Chapter Ten – The Real Party
When the Golden Path trucks arrived in Bhutan there was no one waiting for them.
No glorious supporters.
No loyal brothers and sisters living in exile had come to greet the retreating and defeated force.
The small compound of warehouses was surrounded by a chain link fence which was sagging and had fallen over in several places.
The gate was open and had been cut open quite a long time ago, the two sides of the opening having long since come off their hinges.
Amita looked out her window in horror as Dhriti followed the truck in front of theirs.
Farther ahead in the convoy was Sabal's truck and he had ordered his driver to pull over and stop in the middle of the compound.
As each truck entered past the chain fences they pulled to the side and stopped as well.
Sabal dismounted his truck and stood aimlessly in the centre of the deserted compound.
Each of the warehouse doors was open, some were ajar more than others but each appeared the same; dirty, run-down, and unused.
No one had been here in years…
Weeds and plants grew through the cracking and poorly poured asphalt and concrete throughout the facility.
To the side of the entrance was a small office building for monitoring and supporting the previous functions of the facility as a real warehouse and freight transport station.
Decades before the warehouses had contained freight bound for Bhutan imported from Kyrat. But since the civil war it had been left abandoned…
Ironically it was due to the Golden Path's habit of attacking and hijacking transport trucks which caused this particular company to close the facility and abandon the region all together.
But that was before Amita's time. That was even before Sabal's time…
As Amita's truck came to a stop she quickly dismounted and walked towards Sabal.
The man was running his hands through his hair, tensely oozing stress to any onlooker.
Tentatively she began to approach her partner.
"Sabal…" She lowered her voice. "Not in front of everyone… Come now, we can go into the building over there and-"
He turned to face her.
His eyes were bloodshot and he had been breathing heavily.
"And do what?" he put his hands on his hips. "Do what not in front of everyone?"
His voice started to rise. Amita looked around them uneasily.
The trucks began to empty of their passengers and the two factions within the Golden Path clearly began to form in a semi-circle to Amita's right side, Sabal's left.
"Hmm?" Sabal loudly continued. "Let you lie to me? Lie to us?" He pointed to the crowd, "Lie to them?"
Amita held up her hands and took a step back defensively, "W-what? Wait hold on. Lie? Lie!"
She folded her arms.
"I have never lied to them! I have never deliberately left them to death!"
Sabal furrowed his brow and shook his head.
'Are we really doing this now?' Amita thought.
Looking to his side and up to the sky Sabal exhaled loudly.
"After that radio broadcast?"
He pointed at Amita.
"You heard it didn't you?"
Amita unfolded her arms and placed them on her hips, shifting her weight from her right to left foot.
"Yes I did…"
Sabal looked around and pointed at the small crowd of Golden Path.
"You all heard it didn't you?"
There was only silence as a response.
Dhriti remained in her truck and at the wheel, looking through the open door that Amita had left.
Bhadra tried to unclip her belt and follow Amita but Dhriti held out her hand and lightly placed it on Bhadra's.
Without a word the young girl understood what it meant.
The crowd of Golden Path members was beginning to look strange…
Sabal cleared his voice and was about to address them when someone in the crowd yelled; "You two have led us to ruin!"
There was a grumble of agreement among some, while a torrent of whispers began with the others.
Sabal stopped mid breath and took a step back from the crowd.
Amita's eyes widened.
A few of Sabal's avid supporters began to form in a small break away of the crowd, and very rapidly people began to eye each other with suspicion.
The noise began to grow.
Amita looked to one of her men and a few of her closest supporters broke away from the group as well.
Some people began to shove each other.
Then there was yelling.
Amita cleared her throat.
"Look! We are still alive, we have arms. We have equipment and food. We can-"
A series of derisive comments from anonymous yellers sapped Amita's confidence and instead began to fill Sabal, Amita, their supporters and many of those in attendance with fear and unease.
Then people began to draw weapons.
Loudly some yelling turned to screams, and very soon it descended into mutiny and chaos.
Amita drew her pistol and Sabal did as well.
Their respective supporters all began aiming on anyone they didn't recognise as either pro-Sabal or pro-Amita.
But more than either of those camps was a third group… The newly formed faction of deserters.
"You have led us to nothing but failure!" one yelled.
Another yelled; "Fuck Amita!"
And a woman screamed; "Sabal has only ever been a backwards fool!"
People began to yell over each other and those who wanted nothing to do with what was about to happen began to leave the open centre of the compound.
At first it was a quiet trickle of people taking their possessions or just the clothes on their backs and slipping out of sight and towards the gate. But then people started to run to avoid being accosted or having a finger or gun pointed at them.
"Stop them!" Sabal yelled.
The confusion and disorganisation began to grow. Some people tried clambering onto or back into their vehicles or their truck.
And it was then that Dhriti decided to finally reveal Ugyen…
"Bhadra close the door, now."
The young girl's face was surprised and she sat frozen at first, "W-what?"
"Just do it!" Ugyen yelled.
Bhadra complied and Ugyen immediately threw the truck into reverse.
At the same time the situation finally exploded.
No one could tell what really started it or who shot first but very quickly the three factions of the remaining Golden Path began to tear each other apart.
Years of pent up aggression and hate finally showed itself.
The fragile alliance between radicals became exposed as far more splintered than previously considered; the religious zealots began shooting at the communist members, the few fascist Golden Path members shot at the anti-statists, Amita's loyalists shot towards Sabal's men, and the dissenters shot at everyone.
It was a free for all that saw people who had previously fought and worked together using their rifles, pistols, axes, sticks, rocks, and even their bare hands to now kill each other.
Ugyen backed up the truck as fast as she could and began driving through the gate in reverse.
The truck was pinging with the sounds of small arms fire and Bhadra was screaming loudly, "What's going on! What's going on!"
But despite the noise Ugyen tried to stay focused and with her left hand she pressed Bhadra's head down in an effort to make her stay in cover.
"Just stay low Bhadra!"
She grunted and continued to drive as best she could until she was back on the road.
Twisting the wheel as fast as she could the truck skidded across the old and cracked asphalt as it turned around.
"Hang on Bhadra!"
Ugyen began to drive back the way that they had come from as the compound of warehouses quickly descended into hell.
"Shoot anyone that tries to take another truck!" Sabal yelled. "And kill Amita!" he added.
Amita and her loyalists had sprinted out of the centre of the compound and were now taking cover in the small office building.
Most of the people who had been armed were not combat ready.
Meaning they had only the magazine that was in their weapon at the time.
The rest of the Golden Paths' remaining munitions and firepower were in crates in the back of the trucks and very quickly everyone began to realise this…
The shooting which at first was a chaotic storm of noise had now died down to sparring shots and men were instead locked in tense standoffs, aiming guns at each other, not knowing if they were loaded or not. While those who'd been shot either writhed around in pain or lay mute on the pavement.
Sabal's men had actually been whittled down to just a handful of supporters and they were now being surrounded by many more dissenters.
Amita and her four loyalists watched from the windows of the office building.
She panted and watched unblinkingly as the dissenters began circling Sabal.
Tapping the shoulder of one of her female followers she spoke quietly, "Let them tear him apart, and then we can hose them down in bullets."
The female Golden Path member furrowed her brow and detached her magazine from her AK.
Looking into the box she shook her head. "I… I don't have enough…"
Two of her male followers had pistols and they nodded in agreement.
The last supporter, another female, didn't even have a firearm and was instead holding a combat knife in her hands.
Amita's eyes widened.
"We need to leave here… now…"
Outside Sabal leveled his pistold at the man closest to him.
"You bastards… you have fucked us all!" he said.
Then a voice loudly responded; "No, that was your doing!"
A tanned, short haired, Kyrati shook his head. He was wearing a dirty muscle shirt and workpants stained with black engine grease.
"You and that foolish woman…"
He was obviously the informal ringleader of the dissenters as the men all grunted in agreement and followed his words and movement with their eyes carefully.
"You should have stayed burning offerings at Mohan's grave Sabal…"
There was another chorus of approval and Sabal continued backing up until he and his men were now touching.
Snorting his nostrils in defiance Sabal shook his head and yelled back, "Fuck you! Without me you all would have been tortured to death! Without me you-"
The mechanic ring leader's voice boomed over Sabal's. "Without you we might all still have had peaceful lives!"
The men all agreed, "Yeah!"
"He's right"
"Fuck you Sabal!"
The mechanic bared his teeth and let out a growl, "You should have stayed with Mohan's bones, and Amita should have known her place!"
His voice climbed to address the hiding woman.
Sabal's voice was calm and slow; "You step any closer… and I will shoot you brother."
But the mechanic chuckled.
"I don't doubt that Sabal. But it'll take more than that to kill me…"
While the dissenters following the mechanic each had either knives or pistols or a rifle if they were lucky, the mechanic was using a thick cast iron wrench as his weapon. Then business end of it was already dripping with blood and viscera from the earlier confusion and brawling.
After a tense few seconds Sabal smirked and pulled his trigger.
Instead of an explosion the pistol made a dry *click*.
Sabal's face dropped in surprise when there was no shot and everyone tensed at the sound of the pistol. Sabal had forgotten to cock the weapon… As a result there wasn't a bullet in the chamber.
The mechanic threw off his surprise and immediately lunged forwards with his weapon held aloft.
Sabal tried to bring back the slide on his pistol and behind him his supporters shot at their respective targets while the dissenters responded with their own bullets.
The thick wrench collided with Sabal's lower jaw and he stumbled backwards, dropping his gun, and falling to the ground.
The mechanic quickly descended after him.
The few loyalists Sabal had left had now been shot or were engaged in melee.
But no matter what, for Sabal it was now over; the Mechanic's men were far more dedicated than his…
Reeling from the hit to his jaw Sabal tried to make noise but instead he involuntarily spat out some blood and a few teeth.
The sound of the strike echoed out strangely.
Sabal was untouchable…
Before this there were those who looked upon him as blessed by Kyra…
Many thought that Sabal's restoration of the Tarun Matara had been led by divine providence.
But the crack across his face brought a horrible realisation home: Sabal was but a man.
And all men, even the holy, die.
The Mechanic's surprise at having actually struck Sabal gravely didn't stop his body from continuing.
Bringing his left hand to wrap around his right, the Mechanic now held the wrench with both hands and began to yell as he cocked back another swing.
Sabal's expression was one of disbelief.
His face didn't show pain, but instead absolute bewilderment.
The world around him changed in a single action.
As he fell to the ground his eyes looked around in a daze before they focused enough that he could see again.
Above him the Mechanic's shadow covered him and though Sabal was in horrible pain he numbly registered what was about to happen next.
Like a torrent Sabal's arms moved on their own and he brought both his hands upwards in a futile effort to shield his face.
Sabal's broken jaw moved, despite the pain and the fractures through the bone, and he croaked out his last words, "No brother…"
It was quiet. It wasn't a scream, and it wasn't a whimper.
It was merely the involuntary and subconscious thoughts of a man betrayed.
The sentimentality of the moment was cut short by the loud *crack* of the wrench against his skull.
Sabal's hands dropped to his sides limply and his body relaxed as he died.
Bringing the weapon back above his head the Mechanic readied another blow, Sabal however was already gone.
-1-
From where she was Amita's eyes shot open and she held her hand to her mouth to stifle a scream as the Mechanic brought down yet another hit.
Behind her the four loyalists were trying to get themselves a way out of the building.
"This way!" one whispered.
"We need to go now! Out the back of the building Amita!" Another implored.
One of the men had smashed through a window and hastily they began to file one after the other out the small opening and over the broken glass.
"Find Amita!" The Mechanic yelled. "Make sure no one else steals a truck!"
A few men yelled in agreement, and some even responded with "Yes boss."
Amita and her four surviving supporters started to make a break for the fence when one of the others spotted them, "There! Over there! By the gate!"
The man yelled and raised his AK. He fired a few rounds automatically but it stopped and he looked at his weapon in disbelief, he'd run dry.
Amita sprinted towards him and tackled him. Holding his arms down, she leaned her body away from his and called to one of her men.
"Shoot him!" She cried.
Following closely behind her one of her men armed with a pistol nodded. He took aim quickly and fired without hesitation into the man's face.
Taking hold of the AK from the dead man's hands Amita removed the empty magazine and pulled a loaded one from an open chest pouch.
Cocking the weapon she aimed it towards the Mechanic's men and they entered into another standoff.
"Stay the fuck there!" She screamed. "Don't you fucking move!"
The Mechanic laughed as he and his men slowly continued to walk towards Amita and hers.
"Really, Amita? You're good at bossing others around but when it comes to getting your own hands dirty."
He chuckled, "It remains to be seen…"
Wordlessly she pulled the trigger and hit the Mechanic in the abdomen.
"Gah! Oh!" He yelled, clutching his stomach he dropped his weapon and fell to the side.
One of his men then shot Amita, who was in turn shot by one of Amita's men, who was then shot…
Amita groaned loudly as she stumbled to a knee from the injury.
One of the Mechanic's men aimed his weapon and eyed her carefully.
Taking a pained breath Amita attempted to bring her rifle up to fire again and the Mechanic's man pre-emptively fired a burst from his submachinegun to stop her.
Amita recoiled from each of the hits, and when a bullet passed through her throat her eyes looked off and failed to focus as she fell backwards limply; her expression blank.
-2-
There was a chorus of uncoordinated fire echoing throughout the small valley for a few more minutes before it finally became quiet.
The Golden Path had succeeded in finally tearing itself apart…
And by the end of the carnage Sabal, Amita, their closest supporters, and almost every other able bodied Golden Path member were dead, killed by their own comrades, or deserting, running on foot away in any direction they could.
-3-
Making their way back down the rocky road from Bhutan to Kyrat, Ugyen was doing her best to console Bhadra, but the young girl was crying hysterically.
"They! T-they're… d-dead! It's… it's… I can't…" she began to choke up on her cries and her need for air grew.
Ugyen was doing her best to navigate the poorly deteriorated road, but her previous fast driving moves had strained and bent aspects of the trucks' mechanics that just weren't meant to be used that way.
The engine and wheels being shot at didn't help either…
"Look Bhadra it'll be okay, do you understand? I won't let anything happen…"
"W-who even are you!?" She cried, "We need to go back! We have to go back!"
She grabbed hold of Ugyen's arm and the sudden jerking made Ugyen move the wheel a few degrees.
"Stop it Bhadra!" Ugyen yelled back.
She tried to steady herself and keep in mind that Bhadra was still a child. Despite what she'd seen Ugyen couldn't just yell at her like she was a fellow soldier.
Her voice quieted and she calmed herself as she continued talking, "We can't go back… they, they were finished… and now?"
Ugyen did her best to keep an even tone, but even she was emotionally strained from what had just happened.
Ugyen really didn't want to imply what she was about to. But, the world was not a perfect place, and she was more than sure of what would have happened if they stayed.
"Think about it Bhadra: a little girl, amongst a bunch of desperate, starving, and turncoat men… with guns?"
Ugyen shook her head.
"No way…"
She tried looking at Bhadra every now and then but she kept her eyes on the road.
"It was over for them and the Golden Path. And if you were there…"
Ugyen didn't want to think about what could have happened if she wasn't there for Bhadra.
Meekly Bhadra stopped her sobs and voiced a small protest, "Don't think I can't defend myself."
Tensing and flexing her hands Ugyen avoided the statement.
Bhadra quietly sobbed as she un-clipped her belt, when she was free of the restraint she moved to the side of the truck's cabin, as far away from Ugyen as she could, given their current circumstances.
"So… So I was right?" she croaked out quietly.
"Yes…" Ugyen exhaled loudly. "You were right…"
Bhadra shook slightly and looked at her hands.
"S-so… so…" she tried to speak. "Is your name even Dhriti?"
Ugyen shook her head, "No."
Bhadra made a fake laugh, before sniffing and rubbing her eyes.
"What now?"
The passenger window had been shot through and the glass had exploded out. Fragments were on the floor of the cabin and Bhadra wiped the few on the seat off with the sleeve of her hoodie.
The wind passing the truck now came in through the open window and dried Bhadra's tears as she looked out at the rocky side of the pass.
Ugyen cleared her throat and tried her best to sound reassuring, "My name is Ugyen Khadka. I'm an enlisted member of the Royal Guard…" She looked at Bhadra briefly, "My mission was to infiltrate the Golden Path and to get you out of their custody."
Bhadra's mouth opened slightly as she watched Ugyen uneasily.
"I made sure that you were safe… I ensured that you remained alive and I did my best to try and keep you from Amita…"
The truck groaned and began slowing.
"Now… My job is to get you back to Kyrat and into-"
"Into Pagan's hands." Bhadra finished.
Ugyen furrowed her brow.
"Not literally."
Bhadra scoffed and wiped her nose, "Whatever. The point is they're going to kill me…"
"What?" Ugyen shook her head, "What makes you think that? Sabal and Amita lied to you. That's all they ever did to everyone, lies, and bullshit… and manipulation."
Bhadra continued to shake her head, "Come on… I know what people think I am…"
Ugyen raised an eyebrow.
"It's too politically dangerous for me to live…"
Bhadra looked away from her window and at Ugyen.
"They're going to get rid of me because I represent a challenge to the regime…"
Her voice sounded like she had rehearsed the line a hundred times in her head, it felt disingenuous. It was a belief she had been told and had internalised for so long that it wasn't even 'true' anymore… it was merely a statement.
Ugyen blinked in surprise and disbelief. "How did-" she began to ask.
Without missing a beat Bhadra interrupted, "Sabal told me… He explained what it would mean should I continue to live and should Pagan continue to be King."
"The victory could only be assured if the king was killed…"
She shook her head, "Even if I were to run away I would never be anything but the Tarun Matara!"
She began crying again, "Sabal told me and told me that it was my destiny, and Amita told me it was my destiny to be a warrior… To be an example for all the women of Kyrat to be inspired by…"
He tears flowed and her voice climbed in pitch as she moved in frustration, she brought both her fists down on the dashboard as she exclaimed; "No one has ever asked me what I wanted!"
As soon as it was out Ugyen reactively opened her mouth and spoke in a low and calm voice. "What is it you want?"
Bhadra looked up and laughed. Though she was crying she couldn't help but laugh nervously as she tried to get her words out.
She stuttered "I… I don't know…"
Bhadra looked out the front window.
"I have… no idea…" she whispered.
A moment of silence passed and Bhadra looked back at Ugyen.
"Take away all the propaganda, all of the lies… Please… Did the Golden … did they have anything right at all?"
Ugyen was quiet as she focused on the driving but she tried to honestly mull over the question.
"W… what do you mean?" she finally responded.
Bhadra looked up and rolled her eyes, "Obviously the other half of the country has been suffering as much as mine…"
She adjusted in her seat. "Am I going to be forced into a gulag or… or a re-education camp and lied to more?"
She laughed in disbelief, "Before I'm shot of course…"
Ugyen furrowed her brow and spoke in a serious tone.
"Bhadra… So long as I am alive. I swear to you I will not let anyone hurt you."
She took her eyes off the road and locked with Bhadra's.
Ugyen raised her eyebrows and nodded once, "Okay?"
Nonverbally she seemed to add; 'I mean it.'
Bhadra looked at her and her tensed eyes twitched as fresh tears began to form.
"I… I don't know what to believe anymore… You're…" She laughed loudly, "You're a professional liar!"
Her voice quieted and she became incredibly low.
"They all have been… Sabal… Amita… Even King Min on that radio… How much of that was absolute bullshit?"
Ugyen didn't know what to say now.
None of Yuma's training had prepared her for this.
Bhadra was convinced that in all directions she'd be heading to the gallows…
She had nothing now.
No friends, no comrades, no family.
She was alone, and didn't even know herself anymore.
Ugyen furrowed her brow. Her chest was heavy and a few moments of silent driving passed before she began to speak.
She didn't know why she felt compelled to talk but, her lips moved and she felt her heart begin to pour out.
"I… I had a brother. He was younger than me." She began.
She smiled but immediately stopped herself, "My family owned a tea plantation, many years ago… It was a small farm, but we were able to have a few workers."
"And I remember," She moved in her seat and wiped some sweat off her brow, "I remember when my brother ran away from home to join the Golden Path and Mohan Ghale…"
She shook her head. "I remember it so clearly… but… What I don't remember is my brother's build up to it…"
Ugyen began to think out loud as she continued her story.
"You'd think before someone's about to do something drastic, something… something as big as that, that there'd be signs… But..."
She laughed half-heartedly, "But there wasn't…"
"He just up and left one day…"
She nodded; the memories and her words were lined up.
"When I woke up I felt off, so I checked his room, and he'd made his bed like usual, some books were missing, but… It looked normal."
She paused and Bhadra furrowed her brow.
"I went downstairs and… there was my mother, and there was my father and they… they were holding something and they just said: He's gone."
Ugyen scoffed, "It was like someone had died and they repeated; 'he's gone'. And then it finally sunk in…"
"A few days later… some Golden Path members showed up to our farm."
She looked towards Bhadra, "This was back when they actually had enough numbers and support that they could actively patrol areas of the lowlands…"
Ugyen cleared her throat and continued, "Anyway these… blue and yellow uniformed men showed up and…"
She shook her head numbly, "They just shot my father…"
"I don't know why…"
"I've replayed it over and over in my head since… even though it's been years… And I still don't know why they did it. My mother and I cried over his body and I stayed by it for hours until…"
She quieted.
"I can't remember anymore…"
There were a few seconds of silence before Ugyen's voice picked back up.
"Was it because he paid taxes in goods to the royals? So he was technically 'feeding' the royal army in a small way?"
She sniffed, "Was it because he wasn't religious enough? That he hadn't gone to a temple or a shrine since his wedding?"
"Did my brother tell them that we had food saved up for winter? Or that we had some money tucked away? I… I just don't know."
She looked at Bhadra, "The point is… there isn't a reason."
"Those men showed up to do, what those kinds of men do."
Ugyen took a breath.
"Do the royals have those kinds of people too? Yeah. I'm sure there are."
Her voice cracked, "Do we sometimes get the wrong people? Yes… We do…"
"Have there been people on both sides trying to do what was right?"
Ugyen's lips quivered as she nodded and held back a sob, "Have innocents been caught in the crossfire?"
She nodded and struggled to finish her next sentence, "Y-yes… But what makes this war any different from any other?"
Bhadra's eyes were wide and her face was frozen as she quietly watched Ugyen speak.
"Are there lies out there Bhadra? Yeah, there are… a lot of them."
"But I like to think… I want to believe that maybe my side… maybe we have the potential to do something right. Pagan isn't perfect… No one is…"
She paused and her hands tightened their grip on the wheel.
"But I refuse to believe that they're going to ruin the potential to have a good start, a fresh opportunity at ruling this country by killing a little girl…"
Bhadra nodded.
"Okay?"
Ugyen took a breath and shook her head, "I'm not going to let that happen alright?"
Bhadra tearfully nodded and wiped her eyes.
"I swear I will not let anything happen to you okay?"
Bhadra looked down at her lap and hands.
She didn't want to look at Ugyen… No one she ever met in the Golden Path had ever said what Ugyen had just said to her.
She kept her eyes closed because she didn't want to see any trace of deceit on Ugyen's face.
Bhadra wanted to believe her.
She really did.
After a long, quiet, time, she made up her mind.
And the young lady decided, if only for the rest of their journey, she'd choose to believe Ugyen…
Other than the occasional straining sound of the trucks' engine the rest of their drive was relatively quiet and uneventful.