Lao Zhang always has a wooden stick tied to his camel. The stick is used to explore the sand. Before walking, you can use the stick to poke it to know whether the place can be stepped on.
He got off the camel, took off his stick, and told everyone to be careful when walking.
Desert army ants are social animals. Like the red imported fire ants, the ant nest they create will form a big bag on the ground. The army ants are not as aggressive as red imported fire ants, but they are more harmful and rare than red imported fire ants because
Army ants are only found in deserts.
"Stop!" Lao Zhang suddenly waved his hand.
He pointed forward with a wooden stick for us to see.
I saw a big bulge on the sand less than three meters away from the camel team in front of me. Occasionally, there were a few black ants burrowing in and out of the bulging sandbag.
Lao Zhang pointed there with a stick and said: "Look, that is the nest of army ants. There are not many of them now, but the space below is very big. If a person accidentally steps on it, tens of thousands of ants will kill him in minutes."
Bite to death."
Dou Sprouts swallowed and said, "Damn, this ant nest is worse than a hornet's nest. We have to be careful."
Qin Xingping echoed: "Everyone, be careful. Get off the camel and lead it away. Don't step on it."
We led the camels carefully around the army ant nest. We raised our heads and looked ahead and said, "Why do I feel that the wind is getting stronger?"
Lao Zhang stretched out his hand to feel the strength of the wind, and suddenly his face changed: "The wind level is already close to level seven. The formation of sandstorms requires three conditions: strong wind, sand, and no windshield. Once the wind level rises to level nine, it will be dangerous.
.”
．
The group speeded up a bit more.
While paying attention to the ant nests that may appear at any time, we have to speed up. Yesterday we drank all the water. Everyone left with dry mouth and panting. Although I was wearing a veil, I always felt like I had something in my throat.
The sand is very uncomfortable.
"No way! Not enough time! We can't get out!" Lao Zhang suddenly shouted.
There were unpredictable weather conditions, so we hurriedly hurried and slowed down, but we still didn't make it. At this moment, the strong wind mixed with the yellow sand in the sky made it difficult for people to move.
"Everyone, stay where you are and don't move! The sandstorm is coming!"
He quickly took out a small whistle and blew it. When the camels heard the whistle, they all knelt down.
Lao Zhang shouted anxiously: "Lower your head! Grab the camel! Hold on!"
"Ya Zai! Yun Feng! Where are you!" I heard the leader shouting but couldn't see anyone else because I couldn't open my eyes. If I didn't catch the camel, I felt like I would be blown away!
"No! The wind is too strong! I can't hold on anymore!" I suddenly heard Zhao Xuanxuan's cry for help from behind me.
Relying on a little sound to determine the direction, I crawled over and grabbed her arm.
"Hold on! I got you!"
I couldn't see Zhao Xuanxuan at all, so I could only pull her to crawl on the ground and squirm forward. As long as we stopped, such a strong wind and sand would completely cover us in a few minutes!
It felt like a long time passed, and the wind became weaker and weaker.
I shook my body vigorously and struggled to get up from the ground. I looked around and saw yellow sand everywhere. My head was missing, and Lao Zhang Dou Sprout and the others couldn't see it either. What scared me even more was that I didn't see my head.
camel!
My throat was dry and smoking, so I suppressed the discomfort and shouted a few times.
"Yunfeng." Less than five meters behind me, I heard Miss Zhao's echo.
Her legs and lower body were buried in the sand, and I ran over and struggled to pull her out.
"Where are the others! Xiaoxuan, have you seen the others!"
She shook her hair and said in shock: "I didn't see it, it's so big here, we must have gotten separated."
After several searches, although I don’t want to admit it, what Ms. Zhao said is true. We are indeed out of touch with the team.
At this time, I couldn't be more chaotic. After forcing myself to calm down, I did the math. The sandstorm just now should have lasted for more than an hour. I calculated it as one and a half hours as 90 minutes. If you move one meter in about five seconds, one minute would be
About 10 meters. Calculated, when the direction is uncertain, we have deviated at least half a mile. This is already a good direction, and the actual situation may be more.
There is no one else in sight at the moment, but I know one thing. In this situation, if we can't find anyone else at the first time, there is a high probability that we will drift further and further apart.
After losing contact with the camel team, Miss Zhao was a little panicked, even a little scared. She grabbed my arm and asked: "What should I do Yunfeng? Our things are all tied up on the camels."
"Don't panic, I'm thinking of a solution."
I frowned and thought of several ways, but in the end I rejected them. Some of them were unconditional, and some might not work at all. For example, I wanted to use a beacon tower to signal for help, but there was nothing to burn around.
thing.
"Let's go," I gritted my teeth and said, "This is a dead horse. It's unrealistic to keep it here and wait for them to find it. Only by moving can you have a greater chance of seeing the camel team. How is your health? Let me see how you look.
not too good."
Miss Zhao's lips were chapped at the moment, and she said feebly: "Yunfeng, I feel weak. It would be better if I could drink some water."
"water"
"Yeah," I licked my lips. I didn't feel any moisture, just a little pain.
"Give me your hand, we can't just sit there and wait for death. If we continue like this, we will both get dehydrated, and it will be too late to find us by then." I pulled her up and walked towards the west, one foot deep and one foot shallow. We wanted to find water.
It's not easy to find drinkable water in a place like this. The reason why we decided to go west was because the terrain here is similar, with no ups and downs.
Before we entered Alxa, Lao Zhang spent half a day training us, mainly verbally imparting some of his experience. Among them was the most important one, how to find drinkable water in the desert.
Water is the source of life, and only those who have water can survive. I listened quite seriously at that time and memorized a few methods.
Lao Zhang said that if you see gray grass (a kind of gray grass) and moss in the desert, it means that the place is relatively humid. Pull out the gray grass and dig down along the roots of the grass. If the more you dig, the wetter it becomes, then the underground soil will be wet.
It is very possible to dig out water.
Also, pay attention to the sky in the evening and morning. If you see several birds flying overhead, you can track their movements. If you are lucky, there may be a water source below the flock of birds.
Then look for dry beds. If you find dry beds, you can dig in the dark places at the bends of dry rivers. If you dig out moist sand after digging a few times, there may be a small amount of fresh water underneath.
After deciding on the plan, I took Zhao Xuanxuan and started looking for water.
I stopped wherever I saw the ashweed growing. I had no luck. I tried digging several times but found nothing. At most, there was only a little damp sand under the ashweed, which was not enough for people to drink.
of water.
We tried to follow the flock of birds again, but the further we walked, the more disappointed and tired we became. She was a girl after all, and in the end she couldn't walk anymore.
"I can't do it anymore, we are probably going to die here."
"Don't say such depressing words, there is another way," I gritted my teeth.