Persian Plateau, mountainous region.
"What's the situation?"
Mist asked Song Heping in a low voice.
"It's bad. We're cut off. There's a small squad two hundred ters away; I saw six people, but I believe there are more than that, surely others nearby that we can't see."
Song Heping withdrew his head and hid behind the rocks again.
"I say we take them out," said Mist. "Charge through them. If the pursuers behind us hear gunshots and catch up, it's just a matter of our stamina. I'm not afraid of running in such terrain."
Song Heping shook his head. "It's not about stamina anymore. If it were only pursuers from one direction, we might stand a chance. But we don't know how many people from the Revolutionary Brigade are around here. If gunfire alerts the whole hornet's nest and they surround us from all sides, we'll be dood."
Mist stroked his stubble, frowning in thought for a mont before saying, "Last night, the night before, we took out quite a few who were blocking our way, and they still couldn't handle us."
"That was at night," Song Heping sighed and looked up at the sky.
The huge sun hung in the sky, glaring intensely.
In fact, he was now wishing for rain.
If it rained, Lu Nan left, the weather gloomy, and the light weak, visibility would be greatly reduced, conducive to escape.
But the Persian Plateau is generally arid with little rainfall, hoping for rain is less likely than winning a lottery ticket.
"We can't force our way through."
Song Heping had made up his mind.
He looked around and his gaze suddenly fell on a spot twenty ters away.
"It seems there's a ditch there."
Song Heping squatted to raise his line of sight.
After observing for a while, he pointed to the ditch and said, "There is a ditch there, and it leads westward to the mountain slope ahead. If we crawl into that ditch, I estimate that with the cover of the ditch, we could sneak past these patrol squads without a trace."
Mist, slightly irritable, said, "Still sneaking around? Honestly, if we keep going for a couple more days, even water will beco a problem."
He touched his water bottle.
This thing was seized from a corpse.
It was last night at nine o'clock when they had taken out one of the patrol squads and collected it from them.
These last few days, the three of them had survived solely by killing and looting.
They ate whatever the others had, drank whatever they grabbed.
In a place like the Persian Plateau, finding a water source is nearly impossible, not to ntion there was no ti to dig three feet into the ground in search.
"How much water do you have left?" asked Song Heping. "Is it half?"
Mist shook his head and said, "No, it's been too draining. When I got it last night, it was just over half a bottle. Now it's likely just a third."
"What about food?"
"There's still so food; two naans and so jerky. We can stretch it out for two days if we're careful."
Song Heping said, "I still have half a bottle of water and three naan breads."
He turned to Rabbani, "And you?"
"One bread, water..." Rabbani seed embarrassed. "The water's all gone..."
Song Heping sighed inwardly.
That was the difference between those who had and had not received survival training.
Both he and Mist would try to conserve their food and water as much as possible.
Rabbani wouldn't, he would certainly eat when he was hungry.
Song Heping couldn't always keep an eye on him.
This wasn't a training camp where he could supervise and instruct hands-on.
So he could only give a few reminders and not expect too much.
Mist said with disdain, "I've said it many tis, we're running for our lives. In this desolate place, try to drink less water and eat less food. If you're really hungry, eat just enough to fill your stomach, drink only enough to moisten your throat and keep from dehydrating. How can you be like a pig, voraciously eating whatever you see?"
"I..." Rabbani felt aggrieved and argued, "When I got them, it was just over half a bottle of water and two pieces of naan. We've been fleeing for almost two days now, is that too much to eat?!"
Mist snorted coldly.
He couldn't be bothered to explain further.
Sotis, Mist really wanted to shoot Rabbani; following him and Song Heping, he was just a drag.
Not good in combat, yet he ate a lot.
Song Heping noticed Mist's murderous intent and quickly said, "Let's go around as I said. It's safer that way."
"Fine... what else can we do?"
He looked ahead, pointing to the soldiers of the Revolutionary Brigade patrolling on the distant ridge, "Be careful with these twenty ters. If they look this way and observe carefully, they can spot us."
"It's just twenty ters, being careful we can crawl past in about a minute."
Song Heping turned to Rabbani, "Check your weapons and gear to see if anything is loose. If it's loose, secure it well. Hold onto your gun, and absolutely make no collision noise, understand?"
Rabbani nodded repeatedly.
He admired Song Heping greatly.
If it weren't for him, he probably wouldn't have even had the chance to get this far.
He didn't like Mist.
Mist was always arrogant and disdainful towards him.
Song Heping was much more patient, straightforward in dealing with matters, and never sarcastic.
Who treated him equally, Rabbani wasn't foolish, he could tell.
"I'll lead."
Song Heping was the first to crawl out.
He adopted a low, prone crawling motion, skimming across the ground like a lizard, zipping past without making a sound.
"You crawl first!"
Mist pushed Rabbani.
He had thought it through, letting Rabbani crawl last was obviously risky; if sothing happened midway, he really didn't know how to rescue him.
He might as well be the last one to cover the rear.
Fearing that the gun dragging on the ground would make a noise, Rabbani slung it on his back and, mimicking Song Heping, crept across the ground.
But he had not undergone formal training, and his imitation was but a clumsy attempt; not only was his movent awkward, Song Heping, seeing his butt sticking up, really wanted to give it a kick.
And wouldn't you know, what he worried about indeed happened.
It's like on the battlefield, the more afraid soone is of bullets, the more likely the bullets are to find them.
Rabbani had crawled over ten ters, still stuck in the middle, when suddenly Mist whispered, "Careful! Soone is looking this way."
Song Heping was startled and carefully peeked out.
Indeed, he saw one of the soldiers from the Revolutionary Brigade on the ridge turning around and walking towards them.
Rabbani lay on the ground, sweating bullets.
Looking from the ridge towards this place, he was undoubtedly exposed.
The only cover available was a few sparse clumps of wild grass.
This place was not like the tropical rainforest, where everywhere you turn there are grasses taller than a person; here, suitable hiding spots were limited to stones, mounds and ditches, with not many trees around either.
Song Heping saw that the man was still walking forward.
Rabbani, looking over at Song Heping more than ten ters away, said nervously, "Am I exposed..."
Song Heping shook his head, "No worries, he hasn't seen you. If he had, he would have shot by now."
Indeed, after walking a further dozen ters, the soldier reached the edge of a slope, where he unzipped his pants and started to relieve himself.
"He's just taking a leak..."
Song Heping breathed a sigh of relief.
He hadn't been mistaken.
The other man really hadn't seen Rabbani lying nearly two hundred ters away on the ground.
It seed God was on their side; the guy was facing away, relieving himself down the slope, so from afar one could still see his bare buttocks, which was quite disgusting.
If it wasn't to avoid exchanging fire, Song Heping really felt the impulse to shoot him in the buttocks just to see his reaction.
After this little episode, everything started to go smoothly.
Rabbani crawled into a ditch, followed by Mist.
No further trouble occurred.
This was a ditch about two ters deep created by rainwater, with a width of around a ter, making it very suitable for hiding.
Following the ditch downwards, they could make it to the opposite hillside.
By then, they had completely avoided being in the line of sight of the Revolutionary Brigade's squad on the ridge, enabling them to bypass them without anyone noticing.
They had passed another hurdle at least.
"Move faster!"
Song Heping, leading the way, jogged along the ditch with the three of them heading west.
Suddenly, Song Heping heard voices coming from ahead.
He instantly broke into a cold sweat.
People in the ditch?!
This was unexpected.
He imdiately raised his fist, signaling the others to stop.
Rabbani instinctively opened his mouth to ask what had happened, but thankfully Song Heping quickly covered his mouth with his hand, signaling him to keep quiet, then made several hand gestures to Mist, indicating there were people ahead.
Rabbani, nearly causing a disaster, was also scared witless; his eyes bulging, his chest heaving, and his heartbeat audibly intense.
Song Heping had initially intended to wait and see how things unfolded.
After all, judging by the direction from which the voices were coming, they were still about eight to ten ters away.
If the others were just passing by, it would be best to let them go.
But fate was not on their side.
The footsteps were heading this way, getting closer, accompanied by voices.
They were speaking Persian.
Song Heping could distinguish that much; after all, he had dealt with Avanti a fair number of tis and had so recollection of it.
But now the most difficult part was that there were Revolutionary Brigade patrols over a hundred ters away on the ridge, and here ca an unknown number of people.
Song Heping motioned for Mist to co over to him, pulled out a knife, and indicated they should use the knives.
After all, all their weapons were taken from dead bodies, lacking sophisticated items like silencers; only using knives could ensure silence.
But who could guarantee complete silence?
How many people were there?
If there were too many, knives wouldn't be quick enough.
There was no ti left for them to discuss further.
From each other's eyes, they all saw one word — kill!
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