Chapter 6

Slaves

Three years after the Battle of Restum…..

Tamina stared at the military Vehicles passing through the front of her house. She watched the soldiers sitting in it holding their firearms and staring outside the window. For her, it has become a habit of watching them patrolling Belgarath in every three hours interval. Tamina hadn’t stepped out of her house for the past three years and the same goes for every other girl in her village. After the victory of battle of Restum, things for the Belgarathians had changed very drastically. The refugee crisis in the North became a huge headache for the national government and they suppressed it using their military force. As a result, more and more native soldiers were called to North and as a result the number of native soldiers in Belgarath was replaced by the US soldiers. After 3 years, the patrolling force in Belgarath consist of more than seventy percentage of US soldiers and only thirty percentage of native soldiers.

Captain Herman wilde had served in Belgarath for two years and after that he was called back to US and a new captain was appointed in behalf of him. His name was Captain Eugene Carter. A new marketplace was built in the middle of the village and the mosque was a rebuilt by the villagers from the funds that they collected by themselves. Almost everything was brought back to normal after three year. The Sharia attack continued, but the northwest border was so intact that they couldn’t infiltrate into Belgarath, all thanks to the US soldiers.

Owais was being restless as Colonel Herman Wilde has declined all his offers and bribes to get into his good side. Colonel Wilde was a true soldier, he saw Owais for truly who he was. Owais burned the petition the villagers had given him, and instead he asked Colonel Wilde to give him special treatment from his soldiers as he was the village chief, which he denied. Owais fooled the villagers for three years telling them that he handed the petition to the Colonel and he had not taken any action despite the villagers complaints. As a result the grudge and dislike for the foreigners in the minds of the Belgarathians grew.

After three years the curfew was lifted, but nobody left their houses after seven in the evening. At daytime , Belgarathians went to the market place to sell their products and came home before six. Since the villagers had started to earn their living, Owais began collecting his revenue from the villagers even though they were merely earning to make the two ends meet. Owais never showed them any mercy when it comes to money.

Tamina and Farah has been reunited as they have started going to the school again. Peace was again restored in Belgarath, but the villagers felt that they were being the slaves of the foreigners.

Everything was going smoothly till Captain Eugene Carter arrived at the scene.

Captain Eugene Carter was younger than Herman Wilde, in his mid thirties. He was more like a mercenary and less like a soldier. He and Owais were so similar in their characters, both were exploiting, greedy and manipulative. As soon as Eugene Carter became the Captain, the first thing he did was to give his men complete liberty to do whatever they want. Hearing the new Captain’s arrival, Owais approached Eugene Carter just like he had approached Colonel Herman Wilde, with bribes and offers. But instead of getting rejected Owais was welcomed with open arms by the new captain. They both agreed to help each other as long as it would benefit both of them.

Gradually, Owais became Eugene Carter’s henchman. Captain Carter was a greedy, perverted man. He had his eyes over the beautiful Belgarathian women from the first time itself. As Eugene Carter gave his men full freedom to do whatever they want, the village became a total mess.

The soldiers started to beat up the villagers who questioned them and this built up a huge tension between the soldiers and the villagers. The government took a blind approach towards these matters because the only thing that they cared about was the safety of their northwest borders from the Sharia's. As long as the northwest border was safe, the government was happy. They had no intention in disheartening Captain Eugene and his soldiers as long as they fought the terrorist and won each battle against them. For the government, winning against the terrorists were a matter of their pride. Safety and happiness of their citizens came only after that.

The villages for the first few months where unaware of Owais's true face. They thought that he was on their side, but gradually when Owais bought new weapons and local goons for suppressing the villagers who resisted him, they knew that they were totally fooled by him. Owais banned secret meetings between the villagers saying that they were conspiring against him and beat up any of them who disobeyed him.

‘ How could he do this to us?. He is also one of us. ‘ Kamran whispered unbelievably.

‘I knew there was something wrong with him for the last few months when he declined to deliver any more petitions from us to their Captain. But I never thought he would betray us like this.’ Sartai said massaging his forehead.

Both the men had met at the market coincidentally. They were aware of the watching eyes of Owais's goons in the market place, so they had to whisper to each other.

‘ No wonder why our petition never reached the officials. He surely didn’t hand it over to them. ‘ Karan whispered.

‘ See those men of his. They are everywhere, monitoring everyone in the market. Have you noticed the look in their eyes? They are so scary'. Sartai murmured.

‘ First, it was the terrorists, then the foreigners and now, it’s Owais and his goons. Our land is ruined to it’s core.’ Kamran said sighing quietly.

‘ This must be our fate. ‘ Sartai said looking around.

‘ It’s time for me to leave. See you again'. Kamran said and they departed.

When Tamina heard her father’s conversation about Owais to her mother, she concluded that he was a bad man.

Owais secretly acquired rifles and weapons from the soldiers and instead, he paid them large amounts. He raised the tax that the villagers hard to pay him and under him as the chief, the Belgarathians suffered. He extorted huge amounts from them and those who were unable to pay were beaten by his men and their women were send to the soldiers for pleasure. Things got worse as years passed. Eugene Carter was called back after two years but he pleaded the government to let him stay in Belgrath , so he was again appointed as the captain of the US troops.

After six years of Eugene Carter as the Captain and Owais as his henchman, and over ten attacks of the Sharia’s each year, Belgarath has became a land of torture, pain and slaughter. Owais became rich beyond imagination, selling women to the soldiers and extorting money from the poor villagers. Eugene Carter was ruling Belgarath with Owais as his hunting dog. Girls in their teenage were sent to the soldier’s tents. There was no guarantee for their lives. Those who were lucky enough to live came back, that too in bad shape. The others were raped and killed and their corpses were abandoned in ditches or roadsides. Those who came back became pregnant, and because of shame, most of them took their lives. This brutality of the soldiers and Owais remained hidden to the outside world.

Owais never minded any of these as long as he was paid handsomely by Captain Eugene Carter. Later, Owais became blinded by his greed and sold his own daughter, Rabia to please Eugene, and in return he demanded a latest model of rifle, a military vehicle and a soldier to teach him drive it. Without any hesitation, he handed everything to Owais because Rabia was so beautiful, with Amber eyes and bushy eyebrows, resembling her late mother. She pleaded Owais, but Owais had completely turned into a monster at that time as he sold his own daughter for money, power and greed. Rabia was safely returned to Owais by Eugene. She tried to took her life because of the shame and instead of dying, she became paralyzed for the rest of her life. Whatever had happened to his daughter never pained him, and he became more and more addicted to his greed.

The villagers cursed him secretly and they wept for Rabia, but there was nothing they could do about it. After six years of Battle of Restum, Owais became the most powerful person in Belgarath, who cannot be touched or harmed. The only person whom he respected and obeyed was Eugene. The Belgarathians had became the slaves of Owais, who was indeed a slave of Eugene Carter.