War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1561 Flies

Facing the Aka Hospital side by side, in a scrapped armored vehicle with poor conditions, Wei Ran used the little sunlight shining down from overhead to untie the gauze on Bat's shoulder and pushed the remaining medicine from Ma Fei into his body. After the medicine took effect, he immediately began the work of debridement and suturing.

  This job was easy for him.

However, when he was rebandaging his wound, Arabic shouts were heard from all directions of the refugee camp - demanding that the surviving refugees go out of their homes and surrender, otherwise they would be treated as terrorists!

"These Fasu, these Nacu! Are they going to kill everyone here?!" The bat murmured helplessly, suppressing his anger.

"It's already dawn," Wei Ran muttered irrelevantly.

"They won't come out, will they?" Bat asked worriedly, "I mean those children."

"I gonna go see"

Wei Ran fixed the bandages, crouched down and left the scrapped armored vehicle, walked towards the dilapidated car, unbuckled his belt and posed for peeing next to the car body, whispering, "No matter what people say outside, don't come out."

"it is good"

A tiny response came from underneath the manhole cover that was pressed down by broken bricks and covered with dust.

After peeing on the tire, Wei Ran walked back to the scrapped armored vehicle while tying his belt.

"Want to talk about something?"

Wei Ran, who was sitting in the carriage, tried to start a conversation while replacing the last roll of film on his half-frame camera, both inside and out.

"What were you talking about?" Bat, who was guarding the machine gun turret, asked nonchalantly, ignoring Wei Ran, who stood up and leaned his upper body out of the car and pressed the shutter towards him.

"Anything, like your family." Wei Ran asked with a hard heart, "They."

"Uncle Umm and his wife are the last of my family."

The bat said calmly, "My wife is dead too, and our children didn't even have a chance to see this world."

"Have you also obtained French citizenship?" Wei Ran asked, sitting on the roof of the armored vehicle with his hands, lighting a cigarette.

"certainly"

The bat smiled, then said regretfully, "I originally planned to bring Uncle Wum's family and my wife to Corsica. I bought a large two-story house there and also bought two Citroen cars.

Besides, next door is the house bought by the hot air balloon, and not far away is the place where Napoleon was born. If we move there, we can live very well. "

As if he knew what Wei Ran wanted to ask, Bat looked up at the sky. "But Uncle Wumu doesn't want to leave at all. He said his dream is to drive out the Yishelie people and take back the land, or die in battle as an 8th Jie warrior. Either way, it would be an honor for him."

'He achieved his dream'

"yes"

Bat also lit a cigarette, "It's just a pity. If he could realize another dream, he would definitely not have any regrets."

"Of course I will," Wei Ran answered almost confidently.

"Do you have all the negatives of the photos taken with the hot air balloon?" Bat asked, changing the subject.

“Yes, most of them are here with me.”

Wei Ran said, gently raising his chin towards where Hanward was hiding, "The camera he seized is in Hanward's hands, maybe he took some photos too."

"The hot air balloon and I have a friend." The bat paused, "His name is Alan Varta."

“He’s here too”

“He’s in Beirut, but he’s not in the refugee camp.”

Bat said thankfully, "Mr. Valta is mainly stationed in the Phalanges or the Yiselie camp. The reason why the hot air balloon and I can freely shuttle between the Phalanges and the territories surrounded by them is also thanks to his help."

"What do you want to say?" Wei Ran asked.

“If we have a chance to get out of here alive, it doesn’t matter who it is, whether it’s you or me, or Hanward or Dalal.

Whoever leaves the refugee camp alive must hand over the photos of the massacre you took to Mr. Varta.

He is a fair and just man, and he will expose what is happening here through newspapers and television."

Bat said, waving the hand holding the cigarette to shoo away the flies around him, "His code name is Fly, the fly that looks for rotten meat and dog shit."

"Where is he?" Wei Ran asked.

“Right at the pier”

The bat replied, "Edelweiss and the children are there too. If you find Edelweiss, you will find Mr. Varta."

"Mr. Varta is also a Burroughs"

"no, he is not."

Bat shook his head. "He is a Dutchman. A Dutchman who settled in France. To be more precise, he is a Dutchman with Dutch nationality who settled in France."

As if afraid that Wei Ran would misunderstand, Bat quickly added, "Although he is a demon, he is not a human. He is an orphan who survived the Nazi concentration camp during World War II."

While we were chatting about Mr. Varta, the sky gradually brightened. As the sun rose higher, the sound of gunfire in the refugee camp became less and less frequent. However, the stench of corpses became stronger as the temperature rose, and there were more and more flies.

"Why are you still guarding here?"

Just as Wei Ran lit another cigarette, a passing armored vehicle stopped. The militiaman sitting in the vehicle who was responsible for shouting at the refugees to come out and surrender asked curiously.

This armored vehicle of theirs had passed by here more than once, so naturally they had an impression of these two men.

“We made some mistakes last night.”

Wei Ran forced himself to yawn and said, "Captain Arthur punished us by making us keep an eye on the Aka Hospital with machine guns."

"I don't know who your captain is, but you can go and rest. Our work is done."

After the militiaman finished speaking, he raised his loud speaker and ordered the refugees to leave their hiding place in a harsh tone. The armored vehicle under him also started moving again.

Raising the camera again, Wei Ran waved his hand to drive away the increasing number of flies around him, and then pressed the shutter towards the armored vehicle and the wreckage of the car less than three meters away from it.

Although the cleaning and burial were carried out throughout the night, the car blocking the manhole cover not far away and the stinking bodies of the landlord and his wife inside had not been cleaned up in time.

It was precisely because of the stench of corpses emanating from the car's cabin that it attracted a swarm of flies that could be described as "blocking out the sky and the sun."

Perhaps because their numbers have given them courage, these flies not only bite the dead but even the living.

Apart from anything else, Wei Ran and Bat had to wave their hands again and again to drive away the flies that landed on their bodies, otherwise they would feel the stinging pain on their skin after a short while.

As the horn on the armored vehicle shouted again and again, a small number of survivors gradually emerged around.

Seeing this, Wei Ran once again raised his camera, and like an unnoticed bystander, he pressed the shutter of the half-frame camera again and again towards the refugees who had survived, raised their hands and walked out tremblingly.

With the shouts from loudspeakers everywhere and the occasional gunshots, more and more surviving refugees surrendered, but it was only relatively more.

If compared with the refugees who have been killed, I'm afraid those who survived are not enough to fill the streets - like those who were killed.

After waiting patiently for nearly an hour, at around 10:30 in the morning, the Falangist militia began to retreat one after another with large and small bags of spoils.

At the same time, a team of fully armed Yishelie soldiers officially entered the refugee camp and took on the task of "maintaining law and order".

"Look, that's Mr. Varta's interview car."

Just as Wei Ran was wary of those clumsy soldiers, Bat weakly pointed at a Volkswagen T3 van that drove in front of the clumsy soldiers' line.

The van is painted in shit yellow, with an oversized red-headed fly, a cedar logo of the same size, and a slightly larger rogue star logo painted on its body.

At the top of the row of three signs, there are conspicuous sky blue painted letters with white borders, with the words "Freelance journalist Alan Varta" written in French, Arabic and Hebrew respectively.

  This taste.

Wei Ran twitched his lips. The color of the car and the unique logo made it look like a pile of hot shit with four-wheel drive.

"Valta's taste seems to be."

"Remember to give all the films to him," Bat said with all his strength, and at the same time gently pushed Wei Ran.

"Hey! You..." Wei Ran didn't even finish his words before everything in front of him was replaced by a strong white light.

However, this time, the white light appeared suddenly and disappeared quickly. By the time he reacted, he was already sitting in the driver's seat of a car.

"parking!"

  Before he could see the situation outside the car clearly, he heard Edelweiss's anxious shouting nearby!

"Crench!"

Wei Ran subconsciously stopped the car, and then he noticed that he seemed to be sitting in the driver's seat of that Volkswagen T3 van! He turned his head subconsciously and saw Edelweiss sitting in the passenger seat!

He glanced at himself. He was wearing jeans and German trainers on the lower body, and a thin sweater and a director's vest with many pockets on the upper body. However, his head was still wrapped in an Arab scarf, and even his hand was still wearing the prisoner of war watch that Edelweiss had exchanged for him.

The co-pilot's Edelweiss was dressed similarly to himself. On her slender wrist, she also wore the Soviet watch that he had seized earlier. The only difference was that she had a lady's sun hat on her head.

Looking out the window again, on the left is the car blocking the manhole cover, and on the right is the scrapped armored vehicle. In the machine gun tower of the armored vehicle, there is a person sitting. It is Bat! "Crack"

Wei Ran and Edelweiss pushed open the car door almost at the same time, and almost at the same time, the back door was also opened, and a man with a headscarf on his head came out carrying a Panasonic camera. Around his neck, there was a Nikon F3 camera.

"You two, come and help."

Before Wei Ran grabbed Edelweiss, the man shouted in French, "Victor, are you an idiot? Parking the car here will block the road and the filming field of view. Park it next to the scrapped car and get out of the way!

  And you! Clara! Stop staring! Come and help me hold up the bracket! Go!

The emperor of the special code!

Why did I choose you two idiots who only know how to fall in love as my assistants! I will fire you immediately when I return to the Netherlands!"

"Sorry! Right away!"

Wei Ran and Clara reacted almost at the same time. The latter hurriedly got into the car and took out a tripod, and hurriedly opened it at the position where the man's toes were pointing. At the same time, Wei Ran also maneuvered the van to park next to the wreckage of the family car that was filled with the stench of corpses and covered with flies.

"Victor! Take out the reflective cloth and put it on the rear of the car! Hurry up!" the man continued to shout, "Hurry up!"

"coming!"

Wei Ran, who understood the hint, quickly opened the sliding door of the rear compartment. After a quick glance, he picked up a bundle of canvas painted white, took two telescopic brackets, and placed them at the rear of the car as quickly as possible.

With just one glance, he clearly saw that, apart from a row of seats closest to the door and a small table directly behind the driver's seat, the rear half of the car was filled with cardboard boxes.

Not only that, the car windows were all brown, and there were black velvet curtains inside.

He had just finished his work here, and Edelweiss was already standing behind the camera to take charge of the filming. The man had also taken off his scarf, and was standing in front of the camera, introducing the Yishelie army passing by behind him in French, and even did not forget to greet and interact with those arrogant soldiers enthusiastically.

At a certain moment, Wei Ran almost subconsciously saw the shadow of the Ryukyu man named Sometani Yukio in this blond middle-aged man.

After shooting a shot that lasted less than two minutes, Mr. Varta shouted, "Victor, stop being lazy, you idiot. Hurry up and fix the tire now. Didn't you just say there was a problem with the tire? Why do you need me to remind you of this?"

"Right away! Sorry sir, I'll fix it right away!"

"Remember not to make any noise that would disturb my filming!"

After Varta finished speaking, he stood in front of the camera again. At the same time, Wei Ran immediately hid behind the reflective cloth.

After entering the carriage and searching around, he not only discovered the jack under the seat, but also found that the bottom of the cardboard boxes could be opened and that there was quite a lot of space inside.

This is almost a frame nailed out of wood, disguised from the outside as a stack of cardboard boxes, and a ventilation window that is large enough and hidden enough is left near the tailgate.

He even saw that there was not only a blanket inside, but also several bottles of water and some food.

After discovering this little secret, he immediately removed a spare tire from the roof of the car. However, it was not the van that was propped up by the jack, but the deformed sedan that was almost next to it.

Looking up at the reflective cloth that blocked almost all of his vision, Wei Ran squatted down and gently knocked on the manhole cover under the car, whispering, "Come out quickly, and remember not to make any noise."

After saying that, he immediately began to pretend to dismantle the tire on the passenger side of the car, making some noise.

A moment later, with a slight noise, the manhole cover under the car was carefully pushed open by two pairs of tender hands, and then a pale, sweaty child was lifted out.

Grabbing the child, Wei Ran carried him into the carriage, pointed to the opening at the bottom of the cardboard box, and then made a gesture to keep quiet.

The child pursed his cracked lips and dragged his numb legs and feet, crawling in with difficulty.

Soon, the second, third, fourth, and fifth children were lifted up one by one, carried into the car, and then lined up in the hidden space.

While Wei Ran was anxiously waiting, Dalal, with a pale face and almost soaked body, crawled out. Without even having time to catch his breath, he was pushed into the carriage by Wei Ran.

Fortunately, Hanward climbed out right after him, and in his hands, he even held the oil barrel and AKS74U submachine gun that Wei Ran had placed inside in advance! And the Canon NF1 camera bag that he and the hot air balloon had seized.

"You go in too!"

Wei Ran took the gun and the oil barrel and urged him at the same time. The latter hurriedly looked back at the ruins around him, then climbed into the carriage and into the hidden little space.

Using the only row of seats to block the only entrance and exit, Wei Ran put away the oil barrel, then emptied the chamber of the submachine gun and threw it into the passenger seat along with the camera bag.

After he released the jack that was supporting the car, he stuffed it and the toolbox back under the seat, and put the spare tire that had just been removed back on the roof.

Varta had just finished filming and started shouting in a harsh and rude tone, "Victor! Stop being lazy and go see if the soldier on the armored vehicle is still alive! If he is, I want to interview him!"

"Right away!" Wei Ran responded quickly.

"Clara, you silly girl, don't just sit there, quickly put away the reflective cloth and tripod! We have to go somewhere else to shoot later." Varta continued shouting.

  Not to mention Clara's busyness, Wei Ran had already climbed onto the armored vehicle and saw the bat covered with flies! Especially the wound on his shoulder, there seemed to be fly eggs as big as rice grains!

Amid the buzzing sound of swarms of flies flapping their wings, Wei Ran quickly put his hand under the bat's nostrils.

Fortunately, he is still alive and he is still breathing!

"Bat, are you okay? Bat?" Wei Ran called in a low voice.

"I"

Bat opened his blurry eyes and looked at Wei Ran, forced a smile, and raised his hand with difficulty to point at the car.

"They've been rescued, all of them have been rescued, they're all still alive." Wei Ran said into the other person's ear.

"Take my bag."

When Bat fainted, a glass rabbit with blue eyes slipped out of his hand.

The small amulet hit the hard armored hatch and broke into countless pieces in the bright sunlight, scaring away countless flies and making a crisp "clang" sound.

"Victor! Is he still alive?" Varta shouted.

"Still alive," Wei Ran responded loudly.

"Clara, drive our interview car over there, and keep away from that broken car. It stinks here!" Varta ordered loudly.

"Okay!" Edelweiss, who had just packed up the reflective cloth, responded quickly, got into the cab, and maneuvered the car to reverse and park it next to the rear door of the armored vehicle.

"Please get this gentleman into the car!"

Varta said enthusiastically, "I want to have a good chat with him about what happened last night."

In fact, he didn't need to say anything, Wei Ran had already jumped into the armored vehicle, pulled Bat down from the machine gun turret, and quickly stripped off the chest mount on him. Then he helped him step directly from the armored vehicle into the door of the interview vehicle that had just been opened by Edelweiss.

"Still alive," Wei Ran whispered, "The wound is on the shoulder, and the main symptom is excessive blood loss."

"I prepared blood for him to use in advance"

As Edelweiss spoke, she had already taken down the backpack hanging behind the co-pilot and opened it. In addition to several bags of blood, there was also a surgical kit and several bottles of cold Coke.

"Take off his clothes and throw them out first."

Mr. Varta got into the cab and started the car and said, "Then we will leave here immediately. You can treat him slowly on the way."

Upon hearing this, Wei Ran and Edelweiss immediately tore off Bat's Falangist uniform and blood-stained shirt as quickly as possible, and also took off his backpack and put it aside.

“I’ll do the cleaning.”

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already inserted a needle around the wound, then picked up a bottle of saline solution and began to flush it.

At the same time, Edelweiss began to give the bat a blood transfusion as quickly as possible, and then wrapped the clothes she had just taken off his body with a scarf. When the car turned a corner, she opened the window and threw it into the ruins of a building on the side of the road.

"How are the children?" It was only at this time that Edelweiss had time to ask while helping Wei Ran drive away the flies in the carriage.

"I have a little heatstroke," Wei Ran said while busying himself, "everything else is fine."

Hearing this, Edelweiss was somewhat relieved, and hurriedly pulled out a backpack from under the small table, which contained two sets of clothes.

"Draw the curtains, and hurry up."

While Varta, who was driving, gave the reminder, he had already parked the car in front of the Aka Hospital. At the same time, Edelweiss, who was about to help Wei Ran, hurriedly pulled the curtains between the front and rear compartments.

Through the curtains, Wei Ran clearly saw Varta push the door and get out of the car, holding the Nikon F3 camera in one hand and walking towards the two armed soldiers not far away.

"Hurry up, we don't have much time." Wei Ran reminded while speeding up his movements.

"Fortunately, they survived." Edelweiss, who was helping out on the side, sighed, "What a pity. Hot Air Balloon and the others."

“This is a Beirut refugee camp, not a fairytale world where you can find Aladdin’s lamp.”

While Wei Ran reminded Edelweiss, he was also secretly glad that no matter what, at least the bats were still alive, Edelweiss was still alive, and the children were still alive.

Even though it was only 10:58 in the morning.