บท 5: Chapter 5 Misfortunes Never Come Singly
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Gao Yang didn't want to reach an old age, unable to walk, regretting not having experienced more in his youth, but now, Gao Yang wished he were still at home, able to spend the rest of his life peacefully with his parents.
It was only now that Gao Yang truly understood a principle: guns aren't toys, they're weapons. The purpose of a gun's creation isn't for play, but for killing.
Gao Yang's desire to use a gun in Africa had been fulfilled, but at a rather painful cost. He had only wanted to do some target shooting, yet the result was the death of four living people. Moreover, he himself might also end up buried in the African plains, all because he wanted to play with a real gun.
For the first time, Gao Yang felt that banning guns might not be such a bad idea. Given the choice now, he would definitely choose to live in Huaxia, where there were no guns to play with, but where one didn't have to worry about being shot at any moment. It's only after losing something that people realize how precious it was.
Previously, he couldn't even bring himself to kill a chicken, but this time, he had killed several people, especially one who had died by his knife during a face-to-face confrontation. Although it didn't feel like much at the time, now that he had calmed down, Gao Yang felt sickened and terrified, but he was relieved that the dead were others and not him.
Killing was only for self-preservation. Gao Yang didn't regret the consequences of taking four lives. There's a Western saying that puts it well, "Better to face twelve jurors sitting down, than be carried by eight in a coffin."
However, coming to Africa was something Gao Yang regretted terribly. All he hoped for now was to be able to return home, to his parents.
Thinking of his parents gave Gao Yang the will to survive. He stopped wallowing in self-pity and started thinking about how to make it back home alive.
After calming down, Gao Yang felt it was essential to figure out exactly where he was, because he thought the situation in Ethiopia was fairly stable and shouldn't be experiencing such explosive gunfights.
Gao Yang tried to recall and didn't remember any reports of unrest in Ethiopia before he left his country. Naturally, he assumed that he must have encountered tribal vendettas. If that was the case, things might be better; as long as he could come across tourists or ordinary people, it would mean he was saved.
Gao Yang didn't have time to think more. Daylight was breaking, and he didn't dare stay in the same place for fear that the gunshots would attract his pursuers.
Starving to the point of fainting, Gao Yang was of course unwilling to waste his most readily available food. Although hyenas were scavengers and reeked, Gao Yang felt that if he could thoroughly cook the hyena meat, it would probably be edible.
Gao Yang couldn't take the entire hyena with him, nor did he dare to stay and make a fire, so he reluctantly used his knife to cut off the hyena's four legs, a task that wasn't easy for him. Just the sight of his blood-drenched hands was too much for him to bear.
When pushed to the limit, a person can do anything. Tying the bloody, stinky hyena legs with a rope and carrying them on his back, and taking a chopped tree branch as a walking stick, Gao Yang limped back onto his journey.
When leaving, Gao Yang still took that AK47 with him. After traveling a good distance, Gao Yang tossed the gun into a bush.
The gun without bullets was nothing but an added burden and danger to him. The reason Gao Yang carried the gun some distance before discarding it was to prevent his pursuers from knowing he was unarmed.
When the sun leapt above the horizon and it was fully bright, Gao Yang estimated that he had only covered two or three kilometers. This distance wasn't safe, and although he wanted to travel farther, the thirsty, hungry Gao Yang with a wound on his leg, had already displayed considerable determination by walking that far.
Gao Yang decided not to walk any further. Until he could eat something and drink water, he wouldn't take another step; otherwise, he feared he would collapse and lose the chance to ever stand up again.
After spotting a dead tree in the distance, Gao Yang felt as if he had found treasure. It was July, the rainy season in Africa, and it wasn't easy to find wood suitable for a fire on the plains, but a dead tree was undoubtedly a big help.
Shuffling under the tree, the excited Gao Yang was disheartened. From afar, the tree didn't look very big, but close up, he frustratingly found that although the tree was only seven or eight meters tall, the canopy was high above, with the lowest branch around six meters from the ground, like an open umbrella. The trunk was as thick as Gao Yang's waist.
If Gao Yang wanted branches, he'd have to cut down the entire tree, but sawing a large tree with a hunting knife was out of the question.
Finally reaching the tree and seeing so much potential firewood he couldn't use, Gao Yang was momentarily deflated. Fortunately, there were some fallen branches on the ground. While fewer in number, they were still enough for Gao Yang to grill and fill his stomach.
Gao Yang reluctantly used his walking stick to push aside the grass, searching and collecting branches. After a few steps, his eyes lit up as a branch as thick as his arm appeared before him in the underbrush.
Gao Yang had never imagined that he would one day be so excited to see a mere tree branch. He eagerly reached out to pick it up, but just as he lifted the branch off the ground, he felt a sharp pain in his left hand.
As soon as he felt the sting, Gao Yang immediately dropped the branch and leapt back. Then he saw a large brown snake coiled on the ground, its thick body disproportionate to its length. The upper half of the snake was raised in an 'S' shape towards Gao Yang, and it hissed at him.
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Gao Yang looked at his bitten left hand, the wound was on the edge of his palm, and seeing the two large fang marks, his mind went blank for a moment. He reproached himself, remembering not to randomly turn over stones and rotten wood on the grassland because poisonous snakes could be hiding underneath. How could he have made such a critical and deadly mistake?
But soon, Gao Yang snapped back to his senses. Driven by rage, Gao Yang lifted his right hand holding the cane and slammed it down hard on the part of the snake's body just below its head. After smashing the snake to the ground, Gao Yang pinned the snake's head down with the stick and, stepping on it, he drew his knife and chopped off the snake's head.
Gao Yang felt he couldn't possibly survive, and his killing of the snake was just an act of fury, but after decapitating the snake, Gao Yang suddenly felt he shouldn't give up just like that.
As he frantically recalled what to do after being bitten by a poisonous snake, Gao Yang fumbled through his waist bag for a paracord. Then, with all his might, he wound the paracord around his left wrist. Biting one end with his teeth, he tied a knot with his other hand.
In just a brief moment, Gao Yang felt an unbearable pain at the wound in his palm, and blood had already begun to seep out. Not daring to delay, Gao Yang rubbed the hunting knife, still covered with snake blood from the severed head, forcefully against his body. Then, gritting his teeth, he used the tip of the knife to slash down hard on the fang marks at the edge of his palm.
The cut Gao Yang gave himself was too vicious, the blade reaching the bone, causing him to howl in agonizing pain while he slashed two more times across the fang marks.
As fresh blood began to spray from the palm of his left hand, Gao Yang trembled from the pain, but seeing the wound swelling up and the blood ceasing to flow, he knew he had to suck out the blood with his mouth.
Using your mouth to suck out venom would only hasten death if you had bleeding gums, and unfortunately, Gao Yang had a chronic problem with his gums bleeding. Yet in extreme agony, instead of losing his mind, Gao Yang's brain worked faster than usual in this life-or-death situation.
The condoms in Gao Yang's waist bag now came into play. He had originally prepared condoms in his PSK (Personal Survival Kit) to collect water, but now, the condoms had a more significant use.
Gao Yang tore open a condom, then put it over his hand. Next, he brought his hand to his mouth, preparing to suck the blood through the condom so the venom wouldn't enter his mouth.
Sadly, this was Gao Yang's first time using a condom. Holding his hand with the condom to his mouth, Gao Yang had a ridiculous thought cross his mind.
"Damn it, people use condoms for pleasure, and here I am using a condom for the first time just to stay alive. Others use it on a woman, but damn it, I'm tasting the damn condom myself. Hell, I might as well die."
Although he was filled with rage, Gao Yang still forcefully sucked the venomous blood. His efforts had some effect, but soon, no more blood flowed from the wound.
Seeing his left hand swelling into the size of a steamed bun, Gao Yang suddenly remembered something. If he kept his left hand tied up with the paracord for too long, the lack of blood supply combined with the venom's effect would quickly lead to the death of his limb. If he couldn't amputate, it was still a dead-end.
Having no choice, Gao Yang loosened the paracord tied around his wrist. After the palm's blood supply was restored, he again sucked out the venom with force. He waited a while and then tied his wrist up again with the paracord, repeating this process over and over.
Severe pain, excessive blood loss, the effects of snake venom, combined with exhaustion, Gao Yang felt increasingly dizzy and began to see stars.
Fearing he would lose consciousness and fail to loosen the constricting paracord in time, Gao Yang untied the paracord. Then he tore open another condom and tied it around his wrist. The elastic condom partially prevented the snake venom from spreading to his heart and body while also maintaining blood supply to his left hand.
Gao Yang didn't know what species had bitten him; he only knew it wasn't a cobra. Moreover, Gao Yang didn't know whether his actions were right or wrong, but he had no choice but to throw everything he knew at the problem.
Wondering if he had overlooked anything in his measures, Gao Yang suddenly remembered an issue—the blade of his hunting knife had been used to dismember a hyena, a scavenger teeming with bacteria and viruses.
Not dying from the snake's venom only to be killed by a hunting knife contaminated with bacteria from a hyena would be a terrible outcome. Gao Yang felt a chill over his body, but fortunately, his medical kit always contained antibiotics, no matter what.
Gao Yang's medical bag was tiny, but it was full of essentials: antibiotics, antimalarial drugs, medicine for treating diarrhea, insect repellent—and due to space limitations, he had only a small amount of each. This time, his antibiotics were put to use.
Gao Yang took out all the antibiotics from the waterproof vial, opened all the packets, with a total of sixteen pills of various types. Without thinking twice, he threw all the pills into his mouth and swallowed hard. Although he knew this wasn't good, very, very bad, in fact, he was more worried that he wouldn't even have the chance to take the medicine at all.
As Gao Yang was stretching his neck, rolling his eyes back, and struggling to swallow the pills, his blurry vision seemed to catch a glimpse of several people running towards him.
The first thing Gao Yang thought of was that his pursuers had finally caught up with him, which startled him. He rose from the ground and, after a dizzy spell, he took a closer look and indeed saw four people running toward him.
Gao Yang couldn't hold on any longer and fell backward into unconsciousness. Just before he blacked out, he thought, "Anyway, I'm probably going to die, so let it be."
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