Old Cat carried the last box and stepped into the sandstorm.
From then on, there was no news.
After more than an hour, Tang Yue couldn't hold back anymore. After such a long time, Old Cat should have returned long ago.
According to the agreement between the two, if Old Cat didn't return to Kunlun Station in an hour and a half, then Tang Yue would retract the safety rope. An hour and a half was a red line. If Old Cat didn't return safely at this time, then it most likely meant that something had happened to it.
He decided to pull Old Cat back.
Tang Yue began to retract the rope, but later he felt more and more that something was wrong because there was no tension on the rope. Tang Yue anxiously pulled all the rope back. The safety rope was like a thin snake that came back from the dark sandstorm outside the cabin and coiled on the floor of the airlock. But in the end, it wasn't Old Cat that came back, but a loose lock.
There was nothing on the other end of the cable.
Tang Yue's brain buzzed and went blank.
·
·
·
"Old Cat?
Old Cat?
Please answer if you hear me! "
Tang Yue panted as he walked on the sand. He finally left Kunlun Station. Tang Yue used the safety rope to tie himself to the airlock's hatch. If he couldn't find Old Cat, he could still follow the safety rope back to Kunlun Station. This was insurance.
The headlights on both sides of the Bright Light Armour's visor were useless. The white light emitted by the four LED lights couldn't illuminate more than two meters in the sandstorm. Tang Yue couldn't tell north from south at all. He was only a few meters away from Kunlun Station when he couldn't see the three-meter-tall white building behind him. He looked around, and his eyes were full of messy sand and dust.
The sandstorm on Mars was completely different from what Tang Yue imagined.
The sandstorm in Tang Yue's imagination: You're the wind, and I'm the sand, entwined and entwined as we walk to the end of the world …
The sandstorm in reality: F * ck, where's the sun?
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
Most of the sand and dust in the sandstorm were not granules, but aerosols that were shaped like haze. What the wind blew up were extremely fine grains of sand, whose diameters might be only a few microns or tens of microns. These fine grains of sand spread in the air, turning the atmosphere into a pot of turbid soup.
Sunlight couldn't penetrate this turbid fog, so it was pitch black under the sandstorm.
"Old Cat —!"
Tang Yue roared with all his might. He followed his memory and headed in the direction of the Eagle. As the visibility was almost zero, Tang Yue walked in the dark. However, he didn't have Old Cat's precise positioning ability, so he could only make a rough estimate.
The Bright Light Armour was heavy and clumsy, and the movement of its limbs was limited. The life support system behind it was also a huge burden, so the entire Bright Light Armour's center of gravity was very far back. Tang Yue had to lean forward to walk. He felt like a foolish old man trying to move a mountain.
Tang Yue didn't dare turn around or change his direction. The direction he was heading in was set when he left Kunlun Station. If he continued walking in this direction, he would definitely reach the Eagle. However, if Tang Yue deviated from the predetermined direction midway, he wouldn't have the ability to get himself back on track in the dark. Tang Yue wasn't a turtle or a pigeon. His brain couldn't sense the geomagnetic field. Besides, there wasn't any geomagnetic field on Mars.
Tang Yue was now blind. This blind man was carrying a heavy turtle shell as he struggled to walk in the sandstorm. He was blown around by the strong winds, but he still had to rescue his assistant.
It was tragic just thinking about it.
"Old Cat!
Old Cat! "
Tang Yue panted heavily. His stamina was rapidly decreasing. Tang Yue had been moving supplies all day and was already exhausted. Furthermore, he hadn't had dinner yet. "Please answer if you copy!
Please answer if you copy … "
There was still no response on the channel. The radio communication conditions in the sandstorm were terrible.
Tang Yue could only hope that Old Cat was still conscious and could receive his call. He only needed to get close enough for the radio signal to break through the environmental interference.
If Old Cat was already unconscious, it would be even more troublesome … In this visibility, it was impossible for Tang Yue to find an unconscious person. He couldn't even see his own feet when he lowered his head.
"Old Cat —!"
Tang Yue's legs alternated mechanically. His legs were gradually losing feeling. The soreness had passed, leaving only numbness.
Tang Yue had heard that in the polar regions of Earth, for the polar scientific research teams, getting lost in a snowstorm was equivalent to death. The sandstorm on Mars was even more terrible than the snowstorm in Antarctica on Earth. The temperature of minus 80 degrees Celsius and the wind speed of 40 meters per second had already broken the limit of Earth's climate. And Old Cat had disappeared in this vast, dark sandstorm.
God knew if he could find Old Cat, but Tang Yue didn't want to give up.
As long as he didn't give up, there was still a glimmer of hope.
"Old Cat —!
Old Cat —! "
Tang Yue's voice was hoarse. His throat was so dry that it was burning. His voice was like sawing wood. "Please answer if you copy!"
It was really the end of the world.
The last man in the world was walking alone in the desert in the storm. He shouted until his throat was dry, but there was no response on the channel. If there was really an end to the universe, then it must be like this. For a moment, Tang Yue felt that he was going to die here.
After walking for an unknown period of time, Tang Yue was suddenly pulled back.
He was taken aback. When he turned his head, he realized that the safety rope on his body was taut. The length of the rope had reached its limit … Tang Yue was alarmed. The safety rope was about 200 meters long, but the Eagle was only about a hundred meters away from Kunlun Station. Tang Yue had walked 200 meters away from Kunlun Station, but he still hadn't encountered the Eagle.
Without a doubt, he had deviated from the correct direction and missed the lander.
In a sandstorm, even if you brushed past the lander by a few centimeters, you might not be able to see it.
Tang Yue could only helplessly turn around and follow the rope back to Kunlun Station.
Then, he had to do it all over again.
He might have to repeat this many times until he found Old Cat.
"Old Cat … Damn Old Cat. If you can hear me, answer me!
Can you stop f * * king tormenting me … I'm dying of exhaustion … I'm really dying of exhaustion … "
Tang Yue suddenly tripped as one of his feet fell into a sandpit. He immediately lost his balance and fell flat on his face.
Tang Yue didn't recover from the fall for a long time. He sprawled on the sand and didn't even have the strength to get up.
"Old Cat … Old Cat, can you hear me?" Tang Yue's face was pressed against the glass of the visor as he called out softly. "Old Cat?
Old Cat?
Old Cat … "
Tang Yue slowly crawled forward. In a sandstorm, it was much easier to lower one's body and walk on all fours than to walk upright. With a lower center of gravity, the surface area facing the wind was also reduced. Tang Yue crawled forward little by little. He hoped that he didn't crawl in the wrong direction. The fall just now made him dizzy, and he didn't even know where the direction he planned to go was.
Humans were indeed creatures that lacked a sense of direction. As long as you blindfolded yourself and turned around twice, you wouldn't be able to tell north from south.
Tang Yue groped his way forward for more than ten meters before he finally exhausted the strength to crawl.
He sprawled on the sand, his limbs and bones sore and weak. The movement instructions sent by his brain were rejected by his muscles, and there was the sharp whistling of the wind all around him. Tang Yue struggled to raise his hand and wipe the dirt off the screen on his wrist. The thermometer showed that the air temperature was -82 degrees Celsius. Tang Yue glanced at the number and then stopped moving.
He lay in the Bright Light Armour and felt like he was lying in a coffin.
'I'm probably going to die here.'
Tang Yue thought silently.
The temperature on Mars was extremely low, and the climate was dry. It was not suitable for the survival of microorganisms. After Tang Yue died, his body would probably dry naturally and be preserved as a mummy for a long time.
Thinking that his body might be preserved for another hundred or eighty years, just like the ancient monks who became Buddhas with their bodies, Tang Yue decided to strike a more meaningful pose to express his inner feelings at the moment.
He raised his middle finger to the sky.