Chapter 5: Chapter 5: The Capture

Everyone who wasn't injured stood up and ran for their weapons. The jeeps sped up, and men exited from them, running towards the tents as they fired. Edith got up, grabbing her pistol. She shot at two men who attempted to break into her tent.

Edna ducked behind a tent. William grabbed her arm, leading her from behind into the forest, away from the battle. Two enemy men pursued them. They leaped over the rocks and trudged through, running for their lives.

William turned around and fired at the two. He grabbed her and ducked as they shot back. Hiding behind a tree, he fired at them. He mouthed ‘Run’ to her.

She ran as fast as she was capable, one of the men hot on her trail.

However, she didn’t run for long. The man fired, and the bullet grazed her ankle. Feeling the sharp pain, she yelped as she fell to the floor. She felt the back of his gun strike her head before she fell unconscious.

The man stopped for a few seconds. Catching the chance, William shot him dead.

He ran towards the direction in which Edna had sped off. Reaching there, he looked around and shouted, “Edna?” But there was no sign of the war correspondent.

A voice spoke through his radio. “Grayson? This is General Cartwright. Do you have the war correspondent?”

“No, General. I was engaged, and I asked her to run, and I can’t find her there. But there are some dragging marks here and a bit of blood.”

“She’s been captured, Grayson. Return to the camp. Now.”

“Wilco.”

William walked back, feeling guilty and ashamed. He should never have let her out of his sight. He had a responsibility, and he had failed.

Bancroft sat near the fire they had set, speaking through the radio.

“Hello, Control Base. We have an issue. The war correspondent has been captured. Ready more troops, and contact the Baldornan Air Troops. This is urgent.”

The few survivors of the attack, which included Riley, William, the General, Edith, and six others, were there as well.

Edith stood staring out into the distance, tears flowing down her cheeks. She spoke, breaking the short silence, in a quavering voice.

“I’ll get her back. If it means that I have to break into that damned country on my own and get into the prison, I will get her out of there. Why are we even sitting here?” She said angrily, grabbing her gun. “I’m going. I’m not waiting till tomorrow. I don’t care about the air forces. I’m going in there right now.”

Riley stood in front of her. “Commander, you’re not thinking sense. Alone, you don’t have a chance of breaking her out. Stop, and think calmly.”

“Calmly?” Edith replied furiously. “How can you people sit here, knowing that those people are going to torture her in the worst ways possible? She’s my sister, for God’s sake!”

She felt a fury like she had never felt before, her fear adding fuel to the fire. Angry, hot tears began to flow as her mind entertained the thought that she may never see her sister. She fell to her knees, sobbing, as she thought of her mother and the fact that she had been incapable of saving her own sister. She should have told her to stay back. She should never have let her be involved in this entire thing.

Bancroft held her, as she cried, a rare incidence as Edith believed in never displaying her emotions openly, as she believed it to be a sign of weakness.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Edna slowly opened her eyes. As she arrived in a conscious state, she became aware of the pain she felt all over.

She was in a prison near the Barbonia-Baldornan border. It was run by terrorists who were supported by the government. Yesterday, they had tortured her for information, most of which she was not aware of either way. She had refused to break, and hence they had thrown her off here.

Slowly, she raised herself into a sitting position, groaning as she did so. They had thrashed her pretty badly, and she had endured a lot. There were cuts on her back from the whipping. She panted, looking around at the three gray walls and one side with bars. She was wearing a grey prison uniform.

“Who are you?”

She turned around and saw a girl sitting in the corner.

“Who’re you?” was Edna’s first reaction, still surprised by the sudden encounter.

“Aries.”

“Is that your name?”

“Yes.”

Edna took a good look at the girl. Her hair was brown, with short, messy locks. She had a black eye and a bleeding lip. Her frame was thin and frail. Her eyes, however, were brown and lively, and she warily looked back at the older woman, staring with a blank expression.

“Boy, you look battered. How’d you get that way?”

“Beating. How did you come here?” She spoke slowly.

“I was captured and thrown in here. I’m a war correspondent for the Baldornan Ground Forces. What about you?”

“Capture. Prison.”

“They capture kids here?”

“Yes. For training.”

Edna sighed, leaning on the wall. “How long have you been here?”

“Forever.”

The girl was huddled in the corner. She intrigued Edna a lot, as she had a certain mysterious aura about her. Suddenly, she heard footsteps.

A tall, bulky guard walked up to the cell. The girl’s expression changed into one of fright, and she began to back away. The man opened the bars and came to her. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off. She struggled against him vigorously, but to no avail, and she was taken off, kicking and screaming.

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Edna sat there watching, too frozen in fright to react. Finally, when she regained her composure, the girl was already taken away. She could hear the echoes of her screams.

She never knew how depraved this could be. If Edith and the troops came to rescue her, she was definitely taking her along.

She finally succumbed to exhaustion, leaning back and dozing off.

The General stood in her office, speaking on the telephone.

“We’re at war, Howard. I need as many planes as you can spare. We’ve got a hostage crisis too. You know Buckhoff, he won’t admit it. He’s after me anyways. You’ll help, right? Yeah, I know it’s hard. There are spies all around. But this is important. Yes, I’ll take responsibility for anything that happens. You’ll do it? Thanks, I knew I could count on you. See you later, bye.”

She placed the receiver. “He’ll do what he can.”

“What can he do?” Edith asked impatiently.

“He’ll have to rally his forces and send us assistance without alerting Buckhoff. That’ll take a bit of time, but he’ll get us planes and helicopters. I’ve placed orders for decent equipment too.”

Bancroft nodded. “I’ve informed all the Commanders, who’re rallying up their forces.”

“Good.” Cartwright sat behind her desk and leaned forward. “In a while, I’ll contact the Intelligence Department, who will contact their spies in the facility. They don’t know everything in there, but they certainly can help us pull off a rescue mission.”

“Now remember, we can do this, and we will, okay? We have an opportunity to expose Buckhoff, who denies any kind of Barbonian terrorism. For this, we need Garson. If she’s not there, everything is futile. Commander, I know what you are thinking. I am not implying that your sister is merely a tool. If she had been a random citizen as well, we would try as hard to rescue her. But here, the stakes are high for everyone. Do you understand?”

Both nodded.

“That’s all. You may leave.”

They both walked out. As they did, Bancroft looked at Edith. She was wiping tears, trying to control them, but it wasn’t working very effectively. The Deputy slowly reached out her arm to wrap it around the Commander’s shoulders, and the latter broke down into tears. Bancroft whispered comforting words as she held her.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. You’ll be fine. Everything will be alright. It’s okay….”

She slowly took her into a room and shut the door.

Finally, Edith managed to bring herself under control. She wiped her eyes and sat silently for a few minutes before she spoke.

“You know, I never imagined I would see Edna on the battlefield. She was always the quieter and more reserved one, the one who preferred to play it safe. Or I thought so. She went into journalism. When she did that course in war correspondence, I thought it would never go anywhere. For a while, I was right.”

Her voice caught in her throat for a second, but she continued.

“When she asked me if I thought taking up this assignment was a decent idea, my first instinct was to tell her not to. I knew how dangerous it was. I wanted to protect her like I always had done. To tell her that she was crazy, and to immediately call her boss and tell him that she wasn’t doing it. But for once, I stopped to think. I wondered if maybe, for once, I could let her do something. I knew she was frustrated with her job, and she wanted something else. She did want to do it. I realized that I shouldn’t stand in her way, and I backed off. I told her that she could do it. I fought my own fears down. My own guilt about the fact that after risking my own life, I was letting my sister risk hers too, and its effects on my mother.

And now, it has happened. What I feared. I protected my sister her entire life. But when she genuinely needed me, when she had a threat, I failed. I let her slip through my hands. I let her go. I need to atone for it. I need to get her back. I have to.” She gripped Bancroft’s hand and looked into her eyes. “Because if I don’t, I’ll never be able to show my face to my mother again. I won’t be able to live with it.”

Bancroft placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You will get her back. We will get her back. We just need to be a little patient. Acting on impulse is harmful to every person involved in a situation. If you simply run over there now, you’ll die. If you’re dead, it’s useless to everyone here. It will decrease our morale, and the morale of your soldiers and your mother will lose both her daughters. No one wins. But if we think this through calmly and attack systematically, our chances of winning and recovering your sister are higher.”

She gripped the other woman’s hand.

“I promise you that we will bring your sister back. I swear to God. And all I ask of you in return is that you put your trust and believe in us. Me, the General, Riley, William, and your battalion. Trust that we will not let you down. Trust that we’re here to help you. Can you do that?”

A myriad of emotions traveled through Edith’s heart before her eyes met Bancroft’s. She nodded.

Together they sat there, pondering and thinking of what lay ahead.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Edna opened her eyes, blinking. She initially wondered where exactly she was, and then she remembered that she had been captured and was in a Barbonian facility. She looked at the corner of the cell.

Aries lay there, unconscious. There were bruises all over her face and body, and there was dried blood on her chin. She went to her and gently turned her over, feeling her back. She lifted the shirt up and sharply breathed in. There were several cuts on it. Some were scars, some were fresh.

Turning over the child again, she shook her in a gentle and soft manner. The girl woke up and jerked away from her, then yelping in pain as she fell back. Her muscles were numb and weak. Edna calmed her down.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s just me. You’re safe here, for now. It’s alright.”

She stopped struggling, and eventually relaxed in her arms.

“It hurts,” she whispered, breathing heavily.

“I know, but you’ll be fine.” She used the edge of her shirt to wipe off the blood on her chin. Looking toward the bars, she noticed that there was a bottle of water there. The prison certainly didn’t want its inmates to die of thirst. She grabbed it and tore part of her shirt. Soaking the cloth, she used it to sponge and soothe the bruises on her face, and wipe off the blood.

“That feel better?”

“Yeah, a bit.”

“Good. Now go to sleep.”

The girl slept in Edna’s lap. She sat awake, thinking for a while. Her father used to talk about human nature. He had once said that human nature depends on the nature said human has seen and received. The entire world runs on human empathy. We should be ready to help those in need. Not because it would benefit us, but because they are fellow humans. It was something that had stuck with her, and something which she had decided to follow her entire life. Her own way of honoring his memory.

 

 

 

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