War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1555: New Passengers on the Ark

At 8:03 in the morning, Wei Ran had been trying his best to suppress his anger since returning to Aka Hospital, and replaced the fourth new film in his camera.

In less than an hour, he had lost count of how many people had been killed in the hospital, how many women had been raped, and how many had chosen to commit suicide by jumping off buildings, retaliate, or even suffer mental breakdowns because they could not bear the humiliation.

Rather than being thankful that there was no Cradle Lady among the victims, and being thankful that the thugs had not discovered the basement for the time being.

Wei Ran was even more distressed at this moment because the only thing he could do was to press the shutter button again and again, but he could not draw his gun and fire.

There were too many Falangists around, and every floor and even every ward was filled with their wanton laughter and the desperate wails they had created with their own hands.

He knew even more clearly that even if he killed all the Phalanges here, more Phalanges would come, and even if he killed more Phalanges, it would not change anything.

In this case, the only thing he could do was to press the shutter, again and again. By the way, he also secretly wandered between the first and second floors, always guarding the blocked entrance to the basement.

Fortunately, until the order to assemble came from the loudspeaker outside the hospital, no Falange noticed the blocked entrance to the underground first floor. This might be the only good news for Wei Ran, who was in agony all the time.

Raising the camera for the last time, Wei Ran pressed the shutter towards the backs of the Falange militants in front of him who were leaving with a lot of trophies and trampling on the corpses.

Standing on the steps of the main entrance, he put away his camera and turned his head to look in the direction of the side door of the hospital.

Although blocked by other buildings, he could still clearly see that the second-floor building where Hanward and Dalal were hiding was already covered in flames and thick smoke. Obviously, some Phalangists were trying to break in there.

  Hope Hanward and Dalal are still alive

Wei Ran prayed silently that in the past hour, the counterattack did not only come from within the hospital.

Outside the hospital, many people, armed with various crude weapons that could not even be considered weapons, launched a suicidal counterattack against the Falange militia that surrounded the hospital.

Similarly, some people used sniper fire to kill the machine gunners on the armored vehicles downstairs in the hospital, as well as any militiamen wearing Falangist uniforms inside the hospital windows.

Wei Ran could even be sure that one of the snipers with excellent marksmanship was definitely Hot Air Balloon, because right after he distributed cigarettes to the gay man who was guarding the doctor on the first floor, he had just returned to the corridor when the opponent was accurately sniped and killed.

After confirming this, Wei Ran also used the little time just now to cooperate tacitly with the hot air balloon in the distance and sniped and killed nearly half of the militiamen on the Ark armored vehicle.

Perhaps it was because of his sniping that the Falangists decided to leave the hospital and "do some real work."

Also because of the precise sniping, the medical workers who had been treated roughly were finally given some courtesy - they were asked to treat the militiamen who were shot but not dead, those beasts who were clearly doing evil the last second.

This is both torture and catharsis for those medical workers. They need to treat the devil, but fortunately, the anesthetics stored in the hospital have long been used up.

“This unlucky guy is dead too.”

Just as Wei Ran left the hospital building filled with the screams of injured militiamen and returned to the Ark, he immediately saw the conductor complaining while looting valuable items from the body of the machine gunner who had been shot in the head and stayed behind in the armored vehicle.

"You're back just in time. Throw him out." The ticket seller ordered Wei Ran.

Before he finished speaking, the conductor had already stuffed a few blood-stained US dollars and a piece of Chat to Wei Ran, "We are short of manpower, so you will continue to drive the armored vehicle. This is your share."

"No problem." Wei Ran took the US dollars and Chat, and agreed happily while dragging the machine gunner's body out of the car.

After he dragged the machine gunner's body to a flower bed not far away, he took out the Chat plant he had just obtained, as well as another plant that the ticket seller had given him before but which he had hidden in his collar and pretended to eat, and put them into his trouser pockets.

Of course he wouldn't eat this thing, and he didn't bother to use this method to stabilize his emotions.

Back to the cockpit of the armored vehicle, the remaining four surviving crew members of the Ark also reluctantly got into the armored compartment with their spoils.

"Photographer! Let's get out of here!"

The conductor, with his upper body exposed, knocked on the roof armor plate with the butt of his gun and greeted Wei Ran.

"Which way? Left or right?" Wei Ran asked loudly while starting the armored vehicle.

"Anywhere!" the ticket seller responded nonchalantly.

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately increased the speed of the car, drove away from the hospital violently on the road, turned right and drove towards the side door.

As the distance got closer, he could see more and more clearly that the building he had rented had been completely burned down, leaving only the building frame. He also saw that there were many bodies lying on the street between the building and the side entrance of the hospital.

These people were refugees who had fled to the hospital to escape the war. Some of their bodies had their hands and feet tied behind their backs, some had their scalps cut off, some had been castrated, and some had hideous knife wounds all over their bodies.

There were also some who were unlucky enough to block the road. Their already mutilated bodies had been crushed by round after round of tracks, so that the road was filled with a strong fishy smell.

  "The smell here is too disgusting. Should we take another route?" Wei Ran slowed down and asked the conductor behind him loudly. He just didn't want to see those corpses again.

"Just drive right over there," the conductor responded nonchalantly.

Hearing this, Wei Ran silently clenched the joystick, increased the speed without compromising, crushed the broken corpses, and drove straight to the other end of the street.

The reason why he was so compromising was just for the sake of this armored vehicle.

At the beginning of the plan, he just wanted to get an identity of a Falange militia so that he could move freely and film the atrocities committed by the Falange in the refugee camp.

But after accidentally joining the Ark and exceeding his goals, he adjusted his plan: find a way to seize the armored vehicle.

This may be the only chance for Hanward and Dalal, as well as the sewing machine couple and the hot air balloon to survive, or even their only chance to leave the refugee camp alive - if they really leave the refugee camp alive in a time and space without them.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

While he was distracted, the new machine gunner opened fire without warning, covering the second floor of a distant building with a barrage of bullets.

When the gunshots stopped, Wei Ran looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the window on the second floor of the building had been completely shattered. A person who had been hiding behind the window also spun and fell out of the window.

"It's a woman, I was mistaken." The machine gunner said proudly.

"You read that right, that's a terrorist."

Another militiaman raised his gun and shot the woman's slightly bulging belly, laughing loudly, "Look, there's a terrorist hiding in her arms!

Before he finished speaking, the five militiamen led by the ticket seller behind him also laughed and either high-fived each other or bumped fists with each other, as if they had just done something great.

Sighing silently, Wei Ran, who also exposed his upper body outside the car body, raised his camera, pressed the shutter button towards the woman, and then looked at both sides of the street.

Just after being "delayed" for a while at the Aka Hospital, the Falangists outside had already begun a systematic house-to-house search, and their armored vehicle patrolling the streets also became a support for the searching militia.

Along the way, as Wei Ran pressed the shutter again and again, the militiamen who were searching door to door pushed out men one by one, tied their hands behind their backs, and made them kneel in a row on the roadside to wait for execution. Whenever they encountered a woman of some beauty, desperate wails and screams would be heard from that house.

Even the children, as Wei Ran had previously filmed, suffered unimaginable torture and humiliation before their death.

From 8:30 in the morning to 10:00 in the morning, Wei Ran could no longer remember how many times he had driven around the refugee camp, nor how many photos he had taken.

He had to admit one thing, it was an extremely efficient massacre.

When he drove the armored vehicle towards the side door of Aka Hospital again, several Carter D9 bulldozers had already entered the scene with the rumbling of their engines.

These steel machines, with the rogue star logo hastily covered with yellow paint and the cedar logo additionally spray-painted, wielded huge shovels, easily shoveling up corpses, or knocking down buildings hiding corpses or even living people, then stepped on the accelerator and drove the heavy body onto the ruins, creaking around in a circle, and drove to the next building where refugees were waving scarves blocking the way.

"Crack!"

When Wei Ran pressed the shutter again, the bulldozer also broke the legs of the old woman who was trying to protect her home, pushed her still living body, and recklessly crashed into the dilapidated house she was trying to protect while she was shouting angrily.

"Boom!"

As Wei Ran pressed the shutter again, the two-story dilapidated house collapsed, burying the bulldozer bucket, the old woman, and a screaming child who was trying to run out of the house.

"Hey! Stop!"

Just as Wei Ran stuffed the camera back into the gap between the chest mount and his belly and put it back into the metal notebook, a militiaman dressed as a Falangist waved at them enthusiastically on the side of the road.

He carried a tattered backpack and a Swiss rifle in his hand. In addition to the magazine, the chest mount on his chest also contained valuable items such as some banknotes, a watch and a small bundle of khat.

Compared to these yellow and white things, his entire face was covered tightly by an Arab scarf and frog-eye glasses, and he also had a Soviet-made Type 68 steel helmet on his head.

"Can I go up too?"

As Wei Ran, who was also wearing a headscarf, stepped on the brakes, the man limped over and said, "I sprained my foot. Is there any space in your car?"

"Of course, of course there is room."

A trace of greed flashed in the eyes of the ticket seller, "But if you want to board the Ark, you have to buy a ticket."

"How much?" The man standing at the front of the car subconsciously covered his chest.

"100 dollars, or something of equivalent value." The conductor did not ask for a huge amount of money as expected. "Of course, this is just the ticket price. You still have to participate in the battle."

“This price is not expensive”

The man standing at the front of the car immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly took out a few blood-stained bills and waved them, "Who can help me?"

"Go to the back of the car and help him open the hatch."

The conductor greeted me and asked, "What's your name?"

"Joseph, I'm from Captain Hamid's squad." The man limped to the rear of the car and answered loudly, "But he was killed by a very powerful sniper not long ago, and my other teammate was also killed by that bastard sniper. What are your names?"

"Please get on the bus first," the conductor said more and more enthusiastically, "I'll introduce you to the bus when you get on."

  You will regret it.

Wei Ran muttered secretly that just now, another person in their car was killed by a sniper who was suspected to be a hot air balloon.

In other words, before Joseph got on the train, he, the conductor and three other passengers were the only ones left on the Ark.

But now, after Joseph got on the car, the situation was different - he was finally no longer fighting alone!

That’s right, although Joseph’s face was covered, Wei Ran still recognized him by his voice. He was the hot air balloon!

Without waiting for the cabin door to close, the hot air balloon, no, Joseph had already handed the fare he had prepared in advance to the conductor. While collecting the bills, the latter enthusiastically introduced the rest of the people in the car to him.

"The person driving the armored vehicle is Etia, and his nickname is Photographer." The ticket seller finally introduced and handed $20 to Wei Ran.

"Which team are you from? Why do I seem to have an impression of you?" asked the hot air balloon puzzledly.

"My previous captain was Ayiman."

"Oh! God! I remember now!"

The hot air balloon said excitedly, "Red Eagle Bar! Do you remember? Did you use a Nikon camera? You took a picture of me and my cousin! It was right in front of the Red Eagle Bar."

"The busty woman?"

Wei Ran exclaimed, "Let me think, what's her name! Daniela! Is it the blonde Daniela?"

"Yes! It's Daniela!"

The hot air balloon laughed and said, "Thank God, I didn't expect to meet an acquaintance! Etia, did you really sleep with my cousin? I heard that she seemed to be pregnant."

“I also took pictures?”

Wei Ran said proudly, "But I don't know whether the baby in her belly is mine."

"It can't be her stupid husband's." The hot air balloon's seemingly casual remark immediately aroused the interest of all the militiamen in the car.

Obviously, just like Wei Ran "wanted to personally deliver Captain Ayiman's submachine gun to his wife", the hot air balloon, no, Joseph's "blonde busty cousin", was also to make his identity more real.

So what's next?

Wei Ran glanced at the bulldozers outside that were still collecting corpses, and the trucks full of corpses heading out of the refugee camp, but he was secretly wondering in his mind what the purpose of the hot air balloon boarding the Ark was.

Was he looking for me for some urgent matter? Or did he also want to hijack the car?

Regardless of which guess it was, Wei Ran knew very clearly under some tacit understanding that something he had been eagerly looking forward to was about to be realized - it was time to clean up the garbage on the Ark.

(End of this chapter)