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 meters 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 doomed."
Mist stroked his stubble, frowning in thought for a moment 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 meters 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 become 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 mention there was no time 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 some food; two naans and some 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 seemed 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 times, 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.
Sometimes, 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 meters. If they look this way and observe carefully, they can spot us."
"It's just twenty meters, being careful we can crawl past in about a minute."