War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 292 The Last Survivor

"Victor, will something happen to Leo?"

In the valley on the southeast side of Bear Island, Eric, whose head was wrapped in gauze, asked worriedly. At this time, almost ten hours had passed since Leo went to chase Professor Jonas, but he still did not come back. The blizzard has intensified and has not stopped in the slightest.

"If you are in the mood to worry about Leo, why not worry about us."

Wei Ran said helplessly that in the past ten hours, the snow outside the tent has accumulated a full half a meter thick.At the same time, because of the high temperature emitted by the continuously burning gasoline stove in the tent, in addition to the heavy snow, a thick layer of ice crust formed outside the tent.

These burdens not only make the thick tent that they live in likely to be crushed at any time, but also make the temperature in the tent drop below 20 degrees. If the snowstorm continues for a while, they may even be frozen to death .

Eric looked at Wei Ran who kept hitting the tent with his ski poles, and said with a sigh, "Blame me, I knew it would happen."

"It doesn't make sense to say that now"

Wei Ran stopped the other party's words, "Since Leo has the confidence to catch up with the escaped Professor Jonas, then you should believe that he can come back."

"What if he doesn't come back?" Eric asked, already in self-doubt.

"Then find a way to survive." Wei Ran poked his ski pole on the snow, "If Leo comes back and you die, he should be the one who is sad."

Eric opened his mouth, and finally pulled himself together to get up, pulled out the ski pole that Wei Ran had just poked next to him, and helped them beat the tent cloth together, slowing down the accumulation of snow and ice outside.

While the two waited for the blizzard to stop in the tent that might be crushed by snow at any time, the fishing boat also drove to Finnmark County 400 kilometers away under the blizzard.

However, I don't know if it's the retribution after doing bad things all over the place. Just as the boat was about to pass the center of Bear Island and the mainland, the fishing boat was surrounded by waves and crashed into a huge buoy without warning. ice.

In the violent shaking, Professor Jonas, whose wound was simply bandaged, limped towards the cab, while Captain Martin, who was dreaming sweetly in the cab, put a life jacket on himself in panic!
"What's going on?" Professor Jonas asked in horror.

"Our ship hit an ice floe!"

Martin looked at the bow of the ship that was getting closer to the ice-filled water, pushed away Professor Jonas who was approaching him, got into the cabin, and ran to the rear deck with the other party's mountaineering bag.

"Wait for me!" Professor Jonas climbed up with difficulty, and shouted while chasing the other party while leaning on the wall of the corridor, "Without me, you can't find a buyer at all!"

Martin, who was busy preparing the survival boat, glanced at the panicked Professor Jonas, drew out his pistol and aimed at him again without hesitation, "Old man, I only give you one last chance, tell me how to find the Family!"

Jonas pressed the wound on his leg, leaned his body against the cold hatch, and shouted with all his strength, "Take me away, I'll give you all the money from the sale! I just want to survive! Or kill me!" Fuck me, you can sell those films to whoever you want."

Martin cursed, and finally waved at the other party, "Come on!"

Professor Jonas secretly heaved a sigh of relief, endured the pain, and limped along the increasingly sloped deck.

"If these films don't sell for 500 million dollars, I'll send you back to Bear Island!" Captain Martin said, pushing the other party onto the lifeboat roughly.

Taking a last look at the corpse on the bow deck that had been completely covered by ice and snow, Captain Martin simply jumped onto the lifeboat, untied the chains that fixed the lifeboat, and desperately swung the oars to try to stay away from the fishing boat that hit the iceberg.

However, even if the fishing boat was struggling on the sea that seemed to be raging, how long could this small wooden boat that was only three meters long last?
Before the fishing boat with its upturned stern sank completely, the survival boat was smashed into the seabed by an ice block wrapped in a large amount of ice floes.

After the waves passed, there was only a big red mountaineering bag full of film floating on the undulating sea, drifting with the current, and then completely disappeared without a trace under the influence of another wave.

Wei Ran and Eric, who didn't know anything about it, were not in a good condition either. The tent they were hiding in had been buried by the snow at this time, leaving only a height of less than one meter above the snow surface. superior.

Inside the tent that was crazily squeezed by the snow, Wei Ran and Eric were hitting the sloping tent cloth with their backs again and again, trying to compact the snow outside to give them more space .

Although the temperature in the tent has dropped to single digits due to the thicker and thicker snow outside, it is not without benefits. At least this tent is much more stable than when the blizzard first started.

Now all they had to worry about was that the wooden pole fastened to the sleigh cart would not break under the weight.Or that the gasoline stove that provided them with heat, and the kerosene lamp that hung on the sleigh would not be extinguished.

During their arduous wait, the sky outside the ventilation window above their heads became slightly brighter, and the blizzard that had been raging for more than ten hours also weakened a little.At least, they can barely see the situation in the distance.

"Victor, look in the direction of the cave!" Eric retracted his head and handed the telescope to Wei Ran, "Look! Look!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran took the binoculars curiously and looked in the direction of the cave on the edge of the valley.To his surprise, although the place where they pitched their tent had accumulated thick snow and ice, the snow on the edge of the valley was blown extremely clean!He even vaguely saw the stone steps and the ground surface with moss and lichen that he hadn't found at the entrance of the cave before!

"Look to the left!" Eric reminded with a loud voice.

Wei Ran moved the binoculars slightly to the left under the guidance of the other party, and then found that in the southwest corner of the valley facing them, there was a big rock with a length of three to four meters and a height of one meter. On it, it seems that something is still chiseled.

Turn the focusing wheel of the telescope, and when he saw the mottled writing on it clearly, Wei Ran couldn't help showing a strange expression, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. On the stone a few hundred meters away, it was written in sufficiently striking German "2444 km from Berlin." Kilometers" is full of rigorous scientific information.

And behind this big stone shaped like a guidepost, there is a pass slightly above the ground. The strong wind blowing into the valley from the north, engulfing the accumulated snow here, crosses the pass and blows into the icy Arctic Ocean. .

"Victor, look at the ruins of the wooden building left by the weather station."

Eric shouted excitedly in the tent, "They must have carefully inspected this place before they built that weather station there! Those people were geniuses at that time!"

Genius indeed!
Wei Ran couldn't help sighing, he didn't know if it was a coincidence, but at least the current situation is that the strong wind blowing from the north of the valley not only took away the snow near the cave and even on the top of the head, even the surrounding of the weather station ruins It was blown clean, revealing the rusty airdrop tanks that were placed neatly around and half buried in the ground
Looking at the location where they chose to set up their tent, it was less than 200 meters away from the ruins, but their tent was almost buried by snow!
"How did you do this?" Wei Ran retracted his head and asked curiously.

"The canal effect! Of course it is the canal effect!"

Eric seemed to have forgotten the wound on his head and the surrounding tents that might collapse at any time. With the ski pole in his hand, he quickly drew a rough topographic map of the valley under his feet, and at the same time explained excitedly, "Normally, the canyon canal Most of the effects are harmful. But in this kind of place, after the wind blowing from the north enters the valley where we are, when the speed reaches a certain critical value, it will be accelerated, and the enhanced wind speed, It will also easily take away the snow in this valley."

Wei Ran opened his mouth and was about to say something, Eric continued, "Those mountains on the southern edge of the valley, and the pass near that rock, and the crucial wind speed!
When the wind speed from the north exceeds the threshold, the west side of this valley will be turned on like a vacuum cleaner!But look at our place, although the distance is only 200 meters, but because of the stone hills that are only two or three meters high to the north of us, it is blocked, so it is reversed."

"stop, stop"

Wei Ran had no choice but to stop Eric, who seemed to have Conan and Einstein on his body at the same time, and asked simply and directly, "Just answer me, is it safer for us to hide in the cave now?"

"Of course!" Eric pointed to the topographic map drawn under his feet with his ski poles, and was going to continue explaining the principles to Wei Ran.

"Don't waste your time when it's safer"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already started to move the oil barrel that was holding down the tent door, and then took a snow shovel and began to clear the snow outside.

Eric reacted, and quickly helped to extinguish the gasoline stove that had been burning for more than ten hours, and then loaded the blankets, sleeping bags, and other things in the tent onto the sleigh.

When rolling up Leo's polar bear skin blanket, Eric found that besides a few pornographic magazines that he dug out in the cave before, there were also Leo's usual precious silver cigarette case and silver lighter. , and in the cigarette case that was still open, apart from a few cigarettes, there was also the black and white photo that Leo dreamed of finding the shooting location.

Eric lost the excitement just now, and worriedly picked up Leo's cigarette case and lighter and put them in his pocket, then carefully rolled up the polar bear skin blanket left by the other party, and carried it onto the sleigh.

After Wei Ran dug a passage along the tent door, the two of them pushed the sleigh cart out together, then put away the tent that was almost buried in the snow, and headed for the stronger cave in the distance against the strong wind.

When the iron door full of bullet holes was pushed open by Eric, when he saw the old-fashioned fuel generator, he instantly fell into a depressed mood. Less than 24 hours ago, Professor Jonas had I reprinted those meteorological data with them in this warm cave.

But now, under the cover of a blizzard, the other party left the valley alone with his own treasure.

(End of this chapter)