Page 46 - Love Story of a Commando

7. Clash of the Killers

He was moving swiftly, alert and sharp. His MP5 submachine gun was
always a step ahead of him, clenched tightly between his palms like a trusted
aide. The corridors were lonely and an eerie silence had befallen the place.
The lull was ripped by a fusillade of gunshots once again only to be followed
by deafening silence.
Above us, the central dome was burning and fire seemed to envelop
most of the hotel.
I shrieked as I stumbled upon a few dead bodies in the same
restaurant that I’d dinner at some time ago. It was a ghastly scene; blood
everywhere, bits of flesh and body parts splattered across the floor. It was
savagely violent to see bullet-ridden bodies slumped all around. A few
bodies looked like they had been mutilated and tortured too. The place was
reeking with the stink of fast decomposing bodies.
The terrorists had no religion and cared about nothing.
It was as if humanity did not exist anymore and an apocalypse had
descended. As I passed by two foreigners lying in a pool of their own blood,
I puked violently. They had been brutally murdered and had bullets in their
backs. Perhaps they were shot down while trying to escape the monsters.
There does not exist a word in the dictionary that could describe the
barbarism of this urban warfare.
Religious teachings and human ethics raise us to be human beings
who don’t believe in killing each other because it is a sin worthy of
condemnation. Taking a life is something so consequential that it is decided
only by the Almighty. It is only God who decides who will die and who will
remain. How could someone fight in the name of God when actually they are
challenging his authority? God loves his creations and reserves all the rights
to sustain or destroy; nobody has the right to claim anybody’s life.
Such is the value of human life! It is sacred and pious!
Are they human or am I justified in calling them demons? Is it not a
ghastly story of mental dysfunction, social failure, grotesque narcissism and
temptation of apocalyptic delusions?
Virat held my hand throughout, as we made our way silently.
Suddenly, there was another round of explosions and firing taking
place nearby and Virat grabbed my waist, making me duck under a deserted