Chapter 888 Night Watch (15)
Verkhoyansk is located in the northeast of Siberia, and there is no polar day or polar night. However, it is a typical place with short days and long nights. It is already dark around 8 pm. Even if there is no blizzard, dark days are always much rarer than bright snowy days.
The time is now 23:29 in the middle of the night. The minute hand of the heavy and solid cuckoo wall clock in the wooden house moves forward to the half hour with the "click" sound driven by the chain. The hidden small door on the top of the wall clock opens, and the bird pops out to tell the time with the sound of the spring. This is a classic MaJaK cuckoo wall clock, with an embossed watermark of "Made in USSR" on the clock dial, and it is originally from Moscow.
The scratches and dust on the dark brown wall clock show that this cuckoo wall clock is a bit old, and the built-in sheepskin air box may be leaking, so the cuckoo timekeeping sound is relatively small. But every time this not-so-loud time signal sounded, it would cause a chill in the hearts of those who were still awake in the room, like an alarm bell being rung.
The stove was still burning, and the female hunter was adding firewood to the stove. If nothing unexpected happened, the stove would keep burning for the next 24 hours. The blizzard caused the temperature to drop to an unimaginable minus 70 degrees. Boiling water would instantly turn into ice crystals when it was thrown into the air. Once the stove went out, the room temperature would reach a level that ordinary people could not accept, so one of the most important tasks of the night watchman was to ensure that the stove continued to burn.
Vika sat by the wooden window with a shotgun in his arms, staring at the blizzard outside the window, or the golden fireflies in the blizzard. Yes, they never left, those demons. In the severe cold of minus 70 degrees, those figures were like steel and concrete poured in the darkness of the coniferous forest, staring at them. This seemingly eternal surveillance made him feel cold all the time.
"There's not much firewood left." The female hunter whispered after adding firewood to the stove. A trace of worry surged on her face, and she turned her head to look at the kang deep in the wooden house.
The little girl wrapped in a coat on the kang and her brother had eaten some softened frozen fish earlier and went to sleep. The old hunter's breathing after the operation was also stable, but whether he could survive the recovery period was still a question.
Dusha, the American Adam, and the KGB lieutenant colonel rested on the bear skin spread on the ground. Due to the existence of permafrost on the ground, the houses in the northeast of Siberia are several feet above the ground. As long as there is fur to keep warm, sleeping on the ground is not a big problem.
When it's twelve o'clock, the lieutenant colonel and Dusha will be awakened by the cuckoo's time to change shifts, and the female hunter and Vika can go to bed and rest for a while. The next shift will be replaced at four o'clock in the morning. Adam and the lieutenant colonel who took the initiative to take two shifts will keep watch until the next morning.
The list of people who were on duty and the time period were arranged by the lieutenant colonel, ensuring that nothing would go wrong during the night watch. For example, if the female hunter and Vika were arranged together as enemies, no matter what one of them wanted to do, the other would stop them. For example, if the robber brother and sister were arranged together to watch the night, I am afraid that when the others fell asleep, the hunting rifle in the wooden house would suddenly make a bang, and no one wanted to see this happen.
There was still half an hour before the female hunter and Vika's night watch ended. After ensuring that the stove would not go out within half an hour, the female hunter got up and walked quietly to the door of the wooden house. This behavior did not attract much attention from Vika at the window, because no one would think that the female hunter was crazy and wanted to rush out of the wooden door.
The structure and safety of the wooden house were not reassuring. The only entrance and exit was a wooden door with a wooden board temporarily used as a bolt after the door lock was broken. In order to add some comfort, Adam and Vika also worked together to move the heavy cabinet filled with glass jars and sundries in the house to the front of the door as a roadblock.
The female hunter stood in front of the cupboard that blocked the wooden door. There were various bottles and dried herbs piled up on it. What attracted her attention were the glass jars, most of which were glass jars filled with all kinds of strange things after eating pickles or pickled vegetables.
The female hunter bent over with her hands on her knees and looked at a wine jar. Inside was a curled up long snake with gray and olive colors. It had a triangular head, a blunt snout, and a "><"-shaped pattern on the back of its head. It lay motionless at the bottom of the jar. It was unknown whether it was dead or hibernating because of the season, but just by looking at the excrement at the bottom of the jar, it was certain that it was kept in there by the old hunter.
"Arctic viper." The female hunter stretched out her fingers and tapped the surface of the jar. She easily determined the species of this venomous snake, because it was the only snake that appeared within the Arctic Circle.
She looked at the venomous snake for a few seconds and then at the disturbing golden fireflies outside the wooden window next to Vika, and suddenly said, "Do you think the snake venom will be useful for those things outside?"
Vika raised his head and glanced at the female hunter. He was probably a little surprised that this woman would take the initiative to talk to him. He was silent for a while and said, "'Devils are spiritual beings. They can appear in human form. They are enemies defeated by God.' I don't think snake venom will be useful for devils."
"Who knows if you haven't tried it? I have only heard of devils in the Bible before. Maybe the devil is just a creature similar to us humans, but they have horns and will die if they are injured or shot. Under the iron fist of materialism, what kind of monsters will not be destroyed by tracks and muskets?"
"Are you giving me confidence?" Vika paused and sneered.
"Yes, I am giving you confidence." The huntress gently scratched the glass jar with her thumb, "People will do many irrational things when they go to extremes."
Vika turned her head silently, the meaning of the huntress's words was self-evident.
"But you heard those devils calling 'their' names before." He lowered his voice to the lowest level and glanced in the direction of the fire pit from time to time.
When the devils gathered in the cabin, those bewitching whispers and the hissing of snakes walking on the snow were indeed discussing the people in the cabin. To be precise, they were discussing the pair walking in the snowstorm. Mysterious siblings.
They probably came here just for the young children. They gathered outside the wooden house like blood-thirsty bats or a swarm of hyenas. Only when they wait in the wooden house to obey their greed and bloodthirst and throw out fresh flesh and blood to satisfy them will they leave willingly.
"They have a problem!" Vika's voice was very determined, and the eyes that looked at the little shadow on the fire bed were full of fear and a kind of crazy light.
"Devils are only attracted to devils. Didn't you hear what the American said? The way they appear on the snow is very strange. Only abnormality will attract abnormality!"
"What if you hand them over and those demons still don't let us go?"
"Then we'll talk about it then."
"We'll talk about it then?" The huntress took a deep breath and controlled her voice, "We don't gamble with our lives, especially the lives of children!"
"Children's lives? Doesn't the motherland let the children rush to the front during the war?" Vika suddenly sneered.
"That's different." The huntress frowned, and suddenly she looked Vika up and down again, "You shouldn't be from Verkhoyansk?"
"This has been Stalin's place of exile since a long time ago. Those who are detrimental to national security and anti-Soviet elements will be exiled here, and this is no exception to this day." Vika pinched the handle of the shotgun and glanced at the huntress again, " I don’t think you are a local either.”
"I came back to my hometown from Moscow, so I can only be considered half a local."
"Haha. Really?" Vicardo glanced at the woman and changed the subject, "There is not much food in the house. The food will be finished tomorrow at the latest. If the snowstorm hasn't stopped, do you think it will happen next?" what happened?"
What else could happen without food? Of course, I tried my best to find something to eat, bottles and jars of sauces, various weird herbs, and even the hibernating Arctic viper.
Until finally there was nothing left to eat. The huntress slowly moved her eyes away and looked at old Alian who was still sleeping on the fire bed. But she closed her eyes again after a moment.
She didn't think things would get to that point.
"I will take my sister out of here alive, even though she is an idiot who doesn't understand anything." Vika watched the huntress speak word by word, "If you want to live, I hope your head can It spins as fast as your bow."
"Don't do anything stupid." The huntress stared at Vika, "Although I really want to kill you now, I still want to advise you, don't do anything stupid before the blizzard stops. Maybe the blizzard will end tomorrow. You'll regret it if you do something stupid!"
"The snowstorm will stop tomorrow? Do you believe this when you say it? And do you need me to say it clearly?" Vika stared at her, "You should be aware that there are too many people in this wooden house now. There’s not enough food to eat, especially when there are three wastes.”
It goes without saying who the three wastes are.
Old hunter, children and siblings.
The former requires a lot of food and firewood to maintain the temperature of the kang during the recovery period due to the surgery. The latter does not look like two children. They also proved during dinner that their food intake is no less than that of adults. According to physiology, these two The child should be in the growing stage?
The food reserves in the wooden house now only have one frozen fish and three slices of bread, and the amount will be completely reduced to zero for breakfast tomorrow.
"But, if the three of them don't exist, maybe we can last longer." Vika said, "No one knows when the snowstorm will stop. Those monsters outside just need to be satisfied. I would say better. .”
"Shut up," Huntress said.
"You are not related to that old man. If I am right, you are also a temporary refugee here." Vika took a deep breath and looked at the huntress who interrupted her, her eyes flickering, "You should be able to tell In this case, it is unlikely that he will survive. The long-term pain is worse than the short-term pain. Throwing him out to give us a chance to survive is the most correct thing to do. You know this. "
"Isn't it because of you that he can't survive?!"
"The only thing to blame is that he seems to be living alone in the suburbs with a large sum of rubles, and my sister and I happen to need a sum of money for traveling back to Moscow." Vika said coldly, "And even if I don't shoot him , in this situation of food shortage, who do you think will be the first to be treated for surgery? He is already old, and this is his fate! The next one after him will be the two children!
The female hunter's face looked ugly, and she already showed signs of touching her bow.
"Face the reality!" Vika hissed, "Who do you think your sense of justice can save? Can your sense of justice be used as food? That old guy and those two kids are the bastards in this house now!"
The huntress who started the topic wanted to persuade Vika, and now why didn't Vika want to persuade the huntress? I am afraid that only the female hunter in the entire wooden house will object to the matter of dealing with the old hunter. As for the children, it will not be too late to deal with it later.
"I don't want to discuss this anymore." The huntress gave Vika a cold look and interrupted the topic.
The wooden bird on the top of the cuckoo clock pops up at exactly the right time to tell the time at twelve o'clock.
Vika stopped talking and watched as the female hunter twitched her lips, holding the shotgun and turning her head to look out the wooden window again. The black silhouettes watching them silently seemed to be whispering and laughing at the heated discussion in the wooden house at the moment.
At the sound of the time, the KGB commander on the fur on the ground suddenly opened his eyes, and woke up Dusha, who was curled up and sleeping. Under the extremely reluctant expression of the other party, she stood up and walked towards the huntress and Vika to change shifts.
When Vika passed Lieutenant Colonel Andre, he suddenly asked in a low voice, "The Lieutenant Colonel didn't seem to be asleep. Did you hear our chat just now?"
Lieutenant Colonel Andrei stopped and glanced at Vika, looking down condescendingly. His gaze was calm without any fluctuation, but it could put great pressure on people. But even so, Vika did not avoid his gaze because he thought that everything he said was true. Wrong, this is a problem they cannot avoid if they want to survive the blizzard.
Until the end, Lieutenant Colonel Andre turned around without answering and went to the stove to boil water. Vika hugged her sister and whispered a few words with a calm expression, then found a corner to sleep on the fur on the floor. Got off.
Deep in the wooden house, the little girl wrapped in a leather jacket moved slightly, her face with closed eyes was peaceful and unmarked under the illumination of the fire.