War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1154 The smell of meat in the jungle

When the white light faded, the first thing Wei Ran smelled in his nose was still the unique smell of wet rot in the tropical rainforest.It's just that, in this wet and rotten smell, there is still a trace of the unique smell of burning mosquito coils.

Patiently waiting until his vision returned to normal, he found that he was hiding behind a large tree lying horizontally, and the blue smoke was rising from the small canvas bag at his waist, which was exactly the one he had captured with his own hands. Cupronickel mosquito coil.

Looking around again, it was almost exactly the same as when I met Hugo and others for the first time. Behind this lying big tree, there was a row of young white soldiers covered in mud and the only indigenous soldier, Warolo. !

And in the canopy of this lying tree, there is also the corpse of a soldier in British military uniform.At this moment, Hugo was kneeling next to the corpse, examining something.

Taking this opportunity, Wei Ran took a look at the configuration of these young soldiers. Among these soldiers, there was a fully equipped three-man Bren machine gun team and four Enfield riflemen.And myself and Valoro seem to be non-staff members, but they use the Owen submachine gun like Hugo.

Unobtrusively glanced at one of Valoro's shrunken ears and the hideous scar that had healed on his cheek, and then glanced at the same healed scar on Hugo's calf in the distance, Wei Ran stretched out his hand and touched the side of the top of his head, There was only a scar that didn't seem to have grown hair, and even the scar on his thigh had also healed, only a pink and tender scar like a centipede.

From these small details, he knew that a long time had passed before the white light.

On the other hand, the details made him secretly think that something was wrong. At this time, no matter whether he, the other soldiers around him, or even the native Warolo and Hugo in the distance, everyone was wearing "open crotch pants" that smelled like shit. ".And on almost everyone's exposed skin, there are more or less jungle sores.

At this moment, Wei Ran also felt a strange but familiar unbearable pain in his buttocks, and his stomach began to ache.

Thanks to the experience of having diarrhea at sea, he immediately realized that he had dysentery.Not caring much, Wei Ran insisted on moving towards the root of the tree. It was only then that he realized why everyone was wearing crotch pants. I am afraid that all members of this team are suffering from dysentery.

"Victor, come and have a look." Hugo greeted Wei Ran in a low voice while waiting for Wei Ran's condition to improve.

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately bent over and looked at the corpse that was half blocked by Hugo just now.

However, with just one glance, he immediately frowned. This was indeed the corpse of an Australian soldier.

Although the corpse has not decomposed yet, there is no flesh on the thighs, calves, and arms. Only on the small piece of skin left on the right arm, half of the body wearing a boxing glove can be vaguely discerned. There is also a kangaroo tattoo with a pistol in the pouch.

Of course, the suffering he suffered was not limited to this. Even his back seemed to have been taken off a large piece with a knife, so that the bones were exposed.

And under this "fresh" corpse, there is still a puddle of blood that hasn't dried up yet and hasn't attracted flies.

"They are eating people"

Wei Ran frowned and said in a low voice, "Their supply has been interrupted, and the person who cut off the meat probably didn't go far."

"Almost as I guessed"

After Hugo finished speaking, he changed to the native language and said something to Valoro. The latter nodded immediately. After some searching, he led the team to step on the ground that almost submerged his knees in the dense forest along with some marks left on the surface. The black mud moved forward with difficulty.

Along the way, Wei Ran also found that the soldiers who walked in front often pulled up their stomachs uncontrollably, but they seemed to be numb, allowing the sprayed paste to flow down their thighs , simply do not bother to deal with.

Before he could get used to the nausea, they found some corpses of wounded devil soldiers who seemed to have been shot at close range along the way.

These corpses, which already had a strong corpse smell, were already covered with mosquitoes, but it was still obvious that most of them were bullets in the eyebrows, and a few of them maintained the appearance of cutting themselves with bayonets.

After passing the scattered corpses of wounded soldiers, until the strong corpse odor that seemed to penetrate from the nose all the way to every cell in the lung lobes dissipated, everyone smelled the faint smoke and smoke that seemed to come from the front. Meaty smell.

There was no need to remind them, these exhausted soldiers immediately raised their weapons and guarded the left and right.

Soon, as the distance got closer, they finally saw, after gently pushing aside a cluster of bushes, that there were a dozen or so ghosts sitting around a bonfire just beside a boulder directly in front of them. superior.

Beside them, there are still several [-] large caps, and in the hands of one of the devils, on the moss-covered stone, there are also an Owen submachine gun that was obviously captured and a devil. Type [-] machine gun.

And on the trunk of a small tree four or five meters away from these devils, there was an additional man wearing an Australian uniform, glasses and a British steel helmet, and his mouth was gagged.

Hugo lightly gestured to the white soldier holding the machine gun, and the latter immediately hid behind a big tree with the No. [-] machine gunner carrying the spare barrel, and carefully set up the machine gun.

At the same time, the rest of the people also took out one or two machine gun magazines from their bodies and handed them to the deputy squad leader who seemed to be in charge of the machine gun team.And Valoro left the hiding place cautiously.

When the machine gun team was ready, the rest of the team carefully found cover. Like Wei Ran, they endured the abdominal pain caused by dysentery with a ferocious expression and prepared to fire.

Soon, Valoro came back quietly, shook his head first, and then said something with his mouth.

Seeing this, Hugo decisively raised the submachine gun in his hand and pulled the trigger to shoot out the dense barrage first.

The gunshot sounded like a signal. For a moment, submachine guns, rifles, and machine guns all fired together, covering the enemies surrounding the long campfire with ease.

Under the premise of mental calculation and unintentional calculation, and the firepower is superior, even though the number of the opponent seems to be a few more than Wei Ran and others, but they are too close, so there is no counterattack at all, and they are swept away. They fell to the ground, and some of them, even though they were not shot dead, fell into the bonfire, screaming and screaming as they were burned.

After the brief firefight ended, no one in the squad led by Hugo left the bunker. Instead, they each reloaded their bullets. Then, the soldiers with Enfield rifles shot at the enemies one by one from a distance. Only then did they cover each other, and touched them with extra caution.

From this point, Wei Ran can see that Hugo at this time is much more mature and cautious than when he first met, commanding his soldiers to launch a sneak attack recklessly.

Carefully approaching, Hugo and the others did not rush to rescue the soldier wearing glasses who was tied to the tree. Instead, they directed the crowd to shoot the corpses for a second time before dragging them to a distance. , together with those dirty backpacks, conducted a cursory search.

It's a pity that these corpses don't have any decent supplies except for a few large bottles of addictive and beastly marching friends and more or less bullets.On the other hand, on the long bonfire, a thick wooden stick was used to carry two strings of 15 ghost lunch boxes filled with a little fragrance.

Under Wei Ran's cold eyes, a curious Caucasian rifleman took down a lunch box and opened it, only to find that besides a large piece of cassava that he did not know where he got it, there was also a layer of palm leaves. Layers of packages, in Wei Ran's view, there are several small packages similar to zongzi.

Almost when Wei Ran took a step back subconsciously and turned his head, this overly curious soldier also picked up a greasy devil bayonet and cut open the small bag.The rest of the white soldiers also subconsciously surrounded them.

"vomit--!"

As Wei Ran expected, these young soldiers retched involuntarily when they saw what was inside!
It was a piece of flesh with skin on it, and there seemed to be half a tattoo on the slightly rolled skin. It was half a kangaroo, half wearing a boxing glove, and a kangaroo tattoo with a pistol in the waist pouch!

Wei Ran clearly remembered that not long ago, he saw the almost completely symmetrical tattoo on the other half of the corpse.

Trying to shake off the discomfort in his throat, Wei Ran looked at Hugo, only to find that he had already picked up an Owen submachine gun and a Winchester 12 shotgun from the mossy stone .

"I remember you also have a trench gun." Hugo handed over the trench gun while speaking, "Do you want it?"

"never mind"

Wei Ran smiled and waved his left hand, "I'm left-handed, if I use this, I'll be hit in the face by bullet casings."

"In that case it's mine"

As Hugo said, he threw the trench gun on his shoulder and carried it on his back, and then handed over the Owen submachine gun that he had just picked up in the other hand, together with the 7-barrel magazine bag, to him. The soldier who seemed to be the deputy squad leader asked him to replace the Enfield rifle in his hand.

It wasn't until the seized weapons were distributed that Hugo and Wei Ran looked at the white soldier who was still tied to the tree, nodding towards them and writhing and struggling.

Hugo winked at Valoro, who immediately walked over, waved the machete in his hand, cut off the rope, and then pulled out the rag stuffed in the opponent's mouth.

"Thank God, you guys still remember that someone is tied up here."

The soldier wearing glasses ripped off the rope wrapped around his body while speaking, "If you come later, I'm afraid I will be eaten by those demons."

"I'm the captain of this investigation team, Hugo." Hugo stretched out his hand after the opponent limped over on one leg, "Which company do you belong to?"

"I'm from the Sydney Morning Post company"

The blond white soldier, who looked far less than 30 years old, shook hands with Hugo, then took off his glasses and wiped them off and explained, "Just kidding, hello, I'm Brody, a military reporter from the Sydney Morning News. Sharp, you've probably seen the pictures of the bombed Darwin Harbor in the Sydney Morning Post."

"Is that what you shot?" The deputy squad leader who had just put on a submachine gun asked curiously.

"No." Military reporter Brody spread his hands, "but I sent that photo back to the agency."

"Okay, Brody, how did you get caught?" Hugo asked, ignoring the other's vain show off just now.

"I was originally traveling with a scouting party"

Brody sat on the rocks by the campfire, "But unfortunately, our team stepped on a landmine this morning, and more than half of the people were injured or killed after the grenades that were tied together exploded."

Speaking of this, Brody shivered with lingering fear, "Then those ogres ambushed us with machine guns. Only Jock and I escaped alive. I think you have seen him."

As he said that, Brody pointed to the lunch boxes that were still on the campfire, and the piece of meat that was almost cooked with tattoos, "Well, at least you must have seen some of him."

"You're really disgusting." After the white soldier who owed the lunch box to open, he couldn't help but started retching again.

"In short, we didn't run very far."

Brody pointed to the corpses of the devils in the distance, "About noon, we were caught by those recruiting soldiers. Jock was shot in the thigh and bled a lot, and he died soon. Those bastards followed the blood Found us and cut off Jock's flesh."

Shivering again, Brody's tone became more trembling, "I guess, they kept me, I'm afraid they are also planning to use it to fill their stomachs."

While speaking, Brody lifted his shorts and trouser legs, and immediately afterward, everyone present frowned.On the part of his thigh with the most muscles, there is actually a Japanese-style chopstick with a sharpened end horizontally!Obviously, doing this is just to worry about him running away!

"It seems that we need to send you back." Hugo said and looked at Wei Ran, "Can you take this stick out?"

"I'm afraid not"

Wei Ran spread his hands, "I don't even have a medical kit on me, and we both suffer from dysentery. Frankly speaking, it's better for him to stay away from us, otherwise he will also suffer from dysentery."

"It seems that we need to send you back," Hugo said, frowning.

"Until then, can you help me find my backpack?"

Brody pleaded, "Not only is there my camera, but there's also a medical kit with some medicine that might treat dysentery."

"Where's your bag?"

Wei Ran and Hugo's eyes lit up immediately, the difference was that the latter was more concerned about the dysentery medicine in the medical kit, after all, all members of this team were afflicted by dysentery.

Wei Ran, who has relatively mild symptoms, pays attention to the other party's camera.Before the white light, he didn't take 10 photos. Now that he has the opportunity, he naturally wants to make up as much as possible.

"Not far from where we were caught"

Brody opened his mouth and said, "There is a big tree that has fallen down, and Jock's body is also there. In the direction where the roots point to, there is a big tree full of vines. I hid it on that tree. gone."

"Let me go find it." Wei Ran took the initiative to say, "You guys take a rest first, and make a stretcher by the way."

"Let's go back together, I'll ask Valoro to help make a stretcher first."

After Hugo finished speaking, he switched to the native language and communicated with Valoro. The latter nodded, and walked to a small tree not far away with a machete to start felling.

"Where did this trench gun come from?"

While Hugo asked, he also waved to the soldiers, including Wei Ran, to keep a little distance from Brody, so as not to contaminate the wound on the opponent's leg with uncontrollable excrement at any time.

"A month ago, when I went to the American camp to interview, I relied on a bet I won from a quartermaster by cheating."

After Brody sat on the stone and finished explaining, he added another sentence, "If you like it, I will give it to you. As long as you can kill a few enemies with it, I will be satisfied."

"Can you lend me your camera too?" Wei Ran asked before Hugo could speak.

"You want to borrow my camera?"

Brody immediately tensed up. Obviously, for him, he cared more about his weapon - the camera - than a shotgun that was won by a jackpot at the gambling table.

"I just wanted to take some photos for everyone"

Wei Ran said frankly, "Anyway, your leg is injured, and I have been a photographer before, so why don't you let me take a few photos for you on the front line? The photos I took can be regarded as the results of your work. At that time, I will ask Captain Hugo to send you the film and the camera together."

"A word is settled!"

Brody immediately agreed in front of his eyes, and then chattered and told Wei Ran about the key content to be filmed, and he also taught him some shooting skills by the way.

During the conversation between the two, with the help of two soldiers, Valoro made a simple stretcher with sticks and captured tent cloth, and the four soldiers with rifles worked together to carry the cloth with limited mobility. Roddy began to retreat the same way.

At the end of the team, Hugo also skillfully dismantled the Type [-] machine gun and threw various parts everywhere.Wei Ran, who was also left behind, hid a grenade in the pile of corpses and a certain lunch box respectively.

Taking the wounded Brody back to the side of the big tree where the body of the Australian soldier Jock was found at first with some difficulty, Wei Ran was also guided by him, smoothly from the canopy of a big tree, I found a backpack that was not too big, and what was fixed with the backpack, an ammunition bag full of medicines and a canvas belt with dozens of rounds of shotgun fixed.

Poured the medicine in the ammunition bag on a banana leaf, and after searching for a while, Wei Ran picked out a bottle of sulfathiazole, distributed a piece to everyone, and after eating the piece that belonged to him, conveniently Put this brown glass bottle into your bag.

At the same time, Brody also opened his backpack, first took out a box of copper-cased shotguns, handed it to Hugo together with the canvas ammunition belt, and then took out a British-made military flag from the bag Brand leather camera and a sealed cylinder for film.

"My address I have written to Hugo"

While talking, Brody replaced the camera with a new film, and put the old film that had already taken some photos into a sealed tube and put it in his pocket, and at the same time he did not forget to continue, "You can Remember to get the camera as soon as possible, no, mainly the film, even if this camera is broken by you, it doesn’t matter, but you must remember to send the film to me in time.”

"Don't worry, I will remember."

Wei Ran had already taken the camera from the other party while speaking, "Do you want to take a photo?"

"bring it on!"

The war reporter Brody said cheerfully, but his expression was obviously more about school exams.

Too lazy to argue, Wei Ran first took a close-up of the bloody remains of Jock, and then took a group photo of Hugo and the others as well as Brody.

It's just that most of the people in this group photo are covered in mud and are wearing crotch pants that smell like feces. The only Brody who is not suffering from dysentery is also lying on a stretcher, deliberately exposing the bruises on his legs. hurt.After taking the group photo, Wei Ran took advantage of the situation and stuffed the camera into his bag.

Watching the four riflemen walking back carrying the rifles replaced by Brody and the deputy squad leader, Hugo immediately greeted them in the native language.

Hearing this, Valoro immediately led the crowd forward, saying something in a native language that only Hugo could understand.

"Valoro said, there is that small waterfall ahead." Hugo translated, "Victor, do you remember that waterfall?"

"The waterfall where we shit together for those recruiters to eat?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously, "Did Susu survive?"

"Yes, that's the waterfall." After Hugo finished speaking, he switched to the native language again and started talking with Waloro.

But soon, he explained with a sigh, "Walolo said that when he sent the information with you and rushed back alone, Susu was already dead. He was killed by those demons."

At this time, there was a torrential rain on the head of the somewhat silent rainforest without warning, and Hugo also explained almost ravingly in the white noise, "Just like Neil and Kaikai, he was cut down. Limbs and head were missing, and a grenade was stuffed in the mouth."

After saying this, the only sound left in the jungle was the crackling of rain hitting the vegetation, and the remaining six people also temporarily hid under a big leafy tree after keeping a distance from Jock's body , temporarily avoiding the rain that covered almost all of his sight, and by the way, using the natural oversized shower to wash away the mud on his body and the open crotch pants that smelled like feces.

However, without waiting for Wei Ran to clean his trousers and boots, Valoro, who had just gone in the rain and didn't know where to go, ran back anxiously and said something in extremely fast dialect.

"What's the matter?" Wei Ran asked Hugo, who had an ugly face, amidst the increasingly strong smell of excrement.

"Someone's lighting a bonfire over there"

Hugo pointed to the direction where Valoro just ran, paused and said, "Waloro asked about the smell of meat, and found some other corpses, there are many, about seven or eight. Get ready, everyone, we Go and have a look."

After receiving the order, the remaining soldiers including Wei Ran immediately put on their clothes and shoes as quickly as possible, and under the leadership of Waloro, they braved the rain and touched the past.

Soon, they noticed that under a huge banyan tree, there were seven white corpses hanging by belts.

Without exception, all of these corpses had their legs, arms, backs and chests removed!
"It's them," Hugo said abruptly, "It's the missing investigation team we're looking for."

While talking, Hugo walked to a mutilated corpse that was shaking gently in the breeze, pointed to his frozen face of pain and horror and asked, "Victor, do you still remember him?"

"Remember"

Wei Ran sighed after shaking his head. The person Hugo pointed at was the field doctor who claimed to be a tailor.

"After Captain Di was killed in battle, the tailor took over the command of that platoon and led them back to the base camp."

Hugo said while dismantling the corpse, "Later, he gave up his job as a doctor in the field hospital, joined the investigation team, and became a squad leader with a medical kit to direct the investigation."

"Let me take a picture of him"

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already taken out the camera in his bag, took off his cowboy hat to shield him from the rainstorm, and took the last photo of this skilled tailor in his life amid the occasional bursts of meaty smell.

"Let's go," Hugo said softly in the rain, "We should go and see who ate our tailor."

(End of this chapter)