Visionless Reality

Seventeen

        I was paralyzed, seeing that tribal person enter the fenced shatters and the alarm was raised. Every recruit was terror-stricken. We were not scared of anyone. It was that we did not have the opportunity to know our enemies. In a fraction of a second, a huge crowd of unknown enemies approached towards us in aggression and arrogance. They were wearing tattered red t-shirts and jeans. Carrying an AR with a pistol on the side and a knife on the boot strap, they perfectly matched the attire of a common bandit or a terrorist.

‘Alak un trua… alak ism ka un trua…’-Random bandit.

‘They won’t understand this language…’-another more aggressive bandit.

        And he used his AK-104 rifle as a melee weapon, to let him bend on his knees. He hit him so hard that the recruit was bleeding from his eyebrow. Those were some cruel wretches.

‘Get down you all… Hands in the air and eyes on the ground. You look at me and I blow your head. You understand? I said you understand?’-Bandit Leader.

        The last two statements of his were very loud. It made me feel the reality of the issue that we were caught into. The whole scenario became quiet and extremely intense suddenly. Looking at the ground, I realised that all the feelings that I was having related to the intuition of something bad to happen, I was right all the time. Looking at my leg, I cursed my mind, that came into the peer pressure, and forced me to follow the crowd blindly. I was not into the right place anymore. I was praying continuously, for we were in the situation, when anytime, we all could die.

‘Izm ne jeziya km na kufat… Kia ne tras la pinua tou jiz ka un trua… kalo jina trisaa.’-Bandit Leader.

        He said something to his fellow bandits about all of the recruits, which made them pull us up from the ground, and make us move. They made us move in a line, which was under surveillance of many bandits. They were pushing us, laughing at us and hitting us with the weapons they had. One of them hit me in my stomach, which made me puke out on his shoes.

‘Ne ustr la un ka mensita… Izm ne alak kufat tou jiz trua… trisaa.’-Bandit.

        He was looking into my eyes and I was trying to maintain eye contact with him. His eyes showed more than he could speak. He was guilty of his words for whatever he said to me, but he was surrounded by people whom he followed, just to stay alive. He hit me with his weapon on my shoulder and made me sit on my knees. Pulling my hair with his bare hands, he was trying to convey his words… which felt to me like cleaning his shoes was the only way to get out of the situation. I pulled my t-shirt and cleaned his shoes from every corner that looked messy. He pulled me up, holding my t-shirt, and pushed me towards the queue, formed to move inside the shattered area.

‘Well, well, well… Take a look at those young faces. How familiar they look… Just like it was yesterday…’-Random person inside.

        Yesterday? Was he a part of the competition ever? He looked more like a professional handling the recruits… like recruits gained most of his knowledge from him. I was confused about his role in the drama but, he sounded like an interesting villain.

‘What you all are trying to do here, on my land huh?’-Random person inside.

        Entering the shabby shack that was covered with grass and bamboo, it smelled like gunpowder inside. The shack was packed with a table, with some electronic equipments, and a small passage for the next room. The second one was a bigger one. All the recruits were pushed through the passage to enter that bigger place. It had some containers and a backdoor from which, all the containers were entered. It looked more like a garage. From my left, there was a passage leading to place underground. I tried to peak through the wall when one of the bandits came shouting at me…

‘Yaks la puf trua ni kov nit al meya…’-Bandit.

‘Sti garo! Get back!’-a voice from above the containers.

        That person looked rich. He was wearing a floral shirt with silver chains and tattoos all over his right hand. His black glasses were making me sick.

‘What are you looking down there my friend? I think… your life is more precious to you than our work. You keep your heads out of our business, and we keep the knife away from your head.’-Master Bandit.

        He was the master mind behind all the bandits. By his attire, it looked like he owned the land illegally and sells the raw materials as his side business, with his side business being on the darker side. He had a husky face, full of pride and honor, like he was a billionaire. The look in his eyes was disgusting. I could see the arrogance and wild psychopath inside him.

‘So young man… why don’t you tell me what made you touch my pure soulful land?’-Master Bandit.

‘This is nothing about hurting anyone or doing some fun here. We are on a mission to gather some…’

‘Shut up, Shut… up…’-Master Bandit.

        He punched me hard with his left hand. I could feel the energy inside his throw and the groove of his ring on my mouth. I realised that blood was oozing out from inside of my mouth. It tasted awful, like someone just inserted a soup of rusted iron fillings inside my mouth. It was hard to bear the taste, which made me spit all the blood out. It was a whole lot of blood. Dark red, never seen this much fresh blood ever in my entire life.

‘That’s what the all the people who try to provoke me, deserves. You will not get the land… never.’-Master bandit.

        Who was there to take your land? We all were there to complete our life risking tasks and hell yeah… there we were, trying to plan our next move very carefully for all the bandits were truly disgusting. I was getting the feeling of running away but if I were to do that, I was risking my life as well as of my teammates.

‘You know what, I have a plan! Let’s try to make this evening more interesting than ever. Let’s make this jungle happy once more… let’s have a feast tonight.’-Master Bandit.

        It sounded more like we were going to be slaughtered in the mid jungle and left for the wild animals to clear up our belongings. Listening to his word… ‘I think sir that is not a great option… if you want I can work for you and make you feel proud. There is a loss of both me and yours in this situation sir…’-Recruit-147. He was extremely terrified by the thought of being eaten by some animal in front of his eyes. He was trying to convince the master bandit to leave that paralyzing thought.

‘Oh dammit! You speak too much… Jenabi… I want him mute.’-Master Bandit.

        Saying that, the leader bandit came like a smiling maniac, pulling out the knife from his back and I was going to witness a murder for the first time. Cold blooded murder. 147 looked at the leader Jenabi, terror-stricken. Drifting towards 147 with a swift, Jenabi raised his hand to stab his knife inside 147’s throat and… ‘Jenabi… don’t you have manners? This is how we treat our guests? Please do it nice and calm… without any violence. I just want him shut.’-Master Bandit.

        Jenabi was disappointed. Everything there was at the level of insanity. It looked like the throats of the bandits were dry for someone’s blood, from a long time. Jenabi looked at 147 like he was going to smash his head on the bamboo till the blood spurts out but he did something unexpected. Jenabi removed his shoes, then his socks. He held them hanging in front of 147. Sweat was dripping off from them. Jenabi’s eyes widened, and he forced those socks into his mouth. 147 was crying out his emotions in a muffled voice. The behaviors of those bandits were disturbing. The location was the major reason for their insanity. Those green jungles, full of wild animals and insects all the time, had made a bad impact on their brains.

‘Yeah my boy! Better. Jenabi, take them near to the river, and Alak ana tu izm ta lia na kum… Na man ure te kalum na tiy aka tera…’-Master Bandit.

        And the next moment, all the recruits were tied with the heavy jute ropes, which were made by the raffia fiber, from the trees. This could possibly mean that the land had an abundance of raw materials to collect and use for the industrial purposes. All of the recruits were moving in a queue in the jungle, with the bandits all around. We were not allowed to talk to each other. Coming out of the jungle, all the recruits were led to the river that flowed inside the jungle.

‘You are being offered… to the most profound and inspirational creature found on this land.’-Jenabi.

        We were tied to bamboo, inside a bamboo cage, that was short heighted. The bamboos were strong and inserted inside the ground for stability. Before reaching the island, I was expecting some excitement, but this was going into wrong direction. Although I was not aware of the danger lying ahead and what we were to encounter, it was obvious that those creatures would approach the river, and on their way to the river, we would become their feast.

‘It is almost time for them to come. Hope you like them. Don’t disappoint them for they are real dangers.’-Jenabi.

        All the bandits left, leaving us near the river. I don’t exactly know how, but I knew the trick to untie the knot they tied on my hands. I freed my hands and waited for them to go. When they weren’t visible, I saw that two other recruits were able to sneak in their knives to this place. They were pretty smart.

‘What to do next? I don’t think that going back to the camp is an idea anymore!’-Some random recruit.

‘And nor tackling those creatures would be any good.’-Recruit-38.

‘What if we jump into that river? We would be able to reach some place near to the main water body.’-Random recruit.

‘That is a tricky one. If anything does not go properly, we all are going to die here.’-Recruit-399.

‘Don’t worry. Giving that idea not a try, is as good as waiting for the creatures to come and kill us.’

        We all agreed to that plan and jumped into the river. Breaking down the bamboo cage, we took a bamboo for self-defense if any problem arises. With each of us landing into the river, it felt more safe than ever. This was the first time we all were standing for each other. The water in the river was very cool and relaxing. The recruits were trying to be as low as possible, for the threat of a bandit was still there. It was becoming more and more difficult to move forward. The flow of water was low, which increased the possible threats it held. Moving forward, one of the recruits saw some of the items they were asked to bring according to the checklist. He tried to reach the material, having an approach to get out of the river from its edge, when his leg was caught by something. He screamed out in pain and was beating the head of the crocodile with the bamboo stick. All the recruits panicked for this brought in the terror of hidden monsters, inside the water.