“I am sorry… so, so sorry…”
“What happened to your nose?”
Samar rubbed at the bandaged bridge of his nose, the only place he had managed to tape down before coming here because it bloody wouldn't stop bleeding. The rest would just burn and fix itself.
“Are you two good now?” Adil glanced between him and Atharva.
Samar looked at their Captain. Just as worn as him, looking marginally ok now that he had fought it out and Adil was awake, and maybe because his Iram was safe… maybe this was passing. They had seen too much, been through too much together for this to hold. Or at least, so Samar hoped.
“I hope we are,” he tipped his chin. “Atharva?”
He was silent.
Adil sighed. “Let it go, Atharva. We have to work together.”
“He is leaving,” Atharva intoned. Samar stilled. He could not leave. Where would he go? He had nowhere to go! If he left here, he would be a wandering ghost. He would rather spend a lifetime as a prisoner in that outhouse than roam aimlessly through the world.
“You are?” Adil asked.
“No,” Samar shook his head.No! Don’t throw me out!“Atharva, listen to me, this is not how we part ways. All these years of hard work doesn’t just go away like this. Remember, I was your backbone through war.”See me, look at me, remember those days, remember our life, remember what we were!
“And you stabbed me in peacetime.” Atharva clipped. “Not once but twice.”
Silence again.
“Atharva,” Adil croaked. “Only the dead have seen the end of war. There is no peace here. I would rather have a man I have fought with backing us than against us. Put all emotion aside. We have to move on from this. It’s election time, our party is swinging up. There is no other way.”
“Can you forgive this man?” Atharva asked. “Because he was about to have you killed.”
“I was not!” Samar struck, then took a deep breath. “Atharva, I was not. All I ever wanted was to be a part of this… You were keeping something so important from me. You knew what this meant to me.”
“Can you?” Atharva asked Adil again, as if he had not spoken at all.
“He also brought me back to life.”
Samar gaped at Adil. Was he pretending, or was he so groggy that he was talking like that?
But his attention was swallowed by Atharva’s silence. Samar had read those silences perfectly well. Now he hated them. Because he could still read them, and they were culminating in nothing but bitterness. Samar knew he had started it, but this was not how it ended. He did not want to end it! How could he be outraged at these people, his friends, and still need them like he needed his next breath?
“Do not make me regret this.” Atharva’s sharp eyes met his. He startled. Samar extended his hand, knowing Atharva was not in. Atharva was not even close to in. But he would grab with both hands what he could get at this point.
Atharva took his hand, gave a firm pump he gave strangers, and left it just as quickly.
“Good boys.” Adil’s voice made him look down.
“So, how do we go about this now?” Samar asked, hoping a common goal would get them back on track. “If we want to make the highest impact of Haider’s betrayal then it will have to be before polling starts.”
“We could have done that, but your asshole men destroyed my equipment,” Adil fired back. “I don’t even know how much that old transmitting device will work now.”
“Didn’t you take any backup?”
“Yeah sure, god forbid your goons will come find me!”
“You always take back up, Adil!”
“Do you know how ancient that radio was?”
“Still…”
