บท 22: Interrogation
The average walking speed of a human is 5km/hr. We had four times the speed of an average human. So in two short hours, we're able to reach Alampur Village without any setbacks.
We killed a few Abnormals in the way and their crystals went to the 'team fund' which was supposed to be used for buying a spatial ring.
After hearing the notion of the spatial ring, the tracking bag that I usually wore without any problems seemed to have become a bit heavier.
'Sigh! I've already started to become lazy.'
But all of these useless thoughts came to an end when the reached Alampur.
Because the sight we saw in front of us was definitely not something we had expected.
The whole village was filled with corpses for as far as eyes could see.
The whole ground of the village was soaked red with blood and body parts.
The houses in the village were tattered with bullet holes and the ground was charred with explosions.
A strong stench permeated from whole village which didn't not lose the stench emitted by the corpses lying around the Mutant tree. Just that, this time there was a mix of gun powder in there.
"The army must have passed through here." I said.
It didn't take long for one to understand who was the culprit of this carnage. Who, aside the army would have enough manpower to destroy a whole village filled with abnormals.
"Yes. And this happened recently. A few hours at most. They must not have gone far from here. They couldn't have." Rahul said and looked at the map for a moment before saying.
"If their commander is competent, then he must have camped his troops at this hilly area over here." He pointed at a few hills shown in the map.
"That's not far from here." I said.
'Not only was it not far. But it was actually in between Alampur and our hometown.'
I wondered for a moment if the gunshots that little Neha heard was their doing or not.
"How many of them are there?" I asked.
"Not many" Rahul replied. "Less than 200."
"How did you know that?" I asked in confusion. "Did you guess that from the number of bullet holes?"
"No, not really" he chuckled then pointed at the ground "Look closely, although the ground here is hard, you can still see the tracks left behind by their vehicles."
"Going by their tracks, there must have been two or three large vehicles and one small jeep." He said.
"But that's not necessarily all of their troops. This could just a small detachment for all we know. We won't know about the situation until we see for ourself."
"So… are we going to their camp?" I asked.
"No. We won't go to their camp. Just scout it a little bit to gain a better understanding of the situation." He said "But that's for later. First, we must salvage any crystal we can find in this battlefield."
"Well… Alright." Although the army has turned this place into hell, we still might be able to gain some benefits from it.
And so, our search started.
And even though I started this search very excitedly, I was soon disappointed.
The shockwave produced by the bullets which destroyed the brains of the Abnormals, destroyed the crystals along with it. And the few that I remain intact were heavily damaged as well.
Plus, a lot of Abnormals perished in the explosions as well, so I never even put any hopes in finding any crystals from them since I couldn't find their heads in the first place.
'But this village was once home to around 500 people. So there must have been at least 400 abnormals in here. I'm sure I'll find something.' I thought and with carried on this arduous task.
By the end of our search, we were able to salvage about a 100 crystals. But most of them were damage so didn't fetch a good price.
The 100 crystals that should have gained us 800 white coins, had they been in their perfect conditions were only able to gain us 200 white coins.
'Well… Still better than nothing.' I thought.
Now we only needed around 300 more crystals to buy the Spatial Ring.
"Huu. I find it hard to believe that out of those 200 people, no one was able to find about the usage of the crystals." I said.
"That's not surprising." Rahul said. "People in the army are thought how to follow any command given to them. They not thought how to think independently. Actually, I would have found it surprising if those people had been able to find the proper usage of the crystals."
"Well… Isn't this a good this for us. We just received 200 free white coins."
"In a sense." Rahul said "This also goes to show how rare and talented Gaurav was."
"Hopefully he's still not dead." I said.
"Nah! He's not among the ones who die easily." Rahul smiled "I think he'll come back. What do you think?"
"Well… I'll tell you the truth. I didn't like that old man. But…" I thought for a while and then said "I think he'll come back as well."
"In that case, let's continue on our way. There's nothing else left in this village." Rahul said and stood up to walk.
"Brother…" I suddenly remembered something and said.
"Huh! What is it?" he turned around and asked.
"There are no survivors here… Do you think the army took them?"
"Most likely." He replied.
"Then… Do you think Neha's situation has something to do with the army as well. After all… their camp is rather close to Zakopur."
"We'll know once we get there." He simply said. But I could not see his expression anymore.
At that time, I suddenly heard a mechanical voice in my head.
'Necessary conditions met.'
'Your Skill 'Advanced Vision' has been upgraded by a level.'
'New features unlocked within the skill.'
I heard the message and my blank expression turned ecstatic.
—————
I looked at the army camp in the distance. Although it was dark in the night, I was still able to see everything very clearly because of the 'Night Vision' featured of the 2nd tier Advanced Vision.
Not only was I able to see everything clearly, I was even able to see everything 3 times further as well.
But that brought me no joy at this moment.
Instead I was burning with rage.
'Those women… Those poor women. What did they ever do to get treated like this.' I clenched my teeth and looked at the sight going inside the Army Camp in anger.
'They're their own countrymen. They're the very people they were supposed to protect. How could they do this.'
"Those bastards." I cursed in a voice filled with rage. "Those filthy beasts. They were supposed to protect these people and not…"
"Calm your emotions…" Rahul interrupted me at once.
"But brother. They're…"
"I know." He said. "I can see everything just as well as you." I could feel a hint of anger in his voice but I felt as if he was trying to subdue it.
"But then…"
"What?" he snapped. "You plan to go and save them. Do you think that it's so easy to infiltrate an army camp. That you'll be able to enter and leave as you wish."
"Do you not see those men petrolling the area. Or those sentry on guard with the heavy machine gun." He said in anger "Have that little bit of power of yours gone over to your head little brother."
"But I… I just…" I dropped my head and punched the ground.
Rahul looked at me and finally let out a sigh.
"We cannot save those women Ashok. And even if we could have saved them, I would not have done so."
I looked up at him in confusion and sadness and asked "Why?"
"Because we cannot protect them. Once we saved those women, then what? How are you going to feed them? How are you going to protect them? If a Abnormal horde attacked your group, then would you leave them behind to die or die yourself trying to buy them a few more minutes."
"You have to consider a lot of things before making such decisions. You cannot just go taking actions based on your feelings." He said "You must understand little brother, that you cannot protect everyone. At least not with your current strength."
"I…" I sighed and said "I understand. But…" I wanted to ask about Neha but he signalled me to shut up.
"I know what you want to ask." He said "We'll catch one of those guys patrolling the area and ask him about the information relating to Zakopur."
"Alright." I said with clenched fist. "Then let's do this."
"No. Only I'll be going. You'll stay here and wait for me." He said sternly.
"But…"
"No buts. Wait here for me. I'll come back in five minutes." Saying that, he turned around and vanished in the darkness. It was almost as if he'd merged with the forest.
This was the first time I'd seen him done such a thing and I was bit shocked.
'Is that a skill, or just one of his abilities.' I wondered. 'Now that I think about it, I never really asked him what his first skill was. Well, not that I really matter.'
I turned to look at the camp once more and my mood suddenly turned sour once again.
'I hope she's not in this camp. If she is…' I chenched my fist so hard that my fingernails would have pierced my palm had it not been for the 2nd tier defensive suit.
'I'll kill every last one of these bastards.'
Just as Rahul had suggested, the army had camped at the top of one of the hills in the area.
Currently, we were spying on them from the hill opposite to them.
Although normally, we would not have been able to see anything that was going on in their camp. We were now able to do so because of the Advanced vision skill.
Advanced Vision:- Allows the user to see 3 times further in a clear way. Exhausts 0.1 point of the User's mana for every 20 minutes of usage.
User can now use Night vision. Exhausts 0.1 point of User's mana for every 2 minutes of usage.
Level- Tier 2
'Huuu…' I sighed. Waiting was not really my strong suit. I looked up at the sky to pass some time.
The Night Vision burned through the Mana points at a really fast pace so using it consistently was not really feasible.
I calculated the distance from the bottom of the hill to the Sentry Guard facing this direction. If Neha was in there, then I would have to cross that distance somehow.
'Using my Speed booster skill, I'll be able to increase my speed by 125% for 60 seconds. In the darkness, it's not an impossible task.'
'I could run inside as fast as possible. Kill the guards, rescue Neha and got out as quickly as I can.'
But… Although this defensive suit can protect me against the attacks of Abnormals, it won't be able to block bullets for me. If they start firing at me then…' As I was thinking I suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from the forest.
I looked vigilantly in that direction and after a while, a black silhouette emerged from the darkness.
It was Rahul. Although I could not see his face because of the helmet, I could still recognize his body easily.
At this moment, there was a unconscious man wearing army's uniform in his hands.
After slapping his face a few times he finally regained consciousness.
The moment he looked at us, he screamed in shock but the screamed was muffled by the piece of cloth inserted in his mouth.
'Maybe our suit and helmet scared him a bit.' I thought and continued standing while staring at that guy.
Currently, we had gone deeper into the forest so that our interrogation would not be heard by the army.
It was rather dark in the forest and that army personnel was securely tied to a tree.
"Now…" Rahul said as he stopped sharpening his knife. "I have a few questions for you. But before that, I'll explain the rules to you."
He then took off his helmet so that both the men could see each other in the eyes. The soldier was a bit surprised that his captor was such a young man but aside from that he showed no other emotions in his eyes.
Rahul put the knife's edge on this cheeks and said "The rules are pretty simple.
If you lie. You lose a finger.
If you tell me information that I'm not interested in, you lose a finger.
If you shout needlessly, well, then you don't lose anything as no one will be able to hear your screams anyway.
Now, if you follow the rules I mentioned and give me all the information I need, and I'm feeling generous, you just might be able to see the next day."
"Do you understand?" Rahul gently asked "If you understand then nod your head."
But the man continued to stare back angrily.
Rahul smiled and kept knife gently on top of his fingers and said "I've just added one more rule, if you stay silent for too long, then you lose a finger as well." Then he pressed the knife down.
"Aaaaargh" Instantly the forest was filled with our prisoner's screams.
'Isn't he screaming a bit too much. Is losing a finger really that painful.' I thought.
'Maybe the interrogation scenes in the movies were portrayed incorrectly or maybe this guy was not as tough as I had thought.'
Rahul looked at the prisoner and said once again. "If you understand all of the rules, then nod your head."
This time the prisoner reluctantly nodded his head while staring back fiercely.
Rahul then went ahead and took out the muffled piece of cloth from his mouth.
"Now tell me, what your name?" he asked.
"My name is Keshav Mehta. And I'll not sell me comrades to you bastards no matter what you do to me." He said fiercely.
Rahul smiled at his answer and put the knife on top of Keshav's finger before saying "I've added another rule. If you talk too much nonsense, then you lose a finger as well." Then he pressed down and the forest reverberated with Keshav's screams once again.
After the screams died down, Rahul said "Listen now, Keshav. I'm not asking you to sell me your comrades as I have no interest in them."
"What I want is know is, did you take in any survivors from Zakpur town."
Keshav huffed in pain for a few seconds before he nodded his head "We did."
My heart instantly sank. If what he said is true then…
"Was there a little girl with those survivors. A 15 year old girl. She was…" before I could say anything else I was stopped by Rahul. He looked at me with solemn eyes and I instantly realized my mistake.
I'd panicked and spoken out of line. The tense atmosphere that Rahul had created earlier was gone because of my mistake.
Keshav looked at me for a while with a blank look before his expression suddenly turned savage and he shouted. "Yeah! I remember now. That bitch. That beautiful girl. We took her. Me and all my colleges. We took her one by one. She was a top class bitch. What a waste that she couldn't take it anymore and died a miserable death. You want to know what we did with her corpse. We fed it to the dogs. She was your sister? That's even better. Serves you right you bastards. Ahahahaha." He then started laughing maniacally.
Listening to his words, I felt as if the whole world in front of me had collapse.
'Neha she…' I felt my thoughts had stopped working.
The cheerful face of the girl who smile happily whenever she saw me.
The scolding that she gave me when she found out that I skipped my classes.
That lovable expression on her face when she slept.
That… As memories started to race across my mind, I realized that I'll never be able to see any of that ever again.
It was all… gone.
And… my sight went to the soldier who was still laughing maniacally and a surge of rage took over my heart and I lunged at him with my sword.
"Bastard. I'll carve you out in thousand of pieces." I swung my sword at his neck but in the last instant, before it touched his neck, it was parried by another similar sword.
I froze for a moment before I turned to look at Rahul.
"What is the meaning of this?" I asked as he went on stood in front of Keshav.
"Are you going to stop me from killing him?" I asked.
"Calm down Ashok. He's lying. Neha is still alive." He spoke in a calm manner. But those words were like thunder to my ears.
The rage that I'd built up in my heart, instantly crumbled and a sense of relief and immense worry take over it's place.
"Are… are you sure?" I asked. I hoped to hear the answer. But at the same time, there was a deep fear in my heart.
'What if he said that Neha's alive but she actually not.' I wanted to know the truth, but listening to all of this had taken a toll on me and I felt sapped of any energy I had in my body.
I slumped down on the ground and looked at him before I shouted in a hoarse voice "Are you sure."
Instead of saying anything, Rahul turned around and brought down the knife on Keshav's hands which instantly stopped his maniacal laughs and brought forth a painful cry.
Rahul held Keshav's chin and forced him to look at his face and said "My sister. She had the tattoo of a butterfly on her back. Are you sure it's her." I could feel a hint of panic and worry in his voice when he said that.
'So he was not sure…' the thought broke my heart for a moment before I realized something else. Something much more important.
'What butterfly tattoo. Didn't Neha used to hate tattoos. At one time, she also told me…' as I was lost in my own thoughts, I heard Keshav's laughter once again.
"Oh!!! How can I forget that tattoo. I kissed it so many times myself. Quite a taste I tell you… Every time I kissed her there, she would… AAaaahhhh." The knife was brought down once again and his scream pierced through the entire forest.
Rahul turned to look at me once again but this time there was a warm smile on his face with a hint of happiness.
"See. I told you he was lying."
He then turned to look at Keshav once again and said "My sister. She hates tattoos you dumb pig." Then he brought down the knife on his hands once again.
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