BESERK! Page 10

  Another round of gunfire echoed. Foki had the gripped Po by the throat; he was bringing up the gun to blast the pirate’s face.

  Phut did not need urging, he attacked Foki like a wild animal. Rushing over to Foki, he brought his palms down, clapping them hard on the captain’s ears. Before the captain could recover, he grabbed the captain’s arm, the one holding the pistol. Twisting it, he bent it to breaking point, forcing the captain to drop the weapon.

  “Let go of me you…swine! I swear I will set you free…” Foki spluttered.

  Phut was in no mood to relent. All the misery and pain inflicted on Sithayu, Po and the Moken flashed before him. All that he knew…Foki had to die! Nothing else mattered; his mind was burning with revenge.

  Sithayu rushed to Po, he had sustained three bullet wounds. Two in his belly and one in his chest. The belly ones were bleeding profusely. But the chest wound seemed fatal. He needed urgent help.

  Keeping his grip on Foki’s arm, Phut pushed him to the ground. Placing his foot on the captain’s neck he forced his face into the sand. “This is for Sithayu…” Phut yelled as he pushed the captain’s face harder into the sand. “And this for Po…my Moken people…” Phut continued. He began to feel Foki’s struggle weaken, yet he kept his hold.

  “Phut please…” Sithayu called interrupting him. “Po needs help…quickly!”

  Phut looked up. He had the look of a predator unwilling to let go of its prey. But seeing Sithayu’s beseeching look he relented. He eased the pressure on Foki’s neck. But retained his grip on the arm.

  Foki lifted his face from the sand and coughed. Veins bulged in his sand-covered face and his eyes were bloodshot red. “Please…Phut forgive me,” he begged.

  Phut grabbed him by the shoulders and smashed a knee into his face breaking his nose. With a howl of pain Foki grabbed his bloodied nose. But Phut was not finished; once again he smashed his knee into Foki’s chin.

  Leaving the incapacitated captain on the floor howling with pain, he rushed to Po. The pirate’s belly was a bloody mess, it was evident some inner vital organs had taken a bad hit. “Water…water.” Po whispered. He was also losing consciousness, medical aid was paramount.

  “Let’s take him to the boat…He needs a doctor!” Sithayu urged. Phut looked at the boat docked at the far end of the island. There was not a decent spot of shade in between. It would be a tough journey just getting him down there. But he knew he could not forsake Po. He owed Sithayu and his freedom to him.

  Sharing Po’s weight the two began trudging down hill. The injured man was growing heavier with every step. The burning hot sun, adding to their difficulty.

  Barely a short distance in descent and they were tiring. Phut could see Sithayu could not take the dual strain. He signaled her to stop in the shade of a rock.

  “Water…water.” Po whispered almost in a groan as they placed him down.

  It had been hours since they had a drink of water. “Sithayu stay with him. I will get water from the boat.” She acknowledged with a wave of her arm too tired to speak.

  Leaving them Phut hurried to the boat. Heat, tiredness nor thirst seemed to have any effect on him, all he knew was Sithayu and his freedom was back.

  Chapter 9: The Moken Prophecy

  “Welcome Moken swine!” Foki’s voice echoed as Phut returned with the water.

  What Phut saw chilled his blood. Foki stood atop, his face bloodied and grinning. He held Sithayu, a pistol pressed to her head. Po’s form lay crumpled at his feet. “Well Moken swine, you made a mistake of double crossing me!”

  “Please Captain, don’t hurt anyone…” Phut implored.

  “Silence swine! Don’t dare to speak! You garbage dared to raise a hand on me! Captain Foki! First I will teach this pirate a lesson!” He grabbed Po by his neck and pushed him over the edge. With a muted scream Po sailed into empty air.

  Phut was barely aware of Sithayu or his scream. All he saw was Po’s limp body bounce onto the rocks a couple of times. Then roll and finally settle in the sand, a few yards from him. He rushed to the lifeless body; it was badly bloodied and mangled. Po was dead there was nothing he could do for him. He turned to Foki furiously.

  “No swine don’t do it or we will see if your sow can fly!” Foki jerked her lightly forward over the edge.

  “No please don’t do it…” Phut begged, it would be devastating to lose her again.

  “Good then, listen well… your sow is going to take me to the boat! If you interfere, I shoot her!”

  Phut nodded. He would do anything to save her.

  Putting Sithayu before him Foki began down the incline. One wrong footing by Foki could send Sithayu over the edge. Slowly and carefully, the two started. The captain’s wary eyes remained continuously on Phut but his pistol stayed tenaciously on Sithayu. It was long stressful minutes till they descended.

  Once down, Foki began towards the boat holding Sithayu in the same manner. Phut stayed well behind, he would not do a thing to endanger Sithayu’s life.

  “Stop swine!” Foki ordered, when he reached the boat. Turning the pistol he squeezed the trigger.

  Sithayu screamed in horror as she saw a bullet tear into Phut’s belly.

  Phut stumbled but managed to remain on his feet.

  “No captain…please!” she begged tearfully as Foki thumbed back the hammer.

  “This is as far as you come!” yelled Foki, another two shots, one tore into Phut’s arm. Another hit the sand near his feet.

  Phut swung around with the impact and sprawled to the ground, lying still. Sithayu screamed and tried to run towards him but the captain dragged her into the boat. “Now this will make the race interesting! Sow, nobody will save you from me!” Flinging her on the deck, he began to start the engine.

  “Phut…Phut!” she continued to scream between her sobs. She watched him lay lifeless as ever. “Phut, l love you! I really do! I always did!” she wept.

  Just as the vessel’s motor roared to life, Phut raised his head. With a great effort he got to his feet. “Foki, you swine!” he yelled.

  Foki looked behind grinning; keeping the motor running, he waited. Sithayu tearfully watched Phut walk unsteadily; his shirt covered with blood and sand. Weakly, he began to stagger in a bid to reach the vessel.

  “No Phut don’t come!” She now realized with dread what he planned to do.

  Just as he reached the vessel, Foki laughed and drove it out into open sea. “No Phut please…” A cry of anguish erupted from her as Phut stumbled in the water. With a determined effort he began to swim trying to keep up with the speeding vessel.

  His efforts were useless, wounded as he was, he would never make it. He would only succeed in speeding his death. “Go back Phut…go back!” she begged, weeping.

  It was evident he was weakening but stubbornly kept swimming. Even keeping afloat was difficult. For moments he would disappear under water to resurface, gasping for air. He was exhausting himself and would not last long.

  Foki gleefully watched the man flounder. His malicious fun was interrupted when he heard a splash. Unable to bear Phut’s plight Sithayu had jumped into the sea. It didn’t matter, he would have some fun. Slowly, he started to turn around the vessel.

  Once in the sea Sithayu looked around, Phut was nowhere in sight. She dived underwater, yet she could not see him. She resurfaced again, gulped in air and dived deeper. To her horror she saw his limp figure sinking to the bottom.

  With a powerful stroke she went after him. She grabbed at him and sought his mouth, pressing her lips to his, pushing her breath into him.

  For moments she hung on to him, sharing her breath with him. Slowly he opened his eyes, realized the predicament they were in. “Go…” he tried to signal her away.

  “Come!” she signaled upwards. With an effort he tried to swim but was too weak.

  Still clinging on to him, she started to pull him upwards. It was fairly difficult, her breath and strength were beginning to fail. Her lungs were already burnin
g due to lack of air. By herself, she would have made it to the surface but his additional weight was pulling her down. She continued in her ordeal…she had to save him. With this thought she gathered strength and continued.

  Within a few moments she could see rays of sunlight. She realized, they had reached the surface! She broke the surface and took a gulp of air.

  As she pulled the limp form of Phut, the roar of the engine filled her ears. She looked around and was in time to see Foki drive the vessel right towards them. In moments the vessel would plow them down. She quickly pushed Phut to one side to avoid the rotor blades.

  The vessel drove passed her, its blades angrily churning up water. Instantly, she knew her fears had come true. The water near the blades was stained-red.

  When it passed by she desperately looked for Phut, he was nowhere in sight. Once again the roar of the engine could be heard. She realized Foki was turning the vessel around, to run her down. She gulped air and dived under the surface, looking for Phut.

  In the gloom of the water, she saw his lifeless form, rapidly sinking to the bottom. Blood was oozing from a deep gash on his shoulder.

  She quickly swam and grabbed him. Pressing her lips to him she tried to force her breath, but it was of no use. His eyes fluttered open briefly, seeing her, he resisted, “Go save yourself”’ he mouthed.

  “No!” she stubbornly clung to him. “I will never leave you…ever!”

  “I love you, Sithayu!” he mouthed weakly.

  “I love you too, Phut!” She mouthed. Embracing him tightly, she began the gradual descend with him to the sea bed.

  x x x

  The entire community of Ahata Island was on Buro Island. They were here to welcome the birth of Tiga and Mipi’s child. Though aggrieved with the loss of their members, the birth of a child was always a joyous occasion.

  But once again they were welcomed with bad news. Tiga’s boy child was stillborn; it was the third child in a row. Yet, this was impossible; the turtle had prophesied great things for the child. Matu’s family was terribly downcast. Tiga was yet to be told of his brother’s capture.

  x x x

  Still locked in a loving embrace Phut and Sithayu touched the seabed, their last gasp of breaths escaping them, along with their life. Life had separated them but death brought them together.

  x x x

  The crying of the child startled every one of the mourners. Tiga was first to realize it was the sound of his dead baby boy. Mourning turned to rejoicing, the dead child had miraculously returned to life. The turtle prophecy could never go wrong.

  Looking proudly at his son, Tiga mused, If only Phut was here!

  Chapter 10: The Moken Prophecy

  About thirty meters undersea the corpse of Phut and Sithayu lay among the sea grass and coral, locked in their death embrace. Water currents rocked the lovers peacefully, only watched by the passing fish.

  Everything remained tranquil for a few moments, till a low rumble resounded from afar. The rumble moved through the water with twice the speed of a locomotive. Scattering fish in its path like an invisible predator.

  On the surface Foki neither heard nor felt anything in his vessel.

  The shaman was first to notice the disturbance on the sea surface. He quickly began to alert the people.

  Down below, the seabed split, a crack that went meters deep and many several kilometers long, all along the ocean floor. A part of the ocean floor began rising, slowly at first, then rapidly. It continued to rise from its position. The displaced water, several hundred cubic meters in volume, surged in all directions. It created waves, a meter high and a speed of about a hundred meters per second.

  Foki watched the rising waves; it was no concern to him. The Andaman Sea often threw unpleasant surprises.

  Down below the ocean floor continued its ascent till it was high as a hill, forcing the sea to rise, creating mountainous waves to travel at over hundred meters per second.

  Over the horizon Foki watched in horror the gargantuan swell approach his vessel. Tsunami was the only word he could think. Within moments the monstrous swell, three storeys high, was over him. He tried to turn the vessel around but in vain. The monstrous wall of water flipped the vessel slamming it back into the sea.

  Pinned under the monstrous deluge, the vessel was forced deep into the sea. Trapped inside the upside down vessel, he could feel it descend with the speed of a snapped elevator. Still he did not panic; he had lived with the sea all his life.

  Just as the top grated against the rocky seabed, he quickly swam to an opening and wriggled out. Instantly, he knew he had erred. The water was pressing down on him like a dome of liquid metal.

  His spine was first to give way. Barely, had he moved when an unbearable pain shot in his back. It was like the water was crushing his spine.

  Terror filled in him as he realized the pain was due taravana-a common sickness among divers or ‘bends’ as the Navy called it. His rapid descend and the huge pressure of the Tsunami wave had caused it.

  Quickly the pain shot to his knees, ankles, elbows. No longer could he bear the pain, it had grown excruciating; now he was writhing with it. Maddened with pain he could do nothing. The water pressure was crushing him like an empty soda can. An even more terrible pain grew inside his head as his ear drums burst.

  Moments later another equally terrible pain burst in his chest. Little did he realize his lungs had ruptured. Blood erupted from his mouth, ears and nose. Bleeding like a gutted fish, he started descending to the seabed. He lay among the coral and rocks, twitching in his death spasms. The last he saw was a few yards away the lovers lay in their tight embrace, peacefully.

  x x x

  Kurvin Islands close to the Myanmar mainland.

  The terrified watchtower’s guards were the first to sight the monstrous swell in the sea. It was roaring loudly as it approached the island from all sides. Screams of terror swept through the whole camp. Even as the petrified guards were raising the alarm, it came crashing into the island.

  The watchtowers, twenty-foot high, were first to be obliterated. The monstrous tsunamic wave easily towered over them bringing them crashing down on to the screaming prisoners.

  The double storey guards and the officers’ quarters were next to be destroyed under the fury of the gigantic wall of water. Before the first wave could die down, another swell slammed into it. It tore up the metal fence uprooting its poles. Those unlucky prisoners caught in this metal-like net were sliced up with the power of an electric saw.

  The rest were washed away like matchsticks.

  Smaller swells followed moments later, crashing into the island but there was nothing left to obliterate. Then acute silence fell.

  The few lucky survivors picked themselves. They watched the disaster around them, stunned in silence. The tsunami had inundated the whole island within moments. Everything was buried under a layer of slushy sand. The towers and quarters were smashed to smithereens, their wooden remains drifting in the sea. The complete island was a big patch of sand. The sand-covered survivors were too shocked even to cry.

  x x x

  Buro Island.

  The exodus to the cliff top started with little or no enthusiasm. Nobody wanted to stop their festivities and begin the long trek first down the beach then up the cliff. But their respect for the shaman compelled them to do so.

  Mipi, barely an hour out of childbirth had to make the arduous journey. Tiga made a request of building a temporary bed to carry her up. The shaman refused it. “I believe the prophecy of Phut has come true. We have to move fast.”

  Tiga looked at him in disbelief. “Is Phut’s life in danger?”

  The shaman looked away beginning to urge the people to hurry.

  Barely half-way down the beach, had they felt a low rumble deep in the earth. It sounded like the groan of a wounded beast. It put the first fear in them.

  Before they reached the foot of the cliff, they heard a low roar from the sea. Far in the horizon the sea was
beginning to rise. The rising swell appeared low but as it neared, it started to gain height. Also, growing in crescendo, almost as loud as a jet plane. Fear sent them scurrying up. It was the highest wave anyone had seen.

  The flotilla of kabangs was first to bear its fury. They watched in terror as their kabangs were tossed around easily as paper boats, then slammed to bits.

  Another low roar resounded, they looked across the sea. A swell was building, larger and higher than the previous one. Terror-stricken they scrambled higher, as the wave ferociously raced towards the island.

  Below them the fearsome huge wave rushed deep into the island. The rows of stilted shelters shattered one by one like matchboxes, under its brutal force. It seemed to pursue them, stopping just at the foot of the cliff.

  The terrified people continued scrambling up with mad haste. Never in their life had the Moken seen the sea reach the cliff foot.

  Before it could die down another fearsome roar echoed across the ocean. It charged like a huge locomotive, moving over the land till it crashed against the cliff, roaring like an angry beast. It submerged half the cliff under water.

  The Moken dropped to their knees and prayed to the Gods and Queen Sibian to forgive them. Up on the cliff top there wasn’t much room to accommodate all of them. Anything higher and they would perish. But the fearful rise of the sea was not over.

  The next swell was the most terrifying. It arose high, almost in par with the cliff. For a few seconds it almost obliterated the sky and daylight. They watched with terror and helplessness as the mighty wall of water towered over them.

  Just as it arose it fell, spraying them with foam. Swell after swell came raging from the sea pounding against the cliff as if trying to wrench them down. With every crash they could feel the cliff tremble with its terrific force.

  It continued to batter the cliff for a few minutes; slowly they could feel the sea lose its power. Its deafening roar began to die down and its waves began receding. Silence prevailed all around, not a single bird or creature called. The only sound was the lashing of the last breakers down below.

  Tiga watched the destruction spread all around him. The island had been turned in to a patch of quicksand. All that remained of the kabangs and shelters were pieces of wood. Nearly half the cliff had been stripped off its vegetation.