Chapter 828: The Alpha
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
From the surface, Li Du asked, "Marcos, do you see the tube?"
Marcos, who was crying from being shaken, said anxiously, "See it." Cough cough. "I see it. Help me mate, help me get out!"
When faced with death, no one would be able to accept it calmly, especially after seeing hope.
Li Du responded, "Calm down, you are not in any danger. Now, we will send you milk through this tube. Drink some warm milk and remain conscious. Don't overthink. We will get you soon."
"Could you hurry up? Mate, who are you? Could you quickly get me out?" Marcos asked immediately after.
Due to being separated by a thick layer of rock, it was strenuous for them to speak to each other. As their voices were greatly dispersed, it was not possible to figure out the identity of the person talking.
Li Du shouted, "Wait for a while, Aubrey is also in there. As he has yet to make a sound, we are worried that he has passed out, so we need to save him first."
After a brief moment of silence, Marcos's muffled voice could be heard. "Alright alright, save Aubrey first. He should be to the east of me. Do you need me to help with anything?"
Hearing his words, it was inevitable that Li Du would look up to him. To be able to still love and be loyal to his miners while facing such adversity, Marcos was a great person.
After Li Du said a few more comforting words to Marcos, he brought Ali over and ordered it to bite on a tube, burrow back into the tunnel, and look for Aubrey, who was unconscious.
Aubrey was in much worse condition. He was unconscious. Furthermore, as Li Du did not know the reason why he was unconscious or the exact condition that he was in, he could only try his best.
A miner asked anxiously, "Since you have confirmed his location, why didn't you quickly act and dig him out?"
Li Du explained calmly, "Don't be hasty. Aubrey is clearly unconscious, or else he would not keep quiet. What are we going to do if we act rashly and cause a second collapse?"
In a dejected manner, someone said, "He isn't making any sound. Could it be that he is not unconscious but…"
Even though he did not say his speculation out loud, everyone knew what it was.
Li Du looked at him with a stern gaze and said, "Don't talk nonsense. That rascal Aubrey is unconscious. Quickly, get the ventilator over here and connect the tube to it!"
Since Aubrey was unconscious, sending him milk was obviously useless. They had to give him oxygen instead.
Ali brought the tube over. After one end of the tube was connected to a large gap, the ventilator began blowing into it with a woo woo sound, sending air underground via the tube.
At this moment, Li Du commanded the others to start excavating the tunnel.
While investigating the situation underground through the little bug, Li Du directed the others on how to dig and how to avoid the areas that could lead to a second collapse.
Although the progress was relatively slow in this way, everything that was done was safe and efficient.
Fortunately, Aubrey woke up midway through the process.
It was likely that he had been hit on the head by a rock and knocked out. After having rested and having received fresh oxygen through the tube, he gradually began to wake up.
When he woke up, he first spoke a few nonsensical sentences before realizing the situation he was in and exclaiming from underground, "Oh d*mn it, oh mother f*ck. No no no, I don't want to die down here!
"Please save me, God. Mother Mary, I don't want to die, I still have to feed my family. I don't want to die!
"Get me out, I beg you guys. Put in more effort and get me out!"
Annoyed, one of the miners bellowed, "Shut up, Aubrey. Save your energy! Just be quiet and wait if you want to survive. Don't waste your energy!"
After they had spent approximately an hour excavating, the firefighters finally arrived with rescue operation equipment.
Since Lightning Ridge was surrounded by mines, there were multiple tunnel collapse incidents occurring daily. As such, the fire department had the necessary equipment for rescue operations. Currently, the aid that had arrived was a team of fully equipped elite rescuers.
After they arrived, they immediately waved their hands to chase Li Du and the others away and shouted, "What are you guys doing? Didn't we tell you guys on the phone? Don't do anything reckless!"
As Li Du had found Marcos and Aubrey, and had performed outstandingly in directing the miners, he had won some of the rugged miners' hearts.
They felt the firefighter's words were unfair to Li Du. A bald, burly man bellowed, "F*ck you! Don't do anything reckless? If we did not f*cking do anything and just waited for you guys, those two men underground would have long been dead!"
"Don't yell at Li Du. He found our friends and sent them milk and air! You better respect him, he is the alpha here!"
Li Du waved his hand. "Ok, ok, calm down guys. Let the professionals handle matters that require specialized skills. We need to trust them. Follow me, follow me over here!"
A firefighter, who was wearing a pair of sunglasses, asked, "Already found the survivors? Confirmed their locations?"
Li Du replied, "Yes, they are both conscious at this time. You guys can communicate with them."
As there was no need to search for the survivors, the firefighter said in a displeased manner, "Why didn't you say so on the phone? We even spent the effort to bring an infrared life detector, a sonar life detector…"
Hearing his words, the miners immediately became enraged.
The bald burly man rushed over with a pickaxe in hand and bellowed, "Listen to yourself! What are you doing exactly?"
Brother Wolf held him back and said, "Holiday, calm down, calm down!"
Realizing that what he had said was a little over the line, the firefighter changed the subject and told his partner, "Release the Snake Eyes, investigate the terrain inside, and come up with a rescue plan!"
"Snake Eyes" was a type of search device and was formally called an optical life detector. With a flexible main body, the Snake Eyes was able to, like the PVC pipes used in sewage plumbing, move freely through the rubble.
The front of the device had a small, thin probe that could get into tiny gaps, inspect its surroundings, and, like a camera, transmit signals back to a computer as a high definition image.
After the device had successfully entered the tunnel, all that was left was for it to follow the PVC tube.
Seeing Aubrey's large face on the screen, a few of the miners cheered and high-fived one another. One of the miners was so happy that he cried.
As the miners had been doing monotonous mining work in dangerous places day in, day out, they had become more than ordinary colleagues and had a military-like camaraderie between them.
After the locations of the survivors were confirmed, the firefighters began rescuing them using specialized equipment and tools.
The firefighters used a hydraulic shear cutter to sever the connection between some of the rocks before raising large hoisting equipment to move the rocks away. Afterward, the firefighters also took out and used tools such as a hydraulic jack, forcible entry tool, spreader, and shears.
Subsequently, the local hospital sent an ambulance over, and two stretchers and a first-aid bench were carried down from it. In preparation to render first-aid, two paramedics speedily prepared splints and first-aid medications.
After working until the evening meticulously carrying out rescue operations, the first hole was dug open, and Aubrey was hoisted out by the large hoisting equipment...