Amidst the falling snowflakes, everyone worked together to lift the supplies they had buried before returning to the camp onto the transport truck. Now, not only the cargo hold was filled with necessary supplies, but also the living cabin.
Wei Ran was elected by the two doctors to be responsible for material statistics because he said, "You treat me as a part of this transport vehicle." Therefore, he knew better than anyone else how much stuff this team had accumulated like a hamster.
Nowadays, there are 24 barrels of fuel alone and a full 4,800 liters. This does not include the fuel tank reserve of the transport vehicle that was just filled.
In addition to fuel oil, there are also 15 barrels of coking coal also packed in iron barrels. These coking coals that are supposed to be used for metallurgy are actually far less useful to them than the fuel oil.
But they are far more resistant to burning than firewood. As long as they carry a bucket into the living cabin, it is enough for them to stay in the living cabin for several days without leaving home. This advantage usually does not matter, but once encountered
It becomes extremely important when there is a snowstorm and it is impossible to leave the living cabin for several days.
In addition to these fuels, which occupy almost the entire space of the cargo hold, as well as two fuel generators and crucial drill core sampling equipment, there are also many other living supplies.
Boxes of vegetables, bags of flour and even various seasonings, a change of clothes, bedding, and rifle bullets were all carried into the living cabin. Even a few empty oil drums were not wasted, and they were all tied with ropes
On the roof of the car just in case.
Finally, he took a look at the list of supplies in his hand, and Wei Ran secretly clicked his tongue. Most of these items were obtained from transactions not long ago. But from the beginning to the end, he had no idea what was hidden in April's gloves at that time.
So much so that so many supplies can be easily exchanged.
In his wild thoughts, Dr. Murat, who had renewed hope, personally carried the last box of cans into the living cabin, took a deep breath and said, "Considering the current situation, we will go directly to the tundra zone to carry out sampling.
Work. And strive to complete the collection of samples from the tundra before February next year. During this period, we will probably not return to the camp to waste time."
"Teacher, do we have a chance to go to the copper mine you mentioned before?"
Agavan asked Dr. Pavel, "I also want to see the portrait of Khrushchev where you gave those two corns."
Hearing this, Pavel's eyes lit up, but he did not answer Agravan's question. Instead, he asked Dr. Murat, "Murat, what do you think of using this place as our camp?"
"That abandoned copper mine?" Murat raised his eyebrows.
“That’s it”
Pavel paced back and forth and thought for a while, then pointed to the wooden boxes on the ground and said, "We have a lot of supplies, but it is impossible to put them all in the living cabin, and we also need a place to store samples.
There's plenty of space in that copper mine for something like this, isn't there?"
Murat only thought for less than two seconds before nodding in agreement, "This is a good idea, let's go there!"
"Where is the specific location?" Apolly asked proactively, lighting a cigarette.
"wait a second"
While Dr. Murat was speaking, he had already stood up and walked to the iron cabinet next to the bathroom. He took out a map and laid it on the wooden box filled with various supplies.
After the two doctors searched and confirmed, Murat pointed to a certain point on the map with a pencil, drew a circle and said, "It's in this area, which is the junction of the boreal coniferous forest and the tundra.
As long as we rush there, we can find it easily."
After taking the map and looking at it, Apoli took out a map ruler from his pocket, and after some measurements and calculations, he said, "The straight-line distance is about 270 kilometers. This journey is expected to take a long time."
"The most important thing we lack now is time, right?"
Murat sat on the wooden box again, "Apolly, Victor, take the radio away, we don't need it anymore."
Hearing this, Apolly nodded, picked up the man-portable radio, and asked Wei Ran, who had not expressed any comments from beginning to end, to leave the living cabin.
"You come and drive"
After sitting firmly, Apolly took out a compass and took a look at it. He raised his hand and pointed in a direction and said, "Drive in this direction and stop when you encounter the river."
"Why was he willing to give us that radio?" Wei Ran started the car and asked, knowingly, looking for a topic.
"If you don't need it anymore, you will naturally give it to us."
Apoli stuffed the personal radio in his hand into the space behind the seat, "This outdated equipment, even if the signal environment is good enough, the communication distance is only 20 kilometers at most, but how far are we from the camp now?
"
"The straight-line distance is at least 80 kilometers." Weiran stepped on the accelerator as he spoke, "Apoli, can we still come back?"
"Of course you can, don't worry." After finishing speaking, Apolly had already put down his seat, took off his thick cotton hat and put it on his face.
Amidst the roar of the engine, Wei Ran drove the fully loaded transport truck slowly away from the frozen river and entered the coniferous forest next to the river. After a long time, he emerged from the other end of the coniferous forest and continued to walk.
Heading in the wind and snow in the direction pointed by April.
In this thousands of miles of frozen Siberian wilderness, the distance between two points on the map is less than 300 kilometers. In actual walking, it is probably at least 500 kilometers.
When the journey was nearly halfway, April stretched and sat upright, "Stop the car, let me drive."
Hearing this, Wei Ran, who had already started to feel sleepy, immediately stepped on the brakes and changed places with April, kicked off his boots, curled up on the folded seat and fell into a deep sleep.
All in all, he had been driving for more than ten hours continuously since the last day, and he had hardly had any serious rest during this time.
When Weiran was awakened by the cold wind, Apolly had already stopped the car, and Dr. Pavel also opened the door on Weiran's side from the outside. Behind him, Dr. Murat followed.
Looking out the window again, except for the area covered by the car lights, which was illuminated brightly, the sky was still dark. But fortunately, the snowfall that had lasted for an unknown period of time finally stopped.
Yawning, Wei Ran moved inside with his cold-proof clothes and sat next to April. It was only then that the two doctors climbed into the cab one after another.
"I'm sorry for waking you up," Pavel said apologetically to the sleepy Wei Ran.
"It doesn't matter, how long have I been asleep?" Wei Ran yawned again as he spoke.
“Less than five hours”
Apolly responded, reached out from the furnace behind the seat, pulled out a bottle of vodka, opened it, took a sip, handed it to Wei Ran, and then asked, "Dr. Pavel, Dr. Murat,
We have now arrived at the junction of forest and tundra, which direction should we go next?"
"Let me see if I recognize this place first," Dr. Murat responded first, and then raised the telescope hanging around his neck.
Pavel, on the other hand, took a sip from the wine bottle handed over by Wei Ran and said in an unusually sure tone, "I remember that there was a tributary of the Lower Tunguska River just west of the abandoned copper mine. I was in the helicopter at that time.
The superior has personally asked the driver comrade."
"That's right, I remember it too."
Murat put down the telescope that could not see anything. After hesitating for a moment, he raised his hand and pointed to the left and said, "Apoli, let's drive southwest along the junction first. If we wait until we see the tributaries of the Lower Tunguska River,
If we don’t see the copper mine, then we must be going in the wrong direction.”
The directions on this road are sparse, so it would be better to throw away your shoes...
Wei Ran muttered to himself and handed the wine bottle that Pavel passed back to April.
"Victor, after we find the copper mine, you can get us some food."
Pavel took out a cigarette and gave one to everyone. He lit a cigarette and said to himself, "We haven't eaten anything decent all day."
"IM about the same"
Wei Ran politely declined the cigarette, and then simply changed places with April to take over the driving duties, so as not to be surrounded by these three old smokers and inhale the smell.
After driving along the boundary between forest and tundra for less than half an hour, the trees on the left became increasingly sparse. In some places, there were even open spaces next to each other.
"We seem to be going in the opposite direction."
Dr. Murat said angrily, "I have an impression. I remember this ghost place. When we took a helicopter to fly to the military base on the west bank of the Lower Tunguska River, I seemed to have taken photos of this ghost place."
"you sure?"
Before Wei Ran finished speaking, a frozen river appeared directly in front of him. On the edge of the river, there seemed to be a long-abandoned dock.
"Sure, let's go back!" Pavel followed, "I remember that pier, we did go in the opposite direction."
Hearing this, Wei Ran didn't say anything more. He turned the steering wheel to the right happily, steered the transport truck in a circle, and walked back along the ruts he had just left.
After driving back the same way for more than an hour, we suddenly found an obviously man-made logging road in the coniferous forest on the right. The two doctors also pointed at this forest road.
After driving less than a hundred meters along this road into the coniferous forest, the two doctors immediately urged him to turn left and drive onto another logging road.
After driving along this road for half an hour, when the car reached the end, several low tube buildings and a workshop surrounded by the tube buildings appeared directly in front.
In addition, there are also many outdated mining equipment covered in snow scattered around these few buildings.
Under the dazzling light, everyone could clearly see that not far from these buildings, there was a dark mine that was not yet buried in the snow, extending slopingly underground.
Although there is a lot of snow at the entrance of the mine, you can still see a bulldozer with its back to the entrance, raising its bucket high. Under the tracks of this bulldozer, there seems to be a specially made stone base.
As for it looks more like a monument.
Especially on the rusty shovel surface that did not catch the snow, someone used a steel bar as thick as a chopstick to weld a last message that looked like a eulogy, "Nizhny Tunguska Mine No. 119 was exhausted in 1962 due to the exhaustion of resources.
Closed Christmas Eve.”
"This is it," Dr. Murat said. "Pavel and I took pictures in front of the bulldozer."
"I can take another picture for you when it gets light." Wei Ran turned off the engine as he spoke.
"Victor, wait a minute."
Apolly stretched out his hand to stop Weiran's hand that was about to turn the key, "Turn the direction and aim the front of the car towards the workshop."
Hearing this, Wei Ran didn't waste any time. He skillfully maneuvered the transport truck in a circle and pointed the front of the truck straight at the locked iron door on one side of the workshop.
When the car stopped, Apoli immediately pushed open the sunroof above his head, pointed his AK rifle at his head and pulled the trigger.
For a time, the crisp sound of gunshots echoed repeatedly among several surrounding buildings, and soon, wild animals ran out of those tube buildings one after another.
But this time, Apolly did not point his gun at them. Instead, he waited patiently for them to run away before he asked Wei Ran to get out of the car. The two of them covered each other and approached the workshop, which was only 20 meters ahead.
Pulling off the iron chain that had already been shattered by bullets, Apolly nodded to Wei Ran, who carefully pushed open the rusty iron door with the muzzle of his gun.
When the car lights behind the two passed through the open workshop door, Wei Ran and Apolly let out a sigh of relief.
Except for the solid ice on the ground, there are no facilities and equipment in this workshop. Obviously, the people who evacuated from here have taken away all valuable things.
“The roof looks solid”
Apolly withdrew his gaze, glanced at the two doctors coming behind him, and continued, "We can completely drive the transport truck in in reverse, and then put the temporarily unused supplies here, so that at least the beds in the living cabin
It can be put up again.”
"The samples we collected can also be placed here," Murat continued.
"In that case, let's start now." April made the decision without hesitation.
