Several gunshots. Yudi's voice yelling out for Aalekh. Everything
eerily quiet after that. If that wasn't enough to get the cadets and
their mentor worried, the men in masks surrounding them with rifles
certainly was. Rajveer, Naina, Huda, Ali, Kamran and Sai were standing
almost in a huddled circle facing the men, while their only hope,
Pooja, was barely hidden behind a tree a few meters from the clearings.
She wouldn't be spotted unless she made a visible move, since it was
dark, but not dark enough yet.
"What do you want?" Rajveer asked
the man who was behaving like the leader. The reply was a blow on the
stomach from a rifle. He stumbled back only slightly, being used to
pressure from years of training, but he didn't mind the soft yet firm
hands supporting his back. Naina glowered at the man who did it. Seeing
this, Rajveer mused that if eyes could kill, no doubt that the man
would've been dead.
He bent down slowly, pretending to hold his
stomach in pain and wobbling slightly. He turned his head undetectably
towards Naina and Huda's direction and winked. They caught on and Naina
immediately bent forward pretending to help him and meekly asked the
terrorists for aid.
Since the masked men were a bit distracted
from Rajveer's convincing groans (so convincing that Naina was worried
if they were real or not), Huda pretended to scratch his head, making
clear enough signs with his hand to Pooja. She didn't need anymore
telling. He winked back at Rajveer when he saw her quietly sneaking
behind the guard at the corner in the dark, narrowly forgetting the
earlier incidents.
Suddenly, in a flash of a few seconds, time
seemed to slow down as a series of things happened like a chain
reaction. Pooja snapped the guard's neck inexpertly from the lack of
experience, who whimpered out causing the others to notice it, Naina
and Ali pounced on the nearest two men while Rajveer, Huda, and Kamran
went for the others and Sai ran to the ammunitions box safely hidden
away within a bush.
The terrorists seemed to be new at this;
they didn't put up much of a fight before surrendering. Soon, they were
tied around a tree and gagged tightly. Rajveer turned around to face
his students, who were looking at him expectantly for orders about the
next move. He shifted his status fully to the teacher mode now.
"That,
Cadets, was a different version of the code 'Hootie and the Blowfish'.
And now, I'm going to demonstrate how to interrogate without getting
physical." He winked at them, and they grinned back.
~*~*~
It
was dark, but not quiet. There was a constant sound of pacing nearby,
which in a strange sort of way calmed his headache. He tried to open
his eyes and groaned. He forced himself to sit up, rubbing his numb arm
with the other one. He dazily looked around, and his eyes focused on
the source of the pacing.
"Nautanki saala..." he muttered to
himself, wincing in pain as he sat up properly against the cold and
hard wall behind him. Yudi, his head bleeding, was pacing around the
room beside his. Aalekh was hidden from his view because of the wall
beside the one he was leaning against. There were bars coming out from
the wall, through which Aalekh could see his friend.
"Oye!" he
called quietly. The pacing abrptly stopped, followed by a sudden
rushing sound. Yudi was gripping the bars as tightly as he could, as if
trying to bend them. His knuckles turned white from the pressure.
"Aa
- Aalekhh!! Tum! Oh my God... you're..." he gasped. "You're alive!" he
exclaimed, but calmed down when he received Aalekh's glare. "Are you
OK?" he whispered.
"I fell from a hilltop, was hit by many trees
and bushes... do you think I'm OK?" he gritted through his teeth,
mostly from the pain than anger. He had never been so glad to be alive
before; this time, he had people and reasons to live for.
~*~*~
Rajveer
moved some hanging branches out of his way as he walked through the
jungle, looking wornout and dirty. He suddenly stopped, turning back
and holding his hand out. A feminine hand accepted it. He looked at
their entwined hands for a few moments before snapping out of the daze
and moving on as quietly as possible.
"Captain Rajveer!" an unpleasant familiar voice called him. He froze on his steps.
Precap - "He hasn't seen you yet! Go, hurry!" Rajveer whispers frustratedly.
"Dude, you're heavy!" Yudi tells Aalekh, who is balanced on his shoulders.
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