Deceiving Veils

Chapter-10{Undefined stakes}

"Open your eyes, Manik"

"Wake up, you need to leave this place"

Drill siren in background piercing his ears and a dim voice telling him to run away...
A splash of water touched his flesh and he opened his eyes.

"Listen, You need to leave this place as soon as possible"

A contour standing in front of him, shaking him vigorously...
Manik with great difficulty opened his swollen eyes to see Aryan standing in front of him.

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Drill siren...
Shrilling voice of it made Nandini come out of slumber she was sent to last night.
Collecting the thread of events, she got up to see an empty tent and two guards on duty just outside her tent.
"Manik," she mumbled.

Siren again blew and she realized it wasn't military drill but something else. She walked to the window and saw army marching in haste with their weapons.

Had something happened?
She guessed yes.

Army was getting ready for some sort of battle. They were dressed for war. Their March had tune of war.
She knew it was impossible to escape seeing amount of tight security outside. She took an overcoat from stand and started to loosen knot of one of flaps.
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From dark to rainy dull, Manik saw weather already mourning for something. Aryan had left the doors open telling him he needed to escape before they kill him. Aryan stood at a distance from cell looking around. His face was pale. Manik was amazed seeing his spineless brother taking such big risk.
Siren again filled the atmosphere with warning. Manik looked at tower where a few troops stood holding their guns. Something was unusual. Did something happen when he was imprisoned?

"There's unrest in camp. Just use this opportunity to run as far as you can," Aryan said while handing Manik his overcoat.

Manik took the coat and asked, "why are you doing all this?"

Both looked at each other. Aryan was the first one to take away his gaze.

"Certainly not for you," he said and walked towards the camp.

Manik stood still for a minute and saw Aryan disappearing in heavy rain.

He looked behind at forest and then at camp.

"Timing is ironical, Brother," he murmured, "your help came when I don't want to leave."

A smile crept on his lips before he started walking towards camp.

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Hiding her face in collar of coat, she started walking in rain. Her legs were shaking, she assumed it to be weakness. But She was feeling much better than before. Large tanks standing at side seemed to be idle for moment. They hardly had any soldier nearby. She took it as apt way to escape that heavily guarded territory.

An explosion, somewhere very near...
Nandini covered her ears and jammed to her place as ground beneath her did shake.

She saw smoke coming from forest. Activity around paced up even more and she saw troops running towards tanks. She ran faster to reach shed of trees.

Explosions, one after one...

Was it an overnight war?
But why and with whom?

An anxiety was building in her heart thinking about everything.
"Would he be fine?"
"What if they had harmed him?"
Questions were haunting her while her feet seemed to give up. She still needed rest.