War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 658 Overfilling Supplies

In the howling night of the cold wind, after Wei Ran steered the transport vehicle through a coniferous forest along the ruts, two large tents covered with thick snow suddenly appeared in front of him.

With the help of the light emitted by the row of halogen headlights on the roof, Wei Ran carefully observed the snowflakes flying outside, and then he controlled the transport vehicle to go around in a circle, and stopped horizontally at the upper air vent.

Before he could turn off the engine, Apoli, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, had already taken down an AK rifle from the gun rack, stepped on the seat, opened the sunroof above his head, aimed at the night sky, and pulled the trigger.

The clear and crisp sound of gunshots traveled far away with the cold wind, and those green eyes immediately disappeared in the coniferous forest shrouded by the headlights.

It wasn't until the entire magazine was empty that Apoly retracted and closed the steel skylight above his head, and said while putting on his clothes, "Let's move the apples to the back first, they will break if they are placed here."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately added clothes to his body, and then helped Apoli to send the basket full of apples out of the cab, and carried it into the warehouse behind him which was almost filled with various supplies.

This is not over yet, when he moved the basket of apples to the corner with difficulty, Murat and others had already rushed over, moved out various supplies from one of the tents and handed them to those who were still in the cargo hold. Wei Ran, and Apoli who just climbed up.

To Wei Ran's surprise, these supplies included barrels of fuel, boxes of bread, all kinds of hard frozen meat, vegetables, and fruits, as well as several bags of flour, and even bullets. There are two full boxes.

Finally, two large barrels containing at least 40 liters of cooking oil and a wooden box full of various seasonings were sent into the cargo hold.

This is not over yet, and these people rolled out one oil barrel after another from another tent.These oil barrels are not filled with fuel oil, but large chunks of coking coal.

After he and Apo used the rocker to drag these things into the cargo hold where there was not much space.Dr. Murat and the others even dismantled the two snow-covered tents together, and hoisted them into the cargo hold with the rocker at the hatch door.

Finally, the heavy cabin door was closed with difficulty, and Dr. Murat led the other young people into the living cabin at the back, while Pavel followed Wei Ran into the cab.

After everyone sat down, Pavel glanced at the compass on his lap, then at the map under the compass, and then raised his finger to the northeast and said, "Go 20 kilometers in this direction."

"Dr. Pavel, this distance will definitely be out of the range of radio communication." Apolly, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, reminded.

"It's ok"

Pavel said confidently, "I have already paid off the radio operator. In the next half month, we will return the safety signal on time every day."

Apoli frowned, and finally nodded silently, without saying anything.

"Let's go if there is no problem!" Pavel greeted Wei Ran who was sitting on the other side and was in charge of driving.

Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran started the transport vehicle again and drove towards the direction pointed by the other party.

Although the speed of this transport vehicle is not fast, it still only has a straight-line distance of 20 kilometers. In addition, it also saved a lot of time by encountering several lakes with ice caves, so it only took more than an hour. He stepped on the brakes at Pavel's prompt.

Compared with before, the surrounding scenery has not changed much. Apart from the coniferous forest passing behind him, the most conspicuous thing is the extra round low-lying area that is trimmed by snow. Just low mountains.

"This is a lake in summer, probably formed by an ancient crater or crater."

Pavel pointed to the flat snow field in front of him and said, "Look, because it has been too long, it has no difference from the surrounding terrain. Only this round lake can prove that something happened here."

"Dr. Pavel, do we need to unload the things now?" Apolly was obviously too lazy to listen to Pavel's nonsense, or he might not understand it at all.

"Unload it." Pavel helplessly stopped the topic he just started.

"Victor, go around and point the front of the car in the direction you came from." Apoli reminded, and then took off the AK rifle fixed on the gun rack.

"Dr. Pavel, can you tell me what you are looking for?" Wei Ran tentatively asked while steering the transport vehicle around.

"A kind of bacteria." Pavel thought for a while, and added, "A kind of psychrophilic anaerobic bacteria."

"It's really related to this!" Wei Ran's heart moved, and he simply followed the topic and continued to ask, "What can it be used for?"

"Victor!"

Apoli, who was about to stick his gun out of the skylight and pull the trigger, squatted down and shouted, "Did you forget what Comrade Battalion Commander said? This operation prohibits us from asking any questions that we shouldn't ask!"

"Sorry!" Wei Ran hurriedly said while turning off the engine, "I asked subconsciously, as if I hadn't said anything."

"It's okay, it's okay." Pavel patted Wei Ran's shoulder gently, and then blocked his ears with his fingers.

Moments later, Apoli aimed at the night sky outside the sunroof and pulled the trigger again until one magazine was emptied.

Dress neatly and leave the large cab.Wei Ran and Apoli got into the warehouse again, and used the rocker arm to take out the needed materials one by one.

Soon, not far from the rear of the car, two tents were set up again. In one of the tents, not only a cast iron stove burning coking coal was lit, but also a bright electric lamp was hung, and even a tent was set up. There are also two microscopes on the folding table.

In the other tent, the metal boxes that looked like drawers with lids were moved from the locked compartment in the warehouse.

These metal boxes are half a meter square, and the height is less than ten centimeters. Each of them has two brass lock holes. Obviously, these "drawers" can not only be locked by themselves, but also can be locked on the iron sheets in the cargo hold. on the cabinet.

While Wei Ran was helping to carry these iron drawers, Apoli had already taken off two metal springboards from the inner wall of the cargo hold and put them on the cargo hatch, and then used the rocker arm to move the one in the cargo hold that was not famous but big and small. But the weird equipment, which is similar to a half-track motorcycle, was carefully sent down.

This big red device also has two crawlers, so it is quite simple to control. The two joysticks control the forward, backward and steering, and the speed is about the same as that of a person walking. Moreover, listening to the movement of the engine, it seems that it is no different from a motorcycle. too much difference.

Under Wei Ran's curious gaze, the big bald man named Agwan "turned on" the device that couldn't sit on it to a position not far from the tent.

Until the student named Shalip and the student named Gennady installed a hollow drill bit as thick as an arm and more than half a meter long on the thing, Wei Ran finally knew what the device was for. up.

To put it bluntly, this is a small core sampling device.What supported his opinion was a metal drawer opened by a student named Taras.

Inside these drawers are semicircular grooves next to each other, surrounded by a circle and an openable top cover, and wrapped in thick foam, and in each of those grooves, there is a long disposable plastic bag.Apparently, these drawers were meant to hold core samples.

Soon, the weird drill core sampling equipment started to work. Amid the continuous and regular roar of the engine, the long cylindrical drill bit pierced straight up and down into the snow and began to rotate.

At the same time, with the help of Wei Ran, Apoli started the small fuel generator in the cargo hold.

According to Apoli, the power provided by this small generator is just enough for all the searchlights of the entire car and the lighting in the living cabin.

"Okay, we don't have anything to do here."

After Apoli waited for the generator to run smoothly, he found an oil drum from the cargo hold that seemed to be used to store sundries, and took out one after another animal traps that were half the size of a washbasin. , and a sleigh converted from half an oil drum.

"I'm going to set up traps and get some firewood back by the way."

Apoli arranged the work for Wei Ran as always, "Clean up the cargo hold, put the oil barrel as far as possible inside, put the coke on the outside, and arrange the rest by yourself."

"Leave it to me!" Wei Ran happily agreed.

"One last reminder"

Apolly paused, and said seriously, "Victor, don't wonder what Dr. Murat and the others are doing, those have nothing to do with us."

"Can I ask one last question?" After Wei Ran finished speaking, he simply closed the heavy hatch, blocking both the light outside and the howling cold wind.

"What's the problem?" Apollo asked, frowning.

"Why do we secretly hoard so many supplies?"

"Why else?"

Apolly paused, then sat on a wooden box and said, "Dr. Pavel asked me to do this, and before we set off, didn't you also listen to what Shagli said? There has been a problem with the supply of materials recently. This is exactly what Dr Pavel predicted a month ago."

"I don't have anything else to ask." Wei Ran gave way to the car door behind him while speaking.

"Pack up and remember to go to the roof of the car to be vigilant," Apoli said as he walked out, "Don't let them have any accidents."

"Do not worry"

Wei Ran helped Apoli push down the oil barrel sleigh with the beast clip and motorcycle saw, and watched him walk towards the coniferous forest wearing a headlight, then looked back and began to sort out this secret Airtight cargo compartment.

With the help of the pulley hook above the head, Wei Ran first moved all the oil drums to the innermost position, then arranged the rest of the supplies neatly, and finally arranged the coking coal in the oil drums against the wall , and fastened to the bulkhead with slings.

Through this arrangement, Wei Ran also had a clear understanding of the material reserves of this small team, and at the same time, he became more and more impressed by Dr. Pavel's "prediction".

Although he didn't know how long it took these people to save these things, twelve large barrels, a full [-] liters of fuel oil, and ten barrels of coking coal were enough for them to survive the long Siberian winter without any problems. Not to mention that there is an almost inexhaustible supply of firewood around for fuel.

And those wooden boxes stacked above the oil barrels, all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meat, flour, bread, seasonings, and even vodka, are definitely enough for the whole car to eat for two or three months without any major problems, let alone one of them. The large wooden box was full of dismembered bear corpses!
The material reserve alone is completely contrary to the information given by my cheap mentor Kajik.According to him, all the material reserves on this transport vehicle code-named Pickaxe are only enough for the six of them to feed for a week at most.

a week?
Wei Ran picked up an apple and took a bite. This cart is definitely enough for all of them to eat for two or even three months!

And this has only just entered December 12th, and they have already dared to bribe the radio operator of the camp to cheat and secretly conduct exploration 6 kilometers away from the original location. How far?
On the other hand, Wei Ran became more and more curious about what the psychrophilic anaerobic bacteria these people were looking for were going to do, and why Apoli cooperated so well with Dr. Murat and others.

(End of this chapter)