War Photographer's Notebook

On the Johnston, which was shrunk by an unknown number of times, everyone put all the important materials on their bodies into the insulated bucket, and each used a rope to connect their belts to the handle of the insulated bucket.

In order to keep the center of gravity of the boat even, the people who were in urgent need of heating rationally did not squeeze together, but evenly spread out.And in this way, the only two blankets are only enough for three patients, and Wei Ran and Hawkes can only hide under the propped up canvas hammock and raincoat.

Fortunately, now that they were out of the sea, the two of them were finally able to put on their pants again—even though the pants were already soaked.

There is no doubt that this condition is definitely not comfortable, but it is still much better than being soaked in the water all the time.

Not only that, after waiting for more than ten minutes, although they ushered in heavy rain again, the sea was still calm and there were no big waves.Therefore, the only thing they need to do is to scoop out as much of the rainwater that blows into the cabin as possible, and fill up their water bottles by the way.

"Sterling"

Wei Ran patted the nearest deputy captain, pointed to the body armor on the bottom of the ship and asked, "Why are these things also in the ship?"

"Pressure!"

Sterling, who was hiding under a blanket with a condom on his head, replied loudly, "The wind and waves were too strong before, and these body armors are heavy enough to somewhat prevent this small boat from being overturned."

"Does it work?" Wei Ran yelled and asked, and at the same time did not forget to use the shell casing to scoop water out.

"It's better than nothing!" Sterling responded while scooping up rainwater with the steel cup that matched the kettle.

Looking at the hammock that was less than ten centimeters above his head and used as a rain shelter, Wei Ran, who was lying in the cabin, shook his head helplessly, and continued to scoop water out resignedly.Now, he only hopes that the sea will continue to maintain its current calm.

The time flickered to nine o'clock in the evening. As the rain became smaller and finally stopped completely, Wei Ran and Hawkes, who had been soaking in the water all day, got the first chance to rest.

Although the clothes on their bodies were wet, as were the canvas hammocks, blankets, or raincoats used as bedding, but Wei Ran, Hawkes, and Sailor Moose all slept very soundly.

In the middle of the night, even the two captains were wrapped in the same blanket, leaning against each other and fell into a deep sleep.

On this endless sea, the boat drifting with the current is like a slowly shaking crib, and the waves that rise and fall around it are also like a lullaby.

When Wei Ran was awakened from the nightmare, the skyline behind him was dyed a beautiful blood red by the morning glow, and there was a huge frigate bird standing on the bow of the ship not far ahead, using its hook to Dazui tried, trying to steal the sea fish that Hawkes tied to the bow with shoelaces before going to bed last night.

Looking at the rest of the people in the cabin, they were all curled up, or sleeping loudly, or shaking their heads, as if they were trapped in an unpleasant dream.

Seeing this, Wei Ran, who was leaning on the engine at the stern, carefully took out the camera bag under the cover of the hammock covering his body, took out the camera from it, and aimed at the sailors on the ship and the frigate bird at the bow.

However, just when he was about to press the shutter button, he froze for a moment. Immediately afterwards, he put down the camera and looked straight ahead where the bow pointed.

It's a life raft!A red and white life raft with a white spinnaker in the middle!

After regaining his senses, Wei Ran raised his camera again and took a picture of the sleeping people in the cabin, the frigate bird on the bow, and the life raft far away, and then moved the camera as fast as possible. The wide-angle lens on the boat was replaced by a super telephoto lens and aimed at the brightly colored life raft again.

With the help of this lens, he was able to clearly see that the life raft was rapidly approaching in his direction through the small triangular sail.On top of the life raft, there were two other people wearing flight suits, life jackets, and flight hats.

One of them was paddling the water hard with something, while the other was lying in the middle of the life raft, and his body seemed to be covered with a white cloth.

He could even vaguely see that there seemed to be a submachine gun pressed on the white cloth!

Pressing the shutter button repeatedly towards the other party at the fastest speed, Wei Ran then stuffed the camera into the camera bag.

After hesitating for a while, he did not take out the pistol from the camera bag. Instead, after putting the camera bag back into the metal book, he immediately tapped on the side of the boat to wake up the sleeping people.

While the frigate bird was scared away, Wei Ran also yelled to remind, "The direction of the bow! There is a life raft! The other party probably has weapons!"

As soon as this voice came out, the rest of the people on the ship immediately woke up. After seeing the approaching life raft, Hawkes was the first to pull out the pistol on his chest and loaded the bullet, while Captain Sterling Immediately rushed to the stern to start the engine, and then drew his 1911 pistol.

And Captain Evans pulled out his silver-white Colt revolver a little later and handed it to Wei Ran, and then took out one from the binoculars box at his waist with a little effort. The heavy MK43 binoculars were lifted up with the help of the injured hand and looked towards the opposite side.

With the roar of the engine, Evans sneezed first, and then shouted, "Two people! The other party has a submachine gun! Watch out! One of them has already picked up the submachine gun, and the other has also raised the pistol !"

"Hold on tight!" Captain Sterling yelled as he manipulated the engine to make the ship run.

"Da da da!"

Almost before and after, the opponent also shot a series of bursts, and a series of sprays gradually started at a position at least ten meters away from Wei Ran and others.Immediately afterwards, the opponent fired a series of burst shots again, but this time the opponent aimed at the top of the head.

Obviously, apart from threatening them, the other party is also releasing a very low level of goodwill.

"Can we talk?!" The man holding the submachine gun shouted in English with a strong nuclear radiation accent.

"Great Chief, I can swim through the water!"

While speaking, Hawkes has turned over the scuba rebreather he modified with a gas mask, "I am sure to break their life raft."

"calm!"

Captain Evans didn't put down the binoculars he had been holding up at all. "That life raft is more important than our transportation boat. The other party wants to cooperate with us, otherwise he would have hit us just now."

"Then I will kill"

"Another man had a grenade in his hand"

Captain Evans continued after a short pause, "The thing covering its body has been stained red, I guess it should have been injured."

After finishing speaking, Captain Evans put down the binoculars, turned around and looked at the people on board and said, "Now we are all shipwreck survivors, and we can only survive if we help each other. If we lose that life raft, we will only rely on our traffic boat. Maybe the next time the waves turn up, we'll sink into the sea."

"Can"

"Unless you can find a way to get rid of the grenade in the opponent's hand," Captain Sterling said, "and you can't damage the life raft."

"Everyone is ready to shoot at any time, Hawks, wait for you to hide in the water."

Captain Evans gave the final order, "Let's paddle up and talk to each other. If they are going to snatch our ship, we will shoot immediately. If we fail, Hawks, you will be responsible for killing them." they."

Seeing everyone looking at him, Hawks put on his gas mask silently and rolled into the water, holding up the bellows and hiding behind the engine at the stern of the ship.

"You use this"

Wei Ran said, and handed the Colt revolver in his hand to the moose sailor who seemed a little sluggish, while he opened the thermos barrel and took out a signal flare and a signal transmitter from the pilot's survival bag.

Of course he remembered that in the return mission it was required not to kill people after the 25th, so this flare was the best weapon for him. Not only could it not kill people easily, but it could also easily burn the opponent's broken raft.In this vast sea, losing the raft is almost the same as being dead.

When everything was ready, everyone took a paddle each, dragged Hawks who was hidden under the water, and slowly approached each other.

At the same time, the red and white inflatable life raft lowered its white triangular sail, and the two men were also lying on one side of the rubber raft, paddling the water with their arms outstretched.

Gradually, the distance between the two sides has narrowed to about 20 meters.This distance has not only entered the range of the pistol, but also is enough for both sides to see each other's situation clearly and hear each other's shouts clearly.

"Are you the ones who fired the flare?"

In the life raft that seemed to hold at least four or five people, the pilot with a submachine gun in his hand asked an obvious question in accented English, "We've been looking for you all night."

"Say what you want to say," Captain Sterling responded loudly, he was too lazy to be polite to the other party.

"We need medicine"

The man holding the submachine gun said nervously, "My companion is injured, we need some medicine, can you help us?"

"There seems to be no reason for us to help you"

The 25-year-old Captain Sterling pointed to get off the boat, "Thanks to you, we can become what we are now."

"We are willing to exchange materials!"

The devil pilot with a submachine gun continued, "How about a parachute? We are willing to exchange a parachute for your medicine."

"Two parachutes," Sterling yelled, and made a scissors hand.

"No problem!" The pilot on the raft with a submachine gun readily agreed to the deal, even with deep gratitude in his tone.

"Fack!" Sterling muttered angrily, "I lowered the price."

"Then make a new deal"

Evans cleared his throat and asked loudly in English, "Maybe we can make a new deal."

"What deal?" The man on the opposite raft responded loudly.

"We have a medical soldier with superb medical skills"

Evans glanced at Wei Ran, who was holding a signal transmitter in his hand, and said loudly without waiting for him to make a statement, "If you are willing to cooperate with us to return to land, our medical soldiers may be willing to help your friends."

"How do you want to cooperate?" asked the wounded man who hadn't spoken at all. At the same time, he also clenched the grenade in his hand.

"Let him heal your wounds. In exchange, how about we flee to land together?"

Captain Evans raised the paddle in his hand and shook it, "If we use paddles to tie our traffic boat and your life raft together, we will be able to withstand the wind and waves in this sea more safely."

"Where do you want to go?" the pilot, who seemed wounded, yelled.

"Land, of course it's land," replied Captain Sterling.

"We're going to Palau in the east," the pilot with a submachine gun gave an unexpected answer.

"Palau?!"

Sterling's eyes widened, "Are you crazy?! It's at least 500 nautical miles away from Palau! Do you know how far it is?"

“We are going to Palau”

The devil pilot with a submachine gun in his hand said stubbornly, "It seems that we are not traveling together, please give us the medicine, and I will throw the parachute into the sea."

"We agree to go with you to Palau, 500 nautical miles away." Captain Evans unexpectedly agreed with the other party's decision.

Seeing that apart from Captain Sterling, including the two ghost pilots on the opposite life raft, they all looked at him in surprise, Evans whispered in a voice that could only be heard by people on the same boat, "Now we are about to enter 11 During the month, the North Equatorial Current flows from east to west, and even if we rowed towards the Palau Islands to the east day and night, the currents would eventually push us back to the Philippines, provided we don’t let the other party raise their sails.”

"Why?" Sailor Moose asked in a daze.

"Northwest monsoon in winter pushes us east"

Deputy Captain Sterling explained in a low voice, "If we raise the sails, we might really be blown to the Palau Islands. Even if we are still floating on the water when we are blown near the equator, we might be lucky." Can be sailed all the way to Mexico on the counter current of the equator.

So as long as there are no sails, or sails under our control, we can certainly reach the Philippines at last or. "

"Indonesia"

Captain Evans and Deputy Captain Sterling said the same place name at the same time, and then raised their voices and asked, "What? Don't you want to cooperate? The probability of surviving just because you want to survive is very low."

On the life raft, the two ghost pilots discussed in a low voice, and after a while, the pilot with the submachine gun said loudly, "Let your medical soldiers come to our life raft!"

"If there is no medicine, I can't save your partner." Wei Ran said loudly, "So before that, please use two parachutes to exchange medicine with us."

"Nice job!" Before Wei Ran could finish his sentence, the captains and deputy captains all praised in a low voice.

"in addition!"

Wei Ran loudly reminded the two stupid devil pilots, "I won't go there until you can't guarantee my safety."

"I can use lick yellow and my mother."

"Whether it's your licking porn or your mother, the thing you swear by should be placed in front of me."

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already opened the thermos, and took out a personal first aid kit that he had used yesterday.

"What do you want to do?" asked the pilot sullenly with the grenade in his hand.

"Give your hand grenades and all weapons and equipment to your companions, and then you come to our ship."

Captain Evans made a condition that sounded reasonable, "We have taken a fancy to your life raft, so he can take the life raft as a hostage."

After a little hesitation, the devil pilot handed the grenade to his companion, then took off the equipment on his body, took off the flight suit, and finally only wore a life jacket with a loincloth around it, and took two bags into the air. The parachute in the umbrella bag jumped off the life raft.

"Victor, give him double the morphine." Evans whispered, "Send him back when you have a chance to jump."

"Understood." Wei Ran responded with his lips fluttering, while Sterling at the stern undisguisedly beckoned Hawks who was hiding under the water to climb back into the cabin.

Under the vigilant confrontation between the two sides, the red and white life raft slowly retreated, and the traffic boat that Wei Ran and others were on moved forward slowly.

In the end, with the help of Hawks, Wei Ran dragged the injured pilot to the ship.

With just a quick glance, he noticed that most of the right foot of this pilot, who may be in his 30s, is gone. Not only is a belt tightly tied to the ankle, but a condom is also put on the wound. Used for waterproofing.

At the same time as he boarded the boat, he also poured two white pills into his mouth from a brown glass medicine bottle hanging from his lifejacket.

Thanks to the previous experience on Savage Mountain, Wei Ran recognized at a glance what the other party had already eaten.

Too lazy to talk nonsense, in the name of preventing the opponent from struggling, he directly dislocated the opponent's limbs and jaw amidst the screams, and then called Hawkes to sit down without waiting for the unique product he had eaten into his stomach to take effect On the opponent's buttocks, help to hug its raised right leg.

First, he injected a shot of morphine into the vein in the opponent's arm, and then he injected an additional shot of morphine around the injured foot.

Waiting for a while to pinch the other's wound, seeing that he didn't respond at all, Wei Ran immediately started the veterinary work of gouging out flesh and bones.

Under his busy work, the remaining water in the traffic boat gradually turned red, and large pieces of broken bones and whitish dead flesh also accumulated in the shell casings beside him.

Without wasting much time, he sewed up the boneless sole very roughly, and sprinkled the remaining half pack of cocoa-flavored sulfa powder on it to complete the bandage.

In the end, he helped the other party put a condom on the wound, and Wei Ran skillfully restored his jaw joint to normal. As for his limbs, we will naturally wait until later.

"Come here and take it away"

Wei Ran looked more than ten meters away, holding a grenade, watching the pilot vigilantly and beckoning, "Whether it survives or not depends on its luck."

After speaking, without waiting for a response from the other party, he pushed the high-flying devil into the water.Immediately afterwards, he also turned over and disembarked, and together with Hawkes, who got off the first step, dragged the wounded, who was still outside the fugue, to swim to the other party's life raft.

"Help me pull him up"

Wei Ran leaned over to the side of the life raft, and said to the other pilot in the raft, "He is too heavy, the two of us can't push it."

"Okay, okay!"

The pilot immediately put the submachine gun in his hand aside, clutched the grenade in one hand, and grabbed the hand of the unconscious companion with the other.

Almost at the same time when he started exerting force, Wei Ran also borrowed his help to get closer, and without warning, he grabbed the wrist behind the opponent holding the grenade.

"Hawks!"

As soon as Wei Ran yelled out, Hawks on the other side pulled him by the neck and pulled him off the life raft and pushed him into the cold sea water.

Before the splashing waves hit the water again, Wei Ran squeezed the opponent's wrist, and at the same time held the grenade with the other hand.And Hawkes kicked the opponent in the stomach.

Immediately, a series of bubbles appeared on the surface of the sea, and Wei Ran took advantage of the opponent's struggle to successfully snatch the grenade from its hand.

"Whoa!"

After Wei Ran succeeded and pushed the life raft away, Hawks pulled the pilot's head out of the water, and pulled out the 1911 pistol at his waist to hold the pilot's chin.

Taking advantage of the violent coughing of the devil, Captain Evans, with the help of Sterling and the sailor Moose, dragged the devil pilot who had just completed amputation and suturing back to the ship.

"This is a disgraceful sneak attack!" The pilot who was held by Hawks to his chin with a gun shouted angrily.

"That's right"

The deputy captain, Captain Sterling, said mockingly, "Just like your shameful attack on Pearl Harbor."

One sentence silenced the other party, and Sterling also shook the oars and came over. With the help of Hawks, he dragged the pilot in the water to the boat and stripped off his equipment.

At the same time, Wei Ran also climbed onto the life raft, first removed the magazine of the submachine gun and emptied the bullets in the chamber, and then followed the same method to clean up the southern bastard gun.

By the way, from the flight suit that the pilot who he had personally treated just now took off, he found the small incense pipe that he had seen in later generations, and a leather tobacco bag with gold decorations. , and even has a separate compartment for a lighter.

In addition, there were not many Japanese-style cans and two Japanese-style officers' water bottles on the raft.

While he was busy cleaning up the loot, their traffic boat also approached, and Hawkes also threw all the pilot equipment that was taken off the other pilot onto the life raft where Wei Ran was.

It wasn't until this moment that Wei Ran noticed that the devil pilot who was captured by him and Hawkes looked extraordinarily young.

"Now we can talk"

After finishing speaking, Captain Evans sneezed again, and after receiving the revolver from the sailor Moose, he asked, "Was that plane yesterday yours?"

"Yes" the young pilot who was stripped off with only the loincloth left and his hands tied behind his back nodded, and replied with a little panic.

"Your mission is to go to the Palau Islands?" Captain Evans asked suspiciously, "Is it to convey some information?"

"No, it's not."

The devil pilot, who looked no older than Hawkes, finally answered after struggling for a while, "We are planning to flee to Palau."

"Escape to Palau?"

Sterling raised his eyebrows, and looked up at Captain Evans. Sure enough, they both saw the same doubts in each other's eyes as they did in their hearts.

"He's my uncle"

The young devil pilot glanced at his overjoyed companion, sighed and explained, "Yesterday we received a mission to drive a plane to hit your warship.

My uncle and I didn't want to die. We had already been preparing for the escape, secretly preparing the parachute, and secretly loading the plane with life rafts. We were just waiting for an opportunity. "

"An opportunity yesterday?" Evans asked.

"right"

The young pilot nodded, "We've been waiting for the order to launch a suicide attack, so no one will notice that we're about to flee.

It's a pity that although we didn't hit your warship, we were still hit by your anti-aircraft firepower.Otherwise, our range would be long enough for us to escape to Palau. "

"Why do you keep trying to escape to Palau?"

Hawkes couldn't help asking, even Wei Ran, who was still arranging the booty on the rubber raft, looked at the young prisoner curiously.

"My dad was mining phosphate there, my mum and my uncle's family were there too, but we haven't heard from them for two months."

The young pilot paused and continued, "We want to be reunited with our families more than dying meaninglessly in a war."

"Ah!"

Captain Evans sneezed again, and said after he blew his nose, "Your explanation gave you and your uncle a chance to survive temporarily."

After finishing speaking, he turned his head and looked at Sterling again, "Captain, do you still remember how to use the sail?"

"of course I remember!"

Captain Sterling smiled, "Although I graduated from Caltech, using sails is a compulsory course for the Navy."

Captain Evans took a look at a parachute bag with his right hand, and then said with a smile, "Then let us build a sail that can take us home!"

Don't worry about whether it is the first update or the second update. The number of words in the first update and the second update is the same, and both are [-] words, which is only a lot more.The reason for a change is just that I am too lazy to break the chapter.

Of course, if you like to break the chapters, just say it, this kind of thing is too simple for me——