THE WORLD WAR THREE (II)

We had waited long enough for anymore attacks that day. There wasn’t any major threat after the first bombing. Sergent Marman commanded our troops to retreat to a building some hundred meters to the north of our current place. We walked carefully wary of any ambush coming from any corner of the street. Two injured soldiers and the medics were also with us.


As we entered the yard of the building, one of the troop heard a squeak followed by a door bang. Sergent Marman who were then informed, ordered Aswin and Gilang to examine the building. He wanted to make sure that the building was okay. Not long after, there were some shooting going on inside the building. I tried to ran in but Sergent stopped me. It wasn’t really long until both Gilang and Aswin went out of the building. They smiled at us and said “It was just mice, we got them all shot. Ready for dinner!”

We spent the night in that building. The two injured soldiers were unable to be saved. They lost too much blood and eventually passed away. We dag a hole in the yard and put their bodies there with a simple but rather patriotic funeral. It became more epic when rain suddenly fell as we prayed in solemn. Tear drops fell joining droplets of rain, drenching through the slightest thread of our uniform. We all cried in the soaking wet of the rain.

After the funeral everyone went back in. Purna came to approach Sergent Marman. He wanted to know how and why are we being sent to an empty city. At first Sergent refused to give answers. But as more soldiers were asking the same thing as Purna, he finally heaved all of the General’s plan. I was right about the General, he sent us here as a bait. I drove myself against the crowd to reach the Sergent. I was about to punch him when I suddenly heard a bang. Purna had shot Sergent right through his right eye.

Faiq and three other soldiers punched Purna then tied him to a post. He was then tortured badly, blood was all over his face and he fell unconscious. The medics broke the fight and rescued Purna. He was lucky, he could have been dead if the medics weren’t there. Faiq apologized the next day and they were good friends after.

It had been three days since Sergent’s death. All we did was patrolling the area around President’s office. Of course there was no President in the building. He must have had escaped somewhere a few months earlier. Patrolling wasn’t easy with bombs dropped every half a hour. Seven more of us died. It was horrible to see they were torn to pieces. As those who died before, we arranged a simple funeral as soon as the attack stopped. Two heads and three arms were missing. We had searched every where within a hundred meter range but couldn’t found anything.

Forty men alive with no clear goals of what were to come in the coming days. It was early in the morning when everybody gathered. I stood to a concrete block and waited to get everybody’s attention. “We can’t just be here and wait for our death, we need to do something”. Everyone seemed to be surprised with my act. “He’s right, I still have my family at home” said one of them. “We need a leader to get us out of the city” I said to them. “Who are you young man, how dare you! In what right are you proposing us?” replied Faiq.

I stepped down and approached him. I told him that it was no use for us to be here. We were no match for the enemy. They had jet planes and all we have was a riffle. At first he doubt my view but then he agreed. I went back to speak again. “Gentlemen! We have to candidates Purna and Faiq”. I chose Purna for his bravery killing Sergent and I simply chose Faiq for his dominance in the last three days.

Both Purna and Faiq spoke to the troops. They gave their plans for the coming days. Faiq had the idea to head north to the port Tanjung Priok. He believed that some of the army’s men were still alive there and could bring us to Belitong. He thought that Belitong was the best place for protection. Purna proposed the plan of going to Bandung. He wanted us to retreat slowly to Magelang.

Purna won the vote. It was really surprising for Faiq were more favorite. The idea of electing one leader didn’t turn very well. It in fact brought us to dissension with Faiq’s followers spurning our voting result. Sixteen men followed Faiq. The rest, including the two medics stayed with Purna. I apologize to both Faiq and Purna for turning up the election. I felt guilty for the troop’s separation. I tried ways to persuade Faiq but they finally decided to split from the rest of the troop. They head north to port Tanjung Priok and we head south to Bandung.

.............. to be continued