War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1560 Before Dawn

The refugee camp was once again thrown into chaos because of the recent explosion. Wei Ran had just arrived at the alley where the ambulance was once hidden, and he saw a group of Long Gun Militia members preparing to go in.

  After looking around, he immediately raised the submachine gun in his hand, hid at the entrance of the alley, and pulled the trigger at them!

"Tu tu tu tu—!"

Amid the dense sound of long gunfire, the Long Gunmen immediately fell to the ground. One of them was trying to bend over and lift the manhole cover, but the cover he had just lifted fell back to its original position with a clang.

After replacing a new magazine for his submachine gun, Wei Ran hastily covered the manhole cover with a pile of firewood. He then dragged a corpse to the yard next door, laid him down together with the still-dead conductor, and stuffed a grenade under the corpse.

After patting the ticket seller's cheek gently, Wei Ran turned around to carry the other three bodies and hid them in the cabinets or in the bathroom.

However, just as he cleared the traces at the entrance of the alley and was about to walk into the yard dragging the last body, an armored vehicle suddenly appeared from the distant corner!

  Hey!

Wei Ran reacted very quickly, letting go of the corpse and hiding in the yard. Almost at the same time, the militiamen sitting on the armored vehicle also discovered him. Immediately, all kinds of long and short guns began to suppress him like pouring water!

“Boom boom boom boom—!”

Amid the dense, dull yet deafening gunfire, the twin 14.5mm Soviet anti-aircraft machine guns "grafted" on the top of the armored vehicle also began to roar, and those powerful bullets easily smashed through the brick wall and into the yard.

At this time, Wei Ran had already crawled back into the alley through the hole in the wall, and took out the Black Panther vest as quickly as possible. He then took out the only bullet facing the enemy from the miscellaneous bag on the back of the vest, and placed it behind a bundle of firewood lying across the entrance of the alley, aiming it at the path that the armored vehicle must pass at a 45-degree angle to the street.

He also told the children in the cellar to cover their ears and keep their mouths shut. He also struggled to crawl through the hole in the wall blocked by the car as quickly as possible and returned to the yard where he had rented.

Almost at the same time he took out the small mirror from the Black Panther vest and stuck it out of the hole in the wall, he saw the front of an armored vehicle emerging.

Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately shrank his body to the rear of the vehicle, and while the heavy machine gun on the armored vehicle fired into the alley, he decisively pressed the detonator.

"boom!"

Amid the deafening sound of the explosion, the smoke and broken bricks stirred up by the shock wave, and even the shattered corners of the wall were like a not-so-effective smoke bomb dropped at the entrance of the alley.

Without waiting for the shock wave to subside, Wei Ran had already run out from the rear of the car, rushed to the half-open gate of the yard, and pulled the trigger at the stunned militiamen following behind the armored vehicle!

“Thump, thump, thump—!”

The magazine of the submachine gun was emptied again with a long burst of low gunfire, and the few remaining militiamen who were not killed in the explosion were lying on the ground.

  As for the armored vehicle.

The explosion at such a close distance, even without considering the dense fragments facing the enemy, the shock wave of the explosion alone was enough to make them suffer all night.

Taking out a grenade, Wei Ran pulled out the safety pin and waited for a second before throwing it into the machine gun turret on the roof of the car.

  "boom"!

The second explosion easily eliminated any possible enemies in the armored vehicle, but the sudden exchange of fire was like stirring up a hornet's nest.

Suddenly, there were more and more shouts around, and even the roar of helicopters seemed to be approaching here.

After looking at the covered manhole cover in the alley, Wei Ran quickly collected everything he could and ran away desperately, while throwing the last grenade on his chest into another street.

"boom!"

The loud explosion really attracted the attention of the pursuers. He also went into a dark and narrow alley and replaced the magazine of his submachine gun.

But then he unscrewed the silencer and threw it away, and took out the Black Panther vest again.

He reached out and found the end of the nylon line on his vest, which was specially used to set booby traps. He pulled a tripwire at the corner of the alley, then tied the other end to the trigger and used the steel buttstock to clamp it in the crack of the wall on the other side.

"Boom!"

  Wei Ran pulled the trigger and fired two bullets, then put away his Black Panther vest and turned around and ran!

Within just two or three minutes, the recognizable dense gunfire from the submachine gun came from behind, followed by the sound of return fire.

But at this time, he had already run out of the alley and was walking blatantly on the street holding an Type 81 rifle that looked similar to an AK rifle.

"Is there anyone in that direction?" Just as he was crossing an intersection, three militiamen from the opposite side shouted at him.

“That alley!”

Wei Ran immediately pointed to the alleyway behind him from which he had just run and replied, "Two of my companions were just beaten to death, and I was just about to ask for help! Come and help!"

Hearing this, the three militiamen immediately ran over, hid in the doorway on the street and aimed at the entrance of the alley which was occasionally illuminated by flares.

"You block him here!"

Wei Ran pointed to the side, "I'll go around it! By the way, do you have any grenades? I've used up all of mine."

"Here you go!" One of the militiamen immediately took out one and handed it to Wei Ran.

"Thank you!"

Wei Ran politely took the grenade and put it in his pocket, then ran into a building on the other side of the alley.

However, after entering the room, he placed the borrowed grenade on the stairs, and then he picked up a child's T-shirt to replace the Arab scarf on his face, and then put away the boonie hat he had been wearing on his head.

Wei Ran climbed out the window and left without anyone noticing. He took cover from the intricate buildings around him, made a detour, returned to the street, and once again walked towards the alley where Hanward and the others were hiding.

In just a short while, in addition to the scrapped armored vehicle, there was a bulldozer on the street, dozens of armed militiamen on guard, and six or seven wounded people rolling on the ground.

"Crash!"

  As he watched, the bulldozer violently pushed down the walls on both sides of the alley, burying the manhole cover and Hanward and others who were hiding under the manhole cover!

Done

When Wei Ran saw the bulldozer driving up the collapsed wall, his heart sank to the bottom.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Just at this moment, the sound of intensive gunfire finally came from the direction where he had just thrown the grenade.

This sound was like a signal. The bulldozer immediately changed direction, crushing the broken buildings and driving forward recklessly with the militiamen behind it who were coordinating infantry and tanks. However, no one noticed Wei Ran who had hidden himself in advance.

After a while, the street became quiet and Wei Ran ran towards the alley for his life.

Whether it was a coincidence or a miracle, the old car containing the remains of the landlord and his wife had been severely deformed by the bulldozer and was even run over by the bulldozer, crushing the two smelly bodies in the car.

But the car was parked right above the manhole cover, using its still sturdy chassis to leave a narrow gap in the manhole cover that was barely enough for ventilation.

However, the smelly liquid oozing from the crushed corpse was also dripping onto the manhole cover through the gaps in the car.

"Hanwad, Dalal, are you still alive?" Wei Ran leaned against the rear of the car and shouted softly, "It's me, Dongfeng."

"We are still alive," Hanward responded in a low voice from under the manhole cover, but there was inevitably fear in his voice.

"Just hide in there and don't go anywhere. Don't make any noise." Wei Ran whispered some instructions, then quickly stood up and took a few steps back.

This is the best outcome at the moment. Before his identity as a Falangist is exposed and before he is noticed again here, it is really not advisable for him to engage in a firefight with those militiamen again.

With the light provided by the flares, he once again pressed the shutter button towards the car that sheltered the family and the couple in the car that protected their children.

Putting away the camera, he stepped on the construction waste on the ground and returned to the side door of the hospital.

In such a short while, he saw more fresh corpses.

Those were the bodies of the seriously injured who gave up the chance to escape. They were randomly piled together by the bulldozer. On the top of the pile of bodies were the bodies of several doctors.

  This is completely different from the historical records of later generations.

Wei Ran muttered to himself as he pressed the shutter button towards the pile of corpses, then turned and walked towards the ambulance.

In the flares that rose from time to time, he saw the wreckage of the ambulance whose front end was almost completely blown up. He also saw a broken body hanging upside down on the balcony of the second floor of a building not far away - the body of the hot air balloon.

He had his hands chopped off and was castrated, and even his scalp was cut off and stuffed into his mouth.

But around his neck, he still had a pendant with a rabbit riding on blue eyes fluttering in the wind. Wei Ran remembered that it was the amulet that the sewing machine couple gave to everyone, and he even had one around his own neck.

“They escaped alive”

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and at the same time raised the camera again and pressed the shutter. Using the last frame of this roll of film, he took a picture of the upside-down hot air balloon and his blue-eyed amulet, as well as the ambulance and the armored vehicle that was "smashed" by the ambulance.

"Hanward and the others are alive and will not be found."

Wei Ran walked back while holding the intercom and continued in Greek, "Don't reply, and don't come back for now.

Wait until daylight, when it's safe, come in legally, sneak them in, sneak them out, that's the only way to save them. Okay, I'm going to turn off the radio."

After saying that, Wei Ran ignored the unfriendly greetings in Arabic that threatened him and asked about his identity on the walkie-talkie, and strode towards the thin-skinned armored vehicle that was destroyed by his front-facing enemy.

He entered the armored vehicle which was filled with the smell of blood but had no corpses. He sat in the machine gun turret and operated the twin 14.5mm Soviet heavy machine gun in a circle.

Wei Ran let out a long sigh and gained a moment of peace. He leisurely replaced the film in each of the two cameras in his hands. Then he took out a pack of cigarettes, placed them on the armored hatch, and lit one for himself and put it in his mouth.

Over the following night, the passing militiamen came and went, and the bulldozers and trucks made him raise his camera and press the shutter again and again, clearly recording the bodies that were gradually cleared away, and the entire process of the burial pits being dug, filled, buried and filled with construction waste.

I don’t know how long it took, but the flares above our heads gradually disappeared, and the sky gradually turned pale.

"Da da da!"

Just at this moment, a sharp burst of gunfire suddenly came from the distance, followed by shouting from the walkie-talkie, which roughly meant that someone was found torturing the militia.

  Broken, it won't be

Wei Ran's heart sank, and he wondered secretly, could the one who just tortured the militia be a bat?

If the other party's intention was to attack him and the children, then among the candidates he could think of, he seemed to be the only one who had such ability.

Thinking of this, he immediately jumped off the armored vehicle and ran towards the direction of the firefight.

However, before he could run a hundred meters away, the location of the firefight began to move farther away, which made Wei Ran stop. After a little hesitation, he continued to run in the direction of the initial firefight, while also paying attention to every move around him and the situation on the radio channel.

"The man has been shot dead by our team."

From the start of the exchange of fire to the time the report came over the radio, less than ten minutes had passed. On the radio channel, the first person to report said proudly, "It was an old man. I have cut off his scalp."

"do not move"

Just as the voice on the radio disappeared, a slightly weak voice came from the shadow of a doorway on the side of the road, "Come here, or I'll shoot."

"bat?"

Wei Ran switched to French and asked, turning around to look at the other party.

"Dongfeng?" the person in the doorway asked excitedly after being stunned.

Wei Ran walked into the shadow of the doorway and asked, "How are you doing? Just now..."

"Shot in the shoulder"

Bat whispered, "Also, Uncle Um, he led the militia away. Just now in your intercom..."

'He was killed'

Wei Ran sighed, "Why are you back again? Didn't I tell you not to come back?"

"The sewing machine is dead," the bat said abruptly.

"What did you say?" Wei Ran, who was checking the bat's wound, asked in surprise.

"The sewing machine is dead"

Bat said with difficulty, "Before him, the lady of the cradle also died."

"How did they die?"

"The truck was noticed by the militia and then shot at"

Bat explained, "The cradle was hit while trying to protect a wounded man, and the sewing machine was hit in the thigh while returning fire."

"he"

"He died shortly after we drove out of the refugee camp."

As he spoke, Bat took out a lunch box from his pocket and handed it to Wei Ran. "He found this from the soldier who was lying on the ground. There are 18 sticks in total. He asked me to give half of them to Edelweiss and give the other half to you, saying that you will definitely need them, and so will the wounded in Aka Hospital."

“That’s what you did.”

Wei Ran stopped talking halfway. The two of them looked outside vigilantly, watching a group of militiamen walking past with guns in hand.

"The bullet must have lodged itself in your shoulder blade"

After the militiamen left, Wei Ran took the lunch box, opened it, and pulled out a Ma Fei from it. He whispered, "I don't have the conditions to perform surgery on you now, so you can only bear it."

After saying that, Wei Ran injected a needle into the wound of the other party, but only pushed it in a little bit. Then he directly pressed the wound and the injection with gauze and bandaged it.

"Where do we go next?"

Bat said this, bending down to pick up a Falangist uniform that he had taken off from someone and put it on, then he put on his chest harness again and picked up his weapon.

"Come with me." Wei Ran waved his hand and led the other person out of the doorway and walked in the direction they came from.

"Are you coming back to die just for these injections?" Wei Ran asked again.

“My uncle’s wife is at Acre Hospital”

Bat whispered, "She gave up her chance of escape to a child, and we still want to rescue her."

Wei Ran's breathing slowed when he heard this, and he subconsciously thought of the photo of the pile of corpses that he had taken himself.

After a long silence, Wei Ran asked hoarsely, "Is Edelweiss okay?"

“She’s OK”

Bat replied, "I hid her and the children in a container at the dock. She is taking care of the injured children."

At this point, Bat saw the scrapped armored vehicle and whispered, "Where's the hot air balloon? He..."

“He’s dead too.”

Wei Ran walked towards the armored vehicle and whispered, "He tied the gift you brought back to the front of the ambulance, and then crashed into an armored vehicle.

I guess he must have jumped out of the car early, but he was caught anyway, and he was... He didn't survive."

"When we were on a mission in Somaliland, locals once attacked our camp in the same way."

Bat said bitterly, "It was a pickup truck, and the bed was filled with explosives."

"and then?"

"The first shot from the hot air balloon killed the pilot, who was a very talented sniper. The shot hit the pilot's neck in a force 6 crosswind."

Bat continued, "His second shot hit the tire, and the third shot hit the engine, successfully causing the car to deviate and crash into a tree, causing an explosion. That was his first kill.

You wouldn't believe it, but he blamed himself for it for a long time, saying that he was just like a damn invader, invading other people's land and killing the people who owned it, just like what the Warts were doing here."

"Go in first"

Wei Ran, who had no idea what to say or whether to continue this topic, opened the hatch at the rear of the scrapped armored vehicle. After the bat got in, he followed suit.

"Go to the machine gun tower."

Wei Ran pointed to the small pedal in the middle of the car and said, "I'm going to the hospital to borrow some medical equipment and send Ma Fei over. Then I'll come back to help you suture your wound."

"Hanward and."

"The car"

Wei Ran whispered, "The manhole cover is blocked by the car. They are all very good. Unless someone opens the manhole cover, they must not cause a conflict."

"Leave it to me," Bat said and climbed up the machine gun tower.

Seeing this, Wei Ran once again jumped off the wreckage of the armored vehicle and ran quickly towards the side door of the hospital.

Perhaps because of the recent exchange of fire, two Falangist militiamen happened to be walking towards this side, supporting a wounded man who had been shot in the buttocks.

"Do you need help?"

Wei Ran asked from a distance, pointing to the wreckage of an armored vehicle not far away, "We were ordered to use the vehicle-mounted machine guns there to guard the hospital. Did you encounter any resistance just now?"

“It’s an old guy”

One of the militiamen said as he gave the task of supporting the wounded to Wei Ran, "He injured a lot of people."

"I'll carry him in."

Wei Ran said to another militiaman who was supporting the wounded, "Go and carry the others."

"You are such a kind-hearted person, God will bless you." Another person said, and his companions helped Wei Ran carry the wounded man who was shot in the buttocks.

"I don't want to be guarding that crappy armored vehicle with my partner"

Wei Ran said with disdain, "A lot of people died in that armored vehicle. The smell was really disgusting."

"Take this, maybe it will make you feel better."

The militiaman whose job was first taken away by Wei Ran took out a few pieces of Chat from his pocket and stuffed them into his jacket pocket while speaking.

"Thank you"

Wei Ran said as he walked towards the hospital, "You guys go save the others, I'll take him in myself."

Hearing this, the two men each took out a piece of Chat and stuffed it into their mouths, then handed the wounded to Wei Ran with confidence and turned to walk in the direction they came from.

As for Wei Ran, he naturally would not do anything for the injured man on his back who had lost too much blood and fell into a coma. Instead, he carried him smoothly into the main building of the hospital and handed him over to a male doctor.

Wei Ran grabbed another doctor casually, pulled down the T-shirt that served as a mask in front of the other's horrified eyes, and whispered in French, "Do you know me?"

“You are a beast”

"Shh-"

Wei Ran made a silent gesture and led the other party into the dim stairwell. He first glanced at the opened entrance to the underground floor, and then asked in a low voice, "What's the situation here?"

"Those wounded who failed to escape basically died."

The doctor whispered in Wei Ran's ear, "There are not many living Palestinians here now."

"Are there any injured doctors?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.

"Have"

"Take this and just use it on the injured doctor."

Wei Ran said, handing over a few Ma Fei sent by Bat to the other party, "I'll wait for you here, help me find a set of surgical instruments."

"I'll be back soon"

After the doctor finished speaking, he ran away clutching the injections.

After a moment, he handed a surgical kit to Wei Ran, "You"

“You will all survive.”

Wei Ran patted the other person's shoulder gently, put on his mask again, walked out of the hospital filled with the smell of blood, and walked towards the destroyed armored vehicle outside as the sky was about to brighten.

This was just the early morning of September 9th.