"Sterling, are you married?"

Beside the campfire, Hawks was chewing a piece of turtle meat and asked vaguely to Captain Sterling, who had just been imparting experience to him.

"Of course, of course I'm married."

Sterling replied while chewing a piece of turtle meat, "My wife's name is Beverly, and we got married before Christmas last year."

"The chief must also be married, right?" Wei Ran, who was also eating turtle meat, asked in a positive tone.

"My Margaret and I even have two sons."

Evans swallowed the turtle meat in his mouth and said happily, "I also have a brother and two sisters. They will definitely help me take care of Margaret and my two children."

"I have four brothers"

Sterling took a big sip of the hot soup and said, "But Beverly and I haven't planned to have children yet, so that's not bad. Even if we really can't go back, at least she won't have to suffer too much."

Seeing that the two young captains were already talking about "what if they don't survive", Wei Ran quickly asked, "Hawkes, what about you? Are you not married?"

"I chose to join the army because the girl I liked was getting married to someone else. Of course, the main reason was actually because I wanted to see the sea."

Hawks, who was only 18 years old, shrugged with a depressed look, picked up a piece of turtle head and threw it into his mouth, sucked off the little meat on it and continued, "And I don't have any brothers or sisters. Victor,

And you?"

"I don't have any brothers or sisters either"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he picked up a piece of oyster meat with the branch that served as chopsticks and threw it into his mouth. While chewing, he said the second half of Hawks's disappointed words in his hopeful eyes, "But I have a girlfriend.

"

"It seems that I am the only one who has never even seen a woman's child," Hawks said with a depressed look, "let alone touched her."

"You will have this opportunity." After Sterling said, Wei Ran and Evans laughed in unison.

"I didn't expect that I would encounter discrimination even after I came here." After Hawks finished speaking, he also laughed along with him.

After chatting and laughing, Wei Ran filled up the remaining soup base with water and moved it to the campfire to continue cooking slowly. In this way, not only did everyone not have to drink raw water, but they also didn't have to worry about the leftover soup.

The little bit of turtle meat you eat will go bad.

Putting on wet gloves, he took out the gas bottle that had been buried by the campfire. He poured a large cup of the hot jasmine leaf tea inside for everyone, then filled it with the rainwater from last night and continued to heat it.

Then he took off his gloves and lay down on his own wooden bed.

"I wonder how those two pilots are doing?" Evans muttered, staring at the tight umbrella cloth above his head.

“Should be no worse than us”

Sterling said while lying in his hammock, "Maybe they got enough food to eat for several days. I even suspect they might have caught a shark or tuna."

“This is not bad”

Hawkes sat cross-legged on the edge of the campfire, using the Indian pipe ax to chop the sticks used to make hunting bows and said, "This way we will at least have enough time to make bows and arrows."

"That's not possible unless they have a refrigerator."

Evans reminded while rolling a cigarette, "Otherwise, even if they catch a whale, it will only take two days at most, and all the meat will probably spoil."

"So they are only two days ahead of us at most?" Sterling asked pointedly.

"We still have this, plus the coconuts we hid, so maybe we're ahead of them."

Evans said, picking up the can with a capacity of more than one liter, which was used to hold tobacco. While showing the tobacco and cash inside, he said, "If we have the opportunity to get a lot of meat these days,

Class, you can use this bottle to make cans.”

"This is a good idea." Sterling's eyes immediately lit up, and he subconsciously glanced at the few pieces of turtle meat left in the helmet.

"I only remembered it after eating."

Evans took the lead and said, "Also, Sterling, if the weather is good tomorrow, you and I will continue to explore the atoll. Then we will put on the diving mask made by Hawks with a gas mask. The harvest there may be better than

This island needs to be bigger. Victor, your job tomorrow is only to collect firewood and strengthen the camp."

"No problem." Sterling and Wei Ran immediately agreed to Evans' arrangement. As for Hawks, his job was naturally to make bows and arrows.

Compared to what they had guessed, it was actually much more difficult for Akira and Jiro on the north side of the island.

At least for Akira, just coconuts for dinner is far from enough. But not only dinner is not enough, even the firewood for the bonfire is simply not enough to burn all night long.

So even though the sun was about to set, Jiro, who had been having a fever all day, was still wielding the machete again and again, with a tense face full of sunburn, and chopping down a silver-leaf tree that was strangled by vines.

"Jiro, we need dinner."

Akira threw a piece of souvenir into his mouth, then opened the kettle and poured some, and then said dissatisfiedly, "There is even fresh water! Isn't there a spring on this island?"

"Uncle, there is nothing on this island."

Jiro asked intermittently while cutting down the tree, "Are you sure about our current location?"

"confirmed"

Akira took out a silk map from his arms and opened it, pointing to a small island on it that was only as big as a mung bean and said, "Based on your description and the terrain I saw, we are probably on Helen Island in Helen Reef.

"

"How far away are they?" Jiro stopped what he was doing and asked anxiously.

Akira opened his mouth and finally said, "70 kilometers away, we just need to get to Tobi Island, which is 70 kilometers due west. According to your father's previous letter, there are fishermen living on that island, so we can definitely do it."

Find the ship from there, and then make your way to Peleliu Island little by little."

"But wait for us..."

"They must still be alive!"

Akira used the last sip of coconut juice to wash down the pills in his mouth, and said with a crazy and confident look, "The Americans cannot occupy Peleliu Island so easily. We will definitely have enough time to rush over and join them!"

"Then we really grab a Mitsubishi 100 transport plane as planned?" Jiro swallowed, "Even if there is that golden statue, this..."

"As long as we can use the gold to buy enough seats for the family to sit and a parachute, that's it."

Akira said confidently, "We will have enough time and opportunity to hijack the plane after it takes off, and after it flies back to Nagasaki..."

"If we fail, we will be..."

"You can only bet once!"

When Akira said this, a sickly blush appeared on his excited face, but then he frowned, clutched his stomach, and limped out of the woods with half of the oar.

of beach.

"Can we really get out of here?"

Jiro murmured something to himself, and then he felt that his stomach seemed to be a little uncomfortable.

“Should cook those crabs longer next time”

While Jiro was muttering to himself, he picked up an umbrella cloth that was washed clean in the morning and walked to the beach in the opposite direction to Akira. Facing the sunset, he sprayed bloody feces with a painful expression.

It didn't rain that night as everyone expected, but Jiro was very clearly aware that dysentery seemed to have found him again.

But he knew even more clearly that this time even if the Chinese Weiran was willing to help it, it would not be able to provide any suitable medicines.

Suffering from abdominal pain and high fever all night long, Jiro lost consciousness before dawn the next day and lay huddled beside the bonfire that was barely keeping burning.

Seeing this, Akira picked up the pistol between the two of them and looked in the direction of Wei Ran and others again and again, but again and again looked at the 1911 pistol in his hand.

This pistol came from the night before landing on the island. It was the only weapon he took out from his weapons bag in the dark before preparing to sneak onto the life raft.

However, it wasn't until he and Jiro occupied the northernmost tip of the island with this weapon and buried the treasure that he noticed that there were only two bullets in the gun's magazine.

It is obviously very difficult to kill four people with two bullets. But no matter which two of Wei Ran and others he kills, the remaining two can undoubtedly kill him and Jiro easily.

.

In other words, the only thing he and Jiro currently rely on is that Ran and others don't know how many bullets are in the magazine of this gun.

Finally looking at Jiro who was shivering, Akira reluctantly put down his pistol, took out a small medicine bottle, shook out a unique product from it and stuffed it into the former's mouth, hoping that these extra refreshing candies could be given to Jiro.

Bring some help.

Soothed by the waves, the night was finally replaced by daytime, but before people on both sides of the island could start their busy day, a flash of lightning followed, followed by thunder and heavy rain.

In the camp on the north side of the island, the campfire that provided warmth to Akira's uncle and nephew had been completely extinguished due to lack of fuel. Akira, who was missing most of his foot, did not go to take over Jiro's unfinished work of cutting down the dead wood.

He helped the other party and himself put on relatively thick one-piece flight suits to combat the low temperature brought by the heavy rain in the morning.

In comparison, the southern end of the island is much better. Thanks to the firewood that Wei Ran and Sterling took turns collecting yesterday, and the windbreak wall made of branches and sticks buried in the sand, their camp is not considered a

The top is airtight, but at least the sand under your feet and your body can stay dry, let alone sleeping directly on the ground.

Even, with the pouring rain outside, the four men not only took a bath each, but also washed all their clothes and hung them on the trunk of the coconut tree.

At the edge of the sky, Wei Ran used the toothbrush he had stolen on the ship, mixed with crushed carbon powder, and carefully brushed his teeth.

Of course, compared to his hygienic attitude, the other three sailors, who also only wore a piece of umbrella cloth around their waists, had no time to bother with personal hygiene. At this time, they were holding cigarettes in Hawks's

Under the leadership, we concentrated on making bows and arrows around the campfire.

There is no way to evaluate Hawkes' craftsmanship in making hunting bows. In his opinion, it is nothing more than flattening both ends of a wooden stick to make a curve, and then using gum from an unknown tree to wrap and glue it all over.

Wrap the umbrella cloth strips around, and finally hang the bowstring made of paracord.
To be continued...