War Photographer's Notebook

"Crack!"

Just when the machete held tightly by Akila was less than half a meter away from Jiro's neck, a flash of lightning flashed across the night sky, and at almost the same time, the deafening thunderclap also entered Akira's mouth. pull the ears.

Frightened by the loud noise, Akira subconsciously let go of the machete in his hand, allowing it to slam into the wet sand almost close to Jiro's ear, even his whole body subconsciously He stepped back and stepped into the burning bonfire.

The loud noise and the subsequent screams also woke up Jiro in his sleep, but compared to the thunder, the machete that almost touched his neck woke him up completely.

In disbelief, he looked at the handle of the knife that was almost attached to his own flesh, and then looked at Akira who accidentally stepped on the bonfire and was scalded. Picking up the helmet at hand, he rushed madly towards Akira who had fallen to the ground and was trying to pull out the pistol from his waist!

"Oh!"

Jiro slammed the helmet in his hand on Akira's face, and then smashed the 1911 pistol in the opponent's hand.

"Jiro! Listen to me."

"Boom!" Jiro, with red eyes, didn't wait for Akira to finish, and smashed the smoky helmet on his nose again.

For a moment, the uncles and nephews, who were supposed to trust and support each other, wrestled together desperately in this majestic torrential rain, beside the constantly beating bonfire.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next morning, because the rainstorm did not stop all night, Wei Ran and the others did not go out to collect the work, they just chopped large and small branches from the surrounding woods, or were busy Extend the windshield, or scramble to reinforce the wind-blown umbrella canopy.

In particular, Wei Ran, who had had enough of eating with his fingers, not only made a few pairs of chopsticks himself, but even made a soup spoon and a few coconut shells out of coconut shells and wooden sticks.

In contrast, Hawkes, after waiting for so long, finally took advantage of the high tide to catch a few unknown sea fish from the trap he had set with the internal organs of sea turtles, and even risked using With his homemade speargun, he killed a colorful sea snake that could be one and a half meters long.

Taking the risk of picking up this obviously poisonous sea snake and cutting off its head, and buried the snake's head deeply, Hawkes resumed his job as a chef in his old profession. All the fish that came to feed the hunger were cut into pieces and thrown into the pot, and a large pot of seafood soup was cooked.

"I don't know what's going on with Akila and the others now." Sterling knelt by the campfire, muttering while cleaning his beard with the razor he borrowed from Wei Ran.

"Or I'll go and have a look." Wei Ran, who had never found a chance to complete today's candid filming work, said proactively, "I will wear a steel helmet and body armor."

"I'll go with you," Evans said, stopping the diary he was writing.

"I'll just go by myself." Wei Ran quickly waved his hand, "Give me the telescope, I won't get too close."

"Well, be careful." Evans happily picked up the telescope from his bed and handed it to Wei Ran.

"I'll be back in half an hour at the most."

As Wei Ran said, he had already picked up the binoculars, left the camp in the rain, and walked carefully towards the northern end of the island along the beach at the edge of the forest.

With the experience of taking sneak shots last time as a basis, he is quite familiar with the road.Even because of the cover of the torrential rain, he got a little closer than last time.

However, what he didn't expect was that from a long distance away, he could smell the smell of meat mixed with the smoke of fireworks in the rain.

Getting closer with doubts, Wei Ran hid under the wide leaves of an unknown tropical plant and raised his binoculars.

Although he couldn't see clearly because of the rain cover and the angle, he could still see a steaming helmet on top of the bonfire.

On one side of the bonfire, Akila was wearing his one-piece flight suit and leaning against the trunk of a tree. In front of him was not only a steaming coconut shell, but also a pair of homemade chopsticks.

On the other side of the bonfire, Jiro, who was only wearing a loincloth, sat cross-legged on his own flight suit, holding homemade chopsticks in one hand and a coconut shell in the other, quickly pulling something into his mouth.

Did the two beasts find food too?Or the reserves that were secretly hidden on the life raft before?

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and slowly knelt down to take out the camera bag, and then took out the camera from the bag, pointed the lens at the campfire in the distance and the people on both sides of the campfire and pressed the shutter.

After completing the secret shooting task and putting away the camera bag, Wei Ran picked up the binoculars again and continued to observe for a while.It's a pity that until he decided to return, the uncle and nephew didn't say a word, and even Akila didn't touch the food in front of him.

Not only that, he didn't even find out where the all-important pistol was now.

Without daring to delay too much, he took advantage of the cover of the woods and wind and rain to rush back to the southern tip of the island as fast as possible, and took a sneak photo of the three of Evans through the rain curtain, and then blew the sailor's whistle Walked back to camp.

"How's it going?" Evans asked again, pausing his pen.

"not too good"

Wei Ran shook his head, returned the telescope to the other party and said, "They also seem to have found food, and they seem to have reconciled, but Mr. Akila hasn't eaten all the time, I guess he might be angry."

"In this case, we will speed up the progress tomorrow."

Evans made the arrangement after a little thought, "Well, Hawkes and I will go explore the atoll together tomorrow. The resources there are far more abundant than this small island. Victor, you continue to stare at the atoll. Follow them, and take care of the camp with Sterling by the way. Tomorrow, it will be you and me to explore the atoll."

Naturally, no one refuted Evans' arrangement, and the next topic also shifted to what Akila and his nephew found to eat, and whether more supplies could be found in the atoll on the north side of the island. Chat and guesswork come up.

At the end of the day, the torrential rain never stopped, and everyone who had food and drink had a rare time lying in bed for a whole day, which was regarded as a refreshment.

When night fell again, the day passed away quietly, and even the torrential rain that had been raging all day stopped abruptly at midnight, returning the brilliant night sky to the people on the deserted island.

In the early morning of the next day, the sun had just risen above the horizon. Captain Evans and Hawkes, the two chiefs, each carried a can of giant clam meat and a few extra jugs of fresh water on their umbrella cloths, and set foot on the exploration ring. Journey to the Reef.

Taking pictures of their backs with a red outline reflected by the morning glow from a distance, Wei Ran also took a telescope and touched the northern tip of the island more and more proficiently.

This time without the cover of the rain curtain, he could also see more clearly that Akira, who was hiding his body in the one-piece flight suit, was staring blankly at the helmet on the campfire, while his nephew Jiro , on the other side of the bonfire, sleeping soundly in a warm one-piece flight suit.

Secretly took another photo of the other party, Wei Ran turned his head and was busy looking for the crucial firewood.

In any case, although this is a tropical island, it is not warm in the rainy night. More importantly, at this time, the stomachs of all of them can no longer bear raw food and water, and because of this, this Firewood has naturally become a strategic material that must be stored at all times.

Near noon, the unwilling Wei Ran touched the northern tip of the island again. This time, he saw clearly through the ultra-telephoto lens of the camera that Jiro, who was only wearing a loincloth, was kneeling and sitting in front of Akira. In front of him, holding chopsticks in one hand and coconut shell in the other, he personally fed food into Akila's mouth.

And on its waist, not only hung the 1911 pistol that Wei Ran had been paying attention to, but also hung Akila's smoking set.

Across the camera lens, Wei Ran pressed the shutter from time to time, patiently waiting for Jiro to finish feeding Akira, and then witnessed it feeding what seemed to be a unique product into Akila's mouth, and then Sighing helplessly, he put away the camera and turned around to walk back.

The current situation was clear, whether he wanted it or not, it turned out that Akira and the others were lucky enough to get enough food, and even Jiro seemed to have survived the torment of dysentery.

This is undoubtedly bad news, because a healthy enemy is far safer than an enemy who cannot stand firmly.

However, before Evans and the others had no thermal weapons capable of balancing Akila and the others, the only thing he could do was to collect as much firewood as possible to ensure everyone's health.

As for secretly throwing the PPK pistol in the camera bag to his three companions, he didn't think about it.

Based on his knowledge of metal books, if he dared to give this pistol to Evans and the other three, he would be punished with the back foot, and even if he could not handle it, even if he threw the pistol, the other party might not notice it before. It will disappear completely before it hits the ground - just like the bucket full of hot cocoa that makes him miss it!
With infinite resentment, Wei Ran swung the Indian pipe ax in his hand again and again, chopping down a piece of driftwood that had existed for an unknown amount of time, breaking it into small pieces that were easy to burn, like ants moving house returned to camp at the southern tip of the island.

Another day passed in a blink of an eye, and when the sun came out on a new day, Wei Ran also carried a water bottle filled with fresh water and a Hawks diving mask on his back, and Evans each carried a Hawks mask. The spear gun that Si made overnight last night, continued the unfinished exploration all the way south along the atoll.

Different from Hawkes's original speargun, the latest improved speargun in Wei Ran's hand not only has a diameter of less than two centimeters, but also has an elastic rubber strap tied with a paracord, and at the end , There is also a three-meter-long parachute connected to it.

No need to ask, just looking at the bright red color, Wei Ran knew that this thing was probably a load-bearing belt cut from the wreckage of the life raft.

The main reason for preparing this thing is that Hawkes found several lobsters on a relatively shallow seabed yesterday.Today, the main purpose of Wei Ran and Evans coming here is not to explore the atoll, but to catch enough lobsters and remake a better canned food.

"Chief, have you finished writing your diary?" Wei Ran, who was walking a dozen meters behind, quietly pressed the shutter towards Evans' back and put away his camera bag before asking.

"It's finished," Evans spread his hands, "I've written down everything that happened before, but I don't know if there is a chance to bring it back to the United States."

"I believe there is definitely a chance"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he sighed secretly. In the world he grew up in, Captain Evans and Deputy Captain Sterling were actually listed as missing, but Hawks who survived, obviously Captain Evans' diary has not been released to the public.

Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran followed Evans through the life raft tied to the reef, walked through the sandy beach full of mussels, and swam through a calm water, finally at 09 am Before :30, I climbed onto a hot reef that had been sunburned for a long time.

"It's here"

Evans said while taking off his clothes, wrapping them in umbrella cloth and tying them to the reef, "The seabed below is less than three meters deep, and besides many beautiful corals, there are also many lobsters."

After a short pause, Evans took off his watch and took a look, "It's 23:12 in the morning, Hawks has probably set off, he will be here before [-] noon, before that, we have to catch There are enough lobsters, at least to ensure that each person can eat two."

"If I catch more than you, how about giving me your ax?" Wei Ran said intentionally.

"That's not okay," Evans refused with a smile. "It was a 34th birthday present from my friends on the Alden."

"I've heard of that ship." Wei Ran said while taking off his clothes, "If I remember correctly, it's a Clemson-class destroyer."

"There is nothing wrong with what you said"

Evans said while wrapping the umbrella cloth around his feet, "It was a very old boat, and I was sitting on that boat with the same job as Sterling."

"Did Sterling also come from that boat?" Wei Ran, who was also wrapping the soles of his feet with an umbrella cloth, asked.

"He's not"

Evans shook his head, first inflated a condom to the size of a basketball, then wrapped a volleyball-sized rock with another umbrella cloth, tied it around his waist with a rope and said, "Okay, I'm going down first , I will leave Hawks' diving mask for you, if you can beat me, take my binoculars as a bet!"

Before the words were finished, Evans had already picked up the speargun, held the condom that acts as a breathing airbag, and jumped off the reef with the stone in his arms.

"I haven't said my bet yet"

Wei Ran, who hastily tied up the stone, fastened the gas mask with a grumble, checked the double-layer condom firmly tied on the other end of the bellows, and then blew it up from the end of the mask, and then took a deep breath , Holding the stone in one hand and the speargun in the other, he left the reef.

Although the conditions are simple, the tools provided by Hawks are exceptionally easy to use.Relatively speaking, the only troubles are just the need to frequently float up to ventilate the condoms that act as air bags, and how to find hidden lobsters from the colorful corals on the bottom of the sea.

At the same time, in the camp at the southern end of the island, after two days of busy work, Sterling finally made a very simple sextant with the materials he could find.

"Sterling, what's the use of this thing?"

Hawkes, who was supposed to set off to join Wei Ran, looked at the umbrella cloth in Sterling's hand that was lined with pencils and asked in puzzlement. The other party just asked him to help him out. If it wasn't for this piece of cloth covered with lines, he would have set off long ago.

Sterling explained with a smile while fiddling with the wooden product in his hand, "Using it can roughly measure our latitude."

"Don't we know we're on Arran Island?" Hawkes asked puzzled.

"Helen Island" Sterling corrected while holding a branch, writing and drawing on the sand while calculating something.

"Whether it's Alan or Helen." Hawks asked again, "So what's the use of this thing?"

"We can't just wait on this island for someone to come to rescue. The probability is too low."

Sterling said with a smile, "The chief and I have discussed that after solving Mr. Akira's threat, we will use all the things we have to leave here, and then this simple sextant will come in handy , it can’t be too accurate, but at least it can let us know if we are moving in the direction we want to go.”

"I didn't learn this kind of thing in the recruit company." Hawks muttered enviously, "Those bastards will only humiliate us in the same way."

"If you are interested, I can come and teach you."

As Sterling said, he had already handed the small object in his hand to Hawks, and pointed to the sea in the distance, ready to explain the working principle of this thing.

"Although I really want to learn, I'm afraid I have to wait a while." Hawkes pointed to the atoll in the distance, "I'm going to pick up the big chief and the others."

"I almost forgot about them"

Sterling patted his forehead, put away the umbrella cloth and said, "Since this is the case, let's go! I'll wait for you to come back with the lobster!"