SECTION 2
Emir and both of his men comes into
the detention room, they grabbed Muklis who’s already cover with blood on the
face and front side. Now I know where he gets dozens of those scars. With
handcuffs at the wrists Muklis stands outstretched with his back against the
iron bars.
"What the hell had
happened?" Emir asked.
I said nothing, just staring with
fear at Muklis who didn’t stop laughing, turned away, then left the place.
Disregard Emir’s calls.
Later that night Emir still
trying to found out what happened that afternoon, asked me out to my favorite
restaurant but I refused. Saying I was
not so well. Lucky he didn’t push me more so I have the situation to think in a
peacefully…quiet…nice time alone…
What was said by Muklis at that
present was not just my imagination. I’m sure of that. That’s sounds clear, as
clear as the sound of dropping pen in class room when it’s being exam. He obviously
knew what happened to Siti was, as well as the others who with her, and where
they was. My thought goes back to his words...
“Fandi…the hole…help me…nippon’s hole….”
"Stupid fool!" the sound change suddenly to a voice of
screaming man and Muklis looked around, seemed like he’s been confused or
frightened. "You will kill him..."
"...The bars...the hole... the bar…hole…bars..." Muklis raved
repeatedly.
"SSSHUUUUUUUTTTUUUUPPPP !!!"
Looks like Muklis was struggling
against something in him and whatever it was that permeated inside the man was
trying to shut him up from telling me about Siti and the rest people. I think
Muklis was not the master behind all of this but he obviously knows something...he
try so hard to shows that to me...so maybe it’s a good idea if I came to the
Nippon’s hole and look around to see…if I’m lucky I could find just what he
meant.
This place has undergone several
repairs and renovations in order to maintain its shape as a heritage and travel
destination. When the Japanese built this place as a protection hole there was
certainly no kind of stairs like this one I’ve been stepping on, or the iron
rail which I used to grip my handle as a support, even the concrete form of the
ceiling at the top of my head that seen more solid with cements. But the modern
touch that got to this place couldn’t waste the grim though….
I aimed my flashlight around...light
on the gray walls were uneven and reflect the wind from the plains on top...it
made me tighten my jacket, the temperature feels decreased down to my bones.
Actually I don’t really need a
flashlight in real, the local government as a management of this place had equip
inside of the cave with supporting lamp, it quiet good even though they’re light
dimly as a guidance of direction, but there’s nothing wrong for precaution…just
in case…and it feels odd if you get into the place beneath the earth like this
one without holding a single flashlight, isn’t it?
So, where should I start?
Gladly I had memorized the path
from board map near the cave mouth. This place shape resembles the letter T
with a single entrance with a shape of its head and neck like a vacuum cleaner.
Ammunition storage are the first rooms I’ll met after I stepped on the last
ladder, the next after that the path will led me to the main room that used for
daily activities such as meeting, refreshing, and even cook.
An army barrack was definitely
something that many made on the horizontal side of its landscape, there are
about 8 units all, I can imagine how they used the place for resting on old
days, the rest are storage for goods and military equipment and also slammer.
The constructor also built two exits door at the back as an escape matter
whenever the enemy surrounded the front door.
I decided to take the path slowly
at the right side of mine. Shined the flashlight occasionally to find the spot
that seems fit to hide the body of Siti and her friends…Oh, My God! What the
hell I’m talking about? How can I think to find their body? That’s just like
praying they’re death already, am I? What you said is what you get…
The path seems relate to one
another, no broken connection as it looks like, even though it has the physical
shape of T actually it was built with a
philosophy of a circle…without the base or its end…no pointless angles which
could cornered soldiers when being pursued by enemies. And funny thing I don’t
realized it till now.
I pay attention to the bars that
cover several rooms such as MO storage. Muklis said about bars…what does he
mean by that? Could he mean by these bars? The spokes clearly show something related
to the room but what room? Which one? So many bars installed on this place such
as at the room up a head, or the bars at the courtroom, or could it be at the
smaller barracks?
From the eight, there were three that
had large sized and the other five was small. The large barrack definitely the
place for low-level soldiers that can be collected in bulk. While smaller
barracks, some are used to accommodate the rest of the low-level soldiers who remains
from the large and partly for those who were in the middle tier and high-rank officers.
After the large barracks I would
get to the kitchen, that's the place where I proposed her to be my girl. If
someone asked me should it be in that place? Can I found other place that more
proper besides the rear side? Well, I couldn’t set my heart to pick elsewhere
if it’s being exploded there, could I?
Perhaps it just happened after we’re
holding hands for so long when we get down this hole, visiting from one place
to another, and that’s where my heart can’t stand the pounding which finally
get me kneel and saying that three words, to spill all my feeling to her. But
it could be the perfect one due to its secluded that helps me to avoid the
shame of getting caught by other visitors.
Right at that moment I felt
something on behind...passing right in front of the mouth of this large
barracks where I was...I turned around and the figure passed quickly, leaving
the running steps in a hurry. I asked, almost whispering, "Who is
it?"
When there’s no answer I got out
of the large barracks to look outside…watching around from side to side and
having no one there. The running steps leaving me the curiosity when my ears
caught it leads to the dining room which is not far from the place where I was.
I walked fast to the dining room
and the place was also empty. There’s only a dusty wooden table that cover with
cobwebs at the center, something that very disproportionate and didn’t seem belong
to the colonial era, the former table seemed placed here as a replica for the
identity of the room that were eventually abandoned over time.
"Hello?"
I heard a faint cough...
"You're here?"
I smiled wryly to hear the faint
cough again under the table that seems answering my question indirectly. Feeling
a bit annoyed for someone whoever that was been playing game on me as I
crouched the table and wiped the cobwebs to look over the person who hide there
and doing this hide and seek game like a small child.
A layer of dust was poured out
and gushed into my face, it made me sneeze a bit. I head the torch out the
table but again find no one. Then I heard that running step on behind, this
time accompanied by the laughter sound that seemed satisfied make ma such a
fool…it was male voice, the laughter…
"Muklis?" this time my voice increase, I
mention that name because I recognized the voice was him, the laughter that
remains very clear in my head as I heard it at the prisoner’s jail at the
police station.
I rushed to follow...chasing it...the
light of my flashlight had caught a glimpse of figure as it turned toward the
hallway that connected to the ammunition room. I’m standing at the end of that
dim hall way, straighten my arms holding the flashlight in order to give more
light through the room that only shone with five watts of lamp over the
ceiling.
The running step stops already,
so I decided to go inside, among the rows of ammunition storage room, looking
for the prank that must hide in one of those rooms. Holding the head of
flashlight with one palm to reduced its light I’m going forward, sharpening my
ears and eyes as I continue to watch around the place then.
The MO storage was just an empty
room, perhaps it was filled with dozens of crates containing grenades,
explosives, ammunition, or weapons, but now the place was just a three times
six meters of room that like any other place in this building…smelled shit and
covered with thin webs that still could through by the light on the inside, and
there I found the bars across the room.
Bars….
Suddenly my heart pounded as I
remember about the bars. Might it be the one that mean by Muklis?
Well, it’s definitely not the
bars of a cell where he now resides. That Jerk would be sorry for what he did
on Siti if I could prove him guilty...
The pranks was not on the first
of four rooms…newly spotted him at the fifth room…the man sitting with cross
leg on the floor with his back on my side…wearing nothing on the upper side of
his body…I don’t know how he could stand the cold air because the chill still
killing me even inside this thick jacket I put on…he breathed quietly, seemed
don’t care for my presence…
"Muklis?" I admonish. “How
the hell you got here?”
The man straightened up and
turned his head slowly. I stared in horror as his head twist strangely, extends
to the rear one minute at the time, and with no explanation how it could
rotating in a half circle like that till our eyes met each other…that’s
insane…no normal human might do such thing…
Muklis grin oddly on the same
moment when his arms and legs lifted and he moved toward me. I couldn’t move my
body because of fear looking at the awkward position of his body. There are no
creatures on earth could do position like that. Screaming horribly as loud as
could be when the odd thing lunged at me...my flashlight fell when I raised my
hand to cover myself...but a few meters before the creatures got me the lights
went out.
I raised my head to ensure that
it wasn’t real, did not expecting to survive the attack, it took several
minutes for my body to relieve from shaking before I was able to take a
flashlight that lying on the floor enormously. I shone it around but the creatures
that I thought as Muklis before had already gone.
"Damn...what’s that for
real?" I mumbled.
I screamed when I felt a grip on my
shoulder. My body rebelled in a sudden to free myself away before there’s voice
rebuked, "Fandi? This is me!"
I shone the flashlight aside and
saw Emir’s face. My old friend closed his eyes because of the glare. He groaned
in exasperation, "Put it down you moron!”
“Emir? What are you doing
here?"
"That lunatic escaped
from cell. Me and two of my men chasing him here," Emir answered.
"Escape? Muklis?" I
asked unsurprisingly, so it got to be Muklis who I had seen for the last couple
of minute and who fools me. “How’s that possible?”
"I don’t know how, but we
spotted an empty cell. The handcuffs that supposed to shackled his arms just
hanging there at the bars."
"That’s him! I saw him here,"
I said.
"You sure?" Emir looked
at me probing. “And what in earth are you doing here alone in the middle of the
night, man? How did you get in? "
Before I answered his question a
loud scream blows from our behind. Emir face change in panic even more. I felt
something wrong happened in here, right before Emir found me, and that was
beyond what Emir can control. Maybe that’s why he took the gun from its holster
before he’s going forward to the direction of the sound, "Damn! It also
attacked Hilman..."
I was about to ask but the
officer turned and ran in hurry and cries out, "Hang on, man..."
while the screams of his men slowly drifted.
Don’t want to be alone in this
horrible place, and a bit nervous concerning the terror lest the monster still
be around here, I also ran right on the back of Emir. But I’ll be damned…he ran
so fast than me…the darkness of this building was also holding me tight. I
stumbles couple of times by the rough floor.
Distraction makes the light from
Emir’s torch, who’s about six meter up a head get smaller…and smaller…until I
finally lost my friend at the hallway that leading to the east side where the jail
is located.
"Emir?" I called.
“EMIR? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?
ANSWERED ME!!!”
Once I arrived at the last point where I saw Emir’s flashlight had gone, I realized that I’m standing in front of the jail. There’s a chill at the back of my neck as I saw the jail door was open. It should’ve been closed, and as I remembered there’s also a padlock installed in the slot to prevent the visitors from being get in.
But now the door was wide open
while the padlock that should hang in the latch was on the floor…I held my
breath, the jail is composed by bars as well...is it possible this is what
Muklis had meant...the bars of Nippon’s hole....
“C’MMONN MAN!!! IT ISN’T
FUNNY…GODDAMN IT!!!”
I shined the flashlight ahead but
the light is only able to forced the dark three meters backward…the rest is
pitch black…I couldn’t see farther to end of this jail though the explanation
from the map board outside saying that this jail was actually just a room of
three meters long.
I thought the place was empty therefore
I was surprised to see a man emerged from the left side of the jail’s entrance.
His shabby look the same as I'd seen a few hours earlier in a police station’s
cell, except that he looks sane than before. The dreamy eye has gone, exchanged
with alertness and confusion that seems real.
He recognized me, his eyes winced
as he raised his hands to reduce the lights of my torch that being glare at him,
"Fandi?"
I didn’t answer right away...my face
frowned with hardened jaw... withstand trauma for I don’t want what happened to
me in the MO storage a few minutes earlier replied…this time there will be no
other protection could hold me from him if he attacked me once more…
"Fandi...I...it’s me…Muklis..."
"What are you doing
here?" I asked coldly.
"You have to save them...they’re
inside..." he pointed to the cell.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked
defensively.
"Siti and others..."
My instinct went mad, just can’t
believe what I just heard, "She’s dead? Did you kill her?"
Muklis’s face shocked,
"Who's dead? No! He's not dead...I didn’t kill anybody…she's still alive
in there..."
"Then where’s Emir?"
"Who’s Emir?" Muklis
asked.
"Emir and his men...they
just come in here a few minutes ago ..."
"I don’t know who’s Emir…but
you have to come with me to save Siti.."
"Tell me where Emir
first," I shook my head. "...otherwise I will not go with you."
"I told you I don’t know where
the man you’ve mention was. Come on man… don’t waste your time or they will
kill her," Emir said nervously, his eyes rolling wildly once again,
looking every here and there as if someone might overhear our conversation.
"How can you escape from the
cell? Did you kill Emir and his men? "
"Come on, you have to come with
me…help me save Siti..."
I shook my head, "No! You
killed Siti and the others...you also kill Emir and the cops...I'm not stupid,
Muklis..." I shook my head again and move backward slowly.
Muklis gets hysterical,
"Don’t go there,Fandi...don’t move…"
I’m not listening to that madman.
Move away to the back even more quickly, far from the jail and the lunatic that
stand over it who seemed getting ready to chase me, which made me rushed away. Just
got turned around when I felt a bumped on my chin…the world felt exploded in my
head...the darkness flood my sight…it was darker than the darkness that covers
the building…and there I was…unconscious…
I woke up when I felt taping on
my check couple of times. That’s not a kind of tap that had done by a mother
who waking up her kid in the morning but just more like a slap that you gave to
a person who drunk and shoot at the back of your car.
I’ve done that, once, to my boss
when he came home with a hangover from New Year party held by company. He threw
up and it pisses me off because I just not have to carry him onto the bed in
his house but also clean the car next thing in the morning because it’s has
been my responsibility.
I opened my eyes but still not
able to see in fully as I woke up because someone forced me to do that. There’s
still confusion over what happened when I felt the kick on the back of my legs
that makes me kneel instantly. Some hands burst into my mouth and pushed it
widely against each other. One of them was holding and pressing my teeth
uncomfortably. Opened my eyes, one after another, so wide and highlighted it
with a candle as if they were doing examination.
The people standing in front of
me are commenting in foreign language after the completion of 'checking' me,
something that showing that they were pleased, then people who are behind me make
me stood and returning me to the lineup.
It was the first time I realized
where I was…sandwiched between Emir and the other men I don’t know or even meet
before…they were all knelt with heads down, as if they were terrified on
something, Emir looked tormented because he seems wanted to tell me about what
happened here but he can’t. Another peculiarity of them all, including me, was
wearing nothing but a loincloth wrapped around our genital.
I heard voices in that foreign
language again and recognize the voice of a person who was examined me, only a few
seconds later a group of men who dressed in dark brown military picked a
stretcher containing her bodies...
I’m shocked to see her lies as
corpse over there. It was her indeed….my Siti…my dearly girlfriend pilled like
worthless meat…a bare naked body that just wrapped by loincloth and a simple
breast holder. I sighed a little and the military man who standing next to me
turned around. His eyes glance at me enormously while at the same time yell in
a language I didn’t quite understand…it seems Japanese…according to their
profile…
"BAKAYAROOO ...."
The swore was followed by huge
explosion of a whip through the air. I feel extremely sore and suddenly felt
the warm blood down to my chest. I winced because of torn skin on my left
shoulder.
Two soldiers suddenly move forward
and threw a number of tools...crowbar, hoe, hammer and sledgehammer...the whip
hitting the air one more time and I followed the others took one of that tools
and after that I heard the command of soldiers who examined me, speaking in Indonesian
language that sounds funny,
"Time to work! Dig a hole
before your stupid guerrillas finds us..."
END
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