The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 568 - 561 Water

Chapter 568: Chapter 561 Water

In this soul-shaking moment, You Zixing hadn’t even noticed when the enemy’s artillery fire had stopped.

But the rumble of cannon fire was still audible.

After being shocked for a moment, You Zixing eventually gathered his wits and then squatted on the ground, whispering softly, "It can’t really be... playing dead, can it..."

After uttering the term "playing dead" again, You Zixing paused for a moment and then harshly slapped his own face, immediately following with a whisper, "It can’t be the last rally... damn it!"

You Zixing then slapped himself hard on the mouth once more, because he felt that today he couldn’t even speak properly.

"Nemesis, hold on, say something, man, hang in there..."

With no further response, You Zixing was stunned for a moment before he once again placed his hand over Gao Yuan’s chest, waiting for a moment only to discover that Gao Yuan’s heartbeat seemed to have stopped.

Could it really be the last rally?

You Zixing swallowed hard and placed his hand once more on Gao Yuan’s chest, this time leaving it there longer. Then, he finally felt another heartbeat.

The heartbeat was very faint, but still there.

You Zixing wondered if he should perform CPR on Gao Yuan or even add artificial respiration?

But should he really do it? You Zixing was really afraid that after his actions, he might completely stop Gao Yuan’s faint heartbeat.

Gao Yuan hadn’t drowned, nor had a heart attack; he had been burnt by fire, injured by the blast wave of the explosion.

You Zixing frantically recalled the emergency first aid knowledge he had learned, considering the damage that a blast wave could cause.

Touching Gao Yuan’s body, You Zixing could determine that it was skin tissue, without the remnants of clothing that had melted on the skin, which meant he must have been very close to the explosion, his clothes completely torn and ripped off by the blast wave.

Then, what damage could a blast wave cause? It could blast hot air and dust into the airway, causing mucosal injury and blockage, which aligned with Gao Yuan’s condition.

A blast wave could also lead to concussions of the heart and lungs, contused lungs, ruptured lungs, ruptured liver or spleen, skull fractures, cerebral contusions, intracranial hemorrhages, tympanic membrane perforations, hemotympanum, and ruptured eyeballs.

You Zixing assessed Gao Yuan’s earlier reactions; complete tympanic membrane perforation? This couldn’t be determined from Gao Yuan’s previous actions, but it was almost certain—given the extent of his injuries, it would be strange if his ears weren’t deaf.

The eyes. You Zixing wanted to lift Gao Yuan’s eyelid, but as he gently touched it, what seemed to be an intact eyelid fell off.

You Zixing spoke with an extremely ashamed and panicked tone, "I didn’t mean to..."

So, concussions of the heart and lungs, contused lungs, ruptured lungs... these seemed to be present as well.

Forget it, no need for further assessment—You Zixing realized that Gao Yuan was now an intact porcelain doll that had actually been shaken to its core. To perform CPR on him now would be to take his life.

With both explosives and a great fire and still holding on until now, although death was certain, You Zixing sincerely felt he was witnessing the birth of a hero, an extraordinary one.

The artillery fire was incredibly intense; though it was far away, the non-stop explosions made it clear that this was the artillery of the Solar System.

Only the Solar System, only the Uranus Troops, were willing and tirelessly pursued the outdated heavy artillery.

Of course, outdated is a word from before the apocalypse. Under the threat of aerial strikes, heavy artillery indeed gradually lost its aura as the god of war. But now, heavy artillery was the god of war.

Moreover, the Uranus Troops had six truck-mounted howitzers, the SH-1 type 155mm truck howitzers, and four PLZ-45 self-propelled howitzers. They were second-hand goods from Shah, purchased through Ram; at least eighty percent new. It was said they were bought, but You Zixing had heard they might have been captured at that time.

Both types of guns had the same caliber, and they both had one great advantage: with base bleed projectiles, they could reach a range of 40 kilometers, and with rocket-assisted projectiles, they could hit targets 53 kilometers away.

The enemy’s artillery, however, didn’t have such long range, no matter the caliber of their guns.

The Uranus Troops were using the range advantage of their artillery to suppress the enemy quite successfully, as the enemy’s artillery was now silent. The fact that no more shells were falling around You Zixing was clear evidence of that.

You Zixing knew that Uranus had brought out their trump cards because ordinary ammunition was easy to come by, but for each special round fired, one less remained. And now, with such intense artillery battles, it would be impossible not to use special rounds.

This meant that rescue was coming soon, so all he had to do was to wait patiently here, since there was nothing else he could do anyway.

With that in mind, You Zixing simply sat down next to Gao Yuan.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to move Gao Yuan to a safer place; You Zixing was afraid that any movement might cause Gao Yuan to die immediately.

After sitting quietly for a moment, You Zixing suddenly realized that there was still something he could do: at least find some water. If Gao Yuan was really going to die, he should at least have a drink of water before passing.

Even if Gao Yuan could no longer drink water, finding some to moisten his lips would do. He couldn’t just do nothing and watch him die.

So You Zixing really started crawling, trying to find some water for Gao Yuan.

Generally speaking, whether a special forces soldier or not, one would definitely have a water bottle, and as long as conditions permitted, it would usually be full. Any soldier would know the agony of thirst without any water to drink.

But to reduce the load during the flight, You Zixing hadn’t brought his water bottle. His comrades wouldn’t have brought theirs either, so now he could only hope to find one on the enemy.

You Zixing crawled forward at a particularly fast pace, reaching an enemy corpse. And indeed, he saw a canteen on the body.

With the weighty canteen in hand, You Zixing crawled quickly back and, resisting the urge to take a sip for himself first, he opened the canteen and whispered to Gao Yuan, "Comrade, have some water..."

You Zixing poured the water down, into Gao Yuan’s open mouth, until it overflowed.

If the water spilled out, it meant Gao Yuan couldn’t swallow; simply put, he could no longer drink.

You Zixing began to feel that his actions were too rash and worried that his behavior might cause Gao Yuan to choke. So he decided to try to remove the water from Gao Yuan’s mouth.

But just then, a miracle happened again. Gao Yuan’s mouth moved, and the water inside it quickly disappeared; he swallowed it down, then even coughed softly twice.

You Zixing had intended to provide end-of-life care. He just wanted to fulfill the last wish of a comrade before death, but he hadn’t dared to hope that the wish could actually be fulfilled, because he didn’t think Gao Yuan could really drink the water.

But now, You Zixing immediately brought the canteen back to Gao Yuan’s mouth. As for why Gao Yuan hadn’t died yet, he was too embarrassed to even think about it.