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In the line of duty: notes of quake experience
By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-12 10:49

In the line of duty: notes of quake experience

Ju Bo, the China Central Television cameraman trapped beneath me, let out long, painful cries as he struggled to move, making it harder for me to breathe as he shifted position.

"People are coming to save us soon," I said, trying to comfort him.

"Is somebody here yet?" Ju asked.

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"Hold on," I replied. "Ten more minutes."

It was an exchange that was repeated often.

We spoke to one another while we were trapped, mainly out of a need to confirm we were both still alive.

Apart from that, there was little we could do.

My head swelled and my nose throbbed and it became harder and harder to breathe. Every now and then, I bit my tongue, trying to stay alert.

After almost three hours, help came.

A voice said: "We're getting you out of here, but you'll have to work with us!"

We did, and we got out.

Our help, later identified as Guo Xiaodong, an ethnic Tibetan, and Shun Kefu and Liang Xingguo, two ethnic Qiang people, first tried to lift the crushed door of our minivan. When that failed, they tried to smash open its boot, also to no avail because my head was right under it.

But they did not give up. Instead, they managed to pry open a small hole in the cabin with an iron bar and tree branches. Then, the trio pulled us out one by one.

My hands felt the fresh breeze again right after Zhou Ji, the female reporter on top of me was pulled out.

For the first time in hours, I felt secure. I was going to be okay.

Minutes later, I was pulled out of the minivan by Guo, who carried me on his back and ran to a gentle slope where the others were recovering.

We kept ourselves warm by using seat covers for coats and picked up vegetables spilled on the roadside from a vendor's vehicle.

Just as we breathed a sigh of relief, Baihua Bridge, which stood around 50 m from us, collapsed.

At around 7 pm, when the rain started to fall, we broke open a nearby bus and stayed inside it for the night. The trio who saved us went back to their cars for their radios. And it was then that we learned that there had been a missive earthquake and we, just 2 km from Yingxiu of Wenchuan County, had been right at the epicenter.

No one felt safe inside the bus that evening. But outside, things were all the more dangerous. The rocks felt so close, and the shocks shook us to the core.