War Photographer's Notebook

When Wei Ran and Hawkes returned to the camp with the coconut crab and a large bundle of dry firewood that could be used as fuel, Sterling had already cleared the surrounding vegetation and tied the umbrella cloth with paracord On the surrounding trees, they managed to create a space enough to shelter them from the wind and rain.

Handing over their harvest to Sterling who looked surprised, Wei Ran and Hawkes saw that Captain Evans still hadn't returned, so they simply left the camp again and continued to explore toward the north side of the island.

It's a pity, compared to the good luck just now, this time they almost went all the way to the center of the island, but the only harvest was just a handful of colorful feathers.

Seeing that the sun was about to set and a cloud was drifting in the distance, the two of them didn't dare to waste too much time, and picked up firewood that could be used as fuel all the way back to the camp.

After all this back and forth, Sterling has not only completely set up the camp, but even lit a bonfire, and cooked the huge coconut crab and Hawks' pet Halsey out of it with a steel helmet. bursts of aroma.

"Look, my Halsey can't run anymore." Hawkes joked, pointing to the red hermit crab in the helmet.

"You should have said it was your pet sooner"

Sterling spread his hands unapologetically, and said while throwing the diced coconut meat into the steel helmet that was used as a cooking pot, "Otherwise I must cook him with charcoal grilling."

"This is already very good. I didn't expect to have the opportunity to let Mr. Captain be my chef." Hawkes also made a small joke.

Before he finished speaking, Evans came in with his harvest, "Gentlemen, I found two more coconuts, God! Is that a crab? Where did you find it?"

"Under a coconut tree," Hawkes said triumphantly, "I found it!"

"I'm lucky too"

Evans threw the two coconuts to his feet, then untied the umbrella cloth in his hand, picked up an octopus not much bigger than a badminton and threw it into the pot, saying, "This is me near a rock. found."

"Gentlemen, how are the resources on this island?" Sterling, who had been busy setting up the camp, asked.
"Not too rich," Evans and Hawks gave the same answer in unison.

"I just walked south along the atoll for about a kilometer"

Evans took the packet of shredded tobacco from Wei Ran, then picked up his Indian pipe axe, and said while stuffing tobacco leaves into the pot, "I don't know if it's because of the high tide or just like that, those reefs and Most of the beach is about 20 centimeters underwater, and at the point where I am about to go back, the water is more than knee deep."

Speaking of this, Evans took a sip from the smoke pot by the campfire, and said, "As you can see, those two coconuts and that octopus are all the harvest of this kilometer. "

"We only caught a coconut crab and a hermit crab"

Hawkes took over the conversation and said, "In addition, there are many abandoned bird's nests on the island, but there are no seabirds in them at all, only a lot of eggshells that have existed for an unknown time. If those birds are still there, it's just that the eggs are probably dead. Enough for us to eat."

"It seems that this should be a nesting island for migratory seabirds," Sterling subconsciously looked at the gloomy sky outside after speaking.

Glancing at Wei Ran, who didn't seem to care about these issues at all, and who was shaving with a razor, Evans said, "There's also good news. I've roughly guessed where this is."

"Where is it?" Sterling, Hawks, and Wei Ran, who was shaving, stopped the razors in their hands, and all looked at him and asked the same question in unison.

"Helen Reef, when we started to attack the Palau Islands in September, I studied the map of this archipelago country."

Evans said with certainty, "I'm sure this must be Helen Reef. The small island we are on is called Helen Island. It is the only island above the water in this atoll with a circumference of about 60 kilometers."

"So we did come to Palau?" Sterling asked with a frown, obviously knowing something about Helen Reef.

“The southernmost tip of Palau”

Evans shook his head helplessly, "The distance between here and Indonesia is even closer than the main island of Palau. Most importantly, we don't know enough about the battle situation in Palau. It is even less clear whether there will be fishing boats passing by here.”

"Kerala!"

Accompanied by the frightening thunder, a beam of lightning connecting heaven and earth hit the sea not far away. Under the taut umbrella cloth, Wei Ran and the others also shivered subconsciously in shock.

"Wow—!"

In less than ten seconds, the downpour of rain hit the head and face.In the camp that had just been cleaned up, large and small puddles appeared in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that the accumulated rainwater was about to extinguish the bonfire, the people who had just sat down hurriedly picked up various tools at hand, digging holes, digging soil, and working together to prop up the simple canopy Around it, a circle of water-retaining dikes was piled up, and a drainage ditch was even dug out all the way to the beach outside the woods.

Seeing that everyone turned into a mud monkey with hands and faces full of sand, the people who sat around the campfire again all showed pleasant smiles.

Using the umbrella cloth used as a towel to pat clean the contaminated sand, the two captains and Hawkes re-lighted their cigarettes, and Wei Ran also picked up the razor again and continued to shave.

Filling the bonfire under the helmet with a few logs, Hawkes put on his wet gloves, held up the helmet, poured some scalding crab boiling soup into everyone's steel cups, and then used his goggles Use it as a spoon, and get some coconut meat into everyone's cup.

"God is my witness." Sterling took a sip of the hot, grease-floating soup and said with a happy face, "I can't remember how long it's been since I ate something so warm."

"We still have meat to eat later!"

While talking, Hawks took out the crab that was boiled bright red, took out all the meat with a carefully washed pocket knife, divided it into four equal portions and sent them to everyone's cups.

As for the peeled crab shell, he threw it into the helmet again, and added some fresh water and a little sea water.

While the four of them hid in the shelter with air leaks on all sides and ate hot seafood, at the northwest end of the small island, the sea breeze became stronger.

Because of this, behind the beach, between the two trees with valuables buried, under the same canopy made of umbrella cloth, the bonfire just lit was completely extinguished by the rain mixed with the sea breeze.

Compared to Akira who was holding the coconut, picking the coconut meat with his fingernails and sending it to his mouth.At this time, its nephew Jiro was holding the helmet with both hands, knelt on the ground with buttocks pouted, and tried hard to dig the sand to build a circle of water-retaining dams.

"Jiro, hurry up."

Akila put a piece of coconut meat into his mouth while talking, "I'll cut some branches later, we can use umbrella cloth to build a tent that is more windproof. Also, look for coconut later Or something edible, maybe the waves will push the fish up, and most importantly, we have to find a way to rekindle the campfire."

Hearing this, Jiro, who was busy, paused for a moment, and immediately responded loudly, "I understand Uncle, wait for me"

"Let's find something to eat first!"

Akila didn't give the other party a chance to finish talking, so he threw away the coconut shell in his hand, and said as a matter of course, "It's best to get some meat back! Go!"

Jiro looked at the pouring rain outside the woods, gritted his teeth, picked up his flight cap and goggles, put them on, and rushed into the rain with a flashlight.

Behind him, Akila picked up the machete, easily opened the second coconut, snapped off the coconut meat piece by piece, and threw it into his mouth.

This night, neither side of the island had a comfortable life.But at the very least, Wei Ran and others not only ate seafood and drank hot soup that made the body sweat, but also had a hammock that could leave the ground. They even used coconut milk as shaving water to shave their messy hair The Beards, especially, kept their bonfires on for most of the night.

In the blink of an eye, the next morning, the torrential rain that had raged all night had subsided a lot, and the reefs and beaches connected to the island also jumped out of the sea due to the tide.

Each drank a large cup of sweet and slightly salty coconut milk with sea water and rainwater to boil coconut broth. Evans took fishing gear and a pot full of boiled rainwater early and continued to explore the island. Beaches and rocks.

The other three were also not idle. Sterling took the initiative to replace Wei Ran's job, and explored the island with Hawkes, collecting any edible and usable supplies by the way.

Wei Ran, who was staying at the camp, secretly took a picture of the three of them from behind, took out his engineering shovel while there was no one there, and first reinforced the waterproof embankment around the camp that was originally less than ten centimeters high and deepened the drainage ditch .

Then, he cut some sticks, branches, vines and even palm leaves and coconut leaves, and next to the hammock, he made three simple beds that could barely lift the body off the ground. Ground campfire.

Seeing that noon was approaching, Hawks and Sterling were the first to walk back carrying a three-meter-long wooden stick each.

On these two dry wooden sticks that looked at least as thick as arms, the harvest they brought back was hung with paracords-two bundles of firewood, plus two brown-hued coconuts.

In the gas mask bag that Wei Ran lent to Hawks, there were still a lot of feathers and a broken glass bottle that had been sanded to a frosted layer.

"Victor!"

Hawks greeted Wei Ran happily, pointed to the wooden sticks he and Sterling had just put down and said, "Finally, I found them. These two sticks can definitely be made into bows and arrows!"

"And we have some unexpected little discoveries"

After Sterling finished speaking, he changed the subject, looking at the three extra cots and the bonfire platform made of stones, he was very surprised and said, "Victor, you did all of these by yourself?"

"certainly"

Wei Ran pretended to be proud and pointed to the steel helmet on the bonfire, "And I used yesterday's crab shells to cook seafood coconut soup. Sterling, what did you find?"

“Although no crabs were caught today”

Sterling regretfully picked up the axe, chopped open the coconut he brought, and took out all the coconut treasure, coconut meat, and greasy coconut water and threw them into the helmet, while continuing to say , "But I haven't seen those two pilots all day today."

"Didn't see it?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows.

"I even touched the position less than 100 meters away from them"

Sterling licked the remaining coconut juice on the coconut shells before throwing them into the campfire, adding, "I don't see any sign of them starting a fire."

"If Sterling hadn't stopped me, I would have gone up to have a look."

Hawks said regretfully, "The most important thing is that the life raft is gone. I doubt if they have left the island."

"Impossible, they must still be on this island." Wei Ran and Sterling made the same judgment in unison.

"All right"

Hawkes rolled a cigarette for himself indifferently, "Whether they are still there or not, I will make bows and arrows from now on."

"In that case, I'll go collect supplies in the afternoon."

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he, Hawkes and Sterling discovered that outside the woods, on the rocky beach far away from the southeastern tip of the island, bursts of flashes of light came.

"It must be Evans! But he's so far away that I can barely see it with my binoculars."

Sterling held up the telescope to make a judgment, and at the same time slowly translated the flashing light signal, "He said that two people need to go over to help!"

"I'll go!"

Wei Ran was the first to speak, and at the same time, he had already untied the umbrella cloth tied around his neck, covering his head and face like a later generations of Middle Eastern Khonbu elements.

"I'll go with you!" Hawkes took a puff of cigarette and said, "By the way, I'm going to take a shower."

"Take this," Sterling said, and handed the telescope to Wei Ran.

"Be careful yourself"

Wei Ran pointed in the direction of Captain Evans, "If they come over, you can run in our direction."

"Don't worry!" Sterling said, already picking up the Indian ax belonging to Captain Evans.

Seeing this, Wei Ran and Hawkes stopped wasting time, left the woods under the scorching sun, and ran towards Evans.

Just as the two of them joined Captain Evans, at the other end of the island, the young pilot Jiro was still sneezing from time to time even though most of his body was basking in the sun.

In contrast, Akila was not much better either. At this time, he was squatting under the shadow of a coconut tree about ten meters away, with a painful expression, doing with the chronic dysentery that Wei Ran helped him cultivate. struggle.

Fortunately, they, or more precisely, under the canopy that Jiro hastily strengthened last night, not only had the bonfire been lit, but there was also a forearm-length meatball boiled in the helmet on the bonfire. An unknown sea fish, and a small sea turtle that was only the size of a fist.

Under the lure of the fragrance, Jiro's stomach has made rumbling sounds more than once, but Akira, who is more than ten meters away, has been holding the only pistol on the island in his hand, so He could only bear the discomfort in his body while smelling the smell of broth and the stench of spoiled stool, and patiently waited for his uncle to distribute their first hot meal after they came to the island.