Chapter 7

Chausiku

03-12-2021

Three minutes after Chapter 3

Chausiku felt the cold mud of the ditch at the side of the road under her knees. She had been awake for 22 hours now. It wasn't anything she wasn't used to, but she had had a long and active night, and she was starting to feel tired.

The rain was no positive boost for the morale of the group either. The heavy drops of water clattered on Chausiku's head. The rumbling of the engines was becoming louder and louder. Chausiku held up her gun and looked through the scope. Her crosshairs hovered over the windshield of one of the cars. She could not see the driver. What if the glass was bulletproof? There was no choice. She had to let the cars go past her, otherwise the convoy would be alerted.

The rest of the group were positioned 100 metres up the road, prepared to ambush the convoy with gunfire and gas. The first car passed her. The second car, with the machine gun placed on top, armed by a soldier, covered by steel plates from the front, passed her as well. The third followed. The fourth, with the second machine gun, passed her as well. The dirt of the road splattered up from under tires every time. Chausiku covered her face with one hand to protect her eyes and mouth, whilst holding her gun with the other. The fifth and final car passed. The agreement was that the group of warriors, led by Kaiyan, would not let the cars pass in any case whatsoever.

Chausiku was not surprised to hear blasts and cracks of gunfire a few seconds later. She did not hesitate. She climbed out of the ditch and onto the road. She looked swiftly through her scope and prioritised her targets; machine-gunners first. In the flashes of the gunfire, she saw the silhouette of one of the men behind the machine guns. He opened fire, and the bullets ravaged the bushes in which the warriors were hiding. Chausiku did not waste any more time. She pulled the trigger, and the thud of the silencer sounded softly in the hail of distant gunfire. Chausiku saw only the silhouette of a liquid splattering from the man's head, and his body disappearing into the darkness. The machine-gun fire stopped.

There was still another car with a machine-gun, but she couldn't see that one in the chaos. The other men got out of their cars and started to fire at the bushes and shrubs. The warriors were attacking from both sides, and threw canisters of the gnawing gas at the men. Screams filled the air and the gunfire started to die off. Chausiku aimed at one of the men, who had started to run in her direction, out of the gas cloud. She shot. The projectile crushed the man's pelvis. He screamed loudly. Some repeated automatic gunfire followed. The warriors were starting to kill off the remainder of the convoy. Was that the end of the assault? Had they stopped it in its tracks?

Chausiku ran up to the man she had shot.  He lay on his back, breathing heavily, holding one hand on gaping wound in his hip. His gun lay out of his reach.

'Are there any more of you coming this way?' she asked him, holding the barrel of the gun against his face.

The man rambled a bit in a foreign language. Chausiku sighed. He would be no use to her. She looked away and pulled her trigger. The unnecessary sound of crushing bone and splattering brain tissue filled her ears and punished her for her merciless judgement. Kaiyan came running towards her. Chausiku was happy to see that he was still alive. Not many warriors had survived the ambush. He, however, had a much different expression on his face.

'The second car! It's gone further! We could not stop it!' he shouted, a little out of breath.

Chausiku looked around. Four cars. Only one with a machine-gun.

'Do you know how to drive?' she asked Kaiyan.

The man nodded.

A minute later, they were racing over the road. They had left two warriors behind to load three wounded men into another car and bring it to the outpost. Kaiyan drove the car, whilst Chausiku sat in the open rear part. They were taking the turn left up the hill. It was close now. Sounds of gunfire started to fade into hearing range. Chausiku grabbed the handle of the car and stood up on the rear. She left her gun on the floor. She took a hold of the mounted machine-gun. There was still more than half a magazine in the gun, as far as she could tell. They arrived at the gate of the outpost. It was broken through. The car rushed over the broken barrier and drifted through the wet mud of the road. Chausiku looked left and right. Everywhere there were bullet holes in the walls of the small concrete houses and shacks, bodies at the sides of the streets, people running for cover and animals running loose.

The obnoxious sound of distant repetitive automatic gunfire became louder and louder. Suddenly, the car came racing from one of the corners, turning away from Chausiku and Kaiyan's car. Chausiku did not give them a chance to escape. She aligned the barrel of the large gun to her target, pulled the trigger and held it firmly. The machine-gun rattled with a huge amount of recoil. The soldier who manned the machine-gun was the first victim. The bullets riddled into his back without mercy. He collapsed and fell off the rear and onto the ground as the vehicle still sped forwards, over the road. Kaiyan did not dodge out and drove straight over the man's body. The car was lifted up on one side for a second and shook violently as it fell back on all four wheels.

Chausiku did not waste any time and opened fire on the rear of the car. As the gun consumed the chain of bullets fast and spat out the empty shells, Kaiyan tried to keep the car as steady as possible to help her aim. The bullets shredded the metal of the car frame. It didn't take long before Chausiku managed to hit and pierce one of the rear tires. In the mud, the car they were chasing began to sway left and right, and then started to slip. Chausiku managed to hit the front tire on the same side. The pursuit was as good as over. The driver lost complete control of his car. Kaiyan slowed down. The car slipped to the left, but stopped in the middle of the road without crashing into anything, luckily. The driver got out of the car. Chausiku glared at him. He looked back at her with mad and desperate eyes.

When he reached for his handgun, Chausiku lined up the barrel of the machine-gun with his legs and pulled the trigger mercilessly. She let the recoil of the gun take her aim upwards. Even though the man was hit in the legs first, the sheer force of the bullets kept him standing, almost pinned against the side of the car. Pieces of flesh and splatters of blood flew in every direction as the bullets riddled his body from toes to head. Chausiku ran out of bullets. The gun clicked emptily a few times. The man collapsed onto the muddy ground, revealing the side of the car, splattered with blood and gore and punctured with bullet holes.

Thick smoke rose from the barrel of the gun. Chausiku exhaled slowly as a dead silence fell. In the silence, sounds of the aftermath rose up: the sound of crying over the dead, the murmuring of tribe members coming out of their hiding places, quick steps of people running to help the wounded.

Chausiku came down from the gun-station. She grabbed her gun with shaky hands and let out a deep exhale of air and adrenaline

'I'm gonna check on my family, Kaiyan.'

Kaiyan looked over his shoulder at her. 'Yeah, alright. Give my regards to your parents. I'll fix this mess up, don't worry.'

'I'll give my regards. Thanks. And Kaiyan, nice driving.'

Kaiyan grinned. 'Nice shooting.'

Chausiku grabbed her gun and climbed out of the back of the car, onto the dirt road. It was still raining. In the distance, about 40 metres away, three children ran over to the body of the gunner. Chausiku looked at them. They rolled the maimed body onto its back. Chausiku grimaced a bit when she saw one of them pull off an engagement ring from the man's hand, which glimmered brightly. The other clipped off a necklace from his neck. The third took the handgun from his belt. Two adults, most likely the parents, ran towards him and snatched the weapon from his hands. The little boy started crying over the loss of his toy.

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As Chausiku walked towards her house, she couldn't help but think about how it would be to grow up in such a horrid place like this. More importantly, in a time like this; a time of war, and chaos. Those boys just scavenged the body of a married man. A man who had lived a life, and had died far too young. That child just held a loaded gun. Anything could have happened in those few seconds. There had to be a change, soon.

She walked into the narrow road. It was a bit on the edge of the outpost. There didn't seem to have been caused any chaos here. She stopped by one of the small shacks. She knocked with the secret pass code and opened the door. She looked into a gaping, thick darkness.

'Chausi, is that you?' sounded the frail and worried voice of her mother.

'Yes, mama. It's me. I'm here.'

'What was all that racket outside?'

Chausiku lit up the petroleum lamp by the door. She saw the old woman, sitting by the small table on a wooden little stool. There was a steaming hot cup on the table. The woman held her hands against it.

'Nothing to worry about. It's all over now. How's dad?'

'He's still a little sickly, but he is getting better.'

'Can I see him?'

'He's asleep. Best you go to bed too.'

Faint crying and mourning sounded from outside, but luckily Chausiku's mother was too deaf to hear it. Chausiku wanted to close the door, but Kaiyan came running.

'Emergency meeting.'

Chausiku looked at her mother, who smiled and nodded her off.

'Hello missus Wero. Glad to see you're doing okay.'

Chausiku's mother smiled at Kaiyan. 'Take care of my daughter, young man.'

Chausiku closed the door and ran over the road towards the centre of the outpost with Kaiyan. They reached the large building in which the warriors gathered for every meeting. The chief of the tribe, a bulky older man who had found this outpost in an abandoned state for the tribe to reside in, called for silence after a few minutes. Kaiyan and Chausiku stayed together within the group of warriors and stood next to each other as the meeting commenced.

'An assault on our home. The Confederation is seeking to end the existence of our tribe, and they have now found the means to do so. Despite our efforts; radio silence, blackouts and even camouflage, the Confederation has found our location. Tonight was only a prologue of the theatre of war to come.'

Chausiku and Kaiyan listened to the chief's wise words, and listened closer to his instructions and orders. Traps and ambushes on the road, more patrols in the surroundings, but closer to the outpost. They were going to tighten the perimeter and concentrate warriors to secure it better. Chausiku and Kaiyan were not praised for their acts of courage of tonight, and they weren't expecting to be. It was the duty of every warrior to protect the tribe with his or her life, and they weren't rewarded for doing so. It was a voluntary act of kindness towards the tribe. Kaiyan managed a few patrols and sorted warriors into groups of five.

It was not to Chausiku's surprise that she was sorted into a group together with Kaiyan, and she didn't mind it either. They made a good team, and the other three warriors were also good friends of hers and Kaiyan's. There was Rina, a strong woman who had a lot of experience by hunting. Krotan was bit of a madman, but good in a fight. Tryo was an expert marksman, who had helped train Chausiku. He was a little old, but still very good with a gun.

The cars were being retrieved from the site of the attack. They were being driven into the outpost. The wounded were also being carried by them. The group of warriors let them pass, and then crossed the road. Kaiyan started running, and the others followed. Chausiku did not know where they were running to. It was almost as if Kaiyan had read her mind, as he spoke under tight breath and in short bursts of words.

'I've parked-... the car-... somewhere hidden-... and safe. We'll take-... that one.'

They arrived at a small shack, Kaiyan's house. There was a patch of grass which was usually empty, but now there was a big object, covered and camouflaged: the car. Kaiyan and Rina hauled the dark-green cover off the car, revealing the vehicle and its mounted gun.

'Oooh, that looks awesome,' said Krotan. 'Can I? Please?'

Kaiyan smiled. 'If you can find the ammunition for it, be my guest. I didn't have a good look around the car yet.'

Krotan did not wait. The man threw open the back door of the car and started his search. Chausiku, Rina and Tryo stood around the car, awaiting orders.

'Tryo, go get some petrol,' said Kaiyan.

Tryo did as he was commanded. He slung his gun from his shoulder and put it against the side of the car.

'Rina and Chausiku, scavenge ammo from the warehouse. Bring whatever you think is necessary.'

Rina and Chausiku went to the warehouse and retrieved ammunition. There were a few other warriors guarding the place, making sure no unauthorized tribe members entered. The two women were known to the warriors, and they could get in without trouble. It was still raining, although a little lighter now. The rain clattered on the roof of the warehouse. The lights were on. No use for a blackout anymore, now that their location had been found. Rina went over to the ammunition and Chausiku went to the gas grenades. She had two left on her belt, and clipped one more onto it. They were heavy. One was on her left side and two on her right, to spread the weight a little, though it didn't make sitting very comfortable. She grabbed four canisters and had to hold them with her arms. In the meantime, Rina had grabbed an empty crate and threw together a mix of different ammo types. She took the crate with both hands, and nodded to Chausiku to move.

Chausiku did not get in Rina's way on the way back, since the crate was heavy and Rina wanted to drop the thing as fast as possible. They walked with quick paces. When they came back to the car, Tryo was busy refuelling and Kaiyan was helping Krotan find the ammo for the gun. Krotan let out a scream of joy as he pulled an ammo crate from under one of the seats.

'Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about!'

He hauled the crate out of the car and dumped it in the grass. Tryo finished up refuelling the car as Krotan opened the crate and took out a magazine of ammo. Kaiyan took some ammo from Rina's crate and gratefully accepted a canister from Chausiku. Chausiku dropped the canisters into the crate of ammo and took a magazine of bullets for her rifle. She reloaded her gun. Tryo put the container of petrol aside and came to reload his weapon as well, as Krotan joyfully jumped onto the back of the jeep and started messing with the mounted gun.

They were soon ready to leave. Krotan had managed to unclip the empty ammo box from the gun and replace it with a full one, and kept two full ones from the crate by his side. They hid the two crates of ammo and jerry can of petrol under the camouflage and drove off slowly. Krotan was on the mounted gun, mouth open and tongue out like a dog in an open window. Rina was sitting in the back of the jeep, opposite of Tryo, with Krotan's legs between them. Kaiyan was driving, and had insisted for Chausiku to sit next to him in the passenger seat.

'You've been up the longest of us all. You should try and get some sleep, and this is the most comfortable spot in the car for that.'

Chausiku smiled at him and nodded. Her gun rested between her legs.

'What are we going to do, Kaiyan? We're not going on patrol, are we?' she asked.

'No, we aren't. We're gonna find a new home for our tribe, Chausi.'

Despite the shocking change of plan and disobeying of orders, and the smell of sweat in the front of the car, coming from pretty much every warrior except Krotan, whose armpits were fanned by the wind, Chausiku managed to fall asleep. They drove out of the outpost and onto the dirt road, into the darkness of the coming future.