War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1695 New Life and the Liberated Old Life
"What did you say?"

In the darkness of the night, Habibullah's tone became particularly flustered.

"After grandpa came back injured yesterday, Ayana has been crying the whole time."

Murtaza said very quickly, "This evening, she seemed to be about to give birth, but she couldn't. She said she had a difficult labor and needed teacher Malalai's help."

Almost subconsciously, Habibullah looked at Wei Ran and Kirill who were walking in front, and then he looked at Hakim.

“I expected this to happen.”

Hakim sighed, took out the submachine gun that belonged to Ruslan, pulled out the magazine, checked it, and handed it to Habibullah, "Take them to rescue Ayana."

After that, Hakim switched to Russian and said to Wei Ran and Kirill, "You follow him to rescue people. Your companions will stay behind as hostages. I hope you will consider your companions' lives and not do anything dangerous."

"No problem," Kirill agreed readily, "but I've only performed two deliveries, and I can only promise that I'll do my best."

After saying that, Kirill looked at Wei Ran, "What about you?"

'Many times'

Wei Ran answered that in Beirut, he had cooperated with Edelweiss in many childbirth operations, and that was also the experience he least wanted to recall.

"go quickly"

As Hakim spoke, he had already freed up a donkey, and then asked Murtaza to give them the donkey he was riding.

"What are you going to do?" Habibullah asked.

"I'll carry Malalai on my back, so we can always make it if we walk slowly," Hakim said, "and I'll have Murtaza and Qiaoya to help me."

Gritting his teeth, Habibullah asked Wei Ran and Kirill to ride on donkeys, and he also rode a donkey.

After the three donkeys started running again, Wei Ran and Kirill were still in the front, and Habibullah with a weapon was at the end.

"Should we run?" Kirill asked in a low voice.

"Can you outrun a bullet?" Wei Ran asked back. It was dark at this time. If he really wanted to run, there was a certain chance that he would escape successfully, but if he failed, the cost would be too high.

On the other hand, this return mission also left him with no way to escape.

“I’m not planning on running”

Kirill whispered, "It's not just because of Ruslan. I am a doctor after all."

"You just said that you performed delivery operations on two beds?" Wei Ran asked, changing the subject.

“Last year,” Kirill said, “it was two Afkhan women.”

"Did you survive?" Wei Ran asked after a moment of silence.

"Survived, I guess." Kirill said uncertainly, "I never saw them again. How about you?"

"Beirut, 6 years ago." Wei Ran replied after a long silence.

Hearing this, Kirill also fell silent. After a moment, he asked, "The massacre?"

"Yes," Wei Ran gave a brief answer in a hoarse voice.

"It's unbelievable that you survived that kind of hell," Kirill murmured.

"Yeah." In the night, Wei Ran showed a sad smile on his face, "I didn't expect that either."

Perhaps because the topic was too heavy, the two people who had no intention of escaping fell silent one after another, and under the command of Habibullah behind them, they urged their donkeys to run in the mountains.

After climbing over one mountain after another and crossing one valley after another, Wei Ran finally saw the hidden cave again.

"father!"

From a distance, Habibullah began to shout, "I brought a doctor! Is my sister okay?!"

"Habibullah?"

Mahbub limped to the entrance of the cave and shone a flashlight over there, forcing Wei Ran and Kirill, who were covered by the beam of light, to squint their eyes.

But then his tone darkened, "It's the Soviets?!"

"They are Soviet prisoners we captured. Both of them are military doctors."

"We shot down two Soviet helicopters," Habibullah said.

"Is Abdul still alive?" Mahbub asked after a brief silence.

"he died"

Habibullah paused and said, "Dad, let them go and save my sister. They are the only ones who can save Ayana now."

“My daughter was born with a difficult birth”

After a brief silence, Mahbub switched to Russian and asked, "Are you willing to save her?"

"If you are willing to treat us as doctors rather than prisoners of war, we are certainly willing to save her," Kirill answered seriously.

"What about you?" Mahbub looked at Wei Ran again.

"If you delay for one more second, your daughter and the baby in her belly will be in greater danger."

Wei Ran had already gotten off the donkey and took off the medical bag hanging on the donkey. He said, "We need hot water, lighting, and a clean enough environment. In addition."

At this point, Wei Ran turned his head and looked at Habibullah behind him, "We still need a watch. This is not a condition, but a must-have item for saving people."

"come in"

Mahbub sighed and limped out of the cave. At the same time, Habibullah hurriedly took off the watch that once belonged to Ruslan and handed it over.

He took the watch and handed it to Kirill, who picked up the plasma bag and walked in while saying, "You should be thankful that we brought enough plasma. Your daughter is unlikely to be in danger of death."

Before they finished speaking, the two men ignored the guns in Habibullah and Mahbub's hands and quickly walked into the cave with their bags.

Although he had been here before and rested here for a night, the sanitary conditions here still made Wei Ran frown.

However, now was not the time to find fault. The two of them looked at each other, took off their slightly bulky Afhanka uniforms, and while directing the Mahbub father and son and the little girl named Soraya to use felt to surround a space that could at least block the wind and sand, they began emergency preparations for the operation.

"There are bleeding symptoms, and the signs are not very good."

Kirill said as he had already hung up plasma on the almost unconscious Ayana, "It is important to warm the plasma bag with your bodies."

Hearing this, Mahbub, who was helping to hold the flashlight, quickly unbuttoned his shirt and put the plasma bag against his chest. The little girl named Soraya picked up the other two plasma bags and stuffed them into her clothes.

"We have no choice but to perform surgery." Kirill looked at the surroundings, his tone full of helplessness and worry. This place did not meet the minimum requirements for a surgical environment at all.

Apart from anything else, the only things they had for lighting at this time were two flashlights and two lit Soviet oil stoves.

Even their operating table was just a large stone covered with a blanket and a woolen coat. The height was neither high nor low, and they could only bend their knees and bend their waists.

"let's start"

As Wei Ran was speaking, Kirill had already pushed the anesthesia into Ayana's body, and Wei Ran began the disinfection work.

“Have hot water and clean blankets ready.”

Before Wei Ran picked up the knife in his hand, he said to Habibullah outside the blanket, "If the child is still alive after it is born, it will need a warm and dry environment."

Without bothering to think about where Habibullah would find a clean blanket, Wei Ran had already placed the scalpel on Ayana's disinfected skin.

Although the conditions were crude, fortunately they had enough plasma.

Amid the busyness that Mahbub couldn't bear to watch, Wei Ran started to work in cooperation with the slightly unfamiliar Kirill.

"They are twins"

When the first child's umbilical cord was cut, Wei Ran said casually, and at the same time subconsciously imitated Edelweiss, lifting one of the baby's legs and patting him gently on the back a few times.

Suddenly, the loud cry of a baby was heard in this desolate cave.

"Wipe him with slightly hot water, then dry him as soon as possible and wrap him up." Wei Ran said as he handed the little boy to the bewildered Soraya.

At almost the same time, Kirill cut the umbilical cord of the second baby, also a boy.

After another round of gentle patting, this new life born in the war also began to cry loudly.

After handing him over to Habibullah who was waiting outside, Wei Ran immediately returned to the crude operating table, carefully tore off the placenta, and then sutured it step by step.

Before this, he had performed all the birthing operations as an assistant to Edelweiss, and he had only watched the operations.

"Will my daughter survive?" Mahbub asked cautiously, almost unable to open his eyes.

"I can't answer you, but at least she's alive now."

Kirill replied hastily that they only had plasma and basic medicines, no oxygen cylinders, and even the place was not clean enough. These factors made it unknown whether Ayana could survive.

'She will survive'

Wei Ran's tone was particularly firm this time, "I have performed surgery without anesthesia on pregnant women before, and they survived. Most of them survived."

When these seemingly ordinary words were spoken, although Mahbub did not understand them, Kirill could not help but tremble.

Surgery without anesthesia is the nightmare of all doctors and patients.

Amid the prolonged crying of the baby outside, Wei Ran and Kirill helped Ayana suture all the wounds and ruptured blood vessels, and bandaged them meticulously.

Finally, after Kirill helped to give Ayana an injection of antibiotics, the two people who had been squatting almost all the time breathed a sigh of relief and worked together to cover Ayana's body with a blanket.

“Hopefully she’ll wake up tomorrow.”

When Kirill said this, his tone was full of insecurity.

"Yes, I will."

Wei Ran took off his bloodstained gloves and threw them away, stretched his numb knees and waist, and walked out of the felt curtain under Mahbub's silent gaze and vigilance.

"Old man, is your foot injured?" Wei Ran suddenly stopped and asked.

"I'm fine," Mahbub replied after a moment's silence.

"Let me help you heal."

Wei Ran turned around and said, "While I am still a doctor."

After a moment of hesitation, Mahbub nodded and asked Soraya to go in and take care of the unconscious Ayana. He sat down by the campfire, untied the blanket wrapped around his feet, revealing the charred wounds.

"Who did you learn this stupid trick from?"

Kirill took a look and limped to Habibullah's side with a numb leg. He ignored the submachine gun that the other party raised subconsciously, took off the watch on his wrist and hung it on the silencer on the muzzle of the gun. Then he put on the stethoscope, first put the head of the stethoscope in his arms to cover it, and then began to examine the two babies.

"This is the only way to survive," Mahbub said, putting down his gun when he saw that Kirill didn't seem to be prepared to do anything.

“Both of these little guys are healthy.”

Kirill took off his stethoscope and said, "They are not in any danger of having a difficult birth."

"Take it"

Habibullah said, handing the watch to Kirill.

The latter was stunned for a moment, then nodded, took the watch and put it back on his wrist, "Thank you."

"Let's go take a rest by the campfire," Habibullah's tone softened.

"Their mother may have milk, but her body is still weak."

Kirill said as he sat down by the campfire, opened the medical bag and took out an unused syringe, pulled out the needle and handed it to Habibullah. "So if you can get goat milk, you can boil the milk and then cool it down, and feed it to them little by little with a syringe."

"Thank you"

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Habibullah also thanked him and took the syringe.

At the same time, Wei Ran had already applied anesthetic to the wound on Mahbub's foot.

"Do you need my help?" Kirill asked.

"Hold the flashlight for me."

Wei Ran said half seriously and half jokingly, "This old man is holding a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other. I'm worried that he might mistake the trigger for the flashlight's switch, so I'd rather let him concentrate on holding the gun so I can feel more at ease."

This little joke also made Mahbub hide the uniquely shaped pistol in his hand behind his back with a little embarrassment. It was a pistol from the same country as Wei Ran - a Type 80 submachine gun.

At the same time, Kirill took the two flashlights from the other party and let the dim beams cover the charred wounds on Mahbub's feet.

"Mind chatting about something?"

Wei Ran put on his gloves again and asked, "This is the first time I've been pointed at with a gun at such a close distance while undergoing surgery, so I can't help but feel a little nervous."

"What do you want to talk about?" Mahbub asked after a moment of silence.

"Anything, like that pistol of yours?"

Wei Ran had already started disinfecting the area around the wound while he was talking. "Where did it come from?"

“I picked it up,” Mahbub said perfunctorily.

"There are always all kinds of weapons in the desert for no apparent reason," Wei Ran said, picking up a scalpel. "I've given you anesthesia, but it will be painful. You have to be patient and at least don't pull the trigger."

Mahbub did not respond to Wei Ran's reminder. Instead, he would occasionally glance at his daughter who was surrounded by a felt not far away, Habibullah who was boiling goat milk by another bonfire next to him, and the two wrapped babies who were still crying.

Compared to the delivery operation just now, the wound on Mahbub's foot was not much more complicated, and it must be admitted that although his method of burning the wound caused some trouble in debridement, it did make his condition better than Malalai's overall.

Finally, he was given a tetanus shot and Wei Ran said, "The doctor's work has been completed."

After a moment's hesitation, Mahbub sighed, "Have you eaten yet?"

"He once gave us half a piece of naan," Kirill pointed to Habibullah in the distance.

Hearing this, Mahbub nodded without saying anything. He just limped to his feet, walked to the two babies with the help of a wooden stick, and whispered something to Habibullah.

A moment later, the two babies who had drunk goat's milk were carried by Habibullah into the curtain surrounded by felt.

Immediately afterwards, he carried out a small enamel pot filled with mutton from the depths of the cave and placed it on the campfire, then he left the cave.

At the same time, Mahbub raised his pistol again and stood by the campfire beside the curtain, watching Wei Ran and Kirill vigilantly.

Knowing that the confrontation between guerrillas and prisoners had resumed, Wei Ran and Kirill wisely did not move and remained silent.

They all knew that when it came to issues involving children, Mahbub, for the safety of the children, would most likely choose to shoot first at the first sign of unusual movement and then consider whether it was a misunderstanding.

During this long silence, the aroma of boiled mutton gradually filled the cave, and Mahbub lay motionless as if he was asleep.

"I"

As soon as Kirill opened his mouth, Mahbub immediately raised his gun.

"Can I lie down?"

Kirill raised his hand and asked, not knowing whether he was testing him or not. "My concussion sequelae have not completely disappeared. I have been traveling or undergoing surgery all day. I am too tired."

Mahbub didn't say anything, just shook the gun in his hand.

Seeing this, Kirill and Wei Ran lay down beside the campfire respectively. Soon, they both began to snore. They were really tired.

But in fact, Wei Ran did not sleep. Not only him, but Kirill, who was facing him, did not sleep either.

As they snored, Mahbub relaxed his guard a little. He limped over with the help of a wooden stick and fetched two small enamel bowls from a nearby stone. He filled them with two bowls of broth and a few pieces of mutton and placed them beside the campfire.

When the sky outside the cave gradually brightened, the donkey's braying timely "woken up" the two people who were dozing by the campfire, and made Mahbub, who was sitting by the campfire in the distance, immediately stand up with the help of a wooden stick.

Soon, Hakim hurried into the cave leading a donkey with Malalai on its back.

"You two!"

Hakim hurriedly shouted to Wei Ran and Kirill, "Look what you have done! Stand up and see what happened to her!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Kirill got up and walked towards the donkey.

But after just a glance, they both sighed at the same time and shook their heads at each other.

At this time, Malalai, lying on the donkey's back, clenched her fists and put her arms against her ribs, while her body leaned back extremely far. Her face was flushed red and she had a bitter smile on her face.

"I remember you gave her a tetanus shot," Wei Ran asked in Russian with a frown.

“Definitely injected”

Kirill said confidently, "I put all the potion bottles in that cave."

"Tell me what you think," Wei Ran said as he untied the rope on Malalai, carried her down and gently placed her next to the campfire.

"She may have already contracted tetanus when we gave her the tetanus vaccine. That's the most likely possibility."

Kirill opened the medical bag and took out an orange-yellow endotracheal tube and handed it to Wei Ran. "There is another possibility that she is intolerant to the tetanus vaccine. This possibility is very small. I did a skin test before the operation on her."

"You explain it."

As Wei Ran spoke, he reached out and pinched Malalai's chin, opened her jaw joint with a crisp "click", and then inserted the tracheal tube into the trachea through the mouth.

"I need a piece of wood and a rope, hurry up." Wei Ran urged in Persian.

The first one to react was Murtaza. He immediately ran deep into the cave and came over dragging a wooden box that was one meter long.

Just when the little guy and Habibullah were rushing to find the axe, Wei Ran had already stood up and walked to the wooden box, raised his leg and kicked it directly.

"Crack!"

The huge force of the kick easily broke the wooden board that was only one finger thick. Wei Ran ignored the dull looks of the people around him and said, "Go find a rope!"

After saying that, he kicked out a second time, breaking the edge of another wooden board, and then pulled them off the wooden box.

At the same time, Murtaza also found a tattered rope.

"Help me hold him down"

Wei Ran said as he picked up Murtaza and placed him on Malalai's hip as the others subconsciously raised their guns to watch.

With the help of this little guy, Wei Ran put tight splints on Malalai's body front and back, then opened the medical bag, took out two tetanus injections and injected them into her body.

This was not the end. He then untied the gauze on Malalai's foot and, amid the exclamations of Hakim and others, used a scalpel to cut open the sutured wound.

"Have you finished explaining?" Wei Ran asked.

"It hasn't started yet." Kirill came back to his senses and said.

"Then let me tell you."

Wei Ran sighed, ignored the guns pointed at him, and sat down by the campfire. "It's tetanus. The antitoxin injection is not very effective at this time. We need immunoglobulin, but we don't have it in our medical kit."

"Where is it?" Hakim asked.

"Where?" Wei Ran shook his head, "I don't know."

"We may have some at our military bases," Hakim said, "but even if they're willing to lend us a few, it's probably too late."

"so."

“So you have to make the decision yourself.”

Wei Ran took over the topic, "Either we gamble that the antitoxin I just injected will work, or we kill her now."

"What did you say?" Hakim directly pointed the barrel of the AK74 in his hand at Wei Ran's head.

"Tetanus has a very high mortality rate"

Kirill said weakly, “Even if we send her to our military base, she may not be saved.

But compared to the mortality rate, the most terrifying thing is that the process of death will be very horrible. Then she will even, no, she will definitely break her spine and then die of suffocation due to spasms. "

“I had a friend who was just like her.”

Wei Ran ignored the gun barrel on his head and raised his hand to point at Murtaza who was not far away. "My friend was the same age as him at that time. We personally sent him away from this world."

In the long silence, Mahbub sighed, limped over, raised his hand and pressed down the muzzle of the AK rifle in Hakim's hand, "Soviet, is there any way to make her go less painful?"

"Yes," Wei Ran nodded, "Do you need me to help her?"

"Let you, a Soviet, kill her."

Mahbub seemed to have aged a lot in an instant. "So she can be considered a guerrilla fighter."

"I am honored to help her become a glorious guerrilla fighter."

Wei Ran sighed, reached into his backpack and took out two anesthetics, then took out an unused scalpel.

This kind of thing is not the first time he has experienced it. Rather than being accustomed to it, it would be better to say that he is numb to it, even though... even though their positions are different at this moment.

"We really do."

"Let her go free"

Mahbub made the final decision painfully without waiting for Hakim to finish, "Lord Zhen will take her away."