WAR IN THE CURSED LAND✔️

21

Dev gripped his hands tightly on the steering. He didn't understand what he is supposed to do now. It is like a do or die moment. He looked at amukta who is equally tensed. But he didn't understand why those people are not attacking them yet. He is expecting them to attack him and amukta. They are looking at him curiously. Those eyes are holding a different emotion. That is definitely not something that he is expecting. He can see happiness in their eyes whereas he is expecting anger and rage. It caused confusion to him. He looked at amukta who is already looking at him.

The sun is slowly raising and the light produced by the sun is dominating the darkness which covered them till now.

Amukta : do you know them ?

Dev : no ! 

Amukta : then why they are looking at you with happiness ? They are looking at you as if they found someone whom they have lost ages ago.

Dev : I don't know amukta. How would i know why they are looking at me like that ?

Dev told with a hint of frustration and irritation.

Amukta : I don't think that you have done a good thing by taking this step and coming here ! We are struck dev. Do you think we can go back from here ? 

Dev : just stop it amukta. Let me think. We didn't run out of fuel and the vehicle is in good condition. May be something got struck. May be these people are of no harm. I think we should talk with them. I will go and talk with them . Don't come out till i call you.

Amukta : what ? How can you trust them ? May be they are trying to trap us. See those weapons. They are all armed and we are just two. Don't go please.

Dev : ammu ! Please relax. It will be alright. Think properly . Your words aren't making sense from past few minutes. You are panicking. Get out of that first. Calm down yourself.

Dev patted her slowly. He got down after amukta composed herself. He walked towards them with slow steps. Amukta is praying to every single god she knows. She is just hoping that they will be fine. She closed her eyes tightly to get rid of her stress.

Dev : I am not going to harm you people. You can believe me. I am here to find a criminal. I don't think that he is related to you people.

An elderly man came forward and stood in-front of him. He looked at the crowd and assured them that he won't harm them. They dropped their weapons. The sound echoed in the forest. The chirping birds flew away because of that sound. The elderly man observed the scar on dev's wrist. That elderly man joined his hands and bent down in-front of dev. He started weeping. Dev didn't understand why he is crying.

Dev : excuse me sir ! 

Elderly man ( guru ) : you are the human form of god. We are waiting for your father since 25 years. But he left us. He left this world and went away. He promised that he will mend our lives but he lost his own life. 

The elderly man hugged dev all of sudden. Dev didn't understand how he is supposed to react. He looked at amukta who is looking at him with confusion. She signalled him to hug him back. He slowly hugged that old man but he is still in a shock. Dev's father was a IFS officer. He used to maintain a good relation with every tribe who resides in the forest. He still remembered how he used to play in the forest with tribal kids when he was a kid. He recalled the beautiful moments he had before his parent's death. The blissful life that he lost along with their death which he got again after getting married to amukta.

Elderly man : I know son. You might be getting confused by seeing us. We are cursed people. We lost our respect and identity. We got abandoned by our tribal head in 1920s. It's been a centurion years now. My parents and many other people like them came here and settled here. There are many myths about this area. So, no one dares to come here. That became a huge advantage for us. We started living here. We came out only when we need something . No one came here except few naxalites . They teaches us how to fight with these weapons and gave these weapons. But later some foerigners started coming here. We didn't understand what's going on. Later we got to know that they are searching for something in this forest. They need something from our mother forest. There is a local thug called jara. He resides in the forest. He  was helping them because his boss told him to do so.

Dev : jara's boss ?

Elderly man : yes ! We don't know his name. But he seems to be someone from the city side.

Dev : how did you guys knew that i am coming ? Did you hear the vehicle sound ?

Elderly man : no ! We saw you. We can see this place clearly from those caves. When you are a kid your father came here searching for a naxalite and he met us. He told us that he is an officer responsible for taking care of the forest. He promised that he will help us get our lands back. He said he will pull us out of this curse. We even have a latter that he wrote. He told us to show this to the person who comes there after him if he couldn't come back again.

Dev : how did you know that he died ?

Elderly man : I came out from the forest to search for him. I went to the office and enquired by hiding my identity. They have told that he is dead in an accident.

Dev understood the whole situation but he is getting frustrated because of the mess created here. An inner turmoil of thoughts are disturbing him. He was after jara all these days but he realised that there is someone else who is more powerful than jara and responsible for everything. He came here to find the people involved in all these crimes but he met some innocent people here.

He was about to say something but massive firing started in the forest. He turned back and saw a troop of policemen along with one of his higher officials. He didn't understand why they came here. Those people ran away out of fear.

Dev : stop ! Don't fire at them. They are innocent.

They didn't hear his words. They kept on firing. 

A constable : it's an order from IG sir. We can't obey you sir ! 

Dev : what ? 

SSP : mr.dev ! You went against our rules. You are suspended for 3 months. Once jara's case ends you have to take up the suspension. A special enquiry committee is arranged for interrogating you. 

Dev is  unmoved by listening to him because he is expecting that. To be clear he is happy that he can do what he wants to do now.  A man with wide knowledge on law and order is much more dangerous than a psychopathic killer. Dev decide to continue his hunt without being bounded by rules.

.........

How's the chapter ?

You guys might have got confused at certain points but those will be cleared in the next chapter.