War Photographer's Notebook

In the afternoon, Hawkes carried three fat lobsters and a bag of oysters with a wet umbrella cloth, and ran all the way back to the camp through the waves.

When he, with the help of Sterling, took out the lobster meat and oyster meat and made them into a large can, Wei Ran and Captain Evans also walked back together carrying slender spear guns .

On the speargun of Captain Evans, there were not only two lobsters, but also several unknown sea fish.

On Wei Ran's speargun, apart from the brown kelp wrapped around it, there are also several fat sea cucumbers that he personally fished from the bottom of the sea wrapped in an umbrella cloth.

No doubt it was a productive afternoon for the shipwrecked on the southern tip of the island.In the constantly beating bonfire, Wei Ran scalded the kelp into a beautiful bright green color, then cut it into filaments with his gravity knife, and cut the sea cucumbers that were scalded together into small circles.

Although the condiment is only the kosher salt he made himself, but after pouring some fat and a little coconut milk, the taste is quite good.

He made a cold dish full of steel helmets, and Hawkes cut all the catches into pieces and threw them into another steel helmet. Just like yesterday, a large pot of seafood porridge was boiled like a mess.

Taking advantage of this time, Evans also finished writing his diary, even after asking Wei Ran carefully, he also wrote down how to eat sea cucumbers.

"How's the sextant going?" Evans closed the notepad, took the steel cup full of seafood soup, and asked Sterling at the same time.

"It's ready." Sterling pointed to the top of his head. "We can try it later with the Polaris. It should be fine."

"In this case, Victor and Sterling, let's go back to the stranded position tomorrow and try to find a way to see if we can repair the traffic boat."

Evans looked around the crowd and said, "If the traffic boat can be repaired, we have a chance to leave here."

"Aren't we going to deal with those two pilots?" Hawkes asked immediately.

"Of course they must be resolved, and they must be resolved, otherwise our ship may be taken away even if it is repaired."

Evans took Wei Ran's large bowl of cold kelp and sea cucumber shreds in a coconut shell bowl, and then continued, "So Hawkes, starting tomorrow, you continue to prepare bows and arrows. It doesn't matter if you fail. With so many trees available, you can always find what you need."

"After we have settled the two pilots and repaired the boat, we can go fishing on the reef in the center of the lagoon to collect food."

Sterling took the topic and continued, "When we have stored enough food, we can prepare to go to sea."

"Which direction are we going to go to sea?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously, and at the same time served him a bowl of homemade cold dishes.

"Northeast direction," the two captains said in unison, "Go to the main island of Palau."

"Where are you going?" Wei Ran was astonished, but he remembered that the two pilots were also crying and shouting to go to Palau.

But it only took a moment for him to realize that he really couldn't take the two pilots with him when he went north for repairing the ship, because they were too variable.

"right"

Sterling took the coconut shell bowl in Wei Ran's hand, "The Battle of Peleliu Island has been fought for a long time, even if the members of the 1st Marine Division are all disabled, it should have been won there long ago, we just need to get there , can definitely be rescued."

"Distance, how far is the distance?" Hawkes swallowed subconsciously, "I need to prepare more food this time."

"About [-] nautical miles or so"

Using the chopsticks made by Wei Ran, Evans awkwardly picked up some kelp strips and pulled them into his mouth, chewing while saying, "But if I remember correctly, we can encounter many islands along the way, and some of them are likely to be There are aborigines. Of course, there are more likely to be garrisons recruiting nuclear weapons, which is why we cannot cooperate with Mr. Akira this time."

"It seems that I need to prepare more dried fish." Hawkes swallowed, "It's horrible to be hungry."

"Not just dried fish, but also fat and fresh water."

Wei Ran handed the other party a bowl of cold dishes and reminded, "We have been on the island for almost a week. Although our bodies have almost recovered, our weight has not returned to normal. I mean, we also need to reserve enough for ourselves. Fat will do."

“There is still plenty of fresh water”

Sterling reminded, "According to the ocean knowledge I have learned, it will enter the dry season after December, and the rainfall will be greatly reduced. But the advantage is that many birds will come here to nest during the dry season. Then we might have a much richer source of meat and eggs."

"But fresh water will be a problem, which is far more deadly than a lack of food."

Evans said worriedly, "We must get rid of Akira and his partners before the dry season comes."

"I will get the bow and arrow out as soon as possible!" Hawkes made a serious promise.

While chatting about the next plan, everyone, accompanied by the setting sun, began to enjoy the "one dish, one soup" dinner.

After eating and drinking, each rolled a cigarette and lit it. Everyone lay on their comfortable beds because the bedding was getting thicker and drier. They discussed the enemy at the northern end of the island as usual.

When the sun was completely swallowed by the sea level, and when stars appeared in the night sky, Sterling immediately took his self-made sextant and called everyone to the beach. With the help of the horizontal liquid column on the compass, he used a The thin line from the paracord was aimed at Polaris in the northern night sky, not much higher than sea level.

"Placing the compass flat allows us to accurately identify the direction"

Sterling paused, pointing to the vertically fixed compass in the middle of the simple sextant in his hand, and said, "But if you use the compass vertically, it is a simple sextant. It can tell us where the north and south are. How many degrees the direction has moved."

"But what's the use of that?" Hawkes asked puzzled.

"The main island of Palau is about 4 to 5 latitudes away from our current location."

While speaking, Sterling stretched the compass fixed in the center of the sextant with the thin thread in his hand, and said after some observation, "This sextant can be used."

"Tomorrow we're going to repair the ship!" Evans said confidently, and then walked towards the camp with the ax pipe that kept emitting green smoke.

"Victor, do you understand?" Hawks asked Wei Ran, his sunburned face was also full of blankness.

"understood"

Wei Ran pointed to the North Star above his head, "Simply put, the height of that star will not change, but the closer we are to him, the higher his angle will be."

"It's like a ship in the distance sailing in front of you?" Hawkes suddenly realized.

"The principle is similar. In short, Sterling's self-made sextant can help us guide the direction." Wei Ran concluded.

"Why didn't we get this thing before?" Hawkes couldn't help muttering as he followed Wei Ran to the camp.

"How did you do nothing on the boat before?"

Wei Ran pointed to the north direction, "And there are those two pilots, if they get the sextant and learn how to use it, the traffic boat will probably have been driven away by them now, and we will just have to I can be a primitive man here for the rest of my life.”

"makes sense"

Hawks scratched the back of his head, "But I still don't understand much, so tomorrow I'll go make hunting bows, that's what I'm good at."

"Your hunting bow is the most important thing." Wei Ran patted the other party's shoulder, returned to the camp, and lay down again on the bed covered with umbrella cloth.

Near midnight, the stars in the night sky were once again shrouded in dark clouds, and the thunder that sounded at an unknown time did not unexpectedly wake up the shipwrecks in the north and south of the island, interrupting their dreams.

Turning over and looking at the bonfire that was still burning in the center of the camp, and the torrential rain that suddenly broke out outside the camp, Wei Ran yawned, turned over and continued to fall into a deep sleep.

Sleeping in the white noise of rattling until the next morning, although the rainstorm did not stop, it was much smaller, and it couldn't even block the rising sun that was about to jump out of the sea level in the distance.

"Let's go"

As Evans said, he was the first to leave the camp, and took Wei Ran and Sterling straight to the northeast.

Under the cover of the drizzle and the weather, the group of three bypassed the camp of the two pilots on the north side of the island, with a distance of more than one kilometer, and made a super-large circle along the beach of the atoll. It took more than half of the time. In the morning, this is considered to have returned to the original stranded position.

Fortunately, although almost a week has passed, the traffic boat is still there. Even because no one bothered, the broken cabin of the traffic boat and the shell casings still thrown here, there are still many large and small hermit crabs and a few vibrant crabs.

After catching all the unexpected gains and throwing them into the gas mask bag, the three of them circled the traffic boat and looked at it.

"We need to make a replacement plank"

Sterling was the first to say, "If we can hack that shell case with an axe, we should be able to repair the bad parts."

"We still have leaky life rafts to use," Wei Ran reminded from the side.

"Victor was right"

Evans nodded in agreement, "If we can fix the life raft first, we won't have to travel so far."

“A good way”

Sterling's eyes immediately brightened, "At that time, we can dig a canal on the beach, and when the tide is high, we can let this boat float into the inner lake, and then fix it with the life raft as before."

"Since the traffic boat is still here and there is a possibility of repair, we must act as soon as possible."

Evans looked around, pointed to the south and said, "Well, let's go back immediately and try to fix the life raft first today."

"Take this cannon shell back first, and let Hawkes process it into copper skin first."

As Sterling said, he had already untied an umbrella cloth from his waist, wrapped the shell casings and carried it on his shoulders.Wei Ran took out the parachute and tied the stranded traffic boat to the nearby reef.

Not daring to waste time resting, the group of three returned immediately, followed the footprints left by them, went around in circles, and returned to the camp at noon, and Wei Ran, who deliberately walked at the end, also took the opportunity to complete the daily sneak shots Task.

They rushed back to the camp and handed the shell shells to Hawks. The three of them took the gas cylinders that had been used as kettles these days and the pumps they hid, and took two extra green coconuts, and found the life raft along the atoll. wreckage.

Under the command of Evans, first pulled out the submerged life raft, Wei Ran carefully enlarged the original small damage, and then wrapped the two green coconuts with a soft cloth. The umbrella cloth stuffed in.

After some adjustments, the damaged opening was located in the center of the two coconuts. Wei Ran and Sterling worked together to tie the two ends of the two coconuts tightly with ropes, and then took out an umbrella cloth prepared in advance. Together with the two coconuts stuffed inside, they were wrapped round and round and tied tightly.

Everything was ready, and Evans, who was already ready, immediately began to squeeze the pump.While the three of them were busy taking turns, the shriveled life raft gradually swelled and finally floated above the water.

"The shape and color remind me of the endless amount of Vienna sausage on the USS Alden, which has more starch than the people on the USS Alden."

Sitting on the reef, Evans joked while moving his arms that were a little sore from the backlog of pumps.

"I think it looks like a donut with ligation surgery"

Sterling was busy squeezing the pumps he held in both hands while panting and said, "The two coconut trees are like tall pills that have been shriveled due to ligation, and I am trying to help those two tall pills make this useless." Blow up your donut. Victor, you should, you should."

While talking, Sterling handed the pump in his hand to Wei Ran.

"I really appreciate your broken metaphor"

Wei Ran took the pump angrily, and squeezed the air in.At the same time, the two captains also relied on their own weight to press the tightly bound damaged mouth into the water and waited patiently.

Fortunately, until the two of them could no longer hold down the life raft relying on their weight, there were no bubbles at all from the damage, which was undoubtedly good news for them.

After tightening the inflation port, the three of them looked at each other. Before they had time to rest, they pushed the life raft into the deep water area of ​​the lagoon, and rolled into the life raft in no particular order.

"This life raft is here to stay"

Evans leaned on the inflated buoyant bag and said, "Sterling, starting tomorrow, Victor and I will use this life raft to go further afield to collect supplies, and you will prepare the planks and other materials for repairing the ship."

"We still lack nails," Sterling said, looking at the top of his head dyed red by the sunset, "we still need nails."

"There will be a way, now we should go back." Evans said, has rolled over and jumped into the water.

The three dragged the inflatable life raft onto the beach and tied it to the reef, and returned to the camp with exhaustion and hope.

From a long distance, they noticed that on the beach outside the camp, there was a bonfire burning with thick smoke. Outside the bonfire, a small cone-shaped tent was surrounded by umbrella cloth.

When the sea breeze brought thick smoke to the pavement, the three of them also smelled a little meaty smell mixed in the thick smoke.

"you are back"

Hawks waved his hand from a long distance, and said proudly, "During the ebb tide, I caught a dozen sea fish in my trap, and I turned them all into smoked fish."

"It seems that our hope of leaving here is getting bigger and bigger." Evans and Sterling looked at each other, and there was a strong look of hope in the eyes of the two captains.

In the following three or four days, Captain Evans continued to explore this huge lagoon on a repaired life raft, either alone or with Wei Ran, and by the way, he also shared the results and experience of these days. , All recorded in detail on the notepad.

And Sterling stayed in the camp. With the help of Hawks, he chopped down a silver-leaf tree with the impractical pipe axe, and with great difficulty cut out a piece enough to repair the ship. planks.

In these days, Hawks still hasn't found any wood that can be used to make hunting bows, but his trap that uses various internal organs and food scraps as bait unexpectedly caught a lot of sea fish.In addition, there are more and more dried smoked fish hanging from the coconut trees next to the camp.

As for Wei Ran, he seized every opportunity to record the results of everyone's labor with a camera.

However, what puzzled him was that he had touched the northern tip of the island twice in the past few days, but through peeping through the camera, he found that Jiro's physical condition seemed to be getting better and better. Kira seems to have a physical problem, wearing his one-piece flight suit from beginning to end, and needs Jiro's help to eat and drink.

In the early morning of this day, sparks were flying from the still burning bonfire blown by the bitter sea breeze, and fine white sand was blown up, waking up the sleeping people.

Glancing at the gloomy sky in the distance, Evans glanced at the time on his watch, sat up and said, "It looks like the weather is going to change, don't go to sleep, before the wind and rain come, everyone strengthen the shelter .”

"Wait a moment"

Hawks, who also sat up, pointed to the sea on the west side of the island he was facing and shouted, "What do you see?!"

Hearing this, everyone subconsciously turned around and looked at the lagoon sea surface on the west side of the island that was wrinkled by the sea wind. Sure enough, there seemed to be something floating on the sea surface!
"Binoculars!" Evans and Sterling shouted in unison.

Hearing this, Wei Ran subconsciously handed the binoculars he had just picked up to Evans.

After receiving the binoculars, Evans only took a look, and his breath became short of breath, "It's a life buoy! It looks like Hawkes' life buoy!"

"Let me see!" Before Sterling finished speaking, Evans handed over the binoculars.

After just a glance, Sterling handed the binoculars back to Wei Ran, and at the same time said affirmatively, "It's Hawkes' lifebuoy, and I also saw Victor's lifejacket! There must be a weapon bag tied underneath it!" "

"It's indeed ours!" Just as Wei Ran finished speaking, the telescope in his hand was snatched by Hawkes. At this time, the two captains had already run out of the camp and towards the sea!
"Let's go too!" Hawkes dropped the binoculars and was about to run out.

"You reinforce the camp!" Sterling turned around and shouted, and at the same time accelerated to overtake Evans, and ran northward after chasing the life buoy floating on the sea on the beach.

Wei Ran and Hawkes looked at each other, "Would you like to take a look?"

"Of course!" Hawkes said as he climbed up the coconut tree, "but before that, help me get all the dried fish off, I don't want them all blown away."

Hearing this, Wei Ran, who had already walked out of the camp, could only turn around and come back, patiently took the strips of dried smoked fish that Hawkes had pulled down, and threw them onto a spread out umbrella cloth.

It took less than 2 minutes to collect all the dried fish, and wrapped them up and tied them firmly to the tree trunk. Wei Ran was the first to run out of the camp to catch up.

Seeing this, Hawkes even forgot to pull out the ax pinned to his waist, so he rushed out.

At this time, Evans had already passed the center of the island, and even surpassed the floating objects in the water. He himself also ran into the sea with splashes, and swam to the lifebuoy that continued to be pushed northward by the wind and current.

And Evans continued to run north, trying to stop the lifebuoy a little further ahead.

But the two of them didn't notice that Jiro, who was urinating on the beach outside the camp, also noticed the water in the camp at the northern end of the island less than 100 meters away from them. Floaters!
Ignoring the faucet on his lower body, Jiro rubbed his sleepy eyes, then immediately reacted, pulled out the 1911 pistol at his waist in a panic, loaded the bullets tremblingly, and ran away wearing only a dirty loincloth over!

Almost as soon as it ran onto the beach, Wei Ran noticed the other party, and immediately shouted at the top of his voice, reminding the two captains who were more than 100 meters away from them.But in this howling wind, how could the two captains hear his voice!

Fortunately, Captain Evans, who was about to go into the water, also noticed Jiro, but this unarmed Indian captain just looked back at Wei Ran and Hawkes, and then glanced at Stella, who still hadn't caught up with the life buoy. Lin, then bent down to pick up a stone and rushed towards Jiro!

Hawkes also didn't stop. He didn't even shout, but subconsciously pulled out the pipe ax at his waist!

Gritting his teeth, Wei Ran, who knew that he couldn't help him at all, took a deep breath, took out the camera bag hard-heartedly, blocked the flying sand with his body in the sky full of yellow sand, and replaced the camera as quickly as possible. He took the ultra-telephoto lens, and then he got down on the whole body, relying on the camera bag itself, and pointed the lens at Deputy Captain Sterling who was swimming towards the life buoy in the morning glow, and pointed at the stone like Johns Captain Evans, who launched a death charge like the USS Dayton destroyer, aimed at Hawks, who was running fast with an ax clenched in his hand, and also aimed at Hawkes, who was wearing only a loincloth and holding a 1911 pistol in his hand. Jiro!
Thanks to the structural characteristics of the wind-up camera itself, Wei Ran, who knew that he could not change history at all, also made his shooting speed unprecedentedly efficient.

As the shutter opened and closed again and again, Jiro finally raised the 1911 pistol with both hands, aimed at Captain Evans who had already raised the stone and was about to throw it, and pulled the trigger!
"boom!"

At the same time that the sound of the gun was blown into the ears by the gust of wind, Wei Ran also briefly released the shutter.Captain Evans couldn't help but let go of the stone in his hand, and while falling to the ground, he also hugged Jiro's leg!

Anxiously looking at Hawks who was running towards him, and then at Sterling in the sea, Jiro finally aimed his gun at Deputy Captain Sterling, and pulled the trigger without hesitation!
"Bang!" Amid another gunshot borne by the wind, Wei Ran also let go of the shutter again.

But at this time, his eyes did not leave the viewfinder frame, but looked at the back of Hawkes, and pressed the shutter again while he raised the ax in his hand.

With the sound of the shutter, the Indian pipe ax ignored the muzzle aimed at him, ignored Jiro's threatening shout, and flew out of his hand in circles. After flying for a long distance, at this Before the last frame of the roll of film ran out, it was accurately set on Jiro's chest!
Sighing secretly, Wei Ran put away the camera and camera bag at the fastest speed, got up again, and ran to Ai who was still clinging to Jiro's thigh as fast as he could against the sea breeze and the fine sand that dazzled his eyes. Captain Vince ran to the blood-stained sea, and also ran to Hawks who finally let out a heart-piercing roar.