Kapitel 22: Nature’s fury

Da Nuru who had already experienced the flood here went on to explain the situation of their surroundings to the other three. He said that this place was a small district catering mostly to the needs of the tourists since it was the most important transit area between the capital city and the mountain areas. But due to the heavy flooding followed by the landslide, the place had lost its vibrant atmosphere as a tourist spot.

The once colourful area buzzing with tourists was now replaced by Police personnel including the Army patrolling and catering to the needs of the survivors. The streets which was once lined up with makeshift carts and shops busy with buzzing activities of people shopping, eating was now replaced with relief camps, medical camps and food distribution centres.

The relief camps hosted people who had lost their houses or families and had nowhere to go. Medical camps had lots of patients undergoing treatments. Many people had lined up in front of the flood distribution centres to collect their food. The survivors of the floods waited hopelessly for a miracle to happen so that they could revert back to their earlier life. It was a heart wrenching scene.

The havoc created by the flood had left behind huge amounts of garbage including carcasses of fish, clothes, plastic, bricks, stones, tents, uprooted trees and so on. Luckily the connecting roads were all intact for movement of vehicles.

With the looks of it, the entire area would take at least a year to build back itself. Overall the place painted a grave picture of nature's fury against mankind.

The four of them saw that a couple of shops were intact. The shops had some people mostly the tourists coming to eat. They spotted a hotel and all four of them went in. They took turns to quickly freshen up.

It was a typical Indian restaurant. They then ordered something to eat. Their dinner was a simple one which consisted of a vegetable soup, roti* and curry followed by rice.

After they finished eating, Ronnie said to Jayne, "Jayne you three wait here. Let me got talk to the Police officers there. I'll be back soon." He gently rubbed her head which still had the bandage kind of a cloth strip smeared with herbal medicine. He left his backpack with her but took his documents and walked outside.

Ronnie now went to the nearest Police officer standing and greeted, "Hello officer. I'm Ronnie Roy. I wanted to know who's the Superior officer in charge here. I want to talk to him."

Looking at his clear, domineering aura, the Police officer was a little intimidated by his authoritative attitude. He simply led him to a small makeshift tent where the Superior was checking some files on the details of the current scenario.

He told Ronnie to wait outside while he went in to speak to his superior. The superior paused when his junior came in.

The junior saluted his superior and said, "Sir a person came asking me to talk to you. I brought him here. He's waiting outside. Shall I let him in?"

The superior officer could see a tall, handsome man wearing a black pant and white shirt holding some documents waiting outside his tent. He thought to himself, 'His handsome face, that authoritative aura looks very familiar but where he couldn't remember."

The superior didn't delay any further and asked his junior to send him inside. The junior walked out and asked Ronnie to go inside.

Ronnie politely greeted the superior with his charming smile. "Hello officer. I'm Ronnie Roy. I'm from London-"

The officer quickly reacted without letting him complete his introduction. "Ronnie Roy from London. Sir!" He quickly saluted him.