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

Don’t get flustered, you should get a grip on yourself and fix your attention. Let’s see, how many bullet you have?

I don’t know.

He grasps and takes gun from me.

Few but better than nothing. Your cartridge clip just has seven bullet. Don’t waste them and don’t shot pointlessly.

Then, again, he looks at them and next he looks at the right side and says:

I should change my place lest they blindside us from the right.

He shows right side of me:

I should go there. You keep here and I fix my attention on there. When I said now, shoot at them till I reach there. Don’t shoot more than one.

I hold my breath and shake my head to confirm. He changes his place with me without he rises. I consider the red soldiers’ situation to be able react correctly and also be in a better position.

Now!

He rises with a short shout and passes the distance with four steps and at last he creeps on the ground and takes shelter behind the computer table. At the same time, when he rises, I lift my gun and without lifting my head and aiming, I pull the trigger.

All of a sudden, the gun releases from my hand by the kick that I receive from the gun, but I manage to grab it in the last second. The sound of shooting trembles me like the sound of pounding a sledgehammer on the anvil. Luckily, they are blindsided and Jonadin reaches his aim easily. They also react to my shot and immediately take shelter behind the tables.

Jonadin shows me his hand in sign of stop, then he thumbs up to show me that I did well. He checks around from the edge of the table. The dust cloud, now, completely disappeared and the hall can be seen thoroughly. A big hole is made on the wall and the monitor is destroyed completely. Those four red soldiers can’t be seen because of taking shelter. I look at the scene in disbelief. My shot hit one of the monitors and upset it on the floor.

We don’t want to hurt you, we just want the fire. I don’t want to bleed.

Then he makes a pause and says:

There is no way to escape for you. Of course, if you didn’t blast the secret way, maybe you could.

Then his tone assumes an air of serious:

My people surrounded here from outside, so give up without any fight.

Jonadin replies Baltin shooting a bullet. Baltin with a tone full of threatening replies:

This is the last warn. If you don’t do what I want, we would fusillade and riddle here. If you…

Jonadin doesn’t let him finishes his words and replies him with another shot. All of a sudden, I see those four red soldiers who come out from their shelter, stand up and aim their guns at us. As far as I see their cartridge clips have more than thirty or forty bullets.

Suddenly, as if we experience a bombardment, the sound of firing guns echoes through all over the hall and whistling bullets from up, left and right side irritate my ears. At the same time, the sound of breaking windows and ricocheting bullets are heard. All of the machines and monitors on the tables are thrown into the air and all of the papers fly in the air.

The sound is so much that I cover my ears with my hands. I lean on the table involuntarily and bend my legs toward my breast as far as I can. I lower my head and place it on my knees.

After a while, hearing the sound of falling shells, shooting finishes. The bullet holes have made dissimilar and dark figures on the wall. All of the equipment are upset on the floor and none of them is unharmed.

All of a sudden my eyes meet Jonadin which around him is filled with blood.

Chapter 23

The siege

He pushes his hand on his arms, but blood is flowing down through his fingers. He gnashes his teeth and his eyes are closed. I measure their situation from the edge of the table to go to Jonadin’s help. He opens his eyes and gives me a thumbs up. His face is white and his brow is dripping sweat.

Detain them!

I see the reds who are closing to us momentarily. They take steps cautiously and look around with every little sound. I gulp my saliva and shoot at them aimlessly. I leave a long interval between my shoots to detain them more.

Jonadin has brought out a cloth from his knapsack and is busy with tying it around his arm with the help his teeth, to prevent bleeding. I continue shooting until I hear a weak sound instead of gunfire.

Now, the color has turned back to Jonadin’s face and he got a grip on himself. He takes his gun off the ground and fires at them aimlessly. All of a sudden the bump sound against the walls and doors attracts those four soldiers’ attention, like the peal of the town bells. They return quickly and look at two people who have entered through two different doors. Parkad and Kidaton, holding their guns in hand, are standing there and each one aimed at two of them. Parkad, while frowned, says to Baltin:

Get off my people’s back.

They shot at us causeless. We don’t care what you do! Live and let live, of course till then our goals are different.

Parkad and Kidaton ensheate their guns. I hint to Kidaton. I try to attract his attention to Jonadin, but he takes no notice.

Our goals? It’s the ball and here is the field!

Baltin takes some steps toward Parkad.

Vultures are flying everywhere!

So what’re you waiting for?

I’m doing my job, I’m not asking for trouble!

Again, I signal Kidation by my hand to attract his notice. This time I manage. I guide him toward Jonadin with my eyes.

Jonadin is shot.

All eyes turn to Jonadin. Kidaton pushes aside the soldier who is in his way and goes toward Jonadin. Jonadin, while his face is frowned and his hand is on his wound, says:

That ratter was spying here. I should killed him from the first time I suspected him.

Baltin says:

Not ratter! The loyal and dutiful soldier.

He was in our group, before he joins your group. He was a traitor.

All of a sudden, the sound of footsteps and clanging equipment on the stairs is heard. They take steps slowly and orderly. All listen to the echoing sound until six people appear from those two doors which Parkad and Kidaton entered.

The blue group.

Their guns are sheathed. After considering the situation, they take steps calmly toward us. Jonadin takes the chance and says to me:

You should go down and cut the power off. Before you enter the hall, there’s a door on the left. You go down the stairs, find the fuse box and cut the power. Take care that nobody see you.

Then he says, while coughing and groaning:

There…

He puts his hand in his pocket and takes the “fire” out:

When you cut the power then you should get away from here. There’s a ladder which takes you to the fourth floor. Come and take the “fire”. You should get out of here. When you arrived at fourth floor, you should escape by the air.

He pushes the “fire” on the floor toward me. Then I take it off and while I look at it and Jonadin intermittently, say in wonder:

What!? Me? What should I do?

I look behind may I find his addressee, but there is no one but me. When Jonadin sees my astonishment, while he wrinkles his face, says:

Don’t be stupid. You should get out of here before we lose time. You’re our only hope.

I put the “fire” into my raincoat pocket and fasten its zip. While other are talking to each other, I creep toward the door slowly. No one notices me. I drag myself on the ground until I reach at a distance of two steps from the door. Then I get at the half-open door with a little jump. I reach the door on the left side immediately and open it slowly lest someone hears it. Then I go down the stairs.

There is a rather large storeroom that makes me besotted. The cabinets are full of raw foodstuffs. Potato, tomato, onion…the huge refrigerators to preserve meat and dairy products; the pasteurized water. The separate cabinets in which are all kind of spicery and flavors. There are two doors in this room; on one of them is written “Electricity room”, and on the other: “cooling and heating house”. The only ladder, which seems to be the same that Jonadin told me, is near the electricity room.

All kind of smells hang in the air of storeroom, but the waft of spices and flavors arouses the smelling more. Among these smells, an especial musty smell attracts me. I go toward the fuse box which is near the ladder and open its door by pressing a button. As I guessed, the fuses of each section are set beside each other. Kitchen, main lab, rooms, and main hall. After a pause, I switch off all of the fuses, even the fuse of this storeroom. Turning off the all lamps, the sound which was heard from the hall stops.

I don’t waste my time more and go up the ladder. It is a narrow canal upward which I can see the light on top. Many parts of the canal is ruined so that the ladder is not connected to anywhere in the upper parts of the canal. But I reach top of the canal anyway. The canal is destroyed completely exactly on the fourth floor and there is no way to upper parts.

I hold the edge and pull myself up. Then I find myself in an almost large room. This room is a little familiar to me. When I see the hole on the floor, I remember the room. Here is the same sinister place in which we met Nabidak and my foot sank into the hole.

I curse myself why I didn’t ask Jonadin more about the aerial escape. I look around maybe something attracts my attention, but there is nothing relating to this matter. I go slowly to the door, may I see something special. I go out through the door and look at the lower floors from the open space. I see the red group shadows who are wandering and guarding. Some guards, who seem to be more than eight persons, has covered up to the second floor. There is no way to get away. I go back to the room, perforce.

As Jonadin said, there should be a way to get out of this building. I have to search here carefully. I go toward some windows which just their frames are remained. Still the track of Vorarin’s footstep can be seen near the windows.

In front of me there is a wide street which its real form and order is mixed up by the debris of the collapsed buildings. I can’t find anything. Maybe Jonadin meant something else. Maybe I should go down via the pipes or with a rope. To be sure, I get my body out of the window and reach the outer edge of the building. I hold the frame of the window tightly and before I put my weight on my feet, I check the outer edges for their resistance.

A warm wind slightly annoys my face and shakes my clothes. The sun has passed almost half of the sky and has lost his power. I fist my hand more tightly and I bend down as far as I can and look down. There is no pipe or rod for going down.

I overcome by despair and attempt