Chapter 225: Building the Base – 1

Somalia is a kind of place that the sun scorched to the point that the greens were wiped from their lands. Their old white buildings were bruised by bullets, their streets were dotted by craters born out of grenades with the occasional piles of trash made worse by the rampaging sandstorms that sometimes come knocking at their doors. All men that walked around their neighborhood seemed like they were born angry with sentiments coloring their eyes, especially for their guards that behaved like animals in the wild.

The 20-meter wall around the city suffocates this war-torn cityscape of cl.u.s.tered buildings. Armed men would watch the city from atop the walls, along with the blazing sunlight.

The streets are depressing like a small cemetery. Old homeless men were digging through the trash bins and the kids were sitting in alleyways while glaring at the street, no one was smiling.

And, in the middle of everything lies a little Somali girl wrapped in a black dress and Abaya walking carefully.

*gasping for breath*

The girl, who had been short of breath for the longest of times, hid under the eaves with the smell of blood and dirt sweeping through the wind…

With dozens of half-naked men hauling monster by-products, the girl carefully caught up to the side of one of them who was carrying a chunk of b.l.o.o.d.y meat, with sweat running down his dark skin.

“Dad! Dad!”

The man, who was suffering from physical labor, looked at the girl and widened his eyes. There, he covered her body and with his own.

“Fatuma! Why are you here? ” The man said as he tried to protect the girl from the men around her.

“Dad, mommy is acting weird!”

At Fatuma's words, the dad looked around him with a concerned face. He knew that his wife was sick back in his home but if he did not finish his work, he won't be able to give them some food. His wife's illness, after all, was the result of malnutrition. She was hanging on for a while, but her health finally started deteriorating.

“Go back now! There is some hidden flour under the chimney, feed them to her!”

Fatuma's father pushed her away violently. If he did not do this now, she could be seen by other people. Like now.

“Farrah! Why have you stopped??”

A gunned man approached Fatuma's father.

“No, it's nothing!” Farrah bowed repeatedly with his face wet with sweat and that did not come from his body tortured by work. This was the worst-case scenario that he had imagined.

“Well, you better speed up… huh?” The gunned man pointed his pistol against Farrah to direct him to go back to work but then, he caught sight of a girl staring at them from the alleyway.

“Ooh. Who are you??”

At the man's gesture, Fatuma's legs weakened. She wanted to run away, but she found herself paralyzed. The gunned man frowned towards Fatuma and walked to her.

*RRRIIPPPPP*

The man ripped off the Abaya off of Fatuma's little head, and his face lit with pa.s.sion. She was maybe 10 years of age, but it seemed that it did not matter to him. He dragged Fatuma into the alleyway.

“Dad! Dad!” As Fatuma screamed for her dad, her father immediately abandoned the monster by-products and ran toward the alleyway.

“NOOO!” Fatuma's father wanted to jump at him but he couldn't. There was a pistol pointed at his head.

“Go away. I'll take her back to you in a bit.”

“Supervisor, please…!”

In a heartbeat, Farrah wanted to save his daughter but he knew that just a small movement would urge the man to kill him. He felt his daughter's pain by just watching her.

“How dare you disobey me!!”

*BOOM*

“AAGGHHHH”

“Dad! Dad!”

The supervisor smashed Farrah with the handle of his pistol. As her father collapsed to the ground with his bleeding head, Fatuma continued to scream.

“I'll deal with you when I get back”

The supervisor turned away from Farrah and dragged Fatuma into the alleyway with her eyes that were full of tears, still fixed on her father.

In the alleyway, there was a sofa stationed there for use during their break time. It was also suitable for use in such occasions as hara.s.sing women like now.

“Haha…”

The supervisor threw the girl on the dirty sofa and roughly stripped the girl's Abaya. He revealed the body of a frightened and crying little girl. The supervisor took his hands to the girl's waist and ripped her clothes off.

“No! I don't want this!”

*RRRIPPPP*

*girl screaming*

The supervisor slapped her to shut her up before taking off his belt. With him being on top, his eyes were filled with l.u.s.t as he gazed down at the girl's bottom half. Then, he brought down his pants and reached out towards the girl.

A big hand crept up from the back and grabbed the supervisor's neck.

“This a.s.shole… for just a girl…”

*gasping for air*

The supervisor tried to resist but the power of the grip on his neck was too strong. He felt like his head was spinning.

What came behind the supervisor was a strongly-built man, at least a head taller than him. The man had his head and mouth covered with a cloth. He lifted the supervisor and scanned him up and down, and with a dry voice, he said, “Boundary!”

Two men appeared behind the tall man like a shadow. One of the two men looked at the girl on the floor and the other walked away to watch the alley.

*supervisor writhing in pain*

As the supervisor tried to take the man's hand away from his neck, the man placed him against the wall and empowered his grip.

*bone breaking*

The man squeezed the supervisor's neck until it was unnaturally. The supervisor's spine and esophagus were completely broken.

After making sure that the supervisor was dead, the tall man dropped him on the ground. The other man who was checking on Fatuma said, “Cheolho. Why did you kill him? What are we going to do now?”

“It's obvious he came to do bad things”

“How do you know if she's his wife or not? You know that they don't care if you're underage here.”

“What kind of a jacka.s.s points a gun at his wife?”

“True, but we have to stay down low until we get our orders”

“Whatever. I'll just hide his body in my suitcase”

“Ugh, that's not, ugh”

As the two men were arguing, the other one who was keeping watch took hold of Farrah, who gained consciousness and was stumbling towards Fatuma.

“Shh. Be quiet”

*m.u.f.fled speech*

The horrified man rolled his eyes and found a girl who was limp on the couch.

“What!”

As Farrah rushed in, the man standing next to the girl tried to reach out to Farrah, but the man who broke the neck of the supervisor intercepted his hand.

“Fatuma!”

The man busily checked the girl's body as he held her close to him. Then, after seeing her b.l.o.o.d.y lips and swollen cheeks, he climbed over the body of the dead supervisor with his neck deformed on the floor and squeezed his neck once again.

“Die! Die!”

“Hey, hey, stop.”

The girl's father, looking back at the owner of the hand on his shoulders, felt the energy of a predator looking down at him.

“Who are you …”

Farrah quickly tried to hide Fatuma with her Abaya.

Cheolho, who was looking down, said with a sigh, “Hey, do you understand what we are saying?”

At the man's question, the girl's dad nodded his head frantically. He did not want to be on the bad side of these dangerous men.

“Why shouldn't we go to a more comfortable place with good people?”

The expression of the man looked so innocent for a man who just broke the neck of another like a dry twig. Farrah felt like if he didn't agree with this man, he was going to end up in a very bad situation.

The girl's father led them to his home.

The supervisor's body was neatly tucked away by Cheolho in his suitcase. He skillfully carried out the duty by folding his body like a waste before putting it away. Since the supervisor died and disappeared, Farrah would be under suspicion, but he placed the three in his house anyway.

As soon as he entered the house, Farrah carefully laid down his daughter and went over to check on a woman who was lying down on a wooden bed in the room, sweating and wheezing. Then, he went over to fetch some hidden flour under the chimney and started boiling some water.

Cheolho's eyes met that of Fatuma's.

“h.e.l.lo

As he waved his hands, the girl shrunk her body in fear. He felt a sense of compa.s.sion as he looked at the girl's swollen face.

“Geez, why are you scaring the girl,” one of the men said to Cheolho as he took off the veil from his head.

“Dude, I wasn't trying to…”

Cheolho scoured his suitcase to give the girl something to eat. The feet of the corpse was revealed for a while and the girl was horrified. He shoved it back in a few seconds later and picked up the food that he had before. Cheolho had a week's worth of reserves, but if the operation goes as planned, he wouldn't be using it today.

“Do you want it?”

The girl alternated her gaze between her dad and the chocolate that was being offered to her. He nodded his head, but she couldn't just take it.

“Cheolho, obviously, her dad is making some porridge for the sick person here, how would this girl be able to take this chocolate?”

“Oh right… hey, come here,” Chelho said to Farrah.

“Yes, yes.” Cheolho handed Farrah some food.

“Take some and feed it to the woman.”

“Th..Thank you.”

Farrah took the food right away. And mixed it into the porridge he was making. The girl seemed relieved that her father received something, and quickly shoved the chocolate into her mouth.

“It's okay, eat slowly…”

Cheolho spread out his reserve food while making a sad face. He himself had a girl at home. If he went by the plan, he should not have appeared until their set time, but he could not let this little girl get raped.

“Th…thank you”

“Nice little girl. Hey yo, take out some of your food too” Cheolho said to one of his guys.

“Why!? Why are you taking mine too!?”

“You won't even need the whole thing! Why are you so stone-hearted? Are you living up to the Dark Knight Clan's reputation?”

“Why are you talking about the clans now? Okay, fine.” He opened his suitcase as he grumbled. His baggage was full of food.

The girl was already sad about finis.h.i.+ng her chocolate but she opened her eyes wide in amazement as she saw the array of food presented before her.

At that moment, the girl's father came and knelt down in front of Cheolho.