The Frozen Desert by Moein Mansoori Fard (early reader chapter books txt) 📖

enter that building?

He fails to answer me. He just makes me to be silent by his hand sign. This is an almost big building that two big signboards, which are still readable, has covered its two sides. There are still some words readable on the signboards which are not faded and among them “Hotel” can be seen.

I go from right side, you from the left. And you, better stay here, and don’t ask this much when you’re in the mission.

Vorarin shakes his head but I guess he regrets for giving back his gun. I pass through some cars when he signals me with his hand, and reach near the building. I pause for a second and look at the dark alley by the hotel. I hold onto the wall. I am ready to inform others if I see something suspicious.

After considering the situation for a while, I hold the gun in front my eyes to be able to aim at. I go forward slowly but I reach to the end of the building sooner than I thought. I feel too much cold which trembles my body. I am almost behind the building. I check around carefully and stay there too much. I gulp my saliva and go toward the backdoor cautiously.

I wait for a short time, maybe I see Nabidak but there is no sign of him. So I decide to stay here, but suddenly it comes to my mind maybe he needs my help. There is no intact wall to makes me enter through the door. There is a break on the walls wherever I look which a car can pass through them easily. I put my feet on the hardpan to make less sound. I enter the building. Everywhere is suffused with a bad smell. I move forward slowly in the darkness.

The more I go ahead the more smell is. The strange sound echoes through the building. Here is an open space in which there is no room or corridor. There are just some shabby walls in front of me at the end of the building. I move forward like a sewer rat that just its sounds is heard off and on, and I hold the gun in my hand.

All of a sudden, a blue soldier appears from behind a half ruined wall like the thunderbolt and hold his gun toward me. I don’t know how he scented my presence? I also aim at him.

He holds his gun toward me and doesn’t move. I aim at his head. I can’t see his eyes and this makes me problem. I could read his mind easily from his eyes and the mood of his face but now I can’t make a decision in this situation. I should try to keep my spirits up lest I give my rival a chance. So I stare at him and hold my head up. I don’t wink my eyelids, I am standing without motion. I want to show him my self-confidence.

Suddenly I see the smoke which fades him away. I don’t lower my gun but I bend a little and lower my head. I wait until the smoke clears and I find out what happened. The white smoke disappears in less than few seconds and I see the blue soldier who lied on the floor but his gun is still in his hand.

My eyes slip from the gun on the soldier. I see no blood. I see in the darkness a faded shadow appears from behind that shabby wall. His body is in the dark but I can see that he wore his hair in ponytail. He goes toward the soldier with no words and throws the gun away of soldier’s reach. Then he turns the soldier with his leg and looks at him for a while. The glass on his helmet is broken like the car window and his face is invisible.

That trigger is made you pull and fire it.

He smiles as he shakes his head. His voice is soft, and his body seems a rather horrible in darkness; he is tall and his arms are thick and his body is an athletic build. He can do the same thing that the blue soldier experienced just with his punch. Nabidak jumps down from the first floor and lands between us:

What’re you doing here?

The strange man goes toward the stairs and sits on it. Then he smiles jeeringly and says:

You gathered people and made a group for yourself!? From where you find them?

Nabidak presses his lips and says:

Shouldn’t you be on your post now?

Do you teach me a lesson? We’re here for a week, despite you know no news here.

We can’t leave them so easily. We should be curious to find out about their motives. You speak as if it doesn’t concern to you and it doesn’t matter to you at all!

You, too, speak like you don’t know we’re wasting our time. We just keep our eyes on some soldiers to see what the hell they’re doing here!

It’s not a good reason you leave your post. Nobody knows where they might be.

The strange man sneers again:

Yeah, surely nobody knows their place. You detained so many people instead of you get ready for defense. Yea, nobody knows but Karisan and Parkad and a few more.

Nabidak, who cannot convince him, takes a deep breath and says:

Well, what’s up? What are they doing there? You were supposed to turn on your insignia once in a while and give us some news, what happened then?

As usual, they’re discovering. I think they’ve figured out now that we pulled their legs. But, a few hours ago they were busy as in their first day. The town will sink into the sands sooner than they thought. Almost all of their soldiers are working. They might find me at any moment, so I left there. I forgot this damned insignia absolutely.

All of a sudden, Nabidak turns and holds his gun toward the shadow who appears from behind the building.

It’s me, Vorarin.

Nabidak mutters some curses and lowers his gun.

Our mission is almost finished. We’ll leave here within next three or four days.

The stranger turns his eyes to the other place and says:

It’s good you arrived at this conclusion unless we would be suffocated under the sands by next week.

Now cut it out. You know that I can’t make any decision. You were free to choose not to enter the mission from the beginning. Now that you joined, you should go on to the end. Now we have to go to the base. We need to consult Parkad.

The stranger points at both of us with his eyes. Nabidak shakes his head and says:

You didn’t kill him, did you?

No. we don’t need to hide ourselves, they know we’re here. They posted guards in some buildings. They scour the town for us but they don’t give up rummaging.

Nabidak lifts his lips to show his derision, and then checks his cartridge clip:

Well, I go ahead of you. kidaton! You follow us behind these two guys. So, you two, stay between us.

Next he takes a pause, as if he changed his opinion. He says to Kidaton:

Come in to the room, I wanna talk to you in private.

Then they enter the room in the right side which is almost intact. I hear they stop and it seems they begin to talk. Vorarin comes beside me and leans on the wall:

You left me there high and dry to chat with each other here? Who was this one?

You guess!

I had never seen Kidaton, but I had heard his name. Vorarin doesn’t know yet that he is beside the most trustful persons.

Maybe he is A-3?

That’s right. Everything is going well.

Vorarin points at the blue soldier:

Who’s this? Did you this to him?

I shake my head in sign of no and then I go toward the blue soldier. Curiosity attracts me to him, I cannot lose this chance. As I guess, he is dressed in blue army clothes and fastened a belt with ammunition and a torch around his waist. Besides a machine gun, he has two pistols on his belt. His breast goes up and down fast and his breath, which comes out through the broken glass on his helmet, makes the sands fly.

Suddenly my eyes meet the dark room which the soldier and Kidaton have come out from. The room has no way to light enters, and only some parts of the sidewall which is joined to another room, are collapsed so that a thin man can hardly pass through it. The presence of Kidaton and the blue soldier in that room is slightly unusual. There is a hole on the ceiling of the room which more likely Kidaton has entered the room through it.

What’s the matter?

I have nothing to reply vorarin. I just say:

It’s clear from their words that they were already aware of the matter. They’ve gotten everything somehow.

The “Hope” group doesn’t lose anything so easily. They got ready for everything.

Then he becomes silent and I stare at the blue soldier. After a rather short time, Nabidak and Kidaton come out of the room and Nabidak says:

As I said, we move.

They check around, then Nabidak moves at a distance from us. He moves forward through the ruined buildings and we follow him too. Kidaton takes steps in silence. He stops once in a while to keep his distance from us. Sometimes, he pulls himself up with one hand from the height and then comes down easily from which I am sure if I jump down, I will broke my leg. His arms are bare and so many scrapes can be seen on them. He wore only two T-shirts together in this cold weather and his hands are black because of his gloves. He also has tied his short rain coat around his waist and a pistol is under his waistband. He reacts to any kind of sounds and looks immediately toward the sound origin; he just looks at there for a second and then moves on again. He may get older by next year or later on. His physical strength also proves this. When we arrive at their hideaway, he joins us without he pants.

Three floors of the building remained intact, but half of the third floor is ruined and there are so many windows in front of it. A big billboard is on the building, it is so big that it has made a single floor alone. The billboard is ruined completely and just its metallic body remained.

Nabidak and kidaton enter the building before us. A man is standing near the windowsill and looks outside. He has a normal face and the only distinction between him and others is his long white hair which come down to his shoulders. The wrinkles on his face, show that he has defeated in the fight with the time. He doesn’t show any reaction to us as if we are just some invisible elf. When all four of us stop and stare at him, he says:

Is this your first mission? Even a blind man can see you in this darkness.

Nabidak sneers and says:

Of course not when you’re here. What’s up? Something new?

Kidaton goes toward the chair and sits on it, which makes sound and likely to break at any moment. Then fills a glass with water from a flask on the table, and says:

Only the blue soldiers don’t know that here is our hideaway. We can’t stay here anymore.

The old man, who I guess to be Parkad, turns to Nabidak. Midway, his eyes stop on me and Vorarin, as if he sees us just now. Then he says:

What’s the matter?

Nabidak puts his knapsack in a corner and says:

Well…, leave it. Nothing happened?

Parkad still looks at me. He goes away from the windowsill and throws his binoculars toward Kidaton and says:

Well, don’t you want to introduce these two guys to me?

Kidaton goes up a ladder which is behind the wall. It seems to be his turn to stand guard. Nabidak opens his knapsack and