The Great Exotic Food Critique

Today was not the right time, today Gaur was tired. The decision he took in the end has drained him of his mental strength, he took out some small purple berries from his make-shift cloth before savouring them. From the appearance point of view these things looked poisonous, if not for seeing some monkeys eating them from his own eyes, Gaur wouldn't had dared to even touch these.

The sweet and sour taste of these berries were one of the only luxuries Gaur could afford in this jungle. Though he knew that a few kilometres away from him there maybe people enjoying a proper meal, he wasn't foolish enough to enter even close to their territory.

In his journey Gaur also made a small club using a wooden branch and sharp stone bounded by plant fibres, as this forest was not safe and he wanted to have a tool for his protection.

Soon he fell into sleep while shivering in the cold of night. Gaur didn't dare to light a fire in night in fear of attracting attention, the only thing he could do while up on the tree was to broke off a branch filled with leaves from the tree to use as a blanket.

That night Guar slept while hugging a piece of branch like he was hugging his wife.

The next morning Gaur didn't move on to his journey, instead he went deep inside the forest, to find things to eat. He never feared for water that much in this tropical forest, as rainfall happened very often.

After collecting his fill, Gaur went into a new place to rest and bid his time. He wanted to conserve as much energy as he can so that he doesn't falter during the night.

As the dusk arrived and sun started to dip down over the horizon, Guar steadied his mind while covering his body in wet mud and leaves, he borrowed the darkness of the night as a veil and moved in between the trees in a straight direction.

*****

Few months ago in a city whereof Gaur once used to work and also had his parental home in it, A man having a slight resemblance to Gaur walked out of the central administrative building, his stature was big while his stomach bigger.

The man held a frustrated expression on his face, he spat at the foot of the building and walked off, while the pedestrians gave this fat man an irksome look for his act.

His name was Shaurya, being the first born of his family he was gifted with this imposing name and he also stayed true to his name as he grew up, always taking care of his younger brothers. But after marriage and settling down, he gained weight at aa exponential rate, he now looked more like his own father than his previous athletic nature.

His protective nature had still not subsided, hence after he received a call from his father again, Shaurya had taken an early leave from his job to come to administrative office to ask for answers and clarify over the situation and see if there is any update on the situation.

But it was all for naught. It had been the same as always.

"My brother has been lost for half a year now, what the hell these f.u.c.kers are doing?" Shaurya was fuming with anger, while his face showed a gloomy countenance. Using the transit station, he soon reached his old home.

The shop had been closed off soon after the news of Gaur's disappearance came to light and as the days went on, the health of his mother also started deteriorating after worrying over the well-being of her youngest too much, it wasn't a matter of surprise too, as their parents were already in their 80s, a slight breeze was all that needed to push them close to death.

"Soriah! Hurry to father's, mummy seemed to have suffer another stroke... and don't bring the kids, just leave them with the neighbours for now." After completing the conversation with his wife, Shaurya sent another message to his other brothers who lived out of their home city.

Both of them had come back to console their ill mother multiple times, but due to their job, their visit was always short. Shaurya had thought to not bother them until it's necessary.

"*sigh! Little brother, you worry us just too much." The staunch back that could hold mountain and which once shielded Gaur from the world in their prime now seemed weak and feeble, he was not that young anymore. Nor did he had the capacity to alter the situation in any way. He felt weaker than an ant.

*****

"Stop! Something's ahead!" In the dark and humid forest, 2 men being surrounded by trees that looked like demons hiding in the darkness stopped moving. The older man that exhibited some experience, held his junior c.h.e.s.t stopping him from moving forward while he looked at the radar display.

"How big?" The junior subordinates whispered as he tried to look into the radar display there had been multiple times that some stupid monkeys had put them on guard previously, hence when he saw human shaped object around the size exceeding 3-meters in size that exceeded the size of native monkeys his face soured, he didn't like what this signified.

"This guy is 200m away from here…" The old soldier contemplated for a moment, he was able to judge the way this object was sneakily moving. The radar was only able to cover around 500m area, but was still able to predict the images on the screen after a few readings.

"He seemed to know about this camp." The old soldier gestured his junior to follow him silently while he switched off the lights to meld in the environment as he started following the crouching man into the jungle.

Due to the movement of the man being too slow for some reason, the man was easily able to reach close to the man, but he didn't fire off instantly. By predicting the path, the man was moving in, he sent his subordinate in front of him so as to close off any escape routes.

'It shan't be another monkey… right?'

After following for a while, the man picked up his pace and pointed his gun in the direction in the dark. "Show your hands up and show yourself...." There was no reaction and the whole forest was in silence hence it caused the bright moving figure in the radar to disappear, the old soldier didn't bother with it, ad used a flash light in the direction where the man was seen previously in the radar.

But there was still nothing, it was just an empty peace of ground with no one on it.

'Concealed yourself eh!' knowing that the man couldn't have hidden too far, the old man didn't move in to the direction and showed the enemy his back, he fired 3 shots in random locations abruptly startling the whole forest along with their enemy.

Gaur who had hidden close to the tree trunk, felt his heart burst out of his c.h.e.s.t, somewhere inside, Gaur knew that it was just a probing, but the fear of getting captured filled his mind again. He didn't had time to regret, the plan was ought to fail from the beginning.

He had lived in the forest for a long time, but he never tried to travel at night due to lack of visibility was a big problem in this terrain. His experience in this time of the night was negligible, affecting his plan speed and time it took him.

As for the camouflaging his body, it didn't even gave him much time, as the bullet whizzed past his face, the previous pain appeared again.

'just a bit more…. ' Gaur made a run borrowing the help of the light that was flashing in front of him, showing him 50meters of path at once.

The old soldier behind him didn't fired again but started running along Gaur horizontally.

**bangx5

Abrupt shots came from the direction Gaur was running towards, hearing the sound Gaur instinctively covered his head with the help of his hand which was result of his past trauma re-appearing, but the anticipated bullet didn't arrive at his face, instead it was his legs that got shot making him fall onto the ground while destroying his momentum.

Gaur fell head first producing a cracking sound following that. He didn't had time to cry over his fractured bones and his disabled legs, his mind was already focusing on the torn up muscles of his legs. Without a delay the muscles close to his wound swelled up throwing out the bullets and clotting over the wound preventing blood loss.

It was just a temporary fix for his legs, the wounds were still there. Gaur rolled on the ground taking a cover by a tree planning to escape in another direction.

Gaur picked himself up with trembling legs but before he can even move again. The old soldier from before had tackled Gaur taking up on the opportunity ruining his plan. The old soldier didn't waste any time and took a hold over Gaur's neck, choking him.

"Ah….stap…stop….!"Gaur squirmed in the choke hold, his hand flailing around and trying to unscrew the hold. He tried it again and again, but was not able to free himself.

As his eyes started popping out of his sockets and a purple flush appeared on his face, Gaur's mind started hallucinating again. Feeling that his ending was close, Gaur cleared his mind and tried to reach toward his makeshift weapon the club.

The old man was not ready, from what he could tell, the barbaric intruder was losing strength in his body as his strength faltered. The old man was had his guard down in this moment.

*Bang

The first strike was weak, but it held enough strength to weaken the grip of the old man on Gaur.

'I can't run like this…..' he planned to incapacitate the man to his side first before making a run, as for the one holding a gun. He didn't care about him at the moment, that man was far enough from him and he at the moment won't fire with his acquaintances in the line of fire and his sight was also hidden by the tree.

Gaur turned his waist 180 degree, strengthening the hold on the club as he struck it directly on the old man's head.

A pluck sound was followed by the strike. The club got stuck into the old man's head as the drops of blood fell on Gaur's body.

"Wha… what happened?" Gaur trembled as he left his grip on the club which still struck into the head, slowly slid on to the ground as blood flowed down from the bludgeoned wound on the skull. A faint sense of nausea assaulted Gaur's stomach.

"dead….so easily??" Gaur was distraught by his action, he never knew that death can be so sudden. Just a hit to the head was all it took for the skull to cave in, this was the first time he faced the fragile nature of mortality.

His thoughts were cut off as the sound of steps came started coming toward him.

"Sir provide confirmation!!"

Gaur didn't had much time left, the man was though on a guard sounded calm from his voice, signifying his trust in his superior.

Gaur thought of running away again, but understood the fact he can't outrun bullets, he reached out toward the club but stopped midway, he felt disgusted at what he did, but knowing that he may die after this. But stopped again, this time he looked at the body of his victim.

Hearing no confirmation, the young soldier understood that something had gone wrong, he didn't have much experience as his superior nor was he trained in anyway. He just acted as a doll most of the time following orders, he also never encountered any fighting due to the environment he was posted in.

This was his first time shooting someone, and he was also scared as much as Gaur.

He moved came close to the place where his superior disappeared, but before he can see what was there, Gaur jumped out while shooting bullets madly in all direction. The young man was only able to fire just one bullet, before he was hit by more than 4 bullets all around his body rendering him dead in an instant.

"Hah!! Hah…. I…. I will live." Gaur didn't waste any time here; the loud sound of guns may have attracted some people here. It also hadn't been even more than 3 minutes till he was first fired upon, there may already be droves of people halfway here.