Loss

14:25

Suchitra Island Pier, Indian Ocean

The pier shook with the sound of many AKs. The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder. 4 dead bodies, ripped to shreds, lied around.

Lt. Malhotra is hiding in a shack with his four remaining squad members as 50 gorillas wearing military armour, wielding AK47s, came their way.

Lt. Malhotra looks at an injured soldier sitting on the ground with a hard face. The soldier was shot in his right shoulder and both thighs. Lt. Malhotra asks, "Aarav, are you okay?"

Aarav grunts and tries to get up. He tries to grab his rifle while saying, "I'm fine, sir." But the wound in his shoulder doesn't let him.

Lt. Malhotra peaks through a window and looks outside and gets horrified as he sees the gorillas have almost reached the shack.

He gathers himself and says, "Manish, pick up Aarav on your shoulders. Karan and Jeet, you'll be with me. We'll fall back while keeping those monkeys at bay."

Karan asks, "But sir, which way will we go?"

"We have no choice but to go westward. We're getting attacked from the north and east sides, and there's only water on the south."

Just then, a barrage of bullets hit the shack. Lt. Malhotra yells, "Everybody run. Fast."

They get out of the shack and run towards the west. Lt. Malhotra and Jeet throw 3 smoke grenades just before they get on the road going westward. They start running frantically as bullets rain on them from the other side of the smoke.

They keep running while shooting at the gorillas. But the gorillas keep on running towards them and shooting. As if they had no sense of fear or survival instinct in them.

Jeet says, "Sir, they just keep on coming. There's no end to them. I'm running out of bullets."

Lt. Malhotra reloads his own M4 and says, "Just keep on running and pray that at least one squad picked up our SOS."

Just at that moment, Manish trips and falls. Aarav falls too and screams in pain. Manish gets up quickly and goes to pick Aarav back up, but Aarav pushes him away.

Lt. Malhotra notices and yells, "Aarav, what are you doing?"

Aarav says, "Si, Leave me and run. I'm slowing all of you down. This way, we'll all die."

Karan yells while shooting back at the gorillas, "What the fuck are you saying? I'm not losing anymore of my friends today. Manish, pick him up."

Aarav yells, "You don't understand. I'm a dead weight to the squad right now. If you insist on taking me, all of us will die. Let me hold them back while you guys get away."

Jeet was going to retaliate, but Lt. Malhotra stops him. He says, "Ok. Aarav. We'll be counting on you."

Karan says, "But sir..."

"My orders are final, sergeant. I won't hear any objections."

Karan looks at Lt. Malhotra and stops as he sees small drops of tears on the corner of his eyes.

Aarav takes out 3 of the 4 extra magazines and gives them to Karan. He gives a small smile and says, "Use em wisely. Now go...….run."

He crawls behind a tree on the side of the road and starts shooting, and the others run along the road. It doesn't take long for the wave of gorrilas to reach Aarav. They drag him on the road, and instead of shooting him, they pick him up and tear his limbs apart. Aarav screams in pain. Karan tries to go back, but Lt. Malhotra grabs him. They run towards the west. The gorrilas leave Aarav's lifeless, torn-up body in the middle of the road and follow them. Upon running a bit further, Jeet notices a truck on the side of the road and points it out.

Lt. Malhotra says, "Nice. Everyone, run to the truck."

They reach the truck, and Lt. Malhotra orders, "Jeet, try to start the truck; see if it works. Manish and Karan, keep firing."

They nod, and Jeet runs to the front of the truck. He gets in the driving seat, and a big smile pops on his face as he sees the fuel gauge halfway up. He tries to start the truck, and after a few tries, it starts.

Jeet yells, "Everybody get on."

Everybody gets on the back of the truck as the gorrilas almost reach them. Jeet steps on the gas, but he is too late as two gorrilas grab on to the back of the truck and get on. Manish gets frantic, throws away his rifle, and takes out his knife. But before he could do anything, a gorilla kicked him out of the truck in front of the swarm of gorillas. In a second, the gorrilas turn Manish's body into a mound of meat. He dies before he can even express his pain.

Karan and Lt. Malhotra shoot at them with their rifles but miss one of the gorrilas their shots as their hands were trembling. The other gorilla grabs Karans head and picks him up. Lt. Malhotra reloads and shoots at the gorilla, but not before the gorilla tears Karan's head from his body. As he was just about to calm down, he heard a static on the radio: "On my signal, turn hard left."

Lt. Malhotra gets shocked at the sudden voice of Sohel in the comms and jumps on his feet. He crawls and gets in the seat next to the driver.

"NOW!!"

Jeet takes a sharp turn to the right, and the moment the truck gets off the road, an M240 roars.

Jacob was lying in the middle of the road with his M240. In just a few seconds, he unloads 100 bullets towards the gorrilas, killing all of them.

Jacob gets up as other Bravo squad members come to him. Sohel bumps his fist on Jacob's shoulder and says, "Good firing."

Sohel couldn't see the smug face Jacob was making behind that helmet. All of the Bravo squad members then run towards the truck. It had hit a tree, and smoke was coming out of the engine.

Sohel and Naomi both go to each side of the truck and open the door. The moment Sohel opens the door, the lifeless body of Jeet, ridden with bullets, falls on him.

He gets surprised and asks, "What? What happened?"

Lt. Malhotra was getting down from the truck with the help of Naomi.

He says, "It's those damn monkeys. They didn't spare anyone. They fired at Jeet when he turned."

Sohel takes his body and slowly lays it down on the floor. Lt. Malhotra too, sits down. He was bleeding from his forehead. Mitali goes to him and starts tending to his injury.

Naommi comes and stands next to Sohel as he is looking at the mountain of dead gorrilas. She says, "I hope that's all of them."

Sohel shakes his head and says, "Me too. But the question is, how did the Gorrilas get this intelligent? And who armed them?"

Suddenly a voice appears on everyone's comms, "I did."