Fenix (41 page)

──── 47
────

I
t was the most surreal thing he had ever seen. It was supposed to be pitch black with stars in the night sky. But instead there was this extraordinary orange glow on the horizon everywhere he looked. It appeared as though the entire country was on fire…

Haider stood by the side of the army truck as they observed the latest explosion in Lahore. He saw the rising mushroom cloud as it climbed thousands of feet into the air. The dissipating shockwave from its explosion flew past the parked convoy of trucks like a sudden burst of wind and dust.  Haider winced away as the dust flew into his eyes. He rubbed them with his fingers, cursing profanely as he did so. Akram and the other officers held on to the ends of the paper maps and other equipment to prevent them from flying off the hood of the truck.

Another flash of light disappeared into a mushroom cloud from the direction of Muridke, where they had all been, just a few hours ago. The Indians had destroyed what was left of the Pak army defenses on the Lahore front…

“There it goes,” Haider said flatly. He couldn’t feel anything. Not for the soldiers of the 6
TH
Armored who he had abandoned to their fate, not for the civilians of Lahore or anyone else for that matter. His only concerns had been for his family, who he had just heard, had moved across the border into Afghanistan. His
other
major concern was for himself. And
that
still needed sorting out.

“Any news?” Haider asked Akram as he walked over to the truck. He sighed and then added: “from anyone?”

Akram shook his head. “Military comms are offline. Rawalpindi is offline. Command net is offline. It’s
all
offline, sir!” He pounded his fist on the hood, causing everyone around to flinch. Akram then turned to Haider: “it’s all over, isn’t it?”

Haider looked at his young aide: “it’s not over until it’s over. The Indians have destroyed Pakistan, but we will rise back up again. To do that, this country needs leaders who will help guide it back on its feet, decades from now. Which means men like yourself, Akram. You see all this,” he gestured to the numerous mushroom clouds on the eastern horizon, “
all
of this is just the
start
of the jihad against the infidels. And you and your men will carry the torch.”

              “But first,” Haider put his hand on Akram’s shoulder, “we have to survive. We need to head west and meet our colleagues on the Afghanistan border. The mountains there will provide us the cover we need until all this settles down. You understand?”

              Akram nodded: “yes, sir. I understand. Do we start gathering straggling units if we meet them?”

              “No.” Haider said flatly. “Any collection of military units larger than a few vehicles will invite a nuclear attack from the Indians. We stick with our convoy of ambulances and move alone. Once the dust settles, we will begin collating stragglers into a fighting force again.”

              Haider got into the back of the truck marked as an ambulance. Akram waved to the others as they got their maps and equipment together and moved to their respective vehicles. They knew they had to put as many kilometers during the night as possible before daylight made it impossible for them to move.

              “What about General Hussein?” Akram asked as he took a seat opposite Haider in the back of the truck.

              “What about him?” Haider replied conversationally as he removed his helmet and ruffled his white hair. The vehicle rumbled forward, followed behind by the others.

“Do you think he made it out alive?”

Haider exhaled as he considered that question. His last conversation with Hussein had given him the impression of fatality. Hussein hadn’t sounded like a man who saw himself escaping the city like a fugitive, like…

Like we are?
A voice inside Haider’s head quirked.

“No major,” he said, shaking off his self-recriminations as though it were a nuisance. “I don’t think he did.”

There was silence for several seconds between the two men. Akram broke the silence after a while: “he died for his country and his religion.”

Haider wanted to ask the young officer in front of him whether he
truly
believed what he had just said. But now was not the time. Haider kept his peace. If his countrymen chose to remember Hussein as that fearless leader who had taken them into battle despite all odds, then so be it. All Haider had in mind was to get to the safety of the Afghanistan border before the Indians found out that he was still alive and came after him. From there he had pre-arranged plans to smuggle him out to Tajikistan and from there to Saudi Arabia. He would leave the future of Pakistan, such as it was, in the hands of men like Akram, but his own war was over.

He finally looked Akram: “yes, major. I believe he did.”

──── 48
────

K
ulkarni regained consciousness to find himself staring at the pitch black interiors of his tank turret. As his mind cleared and the senses recovered, he heard the howl of the wind outside.

But how can that be…
he wondered. The turret was sealed.

Wasn’t it?  

He looked to the front to see the gunner and driver positions covered in dust and soot. A lifeless body lay on the main-gun breech in an unnatural angle. He moved his eyes and saw that his own turret hatch was sealed solid. But the other hatch seems to be letting some moonlight in. He realized his eyes were now adjusting to the darkness. The rays of moonlight from the open turret was lighting up the airborne dust particles inside the turret. Other than that, he couldn’t see any motion.

He tried to move his arms and legs and found them responsive, despite the aches all over his body. He had been laying there in the corner of the turret ever since he had been flung there by the shockwaves of the nuclear explosion. He recalled that he had managed to get inside the tank just as it been hit. He had seen his crew doing the same, hadn’t he?

Had they not made it all the way in?

That would explain the moonlight he saw from the other hatch, he realized. As his mind began playing the implications of what was around him, a sense of panic began to overcome him. His heartrate increased to a point that it was
the
dominant noise he heard. He
had
to get out. He had to get out of here before it was too late!

He grabbed on to the rails next to his seat to get himself up. It was a painful experience even to get himself into a seated position. After a minute of struggling, he finally made it into his seat. He finally looked around as he was used to, from his commander’s seat. And the view wasn’t pretty.

The turret was entirely destroyed from the inside. His
ABAMS
screen was cracked in multiple places and was shut off. There was
no
electrical power that he could see, but there were the occasional sparks. And the dust covered everything like a blanket.

He looked up and tried to open the hatch cover above him. But the thing would not move. Not even a little. It felt as though the hatch had been slammed shut with so much force that it was stuck. He would have to leave through the other hatch if he wanted to get out of here.

He managed to move himself by sliding down into the space where the gunner would be. He saw the tank still armed with ready-to-use sabot rounds in the storage. He sighed and then looked further. He saw the dead body laying by his side over the breech and moved it over so that he could see who it was. He dreaded what he might see, even though he knew exactly who it was.

“
Ahhh!
” He shrieked as he rolled over the body of his gunner. The latter’s chest had caved in from the pressure wave. Kulkarni’s cries in agony filled the turret for several minutes. He pounded helplessly on the side of the turret. The metallic clangs echoed through the turret as well. But when they died away, it was the same howl of the winds…

I have to get out of here…I have to get out!
Kulkarni pulled himself up and forced his tears to stop by sheer willpower. He was not going to die out here. Not like this. Not now. He put the body of his gunner down on the floor of the turret and clambered past the gun and into the open hatch. He put his arms around the rim of the hatch and pulled himself up until he was seated with his body outside the turret and his legs hanging in.

The sight that accompanied his seat felt as though it were after a volcanic eruption. Dust swirled over the entire town at very high velocities. There were fires in a few places, but
everything
had either been burnt to cinders or the flames had been extinguished by the dusty winds. There was an ungodly brown glow to the entire night. Looking up, there were no stars and the moon appeared slightly brown.

Kulkarni took a deep breath and looked closer at his tank. The road they had been on was still there, although it was now covered with concrete debris from all the destroyed houses. Behind his own vehicle, he saw one of the three damaged Arjun tanks that he had ferried here prior to the explosion. It’s turret was swiveled at fifty degrees from the chassis and the main gun was pointed to the ground. The turret and driver hatches were open and covered in dust. There was no sign of life there.

Kulkarni noticed that the other two tanks behind this one were missing. All four tanks had been parked in a column before the explosion. So where were they now? Had they survived and left? Or had they been stolen by the enemy? Certainly they
couldn’t
have been pulled away by the shockwave. If the shockwave hadn’t pulled away the first two tanks, it couldn’t have done the last two. Where did they go?

He got up on top of the turret and looked around. He saw the unmistakable churning of mud where the other two tanks had been: tank tracks. The other two tanks
had
survived…

That gave Kulkarni some hope. But it still left him with the question of what to do. Where should he go? He was out here, seventy kilometers inside enemy territory and now everything was gone. All comms. All friendlies. His crew was gone too. And his tank was destroyed…

Perhaps if he had a functional radio, he could try and get word out to nearby friendly units. His mind raced through the possibilities: had Sudarshan survived? What about the rest of his tanks? Had India been nuked?

He looked at the second tank and saw that its turret looked badly damaged but the tank chassis otherwise looked operational. Maybe if he could get it rolling, he could
drive
his way out of here and to the Indian border.

              It was a plan as good as any other his mind could come up. And he had nothing more to lose. He forced himself up and then checked his uniform’s thigh pockets. His folded paper map was still there. That further increased his hopes. A functional tank chassis and a map and he had all the essentials to make his way towards friendly lines. He also needed some protection. He jumped back into his turret hatch and looked around for their emergency equipment. He found his duffel bag stowed near his seat. He pulled it out and opened the zipper. Inside was his carbine version of the
INSAS
rifle, some extra magazines for the rifle, packaged food, some flares and smoke grenades and some personal belongings. Each crew member in the tank had carried such a bag for just this kind of contingency. He also removed the demolition charges pack and checked it for usability. He had no intention of handing over this tank to the enemy.

              He checked the contents of the bag, removed the rifle and slapped an ammo magazine into it but kept the safety on. He zipped up the rest of the bag and pushed it over the rim of the turret to the outside and stowed the rifle around his neck. He gave a final look to the inside of the tank and had to fight back his tears. But he shook it off and then pushed himself out of the turret. He then set the demolition charge and tossed it back inside the turret before jumping off and running to the other tank behind his. He clambered aboard the driver’s hatch and got in.

              It had been a long time since he had had to drive a tank. But he
was
trained in it and remembered where everything was. It did take him a few seconds to orient himself, but it came back to him much faster than he expected. The main issue was whether the tank’s engines still worked. He held his breath in anticipation and engaged the diesel engines.

              The tank rumbled to life.             

              And Kulkarni allowed himself to breathe again.

              “
Okay! Okay!
” He talked to himself. “Let’s see if we can move!”

              He reminded himself that the turret behind him was pointed away from the chassis and that the gun was pointed down. He would have to be mindful of the navigation issues pertaining to that when he had to turn in tight corners. But the first thing to do was back away
before
the demolition charges in his own tank destroyed what was left of his own former Arjun. He moved his new vehicle backwards and the tracks engaged as they threw up dust in all directions. The tank began to back up along the road, increasing the separation between the two vehicles.

              It was when he was about thirty meters away that he saw the flash of flames and sparks coming out of the turret of his earlier tank. Moments later the top of the turret blew up into shreds and debris flew off in all directions. The flames lit up the debris filled streets with flickering shades of yellow and orange.  

              Kulkarni heard the metallic debris hitting his vehicle on the outside. But he ignored them as he pulled out his paper map and determined which path to take. He had no intention of driving
through
the city or near the airport. He would skirt around the perimeter of the city and then make his way back towards the general direction of Islamgarh road. Once there, he would be on the main Indian logistics route. And he hoped he would meet some friendly faces there.

              He tucked the map next to his seat and maneuvered the tank around. The barrel of the gun hit one of the destroyed engineering trucks laying nearby and pushed it out of the way as well. Once aligned with the road, he drove on, causing the tank to climb over the debris on its way out of Rahim Yar Khan.