Chereads / The Guardian Of The East / Chapter 3 - 3. Search begins

Chapter 3 - 3. Search begins

At the police post, Mrs. Bunga, who is the police chief in the area, welcomed three other members who were not known to Mori, Alysa, or Mr. Ali.

"Thank you for coming back to help this time,"  said Mrs. Bunga to Mori, friendly as usual, and then continued to Alysa.  "Alysa, I need your help too, okay?"

Alyssa nodded.  "Yes ma'am."

"Mr, Ali,   I also ask for his guidance to take care of Mori," said Mrs. Bunga.

"Yes, I will try my best to take care of this reckless child."  Mr.  Ali said while rubbing Mori's head.

Bunga looked at Mori and asked.  "Mori, you already know the story, right?"

"Not yet, Mrs. Bunga.  I was forcibly brought here without being told what the problem was, but yeah... I already knew that the Mrs. Bunga who called would only give me trouble to deal with.  Even though I have a lot of schoolwork today, which must be collected tomorrow!  But yes, if this continues, there are many things I can order to do at school…"

"You forced your schoolmates to do your homework?!"

Mori smiled with satisfaction upon hearing Mrs. Bunga's question while nodding.

"That's not allowed, Mori…"

"It's their fault for being weak!  Ah, never mind Mrs. Bunga, let's quickly tell the story as short as possible."

Bunga was silent for a moment, thinking of tactics to keep Mori from threatening to not help.  "Okay this time so you don't bully at school, I will help you with your schoolwork after this is over."

"Is that true?!"

"Yes, right."

Mori has a big smile. "Okay, let's go, how did it start?"

Mrs. Bunga took a deep breath before starting the story.  "Two days ago we just ambushed illegal loggers with the help of residents.  Initially, the ambush went according to plan, the illegal loggers were caught with three illegal loggers having gunshot wounds to the legs of those who tried to fight back by attacking or fleeing.  

After burning down the hut where the illegal loggers were staying so that it would no longer be used as a stopover for other illegal loggers and making sure the fire was extinguished we gradually returned.  Because the illegal loggers caught were not enough to carry enough cars, we were forced to leave two of our members, a prisoner and two residents, who were planned to be picked up by another car as soon as possible.  

But when the pick-up car arrived fifteen minutes later, the five people, consisting of two residents and two members of the Police, had not been found until now!  The village elders said they were hidden by spirits and some said they must have been eaten by tigers!"

Alysa rubbed the back of her neck when she heard the word tiger said by Mrs. Bunga.  Alyssa is scared.

Bunga resumed his speech.  "The search team that was dispatched this morning will be back in a bit.  Maghrib time here is unbreakable to roam!  So the search will continue after we have dinner until ten o'clock tonight and if they haven't been found tonight, their safety will have to be handed back to God until tomorrow morning before the search starts again."

"So I have to come with you too, ma'am?"  asked Mori.

"Of course, you were brought here to prevent the party from entering the restricted area!  The one guarded by the spirits!"

"But ma'am, what if I meet a real tiger, I'm scared!  The tiger is big!  Even a small cat hurts when it bites!"

"No one told you to go into the forest alone!"  interrupted Alysa.

Bunga closed her eyes in annoyance at Mori and nodded confirming Alysa's words.

"But earlier..." Mori stopped his words because he forgot something.

"But what?!"  Mrs.  Bunga started to get annoyed.

"What, what was I going to say...?"  Mori still couldn't remember what he wanted to say because he saw Mrs. Bunga's angry expression.

"How do I know what you're talking about!"

"Ah... how could you forget?  It's because of Mrs. Bunga, so angry that I forgot what I was talking about earlier."

"Geez.  Why am I the one to blame for this child?"  Mrs. Bunga grumbled with a sigh and tried to be patient.

A beautiful female police officer with and sexy body entered Mrs. Bunga's office after knocking on the door several times, approached Mrs. Bunga, and whispered something.

Mrs. Bunga smiled at the news that had just been conveyed by the newly arrived female police officer, which attracted Mori so much not to take his eyes off her until the female police officer disappeared behind the door.  With a smile, Mrs. Bunga looked at everything in the room.  "All the search teams have returned and they are now waiting for us to have dinner together.  Let's have dinner with them too."

*** 

The search started an hour ago in the fog and a very fine drizzle, Mori and Alysa were given a jacket and boots from the Forest Police.  Alysa walked with a little difficulty because her shoes were too big even though she didn't need to be muddy and more importantly, she didn't need to hear Mori's chatter during the search.  

This time the team sent to look for two residents, two members of the Police, and a prisoner who went missing two days ago increased, either because they wanted to find them as quickly as possible or because of the arrival of help from Mr. Ali and Alysa who brought Mori.

Mori can communicate with the spirits of the dead since childhood.  Mori himself doesn't even remember when he was first able to communicate with the spirits of the dead.  But his parents said that it was inherited from his grandfather.  That's why Mori's ability to communicate with the spirits of the dead is needed for a smooth search this time.

Mori, who was walking in the middle of the group, suddenly stopped walking.

"Why stop?  Tired?"  Yandri asked.

Mori nodded.  "How do you communicate with other groups?"

Yandri showed a communication radio.  "With this."

"There is a problem?"  Mrs. Bunga, who was walking in the front with Mr. Ali, approached Mori.

Mori looked at Mrs. Bunga.  "I just remembered what I forgot and wanted to say earlier..."

"What's that?"  Mrs. Bunga is curious.

"The more members of the search team, the more risk of crossing the forbidden area guarded by spirits!"

"WHAT?!!"  cried all the members of the group of nine.

Mori, who was in the middle of the group lowered his head slightly while covering his ears with his index finger because the voices of his members were too loud.  "Can the voice be lowered a little..." Mori said with a grin.

Alysa pulled Mori's jacket collar and immediately shook it because Mori was always annoyed by Mori who liked to joke at the wrong time.  "Why didn't you tell me you were senile?!"

Mori could only remain silent while grinning stupidly and then chose to sit on a small fallen tree not far from where they had stopped.  The tiredness came faster, but Mori tried not to be selfish by complaining as usual because this time Mori was very worried about the people who had disappeared for almost three days in the forest.

"So what if you've already taken down a lot of people?"  asked Mrs. Bunga.

"Perhaps we can pull up Ma'am group,"  said Yandri.

"You mean the radio?"  Bunga asked again.

Yandri nodded.  "Yes ma'am, earlier Mori also asked about how to communicate with other groups.  All we have is a radio, ma'am."

Mrs. Bunga looked at Mori who was just calm.  "So how?"