The Frozen Desert by Moein Mansoori Fard (free e books to read online TXT) 📕

I have never been in such situation. It is like a mathematics equation which I don’t know where I should begin, but I know I should consider all of the possible events before I search for Vorarin. I don’t know yet what happened to him but the only obvious matter is that his disappearing wasn’t without the reason.

I go to the first floor to have a view of outside. Suddenly I hear a voice makes me to hide myself in a dark corner of the room. Time passes in silence for a while. Again, I hear the same voice which says slowly and cautiously:

Why you don’t come up, Zairas?

This is Vorarin’s voice which comes from upstairs. He speaks calmly and shows that he is alone. The tone of his words makes me go up according to his voice calmly and cautiously. I stop in the part that I can see the second floor easily. He is sitting next to a window. He looks at the stairs I am ascending while he looks outside. Once he sees me, he says:

What’re you doing down there? Talk as quiet as you can and watch up. Be careful about the windows.

I pass by some remained stairs and reach him. His appearance shows that nothing happened to him. He suddenly pours a wisp of sands next to me. I look upward, the roof is half-ruined, yet the remnants of the upstairs can be seen. When Vorarin sees my interrogatory face, without waiting for my question, he says:

You’d better see outside yourself and you’ll find out everything.

I approach the window slowly and cautiously assuming outside is full of enemy. I look at outside with one eye. The headmost house is destroyed completely. I also can see the side boulevard, it looks like the entrance boulevard of the town. Four armed shadows are standing in the middle of the boulevard. They wore the blue regimentals and helmets.

I don’t know what they’re doing here, but still and all, they’re not here without reason. Our mission almost begins from here. As Karisan said, they’re many in number. There are a number of them in the entrance boulevard of the town, I had to come here, we should be very careful.

I move away from the window and I say:

Are we going to scuffle with them? What’s going on here at all?

He also moves away from the window and says:

What do you mean? Don’t you know anything of the mission?

Karisan said to me I’m going to be a savior.

Still the same and nothing else.

But now there are blue eye soldiers in the street.

Any event may happen to the saviors. You should be ready.

But I didn’t want this, I just want to find Mansidan.

I can’t realize what you’re saying. Who is Mansidan? We should just reach the group.

I wasn’t supposed to be here.

I sit in a corner and hold my head between my hands.

Raya is waiting for me, I should back.

Vorarin, wide eyed, says:

What’s the matter? I can’t get at all what are you saying about.

I flame with anger. I like to shout. I squeeze my head tightly. My breath comes in pants, I roar under my breath. Raya’s image flashes momentarily in front my eyes. She, lying on her bed, is waiting for her love, Mansidan, back to her. I pound on my brow:

God damn you Mansidan, bloody.

I do everything to back Mansidan. I take a deep breath and try to free my mind. I close my eyes and imagine an endless dark space. I put my hands on my eyes and push them:

Sorry, I confused for a second. What’s the mission?

He shrugs and says:

I don’t know likewise. Karisan said we must find the group.

Silence falls over, we both ponder to find a remedy.

I got it. We should stay here for the time being and check the situation. Those soldiers means danger, and danger could be everywhere.

He agrees and says:

We look around from here to find the enemy’s situation. I saw two of them in Main Boulevard. I had to come here but I’m not sure they are just those two.

How we should find the group?

I don’t know.

So what’re we doing here? To turn around ourselves?

He lapses into silence, then breathes a sigh and says:

Let’s find a safe place, then we’ll think about it. You keep your eyes on outside through the right window, me from this side.

I go toward the window through the darkness and hold on to the wall. I bring my head a little out of the window and look around. Nobody can be seen. Likewise, no one is behind the windows of the opposite buildings. They are not expected to show themselves. In this case we should go ahead under the shadow and darkness of the buildings.

I see no one here.

Vorarin says quietly:

Here still are those four guys, who seem are talking to each other. I think they’re not so many that they hold some guards in each street.

So here’s their base, or they’ve something important here which they keep guards in both boulevards.

Suddenly, the sound of hitting a metal thing on the pavement attracts my attention. I look at outside quickly, but I can’t see anyone. No rat came out of his hole. All of a sudden the view of the boulevard reminds something to me: the map.

I search for it all over my knapsack and finally I find it. Its edges are torn and some parts of it which is close to the edges are erased. Since it is a large-scale map so is folded as a notebook and it spreads out like a wallet and at the end forms a complete map.

I find the intended town. Although its edition date is thirty years ago I am sure it hasn’t suffered a sea change. When I find our way I figure out that it hasn’t changed at all. There are so many boulevards but if we get the name of the boulevard I fell on, we can find our way. I tear out that part of the map and put it in a specific place lest I forget.

Let me see, what’s the matter?

At least I got a map of here to find our way. As I see, we are almost in west side of the town.

This way…

All of a sudden Vorarin lies on the ground frightened. I also lie on the ground without knowing the reason. His eyes is wide open and he bites his lips. The exhalation from his nose displaces the sands on the ground. Then the light of a torch falls into the house, pauses a little and then checks another window. Next, it returns to the first place and examines more carefully inside the house and then turns off. The vague voices of those four guys can be heard while the light is moving about.

Vorarin signals me with his eyebrows and intimates me that I go toward to the commode creeping, which is turned over in the middle of the room. So we reach behind the commode. After that I see Vorarin lets out his breath. Maybe he thought that his breath may disclose where we are hiding. Like the possessed one, whose face is pale with fear, he says:

How they found out we are here? We should leave here soon. Hurry up, we should go.

I stop him by hand and I say:

We must be alert and consider everything. We can’t do anything without planning. They’re able to entrap us easily. Are you sure there was nobody else except these soldiers?

Yeah, I told you before. They were two, yet I’m not sure but when you did whatever I told,

I become sure.

Since I couldn’t realize what he means, think a little and he also helps me to get it:

I mean when I signaled you to reach here.

I look at him perplexedly and I say:

I found you fluky.

Vorarin, while anxiety engulfed him thoroughly, says:

So you didn’t see me through the window? You were doing whatever I told.

No, I entered here for no good reason.

So how you came here?

As I try to look around and notice the voices, I say:

I heard a footstep then I went behind a car and next I entered this house. I didn’t see anybody and just heard a voice.

Vorarin goes toward the window on the left side to the boulevard, which we both came in through it, and looks at the outside carefully.

I’m sure they’re not just this number. They may hid in the buildings and consider everywhere. But they’re not too many to consider everywhere.

We go downstairs. While we pass by, the sands fall down on the ground from under the stairs like a collapsing cave. This warn us to be aware of all the buildings, specially the stairs. Like an old bridge which seems secure but is hollow inwardly, we should not trust in this unstable and wobbly town which may level to the ground by a five magnitude earthquake. Yet I don’t think it becomes worse than this.

I check outside before I go out. Although the ghosts are wandering about everywhere, I go out. Vorarin comes out after a little delay to be able to react in emergency. I stay behind a burnt car a rather long time. I can’t see anyone. It is likely they watch us through the buildings.

We seek refuge near the buildings to be safe in the darker shadows. When my eyes meet the building where we were, I stop perplexedly. Just now I realize why it is so small. More than half of it has been destroyed and maybe just one fifth of it is remained intact.

We look at the opposite buildings with each step we take. Every shadow stops us when it appears behind a window but we go on soon after we find out it was an illusion. We go ahead aimlessly like the ghosts until a signpost in the middle of the boulevard finally attracts our attention with its cursing sound.

I move forward like a sheep among a wolf pack, then I stop behind a car which is near a signpost to be sure I am in right boulevard. Vorarin stays in his place and looks around. I hold the signpost and read its faded text:

Tariban

I back to Vorarin and tell him the written name on the signpost. Then I pull the map out of my pocket. I guessed right. We are exactly in the west side of the town and we can leave the town within one hour walking. We go on our way with the help of the map and suddenly Vorarin breaths a deep sigh. I realize his sigh without any question. Exactly the middle of the map is chafed and part of it is deleted.

Although we don’t know where we should go, yet we should keep distance as far as possible. We must not to lose our position. Some paths may be blocked. I draw an imaginary line according to the boulevard. I don’t need the map for the time being so I put it on my pocket to be completely focus on my situation.

We’d better move within a distance.

I confirm his words. We wend at a distance from each other. There is a silence which nobody wants to break it. We move forward fast and with short steps. We go straight to the end of the boulevard. At the same time my eyes meet the shops and stores. Some of their signboards are broken or rusted but many of them have no signboard. All of the doors and windows have no glass, yet there are no broken glass on the ground.

All of the inner spaces are covered with dust. Even a mass of dust can be seen on the floor of the shops. There are no goods on the shelves if there are any shelf. Everywhere is covered with ashes and all of the walls seem dark. There are also some residential buildings which seem they raised to the sky once