Page 49 - Love Story of a Commando

‘What? It is personal. How rude of you to say that! By the way
you’re looking like some lowly paid body double of Gabbar Singh straight
out of Sholay ,’ I retorted.
‘Come on! Gabbar? Oh, come on! Many girls say that I look like
Brad Pitt. But you? You should have a look in the mirror.’ And he grasped
me by my shoulders and turned me towards the mirror.
I looked like a disaster.
My hair was all wet and lumpy by the weight of all the dust particles
that had cozily settled in there. They looked like noodles hanging from my
head. Then my face was no better with a few cuts and bruises here and there.
My beautiful silky halter top now looked skimpy and my feet were without
any shoes. The Steve Madden sneakers were long lost. Losing them was
almost worse than facing the hail of bullets from an unknown terrorist. I
loved them so much.
I looked like hell.
In a struggle to accept my looks I finally broke into continuous
giggles.
He joined me and we laughed for a long time. And then I swallowed
and broke down into tears. A lump in my throat swelled as I recalled my
anguish just a moment before. He hurriedly moved towards me and swept
me into a big bear hug.
‘Hey! It’s okay. It’s all right. You are safe. Don’t cry. Why do you
girls cry so much?’ he said, running his index finger down my cheek.
‘How mean! I am scared.’ I punched him.
‘I know. On a serious note, I feel you are very brave. I could not
imagine anyone else handling this theatre of reckless killing better than you.
It takes guts to handle blood and bullets for the first time. But you did great,
we are on the correct escape route and really close to the rest of my pack.
Soon you will be out safely. Trust me.’ His voice filled me with courage and
I nodded obediently.
He released me from the comfort of his arms, picked up his gun and
moved out of the washroom determinedly.
Stealthily he kept moving down and up staircases, corridors and open
areas of the hotel. We crossed a few open lawn areas before entering another
side of that once magnificent hotel which was now shedding tears of
destruction, with fires blazing here and there. At one point we even sighted
half a dozen dead bodies lying along a narrow staircase. It was sickening and
utterly sad at the same time. Who would have thought that the city’s symbol
of opulence would turn into a haunted house in a matter of seconds.
It was heartbreaking.
He talked to his teammates through his advanced audio
communication set to confirm the location. There was still gunfire going on