As Wren gazed at the photograph of Ice, his faithful Border Collie, on the wall of his living room, he was transported to that world and was reminded of the shields of life.

“You are the last one. Now you can rest.” Wren said to the picture.

From the time he was a little boy, Wren was determined to join the army. No matter who asked him about his future plans, whether it was his family, friends, or teachers, he would reply with unwavering confidence, “I want to grow up and become a soldier to defend my motherland.”

In 2008, having just completed his military training, Wren was expecting to work with guns, but fate had different plans for him. He was assigned to be a military dog trainer. Despite his initial disappointment, Wren brought himself into his role, treating the training field as his own personal battlefield and continued to be strict with himself. Little did he know at that time that he would soon be called upon to help in one of the greatest disasters China had ever faced.

Wenchuan, a picturesque town nestled in the mountains, was hit by the biggest earthquake in China since 1950. The disaster had left countless people trapped under rubble and debris, including the most vulnerable, the young and the old. The entire Wenchuan area was devastated. Beautiful homes were reduced to rubble. Although the earthquake was over, the aftershocks continued to shake the earth.

At this critical moment, the sky was overcast, and it rained incessantly. Communication signals were interrupted, and the people of Wenchuan were buried alive. When the soldiers received the order, they came from all over the country to support, and Wren was among them. Although a military dog trainer, he was quickly called to join the rescue team, given the shortage of manpower.

As he arrived in Wenchuan, Wren was struck by the extent of the destruction. The buildings were in ruins, and the once-vibrant town was now filled with sorrow and despair. But he knew that he had a job to do, and he was determined to do it to the best of his abilities, just as he had always been.

The situation under each building was heart-wrenching. The rescue team lacked professional tools, so most of the time, they had to use their bare hands to remove heavy debris. The military dogs that accompanied them were used as search and rescue dogs, but the sharp wood spikes and jagged glass fragments posed a great danger to their unprotected paws. With no protective gear available, the dogs pushed through, risking injuries that were quickly bandaged by their soldiers before continuing their high-intensity rescue missions. Even so, there was no guarantee that the people they rescued would still be alive.

The hours wore on, and the search became more and more intense. The sky grew darker, and visibility became poorer by the minute. The rain intensified, making the already difficult task even more challenging, and the rain greatly obscured the dogs’ sense of smell. But Wren and his team worked with incredible focus and determination, digging through the rubble with their bare hands, hoping to find signs of life.

Finally, as dawn broke, they heard the first signs of life – the cries of a child. The rescue workers immediately tracked down the source of the sound, searching frantically, even with their fingers bleeding. Finally, one shouted out, “Found it! Found it! The baby is still alive!”

Wren rushed to the site and saw the tearful scene. The mother was dead. Her body was bent at an unnatural angle, her entire upper body prostrated forward, and her hands touching the ground, supporting her body. Underneath her body was her baby, only three or four months old, wrapped in a small red quilt with yellow flowers.

The team had to be careful in their approach as they tried to save the child. They used both hands to move a solid stone away, but the drill they brought with them could not drill down, because the ground was too far from the ruins, about a few meters. The rescuers finally came up with an idea – they would use a long iron rod to pry open the rubble and create a path to the child. It was a risky move, but they had no other choice.

Slowly but surely, they managed to move the iron rod through the rubble and create a small opening. One of the rescue workers crawled through the opening and gently lifted the child out of the rubble.

Because the mother was protecting, the little baby was unharmed. The child was already crying when they pulled him out. The sound was loud and heartbreaking, a testament to the trauma that he had endured.

The rescue workers rushed the child to a nearby temporary medical tent, where a team of medical staff worked tirelessly to help him. It was a miracle. The baby was harmless and intact. And then, when they tried to unwrap the baby, a small, simple cell phone fell out of the blanket.

Typed on the screen was a sentence that read: “Dear baby, if you are still alive, must remember I love you!”

Wren, as well as all the other rescue workers and medical staff who saw the message, broke into tears. This message gave hope to all the exhausted rescue workers. They dragged their tired bodies and continued to turn over the boulders again and again in the rain. Above the rubble, the search and rescue dog’s paws were bloodstained, but still inch forward to search, only for the lives waiting under the rubble. They refused to give up hope.

As the rescue team approached the site of a collapsed elementary school. After the team lifted up the stones, Wren felt a knot form in his stomach. All the rescuers were stunned by the scene before them, unable to believe what they were seeing. He saw a man kneeling in front of him, holding onto two children with all his might. The children were alive, but the man was dead. His body was deformed.

Another student survivor recognized the man. She said it was their music teacher Mr. Zhang. He was 29 years old and was a multi-talented artist who loved to sing.

As they approached closer, they realized that the teacher’s arms were so tightly wound around the children that they had become stiff. With tears in their eyes, the rescuers knew that they had no choice but to cut off Zhang’s arms in order to free the children.

Despite the incredible pain he must have been in, Zhang never let go of the children. The rescuers were speechless.

Wren and the other rescuers would never forget the selflessness and courage of Zhang. He truly embodied what it means to be a hero, putting the safety and well-being of his students above his own.

More and more instances like the mother and Zhang were found, and they were using their flesh to build up one shield of life after another.

Over time, more and more bodies were found under the rubble — some alive, some not. With each rescue, there were cheers and tears of joy, but also deep devastation for those who did not make it. Over the next few days, Wren and his team continued to work tirelessly, rescuing as many people as they could. They were exhausted and battered, but they never gave up. And how did they, as well as rescue dogs, not form the shield of life?

Years later, as Wren looked back on his life, he knew that his time in Wenchuan was a turning point. It had shown him the true power of courage and compassion, and had given him a sense of purpose that he would carry with him for the rest of his days.

He had witnessed firsthand the power of nature and the strength of the human spirit. He gave up going to be a combat soldier with guns, but continued to be a military dog trainer. He knew that there was more to life than just being a soldier and defending the motherland.

Wren looked at his uniform, framed above his fireplace. Years from then, he was now retired from the military. He opened a dog training school. He wanted to use his knowledge and experience to train more dogs and help save more lives. And every time he looked at the picture of Ice, he was reminded of the shields of life and the incredible bravery and sacrifice of those rescue dogs, his comrades, and those who died to save others under the debris, who risked everything, including their lives.

“Rest in peace. Ice.”