War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 370
Leaving the cemetery outside Ferm Village on horseback, Wei Ran didn't dare to waste time, and rushed to the town where the Siren Tavern was located at the fastest speed.

However, from a long distance, he saw that the entrance of Siren Tavern was brightly lit, and several trucks with tarpaulins were parked in a row.

What made it even more frustrating was that at this time Artur and the dancers were being escorted to the car by the German soldiers.And behind them, those drunk drinkers who were awakened were also driven to another truck.

"It's broken!" Wei Ran's heart sank, and he quickly got off his horse and hid in the shadow of the building on the side of the road.

Soon, those trucks full of German soldiers, Artur and others whizzed by in front of him, and the muddy water splashed out by the tires even splashed on his feet!
At this moment, Artur in the car seemed to have spotted the black horse standing alone by the side of the road, and immediately shouted, "Don't burn my tavern! Don't burn my tavern! My Mia is still alive!" Inside! Please don't burn"

Artur, who was yelling, was knocked down on the floor of the truck by the soldiers around him with the butt of the Mauser rifle, and then a series of punches and kicks fell on him.

Wei Ran froze for a moment, silently put away the pistol in his hand, and finally glanced at the man and woman on the truck, gritted his teeth and continued to hide his body in the shadows.

When the trucks disappeared, he immediately rushed towards the Kraken Tavern under the cover of rain and night.

After such a short time, the tavern has been completely empty, only six or seven chain dogs are left looking for something, and one of them is busy dividing the cash in the cashier drawer of the bar counter into equal parts for their number .

And on the floor beside the bar, singer Mia's body was lying on her back, her beautiful big eyes staring blankly at the direction of her room.

Glancing at the two sidecar motorcycles parked at the door, Wei Ran, who was hiding by the mailbox outside the door, gritted his teeth and ran to the back door connected to the kitchen with a low waist. After carefully getting in, he aimed at the bar where money was being distributed soldier pulled the trigger.

The gunshot suppressed by the silencer became even more inconspicuous after being covered by the pattering rain outside, and the chain dog who was shot in the temple was grabbed by Wei Ran who rushed over before he fell to the ground He pulled his arm and dragged it into the windowless room off the bar.

But four or five minutes later, Wei Ran, who had changed into a chain dog uniform, came out of the room, and he threw the corpse into the wine cellar in the room behind him.

Pulling the heavy metal plate around his neck, Wei Ran glanced at Mia's body on the floor and the collar of her torn pajamas.He bent down to arrange her clothes, and closed her eyes for her.

He got up and walked to Mia's room. At this time, there were two chain dogs looking for valuables in the room, and one of them even held a handful of lingerie and stockings in his hand.

Looking at the fireplace where the bonfire was still burning, Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief, raised his hand and knocked on the door lightly, and pulled the trigger immediately after the two German soldiers raised their heads.

After listening for a while, Wei Ran closed the door and walked upstairs. He found the other three chain dogs who were searching for valuables from room to room, and shot them one by one and left them in the tavern forever.

Quickly returning to the first floor, Wei Ran glanced outside, saw that there was nothing unusual, and immediately ran into Mia's room.

Lightly tapped the metal plate under the bonfire with the iron hook beside the fireplace, Wei Ran pulled the charcoal grills that were still burning aside, and then used the iron hook in his hand to lift the metal plate to a gap no more than two fingers wide , "Ms. Juliet, it's me, Victor, I'm going to take you away right now."

After speaking, he fully opened the metal plate, took out the flashlight and pointed it down.To his surprise, there are not only Juliet and Romeo who is still lying on the bed in the basement, but also Frank and his sister Karen!
"Where are the others?" Juliet asked Wei Ran, holding a pistol and aiming at the entrance of the cave.

"them."

Wei Ran glanced at his Romeo, looked at his Romeo vigilantly, and said with just the right amount of panic, "I just left the tavern when I found the Germans coming. I saw them captured with my own eyes, Ms. Juliet , now we must get out of here as soon as possible, just in case"

Juliet panicked when she heard the words, and while frantically clearing up the manuscript paper on the table, she said, "Five minutes! Give me five minutes, and I will take all the materials away!"

"Victor, has the information been delivered?" Romeo, who was lying on the bed, asked a little nervously, and Frank, who was beside him, also looked in the direction of the cave entrance.

"I haven't had time to go yet"

While talking, Wei Ran climbed the handrail and entered the basement, "I'll take you to Ferm Village later, I think the people there will definitely arrange for you."

"Juliet, use the camera, there is a camera in the drawer, so you can take away more information." Romeo quickly reminded.

"Yes yes yes! Use a camera!" Juliet hurriedly opened the drawer and took out a camera from it.

"Let me shoot"

Wei Ran snatched the camera from the other party, and handed Frank the pistol Arthur gave him when he set off, and said, "Juliet, light the kerosene lamp. Frank, you take your sister to look outside first. When someone comes in, immediately throw a piece of charcoal into the basement."

"Leave the matter to us!" Frank took the pistol and immediately left the basement with his sister Karen climbing the metal handrail.

"I didn't expect Mia to die." Wei Ran looked at Karen's back and sighed secretly, really didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

After a while, Juliet lit the kerosene lamp, trotted over and spread the materials that needed to be taken away on the table. After Wei Ran finished shooting, he immediately threw it into the still burning fireplace, and then spread the rest on the table .

Wei Ran, who was in charge of taking pictures, pressed the shutter again and again, but focused most of his attention on Romeo who was struggling to move towards the entrance of the cave.

Fortunately, this man was extraordinarily honest at this critical moment of life and death, and did not make any dangerous moves.

With the cooperation of Wei Ran and Juliet, the only two film rolls in the drawer are full of materials that need to be taken away, and there are only the last two film rolls in the camera.

"Let's go up"

Seeing that the last document had been thrown into the fireplace, Wei Ran hung the camera around his neck and was about to climb up, "Romeo, later I will drag you up with a rope from outside."

"I'm sorry to trouble you," said Romeo, who was leaning on the chimney of the fireplace, hastily.

Without looking at each other again, Wei Ran quickly climbed up to the ground, but after a while, Frank and her sister Karen had already dragged Mia's body back with a sheet.

"Sister Mia did it to save us." Karen wiped her tears and choked up, "She was beaten to death to save us."

"Victor, send her to the cellar." Frank said aside, "Mia, he is actually Erich's girlfriend. She could have gone to Switzerland with Erich to hide."

Wei Ran was stunned, and silently wrapped the sheet under Mia tightly and knotted it, then picked up another sheet and tore it to make a rope, put Mia's body down first, and then used this sheet to He dragged up the traitor Romeo, who had a wounded thigh.

"Frank, take Karen to see the situation outside." Seeing that Romeo's upper body had left the hole, Wei Ran immediately said to Frank who was helping him.

Frank nodded without doubting him, immediately picked up the weapons on the two corpses in the room and ran out of the room, and Wei Ran also closed the door while Romeo untied the bed sheet tied around his waist.

A moment later, Juliet, whose face was covered with scars, also crawled out of the basement. It was only then that Wei Ran said, "Romeo, I have actually been to Ferm Village, and you want to go to Ferm Village and that place?" Would you like to chat with a rebellious gravekeeper?"

Glancing at Romeo who panicked under the beam of the flashlight, Wei Ran continued, "Talk about how you betrayed everyone, how you put a price on every exiled compatriot and hard-hiding Jew. "

Romeo threw the sheets he had just untied on Mia's bed, glanced at Wei Ran who was holding a flashlight, grinned and asked indifferently, "It seems that you know everything?"

"Just short of your admittance"

"That's right, I did betray you." While speaking, Romeo had already reached out and pulled out a pistol from his pocket.

However, before he could point his gun at Wei Ran or anyone in Juliet, Wei Ran, whose left hand was empty last moment, pulled the trigger.

Amidst the suppressed gunshots, Romeo was hit by a bullet in the back of his hand holding the gun, and the pistol made in Poland in his hand also spun and fell under the bed.

"You betrayed us?" Juliet, who came back to her senses, asked in disbelief.

"Let me go, I'll give you one kilogram of gold! One kilogram of gold per person!" Romeo knelt on the floor covering the wound on his hand.

Juliet took two steps back, then took a deep breath, turned around and opened the door, walked out, and said to Wei Ran, "Victor, help me, I dare not kill, but I don't want him to live leave here."

"As you wish, ma'am." Wei Ran pulled the trigger in his hand while speaking, leaving a bullet hole in Romeo's forehead.

When his body hit the floor with a thud, Wei Ran thought for a moment, then covered the hole leading to the basement with that metal plate, and carefully buried the surrounding area with ashes.

Glancing at Juliet who was sitting at the table in a daze and Frank who also had an unbelievable look on his face, Wei Ran sighed and asked, "Where are you going next? I have already asked where and where to meet the British." Connector."

"never mind"

Frank said abruptly, "I don't want to contact the British anymore. I'm going to send Karen to Switzerland to meet Erich first, and then I will find a way to come back. There are still many compatriots and Jews here who need my help."

"Ms. Juliet, what about you?" Wei Ran turned his head and asked.

"I'm going to meet the British"

Juliet glanced at Mia's room, "Cracking the German cipher machine will be of great help to this stupid war. If I can get the help of the British, my cracking progress will be greatly improved."

Wei Ran opened his mouth. After all, he didn't give his own suggestion, but changed the subject and said, "In this case, let's take a group photo for you before leaving. I hope we will have a chance to meet again in the future."

Juliet touched her scarred cheek subconsciously, nodded after a moment of hesitation, "Alright, let's take a group photo."

"Let me shoot"

Wei Ran spoke first, then took the camera from Juliet, waited until Frank lit the kerosene lamp on the bar, and took a picture of the three of them with the bar as the background.

"Victor, you can take a picture too." Karen said and walked over.

"Okay, let's take a picture." Wei Ran handed over the camera to the other party, and stood side by side with Frank next to Ms. Juliet.

When the shutter sounded, Frank immediately extinguished the kerosene lamp, and then found a coil of fishing line from the bar, and after the three of Wei Ran left, he immediately fixed the fishing line on the door of the tavern, waiting for him After closing the door, he passed the other end of the fishing line through the delivery opening of the mailbox on the side of the door, then pulled out a key from his neck, opened the mailbox, and fixed the fishing line inside.

"It was filled with explosives a long time ago"

Frank said while locking the mailbox, "We all know that sooner or later we will be caught by the Germans, but we are all afraid of being tortured. This is the means for us to stay and die together."

"Does it make sense?" Wei Ran couldn't help asking.

"Even if it's just killing one enemy, then everything we do has meaning." Frank glanced at the sidecar motorcycle at the door, "Okay, we should go, and you should leave quickly. If we can Live until the end of the war, come back here and meet together."

"Take these things, it will be helpful to you." Wei Ran said, and handed the canvas pocket on the belt to Frank.

Glancing at the gold bars and various valuable gadgets in the canvas pocket, Frank hesitated for a moment before refusing, and handed them to Karen beside him, then shook hands with Wei Ran and Juliet respectively, and pulled his sister Without hesitation, he walked towards a sidecar motorcycle.

"Let's go too." Juliet said flatly, "Don't waste time."

"Let's go, it's time to go."

Wei Ran muttered something to himself, helped Ms. Juliet to sit in the sidecar of the motorcycle, and waited until Frank's motorcycle completely disappeared in the rain before starting the motorcycle.At the same time as the motorcycle engine started, intense white light instantly filled his field of vision.

When the white light in front of him disappeared, Wei Ran found that he was still in the same place, but the surrounding scenery was already a sunny day.And the tavern in front of him has also turned into ruins.

Not far from him, a black car slowly stopped, and then, Karen, a tall and thin young man with glasses, and a chubby middle-aged woman walked over together.

Almost subconsciously, Wei Ran dodged and hid behind the ruins of the Kraken Tavern, listening to their conversation quietly.

"Erich, do you think my brother is still alive?" Karen asked worriedly.

"Alive, I guess he must be alive."

The well-mannered young man wearing glasses responded absently, and asked after a moment of silence, "Mia. Is she in there?"

"Sister Mia is in the basement." Karen's mood also fell.

"We should have taken her to Switzerland at that time." The chubby middle-aged woman looked at her son standing beside her distressedly, "We should have been firmer at that time."

Erich looked up at the clean blue sky above his head, and muttered to himself, "I will rebuild the Kraken Tavern, and it will be exactly the same as before."

"For Mia?" Karen couldn't help asking.

"For Mia." Erich rubbed the corners of his eyes, and his tone became more firm, "And for all the friends who died in the war."

"I hope you can be reunited." Wei Ran muttered to himself, letting the white light that appeared again fill his field of vision.

(End of this chapter)