War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1547 Hot Air Balloon's Decision

"puff"

The corpse was half-lying down after being shot in the middle of the eyebrows. The body softened and fell to the ground, and was easily cured of all the pain and discomfort in the body by a conscientious veterinarian.

Without leaving in a hurry, Wei Ran carefully searched the three bodies and the room on the second floor. He was lucky enough to find a first aid kit and several American grenades.

  The grenades were commonplace, but in the first aid kit, a stack of 12 precious anesthetics was unexpectedly found, which was urgently needed in the hospital - even if there were only 12.

Tying the first aid kit around his waist, Wei Ran first carried the looted body to the first floor and threw it into the bathroom. Then he crawled under the car with the seized items and crawled through the small hole.

At this time, the manhole cover under the ambulance had been opened, and there was no one hiding inside.

Without hesitation, he carried the captured weapons and ammunition, rolled out of the chassis, then crawled out through the gap between the firewood pile and the wall, and saw the hot air balloon, sewing machine and children hiding in the shadows - fortunately, among these children were the landlord's children.

"Did you ask anything?"

The hot air balloon asked while Wei Ran was handing a set of silent weapons and matching ammunition to the sewing machine.

"It's the 269th Troop." Wei Ran paused and continued, "They are here to monitor the hospital. The purpose is unclear. The code for communication has failed."

"A pack of wild dogs raised by Shark Deaf"

Hot Air Balloon sneered in disgust, then handed over a canvas bag, "Also look at this, I just found it on the first floor."

After taking the package and weighing it, Wei Ran opened it and found that it contained a Canon NF1 camera, which was definitely the "latest model" in this era.

This camera is especially equipped with a huge lens. Looking at the camera bag, there are more than a dozen film canisters and a light meter inside.

"If the landlord had such a professional camera, there would be no need for us to take pictures for them." The sewing machine said subconsciously.

"Forget about it, we should leave here." Wei Ran returned the camera bag to the hot air balloon and urged in a low voice, "Return to the hospital as soon as possible before the Long Spear Party arrives."

"Okay, let's go back first."

The hot air balloon knew that now was not the time to chat, so he carried a child on his back, seized the opportunity, and ran to the narrow alley not far away under the cover of the shadows of the buildings.

Just as Wei Ran said, the Falangists had not arrived yet. The only thing they had to do when they ran back to the hospital was to hide in the shadows as much as possible to avoid being discovered by people who might be watching from a distance.

But Wei Ran, who was walking behind the hot air balloon, was distracted and thinking about another thing.

What was the purpose of those people who had just been killed staring at a hospital? If there was no camera, he would have guessed countless possibilities.

But when he saw the camera found in the hot air balloon, all his problems were answered.

It was obvious that the Yishelie people were planning to frame someone. They first blew up the leader of the Falange to provoke conflict, and then instigated them to enter the refugee camp and kill everyone inside.

  And then? Of course, expose the Falange for openly killing humanitarian aid workers!

There is no need to think about what will happen next. If everything goes well, the person in the Phalange Party who is responsible for contacting the Yiselites will die at the hands of the Palestinians, and the Phalange Party will be branded as a massacrer and have irreconcilable conflicts with the Palestinians.

As for the Yisheli people who once again successfully provoked a civil war, their goal has always been the "promised no-man's land."

  But that's not right.

Wei Ran frowned. He clearly remembered that when he captured the old wart-ridden soldier from the Soviet Union, the result of his analysis showed that there was someone behind the scenes who was planning to transfer the medical workers out of the refugee camp.

This is inconsistent, so what exactly was not considered carefully? Wei Ran, who had already walked into the narrow alley, frowned.

Suddenly, a smile of sudden realization appeared on his face hidden by the scarf.

He came from later times, and according to the information disclosed by later times, at least in the matter of being a shit-stirring stick, the small chairs were indeed not as professional as a certain gentleman country. It could even be said that they stirred the shit into pieces, not only failing to achieve the intended goal, but also splashing the toilet paper that they themselves could not chew through in their mouths.

So what's the problem?

Because they had blinded the eyes of the people staring at the hospital outside the refugee camp, they mistakenly thought that their plan had been exposed, and decided to go all out and throw another bucket of dirty water on the Falange? Then they implemented a "Plan B" that they didn't know whether it was a temporary idea, and sent out the "more elite" 269?

If the truth is this, doesn't it mean that when I dealt with the Soviet veteran and his companions, I had already disrupted the plan of eliminating the warts?

So does this count as changing history?

No, definitely not.

  We should ask, in the historical process in which we did not participate, “who changed history”?

Almost subconsciously, Wei Ran looked at the hot air balloon in front. He might be the only possibility, the only person capable of doing this and with the motivation to do so.

  What about Edelweiss’s pain?

Wei Ran couldn't help but lower her head. Was the hot air balloon her listener? Or was she the listener of the hot air balloon?

Or maybe, all those fears and hesitations have actually always been firmly suppressed in the heart of that strong yet fragile girl and never shown to anyone?

Before he could find the answer, everyone no longer cared about the flares above their heads, and rushed into the hospital shrouded in darkness together with the shouts of the hot air balloon, and joined Edelweiss and others who had been waiting at the side door of the hospital.

"Aren't you hurt?"

Edelweiss asked the same question to Cradle and Nurse Lama and Sophia as she tried to hold Wei Ran.

"no"

Wei Ran dodged Edelweiss who tried to hug him. His body was covered in blood. It could even be said that his clothes were soaked with the smelly blood stains.

However, Edelweiss didn't care at all. After hugging him, she stood on tiptoe and gave him a passionate kiss again - just like what the cradle and sewing machine next to her were doing.

"Please allow me to interrupt for a moment"

Hot Air Balloon cleared his throat, "Where do we put the kids?"

"I'll take you there!"

Still standing on tiptoe and holding Wei Ran's Edelweiss, she said in German, "Let's have a drink after we're done. We agreed on that."

"certainly"

Wei Ran responded in a low voice in German, and Edelweiss, who was holding him, loosened his arms and took them into the hospital together with the cradle - fortunately, everyone was very civilized this time and did not take shortcuts by climbing through the windows.

Having said that, in the end, everyone, led by Edelweiss and Cradle, walked into the unused basement floor.

At this time, the corridor here was piled with a lot of things such as stretchers as barriers and cover. Obviously, everyone was worried whether someone would attack the hospital.

After passing through these obstacles and walking a dozen meters further in, Wei Ran also noticed a bright kerosene lamp hanging above his head. Within the range of the dazzling light it emitted, there were many wounded people sitting or lying in several rooms to rest.

"When necessary, these rooms can be locked from the inside."

Nurse Sophia, who was walking in the front, explained, "We will transfer all the injured to the negative first floor. Of course, the children will also be transferred here."

As she spoke, she pushed open one of the rooms, pointed the flashlight inside and said, "Let the children rest here, and the food has been prepared for you. The offices next door, as long as they are empty and the doors are not locked, are all yours."

"What about you?" asked the hot air balloon.

"My colleagues and I were responsible for taking care of the wounded"

Sophia replied as a matter of course, "Of course, I will also take care of you, so if you need anything, you can always come to the stairs to find me."

After watching Nurse Sophia leave, Cradle glanced at the two little ones belonging to the landlord couple among the children, clapped his hands to attract the children's attention, and then said in French, "No matter what happened before, you are safe here. Rama, you, Hanward and Dalal will lead everyone to dinner, and ask them if anyone is injured. If no one is injured, you can rest quickly after dinner."

"Leave it to us!" The young translator Rama patted his chest and made a confident promise.

Leaving the task of taking care of the child to the three little helpers, several adults also walked to the next room, led by the cradle.

"Please change your clothes first."

Cradle pointed at the three sets of clothes on the table and said, without waiting for a response from the three, he and Edelweiss walked out and said, "We'll wait for you in the room opposite."

Wei Ran and the other two in the room looked at each other, changed into a set of clean clothes, and carefully washed the blood stains on their hands and faces with three basins of water prepared in the room in advance.

"Let's talk first"

Hot Air Balloon, who had changed into clean clothes, said this while placing the seized weapons and ammunition on an examination bed in different categories.

In addition to rescuing the children, this trip also yielded a rich harvest of weapons.

Not counting the pistols and the Uzi submachine gun they had when they set out, as well as some weapons that Wei Ran "privately stored", there were a total of five AK series long and short rifles on the bed, and four silent Makarov rifles.

In addition, there are three silent MP5 submachine guns, an SSG69 sniper rifle with quite good accuracy and 14 grenades, plus miscellaneous and more or less various types of matching bullets, several telescopes and a turned-off walkie-talkie.

"There was also a submachine gun and several magazines in the cellar under the ambulance."

Hot Air Balloon took out the half-frame camera, light meter and three sealed film tubes that Wei Ran had lent him and returned them to him while saying, "There is an SVD hidden under the bed in my room on the second floor of the landlord's house. I'll return the camera to you. Please also help me keep the photos I took."

"So many weapons, enough to arm ourselves."

Before the sewing machine could finish, Wei Ran and the hot air balloon said in unison, "We can't just fire back easily."

"for"

"At least you can't shoot back in the hospital"

Wei Ran added, "That would not only attract the Falange Party, but also give them a perfect reason to attack the hospital."

"These weapons can only be used outside of hospitals"

The hot air balloon then said, "Pick some for self-defense, and I will send the rest out later to those who need them."

Hearing this, the sewing machine was silent for a moment, then reached out and picked up the Uzi submachine gun again, and then took out a silent Makarov pistol, "I'll just use these two. I'm going to give the pistol to Cradle for self-defense."

"What about you?" The hot air balloon looked at Wei Ran while speaking.

"What are your plans?"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he simply picked up a silenced MP5 submachine gun and three spare magazines and said, "These are enough."

"I'll send out the rest of the weapons later."

The hot air balloon paused and then said, "Then I will hide nearby and protect the hospital as a sniper."

"How do we contact each other?" Wei Ran asked a new question.

"You know Morse Code, right?"

Hot Air Balloon asked back with almost certainty, and at the same time, he put a silent Makarov pistol on his back waist, then pulled out his own regular model Makarov, emptied the chamber and threw it on the bed.

"Of course," Wei Ran nodded.

"I'll keep an eye on the hospital and try to find a way to escape."

While Hot Air Balloon was talking, he took out the small bundle of Chat grass he had collected earlier, divided half of it and placed it on the bed. "If you need me to come back, just find a way to send an SOS signal with a light at the hour or half hour. If I can see it, if I am still alive, if I have a chance, I will come back."

"Are you leaving now?" the sewing machine asked belatedly.

"People are being killed every second, and I don't have time to waste."

As Hot Air Balloon spoke, he had already slung the camera bag he had seized earlier over his shoulder, and rewrapped the other half bundle of Chat in a damp towel and stuffed it inside.

He carried all the other weapons on his shoulders, and then he struggled to pick up the various ammunition in his bag. As he walked out, he said, "Finally, while I protect you, I will try to use a camera to record everything that happens here. If..."

Taking a deep breath, Hot Air Balloon looked at Cradle and Edelweiss walking out from the opposite side, and said with a smile, “If I die, remember to find the photos I took when conditions permit. I must have hidden them around my body.

Please give them to my journalist friends. Rama, Hanwad and Dalal know how to find my friends."

"Don't you want to eat something?" Cradle asked, trying hard to suppress the trembling of his body.

“I’m not hungry yet”

The hot air balloon said, and started walking again, "And I just picked up some compressed biscuits and..."

"Wait a moment"

Wei Ran had already walked out while he was talking, opened the medical bag on his waist, took out two horse guns from it and handed them to the other party, "I hope you don't need them."

"I hope we will have a chance to meet again," Hot Air Balloon said sincerely but desperately after taking the injection.

"I know I can't stop you, but if there's still time, can we take a picture before we go?"

Wei Ran glanced at the children who popped out from the next room and said, "Let's take a photo with them."

After a brief silence, the hot air balloon nodded, "Okay, but please hurry up."

Sighing silently, Wei Ran immediately asked Rama to call all the children to come out and surround the hot air balloon with an ammunition bag in hand and weapons on shoulders. He also brought the kerosene lamp from a distance. After Sophia, who had heard the news, also stood in the crowd, he put the camera on the table, pressed the selfie lever, and ran two steps to stand next to Edelweiss.

Almost at the moment when Edelweiss subconsciously hugged his arms and prepared herself, the shutter of the Nikon SP camera made a light "click" sound.

"Okay," Wei Ran said through gritted teeth after a moment of silence.

Hearing this, Hot Air Balloon didn't say anything else. He hurriedly left the basement of the hospital amid the voices of his companions, children, and those around him who were struggling to kneel down, holding their hands to their chests, and praying devoutly in Arabic.

"He is now a PLO fighter," the young translator Rama and nurse Sofia murmured the same sentence almost in unison.

"Will he come back?" Edelweiss looked at Wei Ran for help.

"Yes, yes."

Wei Ran gave his answer with a sigh, an answer without much confidence.

"Let's go and eat"

The sewing machine answered, "We can't just rely on the hot air balloon. We have to use our brains to think of a way to leave here."