War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 677 Farewell, Comrade
On the permafrost tundra that has been forgotten by everyone, a DT-30 transport vehicle with all lights on is slowly moving its stiff body against the heavy snow.

It was already the early morning of December 1991, 12, and a blizzard that blew from the Soviet era to the Russian era finally came to an end.

Today, although the wind has stopped, the snow is still falling.In addition, Wei Ran, who was in charge of driving the transport vehicle, had to drive the wiper to the maximum speed.

Amidst the roar of the engine, the abandoned buildings of the copper mine outside the window became more and more clear.Gradually, everyone realized that there was one less building than before the snowstorm.

Wei Ran even remembered that in that collapsed building, there used to be a room belonging to a certain child, and there were still many childish graffiti on the walls of that room.

However, this blizzard that raged for almost a week caused the building that had existed since the Khrushchev era to collapse under the erosion of the wind and snow following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, leaving only the building buried in snow. ruins.

Fortunately, at least the mine is still conspicuous—even the slope leading underground is almost filled with snow.

It was also through this mine that Wei Ran was able to barely confirm that the round protrusion on the snow should be the material that was buried at the beginning.

"Victor, we need to get that bulldozer and crawler out of the way first."

From the small speaker above his head, Agwan commanded calmly, "Even the materials we buried must be removed, and then the tail of the transport vehicle should be aimed at the hole."

"Sharip and I will go down to help you," Gennady added loudly through the small speaker.

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately adjusted the angle, and then stepped on the brakes.A moment later, two figures wrapped tightly around themselves appeared in the rearview mirror.

After the two men ran over clumsily on snowshoes, they immediately waved the snow shovels in their hands and dug hard at the front or rear of the crawler tractor and bulldozer.

Immediately afterwards, Apoli also ran over, helped Wei Ran take off the trailer steel cable at the front of the car, and hung the other end on the front of the tractor that had just been dug out.

"Where are the two of them?" Wei Ran asked while busy.

"It's dismantling the safe in the living cabin," Apolly responded.

"Remove the safe?" Wei Ran was stunned, "Put down the safe together?"

"Otherwise?" Apolly asked back as a matter of course.

"When I didn't ask"

Wei Ran decisively ended the topic, and under the command of the other party, he manipulated the transport vehicle, moved the tractor that was pulled over to one side, and moved the bulldozer that looked like a landmark to the other side.

After clearing the two big guys, the four of them moved the snow-buried supplies one box after another to the distance, clearing the way to the entrance of the cave.

"What should I do next?" Wei Ran opened the car door and yelled at Apoli.

"Wait for my signal" Apoli ran to the living cabin at the rear of the car before he finished speaking.It was Gennady who pushed Sharip into the cab.

Soon, Agwan's command came again from the small speaker above his head, "Victor, now step back and approach the mine, and slow down."

Hearing this, Wei Ran pointed to the top of his head, motioning for Shalip and Gennady to look at the rear of the car for him, then lightly stepped on the accelerator, and manipulated the transport vehicle to slowly adjust the angle. With the help of the two people on the top of the car, Underneath, it was difficult to align the living cabin at the rear of the car with the slope of the mine, crushing the snow and ice accumulated inside, and approaching the entrance of the cave little by little.

"Okay! Stop!"

On the small speaker above his head, Taras took over Agwan's command, "Then come over to help, this safe is too heavy, we need everyone to lift it together."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately pushed open the car door, walked along the gap between the edge of the car body and the wall at the edge of the ramp, stepping on the soft snow deep and shallow.

It wasn't until he stepped into the living cabin that he saw at a glance that the safe, which was the size of a washing machine, had been lifted out from under the metal cabinet.At this time, Apoli was using a rope to tie a knot on the body of the safe.

Before he could say anything, Agwan pointed to the entrance of the mine facing the cabin door and said, "According to Mr. Pavel, there is a flatbed mine truck that was prepared in advance. We just need to lift the safe up there. That minecart can get it in there."

"Did Teacher Pavel tell you what the password of the safe is?"

Outside the living cabin, Gennady asked abruptly, and when everyone turned their heads to look over, they noticed that the other party was actually holding an AK rifle that should have been placed in the cab!

"Gennady! What are you going to do?" Shalip asked in disbelief.

"You'd better not move!" Gennady warned with a slight tremor, "I don't mind shooting all of you!"

Hearing this, Shalip, who wanted to get out of the living cabin just now, stopped immediately.

"Very well, all hands up now."

Seeing that everyone was indifferent, Gennady immediately pulled the trigger and fired a bullet at the wooden door of the bathroom, "Hands up!"

After a little hesitation, Apoli was the first to raise his hands in the smell of gunpowder smoke.

Someone took the lead, and the rest of them also raised their hands. At this moment, Gennady immediately shook the muzzle of his gun and said nervously, "Everyone leave the living cabin! Everyone's hands are tied behind their backs! Otherwise, I'll be the first to kill you!"

"Do as he says"

Apoli reminded the panicked Sharip, and then he was the first to leave the living cabin with his hands raised.

Under his leadership, everyone lined up to leave the living cabin one by one, and Shalip, who was pale, tied everyone's hands behind their backs with the rope that was originally intended to tie the safe.

Even after he finished tying them up, Gennady checked them one by one, and whenever one was not tied tightly enough, he forced Sharip to take off a piece of clothing, and by the way, he would slap him hard. butt.

It took about half an hour, and when Sharip finally tied everyone's hands to meet Gennady's requirements, Sharip's upper body, which was bruised and swollen from the beating, had taken off only the sweater.

Finally tied Sharip's hands himself, Gennady was obviously relieved, and sat down on the steps leading to the living cabin, "Taras, Agwan, help me open the safe, I will give you Leave enough supplies for you to survive. Otherwise, I don't mind killing all of you."

"Gennady, are you crazy?" Taras asked angrily, "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Of course I know!"

Undisguised greed appeared on Gennady's face, "My father always thought that I could live a rich life with bacteria, so I joined the Tinder project. Originally, as long as this project continued, I would definitely be able to Get the life I want, but you idiots want to leave this precious research material in this bloody place!
So I wouldn't mind taking them away and selling them for a good price, and maybe I'll even have the chance to send the spark to space myself. "

"Gennady, are you an idiot?" Taras yelled and demanded, "The Soviet Union has collapsed! This project is impossible"

"Yes, the Soviet Union has indeed disintegrated, but isn't there still the Commonwealth of Independent States and Russia?"

Gennady mocked with a louder voice, "And the Soviet Union has disintegrated, but the United States has not disintegrated. They must be happy to spend a sum of money to buy these materials."

Before everyone could say anything else, Gennady raised his gun again, "I've explained everything that needs to be explained, now it's up to you.

I knew from the start that Dr. Murat had the key to the safe and Dr. Pavel had the combination.

So Taras and Agwan, you have each been alone with the corpses of your teachers for a long time, you must have found the key and the combination?Give me both the key and the combination now, and you will live. "

"How could I know the password!" Agwan roared angrily, "Gennady, where is your conscience!"

"Gennady, let us go."

Taras was relatively more sensible, and said in a calm tone, "I haven't looked for the key to the safe. If we know the password, we don't need to carry the safe together."

"boom!"

A crisp gunshot overwhelmed the second half of what Talas was about to say, and immediately after, a stream of blood splashed on the faces of Talas and Agwan.

"Pfft!"

Shalip, who was shot in the neck, fell uncontrollably on the soft snow, and the blood sprayed from his neck instantly stained the surrounding snow red and even evaporated into a cloud of mist.

"boom!"

Gennady shot his former good friend Sharip in the chest, and warned viciously, "My patience is limited, give me the password and key to the safe!"

"You traitor! You killed Sharip!"

Half of his face was blood-stained, Agwan rushed towards Gennady subconsciously, but before he could take two steps, the former pulled the trigger again, ready to hit Gennady in the thigh.

Ignoring Agwan's screams, Gennady moved his gun and pointed it at Wei Ran, followed by Apoli, and finally pointed at Talas after some weighing, "Agwan, you Know the code, so I won't kill you just yet. I'll ask you again what the code is, and if you're still not going to tell me, I'll kill Taras. So, Agwan, what's the code for the safe? "

"How could I possibly know!"

Agwan, who had been shot in the thigh, hadn’t finished his sentence when another gunshot rang into his ears. Immediately afterwards, everyone watched as Taras, who was shot in the chest, fell on his back onto Sharip’s body. .

"The next one is Apollo"

Gennady pointed his gun at Apoli, "Victor can also drive a transport vehicle, and he is a good cook, so Agwan, if you don't mind handing over all the actions to Victor, you can still Go ahead and tell me that you don't know the password."

"Wait a second"

Apoli, who had been watching coldly just now, took a few steps forward until he was less than two meters away from the muzzle of the gun. Then he said, "Even without the key, I can open the safe."

"Soldier, I'm not a person who likes to joke." Gennady raised the rifle in his hand while speaking.

"You can shoot"

Apoli simply turned around and walked back, and at the same time kept saying, "If there is no accident, I am afraid that only I can open the safe for you with a radius of several hundred kilometers. If you still insist that a person who is about to commit suicide will die If you leave the combination of the safe in front of you, then shoot."

"Since you can open it, do it now"

"No, no, I have conditions."

Apoli interrupted what the other party was saying, and looked around slowly, "First of all, I need to stop Agwan's bleeding first, and secondly, there is no way to open the safe in this environment. The anti-movement device of the level meter. But obviously, this is a ramp, so we have to move the transport vehicle to flat ground to have a chance to unlock it."

"Why didn't I know you could pick the lock?" Gennady looked at Apoly suspiciously.

"Believe it or not is up to you"

Apolly said indifferently, "I am a Soviet soldier. I originally planned to commit suicide after completing this task, but I also have the responsibility to protect the safety of the Soviets, so I"

"wrong!"

Gennady said vigilantly, "If you really think so, it should have happened just before I killed Taras or even Sharip."

"Who would have thought that you would shoot so simply?"

Apoli glanced at Agwan who was still screaming and the other two corpses, "I never saw a scum like you when I was fighting in Afghanistan, otherwise you would have no chance to get a gun."

"You'd better be polite to me," Gennady reminded with a cold face.

"polite?"

Apoli snorted coldly, "That's the etiquette that needs to be followed when civilization and laws are still there. Okay Gennady, stop talking nonsense, if you want to open the safe, help Agwan stop the bleeding now, and then Let me drive the car to level ground."

"I'm not an idiot like Sharip"

While speaking, Gennady had already picked up the ladder on the door of the living cabin, then closed the door of the living cabin, and put the ladder on the door of the cargo cabin, "I will drive the car to the flat ground. Before that, the three of you go to the cargo hold first, I don’t want you to hide in the mine.”

"Agwan, can you still walk?" Apoli asked in a flat tone, and even kicked Agwan's butt with his toes, "Stand up if you can."

"Yes, I can!" Agwan gritted his teeth and said.

"Calm down, don't conflict with Gennady again." Wei Ran also came over to remind him, and stood on the left and right sides of Agwan with Apoli, helping him stand up with difficulty.

Deliberately poking the wound on Agwan's leg with the muzzle of a gun, Gennady took a few steps back and reminded, "You better hurry up, Apoli, when will you open the safe, and when will I help Agwan wrap the wound."

"You're such a smart guy"

Apoli taunted Gennady, then sped up his pace a little, and supported the limping Agwan with his body to climb up the cargo hold filled with the noise of the fuel generator.

Almost at the same time when Wei Ran walked into the cargo hold, Gennady who followed immediately gave each of them a gun stock, knocked them down, and tied the three of them together with the rope in the cargo hold to separate them. Chain link fence for cargo space.

With a muffled "bang", Gennady closed the cargo compartment door from the outside, and after a while, the transport vehicle also started to move slowly.

It wasn't until this time that Wei Ran asked, "Apolly, what are you going to do?"

"He wants me to open the safe by untying the rope on my hand." Apoli said in a flat tone, "Just wait in the cargo hold later, and I will solve him."

"It's a pity for Murat and Sharip"

While speaking, Wei Ran unexpectedly broke free from the shackles of his hands.Seeing Apoli and Agwan staring at him with wide eyes, he shook a rusty razor he took out from his cuff, "I found it in that abandoned building, and I wanted to keep it as a souvenir. "

While speaking, Wei Ran had already helped Apoli and Agwan cut the rope that bound their hands.

"Agwan, undo your belt and take off your trousers."

Apoli had already picked up a rope while speaking, and Wei Ran had already untied Agwan's belt and pulled off the cold-proof pants outside before Agwan could react.

"You guys have to do it."

Before Agwan finished speaking, Apoli wrapped the rope in his hand around the wound, and then fastened the button with force.

Just as he let go, Wei Ran had already helped Agwan lift up his pants again, and the two of them cooperated with each other, not even a minute was used up.

"Tie the belt yourself, this will stop the bleeding temporarily, and we will bandage the wound for you after we finish Gennady." Wei Ran took a step back while speaking.

"I feel more and more that you have a very familiar smell." While speaking, Apoli had already bent down to pick up the razor that Wei Ran had thrown on the floor.

"There's something wrong with your nose." Wei Ran said perfunctorily, and then asked, "Apoli, do you have a gun on you?"

"My gun is in the cab." Apoli weighed the razor in his hand. "This knife is enough, and it can also get rid of Gennady."

"I have a gun"

Agwan said abruptly, then raised his finger and pointed to Pavel's body, "To be precise, Dr. Pavel has a gun on his body, and I put it in his arms."

“What a great news”

Apoli ran to the side of Pavel's body with a stride, and pulled out a Nagant revolver from his arms.

Although the lights in the cargo hold were a little dim, Wei Ran could still see clearly that the grip patch of this pistol was precisely Agwan's birthday present for Pavel.

"Which one do you want?" Apoli asked Wei Ran with a gun in one hand and a razor in the other.

"It doesn't matter, you choose." Wei Ran responded with extra confidence.

"Give me the pistol"

Agwan returned the razor to Wei Ran, then threw the ropes all over the floor into the gaps between the oil drums, and said again in the position where he was restrained just now, "He will definitely untie the rope for me later. How about you play me a match?"

"No problem." Wei Ran grabbed the razor and sat in the same position where he was tied up just now.

"What about me?" Agwan sat in the position just now while asking, and by the way imitated Wei Ran and Apoli, hiding his hands behind his back.

"No need to do anything," Apollo replied softly.

Before Agwan could say anything more, the slow-moving transport vehicle came to a sudden stop, and after a while, the hatch was also opened by Gennady from the outside.

After waiting for a while, Gennady put the muzzle of the AK rifle in first, and then took a quick look at it until he was sure that the three of them were still leaning on the chain link fence, then retracted the rifle and walked in cautiously.

However, to the surprise of the three, although the AK rifle was on Gennady's shoulder at this time, he was also holding a Nagan revolver in his hand!
What everyone didn't expect was that he actually squatted down beside Agwan, and stretched out a hand behind him. The guns in his hands were aimed at the guns of Wei Ran and Apoli. direction!
This sudden operation disrupted the original plan, and at the same time Gennady said to himself, "Agwan, before you die, I decided to give you one last chance, tell me what the password is, otherwise I will I stripped you naked and threw you into the snow!"

Agwan glanced at Wei Ran and Apoli, and slammed his bald head at Gennady who had already touched one of him, and at the same time grabbed Gennady's neck with his other hand , yanked forward and fell in the direction of Wei Ran.

If there is a slow-motion lens, it can be seen that at almost the same moment, Apoli has pulled his hand from behind, aimed at Gennady and pulled the trigger.The razor in Wei Ran's hand had also cut Gennady's eyelids, eyeballs, nose, lips and chin, and then cut the back of his hand holding the pistol.

But it was also at this time that Gennady subconsciously pulled the trigger!
"Bang!" After two almost overlapping gunshots, the bullet fired by Apoli accurately hit Gennady's temple.

With a "plop", Gennady's body fell to Wei Ran's feet.

There was another "plop", and Agwan also fell down clutching his stomach.

"Did you get shot?" Apoli and Wei Ran asked in unison.

Aghwan looked at his abdomen with difficulty, but there was a smile on his face. He lay on the cold floor and looked at Apoly and asked, "Apoly, can you really open the safe?"

Apoli and Wei Ran, who were helping Agwan to check the wound, looked at each other.The latter sighed, "It can't be helped."

Nodding insignificantly, Apoli finally suppressed the sadness in his heart, and replied with his usual expression, "I'm not sure."

"That's good"

Agwan obviously breathed a sigh of relief, "Help. Help me send the safe into the mine. There is explosives at the entrance of the cave. It can blow up. Blow up the mine."

"I'll help you send it in," Apoli solemnly promised.

"Give me Teacher Pavel's gun." Agwan stretched out his blood-stained hand tremblingly, "Let me. Let me too. Be a coward."

Apolly opened his mouth, and finally put the revolver he was holding tightly in Agwan's hand.

After receiving the gun, with the help of the other party, Agwan put the muzzle of the gun against his chin, and said tearfully, "Please put me in the auditorium too."

Hearing this, Apoli stood up slowly, straightened his body, bowed his head in salute, and said in a hoarse voice, "Farewell, comrade."

"Farewell, comrade." With tears in his eyes, Agwan struggled to force out a smile, exhausted his remaining strength, and decisively pulled the trigger.

In the cargo hold where the last gunshot was echoing, Apoli did not let go of his arms for a long time, but he couldn't hold back his sad tears, and they slipped from the corners of his eyes one after another, hitting the cold and dirty place one after another. on the floor.

(End of this chapter)