War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 995

In the dark of night, Wei Ran clutched his stomach, moved with difficulty to the position farthest from the hammock and squatted down.

At the same time as he was cosplaying the water-powered rocket, everyone on the other boat took off their pants one after another and sat on the side of the boat clutching their stomachs.

"Help me untie the rope." Akira said with difficulty, "I and we also have a bad stomach."

Before he finished speaking, the young pilot tied to the bow also made the same request.

"Hawks, untie them!" Captain Evans took a breath and continued, "Don't, don't let them dirty mine, my Johnston."

"Wait..." Before Hawkes could finish his sentence, there was another squeaking sound accompanied by the stench.

Moving close to the side of the boat to the side of the young prisoner, Hawks reached out and untied the paracord from the young prisoner's hand, and immediately after, Sterling also untied Akila's hands.Soon, there were two more devils fleeing together beside the boat.

"We ate something bad," Sterling said grinning, "Those fish are not clean."

“Maybe it's not that the fish is unclean”

The captive Akila took a breath and guessed, "That knife, maybe it's not clean, it cut the internal organs of the frigate bird, maybe it wasn't cleaned."

"It doesn't make sense to say that now"

Captain Evans stopped speculation about the cause of the bad stomach before Hawks could speak, and then yelled at Wei Ran on the other ship, "Victor! How is your situation?!"

"Not very, not very good!" Wei Ran said with difficulty, "It's dysentery! Hawks! Give everyone some medicine! One tablet for each! Don't take anything you've taken within four hours!"

"Ming, I understand!"

Hawks responded with difficulty, tremblingly opened the cloth bag that had been hanging on his chest, then took out a sulfadiazine from the waterproof bag, threw it into his mouth, chewed it, and washed it down with water.

At the same time, the captive Akira also muttered something in Japanese.However, because everyone on the boat was running away at this time, especially Wei Ran who was running away was far away and didn't hear it at all, so no one paid much attention to it.

After taking the medicine, Hawkes shook out a pill from the waterproof bag and handed it to the young captive beside him.

After taking the pills and throwing them into his mouth, the young captive pointed to the kettle at Hawkes' feet and asked, "Yes, can I use your water? The water in my kettle has been emptied."

"sure"

Hawkes put the tarpaulin containing the medicine back into the cloth bag hanging around his neck, and then lowered his head to pick up the water bottle at his feet.

However, at this moment, the young prisoner violently pushed the top of Hawkes' head with his hand, while the other hand was already grasping the sailor knife hanging on his chest!

"Pfft!"

The unsuspecting Hawks fell directly into the water outside the ship, and immediately after, the young captive rushed towards Captain Evans holding the snatched dagger!
At the same moment, the captive Akila also grabbed the sailor whistle hanging around Captain Sterling's neck beside him, and the lanyard of the sailor whistle tightened Sterling's neck, forcing him to block in front of himself.

The young man also controlled Captain Evans almost at the same time, and took the L-shaped flashlight on his shoulder to turn on the traffic boat.

While the two prisoners were taking the hostages, Wei Ran had just moved to the side of the thermos with difficulty, and was about to find some antibiotics from the survival kit.

With Hawks falling into the water, Wei Ran also quickly drew out the pistol on his chest and aimed at the captives on the opposite ship.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Wei Ran shouted coldly holding a 1911 pistol.

"I have to"

Akira glanced at Hawks who was struggling to climb onto the boat, then at the sailor moose who was struggling to stand up, turned his head and changed the conversation partner and said, "Captain Evans, I think we need to talk."

"What do you want to talk about?" Captain Evans asked calmly with the knife on his neck.

"We want to survive, we want to get to Palau alive."

Akira paused and said, "But my injury also needs your medical soldiers, so how about letting me and my companion go to the life raft, and let us guard the insulated bucket full of supplies and all the weapons? "

"The order I gave to my medical soldier is that if you dare to resist, he can shoot immediately." Evans said and looked at Wei Ran, "Victor! What are you hesitating about!"

"Victor, do you agree to switch places with us?"

Akila turned his head to look at Wei Ran, and casually glanced at Hawks and the sailor moose who were holding the oars tightly and staring at him.

After a little hesitation, Wei Ran simply put away his pistol, and continued to search for the medicine he needed in the thermos bucket while saying, "I refuse."

"Then I can only"

"Kill whoever you want"

Wei Ran raised his head and glanced at Akila, then lowered his head and continued to rummage while casually reminding, "Akila, are you an idiot? Look clearly, I am Asian, on the destroyer Johnston, I was originally a discriminated group.

Did you take drugs and knock your brain out?You actually plan to use the lives of a white deputy captain and an Indian with white blood to threaten a Chinese who wants to kill you at any time?Especially the person you want to kill is also the person who has always discriminated against me on the Johnston. "

Speaking of which, he finally found two bottles of Atipine, which was used to treat malaria, from the survival kit, which was also effective against dysentery.

When he took the medicine into his stomach, the sailor moose couldn't help laughing first, "Idiot, you should hold me and Hawks hostage, we are Victor's good brothers. Of course, We also don't mind if you kill our captain and co-captain, not only will it save food, but after killing you and your companions, it will also save me medicine. Am I right, Victor? "

"Exactly! My brother!"

Wei Ran has fastened the lid of the insulated bucket again while speaking, "These materials are enough for the three of us to float back to the Philippines. Of course, you have to swear that I will kill them two later."
, I guess the two captains will definitely not stop me anymore. "

"I thought saving both of you would make Sterling and I safer."

Captain Evans sighed, and said rather disappointedly, "Your actions now are as stupid as when you attacked Pearl Harbor back then!"

"To shut up!"

The young prisoner who held Captain Evans yelled angrily, and then changed into jazzy Japanese, talking to Akira.

"Akira"

Wei Ran didn't give them too much time to think, and while pulling the bullet on the top of the sleeve, he urged, "Are you going to do it? If you don't do it, I will do it. I don't want to be like you, and the shit will flow It's on the legs."

"I ask"

"You are not qualified to make demands." Wei Ran urged impatiently, "If you want to kill, kill quickly!"

"I am eligible"

The young pilot with the knife in his hand pointed a flashlight at the patch in the cabin of the traffic boat and said loudly, "There is a patch tied with a belt on the cabin under my feet! Victor! Promise us to negotiate! Otherwise I will Just sink this traffic boat!"

"Without this traffic boat, there is no way to reach the shore with the life raft alone."

Akira held Vice-Captain Sterling, who was almost suffocating, and limped to his companion, using himself and Sterling to block Wei Ran's shooting range, "and his water quality Very well, in this weather, he has a great chance of tearing through the life raft. Victor, at least we have a chance to die together."

"I can't agree to your terms"

Wei Ran shook his head rather recklessly and refused, "But your threat is indeed effective, so let's change the terms."

Hearing this, Akira once again switched to Japanese that the rest of the people could not understand, discussing with his companions one by one, and at the same time not forgetting to loosen the rope in Sterlingson's hand from time to time.

Soon, Akila said, "We have three conditions."

"Say something quickly!"

Hawkes said with a gloomy face, while the sailor moose sat on the side of the boat again, pulling his stomach as if he really didn't care about the life and death of the two captains.

"First, we need to get back our supplies." Akila said, "Including our submachine guns."

"Hold on"

While speaking, Wei Ran opened the thermos barrel, and under the stunned gaze of everyone, he picked up the Type [-] submachine gun inside, rounded his arms, threw it into the sea without hesitation, and then fastened the thermos barrel with a "snap". The lid of the bucket, squatting down and continuing to squirm, said, "Now you can change your request. It is no problem to get your supplies back, but the submachine gun accidentally fell into the water yesterday."

"You shameless bastard." The young man gritted his teeth and looked at Wei Ran.

"We need a weapon to protect ourselves." Akira twitched the corners of his mouth, trying to restrain himself and said, "We must have a weapon to protect ourselves!"

"There's a machete in the survival kit"

Captain Evans said abruptly, "How about giving you the machete and Captain Sterling's 1911 pistol? In addition, there is also the pistol that originally belonged to you, so that we can keep each other in terms of weapons. It's balanced."

"What about the supplies?" Akira asked.

"Return all the supplies that belong to you, but these parachutes belong to Victor's medical expenses, so how about keeping the parachutes as they are now?"

Before Captain Evans finished speaking, Wei Ran on the life raft provocatively tore off a piece of silk umbrella cloth that was two meters square, tied it around his neck as an oversized scarf, and then tore off another meter The square piece wiped the buttocks that seemed to have bugs crawling all the time.

"He's just crazy"

Captain Evans said helplessly, "In Indian legend, a bastard like Victor would be called a Wendigo, so I wouldn't be surprised if he cannibalize people.

So Mr. Akira, in order to survive, why don't we ignore Victor for the time being, and after we finish talking, how about Sterling and I go talk to him? "

After a little hesitation, Akira finally nodded, apparently also not wanting to communicate with that "Wendigo", "We need an extra set of fishing gear and your flashlight, and we need Victor to help me heal. "

"And this knife in my hand," the young prisoner added.

"Fishing gear, flashlights, and knives are all fine. I don't think Victor will refuse the treatment. Now make your second request."

Captain Evans smiled and said, "Also, you'd better give Captain Sterling some air. If he dies, I'm not sure if I can persuade Victor not to do anything to you. Sterling, if Mr. Akira is willing to let go, so don't resist."

After a little hesitation, Akira let go of the rope in his hand a little, and waited for Sterling, whose face was flushed from holding back, to catch his breath.Then he said, "The second request, we are going to Palau."

"You know the distance"

"We're going to Palau!" shouted the young pilot with his knife on Evans' neck, his eyes red.

"No problem, next we will head towards Palau." Captain Evans agreed to the second request indifferently, "What is the third request?"

"You and my companion go to the life raft, and I stay on this boat." Akira put forward the last condition.

"no problem"

Captain Evans readily agreed, "We are each responsible for our own diet, and Victor is jointly responsible for our health."

"It's up to you to convince Victor"

Akila breathed a sigh of relief and reminded, "Let him leave our supplies and come back with yours."

"Victor"

Evans looked at Wei Ran, who was shrouded in the beam of the flashlight, "Just now you heard the terms offered by the other party. How about I exchange my house and car in Hawaii and all my deposits for you to agree to Mr. Akira's terms?" ? I'll write a transfer agreement later."

"Give me back my tobacco and the dollars in the tobacco." Wei Ran put forward an additional condition.

"Deal!" Captain Evans, who cooperated with the acting, replied happily, "Now leave what belongs to them and come back!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran feigned reluctance to open the thermos, and took out several cans seized from the two captives, together with the machete and a small bag of fishing gear in the survival bag, and even the The bottle of unique product and the 1911 pistol on his chest are all wrapped in the umbrella cloth that just wiped his butt.

He didn't just disgust the other party, but wanted to fight a germ war with those two devils who turned from Jedi.

After a while, Hawkes also swam over with the discomfort in his body, and helped Wei Ran carry the oil barrel and their supplies back to the transportation boat, leaving a hammock for Captain Evans and a blanket.

When Hawks raised Evans' revolver, Wei Ran also handed the unusable southern bastard gun to Akila.

Under the confrontation between the two sides, Captain Evans was pushed into the water, allowing the young pilot to swim to the edge of the life raft and climb up.

It wasn't until the other party shouted and gave a signal that Akila cut the rope of the sailor's whistle with the sailor's knife handed to him by his companion just now, and let go of Captain Sterling, who had been held up by the gun all along.

"It's just a change of boat"

Wei Ran snorted coldly, and handed the 1911 pistol in his hand to the moose who had been sitting by the side of the boat, and then he took off his pants and sat down. The thermal barrel was firmly tied to the cabin partition again.

That night, the torrential rain finally came as expected, and the two sides facing each other on the two boats did not feel relieved by taking medicine. Almost the whole night, everyone was just like what Wei Ran said—just changed the boat and drifted away. That's all.

On the second day, although the weather was still torrentially rainy, fortunately, after Wei Ran gave everyone two tablets of Adipine, which was used to treat malaria, the overwhelming stomach finally calmed down.

He supported his weak body and changed the medicines of all the wounded, including Akila, but the people on the two boats had long lost the intention of confronting each other.

Physical weakness and fatigue, not getting enough rest all night, and even the hunger caused by the empty stomach, these negative states made everyone curl up in the awning exhaustedly, staring blankly at the rain curtain.

In the afternoon, not only did the torrential rain finally stop, but even the sea breeze they had been waiting for finally inflated the simple triangle sail—unfortunately, this time, the boat was pushed by the wind. Then, it drifted steadily away from the Philippines.

On the transportation boat, Wei Ran distributed a piece of flat for everyone, and then sat down curled up against the engine wrapped in an umbrella cloth.

With the cover of the umbrella cloth, Wei Ran secretly took a picture of each of the people on the two boats, and soon after he put away the camera, he fell into a deep sleep.

Such a state lasted for two full days, except for Akila and his companions who had been guarding the mast with great energy, Wei Ran and the others got a full rest, but because they hadn't After eating, although the dysentery was barely cured, his body became weaker and weaker.

The changes don't stop there, even the weather on the sea has changed compared with the previous days.

That night, it was rare that there was no rain in the sky, but a sea breeze blowing the triangular sail was extraordinarily full.

"What the hell, even the weather is on their side."

Hawkes lay on his side in the cabin, tremblingly squeezed out a handful of shredded tobacco from the can, wrapped it in cigarette paper, lit it, and took a big puff.

"It is impossible for us to reach Palau alive. Even if we arrive at the same longitude as Palau, there is a very high probability that we will miss it."

Sterling, who also lit a hand-rolled cigarette, said in a low voice, "Although the weather is indeed on their side, but look at Akira, his body is getting weaker and weaker, and his dysentery has not recovered."

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Wei Ran smiled, and said close to the moose's ear, "We take Adipine for malaria and sulfadiazine or aspirin for antibiotics, but what Mr. Akila takes is pain reliever." Use phenacetin."

"Pfft! Cough cough! Cough cough!"

The moose who was also smoking was suddenly choked and coughed again and again, and turned to hold back a smile, and passed the good news to Hawks and Sterling.

“We need something to eat”

Sterling said in a low voice, "We must find a way to recover our bodies as soon as possible. If we continue to move towards Palau, our chances of surviving may become lower and lower."

"Eat raw meat?" Hawkes asked with an ugly face, "We don't have much medicine left, and if we drag it down, we..."

"Maybe we have another way." Sterling turned his head and looked at the engine behind him that had already been scrapped, apparently with a plan.

In the blink of an eye the next morning, Wei Ran, who got up early as usual, just took a sneak photo of each of the two boats, and Sterling woke up the second, and then he woke up Hawkes again.

While Wei Ran was changing the dressing for the rest of the group, the two carefully cleaned the two helmets. While waiting for the helmets to dry, Sterling took out a small spoonful of engine oil from the scrapped engine, and Hawkes Then carefully scrape off the carbon deposits in the exhaust pipe.

Stir these two things together to make a sticky black paste, and Sterling tore off two pieces of umbrella cloth and soaked them with the black paste, and then pasted them on the engine hood and a steel helmet respectively, and used The paracord is firmly tied.

Glancing at the awning at the bow that blocked Akira's view, Hawkes reached out and took out a few belly-turned herrings from the sailor bag hanging at the stern, and after opening them with a carefully cleaned ax, placed them on the In the same cleaned American plate lunch box.

Finally buttoning the black steel helmet, Hawkes asked in a low voice, "Sterling, are you sure this will work?"

"Haven't you ever been scalded by the deck at noon?"

While tying the helmet with the dinner plate and the engine cover with a rope, Sterling responded in a low voice, "Don't worry! It will be fine! Today's weather is fine, there are no clouds, we just need to wait. enough."

Compared with preparing for the cooked food here, in the awning at the bow of the ship, Akira kept staring at the inflated triangle sail with red eyes.

"It's time to take medicine." Wei Ran said, and put a real Ah's flat in the opponent's palm.

"This is different from yesterday's medicine." Although Akira was extremely weak with the sailor's whistle in his mouth all the time, the vigilance in his tone was not uncommon.

"Did yesterday's medicine work?"

Wei Ran asked the other party back, if he wasn't allowed to kill in the return mission, this Akila, together with his companions, he would have killed them countless times, why would he keep letting him kill them in such a troublesome way? Remain half-dead?
"If I die."

"Whatever you do, the medicine is given to you, it's your problem if you don't take it."

Wei Ran pointed to the direction of the bow, "I asked Sterling just now. According to his estimation, we should not be too far away from Palau now. If you want to die, you can die."

After finishing speaking, he ignored the hope that flashed in the other party's eyes, and took the initiative to show off his belongings, until the other party confirmed that he was not carrying a weapon. The rafters climbed onto the life raft.

Compared to Akira, the young pilot whose name he never knew and Captain Evans were in pretty good condition.After all, Wei Ran would not tamper with the medicine of this young captive, that would be too deliberate.

"How's the situation?" Wei Ran asked while helping the other party take off the condom on his hand.

"It's better," Evans said weakly. "It's just that I'm starting to miss the ice cream and tonkatsu on the Johnston."

"I miss the hot cocoa on the boat even more," Wei Ran gritted his teeth and muttered.

"We are now getting further and further away from the Philippines"

Evans glanced at the young pilot who was sleeping soundly in a hammock made of umbrella cloth on the other side of the life raft, and said in a low voice, "Victor, we must do it as soon as possible."

"No rush"

Wei Ran shook his head without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, untied the gauze and changed the dressing while whispering, "Akila will fall down soon, and when he has no strength, the young one won't last long, when the time comes we There are enough opportunities. Now Akira is very cautious, and there is no way for me to bring the weapon over."

"You don't have to."

"The Johnston can't lose her Indian chief"

While talking, Wei Ran quickly changed the medicine for the other party, and then took out the candy distributed from the last survival can from the waterproof bag and stuffed it into the other party's mouth.

Compared with five people sharing one can on their side, Akila and his companions who only need two people to share one Japanese-style can undoubtedly have more advantages.

Of course, although there is an advantage in the allocation of canned food, the fishing speed of two people is much slower than that of five people-even if no one catches anything these days.

The people on the two boats not only faced a shortage of food, but also became more and more nervous about drinking water.The only one who is not worried about drinking water is Wei Ran. This time, the unscrupulous metal book finally did not encroach on his next two buckets of rainwater.

After starving until the sun set, Sterling's natural oven project was finally aborted along with the stinking and uncooked herring meat.

“We have nothing to eat”

As Sailor Moose said, he applied the last bit of burn ointment to his body, "My burn ointment is gone."

"Start using sunscreen cream tomorrow." Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he had already handed a box of sunscreen cream to the other party.

"Is this edible?" The moose looked at the flat round metal box in his hand and licked his leathery lips.

"Can't eat." After Wei Ran finished speaking, his stomach also gurgled.

"Mr. Akira is still fiddling with that spinnaker." Sterling took the initiative to change the subject, for fear that everyone would talk about the various delicacies on the Johnston or the Hall.

"Can that spinnaker really take us to Palau?" the moose asked curiously.

"Mr. Akira" Sterling raised his voice.

"Is there anything?" Akira, who was sitting under the mast, moved his gaze from the compass in his hand to the direction of Sterling and others.

"Our people are recovering Palau," Sterling said loudly, "Even if we do get to Palau, you will still be a prisoner."

"We will definitely rush to Palau." Akira gave an answer that was not what he asked, and at the same time threw a unique product into his mouth.

"Japanese-style stubborn" Wei Ran muttered something in Chinese that only he could understand, wrapped the umbrella cloth tightly and closed his eyes.

In the next few days, there were more and more opportunities for sunshine to appear. As the rainy days became less and less, everyone’s fresh water reserves became less and less. tools for storing water.

In addition to the shortage of fresh water reserves, their food reserves were also completely exhausted, so that the only thing left to feed their hunger was some fat that Wei Ran secretly took out from time to time.

Lack of energy supply, lack of miracles, and the people on the two boats were so hungry that they completely lost the will to confront each other.Apart from looking forward to the rain every day, and looking forward to what the baitless hooks tied to the boat can catch, the only expectation is to land as soon as possible—whether it is Indonesia or damn Palau.

(End of this chapter)