When Wei Yan and Hawkes returned to the camp with the coconut crab and a large bundle of dry firewood that could be used as fuel, Sterling had also cleared the surrounding vegetation and tied the umbrella cloth with parachute rope.
They clung to several surrounding trees, barely creating a space enough for them to shelter from the wind and rain.
After handing over their respective harvests to Sterling, who looked surprised, Wei Ran and Hawks saw that Captain Evans still had not returned, so they simply left the camp again and continued to explore towards the north side of the island.
Unfortunately, compared with their good luck just now, this time they almost reached the center of the island, but the only harvest was just a handful of brightly colored feathers.
Seeing that the sun was about to set and a dark cloud was drifting in the distance, the two of them did not dare to waste too much time and returned to the camp while picking up firewood that could be used as fuel.
During this time, Sterling not only had completely set up the camp, he even lit a bonfire, and used a steel helmet to cook the giant coconut crab and Hawks' pet Halsey until they popped out.
Waves of aroma.
"Look, my Halsey can't run away anymore," Hawks joked, pointing to the red hermit crab in the helmet.
"You should have said it was your pet earlier"
Sterling spread his hands unapologetically and said while throwing the chopped coconut meat into the steel helmet that served as a cooking pot, "Otherwise, I will definitely cook it using charcoal grilling."
"This is already very good. I never thought I would have the opportunity to have Mr. Captain be my chef." Hawkes also made a little joke.
Before he finished speaking, Evans also walked in with his harvest, "Gentlemen, I found two more coconuts, God! Are those crabs? Where did you find them?"
"Under a coconut tree," Hawks said proudly, "I found it!"
"My luck is good too"
Evans threw the two coconuts at his feet, then untied the umbrella cloth he was carrying, picked up an octopus not much bigger than a badminton, threw it into the pot and said, "This is what I was doing near a reef."
found."
"Gentlemen, how are the resources of this island?" Sterling, who has been busy setting up camp
"Not too rich," Evans and Hawkes said in unison.
"I just walked about a kilometer south along the atoll."
Evans took the tobacco package from Wei Ran, then picked up his Indian pipe axe, and while stuffing tobacco leaves into the pot, he said, "I don't know if it's because of the high tide or if it's just like that. Those rocks and rocks
Most of the beach is about 20 centimeters underwater, and where I was about to walk back, the water was already deeper than my knees."
Having said this, Evans brought the pot to the campfire, took a sip, and said in a puff of smoke, "As you can see, those two coconuts and that octopus are all the harvest of this kilometer.
"
"We only caught one coconut crab and one hermit crab"
Hawks took over the conversation and said, "In addition, there are many abandoned bird nests on the island, but there are no seabirds in them at all, only a lot of eggshells that have been there for who knows how long. If those birds are still there, just the eggs may be
Enough for us to eat.”
"It seems that this should be a nesting island for migratory seabirds." After Sterling said this, he subconsciously looked at the gloomy sky outside.
Glancing at Wei Ran, who seemed to be shaving with a razor as if he didn't care about these issues at all, Evans said, "There's good news too. I've roughly guessed where this place is."
"Where is it?" Sterling, Hawks, and Wei Ran, who was shaving, all stopped the razors in their hands and looked at him and asked the same question in unison.
"Helen's Reef, when we started attacking the Palau Islands in September, I studied the map of this archipelago country."
Evans said with certainty, "I'm sure this must be Helen Reef. The small island we are on is called Helen Island. It is the only island above the water in this atoll with a circumference of about 60 kilometers."
"So we did come to Palau?" Sterling asked with a frown, obviously knowing something about Helen Reef.
“The southernmost tip of Palau”
Evans shook his head helplessly, "The distance between here and Indonesia is even closer than the main island of Palau. The most important thing is that we don't know enough about the war situation in Palau. We don't know if there are any nuclear weapons stationed nearby.
troops, and I don’t know if there will be any fishing boats passing by here.”
“Kerala!”
Accompanied by the frightening thunder, a beam of lightning connecting the sky and the earth struck straight on the sea not far away. Under the tight umbrella cloth, Wei Ran and others were also frightened and trembled subconsciously.
"Wow——!"
In less than ten seconds, a heavy downpour came down. The campground that had just been cleaned up was filled with puddles of all sizes in the blink of an eye.
Seeing that the gathering rain was about to extinguish the bonfire, the people who had just sat down hurriedly picked up the various tools at hand, dug holes, dug soil, and worked together to prop up the simple canopy.
A circle of dams were built around it to keep out the water, and a drainage ditch was even dug that extended all the way to the beach outside the woods.
Seeing everyone turning into mud monkeys with hands and faces full of sand, everyone sitting around the campfire again showed a happy smile.
Using the umbrella cloth used as a towel to pat away the contaminated sand, the two captains and Hawks lit their cigarettes again, and Wei Ran also picked up the razor again and continued shaving.
After filling a few logs into the bonfire under the helmet, Hawkes put on wet gloves, picked up the helmet, poured some boiling crab soup into everyone's steel cup, and then used his goggles
Using it as a spoon, I put some coconut meat into everyone's cup.
"God is my witness," Sterling said with a happy face as he took a sip of the hot and oily soup, "I don't even remember how long it has been since I ate something so warm."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "We will still have meat to eat later!"
As Hawks spoke, he had already taken out the crabs that had been boiled into bright red. He used a carefully washed folding knife to take out all the meat, divided it into four equal parts and sent them to everyone's cups.
He threw the peeled crab shells into the helmet again, and added some fresh fresh water and a little sea water.
While the four of them were hiding in a shelter that was leaky from all sides and eating hot seafood, at the northwest end of the island, the sea breeze was getting stronger.
Because of this, behind the beach, between two trees with valuable items buried under a canopy also made of umbrella cloth, the bonfire that had just been lit was not unexpectedly completely extinguished by the rain mixed with the sea breeze.
Compared to Akira who was holding a coconut and picking up the coconut meat with his fingernails and putting it into his mouth, his nephew Jiro was holding a helmet with both hands at this time, kneeling on the ground with his butt sticking out, digging hard in the sand and trying to pile it up.
A dyke that blocks water.
"Jiro, move faster."
Akira put a piece of coconut meat into his mouth as he spoke, "I'll cut some branches later and come back. We can use umbrella cloth to build a tent that's more windproof. Also, we'll look for coconuts later."
Or something else edible. The waves might push the fish up. The most important thing is that we have to find a way to light the bonfire again."
Hearing this, Jiro, who was busy, paused, then responded loudly, "I understand, uncle, wait for me..."
"Let's go find some food first!"
Akira didn't give the other party a chance to finish what he said, so he threw away the coconut shell with the meat in his hand and said matter-of-factly, "It's best to get some meat back! Go quickly!"
Jiro looked at the pouring rain outside the woods, gritted his teeth, picked up his flying hat and goggles, put them on, and rushed into the rain with a flashlight.
Behind him, Akira picked up the machete, opened the second coconut easily, broke off the coconut meat piece by piece and threw it into his mouth.
This night, both sides of the island did not have a comfortable life. But at least, Wei Ran and others not only had seafood and hot soup that made their bodies sweat, but they also had a hammock that could be lifted off the ground, and even
They also used coconut water as shaving water to shave their messy beards. Especially, their bonfire was kept almost all night long.
By the next morning, the heavy rain that had raged all night had subsided a lot, and the rocks and beaches connected to the island had jumped out of the sea due to the tide.
Each drank a large glass of sweet and slightly salty coconut milk mixed with sea water and boiled coconut soup with rainwater. Evans took fishing gear and a pot full of boiled rainwater early and continued to explore the islands connected to the island.
Beaches and rocks.
The other three were also not idle. Sterling took the initiative to replace Wei Ran's job and explored the island with Hawks, collecting any edible and usable supplies along the way.
Wei Ran, who stayed behind at the camp, secretly took a picture of the three of them on the back, and quickly took out his engineering shovel when no one was around, and first strengthened the waterproof embankment that was originally less than ten centimeters high around the camp and deepened the drainage ditch.
.
Then, he cut down some sticks, branches, vines and even palm leaves and coconut leaves, and made three simple beds next to the hammock that could barely lift the body off the ground. He also moved rocks of various sizes and built a high-rise
Campfire on the ground.
As noon approached, Hawks and Sterling were the first to come back, each carrying a three-meter-long wooden stick.
On these two dry wooden sticks, which seemed to be at least as thick as an arm, the harvest they brought back - two bundles of firewood and two brown-skinned coconuts - were hung with parachute ropes.
In the gas mask bag Weiran lent to Hawkes, there were also a lot of feathers and a broken glass bottle that had been polished with a frosted layer by sand.
"Victor!"
Hawks happily greeted Wei Ran, pointed to the wooden sticks he and Sterling had just put down, and said, "Finally I found them. These two wooden sticks can definitely be made into bows and arrows!"
"And we also made some unexpected discoveries."
After speaking, Sterling changed the subject. Looking at the three extra simple beds and the campfire made of stones, he was particularly surprised and said, "Victor, you did all of this by yourself?"
"certainly"
Wei Ran pointed to the steel helmet on top of the campfire pretending to be proud, "And I also used yesterday's crab shells to cook seafood and coconut soup. Sterling, what did you find?"
“Although I didn’t catch any crabs today”
Sterling regretfully picked up the axe, chopped open the coconuts he brought, took out all the coconut treasure, coconut meat and greasy coconut water inside and threw them into the helmet. At the same time, he kept talking.
, "But I didn't see those two pilots all day today."
"Didn't you see it?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows.
"I even touched a location less than 100 meters away from them."
Sterling licked the remaining coconut water on the coconut shell, then threw the coconut shell into the bonfire and added, "I found no sign that they had a fire."
"If Sterling hadn't stopped me, I would have gone up to take a look."
Hawks said regretfully, "The most important thing is that the life raft is gone. I doubt they have left the island."
"Impossible, they must still be on this island." Wei Ran and Sterling made the same judgment in unison.
"All right"
Hawks rolled a cigarette for himself indifferently, "Whether they are still there or not, I will make bows and arrows from now on."
"In that case, I'll go collect supplies in the afternoon."
Before Wei Ran could finish his words, he, Hawks and Sterling discovered, outside the woods, on the reef beach in the far distance at the southeastern end of the island, bursts of flashes of light.
"It must be Evans! But he is so far away that I can hardly see it clearly with my telescope."
Sterling held up the telescope and made a judgment. At the same time, he slowly translated the flashing light signal, "He said he needs two people to go over and help!"
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Let me go!"
Wei Ran was the first to say, and at the same time he had taken off the umbrella cloth tied around his neck and covered his head and face like a later Middle Eastern Kongbu member.
"I'll go with you!" Hawks took a puff of his cigarette and said, "I'm going to take a shower by the way."
"Take this." As Sterling spoke, he had already handed the telescope to Wei Ran.
"Be safe yourself"
Wei Ran pointed in the direction of Captain Evans, "If they come over, you can run in our direction."
"Don't worry!" Sterling said, having already picked up the Indian ax belonging to Captain Evans.
Seeing this, Wei Ran and Hawkes stopped wasting time, left the woods under the scorching sun, and ran in the direction of Evans.
Just as the two of them joined Captain Evans, at the other end of the island, the young pilot Jiro was still sneezing from time to time even though most of his body was in the sun.
In comparison, Akira was not much better either. At this time, he was squatting under the shadow of a coconut tree about ten meters away, with a painful expression on his face and doing the same thing with the chronic dysentery that Wei Ran had helped him cultivate.
struggle.
Fortunately, under them, or to be more precise, under the canopy that Jiro had hastily reinforced last night, not only had a bonfire been lit, but also a piece of meat as long as a forearm was brewing in the helmet placed on the bonfire.
Unknown sea fish, and a small turtle about the size of a fist.
Under the temptation of the fragrance, Jiro's stomach made gurgling sounds more than once, but Akira, who was more than ten meters away, was holding the only pistol on the island in his hand, so
He could only smell the aroma of broth and the stench of spoiled feces, while resisting his physical discomfort and patiently waiting for his uncle to distribute their first hot meal after arriving on the island.
