Die on Mars - Chapter 258

c255 Day 342 (5) The first game of 2053

Tang Yue pulled his left foot out of the sand and took a tentative step forward to confirm that there was solid ground under the sand. Tang Yue tried to step firmly on it, but the quicksand immediately submerged his calf. Tang Yue could see everything. No, there may be flat ground or a pit under the sand, so be careful every step you take.

“Are you going in the right direction?” Tang Yue stopped to rest, panting.

“As long as you keep a straight line, you’ll be fine.” The old cat moved on his back.

“Why are you squirming all the time?” Tang Yue turned around, “You are very heavy, you know? As a cat, you have the weight of a pig.”

“I’m generating heat through friction. Didn’t you tell me to do this?” The old cat was rubbing his hands and feet fiercely. “I don’t know if you are walking in a straight line. I told you that it is difficult for humans to keep a constant direction in the dark. If it doesn’t change, you may drift to the left unconsciously. I can’t see anything and I can’t determine the direction for you.”

“Move to the left… Okay, I will pay attention, I will pay attention.” Tang Yue lifted the old cat up behind him. It was very inconvenient to carry the Mingguang Armor, because there is also a life support system. This made Tang Yue’s hands not long enough, “My current stride length is also 0.4 meters. Since I carried you on my back, I have walked 2,123 steps… 2,123 steps In four steps, we walked a total of 1,450 meters.”

“Can you still hold on?”

“It’s not bad.” Tang Yue nodded. He lowered his head and walked forward step by step. Without the old cat to guide him, Tang Yue had no choice but to go up on his own. “When I was on earth, I could walk easily. I ran five kilometers without losing breath… Now there are only two kilometers left, so it’s not a problem, it’s not a problem.”

Before he could finish his sentence, Tang Yue’s body suddenly tilted. He stepped on something unknown with his right foot and lost his balance. He staggered and almost fell.

“Tang Yue?”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Tang Yue took a step across to adjust his center of gravity, subconsciously grasped the old cat with both hands, and took a deep breath, “Let’s keep moving forward.”

He tried his best to ensure that the direction remained unchanged, but Tang Yue himself knew that this could not be guaranteed. He stumbled along the way, and he didn’t know how many somersaults he fell. If the old cat hadn’t remembered it, Tang Yue would have been dizzy long ago. .

“Two thousand one hundred and twenty-eight steps.”

“Two thousand one hundred and twenty-nine steps.”

“Two thousand…one hundred and thirty steps.”

Tang Yue glanced at the time. The current time was 11:33 in the morning. It took them two and a half hours to walk the distance of more than a thousand meters. In order to save power, Tang Yue reduced the heat preservation power of the Mingguang Armor to the minimum. His limbs were numb from the cold, and his toes were almost frozen off.

The thermometer shows that the outside temperature has dropped to minus 79 degrees Celsius, and is still falling rapidly. It is about to fall below minus 80 degrees Celsius. The dust storm has completely cut off all sunlight. In this case, the surface temperature will drop to a considerable Terrible.

“Are you cold?” Tang Yue asked, “Your broken spacesuit cannot be heated. If I had known earlier, I should have kept an extravehicular work suit at Kunlun Station, just like the Z-9 on the space station.”

“I am more resistant to freezing than the average person, and I can still withstand this temperature.” The old cat closed its eyes and huddled behind Tang Yue. The wind and sand were blowing in the face, so Tang Yue’s body helped it block most of the strong wind. “The Z-series extravehicular suit is bulkier than the Mingguang Armor. You can’t walk in that kind of thing.”

Tang Yue nodded.

“The battery may be overwhelmed if the temperature is too low.”

“I have an isotope battery with very low power. Its main function is to ensure the normal operation of the main battery.” The old cat said, “In other words, I have a heart that generates heat.”

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12:40pm.

“Three thousand five hundred and seven steps.”

Tang Yue took this step and gasped for air.

He put the old cat down and sat down on the ground, exhausted.

“I’ve never been this tired after running two five-kilometer runs… Damn it.” Tang Yue moved his five fingers. His five fingers no longer obeyed his orders. The Mingguang Armor’s battery still had half of its power left. “Two thousand It’s almost half a mile away, and there’s still more than one kilometer left to go…Old cat, can you confirm the direction?”

The old cat sat curled up next to him. It seemed that the temperature was too low and it had to find a way to maintain its internal temperature.

The number on the thermometer stayed at minus 89 degrees Celsius. This temperature has exceeded the lowest temperature in the history of the earth. Without the Mingguang Armor, Tang Yue could not survive for more than a minute when exposed to the outside air.

“Go straight,” said the old cat, “keep going.”

“I have no feeling in my toes.” Tang Yue leaned forward and pinched his feet. “It feels like a stone. I feel like I can break it off.”

“Is the Mingguang Armor still working normally?” Old Cat asked.

“The Mingguang Armor is in normal condition.”

“Where are the batteries and oxygen?” the old cat asked again.

“It’s still enough.” Tang Yue coughed a few times, bit the drinking tube, drank the last bit of fresh water in the water bag, and then got up from the ground, “Get up, it’s time to go, let’s move on. Walk.”

“Aren’t you going to rest again?”

“We don’t have that much time. There is still more than a kilometer to go. Every second you delay will make you lose a second.” Tang Yue mustered up all his strength to carry the old cat on his back. “And the more I rest, the more tired I become. If I sit down like this, it will be really hard for me.” I can’t walk anymore… You know those mountain climbers, right? They can’t stop on the way up or down the mountain, and they will freeze to death if they stop.”

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2pm sharp.

Tang Yue walked staggeringly on the sand. Every step forward seemed like he was about to fall, but he immediately stood firm. The sand had already buried his knees. Tang Yue had long lost track of how many steps he had taken. , it may be 4,500 steps, or it may be 4,600 steps. He no longer calculates the distance forward. As long as the direction is correct, he will see his destination sooner or later.

“Tang Yue, can you still hold on?”

“Yes.” Tang Yue nodded, “How far have we gone?”

“Two thousand seven hundred meters.” Old Cat replied, “There is less than one thousand meters left.”

“Okay… okay… there is less than a thousand meters left.” Tang Yue’s throat was hoarse, his throat was so dry that it was smoking, and it took a lot of effort to speak every word.

Tang Yue could no longer feel the existence of his limbs. The Mingguang Armor was as cold as an ice cave. Even so, it was still nearly 90 degrees Celsius higher than the outside temperature. The outside temperature continued to drop in the past two hours. Now It has dropped to minus ninety degrees Celsius.

Tang Yue’s brain was unable to communicate with his hands and feet. The extreme low temperature and fatigue froze everything to death, including Tang Yue’s brain. He seemed to be a robot with no thinking and no memory. There was only one program going back and forth in his mind – walking. , go forward, keep going forward.

The brain cannot convey any instructions to the body and limbs, but the legs are still stepping forward mechanically. I don’t know where the strength comes from, like a conditioned reflex.

“Tang Yue, your condition is not very good. Do you want to stop and rest?”

“No…no need, time is running out.”

Tang Yue coughed violently. He began to have chest tightness and shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, and burning pain in his lungs. His throat was blocked by thick saliva. He wanted to cough but couldn’t, and even if he wanted to swallow, he couldn’t. Mingguang Kai’s life monitoring system kept When the alarm was called, Tang Yue’s heart rate remained high and his heart beat violently. It had exceeded a hundred times a minute and was still rising.

The old cat raised the small emergency light in his hand, and the light illuminated the dust and sand in the airflow.

“Tang Yue.”

“Um?”

“Look, it’s snowing.”

“Snow?” Tang Yue raised his head, and sure enough he saw flying white ice crystals in the light. I don’t know when, the wind and sand were mixed with snowflakes, and they fell on the mask glass and shoulders of the Mingguang Armor. They stayed there for a long time. A thin layer quickly accumulates.

“These are dry ice snowflakes. The atmospheric temperature has dropped below the freezing point of carbon dioxide.” The old cat also raised his head and said softly, “So they have solidified and crystallized.”

This is the first snow on Mars’ Ixidi Plain in the year 2053 of the Earth’s calendar, at the turn of spring and summer, during a long dark night.

“It’s snowing… It’s snowing. Okay, we can build a snowman… have a snowball fight…”

Tang Yue muttered nonsense unconsciously. He crossed the top of the sand dune and was about to go downhill when his feet suddenly went soft. This time he didn’t have time to stabilize his balance because his brain and limbs were extremely slow. Tang Yue fell to the ground in a daze. His cheek hit the mask of Mingguang Armor, making stars pop out of his eyes. At the same time, he threw the old cat behind him, and one person and one cat rolled down the sand dune until they reached the bottom of the slope.

“Tang Yue! Tang Yue! Tang Yue, where are you? Can you hear me?”

The old cat was also stunned. It shook off the sand on its body, held up an emergency light, got up and shouted, it and Tang Yue were separated. There might only be a few meters between the cat and the human, but they couldn’t see each other. other side.

“Can…can…” Tang Yue’s voice was weak.

“Can you see the light in my hand?” the old cat asked.

“Yes.” Tang Yue turned on the light inside the Mingguang Armor mask, and a white light lit up in the darkness a few meters away from the old cat.

“Tang Yue, how are you doing?” The old cat fumbled and found Tang Yue, who was lying motionless on the sand. “How are you doing?”

“My situation may not be good.” Tang Yue breathed heavily and whispered, “Old cat… I… I feel so uncomfortable…”

The old cat helped him up, “What’s wrong with you?”

Tang Yue was panting violently, his face was pale, as if he was suffering from some sudden illness, his mouth was wide open, his eyes were wide open, his expression was distorted, “I can’t breathe, I…I…”

The old cat was startled.

Tang Yue raised his hand to scratch his throat, but the Mingguang Armor’s mask blocked him. Tang Yue could only reach out and grab the old cat’s shoulder tightly, and with his other hand, he pulled hard on the Mingguang Armor, as if he wanted to tear it apart. Enlightened and armored, the young man’s eyes showed fear and helplessness, and the muscles all over his body began to twitch painfully.

“Old…old cat…help me, I can’t breathe, help me…”

Tears overflowed from Tang Yue’s eyes. He used all his strength to hold on to the old cat, his fingers digging into the fibers of the cabin suit.

“Tang Yue! Tang Yue?”

“me……”

Tang Yue could no longer make any sound. The strength in his hands gradually faded away, the expression on his face suddenly solidified, and his pupils began to dilate.

Mingguang Kai’s life monitoring system made a beeping sound.

Tang Yue’s hand fell to the ground and stopped breathing.