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

I hold my breath for the last time and try to pull out my leg. It seems that my soul wants to leave my body through the big toe. The strange weakness stops me. It nauseates me. My body trembles, and I can’t keep my balance.

I stay in this way for a while. Then I remember our insignias. We should destroy them, but I have not energy to open my mouth and tell it to Vorarin. I hear their footsteps who are approaching us. All of a sudden an idea springs to my mind. My hands stop trembling and my vertigo ends automatically. I unlace my shoes, hold my breath and pull my leg out of the hole. Anxiety blocks mind and prevents us to make a correct decision.

The sounds of those soldiers’ footsteps don’t give me a chance to think of the pain. They stop behind the door. It seems my soul is leaving my body. I get up and go toward the wall. Maybe there is a loophole that I haven’t seen it yet. But there is just a wall. I return and look at the door with Vorarin.

Suddenly, along with breaking the door, a hand covers my mouth and I feel that I am pulled back.

Chapter 17

A-2

Hush! Be quiet!

The hands are removed from our mouth after convincing us to be calm. His short words is enough for us. The strange man goes toward the hole on the wall and while he looks through the hole, makes it clear with his hand that we should be quiet. The sound of shooting and then collapsing the wall are heard:

It was from here. I heard it. I don’t know where they disappeared.

Then the sound of two other men is heard who enter the room. One of them asks:

What happened, did you find them?

The other one replies from the room:

They may have escaped through the windows.

No, it’s too high. They couldn’t escape through them.

Then he begins cursing:

Damn! We should find them.

You two, go downstairs and stay there, and we both go to the fifth floor to search there. If you find them don’t let them escape, even one of them should not escape.

The sound of stamping feet, which seems to be for salute, is heard. Then the echoing sounds gradually fade away. The two other, noticing the footsteps, go upstairs. Their footsteps is heard such as the rats or wandering ghosts in the sewer.

There is a small room in which, like the old times, the king hid after a defeat. It has two windows in both sides to view outside. The only furniture in the room are the chair and a table with some burnt candles on it. The room is too small so that three persons could not lie beside each other. It has been built just for a reason, like a tiger’s camouflage, it is for being out of sight from the others, and also to view them all.

Unlike all other walls, no hole can’t be seen on the walls here. Their whitey color shows that the security measures have been considered. There is also a field glasses hung from the nail on the wall. In a corner, is a folded sleeping bag with a raincoat on it, and beside them is the stranger’s knapsack.

Vorarin rises hesitantly. The bandage around my injured foot has become loose and my foot is red. The stranger appraises us. His face is sort of familiar. When I see his grayish white hair, and also his bushy moustache which matches his short beard, I place him. Compared to a few years ago, his mostly black hair has turned into mostly white.

His moustache has not been an exception to this case. The wrinkles on his face have become slightly more and remind me of the cracks on the desert. But he looks at me as a stranger.

Wait till they’ve gone, then you go immediately. You’d better not to make sound.

Then he goes toward his knapsack and begins to arrange it. He also puts the sleeping bag on the back of his knapsack.

Whenever they go, we all would get out of here, and you would go on your way.

He looks at us askance.

I want to introduce myself but then I avoid it and just say:

But we both are members of the “Hope” shelter.

He frowns and this spreads all over his face. But he doesn’t throw caution into the winds and says:

So you are A-6 and A-7?

His eyes appraise us, while he smiles. He seems like an experienced teacher who can read his student’s mind at the first glance and is aware of their inner man.

Why you didn’t reply us? You should simply wrote a word then we never stuck in this funk.

He doesn’t notice me at all. As he become busy with the insignia, he says:

We couldn’t trust everyone, or reply to each message we receive. You know well each could be a trap.

I hear the blue soldiers who drag their legs like the defeated army and like a wounded tiger, going downstairs. Their curses echo through the building as in a mountain.

He is the same Nabidak whom Karisan talked in the “Dawn” shelter before going to bed, and then he left there. He goes toward his binoculars and takes it off. Then he goes near the window and looks at outside. After a while focusing on a single point, he moves his binoculars; he is following the soldiers through the binoculars. Vorarin is standing in a corner and is still shocked. Nabidak brings out his notebook and writes on it.

Until things become completely safe, you have a look at your friend’s foot. I think he couldn’t go on with this leg. This way we may lose one of our group personnel.

Vorarin, like the thunderstruck people, takes a clean handkerchief and gets busy with cleaning my foot, while he lowers his head. Nabidak hesitates a moment and then says:

How did they find you?

He is still looking outside through his binoculars.

They set some sensors in the corridors.

He sets aside his binoculars and asks:

How did you find them?

His looks is full of doubt.

Their lights are invisible, but I saw their supply on the wall by chance. They may set them in other locations.

He takes his binocular again and looks at outside:

I myself set them on the wall to inform me if someone enters. They found you otherwise.

Vorarin’s hands trembles while working and he just looks at my foot. He looks at me once in a while and steals a glance at me. He prepares stitching outfits again and then get busy with stitching. Nabidak pulls a nail on the door which is used as a handle; a quadrangular emerges from the wall and comes into view.

I go out to have a look at outside to see if there is someone. You get ready till I come back. They may back momently.

He closes the door and just his footsteps can be heard which fades away after a short time.

It aches too much.

Thanks god he showed up. Do you know this guy? I mean he maybe posed as one of the group personnel.

Don’t be afraid! Your anxiety is inapposite.

Can we trust him?

Yeah, if you don’t trust in yourself but you can trust him. He’s been in service as much as we lived. However I’ve seen him just two or three times.

But I don’t like him more.

The sound of Nabidak’s footsteps cut our words. Door opens and he makes us to get up by the sign of his hand. While his face shows the coolness and self-confidence, he says:

There is no sign of them for the time being. We can go.

He takes his knapsack and moves ahead of us. The soft breeze brings us the smell of his body sweat. His clothes hangs in tatters. He stops on the stairs ahead of us and shows us an object with a monitor on it. It can be held in his palm. A red light blinks on it. Then, he sits on his legs and takes two black small objects off the wall. He puts them into his knapsack and then we move again.

I feel as if I put my right foot on the thousands nails. Once in a while, Vorarin helps me and I put my weight on his shoulder. In the fourth floor, we are constrained to reach to the other side from where the stairs have collapsed, with the help of the banisters near the stairs. I feel like my soul is leaving my body until we finish passing through the banisters. Although it takes a long time we reach downstairs, he says nothing and moves forward in step with me. Before we exit from the building, I take the letters from under the debris. We manage to get out through a ruined wall and enter a rather broad street.

We should pass through the houses lest they see us. I go ahead of you, sign you when I find everywhere safe. Don’t do anything wrong. They may be everywhere. Look, do you have gun?

He receives his answer from our looks. So he removes two pistols from under his shirt and says:

Unlock them but be very careful. They each have just seven bullets and I’m out of ammo. Just fire in case of emergency; use them only when you know you would kill by them. They’re much more than us in number. If they find our place our number is up. It’s no long way to there but it may happen thousands of events in this way.

Then he goes to the other side of the street and enters one of the buildings. Vorarin sits on his knees and we wait till he informs us. The wind bears no news and just pours some sands on us and then goes away. Suddenly a sharp sound is heard. We hesitate a moment but we hear the same sound again. I move along with Vorarin and we cross the street. Then we see Nabidak who monitors us through a window. The house has nothing special to describe, it looks like all other buildings. Nabidak comes down quickly from the first floor. Vorarin holds out his pistol toward Nabidak:

I don’t need it.

Nabidak takes it with no question and says:

We should pass through these ruins. Although we would be seen less, don’t throw caution into the winds. We go on this way. Keep your distance.

Then he moves on and we follow him at a distance. We move forward through the buildings, cellars, basements, and roofs for half an hour continuously. Although we are half of his age, we drop behind him and we gasp. My leg is slightly better and allows me to walk faster. He always moves ahead and then signals us. Finally we enter a narrower street. He, with his short raincoat and the hat on his head, looks like a night killer who looks for his next victim.

All of a sudden, I hear a sound which causes me stop. I open my mouth to inform Nabidak but I see him bent down and shows us his hand to be quiet. Then he signs us to go toward the wall and hide ourselves.

We’d better bypass here.

My suggestion is out of fear. With the Nabidak’s signal, we go toward the wall of the building which has collapsed on the middle of the street and hide behind it to be out of sight.

No, we should have a look at inside. You stay here till I come back.

He stands up to go but he takes a pause and says:

Zairas, you must enter the building from the other side. We may need to blindside them.

Hearing my name from his mouth, I wonder. Maybe he knows me. Vorarin is so nervous that hears nothing.

Let’s see, do we need