Chapter 13

chapter 12

Riya tries to open her eyes but finds it difficult to do so. She feels something in her hand and squeezes tightly. She suddenly hears a gasp and someone calling for the doctor. Opening her eyes slowly takes effort but she opens and her hazy vision clears to see Aisha standing by her bedside with the doctor. The doctor said “How are you feeling Riya?”. Riya slowly nods her head. The next second, she raises her hand and makes a gesture. Aisha immediately understands it and gets a pen and paper.Riya writes “ETF?”. Aisha sees and said “They are at the site Riya where you were searching.” Riya’s eyes widen and the monitors shows heart rate increasing rapidly. Her breaths become shorts, and the doctor shouts “Riya you have to calm down. Everyone out.” Riya shakes her head and writes one word on thenotepad “ Danger.”

Rathore arrives at the scene with the Police dogs and their team. Hearing his mobile ring, he sees it Aisha and picks up. His eyes closes as he hears about Riya’s conscious state but hearing what she wrote, his eyes harden. Going to the back of the farmhouse, he spots the rest of the team members who stood at the edge. Reaching the team, he said “Riya has regained consciousness.” Everyone heaves a sign of relief. Rathore then explained what Riya wrote. He instructs, two teams will be deployed in all the grids . One team will use the machine to search and the other team will have a police dog sniffer. As soon as either teams notice something wrong, they have to call out. No theatrics and not wandering off alone. He said this especially looking at Arjun.

All the 8 teams, spread out in the four directions. Using the maps, marked beforehand they started covering the grids first covered by Riya. When they found nothing, they relayed back the grid number and nothing. Arjun and Rathore had the map in hand and marked which grids were searched. Suddenly, the walkie crackled and Shree said “Sir….The……..some……….”.Half the transmission was being lost due to disturbance. Arjun took his gun out and saw that Shree was in grid 10, in the north- eastern direction. Rathore said “Arjun, be careful. Riya has warned of danger being present.”

Arjun grimly nodded his head. He headed in that direction. His footsteps slowly measured, he walks. His walkie suddenly crackles breaking the silence with Shree’s voice being heard but again disturbance being present which made Arjun unable to hear the transaction.Arjun suddenly hears a branch break behind him. Turning around, he aims the gun in that direction. His breathing slowly deepens and he could feel his senses becoming more sensitive to the noise around him. He stays still knowing at any moment, any sound can come. He feels the ground vibrate with what sounds like approaching footsteps. He puts the gun back into the waistband, as the footsteps were coming from Shree’s direction. Turning around, he sees Shree stop running on seeing him, his breathing deeply.

Arjun is going to scold Shree,when he sees the trembling of Shree’s body. Shree is barely able to hold himself together. His eyes are out of focus, and his legs look like they will give out at any moment. Arjun slowly approaches Shree, and puts his hand on his shoulder. Shree’s gaze suddenly focuses back on him and on seeing him, he hugs him. Arjun is shocked but he hugs him back. Shree said, tremble still present in his voice, “You have to see this Arjun Sir. But promise me, Riya does not see any of this.” Arjun said “Shree.” Shree then said “No, first promise me.”Arjun nods his head and Shree heaves a sign of relief. He turns and taking a deep breath walks back from the direction, he was coming from, Arjun following behind him. As they reach, Arjun saw a wall rise up. As they reach the site, he sees that the wall belongs to the house. Shree’s partner is sitting outside looking queasy. Shree stops at the entrance of the house and looked absolutely terrified to go in. Arjun looks at the both of them and taking a deep breath steps inside the house. His stomach immediately protest in revulsion, his eyes burn with unshed tears from forgotten pain. On the house floors, there were bodies which look at women wrapped in plastic. On the walls, were skeletons from who knows how many months old and what sex wrapped in plastic kept between the two walls. On the one count, Arjun could give an estimation of 18 women. 18 women bodies were found.

Aisha is still sitting by Riya’s bedside waiting for her to wake up. Doctor decided to not risk any more sedation given her history. She feels Riya’s hands move, and sees Riya’s eyes flutter open this time with less effort. Looking at Aisha’s face, Riya opens her mouth to talk but is unable to do so. Aisha puts a pen and paper in front of her and asked “Riya, do you remember anything?”. Riya nods her head slowly.Aisha breaths a sign of relief and said “Do you know who attacked you?”. Riya again slowly nods her head. She writes on the paper one word “Sikander.”

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