Encounter volcano

"We must leave here now. I will really miss every enjoyment here." Mei tells us while walking downhill.

"Me, too. It is so funny to play here, warm spring water bath every day. It is really a suitable place to have retirement life." Tony replies.

"No need to feel sorry about leaving here. There are still many places ahead for us to explore. Maybe, we can find even more interesting place to stay, to have our retirement lives." I console both of them. Others agree with me.

This noon, we arrive at the edge of a small basin.

"Look! There is a water pool at the center of the small basin. It seems to me that the water temperature is very high." Sam tells us while pointing forward.

"Yes, it is foggy above the pool surface. It seems to me that the water is boiling. We can boil eggs in the water." Mei says with smile.

"Let us go have a close look at it. Maybe we can find something pretty interesting." Replies Tony. We all follow him towards the water pool.

Mei takes a piece of sausage out and puts it into the boiling water. Very soon, the sausage is well cooked.

"It is so delicious." Mei says while eating the sausage.

"Let me try." Lily tastes and say again, "It is really delicious."

"Everybody must be careful. Do not drop yourself into the boiling water. Otherwise, you will be cooked." The action leader reminds us.

"The scenery here is very good. Let us camp here tonight." Lily suggests.

"It is a good place to camp. Let us camp here. We still have plenty of time to explore other places." Mei replies.

At this time, the boiling water starts to emit vapor violently. Very soon, the whole water pool emits vapor violently. More and more boiling water comes to surface from ground. The area of water pool becomes larger and larger.

"It is not a good idea to stay here. It is dangerous to stay here. Let us leave here as quickly as possible." Upon seeing the situation, the action leader reminds us to leave.

At this time, the boiling water starts to erupt into sky.

"Hurry up! Let us be on the backs of our robot tigers! Let us run!" The action leader yells to us. We all are on the backs of our robot tigers immediately.

As we run away from the hot water pool, our smart robots run with us. At this time, the eruption of the water starts to become the eruption of volcano. The eruption of volcano becomes stronger and stronger. The volcano ash erupts into high sky.

"Hurry up! Run fast! Otherwise, we will be buried by volcano ash." The action leader yells to us. Our smart robot tigers carry us to run as fast as possible.

Gradually, large quantity of volcano ash falls onto to us. In front, some areas are covered with volcano ash. It seems to me that our troop will be buried by falling ash.

"Hurry up! Hurry up!" We encourage each other constantly.

More and More volcano ash falls from sky. The volcano ash on ground becomes thicker and thicker. The speed of our robot tigers becomes slower and slower. The sunny sky becomes dim sky.

"Look! There is a cave over there. Let us go into the cave to escape the danger." Tony tells us. Without second thought, we all enter the cave.

Very soon, the entrance of the cave is buried by the volcano ash. It is total dark inside the cave. We turn on our portable torches. The cave becomes bright.

This is a big cave. It is very deep inside. We all have our oxygen candies in our mouths to avoid being lack of natural oxygen.

Accompanying the eruption of volcano, there are also some small earthquake. We can feel it inside the refuge cave.

"Let us leave this cave as soon as possible. Otherwise, we could be buried inside this cave if there is a huge earthquake." I remind everybody.

"I agree. Let us leave this cave as soon as possible." Tony agrees.

"OK, let us go forward to find another exit since the entrance has already been buried." The action leader tells us.

Under the leadership of the action leader, we all walk forward to find if there are some other exits in this cave.

"Look! There is a flashing point! What is it inside this cave? Is it from a big animal?" Lily yells to us while pointing to the front.

We stop immediately after seeing three flashing points.

"Maybe you are right. Inside this cave, there are some creatures. If that is true, we must be very careful. Let our smart robots walk in front of us for safe reasons." The action leader reminds us.

"I agree. If we really come across some creatures, we should try our best to avoid annoying them." Replies Tony.

At this time, the three flashing points move from left to right and then, from right to left. This terrifies all of us. We stop there without moving forward.

"We cannot spend too much time here. We need to cross that flashing spot and move forward." Mei tells us in a hurry.

"That is true. We cannot go back. We need to find some other exits as soon as possible." Replies Lily.

"Do not be panic. Let me go forward to have a close look." Says the action leader.

Accompanying by a smart robot, the action leader walks towards the flashing points slowly.

The action leader comes back very soon.

"What is that? A big animal?" Asks Sam in a hurry.

"It is hard to believe. It is a dying amphibious monster." Replies the action leader.

"The one we saw in the big water battle before? Why does it come here to die? This is just a cave." Asks Tony.

"That is the one. Although it blocks our way, it is not so dangerous. It is almost dead. When I approached it, it had no big response." Replies the action leader.

"Maybe, this cave is the last place for those dying monsters. They wish to spend their last journeys in their lives here without being disturbed by anything else. This is a perfect place for those monsters to die in very old age." I reply.

"So, this cave is their grave, their last destination." Replies Mei.

"You get it right. This is their last destination." Replies the action leader.

"Maybe, we can pass it one by one slowly without disturbing it since it is almost dead." Lily tells us and we all agree.

Under the leadership of the action leader, we line up and try to pass the dying monster one by one slowly.

"Wa!" All of a sudden, the dying monster makes a big noise and moves its big flat head. We move back upon seeing this.

"We cannot be blocked by a dying monster here." Mei says.

"We will go forward, just be patient. We need to take some preventive actions to avoid bad results. Otherwise, we could be attacked by this dying monster." Replies the action leader.

"We can use our narcosis gun to shoot it. After it falls into sleep, we can pass it safely." I suggest and all agree.

The action leader takes out a narcosis gun and moves forward with a smart robot. He opens three shoots to the dying monster. Very soon, the dying monster falls into sleep. We pass the dying monster safely.

On our way to finding other exits, we find some big skeletons. I assume that they are skeletons of amphibious monsters.

"This is a very long cave. Still, there is no end of it. Let us have a rest. I am too tired." Lily says.

"OK, let us have a ten minutes break here." The action leader agrees.

Since we all have oxygen candies in our mouths, we have enough oxygen. Ten minutes later, we move on.

"Until now, I really do not know where we are heading on. Is it towards heaven? Or, is it towards hell?" Asks Tony.

"Hopefully, this is a way to heaven." Replies Mei.

"Take it easy. We have had some many bad experiences since we left our earth. It will be fine this time. We will find a way out to heaven." I console them.

The small earthquakes created by the eruption of volcano continue. We are all afraid of being buried inside the cave. We continue our journey silently.

Finally, we stop.

"OK, we arrive at the end of the cave. Let us try here to see if we can find an exit or not." Says Sam.

"This is the end of this cave. We must find an exit. Otherwise, this could be our last destination." Replies Lily with low mood.

"Or, maybe, we can go back to the entrance of the cave. Maybe, we could find a way out." Says Tony.

"Let me check here first." After saying, I walk forward to check.

After a short period of time,, I find hopes.

"Do need to worry. I find something good here." I yell to everybody happily.

"What do you find?" Mei asks in a hurry.

"I find that the wall of the cave is rock but the front blocking material is not rock. It is volcano ash. It is new volcano ash. This is what I expect." I tell everybody happily.

"So, it was an exit before. It is blocked by volcano ash now." Replies the action leader.

"That is what I mean. I am sure that this old exit is far away from the volcano. So, the blocking ash should not be very thick. We can make a open here to escape." I tell others happily.

"That is fantastic. If the volcano ash is new, it is easy to dig an opening here. We are saved!" Sam yells to us happily.

"OK, if that is so, our smart robots can do the digging job." Replies Mei happily.

"This is a good news indeed. We can escape here finally." Lily yells happily.

Since the blocking material is new volcano ash, it is easy for our smart robots to dig an opening. Not long later, we can feel fresh air coming in.

"Look! I can see the stars hanging in the night sky outside. It is such a wonderful feeling to see the stars again. The night sky is so beautiful that I will never forget." Says Mei with sigh.

"Me, too. We are lucky again to escape the dangers and see those stars hanging on night sky. The feeling is so wonderful." Replies Sam.

Very soon, we all crawl out of the cave through the opening created by our smart robots. We stand on the volcano ash ground in the middle of the small mountain. On the foot of the small mountain, the whole valley is covered by new volcano ash.

"We are lucky to dig an opening through this volcano ash wall. Thanks to the location of this blocked exit. It is half way in the small mountain. If it is at the foot of the small mountain, the volcano ash must be very thick. If that is true, it is hard for our smart robots to dig an opening. By the way, I need to inform our mother spaceship about our situation. Otherwise, the captain will worry about us." The action leader replies and starts to communicate with our mother spaceship.

"I agree. If the exit is at the foot of the small mountain, we will be in big trouble." Replies Tony.

"OK, I have communicated with our captain. They can provide helps at any time. Under present circumstances, we can still continue our land survey journey." The action leader tells us.