War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 487 The Discovery in the Shelter
After resting at Akim's house for a few hours, when Wei Ran woke up again, the sky outside the window was finally a little darker.

This can't be helped, even if it's not extremely daytime in this season, the night time is pitifully short, and the criterion for distinguishing day and night is just to see if you are sleepy enough, so naturally there is no concept of jet lag.

While my aunt Zhou Shujin, Chris, and Aunt Jana were still sleeping, the two old guys, Professor Alexey and Akim, each carried two large boxes of wine, various canned food and self-heating food, and even camping tents and Things like a stove were loaded into the van at the door.

After Wei Ran helped put the three shovels, two metal detectors, and three shotguns into the trunk, Akeem sat directly in the driver's seat.

"Come up!" Alexei greeted Wei Ran, and he couldn't wait to sit in the co-pilot's seat.

Almost at the same time that Wei Ran closed the car door, Akim stepped on the accelerator and drove the car silently towards the pier.

"Akim, there's no signal in that damn place, right?" Professor Alexey asked expectantly.

"No, how could there be a signal in such a remote place?" Akim replied without thinking.

"I like places without signal!" Professor Alexei took out half a bottle of schnapps from his pocket while speaking, unscrewed the bottle cap and took a big gulp.

"Are you two really looking for the historical truth?" Wei Ran, who was sitting in the back row, asked suspiciously.

"Of course! Of course we are going to see what secrets are hidden in that lovely shelter." Professor Alexey raised his neck and took another sip while speaking.

"I hope so." Wei Ran couldn't help but shook his head, too lazy to pierce the little thoughts of these two old guys.

All the way to the pier at lightning speed, the three of them moved all the things stuffed into the trunk into the cabin and fixed them. Afterwards, the small plane lifted off lightly under the control of Akim, and after some circling, it flew to the northwest direction.

After more than an hour of flight, Akim manipulated the plane and began to lower the altitude little by little. In the cabin, Wei Ran had already taken out the telescope in the metal book under the cover of his backpack to observe the situation on the ground.

Although it is late June now, you can still see remnants of snow in some locations. In addition, most of what you can see on the surface is the endless cold coniferous forest and a few roads that look particularly deserted. And a few scattered settlements on both sides of the road. Generally speaking, humans are probably considered as a minority of animals here.

"Akim, why would your friend want to buy land in such a remote place?" Professor Alexis asked through the communication headset.

"He's a hunter and a good tanner. Of course, his main income comes from making reindeer sleds and breeding sled dogs."

Akim responded slowly, "In addition, although he is Norwegian, he is actually like most Finns, he likes to find a quiet place to hide himself."

"No need to explain, I already understand." Professor Alexei responded, "The land here should be very cheap, right?"

“Really cheap”

Akim responded, "It's like this in Finland. The farther north you go, the cheaper the land. But the further north you go, the more beautiful the scenery is. Well, it's time for you to fasten your seat belts. I'm going to land."

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Professor Alexei immediately put on their seat belts and responded.Soon, Akim manipulated the plane to lower the altitude again, and after some circling, he landed the plane at the end of a long and narrow lake.

To Wei Ran and Alexei's surprise, a simple pier was built here, and there were even two oil barrels on the pier.

"That was the only fruit of our labor last time we were here"

Akim had already opened the cabin door while speaking, "The only time this pier was of value before was after my friend was injured by a fall, allowing me to drag him directly onto the plane."

While talking, Akeem had already fixed the plane on a log post on the edge of the pier, "Okay, let's move the tub down first, we still have to walk for about half an hour to see the open space."

“The scenery here is really beautiful”

While Alexei sighed, he had already handed the three stacked children's bathtubs to Wei Ran who got off the car first. After the latter separated the three bathtubs, all kinds of camping supplies, food and drink were also available. was loaded into the bathtub.

After receiving a double-barreled shotgun from Professor Alexei, Wei Ran picked up a rope fixed on the edge of the bathtub and put it on his shoulders. While following Akim in the front, he looked at the surrounding scenery.

Perhaps because few people come here, everything here remains in its original state. Even across the lake, you can see two mottled Mauser foxes stretching their necks and staring at them vigilantly. On the sparkling lake in the distance, immediately after the plane was turned off, some unknown but extraordinarily fat birds flew over.

"Bang! Bang!"

Accompanied by two clear gunshots, the birds and the foxes on the opposite bank immediately flew away, and Wei Ran's nerves tensed up instantly, and he subconsciously wanted to take off the shotgun he had just carried on his shoulder.

"Don't be nervous"

Akim, who was walking in the front, opened the double-barreled shotgun in his hand with a bang, and let the shell casings of the two shotguns fly to the side in a parabola, and said slowly, "Just to remind the carnivores around us. Come, this will save us a lot of trouble."

"The sound of the plane's engine just now is the best reminder," Professor Alexey urged, "Hurry up, why are there still mosquitoes in this damn place?"

"Because it's summer"

Akim responded as a matter of course, and pulled a pink tub with a rope into the pine forest on the shore.

The pine forest is not dense, but it is thick enough, and the three of them can feel that the terrain is slowly climbing.From time to time around, you can still see some large and small stones.

After advancing in this coniferous forest for more than half an hour, until the planes behind them were completely blocked by the tree canopy, a small open space suddenly appeared in front of them.

"It's here"

Akim pointed to the white tarpaulin covered by logs in the middle of the open space and said, "The shelter is under that tarpaulin. Of course, the corpse is also there."

"Are we camping here tonight?" Alexei's reluctance came belatedly.

"Alexis, you are not afraid, are you?" Akim teased

"How could I be afraid?! I'm just worried that the smell of those corpses is too bad!"

Professor Alexey blew his beard and stared and retorted, "Anyway, let's go and see that shelter first!"

Hearing this, Akim nodded immediately, and beckoned Wei Ran and the two to go to the edge of the tarpaulin in the center of the open space, pulled out the ground nails on the edge of the tarpaulin, and then lifted away the thigh-thick logs, revealing the Fully dug shelter.

Standing on the scene, Wei Ran and Professor Alexi immediately discovered some details that cannot be seen in the photos.The most obvious of them may be the seemingly rotten smell, and this also shows that the three corpses do not seem to be wax corpses, but have been in a state of "low temperature preservation".

In addition to this most obvious feature and those things seen in the photos before, there is a floor on the ground of the shelter, and three simple cots against three walls can be seen at the same time. On the bedside of the bed, some had a box of rusty nails scattered, some had a few German lunch boxes, or there were things such as saws, wrenches, and even kerosene lamps.

"see this"

Wei Ran pointed to an object on the edge that was mostly buried by the collapsed object with a stick, "Why does that thing look like an engine?"

"It does look like an engine"

Professor Alexey nodded, but he didn't have the slightest intention to go down and take a closer look. Instead, he tapped the log wall of the shelter with a stick he picked up casually, and changed the subject, "Even if you don't consider digging such a large shelter It is not a small project just to fix the surrounding walls with logs, how did those three people do it at that time?"

"And those wooden boards on the ground"

Wei Ran then continued, "Even with that double chainsaw, where are they in the mood to lay the floor for this shelter? And looking at the surrounding walls, one side has already been nailed with wooden boards. What are they doing? Hobbit Do people build houses?"

"Whether hobbits are building houses I don't know"

Akim, who was standing aside, pinched his nose and said, "How long has it been, why have these corpses become so smelly?"

"It may be because they were exposed to the sun after they were dug up. Before that, they were equivalent to being kept in the refrigerator."

Professor Alexey looked at Wei Ran and said, "Victor, why don't you go down and have a look? There seems to be a metal box sitting under the buttocks of the three corpses."

"Why don't you go down?" Wei Ran asked, rolling his eyes.

"I drank on the way." Professor Alexis said, licking his face. "What if I accidentally break something valuable?"

"Admit it, you are afraid of those corpses"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he didn't bother to listen to the other party's explanation. He got up and walked to the side of the bathtub not far away, took out a pair of suede leather gloves from his bag and put them on, then took out a mask, and then walked around After returning, he stepped on an aluminum alloy ladder on the edge of the shelter and walked down carefully.

Over the past few decades, the three corpses have not changed much except that their color has become a little scary, their skin is a little shriveled, and most of the clothes on their bodies have decayed.

However, the smell that cannot be covered by masks also implies that if they are allowed to continue sitting here like this, they may not wait for winter to come again, and they will completely disintegrate like those melted ice and snow. Can leave some hard bones.

After carefully inspecting the three corpses, Wei Ran did not find any fatal wounds. With this in mind, he carefully picked up one of them and put it aside, then the second, third, and finally revealed They sat on tin boxes under their buttocks.

Because he witnessed the large landmine in Belarus, Wei Ran was extremely careful when opening the box.However, to his disappointment, there was nothing special in this heavily rusted box, just an empty wine bottle, a few German cans, and a rusty Mauser bayonet.

"Victor, since you've already gone down, let's lift things up first!"

Alexei, who was half-squatting on the edge of the shelter, said, "Especially that two-person chainsaw, and look at the model of the buried engine."

Hearing this, Wei Ran fastened the rusty lid of the box, handed it to Alexei and Akim above his head, then turned and walked to the other corner of the wall, carefully scraping away the floating dirt.

"Why is this thing so familiar?"

Wei Ran fell into deep thought after looking at the engine dug out by himself, and soon realized that this familiar engine probably came from a half-track motorcycle!Back in Bear Island, he even repaired this thing himself!

(End of this chapter)