When the blizzard stopped again, Wei Ran and others, who had rested long enough, were ready to set off.
Now, they only have three sled vehicles left, but all three vehicles are pulled by double the number of sled dogs.
Correspondingly, two sleds firmly fixed on the snow with wooden wedges were also abandoned at the location where the tents were once set up. The same temporarily discarded supplies were loaded on the two sleds and packed with accumulated materials.
The snow buried it.
“It’s time to go”
On the first sled, Hanno, the new captain, said this while putting on goggles.
Dr. Cross, who was also on the sled but with most of his body wrapped in a sleeping bag, immediately put on goggles when he saw this. Although he was not responsible for driving, he needed to look back at the direction of the rear of the car to avoid the other two cars.
Get separated.
The second in line was the sleigh driven by Wei Ran. In addition to a complete radio system that could not be used due to the lack of a generator, his vehicle also had some necessary public supplies.
Apart from these things, there were no passengers in his car, and there was only an oil lamp hanging on it.
In the third car behind him were Dr. Yog, who was in charge of driving, and Mr. Carsten, the patient in the car.
Amidst the shouts one after another, the three sleighs began to run towards the warehouse under the surging aurora.
With double the power and less supplies than before, these three sleds allowed the three sleds to run at speeds that were far impossible to achieve before.
During the continuous running, the short daylight gradually fell. Hannuo also stopped temporarily according to the original plan, raised his hand and pointed at the undulating mountains at the end of the field of vision and said, "The end is in that direction! Let's go faster! We can run longer while the visibility is high.
Run as far as you can!”
Seeing that the people in the other two cars had no objections, Hanno shook the reins again and shouted to the dogs to continue running.
In this extremely short and precious day, they determined that the general direction was correct, and the people on the three sleds became more and more optimistic. After traveling in the middle of the night and most of the morning, the mountains became increasingly clear.
Yes, this is undoubtedly a powerful shot in the arm for everyone who has just lost Major Schubert.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the aurora in the night sky was obscured by clouds, and snowflakes began to fall overhead again.
"Are we going to stop?" Hannuo lowered his speed slightly and asked Wei Ran.
"It's not windy yet!" Wei Ran shouted in response.
"But the sled dogs have been running all day!"
Yog shouted at the sled truck to run faster and came up to remind them that along the way, except for a short period of time during the day, they would let the sled dogs rest almost every two hours.
"Let's go there and rest!"
After Hanno held up his telescope for observation, he pointed in a direction and selected a temporary campsite.
After running in this direction for less than ten minutes, the three sleighs stopped in the lee of a rock.
“Finally encountered the rock”
As soon as the car stopped, Dr. Cross muttered excitedly, then stumbled out of the car and quickly walked towards Carsten on the last sleigh.
"His condition is not good"
Jorg said while fixing the sleigh, "Carsten has a fever, and his wound is probably infected,"
"What should I do?" Cross asked worriedly.
"Put up the tent first"
Before Yog finished speaking, he quickly ran to the side of Weiran's sleigh and helped take down the tent cloth.
He set up the tent as quickly as possible and drove the dogs in. Yog dragged Carsten's sleigh into the tent. Dr. Cross also suppressed the worries in his heart and put a bucket of penguin meat that had been frozen
and two German can racks heated on the gas stove.
"How long does it take to arrive?"
At the entrance of the tent, Wei Ran asked while waving a snow shovel to build a windshield.
"If the weather in the next ten hours can be as good as the previous ten hours, it may only take us one day to get to the warehouse." Hanno, who was also building a windshield, whispered.
Subconsciously he raised his head and glanced at the snowflakes falling straight up and down. The only thing he was thankful for was that there was no wind yet.
It was also because the wind hadn't blown yet, so the wind-blocking wall built by the two of them was a bit confusing.
But even so, when they finished their work, Dr. Cross had already finished feeding the dogs and heated up the canned food.
"How is Mr. Carsten doing?" Hanno asked, taking the lunch box Jörg handed him.
"I still have a fever and the wound hurts a lot."
As Dr. Yog spoke, he handed another lunch box to Wei Ran, "He had eaten just now and went back to sleep. Hanno, Victor, how long until we get to our destination?"
Looking at each other, Wei Ran and Han Nuo replied in unison, "One day!"
"It would be great if it only takes one day," Dr. Cross said, pouring each of them another cup of hot coffee.
"I hope so"
Dr. Jorg looked at Mr. Carsten worriedly while muttering to himself, obviously not thinking that he could reach his destination in one day.
Believe it or not, after eating enough canned meat to fill their stomachs, everyone agreed on a rest time and got into the smelly sleeping bags. Only Dr. Cross was left guarding Carsten and paying attention to the tent.
The weather outside.
When the appointed time arrived, Cross immediately woke everyone up. But the news was mixed. The good news was that although it was still snowing outside the tent, the wind was not too strong, at least it would not stir up too much snow.
Snow blocks the view.
As for the bad news, Mr. Carsten still has a fever and has fallen into a coma.
"Wound infection"
After an inspection, Dr. Yoger said, "We need to find a clean enough place as soon as possible."
"Pack your things"
Hannuo said firmly before anyone could speak, "We'll rest when we get to our destination this time!"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Everyone looked at each other, dismantled the tents as quickly as possible, and yelled at the dogs who had eaten, drank, and rested enough to start running again.
Seeing the end point approaching, something called hope emerged in everyone's heart. At the same time, they also subconsciously urged the dogs to run faster and faster to prevent the getting closer and closer hope from falling into coma.
Carsten is getting further and further away.
I don’t know when, the continuous mountains became clearer and clearer, and I don’t know when, the short daylight came slowly together with the strong wind carrying large snowflakes.
But this time, Hannuo, who was running at the front, not only did not stop, but shook the reins vigorously, urging the dogs to run faster.
Gradually, the surrounding terrain began to undulate, and the three sleighs finally found themselves among the rolling hills.
"Hanno! How far is it?"
Wei Ran shouted in the strong wind. At this time, the wind and snow had not only begun to obscure his sight due to the influence of the terrain, but also began to affect the sleigh. Not only was the snow here much thicker than outside the mountainous area, but the wind speed was also higher.
Much larger.
What’s even more terrifying is that the strong wind carries far more than just snowflakes, it’s also mixed with lethal ice and even rocks!
Also because of the strong wind, Hannuo didn't seem to hear Wei Ran's cry, but continued to urge the dogs to continue moving forward with difficulty.
"Snapped!"
With a crisp sound, a stone as big as a goose egg came from the side and hit the skis fixed on the side of Weiran's sled.
Wei Ran shrank his neck subconsciously, shook the reins vigorously, and curled up as much as possible, trying to reduce his "bomb impact area."
But even so, from time to time, pieces of egg-sized rocks and ice were thrown by the wind, hitting him or the sled dogs hard, and not surprisingly eliciting screams and wails.
.
In this torture that was like stoning, Wei Ran drove the sled with difficulty and followed Hannuo. He followed him to the foot of a low mountain, braved the strong wind and went around to the side of the mountain, and continued up the mountain.
After walking hard for more than half an hour, we finally stopped on the side of an inconspicuous low mountain.
"We're here," Hanno said almost at the last moment of the day.
"right here?"
Wei Ran couldn't help but look around. Wherever he looked, except for the undulating mountains, the rest was almost the same as what they had seen all the way, and there were no man-made buildings here.
Without waiting for Hanno and Cross to explain, Dr. Yog also stopped the sleigh, rubbed his arms and asked, "Were you injured just now?"
"We have a sled dog that seems to have an injured leg," Cross said first, "but he's fine."
"A bag was smashed out of my head," Hanno pointed at the winter cotton hat on his head and grinned.
"I have nothing to do," Wei Ran asked, "What about you?"
"We're fine too"
Yog paused and added, "But Carsten's situation is very bad, so if we can find someone quickly..."
"It'll be ready soon. Just wait for me here."
Before Hanno finished speaking, he and Dr. Cross had already pulled out the snow shovels one after another, and started to clean up the snow around the foot of the mountain!
It didn't take long for the two of them to dig out an icy rock wall.
What made Wei Ran and Yog even more incredible was that Hannuo just took out his mountaineering pick and pried the edge of the ice hanging on the rock wall, and then actually peeled off the entire piece of ice from the rock wall.
, revealing a natural hole with a diameter of less than one and a half meters!
"come in!"
As Hannuo spoke, he took off the kerosene lamp that had just been smacked in the mouth by ice and rocks and lit it near the entrance of the cave. At the same time, he kept explaining, "The area inside is big enough, let the sled dogs come in too."
.”
Before he finished speaking, Hanno and Dr. Cross were the first to get into the cave, each carrying a lit kerosene lamp.
Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately helped Yog untie the sled dogs, drove them into the cave, and then worked together to lift Carsten into the cave entrance.
After a while, the roar of the engine could be heard in the cave, and soon after, bright lights illuminated every detail of the cave.
This cave with a small mouth and a big belly has a non-standard oval shape inside. The area seems to be only about a hundred square meters. The highest point inside the cave is only more than three meters. There are also several bright lights hanging there with chains.
miner's lamp.
It was also through these miner's lamps that he was able to see clearly that in addition to the generator on one side of the cave entrance, there were also a dozen 200-liter oil drums and a pile of oil drums surrounded by these oil drums stacked in the rest of the cave.
coal.
In addition, when you go to the side, there are still a large number of wooden boards piled up, as well as at least one or two hundred standard-style German airdrop boxes spray-painted in bright red!
"Bring Carsten here"
Hanno's greeting brought Wei Ran back to his senses, and he immediately lifted Carsten onto a pile of boards covered with animal skins together with Dr. Yog, who was also stunned.
"How is he doing?" Dr. Cross asked worriedly.
"I need to re-debride the wound on his head."
Dr. Yog asked Wei Ran to help bring in all the medicines he had brought, and explained, "His wound is probably infected, otherwise he wouldn't have a high fever all the time."
"Yog, what do you need us to do?" Hanno asked.
"Let's get it warm here as soon as possible"
Dr. Yog replied, "Also, take an inventory of the supplies here, especially the medical supplies..."
“The materials here are well documented”
Hannuo was obviously very familiar with this place. Before he finished speaking, he already found a record book from an airdrop box and handed it to Yog.
"Victor, you are responsible for checking the material situation." Yog handed over the job to Wei Ran.
"good"
While Wei Ran responded, he had already reached out to take the record book. In this booklet, the medical supplies held here were marked in detail.
Unfortunately, in this year, there is no more useful penicillin in these medical supplies. Even if they are stored here, they are all sulfonamide antibacterial drugs.
First, he took out all the possible medicines from the corresponding airdrop boxes and placed them next to Dr. Yog. Only then did Wei Ran have time to flip through the almost entirely handwritten booklet in his hand.
After a rough check, he found that in addition to the supplies that could be seen at a glance, there were actually 500 kilograms of frozen meat products and almost as many vegetables, as well as hundreds of kilograms of minerals registered there.
Use explosives!
What the hell is this going to do? Are you really planning to set up a 211 base?
Wei Ran flipped through the register in his hand with fear. Just from the time when these supplies were registered, he knew that almost all of these items had been shipped the previous summer. As for the mode of transportation, there was no doubt that it was airdropped.
Even though there are not many things in this cave, in this day and age, if you want to transport them by plane, it will take at least a dozen flights.
In addition, what puzzled him even more was, whether it was meat products, vegetables or mining explosives, where did they go?
Before he could find these things, Hanno and Dr. Cross had already lit a fireplace made of a 200-liter oil drum on the other side of the cave entrance, and re-erected the tent outside the cave entrance, driving the dogs away.
In the tent.
"Hanno, where are these things?"
Wei Ran approached Hannuo and asked, pointing to the meat products and other items recorded in the record book.
"I'll take you outside the cave."
Before Hannuo could finish his words, he had already emerged from the cave. He followed the rock wall with his weapon and walked forward for about thirty or forty meters. He used the snow shovel in his hand to dig up the thick snow, revealing a hole in the cave.
holding a large-capacity oil drum.
"How did all these things come here?" Wei Ran asked, almost leaning against Hannuo's ear, shouting in the strong wind.
"Seaplane!"
Hannuo also shouted in response to Wei Ran's question while opening one of the oil barrels and taking out a skinned beef shank and explaining, "In the summer, our seaplanes fly in the name of reconnaissance,
A week-long airdrop was conducted here.
Everything you see, except for the coal, the rest was carried into the cave little by little by the Major, Mr. Carsten and Dr. Cross. Of course, these things are also included."
Having said this, Hannuo opened the second oil barrel with familiarity. This oil barrel contained onions, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and even vegetables such as cabbage that had been frozen into ice lumps.
.
As if to show off, he then opened the third oil barrel and picked up a few limes and apples that were also frozen into ice. At the same time, he said, "You and Dr. Yog stayed at the outpost at that time, which was better than ours."
It’s much easier, we pulled all these things back with sled dogs!”
"That's right!"
Wei Ran, who had no "memory of summer" at all, gave it a perfunctory look as usual, then walked back with the things in his arms and asked, "What's going on in that cave?"
"I once heard from the major that this cave seemed to have been discovered by a Norwegian whaler."
Hanno explained, "Next summer a polar weather station will be built here based on the cave."
After the topic reached this point, the two of them got back into the cave one after another.
At this time, Dr. Jorg was still helping Carsten treat the wound, but Dr. Cross had already dug out several buckets, filled them with clean snow from the outside, and placed them on the oil drum that was almost red-hot by the charcoal fire.
On the fireplace.
"Hanno, are we going to spend the whole winter here?"
Dr. Cross asked with unspeakable disappointment, "I thought we were going to the mine."
"I don't know the way to the mine"
Hanno said while putting down the fruits and vegetables in his arms, "Only the major knows how to get there, so as you said, we may have to spend the next winter here."
"Even if the major were alive, I don't think he would take us there."
Dr. Cross waved his hand in disinterest, "Okay, leave the cooking to me, Hanno, Victor, you'd better put up the radio station quickly."
"makes sense"
Hanno seemed to have just remembered this matter. He quickly ran to Weiran's sleigh, took out the transmitter and receiver of the radio station one by one from the box, and then placed them on Weiran's sleigh.
With help, I set up the antenna and started it.
Seeing that Hanno and Dr. Cross were looking at him, Wei Ran took out the code book that Major Schubert gave him from his arms, and then took out the cipher machine.
However, next, under the astonished looks of Cross and Hanno, he pushed the code book to the latter, "You are the radio operator, and it is your job to restore communications."
He hurriedly took the code book. Before Hannuo could open his mouth to say anything, Wei Ran had already walked towards Dr. Yog.
"How is the situation?" Wei Ran asked.
"The debridement has been re-debrided"
Dr. Yog said, using tweezers to pick up a piece of silk and said, "I found this from his wound."
"What is this?" Wei Ran asked curiously.
"Penguin Down"
Dr. Yog lowered his voice slightly, "Maybe it was because Carsten ran in while hiding in the sleeping bag, or maybe he ran in during the last bandage. After all, the lights before were too dim. In short, I guess it is
This thing caused the wound infection."
"he..."
As if he guessed what Wei Ran wanted to ask, Yog threw the tweezers back to the tray, "The rest can only be left to God."
"I hope God is a skilled healer"
Wei Ran sighed. Although the thing that caused the wound infection has been found, Carsten's wound is on his head after all. Whether he can survive it is still unknown - the environment here is not much better.
“Leave it to me to take care of Carsten.”
Yog pointed outside and said, "A few more sled dogs are injured. Can you help this time?"
"certainly"
Wei Ran nodded happily. He was not allowed to save people, but he did not say that he was not allowed to save dogs.
With his help, or rather with Yog's help, Wei Ran easily completed the treatment of those dogs.
"Your medical skills are better than I thought."
Dr. Yog commented while handing a few tablets of medicine to treat colds to Wei Ran, "How is your physical condition?"
"You're going to win our contest."
Wei Ran answered the other party's question with a joke, then took out the kettle from his arms, shook it, and poured all the pills the other party had just given him into his stomach.
"We are facing another trouble now," Dr. Yog reminded worriedly after Wei Ran took the medicine.
"What trouble?"
"There are five of us"
Dr. Jorg whispered, "But we don't seem to have even a book or a set of playing cards."
He just said the beginning, and Wei Ran frowned. This was indeed a huge trouble.
It was almost foreseeable that in the long nights that would last for several months, they would soon finish talking about all the topics they could talk about and do all the work they could do to kill time.
Then...
Then they will face their biggest enemy - loneliness.
Wei Ran shivered involuntarily, and when Wei Ran was about to say something, Dr. Yog said again, "It seems you have realized what I am going to say."
"What do you recommend?"
Wei Ran asked seriously. He didn't know how long he had to wait in this long winter to collect the three suicide notes. But he knew that before that, he had to make some preparations for the loneliness that was so close at hand.
OK.
"We need some jobs to last us through the winter"
Yog looked at Hanno who was busy sending the report and sighed to himself, "Maybe a captain as strong and fanatical as Major Schubert."
