War Photographer's Notebook

Just when Wei Ran was trying to comfort Okan with a guilty face, the girl named Heike left a hickey mixed with tears on Horst's face, and then looked at him with nostalgia. Sophie and Qiqi, who came from her, glanced at those underage partners, and finally turned around without hesitation. Under Wei Ran's horrified gaze, they ran towards the minefield!

stop now!
Get down!
Sophie and Wei Ran shouted different reminders in unison. However, before the rest of the people could react, a flash of fire appeared under Heike's feet, and a ring of dense fog was pushed. Shockwave!
boom!
There was another deafening explosion, and Wei Ran, who was subconsciously lying down, clearly felt something warm on his face.

Heike! Sophie and Qiqi collapsed and knelt on the ground, tearfully looking at the broken body that was thrown up by the shock wave and then thrown into the minefield.

Boom! There was another dull explosion, and Haike's mutilated body was completely swallowed by mud and gunpowder smoke.

Heck!

Sophie and Qiqisi yelled heartbreakingly, and the children who followed along all the way also stared blankly at the thick fog that was pushed away, at the blood-red spots on their clothes, and at the sight of bowls being thrown up one after another. Rugs, stumps, and soil with a strong smell of gunpowder smoke fell like snow.

what-----!
Okan, who was leading the way, let out a desperate cry, turned his head and bit the hand holding his wrist, and at the same time grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at Wei Ran's eyes.

The moment Wei Ran subconsciously let go of his hand and closed his eyes because of the pain, this child who was almost as old as Dominic had already strode towards the minefield!
No!

Obsessed with the mud, Wei Ran subconsciously got up and chased him out. However, before he could stand still, the fog accumulated in this desperate dense forest was once again engulfed by the shock wave and pushed to the distance.

boom!
The explosion that followed made Wei Ran, who was rubbing his eyes, completely froze. When he tried to open his eyes, he found that Okan, whose legs had been broken by the explosion, was struggling to move forward. He also used his body to mark a blood-red safe passage in the center of this minefield
boom!
There was another dull explosion, and the thin body was easily overturned, and then, it slammed heavily on a piece of clean moss, completely silent.

With a soft slap, a scorched black arm fell to Wei Ran's feet.

Slowly bending down, Wei Ran clearly saw that there was a silver metal chain wrapped around the wrist of this arm, and in the palm of his hand was a pocket watch-style compass that should have been given to his younger brother as a gift.

Carefully taking off the compass, Wei Ran opened the slightly deformed case, and under the cracked glass, the small luminous pointer pointed north and south again after some swinging.

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran looked at the sluggish children behind him, at the two girls sitting slumped on the ground, and finally, at the faintly visible flashlight beam in the thick fog far behind him.

I hope a mission failure won't cost me my life...

...

Wei Ran took a deep breath, and by putting the compass into his pocket, he took out the portable flagon from the metal book, and went to the opposite side of the minefield along the safe passage that he had bought with his life. As he left, he unscrewed the lid and took a big gulp of the red wine he had withheld as an assistant to the quartermaster.

As he stepped on one footprint after another, as he passed Heike's corpse and Okan's corpse, he finally stopped.

Looking at the children behind him for the last time, Wei Ran took another sip of wine, then put away the jug, closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and took a big step forward.

Wiping the cold sweat off his forehead, Wei Ran took the third step, the fourth step, and the fifth step!
At the same time, Qiqi was the first to stand up, tore off the blanket that was used as a cloak, dropped the submachine gun she had been carrying, and followed Wei Wei firmly.
burn.

Sophie looked at the friends around her, took a deep breath and stood up, and followed Qiqi who was walking in front of her from a distance.

After a while, among those children, a few older girls or boys stood up one after another, dropped the weapons in their hands, lined up silently, separated from each other, and walked into Leisure Hall following the footprints of their predecessors. Area.

When the stretcher carrying Dominic and Nadia followed into the minefield, the barbed wire fence side of the border line had only lost blankets, weapons, and already emptied lunch boxes and kettles. .

And at the front of the team, Wei Ran, who was already covered in cold sweat, started to walk faster and faster, and finally even started to run.

Gradually, Sophie and Qiqi completely caught up with him. Gradually, the older ones each pulled a younger one to catch up. Gradually, even the two stretchers on which the wounded were lying, and the Okan's younger brother, Jonas, who was blind in one eye, also let a girl not a few years older than him lead him to chase him.

During the nearly tiresome running, the minefield behind him had long been swallowed by thick fog.

Boom! Another explosion sounded, but this time, it came from behind Wei Ran and the others.

And after the explosion, the flashlight beams chasing them stopped completely after a while, and finally changed direction, completely hidden in the thick fog.

Finally, as the density of pine trees became lower and lower, traces of human activities gradually appeared in the dense fog.

Finally, when the pine trees covering the sky and the sun no longer appeared in the front view in the thick fog, but farmland and wooden houses appeared instead, everyone stopped.

Come with me... come with me!

After identifying the direction, Sophie searched on the telegraph pole near the forest, and then led the crowd to change direction and start running wildly.

Finally, when it was completely bright, Sophie led everyone into a farm.

Just a few words with the farmer holding a shotgun, the farmer immediately greeted everyone to enter the warm wooden house.

we are safe

Before the sweaty Sophie finished speaking, almost all the children slumped on the ground. Some hugged their companions and laughed heartily, some secretly wiped their tears, and some just stared at them blankly. The direction when I came, I miss those companions who will never be able to keep up.

...

Jonas Wei Ran walked up to the one-eyed little wounded man, and sat next to him on the floor covered with blankets.

Victor Jonas greeted absent-mindedly, and looked outside the door again—even though the wooden door had already been closed by the farmer.

happy Birthday
As Wei Ran said, he spread his hands and handed the pocket watch-style compass to the other party, Jonas, today is your birthday, right?

Jonas froze for a moment, reached out tremblingly, and took the pocket watch that hadn't been wiped clean of blood. His little face, which was originally tense, finally showed some expression, and turned into big tears.

Your brother made a safe passage for everyone
Wei Ran held this little guy in his arms, he saved everyone, he saved everyone with his own life.

Is he dead? Jonas repeatedly confirmed that Okan is dead and will never come back, is he?
Sorry... Wei Ran was silent for a moment, sorry, Okan, your brother Okan will never come back.

I know Jonas sniffs, I know.

Victor, give him to me.Qiqi walked to Wei Ran and whispered, go and see Dominic, he is awake.

ok, ok.

Wei Ran let go of Jonas in his arms, stood up while leaning on the wall, and walked into the room temporarily cleared out by the farmer as an operating room.

With the cover of the backpack, Wei Ran once again took out the kerosene lamp in the metal book, and lit it on the table as quickly as possible.

In his solitary busyness,

The wound on Dominic's leg has been further treated, but in the face of the lost egg of this young man who just fell in love, the only thing Wei Ran can do is to help the other party re-sew the broken eggshell as much as possible. Some.

Victor

Dominic lying on the bed was silent for a moment, looked at the roof and said almost numbly, kill me.
you don't deserve to die

Wei Ran helped the other party push an anti-inflammatory drug seized from the U.S. military and said, Horst, Okan, Heike, and American soldiers Buck and Timov are the ones who will be killed. Of course, there are also me, Sophie, Qiqi and even Okan’s younger brother Jonas all paid for their efforts and sacrifices. If you want to die, you can bring it up when you are injured, so as to save us from wasting so much energy And there are not many medicines.

I…

You just lost two balls, and if you are lucky, the most important parts are still intact and can be used.

Wei Ran lowered his voice as much as possible, and said while helping the other party to bandage the wound, you can still live like a man in the future, believe me, the loss of those two balls will not affect anything at all.

real?There was a little more anger on Dominique's face, but Nadia...

Wei Ran stopped what he was doing, and said very seriously, if you think Nadia fell in love with your two balls, I will help you find Nadia to confirm later.

No, forget it, no, don't ask.Dominic frantically rejected Wei Ran's offer.

So live well, you are still young, and there are many possibilities in the future.

Speaking of this, Wei Ran also helped the other party bandage the wound, looked around, pulled a blanket over Dominic's body, then turned around and opened the door, the next one.

Before he finished speaking, two young men carried Dominique and the stretcher under him away, and then two girls carried Nadia into the room.

Nadia, who was lying on the bed with Victor, asked in a low voice, is Dominic okay? Will his life be in danger...

He's fine and his life is not in danger.

Wei Ran helped the other party to reconnect the half tube of morphine, put on the gloves and said while preparing the things that might be used, and I think you better talk about the rest.

That's good

Nadia let out a long breath, held back her embarrassment and pulled down a section of her blood-stained pants, revealing the hideous wound on her buttocks, as well as the broken glass or sawdust still embedded in the wound.