement of getting food made Jin Junmei less decadent, she picked up the garbage, and threaded the gills with a copper wire, and the fish basket was still in the water—after all, people will be hungry soon after a full meal—and were about to return to the camp, when she noticed a black shadow swishing from the river into the woods, which should have been something to drink from the stream, like a small wild boar.
Jin Jun's eyebrows were greedy, she hung the fish on the branches, and followed the dark shadow into the woods.
Jin Junmei chased into the forest, but did not find the trace of the little wild boar, was about to look at the footprints on the ground, but heard a "clucking" sound behind her, she looked back, the soul was almost scared away, more than ten meters behind her stood a man-eating bird, with its head down, and its sharp and long metal beak was facing her straight.
Jin Junmei was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to respond, and the man-eating bird attacked, it flapped its wings, and its two ostriche-like strong legs flew up and crashed towards Jin Junmei.
Jin Junmei instinctively stepped to the side at the moment she was hit by the man-eating bird, dodging the attack, but she suddenly felt that she was caught by countless hands, unable to move, and looked down to find that it was not the hand that grabbed her, but the vine of the blood vine tree.
She's entangled in the blood vine tree!
At this point, there was only one thought in her mind: this was the end of her life.
Indeed, not to mention that the Blood Vine Tree can suck people into a skeleton, even if she can get out, the parasitic spores of the Blood Vine Tree can make her seriously ill.