"Quick! Hold on to the rope!"
Song Heping tied the group into a centipede formation with the rope, then broke the last remaining glow stick and held it in his hand: "If you get blown away, head here immediately!"
The glow stick emitted a red light in the sandstorm.
He recalled encountering a quicksand trap during extreme survival training in the Taklamakan Desert years ago. The last thing left on the sand surface from his swallowed comrade was a right hand clutching a compass.
Antonov was cursing the sandstorm in Russian, but soon his voice was drowned by the sound of the wind and sand.
The sand underfoot suddenly came to life, like water gradually inundating several people's ankles, knees...
Song Heping wanted to remind everyone not to let the sand bury them, to withdraw their hands and feet from the sand before it reached their chests, or it would be too late to escape.
The sandstorm didn't last very long.
After a full hour, it suddenly dissipated like the ebbing tide.
In the dry river bed, a few people were crouched quietly against the weathered rock walls like sealed sand people.
"Cough cough cough—"
Song Heping's violent coughing broke the silence.
Shaking off the half-kilogram of sand from his dust mask, he immediately looked around.
"Antonov!"
"Sara!"
"Jiang Feng!"
The three were missing.
Only sand surrounded him.
Song Heping hurriedly began to dig through the sand beside him.
"Suka!"
A large furry hand emerged from a pile of sand.
Antonov was the first to drill his way out of the sand.
"Ptui, ptui, ptui—"
He tried to spit out the sand in his mouth but it was dry; the yellow sand sprayed out like mist.
Song Heping found something in the sand and pulled hard, dragging Jiang Feng out.
"Jiang Feng!"
He quickly brushed the dust off Jiang Feng's face.
The dust on Jiang Feng's face fell off, his breath blowing onto Song Heping's hand.
He was still alive.
Song Heping's heart relaxed.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine..."
Jiang Feng snorted twice forcefully, spraying out the sand from inside.
"Almost suffocated, damn it..."
"Where's Sara?!"
Song Heping suddenly remembered the only woman in the group.
"Damn!"
He quickly turned and started digging in the sand.
Of all the people, Sara was the only one injured and the weakest.
Upon hearing this, Antonov also came over to help.
The group worked together frantically to dig through the sand, finally finding the barely breathing Sara.
"Damn, she's not breathing."
Jiang Feng checked for breath.
He felt nothing.
Song Heping placed his hand under Sara's nose; indeed, she wasn't breathing.
He immediately pressed his hand on Sara's carotid artery.
There was still a faint pulse.
"There's still hope!"
Saying this, he dragged Sara out and laid her flat on the ground, then began performing CPR.
"I'm giving her mouth-to-mouth!"