KOLLUPIA S02 E08

Sounds of crickets.

Sounds of insects buzzing in the cold night air.

They went silently through the forests just outside PrideLand. The three of them were like shadows within the trees. Micheal marveled at how fast Zikha and Broholo moved. It almost intrigued him. Like ninjas, they ran noiselessly as if their feet barely touched the ground.Micheal could barely keep up. They carried on like this for about five minutes. It seemed the serum gave them Stallion-like Lungs. Through the lens of his night-vision goggles, he saw Zikha signal for them to stop. Ofcourse, she and Brohlo didnt need night-vision goggles to see where they were going.

They crouched low into the underbrush.


Micheal felt the coolness of the leaves against his face as they peered at the road up ahead.




 He couldnt see nor hear anything save for the nightsounds. Seconds later, he heard the sound of an approaching vechicle. He tightened his grip on his weapon and pressed into the ground. He ignored the tiny creature crawling up his ankle.

The vechicle stopped just a few metres ahead and some men got out.  Even through the goggles, it was hard to determine how many they were.

"I count five hostiles" Zikha whispered. " Plus the driver"

"I'm telling you," Man#1 was saying. "Overlord cant be killed"

"Is he not a man?" Man#2 snapped. "Please, spare me"

Broholo crawled noiselessly past, Micheal tapped him on the shoulder.

"Scared of a lil fight, old man?" Micheal could almost see the sneer that accompanied the voice.

Up ahead, they heard the sounds zippers being pulled down. This was promptly followed by the sounds and stink of urine.

"Overlord has Juju o" Man#3 said. " Mind what you say"

"There's no need to engage them" Micheal whispered. "It's too early for...."

"If you touch me again, I'll kill you" Brohlo said with a low growl.

"This is not our mission" Micheal added desperately. " We cant risk exposure this early"

"He's right, Brohlo" Zikha's calm whisper said.

Up ahead, one of the men farted. It was a very loud one.

"Guy, respect yourself oh!" Man #2 snapped.


 "What sort of nonesense is that?"

A louder fart followed.

Laughter broke out.

"That's not funny" Man #2 said.

More laughter.

"We can't risk exposure this early" Zikha said.

More farts.

More laughter.

Through, the lens, Micheal saw her pull out two of her throwing knives.

"So we should take them out quietly" she grinned.

"Can we go now?" Man # 4 said impatiently. "I mean, how long can urinating take?"

More farting sounds.

More laughter

"We don't need this" Micheal whispered.

But Brohlo and Zikha were already on the move.

"Did you hear that?" Man #1's frightened voice said.

Micheal was barely on his feet when, he heard Zikha's knives whistling through the air. He spotted two of the men go down silently, just as the startled man pointed his weapon at Broholo's looming figure. But he never got a chance to pull the trigger. Zikha's knife found his throat, a fraction of a second after she'd unplugged the blade from the Man #4's forehead. Man #5 was still in the car. He frantically tried to turn the key in the ignition, but Broholo's hand grabbed him by the throat and crushed his larynx before he even knew what hit him.

Long silence.

Micheal slowly made it to the road and stared at the fresh corpses on the ground. Most of them still had their flys down.

Zihka quietly retrieved her knives from the dead men while Brohlo stood smiling at his handiwork.

"This was unnecessary" Micheal said softly.

"Try and keep up, Soldeir" Zikha said cleaning her blades.

"All that family life has made you soft" Brohlo grinned.

"Anyone of these men could've had a radio" Micheal said sternly. " If one of them had raised an alarm...."

"Just shut up and help us move the bodies" Zikha snapped.

Long pause.

Micheal stared at her for a few seconds.


Through the night-vision goggles she looked pale, almost unearthly, like a demonic entity attempting a human guise. He caught movement From the corner of his eye, couple of yards into the trees. Then there was a bright flash. He through himself to the ground just as the window of the car shattered as a high velocity bullet smashed through it.

Micheal swiftly rolled to the otherside of the car as three more rounds slammed into metal.


Zikha and Brohlo joined him on the ground.
"What the....?"

"Sniper, about 20 yards out!" Micheal cut Brohlo off as more shots were fired. Shattered glass rained on them.

"I can't see him," Zikha said frantically. "He's tucked between branches.....can't get a shot"

More shots.

"Let me take him" Brohlo growled.

"You can't outrun a bullet" Micheal said coolly.....we're pinned down."

Then silence.

No one moved. Micheal had a theory as to why the sniper was wasting so many rounds. He strained his ear to listen for it. Then they all heard faint radio static.

"Bastard's calling for help" Zikha exclaimed.


"He's using the shots to mask it". Two more bullets tore through the metal on the other side, as if to buttress her point.

More faint static.

Zikha snuck a peek, but swiftly ducked away when one of the car's tyres exploded.

"A clean shot's impossible," she spat. "He's too well tucked in"

More shots.

Micheal swiftly discarded his rifle and unholstered his Side-arm.

"What are you...."

More shots.

More static.

"The branches around the sniper, Zikha...are they horizontal or vertical...???" Micheal yelled.
More shots.

"What are you....?"

"Answer the bloody question???"

More shots.

"....vertical..." She responded.

Micheal waited for the moment between shots, took a deep breath, got off the ground, and fired four rounds into the sniper's position. He swiftly returned to the ground and waited.

Long silence

Brohlo and Zikha stared at him, somewhat confused.

"Did you hit him?" She asked frantically.

Then they heard something crash through the trees and hit the ground with a thud.

"Try and keep up, Soldier" Micheal said,  picking up his rifle. " Lets move".

But even as Micheal left the perplexed faces of Zikha and Brohlo behind him, he couldn't  stop thinking, "I can't let the General find out the truth about Lucious....I just can't"







Scatta charged.

Lucious barely had enough time to roll away before the blade hacked into the ground. He sprang to his feet, instinctively adopting a Krav Magra pose like his father had taught him. It was just reflex, he didn't want to fight. Scatta's movements were jerky and uncoordinated.


  Lucious didn't want to hurt him.

"BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"   They chanted.

Scatta charged again, going for  a blow to the  head. Lucious ducked away again. There was rage in Scatta's eyes. He clearly did not anticipate such a fast moving target.

"BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"

Lucious moved around his opponent slowly.


He didn't have time for this. For all he knew, Sokha might've Killed Dad by now. He couldn't tell how long he'd been unconscious ; hours? days? It was impossible to tell. All he knew was, he had to save his family. But there were at least a hundred savage-looking  armed teenagers between him and his father. There was no doubt that Scatta meant to kill him. He had to think of something....fast.

Scatta's machete swung through the air again .But this time, the tip of the  blade tore through Lucious' arm. He screamed.

 An Electrified wave of excitement swept across the crowd.

"BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"

"Scatta has drawn first Blood!!!" Baba's voice rang out.

"YESSSS!" Scatta yelled.

Lucious stared at the blood dripping from his arm. Everything went dark after that. His fast beating heart began to slow down. His entire body suddenly felt cool, despite the beads of sweat rolling down his skin. All the sounds around him became background noise. From that moment, the teenager in front of him became his prey.

 At the sight of Lucious' eyes, Scatta hesitated.


His solid confidence instantly became flaccid.

"Are you afraid of him??" Baba's voice snapped. " Kill this boy!!"

Scatta charged again.

Lucious ducked under the blow, caught Scatta's wrist in mid-air, then crashed his other palm into the side of  Older teenager's  arm.


The brutality of the strike broke  Scatta's Humerus instantly. Blood and bone exploded from his flesh.

He screamed..... And fell to the ground.

Silence descended upon the crowd.

Lucious stared at him as if he were an injured insect he'd just discovered wriggling on the ground. There was no warmth nor humanity in Lucious' eyes. Just an uncanny expression of  indifference with which he regarded the Screaming teen.

More screams from Scatta.

No one moved.

More screams.

Lucious still adopted his Krav magra stance.


The old Teenager was in agony, screaming,writhing and rolling in the dirt.

"He's strong" Baba said softly. In all his years of combat, he'd never seen a child do that before.
More screams.

Baba casually picked up the machete, and walked towards Scatta.

Even in excruciating pain, Scatta instantly understood the implications of his situation.

One of the boys looked away seconds before Baba hacked into Scatta's head. In three swift and brutal blows, the teenager was silent forever.

Lucious didn't even flinch when Baba struck with the blade. He maintained his stance without so much as a flicker in his expression.

Baba detached the bloody machete from the dead boy's body and stared at Lucious. There was a look in the boy's eyes that chilled him. It reminded him of the eyes of a Tiger he'd seen years ago. No mercy, no sympathy. Just a raw animalistic indifference. He hesistated for a few seconds, then quickly composed himself. He slowly pointed the blade at Lucious.

"The spirits have spoken," Baba declared. " They have sent us a new brother. We shall call him......Tiger"

No one spoke or even moved for that matter. The boys seemed shaken by the death of their colleague.

"Tiger!!!" Baba screamed into the crowd. "His name, is Tiger!!"

"Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" They began to chant. The level of enthusiam was low. The some of the boys were trembling. But in seconds, the energy in their voices returned.

"TIGER! TIGER! TIGER!" They chanted.

Lucious suddenly crumpled to the ground and blacked out.

The chanting ceased.

They stared at each other curiously.

Lucious regained consciousness minutes later.


Once again, there was an intense pain in his head. Over a dozen blackened faces stared down at him. The last thing he remembered was Scatta's blade slashing his arm. Nothing more.



to be continued..






LIFE IS A CHOICE MY FRIENDS
SO CHOOSE WISELY
ENOUGH SAID