KOLLUPIA S02 E09

Crude.
Very crude. Sokha thought. The boy's head was nearly cut in half by what could only have been a machete. He hated crude kills. Death was a gift that should be given cleanly, he thought.
He crouched next to the body and stared at it for a long time. The blood was still dripping from the teenage corpse. What piqued his curiosity was the boy's broken arm. The splintered bone still jutting out of torn flesh. Judging by the angle, he surmised that it had been the result of a single blow. He recognised it because he'd inflicted a similar injury on a soldier only weeks ago.
He touched the boy's skin. It was still warm. The area indicated that it had been previously occupied by twenty to thirty people.


Long silence.
"Should we move out, sir?" One of the Soldiers asked.
Sokha continued staring at the body. Could it be? He wondered. Could the old wolf have done the unthinkable? But it made sense, he thought as he rose to his feet. Hiding the other half of the formula inside his son's DNA was genius. No one would suspect to check there.
Lucious should've washed down river. He thought. The absence of a body indicated that he might still be alive. And then there was this body.
"Sir...?" Went the soldier hesitantly. Save for Sokha, all were fitted with Night-Vision goggles.
"We move out" Sokha said finally.
"Back to the camp?"
"No,.... " Sokha sighed.
"Turn off comms....now" Sokha said calmly.
The Soldiers stared at each other. Turning off their Comms would mean disconnecting from HQ. That would mean they were going off-mission. They had strict instructions to follow protocol and radio back to the General. But they also knew Sokha would kill all six of them easily if they didn't comply .
They turned off their Comms.
Long silence.
"We hunt young Lucious" Sokha said walking away.
The Soldiers exchanged looks again, and followed him.
 Lucious  stumbled through the dark bushes. He had numerous cuts and bruises on his arms and legs . Above their heads, there seemed to be a  loud dispute ensuing between the various groups of mosquitoes  over "Sucking Rights". Of course,  Baba and the rest of the boys  seemed oblivious to all this. They moved through the trees and bushes as if they'd done so thousands of times before.

The image of Scatta's body was still fresh in his mind. Had he done that?  Had he "Zoned" out again? "Zoning" was what dad had called it. It had happened once before. The last time had been during a training session. Dad was teaching him how to evade a knife assault. Lucious hated sharp objects....in fact he dreaded them. The thought of being cut always terrified him. At first, he managed to duck and weave his way past dad's strikes as he had been taught. Dad was using a wooden dagger for this exercise. Though, he knew it couldn't cut him, Lucious still dreaded contact with the edged weapon. Suddenly, dad changed knife hands. Startled, Lucious ducked the blow but in his haste, he lost his footing. He fell backwards and cut his hand against the lawn mower in the yard. It wasn't a large cut. In fact, it barely even bled. But the fact that he had slipped infuriated him. How could he have been so clumsy? How could he have not anticipated that move? Then the feeling came. A dark feeling that surged through his body like an alien force. His heart was pounding in his ears, his temperature rose. It was the same feeling he had when he fought Scatta. And just like that day, he blacked out.
When he came to, Dad was lying on the ground, out of breath and with a bad nose bleed. He was panting and staring at Lucious like he was seeing him for the first time. Dad still had his hands up as if fending off an assault.
That was the first time he "Zoned". Dad had told him not to sweat it, that it was nothing to worry about. But Lucious couldn't shake the look in his father's eyes.
There was fear in them. Same fear he saw in the eyes of the boys when he gained consciousness.

Lucious tripped over a fallen branch. Firm fingers caught his arm.
"Keep up, Tiger" Baba said, helping him up.
They kept on moving.
Aside from his parents well being, there was a more dreadful thought in his head. It was the image of Scatta's body. An icy chill ran through  him. Had he done that? Had he killed that boy?
 He suddenly felt sick. A warm  bile rose  to the back of his throat, then he violently  emptied the contents of his stomach into the grass.
"The Tiger is sick" he heard Baba's voice say.
Seconds passed.
Then they continued.
Eventually, they arrived at a clearing on a hill top. Baba ordered the boys to start a fire and guard the perimeter. Most of the boys kept their distance from Lucious.

Long silence.
He stared into the flames for a long time. Everything seemed too surreal, like a never ending nightmarish wormhole he'd fallen into.. He had to save his family. He had to get back to his dad. To think that less than a month before, his biggest fear was being expelled from school. Now, he was surrounded by malnourished looking teenagers armed with guns and machetes.

He tore his eyes away from the fire and gazed into the dark bushes.  He had no way of knowing where they were. Escape seemed pointless even if he could make it away from this band of killers.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Baba asked as he sat next to him on the cold grass.
"I-I have to get back t-to my dad" Lucious whimpered. "P-please let me go"
Long pause.

The flames threw weird shadows across Baba's curious expression.
"You fight like a killer" Baba said "And you kill like one.....and now you cry like a baby?"
The other boys sat silently around them. Two stood guard, staring into the forest.  Their rifles seemed almost tall than them.

"I've heard stories" Baba shrugged. "Strange stories about ...strange soldiers that move like lightening and strike with the strength of twenty men"
"P-please,....let me go" Lucious' voice was breaking.
"Of course, I tell them they sniff too much gun-powder" Baba continued. There was more than a tinge of excitement in his voice. " But if I had not seen what I had seen today, I would never have believed it"

Lucious covered his face with his hands. It all felt like a nightmare. A very real nightmare.
"The Over lord would be pleased" Baba chuckled. "I caught a super soldier"
"I'm n-not a soldier"
"You splintered a boy's arm like it were a twig...that makes you a soldier....or a f**king lunatic"
Lucious was still whimpering.
Baba rose to his feet.

"I do not know who, or what you are" Baba said. "But I doubt you could kill all of us, even if you had no other choice"
Lucious raised his eyes to stare at the scared faces around the fire.
One thing was certain, he thought. He had to find a way to escape.





Their pace was faster now. It seemed the adrenaline from the gun-fight was still surging through their veins.
They'd made great progress past the forest, now they were sprinting through the Vast Farms on the outer limits of the city.
The moon stood naked above them as they moved silently.
It was an open field, which meant no cover. If the enemy was aware of their presence, this would be a death trap.  They had to be fast. Earlier recon of the area indicated that it was mostly unguarded. But recon had said the same thing about the road they'd left minutes ago.

Micheal wasn't sure his lungs could take it any more. His chest felt like it was about to explode. Then, his eyes caught something in the light of the moon. It was a body....or at least a portion of it. The upper torso of a human being. It looked like  the product of an explosion of some sort. Then he realised what he was staring at. He halted in his sprint.
"Wait!" He called out. His voice was scarcely above a whisper, but Zikha and Broholo's ears picked it up. They stopped a few metres ahead.
"What is it??" Zikha's whisper carried a tinge of anger.
Long pause.
"We're in a Mine-Field." Micheal said softly.
"Bulls**t!" Broholo spat. "If you can't f**king keep up....."
"How do you know?" Zihka's voice silenced Broholo.
There was another long silence.
"Look at the ground around us" Micheal said. "See how the earth is has been disturbed in many places?"
"That could be anything" Zikha said. "Its a f**king farm for f**ksake"
They remained still. With the night sounds all around them.
Then they heard the sounds of approaching vehicles behind them.
"F**k! Another patrol" Broholo spat. "We have to move....NOW!!"
"I don't think that's a good idea" Micheal whispered. "We should go back and find another way"
"By 'back', you mean in the direction of the approaching vehicles?" Broholo said. "F**k this. If we stand here any longer we'll be spotted"
Broholo made to leave.
"Broholo,....wait" Zikha said as she took a step towards him. Then she heard a very familiar metallic click under her feet.
Broholo froze in his tracks.
Long pause.
The sounds of the vehicles were getting closer.
Zikha stood deathly still.
"Is that....what I think....it is?" Her whisper carried a tinge of fear.
"Yes, Zikha" Micheal sighed. "You're standing on a landmine. If you take your foot off it, it'll go off"