Chapter 3

Chausiku

02-12-2021

Chausiku sat on the firm and thick branch, balancing by wrapping her legs around it. She looked up at the clear night sky. The moon was the only thing she found staring back at her. The silhouettes of a few birds hovered by. It was a cool night. It had been warm all day, but now she could finally feel the cool breeze of the night air on her skin, especially because she was this high from the ground.

Why was she even doing this? It was to protect her family, that’s why. Her baby brother and her parents. They could fight the battle, so she had to. That was how she contributed to the tribe. By protecting all of those who could not protect themselves.

Chausiku threw her gaze to Ranya, who sat in the tree next to her. Ranya signalled her to be silent. Chausiku held her gun tightly, barrel pointing down. Some 6 metres below them, scattered soldiers wandered around. The flashlights on the side of their helmets threw rays of bright light across the ground, creating large shadows which danced, every time they passed a large plant. They spoke inaudible words into the comms built into their helmets.

Chausiku checked the silencer on the barrel of her assault rifle. She unclicked the metal cylinder and clicked it in again. She then adjusted her head-band, which kept her long hair out of her eyes. She looked at Ranya, who was already looking at her. She had a finger on her earpiece, receiving orders through it. She nodded and whispered a confirmation, after which her eyes went back to Chausiku, and nodded to her as well.

Chausiku looked into the scope, into the direction of one of the soldiers below them, and then looked over the scope in the same direction. As far as she could see, the soldier, who walked through the high vegetation, was not in the sight of any of the others. A straggler from the group. She looked through the scope and aimed until the crosshairs aligned with the head of the man. She pulled her trigger. The cylinder silenced her shot as well as she had hoped, producing almost no sound, a splatter of blood shot through the air. The dark liquid glistened brightly in the moonlight, but then disappeared into the dark again. The soldier’s corpse fell to the ground with a soft thud. There was no shout or warning, or anything else which would indicate that the death had been noticed. They had somewhat another minute before the others would wonder why he didn’t say anything anymore. Chausiku moved backwards over the thick branch to grab her mask, which she had put at the centre of the tree. Suddenly, right below her, there was a voice.

The words were in a language she didn’t understand. She stopped moving on the branch and looked down. The man was right below her, at the foot of the tree. She tried reaching for her mask. The branch creaked, loudly. Chausiku threw her gaze at the man, who gasped and looked up at her. Chausiku was half-blinded by the bright flashlight.

‘Hey!’ The man’s shrill but deep voice sounded in the silence of the night.

There only followed a fast streak of faint tugs from a silencer, and the thump of the man’s corpse falling against the tree. Ranya looked at Chausiku. Both women knew that the shout had been loud enough for the other soldiers to hear. In a split-second, Chausiku shoved herself the necessary extra half-metre up the branch and took a hold of her mask. As she did this, another shout sounded in the foreign language.

Chausiku caught one last glimpse of Ranya’s face, before the branch which Ranya was sitting on and the overhanging leafs and branches erupted into a cloud and blast of chipped wood and pieces of torn leafs. Bullets flew past Chausiku’s ears, and some even hit the tree, only half a metre away from where she sat. She screamed and put on her mask as quickly as she could. It had a filter in the mouthpiece, and night vision in the eyes. She threw her rifle to the ground and then tilted herself sideways, holding on tightly to the branch. She let go with her legs, so she hung onto the branch only with her hands, which slipped off by themselves anyways. She dropped to the densely vegetated ground in an unprofessional way, and fell backwards as she landed.

She got up and grabbed her rifle. The enemies were closing in to see if they had hit. Ranya’s corpse, riddled with bullets, lay against the foot of the tree in which she had sat. A collection of bright rays of light swung from left to right and back again, as the enemies ran towards her. Chausiku took hold of the tags around Ranya’s neck and ripped them off. She put the metal necklaces in her rear pocket and took a gas grenade from her belt. She pulled the pin from the canister and dropped the grenade by Ranya’s feet. The enemy were now on the other side of the tree, no more than three metres away.

Chausiku dropped to her knees and put her gun on the ground.

‘I surrender! I surrender!’ she shouted just as the men came around the corner.

Their flashlights almost blinded her through her night-vision. One hand she held up, and with the other she covered her eyes. The men stood by Ranya’s corpse and pointed their guns at her. The red lasers dotted her head and chest as they barked at her in their language.

With a blast, the canister released the poisonous gas, right where they were standing. The fumes entered their eyes and airways, and started gnawing its way through their flesh. They screamed and coughed, dropping their guns and cringing down to the ground in pain. Chausiku felt the fierce irritation on her bare, dark skin and could not imagine what it would feel like if it were in her eyes or lungs. She grabbed her gun and stood up. The men were looking down at the ground, trying to exhale as much as possible, only making things worse as they started to cough up bits of blood. She aimed through the scope.

“Tsut. Tsut. Tsut. Tsut. Tsut. Tsut.”

Six times she shot. One for each man’s head. She did not want them to suffer the slow but inevitable death which the gas would have brought to them.

It had been a scouting party. Eight men in total. Chausiku unclicked the almost empty magazine and exchanged with a full one. She took the flare gun which Ranya had on her belt, and aimed it to the sky. She pulled the trigger. The red projectile shot up into the dark sky, letting all of those around know that the ambush was successful. Chausiku went to sit against the tree which she had sat in.

Five minutes later, warriors from the tribe arrived at the scene of the ambush.

‘Good evening, Chausiku,’ said one of them. They all had masks on, same as her. The gas that she had thrown was a common weapon, and every warrior of the tribe had it.

‘Where’s Ranya?’

Chausiku simply pointed with a finger at the tree opposite of her, where Ranya’s body lay.

‘Ah… I see. At least the ambush wasn’t a complete failure. You did well tonight; I’ll make sure the chiefs hear of your effort.’

Chausiku stood up from her position. The man took out a bar of chocolate from his pocket. ‘You don’t want to run out of energy as soon as your adrenaline wears off.’

She took the bar of chocolate and shoved it into her own pocket. ‘Thanks.’

The other warriors scavenged the bodies of the soldiers. They took the helmets, guns, ammunition, food, and any other valuables.

Chausiku and the warrior, named Kaiyan, talked for a bit. ‘You retrieved Ranya’s tags, I presume?’

‘Yeah, of course. She was a good warrior.’

‘You weren’t very close, were you?’

‘We got along, but that’s it. I don’t like becoming close with anyone here. It’ll only hurt more when I lose them.’

‘Or when they lose you. Don’t become sceptic. Those bullets can hit anyone.’

‘If they’d lose me, I’d have no pain to suffer, now would I?’

Kaiyan looked at her and smiled. ‘You’re too smart for war, you know that?’

‘This isn’t war. What is happening in the world; that is war. This is nothing but personal gain.’

Kaiyan’s smile disappeared. ‘This is a war, Chausiku. It may not be as big as the others, but it is. We are all abandoned here. Every time you look at the television, all you see is white people killing white people. Where are we on that screen? Where is our cause in the media? Just because we take no part, and get no recognition, does not mean that this is no war.’

‘We are in the darkness of their shadow, Kaiyan. We are nothing compared to them. They have weaponry, food, real houses, even cities. What are we fighting for here, really? We are fighting for that. We are fighting to scavenge their waste.’

Kaiyan looked perplexed at Chausiku. ‘Do you really think it is still like that? Do you really think that their world looks so gorgeous, whilst we are the lower ones? There have been special bombings on all sides, Chau. Their crops have been devastated and devoured by chemicals. Their houses have been burnt and bombarded.’

‘And yet, they’re still doing better than we are,’ Chausiku said with a smirk.

Kaiyan was silent for a second. ‘You should save your energy. I don’t want to drain it with an argument.’

Chausiku’s smirk faded. ‘I am sorry, Kai. I didn’t mean to pull your hopes down. We’ll fight the confederation, and we’ll win. Then, we shall take what is ours, once and for all. Two warriors brought down eight of their men tonight. We have the upper-hand in strategy.’

‘And yet they have the upper-hand in numbers and weaponry.’

The group of warriors left the site of the ambush with their new scavenged gear. They walked back to the outpost, cutting a line as straight as possible through the jungle. The roots of the jungle trees went deep into the earth, and made the ground very uneven. Clouds had gathered above them with speed, and it started to rain as they progressed through the thick vegetation of the rainforest. Chausiku formed her hands to a cup, and collected the rainwater, until it was enough to take a sip. The insects which buzzed around the warriors quickly tried to find shelter from the rain, giving them a bit of a rest from the annoyance.

Chausiku had her rifle slung on her back. She took a bite of the half-molten chocolate bar, which Kaiyan had given her. It was the sweetest thing she had tasted in quite a while. The chocolate had become more fudge-like, which actually only made it better in Chausiku’s eyes.

After hours of tripping, walking and stumbling in the darkness, the small group of seven warriors reached the orange road which led to the outpost. It went slightly uphill, and was one straight line for the most part, so Chausiku could usually see 2 kilometres down the road. However, the darkness of the night and the rain which glistened in the light of Kaiyan’s newly acquired helmet, did not allow it. The group walked onwards with feet that were becoming sore, up the steady slope of the hill.

Something suddenly caught Chausiku’s attention. She heard something. The outpost was still a kilometre away. She stopped walking. Her heart skipped a beat as she turned around. The air left her lungs for a split-second, and all she felt was a hollow emptiness in her stomach. Far in the distance, down the road, was the bright twinkle of light.

‘Everybody stop. Look.’

The others stopped walking and turned around. Chausiku swung the rifle back over her neck and held the weapon steadily against her shoulder as she looked into the scope. There were five sets of headlights.

‘It isn’t good. Five cars.’

In the darkness, on top of two of the cars she saw something else. It was a sight which widened her eyes and struck fear into her heart. She clenched her weapon tighter for a second. Glistening in the moonlight, she saw two heavy machine-guns with armour-plating around them, on the roofs of the second and fourth car. This wasn’t a scouting party. This was a full-on assault. The confederation had found the outpost, and they were aiming to win the war tonight.