War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 994 An Enemy Worse Than Hunger
When the setting sun was completely blocked by the sea level, the people on the traffic boat who were busy fishing with human flesh put away their fishing gear and handed it back to Hawks.

During the whole afternoon, not only did they get nothing, they even used up all the slightly disgusting bait.

If there is no harvest, naturally there will be no food to eat. As for the canned food stored in the thermal insulation bucket, it is obviously not the time to use it.

Each smoked a cigarette and drank a few sips of water for dinner. The two captives were also tied to the bow and stern of the ship with ropes by Hawkes, and their smoking equipment was collected.

"Victor, you should rest normally!"

Captain Sterling shook a silver sailor's whistle in his hand towards Wei Ran in the life raft, "Hawkes and I are on duty at night, we will blow the whistle if we encounter a situation!"

"be careful!"

Wei Ran yelled a reminder, and then firmly tied the last corner of the awning to the handle of the life raft.

After eating an extra piece of seasickness medicine found in the survival bag, Wei Ran lay on the slightly damp hammock and closed his eyes in peace, silently fighting against the unexpected new enemy—hunger.

On the boat next door, Sterling and Hawks, who were sitting back to back, also each lit a hand-rolled cigarette and chatted about tomorrow's plans in a low voice.On the contrary, the two bound captives were already snoring loudly.

Near midnight, a rumbling thunder woke up the people on the two boats, followed by another torrential downpour overhead.On the awning made of parachutes, a large amount of precious fresh water has accumulated in a very short period of time.

Wei Ran was the first to react. After filling up the two water jugs at his waist, he took out the water buckets in the metal book again and filled both of them.

On the other boat, Hawks was doing the same thing. Not only did he help the injured moose and the two captains who were also injured fill up the water bottles, he didn't even drop the Japanese officer water bottles of the two devils. , all poured with cold, thirst-quenching rainwater.

"call!"

Almost at the same time as the two of them finished their work, the large spinnaker made of parachutes and oars was blown full by the cool and humid sea breeze!

Captain Evans, who had just lit a hand-rolled cigarette, was the first to react. He reached out and took out a compass from his pocket to look at it. Then, he shot a beam of light at Wei Ran with a flashlight and shouted, "Wei Ran Kedo! Can you hear me?!"

"I can hear it!" Wei Ran, who had just put away the bucket a second ago, immediately responded by shouting.

"Pull the string!" Evans yelled. "My flashlight stops!"

"Understood! Pull the rope! The flashlight stops!"

Wei Ran repeated the other party's instructions aloud, stumbled to the side of the life raft, untied the paracord connected to the jib from the grip, tightened the rope vigorously, and at the same time, focused his attention on the jib. flashlight beam.

Almost at the moment when the beam of light began to flicker, he immediately stopped pulling the rope, and at this time, the two boats tied together started to move on the water surface driven by the wind.

"Tighten the rope!" Captain Evans yelled new orders.

"Tie the rope tight!"

While repeating, Wei Ran tightened the rope as quickly as possible, and then shouted, "The rope is tied tight!"

"Sterling! Ship speed!"

Before Evans finished speaking, Sterling at the stern had already thrown half of the oar tied with the paracord onto the sea.Slowly release the coil of paracord in his hand.Hawks next to him held up the aviation watch seized from the pilot Akira.

After a while, Sterling pulled the rope to take back the half wooden oar that was thrown out before, first wrote a set of numbers on the notepad, and then threw the oar out again and started to put the rope.

After doing this three times, Sterling retracted the rope for the last time, took a notepad and shouted after some calculations, "The fastest speed of the boat is less than three knots! If the wind speed keeps at this speed, it will take us about four to five days. to see land."

"It's not going to be that good"

Evan yelled after a pause, "Put on a raincoat on the moose! Put up the awning, so we might be able to go faster!"

The captain spoke, and the rest, including Wei Ran, started to execute without even thinking about it.After some busy work, the awnings set up with umbrella cloth and oars on the two boats were all put away.

The wind resistance is reduced, and the speed of the ship is also significantly higher.After some measurements and calculations, the speed reported by Sterling changed from less than three knots to less than four knots.

Although the speed increase is better than nothing, it still gives everyone a little hope.Of course, it's just a little bit of hope.

It took less than an hour to sail against the wind. As the rain became heavier, the surrounding waves became larger and larger, and even the wind became stronger.

"Sail in!" Evans yelled in greeting. "Victor! Let the line go!"

"What?!" Wei Ran yelled in response.

"Sail in! Let go of the rope!"

Hawks and Sterling shouted together, while Captain Evans simply initiated a light signal with a flashlight.

At this moment, Wei Ran, who only heard the sound of the rainstorm, finally understood, and immediately stumbled to the side and untied the rope.

At the same time, in the middle of the traffic boat a little forward, Sterling, who had already been prepared, immediately with the help of Hawks, while turning the oars that acted as masts, tied the rope that was blown by the wind tightly. A round triangle sail.

Without the power provided by the sails, the boat that was about to be overturned by the wind immediately stabilized a lot.

Under the signal of Evans, everyone used the oars to prop up the awning made of parachutes at the bow and stern again, and curled up and hid inside.

In the life raft, Wei Ran, who also propped up the awning with oars, helplessly shook off the accumulated water in the center of the hammock, wrapped himself in the same soaked blanket and lay on it, and used the lock on the parachute to attach his belt and The grips on the liferaft buoyant bladders are connected together.

This night, the storm seemed to have never stopped. From time to time, Wei Ran lying in the hammock could even experience a terrifying sense of weightlessness for a few seconds, and the silk parachute above his head could block the pouring rain. The waves are terrifying, but it is inevitable that there will be continuous streams of water flowing down from everywhere, turning the small space inside the awning into a water curtain hole in Huaguo Mountain.

It was extremely difficult until the next morning, but the rain outside showed no signs of stopping, but the waves on the sea calmed down a lot. Correspondingly, the torrential rain that fell almost straight up and down also implied that there were no them at all. Most needed wind.

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran first pushed down the rainwater accumulated in the awning above his head, then took out his camera and replaced it with a wide-angle lens, and took a picture of the opposite traffic boat that was also covered by the rain.

Putting away the camera, Wei Ran carried a waterproof survival bag with various medicines on his back, and swam over by holding on to the rafters in the middle of the two boats.

Before he climbed into the boat, he smelled tobacco.When he climbed onto the boat, he immediately saw Hawkes and Captain Sterling in the awning at the stern, each smoking a hand-rolled cigarette, and at the same time busy scooping water out with their helmets.

Looking at the bow of the ship, Captain Evans and Sailor Moose also held a cigarette between each other and seemed to be talking about something.Even the young captive pilot held a hand-rolled cigarette in his hand.

"You're finally here"

Hawkes came over in the rain, "We are all waiting for you to have breakfast together! By the way, I just gave them medicine."

"Have you caught any fish?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"No." Hawkes pointed to the life raft that Wei Ran was riding on, "The great chief is going to open a can to let everyone replenish their strength."

"Go and get it yourself, and remember to cover the lid of the thermos."

While speaking, Wei Ran had already untied the belt hanging obliquely on his chest, and handed it to Hawkes together with the pistol hanging on it.

After receiving the pistol, Hawks immediately plunged into the water outside the traffic boat, and swam to the opposite life raft while holding on to the rafters.

After the other party safely climbed onto the raft, Wei Ran walked to the bow, bent down into the awning and asked the sailor moose with a smile, "Is it still burning?"

The moose in the raincoat showed a simple and honest smile, "Thanks to your help, I felt much better last night."

Hearing this, Wei Ran simply handed the scald ointment to the other party, "In this case, you can do the job of applying the ointment yourself, remember to save some use."

"No problem." The sailor moose took the burn ointment and carefully applied the burns on his body with his fingers.

At the same time, Wei Ran also helped Captain Evans change his medicine.

After he helped the moose check the wound again, and helped him deal with the scratches he suffered on the boat before, he walked towards the stern unhurriedly.

It's just that he didn't notice until he got close. At this time, the captive Akila was still tied to the engine at the stern, and a piece of parachute cloth was stuffed in his mouth, and the injured foot was also tied Tie it firmly to the side of the boat.Seeing Wei Ran approaching, he immediately began to struggle frantically.

Glancing at the snot on the opponent's face and the remaining tears in the corners of his eyes, Wei Ran asked in a very affirmative tone before the deputy captain Sterling spoke, "His drug addiction has flared up?"

“It started this morning”

Sterling pointed to a tooth mark on his arm, and said indifferently, I was worried that he would hurt someone, so I blocked his mouth.

"Such a scumbag can be killed directly."

Wei Ran encouraged the other party while helping him change the dressing for the wound on his head, "Not only will he waste our food and medicine, but he will also be in danger of hurting people at any time."

"This kind of thing is up to the chief to make a decision"

Sterling said indifferently, "And this person is still useful, so after you change his medicine, give him some crazy little pills!"

"What's the use?" Wei Ran asked while busy.

"Yesterday afternoon, we reached an agreement with the young pilot."

Sterling paused, seeing that Wei Ran was not in a hurry to make a statement, and then continued, "We will give them the status of two crew members and treat them as equal as possible. In exchange, the young pilot is willing to help us fish, and Like Hawkes, he dives and fishes. He said that he is a fisherman who grew up by the sea, and he is sure enough to help catch fish, and even if he can’t catch fish, he is willing to do whatever he can.”

"This is not a cost-effective deal." Wei Ran calmly reminded, "We have to pay the consumption of two people, but we can only get one and a half labors."

"It's true"

Sterling lowered his voice slightly and said, "But last night, our engine couldn't start, and all the fuel in the fuel tank had leaked out. Victor, we need oarsmen. Otherwise, even if we push them If we go down, our supplies may not be enough to get back to the shore."

Wei Ran helped the other party put a waterproof condom on his head again, and asked with a smile, "Are you worried that I will do something to them?"

"I'm sure you're a reasonable person," Sterling said with a smile.

"Don't worry, I won't kill them."

As Wei Ran said, he took out the bottle of medicine from his bag, shook out one, then pinched Akila's cheek, pulled out the silk rag that had already been wet with saliva, and flicked the small pill into it .

After appeasing the humanoid animal who was about to go to work with a drug, he removed the condom from the opponent's foot and helped the opponent change the medicine.

After he finished his work, Akira finally returned to normal.

"Close the wound yourself"

Wei Ran pointed to the condom just taken off by his feet, and asked Akila, "You can do whatever you want, and you can get a pill every day, do you have any opinions?"

"No! I have no opinion, but... but can you give me two tablets a day?" Akira asked with a grateful and ashamed expression, "I"

"Then take two." Seeing Sterling nodding, Wei Ran said indifferently, "I hope you can play the value you deserve."

Before he finished speaking, Hawks swam back with a tin can only the size of a palm and handed it to Evans.

Opening the can, Evans took out a few citrus-flavored candies wrapped in cellophane and gave each of them two, while laughing and saying, "If there is no way to catch fish today, this is what we will have all day today." Food."

"If the rain doesn't stop, it may be difficult for us to catch fish." Hawkes said with a bitter face, and at the same time, he tore open the package of the two candies he got and threw them into his mouth.

"Fishing and cleaning up stagnant water is what Sterling and I do"

Evans smiled and said to Wei Ran and Hawkes, "The paddling work will be left to you and the two pilots."

Hearing this, the young captive pilot nodded silently, stuffed the candy into his mouth, and immediately picked up the oar.Seeing this, Akila immediately stuffed the candy into his mouth and picked up the oar.

Seeing this, Wei Ran put the two candies he received into the waterproof survival bag, took the pistol from Hawkes, and swam back to the life raft.

First, he stuffed a candy into his mouth, and then stuffed another candy into the water bottle. Wei Ran also picked up the oar.

Under the command of the sailor's whistle blown by Vice Captain Sterling, the people in charge of paddling also started to work in the rain.

It's a pity, after all, there was nothing to eat in the stomach, and the energy provided by the two candies didn't last long, and everyone lost their strength.Naturally, the rowing speed is getting slower and slower.

Finally, at noon, the raging rainstorm finally stopped, and the spinnaker in the center of the hull, which had been stretched again, was loose and showed no sign of stress at all.But in the steaming awning, everyone including the two captives was too hungry to move.

But even so, each of them still held a fishing line board in their hands, shaking the fishing line that had sunk into the water.

On the inflatable life raft, Wei Ran took out the British army kettle, took out a lump of solidified fat from it with his fingers, and wiped it into his mouth.

Re-tightened the lid and took back the metal book, Wei Ran swallowed the mouthful of energy-replenishing oil little by little, then took out the camera again, and took another picture of the people on the transportation boat under the cover of the awning. took a photo.

Putting away the camera, Wei Ran put on the toad glasses again, and made a posture of staring at the opposite boat, but actually leaned against the thermos, and closed his eyes in peace.

When he woke up again with the sound of the whistle, only half of the setting sun was still floating on the sea, and in the center of the traffic boat, at the top of the jib mast made of oars, stood a Wings of frigate bird.

On the traffic boat, Hawks was gesturing to shoot at himself, while the two captains, Sterling and Evans, pointed at the frigate bird with their fingers.

After regaining his senses, Wei Ran immediately pulled out the 1911 pistol on his chest, and after slowly pushing and loading it, he walked around to the other side of the thermos bucket, held the gun with both hands on the lid of the bucket, and aimed at the frigate bird.

"boom!"

Accompanied by the crisp gunshots, the hot bullet casings hit the damp hammock, and the frigate bird also plunged headfirst, flapping its wings, and plunged into the water between the two boats.

Almost before and after, Hawks jumped into the water and picked up the frigate bird after a cheer.

"Victor! Your marksmanship is good!" Hawks grabbed the frigate bird's huge wings and said loudly, "The bullet hit its wings!"

"Thank you for your compliment, but we can't make a fire at all!" Wei Ran looked at the joke and reminded, "We can't burn the oars, right? Or eat them raw?"

"At least we finally have bait, at least sea fish can be eaten raw."

After Captain Evans finished speaking, he said to Hawks, "Maybe we can try to lure the fish here with a flashlight tonight."

"Indian Rules"

As Hawkes said, he pulled three black tail feathers from this frigate bird and handed them to Evans.

"I'm not really the warchief"

Although Evans said so, he still took the three black feathers, "This is a nice gift."

"If we catch a frigate bird every day, maybe I can make you an Indian crest."

Before Hawkes finished speaking, he had already broken the frigate bird's neck, then pulled out his sailor knife and cut the bird's neck, and quickly pulled out the bird's internal organs.

Without calling at all, everyone on the boat got some internal organs and undigested small fish, hung them on the hooks and threw them into the water one after another.

Perhaps the bait was fresh enough this time, and soon, the fishing reel held by Akira began to shake first.

Amidst his subconscious cheers in jazzy Japanese, an unknown sea fish, only ten centimeters long, was first pulled up.

Before he could take the fish off the hook, the hooks in the hands of Evans and Hawks responded one after another.

Immediately afterwards, the fishing reels in the hands of Sterling and the quiet young pilot also felt a pull!
"Quick! We've encountered a school of fish!"

Hawkes yelled in surprise, hurriedly took off the harvest from the hook and threw it into the sailor bag, and immediately threw the hook back into the sea again, and even mixed the guts of the frigatebirds left in his helmet with some sea water fell down.

Under the lure of the fishy smell, everyone quickly gained something again, but they didn't notice at all that Wei Ran on the life raft behind him had already taken out his camera and pressed the shutter on them.

After everyone dropped the hook for the fourth or fifth time, there was no feedback from the fishing line board in their hands.

Fortunately, at this time, the sailor bag in the cabin had already contained nearly 30 not-so-big sea fish.

"The school of fish is gone," the quiet young pilot said in a rare initiative.

"Do you know what fish we caught?" Hawkes asked.

"Herring" The two captive pilots gave the same answer in unison, "Poor people eat fish."

"We are poor now"

As Hawkes said, he pulled out his sailor knife again, stretched out the boat and rinsed it in the sea water randomly, grabbed a fish and cut off the head of the fish on a dinner plate, and then skillfully peeled off the skin Internal organs cleaned.

After rinsing in the sea water again, Hawks handed it to Captain Evans.

"Thank you" Captain Evans took over the small fish while Hawkes was already handling the second fish.

"Victor, come and have dinner!" Sterling called Wei Ran loudly.

"Immediately!" Wei Ran said, and had already rolled into the water.

By the time he climbed onto the traffic boat with the help of Sterling, Hawkes had already distributed a processed herring to each of the two captives.

After taking a small fish that the other party had processed recently, Wei Ran imitated Hawkes and rinsed it in the sea water outside the boat to add some saltiness, then put it into his mouth and took a bite.

The taste of raw fish is naturally not as good as cooked, but at least it is infinitely more delicious than the canned herring that is still unknown today, not to mention that the fish is fresh enough.

He didn't finish the fish, and the captive Akila said, "Can I handle the fish? My hometown has a very long tradition of eating raw fish. I know how to make these fish taste better." Some."

Seeing Hawkes looking at him subconsciously, Captain Evans glanced at Wei Ran who had drawn his pistol, and finally nodded with a smile.

After receiving the sailor's knife from Hawkes, Akila carefully washed his hands in the sea water, then took out a fish, cleaned the internal organs, skin and head, and cut the fresh and tender fish into small pieces.

Finally, with a little sea water, he returned the sailor knife to Hawkes, and then handed over the plate full of sashimi.

As the dinner plate was passed among the people, except for Wei Ran who clearly expressed his refusal, the rest of the people did not refuse, but judging from everyone's lack of interest, we knew that under the premise of lack of seasoning, just Just sashimi dipped in some seawater, it doesn't taste much better than the fish provided by Hawkes.

In contrast, those two devils, while enjoying the sashimi they made with their own hands, spoke to each other in Japanese that no one could understand.

In the joy of the harvest, everyone ate two herrings each, which was the first time their stomachs were full after the disaster.

The remaining dozen or so fish were not wasted, and they were hung directly by the side of the boat together with the sailor bags that trapped them as fishing guards. Even the frigate bird was cut into pieces by Hawkes, and was pulled out with paracords. Wear it and hang it on the simple mast of the jib, hoping to have a chance to dry it.Even those herring viscera and the remaining frigate bird viscera were re-hung on the fishhook by the people who were full, and turned on the flashlight, expecting to use the phototaxis of fish to replenish some food reserves.

Wei Ran, on the other hand, gave Akila a drug after eating, and then changed the medicine for everyone's wounds, and then returned to the life raft he was in charge of.

However, after less than two hours, as the stars appeared above his head, and as the stars were replaced by dark clouds, Wei Ran felt his stomach began to feel uncomfortable!

Not surprisingly, he had a bad stomach.

(End of this chapter)