Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 389 Sensing the Crisis

Xu Xiaoyan yawned, stood up from the sofa, slipped on her slippers, walked into the cave, and collapsed onto the bed.

The cool, silk mat against my back felt wonderfully refreshing. The hollow was so quiet that only the faint sound of rain outside and my own heartbeat could be heard.

I feel like I've overlooked something, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

She turned over, pulled the thin blanket up to her chin, and thought groggily, "Oh well, if I can't remember, it probably isn't anything important. I'll just go to sleep."

She was awakened by thunder in the middle of the night, and a bolt of lightning struck down.

White light squeezed in through the gaps in the plastic sheeting, leaving a blinding streak on the recessed wall, followed by a thunderclap that shook the entire sinkhole.

Xu Xiaoyan first felt cold; the temperature drop brought by the torrential rain made the temperature inside the cave more than ten degrees lower than during the day.

The thin blanket wasn't enough, and then I heard the sound of rain. The rain not only didn't stop, but it got even heavier than before I went to bed.

Xu Xiaoyan sat up abruptly, the thin blanket slipping down to her waist. Her eyes widened in shock. She finally remembered what she had forgotten! She had forgotten that she was in a low-lying sinkhole!

What is a sinkhole? A sinkhole is formed by the collapse of underground rivers in limestone areas.

When she first entered through the cave, the passage led downwards, all the way down to the giant salamander pool, and then upwards to the sinkhole.

In short, she is now at a lower elevation than the cave entrance, the ground outside, and everything else in the vicinity.

All rainwater flows downhill, so where does it flow? It flows into this sinkhole, of course!

Moreover, if the heavy rain continues, the groundwater level will keep rising.

That's not the scariest part. The scariest part is the giant salamander pool in the cave and the bottomless deep pool, which are connected to an underground river.

The water level of the underground river follows the surface water level. When there is heavy rain, the water level of the underground river will rise, and the water will overflow from the pool and flow out through the channel.

The passage she came in through went all the way down, and water would flow along the passage and into the sinkhole.

The sinkhole itself collects rainwater, and with the water gushing out from the cave, she would be trapped in the sinkhole and unable to get out.

The overall shape of the passage was a "V" shape. No, that's not right. She drew the topographical map in her mind again.

From the cave entrance to the giant salamander pool, the path she took was generally downwards. Although there were some undulations along the way, the general direction was always downwards, all the way to the giant salamander pool, which has the lowest elevation.

In short, the underground cave is V-shaped. The sinkhole she is currently in is located in the upper left of the V, the cave entrance is in the upper right of the V, and the giant salamander pool is at the bottom of the V.

If she continues to hide in the sinkhole, the water levels in the giant salamander pool and the deep pool will continue to rise, and water will overflow from both pools.

Meanwhile, rainwater was continuously pouring into the sinkhole.

When water from two directions converges, it turns the lowest point of the cave into a huge reservoir.

By then, she would either have to dive out or wait for the sinkhole to fill to the top before she could escape.

Diving out? She's not a diver. That cave passage is so long and winding. How far could she swim if she held her breath?

Moreover, it was pitch black underwater, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, and she couldn't find her way at all.

Wait until the water reaches the top of the sinkhole? The cliffs of the sinkhole are 60 to 70 meters high. How much rainwater would be needed to fill it to that height?

Even if it rains heavily, it won't be able to fill the water completely in ten days or half a month.

Neither option seemed realistic, so she decided to hurry up and leave.

Xu Xiaoyan rolled out of bed, her bare feet touching the cold floor. She stood there barefoot for a second before pulling back to find her slippers.

After putting on her slippers, she took out a thick raincoat from her storage space, put it on, and immediately began to organize her things.

She packed everything into her space, including silk mats, pillows, thin blankets, solid wood bed boards, electric fans, sofas, induction cookers, pots, seasonings, and even a bamboo shed.

After all, it took her several days to build this thing, and if she went to another place, she might not even be able to find the raw materials.

She stood in the hollow, ready to set off, when a thought suddenly flashed through her mind: what should she do if the downpour didn't stop?

The ground will likely become muddy, low-lying areas will flood, rivers and streams will swell, and there may even be flash floods and landslides.

During heavy rain, higher ground is much safer than lower ground; the best way is to go to the mountains.

There is no water accumulation on the mountain, and the view is wide open, so you can observe the surrounding situation at any time and detect any abnormalities in time.

If possible, it's best to find a natural cave. If there isn't a cave, find a recessed area in the rock wall.

She then continued using the shed she had built earlier, which still contained plenty of water and food, enough to last her a long time.

But a problem arises: what if we get blocked by a major river halfway there?

Heavy rain can cause rivers to swell, turning small streams that can be waded through into raging torrents, and low-lying areas that can be bypassed into vast expanses of water.

Her space contained only lifebuoys and inflatable boats, the kind used for swimming pools or calm lakes.

It's useless in the rapids; one wrong move and you'll capsize. She can't rely on those things; she has to think of another way.

Xu Xiaoyan's gaze fell on the thick bamboo. The bamboo was hollow and had great buoyancy; several bamboos tied together could be made into a simple bamboo raft.

Although bamboo rafts are bulky, they are much more stable than inflatable boats and are not afraid of being scratched by rocks. Even if they fall apart in rapids, each bamboo stalk can be used as a float.

If she needs to cross a river later, she can take out bamboo from her space, quickly make a bamboo raft, cross the river, and then put it back into her space, without delaying her journey at all.

Even if there was no need to cross the river, these bamboos would surely be useful in other ways, so she quickly took out an axe and began to chop them down.

The bamboo forest was located in the southeast corner of the sinkhole. She rushed into the bamboo forest through the mud, found the thickest bamboo, aimed at the base, and chopped it down with an axe.

Rainwater flowed down the axe handle, her hand slipped, and the second axe blow went astray, only cutting off a small piece of bamboo skin.

She gritted her teeth, changed her angle, gripped the axe handle tightly with both hands, and used all her strength.

With one, two, three blows, the bamboo broke and slowly fell to the ground, its crown splashing up mud and water.

Xu Xiaoyan didn't stop pruning; she directly put the entire bamboo, branches and leaves, into her spatial storage, then moved on to the next one, and the next one after that.

She chopped away diligently, storing each felled tree directly into her space without wasting a single second.