In the howling night of the cold wind, Wei Ran drove the transport truck along the ruts through a coniferous forest, and suddenly two large tents covered with thick snow appeared directly in front of him.
Using the light emitted by the row of halogen headlights on the roof of the car, Wei Ran carefully observed the flying snowflakes outside, and then controlled the transport truck to make a circle and stop horizontally at the upwind position.
Before he could turn off the engine, April, who was sitting in the passenger seat, had already taken off an AK rifle from the gun rack, then stepped on the seat to open the skylight above his head, pointed it at the night sky, and pulled the trigger.
The crisp sound of gunfire spread far away along with the cold wind, and in the coniferous forest shrouded by the car lights, those green eyes immediately disappeared.
It wasn't until the entire magazine was empty that Apolly retracted and closed the steel skylight above his head. While getting dressed, he said, "Let's move the apples to the back first. They will break if left here."
Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately added clothes to his body, and then helped Apolly carry the full basket of apples out of the cab, and then carried it into the warehouse behind him that was almost filled with various supplies.
This wasn't over yet. By the time he moved the basket of apples to the corner with difficulty, Murat and others had already rushed over. They took out various supplies from one of the tents and handed them to those who were still in the cargo hold.
Wei Ran, and Apolly who just climbed up.
What surprised Weihan was that these supplies included barrels of fuel, boxes of bread, various frozen hard meats, vegetables and fruits, even bags of flour, and even bullets.
There are two large boxes full.
Finally, two large barrels of at least 40 liters of cooking oil and a wooden box full of various seasonings were delivered to the cargo hold.
Before it was over, these people rolled out oil drums one after another from another tent. These oil drums were not filled with fuel, but with large chunks of coking coal.
After he and Apollo used the swing arm to drag these things into the cargo hold that had little space. Dr. Murat and others even dismantled the two snow-covered tents and used the swing arm at the hatch door to
Hoisted into the cargo hold.
Finally, he closed the heavy hatch with difficulty, and Dr. Murat took the other young people into the living cabin at the back, while Pavel followed Wei Ran and the other two into the cab.
After everyone sat down, Pavel looked at the compass on his knees, then looked at the map underneath the compass, then raised his hand and pointed to the northeast and said, "Go 20 kilometers in this direction."
"Dr. Pavel, this distance will definitely leave the radio communication range." Apoli, who was sitting in the passenger seat, reminded.
"It doesn't matter"
Pavel said confidently, "I have bribed the radio operator. In the next half month, we will feedback the safety signal on time every day."
Apolly frowned, and finally nodded silently without saying anything else.
"If there's no problem, let's go!" Pavel greeted Wei Ran, who was sitting on the other side and responsible for driving.
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Weiran started the transport vehicle again and drove in the direction pointed by the other party.
Although the speed of this transport vehicle was not fast, it only had a straight-line distance of 20 kilometers. In addition, he encountered several frozen lakes on the way, which also helped save a lot of time, so it only took him more than an hour.
At Pavel's prompt, he stepped on the brakes.
Compared with before, the scenery around here has not changed much. Apart from the coniferous forest passing behind him, the most eye-catching thing is the surrounding low-rise buildings that are mostly covered with snow and are particularly round.
Just low mountains.
"This is a lake in the summer, a lake that may have been formed by an ancient volcanic crater or meteorite crater."
Pavel pointed to the flat snow in front of him and said, "Look, because it has been too long, there is no difference between it and the surrounding terrain. Only this round lake can prove that something may have happened here..."
"Dr. Pavel, do you need us to unload the things now?" Apoli was obviously too lazy to listen to Pavel's nonsense, or maybe he didn't understand it at all.
"Take it off." Pavel reluctantly stopped the topic he just started.
"Victor, drive around in a circle and point the front of the car in the direction you came from." Apoli reminded, and then took off the AK rifle fixed on the gun rack.
"Dr. Pavel, can you tell me what you are looking for?" Weiyan asked tentatively while steering the transport truck in circles.
"A bacterium." Pavel thought for a moment and added, "A psychrophilic anaerobic bacterium."
"Sure enough, it has something to do with this!" Wei Ran's heart moved, and he simply followed the topic and continued asking, "What can it be used for?"
"Victor!"
Apolly, who was about to put his gun out of the skylight and pull the trigger, squatted down and shouted, "Have you forgotten what Comrade Battalion Commander said? This operation prohibits us from asking any questions we shouldn't!"
"Sorry!" Wei Ran said quickly while turning off the engine, "I asked subconsciously and pretended I didn't say anything."
"It's okay, it's okay." Pavel patted Wei Ran's shoulder gently, and then blocked his ears with his fingers.
A moment later, Apolly looked at the night sky outside the skylight and pulled the trigger again until one magazine was emptied.
After dressing neatly and leaving the large cab, Weiran and Apolly got into the warehouse again and used the rocker arm to take out the needed materials one by one.
Soon, two tents were set up not far from the rear of the car. In one of the tents, not only was a cast iron stove burning coking coal lit, a bright electric lamp was hung, and it was even set up.
There are also two microscopes placed on the folding table.
In the other tent, there were metal boxes that looked like drawers with lids that had been moved from the locked compartment in the warehouse.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! These metal boxes are half a meter square and only ten centimeters in height. Each one also has two brass keyholes. Obviously, these "drawers" not only can
Lock it, and it can also be locked to the iron cabinets in the cargo hold.
While Weiran was helping to move these iron drawers, Apolly had already removed two metal springboards from the inner wall of the cargo warehouse and put them on the cargo hatch. Then he used the rocker arm to move the unmistakable but large-sized machine in the cargo compartment.
However, the strange device, which was similar to a half-track motorcycle, was carefully sent down.
This bright red device also has two tracks, and it is quite simple to control. The two joysticks control forward, backward, and steering. The speed is about the same as walking, and the sound of the engine does not seem to be the same as that of a motorcycle.
Big difference.
Under Wei Ran's curious gaze, the bald man named Agwan "opened" the equipment, which could not accommodate anyone, to a position not far from the tent.
It wasn't until the students named Sharip and the student named Gennady installed a hollow drill bit that was as thick as an arm and more than half a meter long that Wei Yan finally knew what this equipment was used for.
.
To put it bluntly, this is a small core sampling device. And to support his view, it was a metal drawer opened by a student named Taras.
Inside these drawers are semicircular grooves one next to another, surrounded by a ring and an upper cover that can be opened and closed, and wrapped in thick foam. In each of those grooves, there is a long disposable
Plastic bags. Obviously, these drawers are for storing core samples.
Soon, the weird drill core sampling equipment started working. Amidst the continuous and regular roar of the engine, the long cylindrical drill bit penetrated straight up and down into the snow and began to rotate.
At the same time, Apolly also started the small fuel generator in the cargo hold with the help of Weiyan.
According to Apoli, the power provided by this small generator is just enough to power all the searchlights in the entire vehicle and the lighting in the living cabin.
"Okay, we don't have anything to do here anymore."
After Apolly waited for the generator to run smoothly, he skillfully found an oil drum that seemed to be used to stack debris from the cargo hold, and took out one after another animal traps that were half the size of a washbasin.
, and a sleigh modified from half an oil drum.
"I'm going to set up a trap and bring back some firewood."
Apolly arranged the work for the sanitary ignition as usual, "You clean up the cargo hold, put the oil drums as far in as possible, and put the coke on the outside. You can arrange the rest by yourself."
"Leave it to me!" Wei Ran agreed happily.
"One last reminder"
April paused and said seriously, "Victor, don't wonder what Dr. Murat and the others are doing, that has nothing to do with us."
"Can I ask one last question?" After Wei Ran finished speaking, he simply closed the heavy hatch, blocking both the light outside and the howling cold wind.
"What's the problem?" April asked with a frown.
"Why do we secretly stockpile so many supplies?"
"Why else?"
April paused, sat on a wooden box and said, "Dr. Pavel asked me to do this, and didn't you also listen to Shagoli before we set off? There have been problems with the recent supply of supplies.
This is exactly what Dr. Pavel predicted a month ago."
"I have nothing more to ask." As Wei Ran spoke, he had already opened the car door behind him.
"After packing up, remember to go to the roof of the car to be on guard," Apolly said as he walked out, "Don't let them have any accidents."
"Do not worry"
Wei Ran helped Apolly push the oil barrel sleigh loaded with animal traps and motorcycle saws, and then watched him walk towards the coniferous forest from where he came from with his headlamp on. Then he looked away and began to sort out the secret.
Airtight cargo hold.
With the help of the pulley hook above his head, Weiran first moved all the oil drums to the innermost position, then put all the remaining supplies into categories and neatly stacked them, and finally arranged the coking coal in the oil drums against the wall.
, and fixed to the bulkhead with a flat strap.
Through this sorting, Wei Ran also gained a clear understanding of the material reserves of this small team, and at the same time, he became more and more impressed by Dr. Pavel's "advance prediction".
Although he didn't know how long it took these people to save these things, twelve large barrels, a full 2,400 liters of fuel, and ten large barrels of coking coal were enough for them to survive the long Siberian winter.
Not to mention there is an almost endless supply of firewood around that can be used as fuel.
And in those wooden boxes stacked above the oil drums, there are all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meats, even flour, bread, seasonings and even vodka, which is definitely enough to feed this car for two or three months without any big problem, let alone one of them.
The large wooden box was also filled with dismembered bear carcasses!
The material reserves alone are completely contrary to the information given by Kajik, his cheap mentor. According to him, the material reserves on this transport vehicle codenamed Cross Pickaxe can only feed the six of them for a week at most.
That's all.
A week?
Wei Ran picked up an apple and took a bite. This cart would definitely be enough for all of them to eat for two or even three months!
Moreover, it had just entered December 6th, and they had already dared to bribe the radio operator at the camp to cheat and secretly conduct exploration 50 kilometers away from the original location. So by the time they disappeared at the end of the month, this car of people would be several miles away from the camp.
How far?
On the other hand, Wei Ran became more and more curious about what the psychrotrophic anaerobic bacteria these people were looking for were used for, and why Apoli was so cooperative with Dr. Murat and others.
