Thank you for the appreciation
I'll try to make it as enjoyable as I can so I might become a little dramatic
Well, this one is from my dad and this is going to be pretty long.
My father is a retired officer of the Pakistani Army. He's spent more of his military career in the special forces than in the regular army.
If you have a friend or family member serving in the army, you may have experienced one of those "When we were patrolling" moments. Most of my extended family has served in the army and quite a number of the retired try to "dazzle" us with these stories. My father isn't like that. He's never told any of his children about his time in the army. The only person who I think knows what my father has gone through is my mum but even then, I feel even she doesn't know everything. All she says is he's deserves to rest and should not be reminded of the sacrifices he's had to make. We've honored her request and have never bothered him.
But my father's unit-mates feel otherwise. They feel his children should fully understand what sort of man their father is. Things that would make any child feel proud.
He has a limp because he'd been shot while he was dragging his wounded friend to cover. The scars on his back are from when he went missing during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The cigarette burns on his forearms are from when he was captured.
A secret history if you may.
One of his unit-mates told me once about a training exercise he'd been a part of when he'd first joined the special forces.
The aim of the exercise was to get back to base or a friendly position while evading enemy forces or hostile locals. The men were given bare essentials. You have to understand that this was the pre- Soviet Invasion era so they lacked the GPS or the technology the military has today. All they had on them was a waterproof map sown into their smocks (
Image), ammunition, rations, weaponry and their daggers. To add another layer of difficulty (or reality), they're radio sets were taken away from them so as to maintain complete radio blackout.
They were airlifted into a forest in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. As a person travels towards Kashmir, civilization fades away and the forests take over. The nearest human settlement could be a 100 miles away. Getting lost in these forests is signing your own death sentence. People have vanished in these forests and have never been heard of from again.
These forests exemplify untouched nature and could be considered a slice of heaven.
The number of stories that revolve around the Northern Areas are just as extraordinary.
The strange fires that appear on the mountains around Satpara Laka during Ramadhan [
Image (A picture of the lake)]
The wounded phantom that is said to appear at the bridge during the times of trouble in Chitral, guarding his home from invaders
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Image (A picture of the bridge)]
If I start talking about the legends and stories I've heard of these places, writing a post a day wouldn't be enough.
For everyone to follow the story with as much ease as possible, I'll name the people in the unit G, J, A and S. A was the instructor and G,J and S were the recruits who were being "broken" in.
They're objective was to reach an outpost that would be around 300 kms (I can't remember the figure exactly) from their starting position. The helicopter pilot looked for the densest part of the jungle he could find and somehow dropped them right in the middle. The canopy was so thick that light could barely get through and everything was bathed in a gentle green. All the men in the unit were used to harsh conditions and had traveled extreme distances before. It was another day in the office for them.
They sat down and planned out the route. They'd be travelling through some of the thickest jungles in Pakistan and the nearest civilian human settlement was easily 800-900 kms away. They were on their own now and failure was definitely not an option for them.
Like I'd mentioned in my previous post, muslims believe that Jinns occupy desolate areas, far away from human settlements so as to be left alone. Again, I understand many of you may scoff at this but I feel you'll appreciate the role they have here.
These forests are some of the loneliest places on the planet. For a human being, their senses would be working overtime, their hearing and eye sight adjusting to take in as much information as they can of their surrounding. Situational awareness would be the proper term for this.
As the unit walks through the forest, they're senses inform them every time something rustles or something breaks. What they knew was that every time they stopped to review their progress or rest, they felt like they were being watched and the air was tense, like there was something there waiting to pounce on them. They'd also spoken about this to one another and said it must be animals. A false sense of security. S confessed to me later on that he knew in his heart that this was something else and he can still hear the heavy footsteps in the back of his mind whenever he thinks about the exercise.
The first 48 hours went by well. They'd covered a decent distance and the abundance of local wildlife allowed them to have decent dinners. On the 3rd day, they came across ruins of a small outpost.
In the past, the subcontinent had been divided into principalities and were at war with another and were rife with bandits and highwaymen. To maintain peace and to keep an eye on their neighbors , tiny outposts were built throughout the forests. At the first sign of trouble, messengers would race back to their capitals and inform their respective armies.
They decided to take it easy that night and they made camp at the outpost. It was the perfect place to set up camp. A stream was nearby, allowing them access to fresh water and fish, and the abundance of wildlife and edible vegetation allowed for a decent dinner. J went away for a piss and he takes his time while the rest chart out the next day's route. J's been gone for a while and it's pretty dark. They can barely see the sky because of the clouds that have formed and they're natural night vision wouldn't be as effective.
They look for J and it's took them about an hour before they find him slumped against a tree, out cold. When they head back to camp, the wood they'd kept for fuel was thrown all over the campsite and the food they'd be preparing to cook was missing. J was out cold but A was a medic and he was able to revive him. He said he was taking a piss and the last thing he remembers is feeling this heaviness in his head, the sort of feeling you get when your in a room full of smoke.
Dismissing it as wild animals, they sleep till daybreak and then head out.
S told me that the footsteps had stopped during the day but settling down for the night brought back that awkward feel that bothered S.
All 4 men were pakhtuns. Born mountain-men, they were at home when they were in the woods. They understood their environment better than anyone else could. S didn't feel safe and he felt neither did the others.
A confided in S that he feels there's something around and it doesn't feel like an animal. He'd done the exercise hundreds of times before and the feeling never changed. He couldn't hear the birds in the trees, nor the insects on the ground. None of the bigger animals ever disturbed them. It didn't feel natural. There was something out there in the woods.
J must have been bitten by something because he was breaking out in fevers and was sort of delusional. He said whenever he slept, he dreamt of the woods and he could see all of them sleeping. But the weren't alone. Their campsite was surrounded by shadowy humanoid creature. They kept standing there and he felt they were looking at them while they slept. They never came closer but they never left either. The rest of the unit hadn't noticed that J had turned the safety off on his rifle.
A day before they reached the outpost, J collapsed. His body was breaking out in hives and he was sweating himself dry. His gear was drenched in his sweat. A was right there in front of him and J was looking straight at him but S could tell that J didn't see A. It took them a while to stabilize him. They tried to make him rest but he thrashed about in his sleep and screamed that the shadow people were closing in and he could see their faces.
A was carrying ORT packs with him and he readied the canteens in case J had another attack while S and G proceeded to make a stretcher out of G's smock. After they placed J on the stretcher, G took charge of J's gear and they hard marched towards the outpost.
J was growing worse as they closed in on the outpost. He wasn't screaming like before but he whispered like a scared child. He was delusional. His grandfather was walking with the stretcher. He kept trying to hold his hand but there was something wrong with his eyes. The pupils resembled a cat's. The way his grandfather looked at him scared him. There was no kindness. Only cruelty and malice.
When they must have been 10 or so kms from the outpost, J started to thrash about again, he said the shadow people are back. They keep grabbing for him and he can see their eyes now. They're exactly like his grandfather's. S told me that while J was thrashing about, he felt his legs go numb and his body lock up in cramps. They weren't running. They were marching as hard as they could with the stretcher but S felt it wasn't enough to cause these severe cramps. The air around them was unnaturally electric. S says he felt the air around him was so full of energy, a spark could set the entire forest on fire.
When they were a km away from the outpost, J stopped whispering and thrashing. The numbness that affected S was gone and he could feel his body free up again. The air around them mellowed out. They could hear the animals and the birds again. They loaded J onto the waiting military truck and took him to the nearest hospital.
J was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. On further investigation, it was discovered his family had a history of schizophrenia. The military took responsibility for his treatment. The psychiatrist in charge of his case feel this may have been one of the first "episodes" as none were reported when he was a child.
S feels differently about it. He says there was something in those woods and he could hear the footsteps going back into the woods when they were loading J onto the truck.
Maybe the adrenaline pumping inside him was making him imagine stuff. Or maybe he'd actually heard the footsteps in the woods. Who knows.....