War Photographer's Notebook

In the rescue buoy that accommodated five people, the atmosphere was inevitably a little tense because Spielfa had woken up.

Fortunately, Heidi explained the current situation in French very quickly, focusing especially on the fact that their raft and the bodies they picked up were washed away by the waves, and that the only one in the buoy was the German. The fact of having a weapon.

After Heidi finished explaining, Phil also used the sugar cubes that belonged to Spear to make a cup of thick sugar water and handed it to the other party. Spear, who took the sugar water, also gratefully expressed his thanks in French.

Although there was a language barrier, the atmosphere relaxed a lot as the glass of sugar water was taken down. Immediately afterwards, Phil took down the armistice agreement signed by him and Julian, read it aloud in English one by one, and Heidi was given plenty of time to translate it into French.

After confirming that the fleeing couple was willing to abide by these agreements, Phil found the pen that belonged to Wei Ran and asked Heidi to copy the agreements in French in the blank space provided in advance, and asked her and Spear signed their respective names.

Nailing the map full of promises on the cabinet door again, Phil said enthusiastically, "Okay, from now on, you two are welcome to stay in this hotel on the sea. The conditions here are limited and the supply of supplies is particularly tight. so."

"Wow!"

Before Phil could finish his welcome speech, a big and scary wave had already hit the observation tower hard. Suddenly, the buoy began to shake violently, and even the oil lamp hanging above its head kept shaking. As for the few people standing, they all fell to the ground without checking.

"Hold everything steady!"

Wei Ran shouted and reminded, "If necessary, lie down on the floor and hold on to things around you to avoid being hit by things falling from your head!"

Just as Phil and Heidi were busy translating Wei Ran's reminder into Latin or French, the second wave also came up. The buoy was righted by the waves almost instantly, and swayed again without stopping. Toward the other end.

The people inside the buoy did not fare much better either. Wei Ran, Phil and Heidi who were lying on the floor almost left the floor for an instant. Immediately afterwards, Phil hit the ladder leading to the top observation tower. Wei Ran He and Heidi collided together and finally slid to the edge of the wall.

Before the inertia carried by the body completely disappeared, the buoy changed its direction and began to tilt. Seeing this, Wei Ran quickly grabbed Heidi's arm and grabbed the bed leg with his other hand.

Amid everyone's exclamations, the buoy began to tilt in the opposite direction again, and Heidi crashed into Wei Ran's arms again.

"Quick! Catch it!"

Wei Ran, whose ribs were almost broken, held back his breath and yelled. At the same time, he grabbed Heidi's wrist with his hand and asked her to grab the ladder of the bunk bed.

When Heidi finally stabilized her figure, Wei Ran finally had time to look at the other people in the buoy.

At this time, Phil was like a sloth, wrapping his arms and legs on the ladder leading to the deck and hugging him tightly.

On the bed opposite, Julian held on to the railing with his only uninjured hand, while using his uninjured right foot to stare hard at the railing at the end of the bed to maintain his balance.

Looking at Spear again, this guy is currently riding on the hammock, holding on to the hammock with his legs and his uninjured hand, just like a solitary egg, following the swing of the buoy. It's swinging.

"Wow!"

While swinging back and forth, the radio distress device belonging to Julian fell from the head of his bed, slid to the other side as the buoy tilted, and hit a cabinet heavily.

"Crash!" There was another friction sound, and the rescue device slid back and hit the bedside table.

Seeing that the radio was about to hit him, Wei Ran, who had already climbed up the bed ladder to stand up, stretched out his feet to step on the radio device, then slowly squatted down and sat it under his butt.

"Thank you!" Julian shouted in German.

"nothing!"

Wei Ran responded with the same loud voice, reached out to open a cupboard under the bed, stuffed the rescue device in, and then locked the cupboard door before the wooden wedges, hammers and other items inside could escape.

"Heidi, help me ask them!" Spear shouted weakly.

"What are you asking?" Heidi responded loudly to the other party's call.

"Ask them what direction the wind is blowing now! It's best to ask the gentleman next to the ladder to go up and measure the wind speed!"

Spear said loudly in French, "Tell them, I'm a meteorologist. If I know the current direction of the wind, I can roughly know where this buoy will drift!"

"How about you go up and test it yourself?" Before Heidi could answer, Wei Ran responded loudly in French.

"Do you speak French?" Spier looked at Wei Ran who stood up again in surprise.

"Of course! I'm a linguist!" Wei Ran's tone contained undisguised sarcasm.

"I'm injured, sir!" Spear said, "otherwise I would have gone up to have a look. This is very important information!"

"In this situation, anyone who goes up to observe the sea conditions will be injured."

Wei Ran sneered and said, "We don't have many medicines. If someone gets injured again, you won't have any medicine to use."

After saying this, Spear finally calmed down, and even Heidi, who was about to say something, remained silent.

The two Frenchmen knew very clearly that what Wei Ran said was true. Once someone was injured, the German pilot with the gun would not be the first to cut off the medicine. Neither did Wei Ran and Phil, who were not qualified "doctors". If you don't treat yourself badly, then maybe it will only be Spear or Heidi who will eventually have your drug use reduced.

"Wow!"

Just when the buoy fell into another kind of silence, more and more things began to slide on the floor. Among these things were the kettles that had been filled with hot water to keep Heidi and Spear warm, and some The clothes and supplies that belonged to Spear were seized from Julian's bed, as well as some valuable small items.

But inside, there were also the revolver with no bullets that Phil originally had on his waist, and the P38 pistol that slipped from Julian's bed!

"Julian! Is your gun loaded?" Wei Ran, who noticed this scene, shouted nervously in German.

"There are bullets! But they are not loaded!"

Julian answered this question in French, and followed it with another question, "How do you know French?"

"My girlfriend is French!" Wei Ran yelled and made nonsense, "What about you! How come you can't speak French!"

"For the invasion of France!" shouted Julian in response.

"That's a good reason!"

While Wei Ran was responding, his eyes were not staring at the two pistols sliding back and forth on the floor. Instead, he was looking at Heidi next to him, Spear on the hammock, and Phil in the distance without any trace. Fan.

It was completely an accident that Phil's pistol slipped. After all, with his posture showing almost half of his buttocks, it was strange that the pistol attached to his lower back did not fall out.

But it was strange that Julian's pistol also fell off. He remembered clearly that Julian's pistol had been pressed under the pillow all the time. It could fall out. It was hard to tell whether the other party did it on purpose, especially when he had been there just now. Answered in French about whether the pistol was loaded.

Looking at Heidi, who was hugging the bed ladder and huddled at the foot of the bed, this girl was muttering a prayer with her eyes tightly closed.

In contrast, it was Spear whose eyes seemed to be moving back and forth following the two pistols.

This is a bait, Wei Ran muttered with almost certainty, and then he didn't care about the two pistols that slipped to his feet several times. He just hugged the bed frame fixed to the wall and waited silently for the buoy. clam down.

However, this manic wave lasted far longer than everyone expected, from morning to noon, from noon to afternoon, and even until the oil lamp in the buoy ran out of fuel and went out, until Phil shouted that there was a wave outside the observation tower above his head. It's completely dark now and it shows no signs of abating.

During this whole day of shaking, except for the expressionless Julian, the others in the buoy, including Wei Ran, had already vomited more than once due to seasickness, and the buoy was also filled with a strong fishy smell.

"We must have passed through the Pas de Calais!"

In the invisible buoy, Spier was lying on the hammock and said loudly and confidently.

"Why do you say that?" Wei Ran asked loudly.

"Only in the narrowest position of the strait can this buoy shake so violently!"

Spear said loudly, "Such a long-lasting wave only occurs when the ocean current in the strait is reversed due to the northeasterly wind! If the ocean current still flows from southwest to northeast, there will be no such big waves at all!"

"Keep talking!" Wei Ran shouted noncommittally.

"If the north-easterly winds are strong enough, we might be blown as far as Beachy Head in Eastbourne, England!"

Spear retched after saying this, and then continued, "If Beachy Head hadn't stopped us, we might have drifted to the Isle of Wight!"

Wei Ran didn't ask any more questions, and the buoy became quiet again. The only sounds left were the swaying of the buoy, the friction of various debris sliding over people's vomit, and the sound of vomiting from time to time.

But Wei Ran knew that Spier's ulterior motive just now was just like the pistol thrown by Julian. It was also a test to see if Julian, who could understand French, would do something!

As for Wei Ran, he was just watching the excitement at the moment. At most, he was just wondering when he would have the opportunity to complete the remaining filming tasks.

In the midst of the hardships of everyone in the buoy, when the aviation watch on Weihan's wrist showed that it was already four o'clock in the morning, the sway of the buoy finally became smaller and smaller, and finally before five o'clock, it recovered enough for people to stand. degree of stability.

Untying the belt that was tied to the bed frame, Wei Ran unsteadily took off the oil lamp hanging above his head, filled it with kerosene, then relit it and hung it above his head.

"Looks like we need to clean up the buoy."

As Phil spoke, he bent down and picked up the stained revolver. After shaking it off with disgust, he picked up the P38 pistol and handed it to Julian.

"Thank you"

As Julian spoke, he took the dirty pistol handed to him with a towel and asked in Latin, "Mr. Phil, can you help me go to the deck?"

"sure"

Phil said casually, "I'm about to go up there too. If this damn storm doesn't stop, I'm going to wet my pants."

After saying that, he had put the dirty pistol into his trouser pocket, helped Julian stand up, and then said in English, "Victor, help me, Mr. Julian is going to go there." deck."

"Hold on"

As Wei Ran spoke, he reached under the pillow on the upper bunk and took out the Robert camera that had been dug out of the body of the German navigator and hung it around his neck. Then he walked over and helped Phil and Julian to the ladder. .

Let Phil climb up the observation tower with the rope first, and Wei Yan also tied the other end of the rope around Julian's waist.

With the cooperation of pulling from above and supporting from below, Julian, whose hands and feet were injured, was helped onto the deck by Phil and Wei Ran.

At the same time, in the smelly buoy, Spear lowered his voice and asked in French, "Heidi, Heidi, do you have the strength now?"

"What's wrong?" Heidi forced herself to ask.

"Do you remember the radio that Victor threw into the cabinet? It's under your bed." Spear whispered anxiously.

"I know." Heidi got off the bed as she spoke and fumbled to open the cabinet.

"Quick, throw it into the sea!"

Spear immediately said, "Otherwise, once the weather gets better and that damn German pilot uses it to contact the rescue, we will all be caught and killed!"

"But."

"Those two British pilots must want you to do the same!"

Spier's tone became more urgent, "With them here, they will definitely not let the German hurt you, but once the damn German successfully calls for help, neither the two of us nor the two pilots will do anything." Think better of it.”

Heidi gritted her teeth. In the end, out of her trust in Spear, she took out the radio distress device from the cabinet. After thinking about it, she picked up a sweater that belonged to Spear and stuffed it into it. Go, and then climbed up the ladder to the deck. Carefully, she raised her head and glanced at the three men standing on the side deck holding the railing to urinate. Heidi quickly opened the door on the other side of the observation tower, lay on the edge of the deck, and put the radio distress device wrapped in a sweater in her hand. Carefully threw it into the water.

"Wow!"

The rescue device that fell into the water made a fleeting splash of water. Thanks to the sound of the waves, the sound of falling into the water did not attract the attention of the three guards on the other side.

Secretly breathing a sigh of relief, Heidi got back into the buoy before the three men finished urinating.

"Did you throw it away?" Spear asked in a low voice before Heidi could stand still.

"Throw it away," Heidi said in a panic.

Hearing this, Spier was visibly relieved, "Now it's better, now the Germans are less likely to find us."

Hearing this, Heidi also glanced at Julian's bed subconsciously, but the uneasiness in her heart became stronger and stronger.

"Heidi, Spear, do you want to come up here and get some air?"

At this moment, Wei Yan lay down at the hatch and shouted in French, "If you plan to come up, help Spear under the ladder and tie the rope around your waist."

"Have they discovered it?" Heidi asked in panic.

"No, don't panic, dear." Spear gritted his teeth, "Help me up, let's go up and get some air."

Hearing this, Heidi hesitated for a moment, and finally helped Spear get out of the hammock, staggered to the ladder, and tied the rope around her waist.

Dragged by Wei Ran and Phil, Spear, who only had an injured arm, easily climbed onto the deck. A moment later, Heidi also climbed up.

“Still can’t see the stars”

Phil held up the telescope and looked above his head and said with regret. Although the wind and waves had stopped, there were still dark clouds in the sky, and thin sea fog gradually filled the surroundings. They could not see anything again. arrive.

“At least the air is fresh”

Wei Ran said, having already taken down the oil lamp that had been extinguished in the watchtower, "I'll go down and refill the oil lamp. We need to get something to eat as soon as possible while the weather is calm."

After saying that, without waiting for Phil's response, he took off the oil lamp and returned to the buoy. He slowly filled the lamp with kerosene. Wei Ran observed the buoy again until he determined that the rescue radio was missing. , then I realized that Heidi, who had just sneaked up, had thrown something into the sea.

Of course the three of them noticed her behavior just now. To be precise, they noticed it when the girl climbed up. Even Julian guessed that she might throw the distress radio into the sea.

Does Julian care?

Of course he didn't care, at least he had just rejected Weiran and Phil's intention to block the radio station.

In his words, after the mast antenna was missing, the rescue device could no longer function. Instead of leaving it in the buoy and disturbing the two Frenchmen, it would be better to throw it into the sea to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

Because of this, the three of them tacitly moved to the edge of the deck before Heidi climbed onto the deck and started competing to see who could pee the farthest, pretending not to notice her little movements at all.

After confirming that the radio was missing, Wei Ran climbed up again with the oil lamp, lit it, adjusted it to maximum brightness, and hung it again in the watchtower.

After being busy for a while, the surrounding fog weakened a little, and the red outline of the rising sun jumping out of the horizon could even be seen in the distance.

"Friends, are you interested in taking some photos?" Wei Ran asked in French, and then asked again in English.

"I have no objection." Phil looked at it, "Where should we shoot?"

"Phil has no objection, what about you three?" Wei Ran asked again in French.

"We have no objection either"

Spear smiled and said, "But if it's convenient, I hope to take a photo of Heidi and I alone."

"Of course," Wei Ran said and looked at Julian.

"I don't care." Julian, who had an injured leg, looked around, "It's just in front of the watchtower, right?"

"sure"

Wei Ran nodded happily, took off the oil lamp he had just hung, and temporarily hung it on the deck railing. Then he directed Heidi and others to stand around the watchtower.

Under the deliberate efforts of Julian and others, Phil and Heidi stood as if they were a couple. Julian stood on the other side of Phil, and Spear stood on the other side of Heidi. the other side.

Deliberately moving away from the bright oil lamp on the railing behind him, Wei Ran decisively pressed the shutter after including most of the rising sun's outline in the frame.

"Victor, please take a photo of me and Julian alone first."

Phil waited for Wei Ran to finish filming and said, "Then I will take him down first. I will clean them later, change their dressings, and make breakfast."

"no problem"

Wei Ran nodded indifferently, and after Heidi helped Spear get out of the way, he took a group photo of the two of them.

Helping Phil lower Julian down with the rope, Wei Ran took another photo of Spear and Heidi.

"Mr. Victor, thank you for saving Heidi and I." Spear said gratefully while Wei Ran put away the camera.

"It's nothing." Wei Ran smiled, "You should thank Heidi, she saved you."

"I will always be grateful to her for the rest of my life," Spear said affectionately. "If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have survived."

"Do you need me to help you go down?" Wei Ran changed the subject noncommittally. He really couldn't stand the disgusting face of this guy. If Heidi hadn't been by his side, he would have almost thrown this guy into the sea and drowned. .

"Thanks, but no need yet."

Spear smiled gratefully, "Can Heidi and I stay on the deck for a little longer?"

"sure"

Wei Ran nodded happily, "By the way, you can help me keep an eye on the surroundings to see if there are any fishing boats or planes overhead."

"Leave it to us!" Spear promised, patting his chest.

"Ms. Heidi, please be careful, the deck is very slippery."

Wei Ran reminded him with ulterior motives, then picked up the kerosene lamp and walked into the watchtower.

After looking at Spear and Heidi for the last time, Wei Ran hung up the oil lamp without haste, deliberately opened both hatches of the watchtower, and then followed the ladder back to the inside of the buoy.

At this time, Julian had sat on the bed again, and Phil was busy wiping the vomit on the floor with Spear's windbreaker.

Seeing this, Wei Ran also picked up a pair of pants that belonged to Spear and helped wipe the vomit on the floor. From time to time, he would climb up to the deck and use a rope to help throw the two pieces of clothing into the sea to rinse them off and take precautions. He held onto Spear to prevent him from pushing Heidi into the water.

Not long after, Heidi also helped Spear down, and after putting him on the bed, she also picked up a shirt belonging to Spear as a rag and joined in the work of cleaning up the vomit.

After the three people worked for nearly an hour, the vomit in the buoy was finally cleaned up, but a thick fog filled the outside of the buoy.

"Shall we have a drink later?" Julian suggested in French, "There is also a bottle of brandy in the cabinet."

"Phil, Mr. Julian suggested having a drink later." Weiran said to Phil who was sorting the medicine while heating the cans with an oil stove.

"This is probably the best news today," Phil said in English, "but I have some bad news."

"What bad news?"

Wei Ran secretly glanced at Heidi and Spear, who were sitting side by side on the bed, whispering, and then asked in English with a normal expression.

"Our medicine reserves are low. The swing of the buoy and the vomit on the floor have contaminated most of the medicines. The remaining medicines are only enough to replace the wounds of Mr. Julian and Mr. Spear."

Phil paused and said conclusively, "In other words, by this time tomorrow, they will have no medicine to use."

"Don't tell Mr. Julian the bad news yet."

Wei Ran said while busy, "Let's all have a drink later. Maybe by tomorrow, we will have been discovered by the rescue ship."

"I hope there will be such a good thing"

Phil muttered worriedly, then switched to Latin, which only he and Julian could understand. After asking for the location of the bottle of brandy, he opened the corresponding cabinet door.

There is a wooden box stuffed in this cabinet. In addition to several bottles of brandy, there are also several bottles of Coca-Cola filled in German glass bottles, as well as several packs of cigarettes, two decks of playing cards and a chess set, plus two small books. "My Struggle" written by Hu Hu.

“Looks like we’re having fun.”

Phil shouted with a bright smile, "Not only can we have a drink, but after we are full, we can also play cards or play a few games of chess. To be honest, I am a master of chess."

"Before that, please give me a pack of cigarettes." Wei Ran made his request with a smile.

"We still have cigars."

Phil patted his pants pocket, "I'll give you a cigar later."

"Although I don't know what you are talking about, don't forget that we still need someone to stand guard on the deck." Julian reminded in Latin.

"I'll be thinking about it."

Phil weighed the playing cards in his hand and said maliciously in Latin, "Let's eliminate an unlucky guy later through the card game and go to the deck to have some fun."

"What are you going to play?" Julian asked equally confidently.

"Cribbage," Phil said without thinking, "How about we play Cribbage? The first person to be eliminated will be sent out to watch on the deck."

"No problem" Julian nodded indifferently.

"Friends, after dinner, how about we play Kribiki?"

Phil switched to English and asked, "How about the loser goes to stand guard on the deck to blow the breeze, and the winner can have a glass of brandy?"

"I have no problem with Spear." Heidi and Spear were the first to agree after looking at each other.

"I don't have any objections," Wei Ran agreed happily. Thanks to his experience in Love Letters, he really knew how to play this card game.

"We'd better find something to use as chips, that would be interesting." Phil said like a professional gambler.

(End of this chapter)