War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1554 Return to the Hospital

"It's that damn sniper!"

Inside the armored vehicle, Wei Ran shouted in fear before anyone else, "It must be him!"

"You go operate the machine gun!"

The conductor threw this suicidal job to Wei Ran without a second thought, then pointed at someone and yelled, "Go replace the driver! Don't stick your head out!"

"Can't I pay a little more for transportation and get a safe job?" Wei Ran asked loudly angrily.

"The Ark is not a baby carriage! You can only choose between the machine gunner and the driver!" the ticket seller said impatiently.

"Driver!"

Wei Ran spoke again before everyone else. In comparison, the driver was indeed safer. Most importantly, he really didn't want to operate a machine gun to massacre refugees as a member of the Falange Party.

Upon hearing this, the man who was originally assigned to be the driver not only looked indifferent, but instead showed a look of relief. He hurriedly pulled down the machine gunner's body with the help of the conductor and others, and then he climbed up, operated the machine gun and started shooting.

"It's the rule of the Ark. While enjoying the protection of the armor, you must also protect the Ark, especially the last person to get on board."

Before he could finish his words, the driver's body was dragged to the conductor's feet by the other people.

“I will try to ensure fairness.”

The conductor dug out all the valuables from the two bodies and said, "The living pilot and machine gunner will each receive an extra reward, but only for the living pilot and machine gunner. If they are dead, you have seen it all."

As soon as he finished saying this, the hatch at the rear of the car opened and the two worthless bodies were thrown out skillfully.

  I will do business

While Wei Ran was muttering to himself, he casually stuffed the $20 he had just received into his pocket, put down the folding stock AKM in his hand, and pulled out the spare magazine from his chest mount. Then he crouched down and got into the driver's seat, and asked a question that seemed critical but actually had no meaning to him, "How long do I need to work in this position?"

"One hour"

The conductor explained while giving the machine gunner extra pay, “The machine gunner only needs to work for half an hour, and then they will be rotated according to the order of boarding.”

"Mr. Conductor is a fair enough man"

Wei Ran, who was already sitting on the metal seat in the armored vehicle's cockpit, complimented but also secretly cursed his bad luck. He finally understood why that man was so willing to operate the machine gun.

The shorter time to operate the machine is only one reason. Another major reason is that the cockpit is actually no safer than the machine gun turret.

Like all M113 armored vehicles, the driver's seat of this rather old M113 armored vehicle can be adjusted up and down in height.

By adjusting the seat upward, your head and shoulders will be exposed above the cockpit, providing a better driving view.

By lowering the seat, the whole person will hide in the car, and rely on the observation windows at eye level to determine the situation outside.

But the problem lies in these long and narrow observation windows. Originally, these observation windows should be equipped with thick bulletproof glass.

But the reality is that the bulletproof glass of these observation windows is all gone, and one of them is simply blocked from the outside with bricks. Not only the observation windows, but even the armored hatch cover of the cockpit above the head has disappeared.

  What the hell is this Ark! It's just a piece of junk that has been sold to many people!

"Photographer, don't tell me you can't drive an armored vehicle"

The conductor, who was sitting in the safest position behind the engine compartment, asked.

"of course!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he tightened the beanie on his head, raised the seat and sat down. Since the cockpit was not safe, he might as well expose his upper body. This way, not only would he have a good view to see the situation outside, but also others could clearly see his beanie.

  I hope the sniper targeting this car is a hot air balloon.

Wei Ran muttered to himself, he just hoped that the two shots just now were also fired from the hot air balloon, and he also hoped that there were no other snipers nearby who were eyeing this place.

"Go to Aka Hospital!"

The conductor gave the order and signaled the two militants in the carriage to push open the armored hatch on the middle roof, straighten their backs, raise their AK rifles and start shooting - aimlessly and indiscriminately at the buildings on both sides.

Locking the control handle and letting the armored vehicle, which had returned to normal, run on its own, Wei Ran took out the APB version submachine gun he had just obtained from Captain Ayiman who had "unfortunately died in battle."

He insisted on keeping the gun not because he was attracted by the weapon, but just wanted to add some realism to his character.

Of course, he had to admit that this was indeed a weapon suitable for armored vehicle drivers. Apart from anything else, this slightly large and clumsy hard leather holster not only contained four spare magazines full of bullets, but also a silencer and a steel buttstock mounted on the silencer.

With an inconspicuous glance at the crew members behind him who were firing indiscriminately, Wei Ran quickly installed the silencer, steel buttstock and gun belt on the pistol and slung it over his right shoulder.

He stuffed all the spare magazines and the bullets he had looted previously into the magazine bag that had been emptied in advance. He then took out the camera under the cover of the chest mount, stood up, turned around, aimed at the ticket seller and others behind him, and pressed the shutter.

Perhaps they noticed the camera in Wei Ran's hand, the showy ticket seller and others either took off their masks, or put on a pair of frog-eye glasses that they had snatched from somewhere, or took out a baseball cap and put it on their heads.

  Although these people tried to make themselves look handsome, in Wei Ran's camera, the real protagonists were the corpses that could be seen everywhere on the roadside, the glass windows that reflected countless sunlight after being hit by bullets, and even...

Even after he steered the armored vehicle around an intersection, he could see beheadings, shootings, scalpings, and the brutal castration of a dozen captured guys smaller than Rama taking place on the roadside.

  and also

And after castration, there is the evil machine that rushes in before those fragile and innocent lives are lost.

"Hi! Say hi to me!"

Wei Ran suppressed the murderous intent in his heart and spoke loudly in Arabic to the militant in charge of the castration.

"look at this!"

  The militant raised a bloody axe in his left hand and a string of wires in his right hand, a string of wires full of castration objects!

Amidst Wei Ran's increasingly overflowing laughter and praise, he pressed the shutter once again, recording those crimes, and also recording that man. No, that beast. He recorded the smug smile on the beast's face, and the row of children behind him who were still struggling, wailing, and bleeding.

There was nothing he could do except pressing the shutter button again and again.

At this time, less than a hundred meters in front of the front of the car was the main entrance of the Acre Hospital. Around the armored vehicle he was operating, more and more fully armed Phalange militiamen gathered.

  Why didn't the hot air balloon fight back?

While Wei Ran was changing the film in his camera, he couldn't help but risk leaning his upper body out of the car, and even moved the submachine gun that was originally hanging on his right shoulder to his left shoulder. Then he turned around and gave a cigarette to the nearest machine gunner.

However, until he drove the armored vehicle into the Acre Hospital, until he just used the machine gun to completely crush a dying old man in front of his camera, and until the cigarette was completely burned out and bounced out of the car body, the machine gunner was fine and did not suffer any harm.

  Could it be that the hot air balloon was really killed by a machine gun just now?

Wei Ran, who was lost in thought, stopped the car at the call of the conductor. Almost at the same time, the machine gunner fired a series of bursts at the outer wall of the main building of the hospital.

The huge gunshots sounded like a horn. The mob that almost surrounded the hospital raised their guns and fired short and long bursts at the top of their heads, and tacitly compressed the encirclement bit by bit.

Amid the drifting smoke and wanton laughter, four trembling doctors walked out of the hospital holding white flags, loudly stating their identities in Arabic, French and English.

Some of them are from Doctors Without Borders, some from Norwegian Aid, and some from the Red Crescent.

Of course Wei Ran recognized the four doctors. Although they had never worked together before, they had come into contact with each other outside of work and had even shared the medicines that Wei Ran and others brought into the refugee camp in the ambulance.

As he raised his camera, the only thing he was thankful for was that he didn't see the Sewing Machine Couple among the four people - he knew clearly what would happen next.

"This is a neutral zone, please."

Before the four doctors holding the white flag could finish their words, an armed man standing on the armored vehicle pulled out a grenade and threw it over like a dog that suddenly turned hostile and started biting people!

"boom!"

When Wei Ran pressed the shutter for the third time, the grenade exploded, and the four doctors holding the white flag made of bed sheets fell to the ground, staining the white flag with innocent blood-red.

"All Palestinians listen, whether you are a doctor, a nurse, a refugee or a damned patient, come out now and be questioned."

The madman who had just thrown the grenade raised his megaphone and shouted, "My patience is limited. I will only give you 10 seconds. Otherwise, you will end up like those four 8-level terrorists!"

Amid the wanton laughter of the surrounding Falange members, the militant who had just spoken also raised his megaphone and began an arrogant countdown.

As the countdown became more and more orderly and faster, several injured people, some with gauze wrapped around their bodies, some with missing arms or legs, walked out, some using crutches, some sitting in wheelchairs, or supporting each other.

“We are members of the 8th Jie Organization”

The leader, who looked to be about 40 years old and had one leg amputated at the knee, shouted in Arabic, "All the members of the 8th Liberation Organization in this hospital are here. Take us away, and then..."

"Da da da da da!"

Just a second before Wei Ran pressed the shutter button towards the amputee, the machine gun on another armored vehicle that also drove into the hospital suddenly opened fire!

In the spewing fire snakes and the steaming blood mist, the wounded who stepped forward voluntarily, the crutches, the wheelchairs, and the man on whom Wei Ran personally performed an amputation surgery without anesthesia were all cut in two as Wei Ran subconsciously pressed the shutter again and again.

"It seems that there really are 8-party militants here!"

The leading Falangist militant waited until the machine guns stopped firing, then raised his megaphone and shouted, "Surround this place! Don't let any of them escape! Let's catch all those damn terrorists!"

Before he could finish his words, the Falangists surrounding the hospital finally tore off their disguise and rushed into the hospital like locusts amid laughter!

"You stay!"

On top of the armored vehicle, the conductor patted the machine gunner on the shoulder and said, "The rest of you rush in with me! Photographer, remember to take a few more pictures for me!"

"Don't worry!" Wei Ran responded with a smile, jumped out of the cab without slowing down, followed the conductor to the hospital, and took a few steps behind when the people in front were not paying attention, and took a photo of the body parts on the ground at the entrance of the first-floor lobby.

Just a few steps behind, desperate screams and angry curses, as well as sounds of punching, kicking, screaming, and gunshots were heard in the hospital.

Running a few quick steps inside, Wei Ran coldly filmed the wanton violence of the Falange militants, the futile pleas of the wounded, refugees, and medical workers, and their equally futile resistance and escape.

Finally, when he finished shooting another roll of film, he finally found the sewing machine squatting on the ground with his hands on his head at the end of the stairs, as well as more detained humanitarian rescuers.

"Can I take some photos of these cowards?" Wei Ran asked the militants who were guarding these people.

"Help me watch them for a while"

This armed militiaman seemed to be more anxious than Wei Ran, and he ran upstairs before he finished speaking.

Glancing at the still blocked entrance to the underground floor, Wei Ran first pressed the shutter towards the medical workers crowded there, then walked to the side of the sewing machine, roughly pulled it up, and while rummaging around on it, he whispered in one of the two languages ​​he had learned from completing the language task, "I'm Dongfeng, is that intercom still there?"

"How can you ride a rabbit?"

"So this is Rabbit Riding Language"

While Wei Ran was muttering to himself, he also made a gesture to keep quiet, lowered his voice and continued to ask in Rabbit Rider language, "Is the intercom still there?"

"Yes, on the basement floor." the sewing machine replied.

"Where's the cradle?"

"She's in there too," the sewing machine whispered.

"After we leave, every hour and half hour, if you have the chance, turn on the intercom for five minutes, select channel 3, and don't call me."

"Okay, I, I understand." The sewing machine responded in a low voice.

“They’ve already been searched.”

Just when Wei Ran was about to say something, a member of the Falange Party came over with a doctor and roughly pushed him against the wall, saying in Arabic, "Even their wedding rings were taken away. Friend, you should go grab some for yourself. There are still a lot upstairs."

"I was just trying to see if I could find a pack of cigarettes"

Wei Ran said as he fished out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out two and gave them to the other party, then asked casually, "What are we going to do with these doctors? Kill them all?"

"of course not"

The militiaman seemed to know something about the inside story. He took the cigarette and let Wei Ran light it for him, and said, "We may requisition this place. I mean, after getting rid of all the pagans, so these doctors will still be useful.

Anyway, who knows? The order I received was to temporarily detain these clean doctors."

“That’s a really good thing.”

Wei Ran continued the topic, "If we had occupied this place earlier, maybe my good brother would not have died."

"Instead of spending time chatting here, you might as well go upstairs and see if there are any other girls hiding." The militiaman kindly reminded.

"What about you?" Wei Ran, who thought he had met a good person, asked back, "Aren't you in a hurry to go up?"

"I'm only interested in little boys," the militiaman hinted with a wink, "Of course, if you're willing to have a drink with me."

"Forget it," Wei Ran decisively flicked away the cigarette, "I'll go upstairs and take a look."

"Good luck to you, man." The perverted gay man guarding the doctor gave his best wishes enthusiastically.

"I'll kill you first when I get the chance!" Wei Ran made a secret promise as he ran upstairs.

Before he even went up to the second floor, he heard a familiar scream. Following the scream, he once again saw a familiar face who could not be considered an acquaintance.

She was a young and beautiful Palestinian trainee nurse.

He recognized the nurse, the translator and assistant assigned to the sewing machine and cradle by the hospital on the day they first arrived in the refugee camp.

But later, after Nurse Sophia took on the task of communicating with them, the young nurse, whose name he hadn't remembered but who knew was just an intern, was assigned other work.

"laugh!"

Amid the sounds of tearing and the young nurse's panicked and desperate screams, her already tattered nurse uniform and the clothes underneath were torn off by the beasts and thrown everywhere. She was also pressed on a stretcher outside the operating room, being watched and wantonly abused by the surrounding beasts.

  He not only knew the victimized nurse, he also knew the perpetrator. The one who committed all these evil deeds was none other than the ticket seller on the Ark and several other beast soldiers in the same crew led by him!

After noticing Wei Ran standing at the stairs, the ticket seller enthusiastically asked him to take a few photos for them.

With the murderous intent suppressed, Wei Ran subconsciously took a few steps back and leaned against the corridor. He raised the camera with difficulty and pressed the shutter towards the door of the operating room where he once worked, towards the nurse pressed on the stretcher, and towards the increasing number of beasts around her.

"Click"

Amid the shutter sounds covered by the wild beasts' cries, the camera in Wei Ran's hand disappeared quietly, and his other hand also grabbed the submachine gun across his shoulder.

"Photographer! Aren't you going to participate?" The ticket seller joked wantonly, "I won't let you buy a ticket this time."

"I"

Before he could say anything, let alone raise his gun, a figure in a nurse's uniform suddenly ran out of the stairwell, holding a silent Makarov pistol in his hand and pulled the trigger!

"Snapped!"

After the first gunshot, a pool of blood burst out from the lower back of an armed militiaman who was queuing.

"Snapped!"

When the second gunshot was heard, the conductor narrowly escaped being hit, but another person next to him was hit in the chest by the same bullet.

"boom!"

Just as Wei Ran had loaded the submachine gun and turned on the safety, the third gunshot was much clearer and more deafening than the previous two. Nurse Sophia, who was standing at the stairs and had no idea how to avoid it, also had a cloud of blood mist burst out of her chest.

"boom!"

The conductor shot Nurse Sophia in the middle of her eyebrows, then turned around and pulled the trigger at the young nurse with a desperate and numb expression!

"Clang!"

As the bullet shells fell on the terrazzo floor, the young nurse, whose name Wei Ran had not yet remembered, was also shot in the chest and finally left this ugly world.

“Really disappointing”

As the conductor spoke, he kicked Sophia's body, bent down, picked up her silenced pistol and looked at it.

“This is a nice gun”

The conductor put the gun on his belt with satisfaction, then tore open Sophia's shirt, touched it amid the laughter of the surrounding militiamen, and said regretfully, "This woman is not bad, what a pity."

"There can't be only a few female nurses here. Let's look for more!" A militiaman's suggestion was immediately responded to by everyone, including the ticket seller.

"Photographer, are you a new soldier?"

The ticket seller gave Wei Ran a cigarette before leaving and said, "I see you are scared."

"Yes, yes," Wei Ran responded after taking the cigarette. He tried his best to keep his tone from revealing any murderous intent that would be noticed by anyone.

“Don’t treat them as human beings”

The ticket seller kicked Nurse Sophia's body nonchalantly again, and beckoned Wei Ran to follow him while saying confidently, "These pagan women are as guilty as all Palestinian men. Those pagan men are terrorists. Those women will give birth to children for the terrorists, and those children will also become terrorists when they grow up. So killing them is the only mercy for them."

"So we have to kill everyone here?" Wei Ran asked, following the topic.

"of course not"

The conductor said almost the same thing as the guard on the first floor, "Just kill the pagans, leaving behind the clean doctors who might be useful.

Of course, if you fancy a beautiful woman, it doesn't matter what you do, it's just a reasonable way to torture terrorists."

"Won't this cause us trouble?" Wei Ran continued to ask.

"What trouble could there be?"

The conductor pointed out the window proudly, "Those warty people have helped us to surround the entire refugee camp. No matter what we do here, we won't have any trouble."