Chapter 3 – The first test
Aliya woke up with a terrible headache.
-…I must get out of here…
She jumped out her bed, dressed in her "pre-kidnapping" outfit, took her bag and hurried out of the room. When they saw her, the guards alerted. The young woman banged the door and locked it before hasting find another solution to escape. As the guardians were smashing in, she noticed the long curtain on the canopied four-poster bed. She grasped it and hung it on the balcony to go down and sprinted into the forest, hearing her pursuers calling for reinforcement.
She arrived to a checkpoint. A man who arrived in quad, stopped to relieve himself. At this moment, Aliya felt adrenaline invading her body. She was no longer able to reason and only thought about the feelings when riding the machine, although she didn't know how to control it.
She ran to the vehicle and moved off. The fear she felt was rapidly replaced by excitement, because she assimilated the commands very quickly.
Noticing that Pagan's soldiers were pursuing her, she sped up. But her confidence got weaker when she saw the helicopter…with Pagan in it.
At this moment, the road became too sinuous. She skidded and fell in a huge slope. She panicked, grabbing to the vehicle. The quad crashed on a trunk and she tumbled down the slope rolling.
She had difficulties to stand up. Her arm was really messed by the descent.
She paralyzed all of a sudden. Strong and worrying grunts made her shake. Turning her head, she met a beautiful panther, visibly starving.
Reassembling all her strengths, she began to run. The panther started to pursue her but she the rests of the quad fell in front of her and slowed her.
During her flee, Aliya saw a khukri. She took it, running. She ran to exhaustion. A stone made her fall to the ground in front of a lake, in the middle of a plain. Pagan's soldiers then arrived. They wanted to help the young woman but what they were watching made them unable to do anything.
The panther kept trying to hurt Aliya, but she managed to dodge all blows tab. By defensive reflex, she tried to cut the feline with the khukri. She finally did it. In revenge, it made her fall and tried to tear her to pieces, but Aliya dodged again and finally made the animal flutter with a kick, doing a backward roll. But when she tried to stand up, the predator grabbed her and planted its fangs into her right shoulder. The cry of pain of the young woman made all the surrounding birds flee. Jay shot in the panther's paw, which stepped back. Drunk with pain, Aliya was suffocating. But to everybody's surprise, among the one Pagan who just arrived, Aliya turned back, grabbed the khukri and split the animal's head. Her scream gave chills to all spectators.
The winner of the fight was hardly conscious and was shaking like a leaf. Pagan approached her with a fascinating gaze, but before he could say anything, she collapsed. The tyrant squatted and brushed her face. Jay joined him.
-My little canary did a little too much effort…
-She has been…impressive.
-I know.
-May I take her to the helicopter for you?
-I'll take care of it myself. Gentleman to the end.
He carried her to the machine and kept his eyes on her until they arrived at the palace. Then he ordered a doctor to take care of the injured. Sati rushed toward him.
-Oh my god, Pagan, what happened?!
-My little bird fought with a panther. But don't worry, she is alive.
He retired to his apartments. The old lady ran to her protégée's room and sobbed when she saw her. She sat near the bed and prayed that she doesn't succumb. The doctor came and examined her.
-Well, we can say that God was by her side. Her wounds are not so deep. I will clean all that.
To make sure that she doesn't fell anything, he made her inhale chloroform. Sati felt sorry.
-Poor little…so much happened since she arrived! I hope she will be okay…what she lived until now is really horrible!
-According to Jay, thos young woman showed much courage than a handful of young recruits. She killed the animal herself.
-Really?
-Yes. It must have been a breathtaking fight! Even her majesty was subjugated, according to him!
Twenty minutes later, he finished his work and left. At the same moment, a black skinned man entered the room with a little box in his hand.
-Eli…did you just come back to mission?
-Hi, Sati. Yeah, we won hands down. They had better think twice before attacking Kyrat. So, this is the panther killer, I guess.
-Yes…
-The fight must have been nice to see. Here is an electronic bracelet in this box. Put it to her.
-But…
-This is an order, Sati.
She did it unwillingly.
Eli Mwana was also from the elite. Graduated from Oxford and native of Botswana, he was a crack in information technology and was really good at developing weapons and bombs.
Aliya woke up late in the night. Hardly had she raised that the pain raised. What an awful start! She saw her friend die, a mad man "set his sight" on her and she fought with a panther! She notices a low light on her wrist. When she realized it was an electronic bracelet, tears went to her eyes.
She stood up despite the pain, took a blanket and slowly walked to the balcony. The fresh breeze appeased her a little. The moon was superb.
The young woman sighed and sat in a sofa to contemplate the moon and the stars. Tears were flowing. Quietly she fell asleep, praying to wake up of this nightmare as soon as possible.
