On the star-shrouded sea, two hermit crabs, ah no, two shipwrecked people are still paddling their arms tirelessly again and again, pushing their bodies forward slowly in the cold water towards an unknown destination.
"Stop! Victor!"
Hawkes, slightly panicked, shouted to his companion who was also connected to the float with a rope, and struggled hard at the same time.
"What's wrong?!" Wei Ran immediately shouted in response. His hand hidden under the water also held a Type 50 engineer shovel that should never appear in this era and this place. At the same time, he also looked at it with vigilance.
I looked around for fear of seeing the shark's triangular fin.
"Leg! My right leg is cramped!" Hawks grinned and explained, "It's not a shark!"
Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately relaxed, quickly put away his engineering shovel and quickly swam to the opponent's side.
"Stretch your legs straight, straighten them hard, and lift the soles of your feet upward."
As Wei Ran said this, he hooked the opponent's right leg ankle with one foot, and at the same time gently stepped on the opponent's knee with the other foot and started to apply more force.
With his help, after almost two minutes, Hawkes breathed a long sigh of relief, and then said tremblingly, "Victor... Victor, I can't swim anymore.
Let's, let's give up, maybe the plane has sunk."
"Okay..." Wei Ran sighed secretly, "Let's take a rest first. Do you still have Coke?"
"Yes... and a little more." Hawkes took out the kettle that Wei Ran gave him as a meeting gift and shook it.
"Drink it first, and then I'll pour you some."
Wei Ran said, patting the thermos bucket he had been carrying behind him, "While the sea here is relatively calm, you can help me hold the thermos bucket while we get some cocoa out of it."
"good!"
After Hawks finished speaking, he drank up the remaining Coke in the kettle in one gulp, then tightened the lid of the kettle, took out the steel cup from the kettle cover and got ready.
After taking off the thermos bucket that he had been carrying all day long, Wei Ran deliberately touched his lower back as a cover-up and took out the flashlight from the metal book.
"Why did you bring so many good things?" Hawks exclaimed.
"They were all picked up from corpses I encountered in the sea. Once they're stable, I'm going to open the lid."
While Wei Ran explained indiscriminately, he also hung the fish dried on a wooden stick around the other person's neck along with his shoelaces.
When Hawks saw this, he quickly put the thermos bucket on his chest and grabbed the floating object next to him with his hands.
Carefully opening the lid of the thermos bucket, when the flashlight beam shone in, Wei Ran couldn't help but look at each other with Hawks.
There is indeed cocoa that has been cooled down, but it is only a thin layer. Looking at the capacity, I am afraid that each of them can only get half a pot at most.
It can't be because I stole that bucket...
Wei Ran grinned and put aside this speculation that was absolutely impossible and would never admit it. He took the steel cup handed to him, carefully tilted the thermos bucket, scooped up the little cocoa left in it, and drank it all.
In the kettle handed over by Hawks.
"You can't hold on to this much for long," Hawks said with a frown.
“Better than nothing”
As Wei Ran spoke, he unbuttoned his trousers that were used as floats, took out the can of tobacco, the razor he had "picked up" before, the toad mirror, the personal first aid kit and even his own pants and shoes, and put them all in.
Only the life jacket that can be used as a float and the mask bag containing the basketball were left outside.
Seeing this, Hawkes also threw the pilot's survival kit and a personal first aid kit he had been carrying into the thermal bucket. Then he also took off his pants and shoes, wring them as dry as possible and threw them in.
"Wait!"
Wei Ran pointed to the survival bag he had just thrown in, "If I remember correctly, there seems to be a flare in it!"
"Flag flare?" Hawks was stunned, "I haven't opened it since I got it. And even if we launch the flare, what's the use?"
"If we send a flare, do you think those two crazy pilots will come to find us?" Wei Ran asked, "If they are still alive."
"Then try it!"
There was a trace of indifference in Hawks' tone, "If they can really come here, we might be able to get a lot of good things from them."
"Stabilized"
As Wei Ran spoke, he handed over the flashlight to the other party for help. He took out the waterproof survival bag from the bucket, opened it and said, "If I remember correctly, in addition to the flares, there are also
There are a lot of things, at least enough food and drinking water for us to have a full meal."
Under Hawks's curious gaze, the bulging survival kit was opened smoothly, and Wei Yan also found the Mark 3 signal transmitter packed in a small waterproof canvas bag, as well as six waterproof
Wax shell flare.
He took out a signal bomb, tore off the wax layer and stuffed it into the signal transmitter. Wei Ran glanced at Hawks opposite who was helping to hold the thermos bucket and holding a flashlight to help with lighting.
"Try it!" Hawks said nonchalantly.
Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded, opened the safety of the signal transmitter, pointed it at the night sky above his head, and then pulled the firing pin at the tail.
"Bang!"
As he released the firing pin, a flare with a dazzling red light flew straight up and down into the night sky 70 to 80 meters high.
After looking up at the red flare for a moment, Weiran lowered his head and put away the signal transmitter, and then zipped up the waterproof zipper of his survival bag.
However, just when he closed the lid of the thermos bucket, Hawkes let out an exclamation, excitedly pointed at the sea in the distance and shouted, "Victor! Look over there! That
There is also a flare on the side! Look!"
Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately looked in the direction of the opponent's finger, and Hawks also turned off the flashlight.
Sure enough, just at the line between water and sky in the distance, a signal bomb of the same color actually rose!
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The two looked at each other, Wei Ran immediately took out the small canvas bag containing the flare and hung it around his neck, and then took the hand from Hawks
Come flashlight.
They fastened the lid of the thermos bucket again, and with renewed hope, the two men immediately swam desperately in the direction of the signal flare that had just been lit.
Almost less than five minutes later, another red flare rose from the distant sea, and it was obviously much closer!
He took out a new flare from the bag hanging around his neck, and Weiran fired one in response.
When he put away the flare, he reminded Hawkes on the other side of the thermos barrel, "Hawkes, load your gun with bullets. In addition, how many bullets do you have?"
"Four or three rounds." Hawks paused and said with great certainty, "Yes, four rounds. I still have four rounds of bullets."
"Don't rush to shoot later"
Wei Ran glanced at the flare above his head and said, "You are good at water. When we get close, you should first distance yourself from me. If I am in danger, I will have to rely on you."
"Don't worry, leave it to me!" Hawks promised confidently.
"Drink that cocoa, drink it all." Wei Ran said again, "This way you will have strength."
"There's still food in that survival bag, right?" Hawks had unscrewed the lid of the pot and brought it to his mouth as he spoke.
"Yes, there are many."
Before Wei Ran finished speaking, Hawks raised his neck and drank half a bottle of cocoa that could quickly replenish energy.
Just as he tightened the lid of the kettle and loaded the pistol, a flickering light seemed to light up at the end of his sight.
"The other party asked to identify themselves." Wei Ran translated the clear Morse code sent by the other party using the light.
"Do you want to answer?" Hawkes handed over the decision to Wei Ran.
"Answer, how about using the Hall number?"
"No problem," Hawks replied cheerfully.
Upon hearing this, Wei Ran immediately held up his flashlight and pressed the switch again and again to send out an uncertain signal. He also responded to the other party's inquiry with a clear code, and followed it with the same inquiry.
"This...here...is...DD-557...the Johnston?!"
Wei Ran exclaimed, but the other party still turned on the light, "Who... won... the World Series?"
"St. Louis Cardinals!"
Hawks subconsciously gave the answer almost as soon as Wei Ran translated the second question, "It's definitely one of ours! Those nuclear-recruiting bastards will never be able to ask this question!"
"St. Louis Cardinals" Weiran decisively gave the answer in clear code.
"We'll be coming right away!" While the other party flashed a light signal, it was also closing the distance between the two parties.
Soon, Weiyan and Hawkes heard the roar of the engine at the same time!
"It's the engine of the traffic boat!" Hawks' face showed joy, "There must be one of our warships nearby!"
"Hawkes, Hawks!"
Wei Ran patted the thermos bucket, and after attracting the other party's attention, reminded him, "I'm from the Johnston. Our ship has sunk. I...I was the last one to leave the ship."
Hearing this, Hawks's face turned obviously pale.
"You should hide first"
As Wei Ran spoke, he had already helped the other party remove the mop rod from the collar on the back of his neck, and used a knife to pierce the blow-up condoms tied to it.
"If you need my help, put out the flashlight."
Hawks said, put on the gas mask again, untied the belt between the thermos bucket, took the gun and slowly sank to the bottom of the water, hiding directly under the thermos bucket.
Wei Ran, on the other hand, held onto the corrugated tube connecting the other party's gas mask and hid it between his body and the thermos bucket. His other hand also pressed the flashlight switch, ready to turn it off at any time.
As he waited, the roar of the engine became louder and louder. Soon, a traffic boat appeared directly in front of his field of vision. At the front of the traffic boat stood a figure holding a flashlight.
However, since the other party was hiding behind the flashlight, he couldn't see clearly what the other party looked like.
However, when the traffic boat stopped next to him and the other party's flashlight shone on Wei Ran's face, he heard a somewhat familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar person say in surprise, "Victor?!
Are you Victor?"
Before he could respond, the beam that originally hit his face finally moved away, and the flashlight beam in Wei Ran's hand subconsciously hit the ship.
"Is it you?!" Wei Ran's eyes widened dully.
At this time, the person standing at the front on this traffic boat holding a flashlight was none other than Captain Evans of the USS Johnston! In fact, he not only wore a steel helmet, but also had an Indian gun on his waist.
A pipe ax and a silver revolver!
And behind him, there was actually a sailor moose! Next to him was a white sailor bag! However, the moose's condition didn't seem to be very good at this time. All that could be seen was that there were bruises on his face and legs.
Wrapped in gauze!
Looking further back, the person in charge of controlling the engine at the stern of the ship was actually the deputy captain, Captain Sterling! His head was also wrapped in gauze, and a large area of the gauze had even been stained with blood.
"Soldier, if you've seen enough, come up quickly!"
Captain Evans said with a smile, "Welcome to board my Johnston again, well... She is a little smaller now, but she is indeed the Johnston! Also, thank you for the beer you gave to the moose.
, thanks to that pot of beer, otherwise we would be hungry."
"Yes! Mr. Captain!"
While Wei Ran responded loudly, he saluted the other person in the water with an American military salute, then pointed to the bucket beside him and said, "I still have a friend hiding underwater. Can I let him come up?"
"Of course!" Captain Evans shouted back.
"Hawkes! Come on up! It's one of our own!" Wei Ran pulled off the socks on the bellows and said loudly to his mouth.
"Wow!"
With a splash, Hawks emerged from the water with a gun in his hand. He hurriedly took off his gas mask and asked in surprise, "I just heard it! Chief, I am Hawks, Hall."
Hawks on the ship, I'm an Indian too! Ojibwa Indian!"
"Near the Great Lakes? I am a Cherokee Indian. Of course, you must know that I am only three-quarters of Cherokee blood."
Captain Evans took advantage of the guard to climb onto the transport boat with the help of the deputy captain, Captain Sterling, while shaking his left hand wrapped in gauze, and said particularly apologetically, "I'm sorry, my hand is injured.
, there is no way to drag you up."
"It doesn't matter, I can go up by myself!"
Before Hawks finished speaking, he had already dragged the thermal bucket to the side of the traffic boat. After waiting for the Weiyan to get on, he also quickly climbed on it.
It wasn't until his legs left the water that Wei Ran noticed that the boat, which was about eight meters long, seemed to be leaking, and the leaking point was right next to where Sailor Moose was sitting.
"Hi! Victor, I didn't expect us to meet again."
The moose said hello to Wei Ran slightly weakly, then used the steel helmet in his hand to scoop up seawater from the cabin and poured it outside.
Following the light of the flashlight, I looked at the leaking area. Under a thin layer of seawater, there was actually a 127mm artillery shell embedded in it! But even so, seawater still gurgled out from the edge of the shell.
"This is..."
"It was shot out by a cannonball," the moose explained as he stepped on the cannonball shell with his foot. "Thanks to this cannonball shell, otherwise I wouldn't have known what to use to plug such a big hole."
"It's really thanks to that shell casing"
The deputy captain at the stern pointed to the wound on his head, "It would be better if it didn't just hit my head when it fell."
"Victor, come here and help."
Hawks climbed onto the boat and urged, "Let's bring up the thermos bucket quickly," without waiting for Weiyan's response.
"right!"
Upon hearing this, Wei Ran quickly turned around and helped the other party pull the thermos bucket that was still floating on the sea to the boat.
After everyone sat down, Wei Ran took the helmet from Sailor Moose and handed it to Hawks. While scooping out sea water, he rummaged through the first aid kit in the thermos bucket and asked, "How did you survive?"
Yes? I clearly saw it..."
"The moose saved us"
The deputy captain, Captain Sterling, turned off the engine and helped scoop out the water while saying, "He found the chief's ax and my sailor bag and shotgun from the lounge."
"Thanks to that shotgun"
Captain Evans also came over, holding a flashlight and said, "He used that shotgun to break the fixed hook of this traffic boat. It was with this traffic boat that the three of us got rid of the Johnston."
Devouring before sinking.”
"Why are you here?"
As Wei Ran spoke, he had already untied the gauze on the moose's body, and with the help of Captain Evans' flashlight, he was treating the burns on various parts of the sailor's body.
"There are some problems with the engine of this traffic boat"
Moose grinned and explained, "The engine stopped working after it took us out of the whirlpool. Then while we were busy blocking the hole, the waves also pushed us away from the other life rafts."
"We didn't repair the engine until the weather cleared."
Captain Evans continued, "Then we noticed a nuclear-capable Vicious Falcon flying over at low altitude, but we searched for it for a long time but could not find the aircraft."
"The most important thing is that we are running out of fuel."
Vice-captain Sterling helplessly pointed to a wooden bar stuck in the corner of the engine fuel tank, "Our fuel can only support us to run for another half hour at most. If we can find the plane, maybe we can get it."
Light the fuel, otherwise we will have to remove the engine and slowly swim back with those oars."
"We are also looking for that plane"
Hawks said while scooping water quickly, "Victor said there were two madmen up there, and he also said they must know our current location, and we just sent out the flare to attract their attention. But I think,
Those two lunatics must have sunk into the sea with their plane."
"We are now at least 50 nautical miles or more from land."
Captain Evans said, "The ocean currents in this season will push us to land, but the sea breeze may push us farther away."
"We will definitely find land"
Wei Ran assured Sailor Moose confidently while bandaging the wound with burn ointment.
"We are going to use my hammock to make a sail tomorrow," Captain Sterling said, and at Wei Ran's signal, he came over and let him untie the gauze wrapped randomly on his head.
"Your injury is a bit serious. I need to stitch it up for you."
After Wei Ran finished speaking, he took out a tube of morphine, and while carefully injecting a small amount around his still bleeding scalp, he changed the question and asked, "Why did the moose take out your sailor bag?"
"That's his most precious thing," the moose said while helping Hawks scoop water, "just like the chief's axe."
"That sailor bag was given to me by a British friend of mine. I have been keeping it in the lounge as a decoration. By the way, ss--!"
"Sorry, I'll be gentler, you continue talking." Wei Ran, who had already begun debridement, urged without sincerity.
"By the way, there are some things hidden in it, such as the wine I secretly brought on board."
Captain Sterling pointed to the wine bottle lying in the water at his feet, "Unfortunately, you are late, and we have already drank that bottle of wine."
"Don't move now, I'm going to suture you." Wei Ran reminded him while cleaning the hair around the wound with a razor.
"Victor, why don't I remember you as a medic on our ship?" the chief who helped hold up the flashlight asked doubtfully, "but I seem to have seen you in the kitchen."
"You remember correctly"
Wei Ran showed a smile that frightened the other party, "I work in the kitchen, but before the ship sank, the Johnston obviously needed a medic more than a cook."
"Were you a doctor before?" Moose asked curiously.
"Of course!" Wei Ran answered confidently.
"It seems that we let an excellent medic waste his time in the kitchen." Captain Evans said apologetically.
"It's not your fault"
Hawks, who had been busy scooping water, helped and said, "If Victor had been a white man, he would definitely not be in the kitchen. If the chief had been a white man, the estrous bull (Halsey) would definitely have been sent away."
Go into the kitchen and chop radishes."
"Bull's Run eighty-three years later," the vice-captain muttered sarcastically.
Although he didn't understand the allusion the other party was talking about, it didn't stop Wei Ran from sewing up the nearly five centimeter-long wound on his scalp as quickly and roughly as possible.
Helping the other party wrap up the wound with clean gauze, Wei Ran did not relax. Compared to Sailor Moose's wound, the wound on Sterling's head was actually much more serious, especially in this environment. If he could not get to shore as soon as possible,
Whether the other party can survive is probably unknown.
"Mr. Captain, it's your turn." Wei Ran said as he took out a pack of clean gauze wrapped in plastic from the first aid kit.
Hearing this, Captain Evans immediately stretched out his left hand and allowed Wei Ran to help remove the already wet gauze, revealing the blown-off finger and slightly pale wound.
Silently, he inserted the remaining morphine into his palm. After waiting for a moment, Wei Ran first removed some dead flesh and half of the broken finger bones, and then carefully sewed the two fingers together.
"If it hurts, inject yourself with morphine."
Wei Ran stuffed a morphine injection into the other person's jacket pocket and reminded him, "But in the next 24 hours, you will only have that one morphine injection."
"I will use it sparingly." Captain Evans allowed Weiran to use a condom to cover his entire left hand, and at the same time praised with a smile, "Victor, your skills are good."
"As God testifies, you are the first naval soldier to say that I am good at my craftsmanship." Wei Ran said sincerely as he threw the gauze he had replaced into the thermal bucket.
"I feel honored that you say that," Evans said with a smile.
"Gentlemen, now is my performance."
As Hawks spoke, he had already taken out the basketball from the thermos bucket, and at the same time stretched out his hand towards Evans, "Chief, can you lend me your tomahawk? I can repair this one."
Boat."
Hearing this, Captain Evans pulled out the ax from his waist and handed it to Hawks without thinking.
After taking the axe, Hawkes asked for the dagger he had given to Wei Ran before. The flashlight held by Evans also focused on him like a spotlight.
While everyone was watching, Hawkes first punctured the basketball with a dagger and cut it into two large pieces. Then, after obtaining everyone's consent, he used an ax to cut an oar into pieces.
After splitting, a 20 cm long wooden stick and two wood pieces slightly larger than a palm were obtained, and two small holes about five centimeters apart were drilled from the middle of the wood pieces.
Looking left and right, Hawks cut a cowhide belt vertically, passed one of them through the two small holes in the first piece of wood, and then passed it through a piece of basketball leather that was folded in half.
"Pull it out"
Before Hawks finished speaking, Sailor Moose pulled out the shell casing. At the same time, Hawks also turned over into the water and put a homemade patch through the damaged area from outside the ship.
Without any instruction, Wei Ran passed the two cowhide belts through the other half of the basketball leather and wooden board that had been folded in half.
While he held down the wooden board from the inside and put on the other two belts, Sailor Moose also immediately made a knot, and then used the wooden stick to fasten the cowhide belt like a string and began to twist.
At the same time, both Wei Ran and the two captains were desperately scooping out water with what they found on hand.
Fortunately, when Hawkes emerged from the water, the water in the boat had almost been scooped out, and there was obviously no tendency to continue leaking.
"Clang"
Wei Ran threw aside the shell casings he was holding to scoop up water. The two captains also dropped the helmets in their hands at their feet.
When Hawks climbed out of the water onto the boat again, Sailor Moose also tied the fatal wooden stick tightly with the other two belts provided by Weiran.
Finally, a steel helmet was fastened on for protection, and everyone on the boat breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, a dazzling lightning flashed across the horizon in the distance, connecting the sky and the earth. Immediately afterwards, everyone heard the rumble of thunder.
"It is going to rain"
As Sterling spoke, he had already taken out the hammock from the sailor's bag, and skillfully tied one end to the engine at the stern and the other end to the sharp corner of the bow. Captain Evans was also particularly
Skillfully, he propped up the middle of the hammock with the remaining half of the oar from the repaired boat and the mop rod that belonged to Hawkes.
It wasn't over yet, even Wei Yan took out a raincoat and a bundle of ropes from the pilot's survival bag in the thermal bucket, and with the help of Hawkes, he tried to increase the shelter area of the sea shelter as much as possible.
"Crack!"
Accompanied by a much closer thunder, and under the dazzling lightning, at the end of the field of vision that was not noticed by everyone on the ship, a red and white life raft also flashed across the currently calm sea.
