Chapter 15
The mysterious call
Vorarin’s eyes move with my hands movement. He asks:
What happened?
When he sees the insignia, he searches his knapsack for his own insignia. I turn it on. Its display becomes blue, then, after a short time, “Please wait” appears on the screen. Vorarin comes to me and blame himself grumbling:
Why it didn’t come to my mind? Maybe we could find the group by this set.
Then, “All for each other to live” appears on the display. After a while, the motto disappears and another phrase appears on the screen:
“Please enter your fingerprint via the rear scanner”
I push aside the drawer door of the scanner at the rear of the set. Then I put my finger tip on its screen. The set makes a beep sound. Again the same command appears on the display and asks me to enter my fingerprint for the second time. After that, another command appears:
“Expose your eye in front the scanner”
I expose my right eye in front of the scanner. A blue ray passes over my eye. Again, I hear a beep sound. As I guess, it asks me to expose my eye in front the scanner again. When it confirms both scans, another command appears. The set wants me to enter my personal data and asks me to be careful entering the data. Once I entered the data, the last phrase appears:
“Your registration finished. You are now a member of Thunderbolt 1. You must try to keep safe the insignia. You will be asked four times every 24 hours to put your fingerprint and expose your eye to the scanner. In the case of disobey the command, the insignia will burn down completely. This is just to prevent abusing the set by others in case of you lose the set. If you suspect that the insignia may be in enemy’s hand, do destroy it. The best tool the enemy may use it against you, is this insignia.”
Then it allows me to use the set after appreciation and wishing me good luck. It has limited options:
“Correspondence and talk with group members”
“Using the map and route guide”
“Viewing the position of the group members”
“Connection with the base”
“Viewing the commands”
“Membership confirmation”
Now I realize why Karisan so insisted on keeping the insignia. The enemy will be able to destroy all the group if get the insignia. Since it has a touch screen, I touch the “Viewing the position of the group members” option by my finger. “Searching…” appears on the screen and after a short time, it finds a person. Vorarin’s face is flushed with excitement. His insignia also has found the same person. A lamp on the set begins blinking and makes a discontinuous but permanent beep:
A-2-------------------------------------position: within a 20-meter radius
In action
Acceptance: accordant
Fingerprint confirmation: five hours ago
Vorarin bends forward and looks at outside. Then he turns the set around in the air circularly. All of a sudden, the set beeps continuously and its lamp blinks fast in front the exit door.
I think the set sends a sort of signal around and finds someone who has the same set. This kind of beeping and blinking shows that someone is this side at a distance of twenty meters from us, but why my set doesn’t show you?
I look at the display carefully and I say:
I think we skipped something…
Suddenly my eyes meet another option which is in a box in another corner of the screen:
I got it! I should guessed. This set is able to allow us hide ourselves from the other members of the group optionally. If the radius of the receiving signals is wide, it should find all of the members, not just one, for I think not the group is one person.
Then I press on the “Mission settings” by my finger. As I thought the “Acceptance” and “Mission” options are off. I turn on the “Acceptance” option and at the same time the second option on the Vorarin’s set becomes on:
A-6-------------------------------------position: within a 1-meter radius
Mission: cancelled
Acceptance: accordant
Fingerprint confirmation: five minutes ago
Vorarin also turns on the “Acceptance” option. The “A-7” option appears on my set.
As I see, I guess there aren’t more than seven people in our group!
Vorarin confirms my words with shaking his head but he is pale and he ponders.
What’s the matter?
They’ve five guards only in one street while we are just seven in our group.
He is right but the quantity is not always the factor of the victory. Maybe some groups from the “Hope” shelter are here and each one covers a part of the town.
Now that we found this one, we’d better reach him as soon as possible. We don’t know here and the enemy may be everywhere.
He turns off his set, goes toward a collapsed wall which has turned into a chair, sits on it and leans on the wall. Then he removes the remained plastic sheet around his ankles and pulls off his shoes. Although we wound plastic sheets around our feet, I feel some sands in my shoes. So I empty my shoes. We should be ready to go.
Suddenly something comes into my mind which trembles me and makes me to gulp my saliva, so that my hands stop tying involuntary. As the insignia can guide us to the members of the group, it can easily take us to the enemy. I feel myself into an icy lake and it causes a cold wave trembles all of my body and makes my hair stand on end.
The insignia may guide us toward the enemy like the cheese which attracts a mouse to the trap. Why those four people’s sets are off? Why there couldn’t be seen any reaction to the appearance of our name on the display? Does it mean the presence of two new members has no importance to it?
I pull the set out of my pocket. The sign of four black and white people who are hand in hand, is spinning. All options appear on the screen when my finger touches it. I enter in “Position of group members”. A-2 is still in his position and hasn’t moved even a little bit. The “fingerprint confirmation” shows five hours and ten minutes ago. If it is as mentioned in instruction four times in a day, he has to confirm his fingerprint again fifty minutes later. Yet, if A-2 is taken captive, they will force him to reconfirm his fingerprint. I must communicate with him. Vorarin comes toward me and shows his anxiety with his question:
Let’s see, what’s the matter? Is there any problem?
Anybody hear me?
I am waiting for reply from the set, while I managed to communicate, but there is no response. Again, I repeat my question but nobody replies. When I become sure, I answer Vorarin’s question:
Things don’t match up.
He, who seems smelled the matter, says:
Maybe he’s in a situation that he can’t reply us.
It is possible, so I send him my request in text. Time passes for a while, yet I receive no response. I send my message again, it remains without reply.
As I said, it may be a trap. We shouldn’t go there unadvised. We should check conditions, or maybe we’d better not to risk. We can get away from here easily, without any risk.
Vorarin pauses for a while and then he says:
It’s possible but in case of they’ve taken him captive we should help him.
But we have no information about his captivity. We don’t know yet if he is alive.
We’ll know it within forty five minutes later. If he reconfirms his fingerprint, we’ll find out he is still alive.
I go to the darkness to be safe from the moonlight which has lighted inside a little.
But even if he is dead, they can use his fingerprint.
He relocates himself to see outside well. Then, with an anxious but determined face, he says:
Yeah, but it’s different for the eye scanning. In addition to eye color determination, it can recognize human death. These are written in setting section of the manual.
Well, what do you mean?
He intends to show me something with his words.
I mean that as much as it may be a trap, it is likely not to be. Maybe he is dead, but equally it is likely he is alive and needs our help.
He is absolutely right and if the probability of being alive for him is less enough, still we should go to help him. But the letters confront me with a dilemma. In addition, we are doing something like saving a prey from the hungry lions. The result is anxiety and worriment for me, who has no experience in this case.
I can’t believe yet what a trouble I have gotten into. The rapid eyes movement and shaking of Vorarin’s body show that he has a confused and involved mind too.
The things you said means that we should wait for the time being to see if he reconfirms his fingerprint. We shouldn’t risk for nothing. I go near the shop door to watch for the outside.
I sit near the entrance door and look at the outside through the holes on the wall. The gray dust of the rusted metals are floating in the air and thicken the darkness. A skyscraper is exactly in front of us and have hidden the moon completely. Exactly like the blue sky and the rays of the sun shining through the cloud gaps, the moon can be seen through the holes and cracks on the wall.
The skyscraper has a scruffy and messy facing. It has fallen on the left side buildings like a broken tree from its waist, but part of it is still standing. The upper part of it which is the same as foliage of a tree, has fallen on the middle of the boulevard. Yet some of the huge iron beams are linked to its body. Almost nine floors are still intact. The top of the skyscraper is designed like the spaceships, and is so big that covers the width of the boulevard. There is a deep pitting on it. All the buildings around it are destroyed. The received signal is from this building. But nothing suspicious can be seen.
All of a sudden I feel a hand on my shoulder and another hand on my mouth. I turn my head without any attempt and I see Vorarin whose face is pale and his eyes are wide open.
I heard a footstep. I guess he’s coming here.
He speaks so quietly that I have to bring my ears close to his mouth. I stare at outside through a hole on the wall. Two other shadows are coming toward the shop where we are. They seem are talking to each other but I can hear just a squeak sound.
I hear the footstep of the first one who passes by us. I move aside from the door. As I guessed, the blue soldier, who is almost head and shoulders taller than me, passes by the door. I don’t know why I didn’t hear his footstep. Maybe he walks slowly or he takes step on the sands. He has no mask on his face but his back is toward me and darkness doesn’t allow me to see his face.
Those two people come toward this one who stops now. They stand in front him, then they brings their right foot forward at the same time as if they take a step and then they stamp their feet on the ground, next they freeze. One of them says with a thick and rough voice:
Mission accomplished.
Their superior, with a thicker and rougher voice than the soldier’s, which is like a canary voice, says:
What happened?
We found there, now the group are searching.
The second soldier says following his coworker:
The south zone also was found and the group is working on.
Nothing has been found yet?
Both answer together:
No.
Damn. There are at least twenty zones in this town. What number region is this?
Both soldiers are standing like the statue and don’t move. The mood of their faces can’t be seen from under their masks. Just their superior looks around once in a while.
This is the twelfth, sir.
The superior says with anger:
How much it takes to find all?
They hesitate a moment, as if both are waiting for someone to reply. Finally, they break the ice and one of them says:
About two weeks, at this pace.
Their chief, while is ready to jump like a leopard, comes one step closer to them, and says screamingly:
What? It takes two weeks? So what the hell are you doing? Maybe you think you are picnicking here? A child also could find everywhere easily if he is given a map. The town would be buried entirely under the sands by two weeks.
The soldier, while his voice trills, says:
We need reinforcements, sir.
The soldiers receive a mocking reply:
Now I’m sure you are picnicking!
He raise his voice insomuch that his voice echoes through the shop:
What the hell are you fifty men doing here? You a bunch of nonentities need reinforcements!?
The wind reigns the silence and then goes away. The two soldiers are standing there without any motion and are looking at their chief, who stamps his foot on the ground, and takes steps to the left and right off and on. His face is not visible but his bald head is. I see his profile occasionally but his face is faded in the darkness.
He finally stops, he loses his patience, and says:
Where’s that stupid moron guy?
Hail, sir!
A man comes out from the opposite alley, performs the same thing which seems to be a kind of military salute, and says:
That region has subsided entirely, yet we searched for everywhere.
Well?
Well…we should circumscribe it.
You mean there’s no way you reach it?
I mean the subsidence almost reaches to a one hundred meter radius. No building remained intact too.
The commander turns on his wireless set and says:
Ravigan, what did you do?
A weak hiss is heard and then a normal voice says:
Nothing yet, Kansen, we’re searching for the nonce.
What did those three men do? Have they ever reported something?
They haven’t found anything likewise.
I go to the base. If you find something, inform me.
The tone of the man from the other side of the wireless shows that they are either of the same ranks or are comrades. Kansen turns off the wireless and says to those three:
You watchdog around here. I guess some are tailing us. Be alert. There may be many cows in this town but we are looking for those who are marked. By the way, did you post some guards somewhere I told you?
The third soldiers replies:
Yes sir. All are in the positions you assigned.
Kansen says mockingly and scornfully:
At least you could do this.
The three of them salute and then disappear in the darkness.
They wait until that Kansen disappears in the darkness, then one of the soldiers says:
God damn you, where the hell were you? He was near to lacerate us. I don’t know at all why they send us to report to Kansen. All of us have wireless set, don’t we?
The third soldier removes his hat and says:
Something is suspicious here.
He has wispy beard and hair. His face looks like a fox, and most importantly, his eyes are blue; they are so chromatic and shiny that I can see them from afar easily and they shine like two full moon in the darkness. The two other soldiers also remove their masks following their confrere. Their eyes are blue and shiny likewise. The second soldier, while breathe a sigh, says:
We shouldn’t joined them from the beginning. Soon after I reach there I’ll resign and leave.
The soldier next to him calms him with his hand and asks:
What’s the matter? Anything happened?
The third soldier, while is looking at the distant and seems is thinking, says:
Something is happening, we are not alone here.
The second soldier sits on the hood of a car, and as a creakiness sound comes out from the car, the last tire comes off the car and lies on the ground. This attracts all for a short moment and then it is disremembered when the sound of the metal on the pavement cuts off. After that he begins to swing his legs in the air. The first soldier, while leans to the car, says:
This’s obvious that we’re not alone. Certainly the “Hope” group is here too. It seems they’re the performer of this game. All of these events are their fault. But I don’t know why they don’t show themselves and do anything.
The second soldier interferes and says:
I said from the very first day that the “Hope” group” is here. Once I saw one of them in the darkness.
The third one sits on the collapsed part of the building and says:
This’s not important fact. Kansen also knows it but pretends ignorance. It’s as clear as daylight that they don’t sit around and do nothing at all, but they’ll engage. The problem is something else, something more important than this.
The second soldier stops swinging his legs and says:
In the case of we couldn’t find it there wouldn’t be anything more important than this, because I don’t think at all that Kansen leaves us alive then.
The third one puts his hand under his chin and ponders. The first soldier’s eyes show his impatience by gazing at the third soldier, and he folds his arms but says nothing and waits.
Another group is here except for us and the “Hope” group.
They look at the third soldiers in wonder. They stare at him dumb stricken as if an electric shock has made them frozen.
What do you mean?
The third soldier keeps quiet.
Maybe you mean…
Yeah.
Their mouths remain open like the apoplectics.
The red group?
The third soldier shakes his head.
Whence they become aware?
They fail to answer with their silence. The three of them cogitate, so that they don’t even look at each other. It seems to them to be lost in the history for a few years. Finally, the first soldier, while is looking at the building in the opposite, says:
Whence you knew it? There wasn’t any report of them to be seen as yet. Nobody’s said anything likewise. I, who’ve been in the most missions, didn’t see anything too.
The first soldier, as beats his fingers on his cheek, says:
I also hadn’t seen no one till half an hour ago but when I was coming here I saw one of them. It seemed he hadn’t seen me, so I went close to him as I could. At first, I thought that he’s one of our group but he hadn’t worn our uniform. He seemed waiting for someone. He kept waiting about two or three minutes but nobody came. So when he became sure that nobody would come, he went. I decided to chase him.
Then he becomes silent and looks around.
I though he is one of the common people or maybe of the “Hope” group. I followed him to somewhere till he suddenly turned and looked backward. That time I saw his red eyes. He immediately moved and I followed him again. All of a sudden he began running and disappeared in darkness.
He takes a pause and then says:
Of course, this event dispelled my doubt, since where ever I went recently it seemed to me that some people were there before me. Their footprints were visible clearly. I guess they’ve finished their works in the east side of the town, now they’ve come this part and are searching.
The second soldier who is sitting on the hood of the car, looks at the sky and says:
Woe! What the calamity is this we cursed with? Does Kansen know?
I didn’t say anything to him, but I should report it to him. They are interfering us and if they find it sooner, we would be knocked off. I think we should be ready for some skirmishes.
The third soldier stands on his feet, hangs his machine gun on his shoulder and hold his pistol in his hand:
I’ve to go now and report Kansen personally. You keep sentry around here and watch up. We are rabbits in this game, we can’t see anybody but they can. I think their campsite should be around here. Here is exactly in the middle of twenty five western regions.
The second soldier, with eyes wide open and wrinkled brows, says:
So what about Kansen?
Leave it to me.
When he fades in the darkness, the two other soldiers also disappear at the end side of the boulevard. Vorarin, who seems has held his breath till now, while pretends to be calm, says:
It’s become a knotty problem. It works to the detriment of us. I knew from the beginning the reds don’t sit around and do nothing at all.
I approach the door and look at outside carefully.
It’s not exactly the same you’re saying. It’s to our benefit they don’t focus thoroughly on us anymore. It seems the reds and the blues are looking for something, as we do.
Vorarin shrugs:
I don’t know anything more.
We should go to that building where the signals come from. The way they talked to each other and that they didn’t notice this building is as if nobody is there in that building. We can’t trust it. The signal might be from the reds. Let’s go.