Kumbhpur Rising

by Mayur Didolkar

  After dragging himself for about ten feet with his attackers following him with a steady stream of mud slinging, Adesh realized he could move no further. His rib cage had ceased to exist and so had both his legs. His bones in the hip and thighs were slowly crumbling and when he raised the remaining hand to his skull it became a fine powder. The bone, stone-hard a few moments ago, was now as soft as a boiled egg. And then miraculously, he found speech.

  “This isn’t right, I wanted to kill you and then we would have been even,” he told Neeraj “didn’t deserve to die like this, while a coward killer like you survived with his friends.”

  Neeraj had carried some mud in his hands. He threw it on Adesh’s skull, and watched it crumble while Adesh’s speech reverted to the inhuman final howl.

  “You deserved what you are getting and you know why? Because when I am done and resting in the ground finally, I would not agree to rise again. Once I am dead, I will stay dead.”

  He turned to find that Rajat with Rakesh and Vinit lifting the rear tires clear had managed to get the SUV back on the road again. Neeraj spared one final glance at an opponent he had now killed twice and climbed back into the vehicle.

  They traveled in silence as Rajat drove. Rani was asleep in Happy’s lap, while Rakesh was took drags off his special flask sharing it with Rajat. The idea of entering a temple in an inebriated state apparently did not bother him now.

  “Why did you kill him, I mean the first time?” Ragini asked Neeraj.

  “I told you, I didn’t like him,” Neeraj shrugged.

  “And they call me crazy,” Happy said and cackled.

  Happy times were back again, Vinit thought.

  Kumbhpur as a town ceased to exist that night. Several of the undead called on their neighbors at night pleading shelter and once admitted inside demanded that the owners commit suicide so that they could rise again. The owners, scared, tried to drive them out and were promptly hacked to death with shiny swords.

  The local hospital was attacked by a mob at midnight and they promptly killed everyone, patients and staff alike. Vinit’s deputy Rajesh saw the spectacle and chose to end his life by shooting himself through his head. Others were slashed and hacked to death as the mob went on a rampage.

  The mob eventually reached and read the message left at the police station. In their anger they went through the police station and ransacked it before torching it.

  Vinit’s constable who had fled with his permission was caught while sneaking inside his own house to wake his wife and children. All were dead within minutes of being caught.

  Rajaji was murdered in his own living room and the villagers decapitated him and carried his head on one of the swords to parade through the town he once ruled.

  A small handful of villagers, when confronted with the choice of being hacked or committing suicide, chose the later. They were escorted in a somber procession towards the sea, now angrier than ever. At three in the night, another small flock of villagers walked into the sea and stayed there for about an hour. They emerged with the strange vacant stare and a sword with each one of them.

  Despite setbacks with the city team and the resourceful serial killer, Courageous Leader was convinced that the victory was within his grasp finally.

  Rajat parked the SUV in the temple parking lot that was as deserted as everything else in the town. But as they climbed out of their seat, they sawn the first faint good sign. The rain was much less now, the steady downpour of the past few hours had gradually dwindled to a drizzle, which would have been refreshing if they were not soaked to their skins already.

  Once the transfer of luggage and the wooden crate was taken care of, the ladies went to freshen up in the loos built around the back of the temple. Rakesh stood guard over them and Vinit finally felt exhaustion hitting him. He sat supporting his back against one of the numerous marble poles that formed the inner arch of the temple. From where he sat he could see the form of the deity towering over them. Normally there would have been at least one pujari sleeping inside here, but tonight was unlike any other night.

  “Do you know this temple is more than four hundred years old?” He asked Neeraj.

  Neeraj, on whom any kind of history always had a tepid impact at best, was examining the semi automatic carefully. He held it to his shoulders and squinted as if taking aim.

  “Yes. One of the oldest temples built in Maharashtra or anywhere. During Navratri we have more than two lakh devotees walking in through here, but look at it now. Looks as if the last visitor here was sometime in the last century. I guess this is the horror of it really, whatever happened here killed the town, all of it,” Vinit said in a voice that was shaking with sadness.

  “Inspector please show us how these things work,” Rajat said in a gentle voice.

  They went outside to practice; Ragini and Rani too joined them.

  Saket pulled the inert form of Shilpa out of the car, and placed her on the roadside. He pulled the electrical tape from her mouth. She coughed and tried to sit up. Her straitjacket prevented her from doing so.

  “Listen to me lady. Something very bad is happening in this town and you fell victim to it. You were in the village strongman’s house in your undergarments when I found you, you were,” his sentence was cut off when Shilpa sat up, and spat in his face. With infinite sadness Saket taped her mouth shut once more. Then he raised her by holding her blouse and shoved his gun in her face.

  “Please do as I say and I will not hurt you.Please I can not save us if you are going to be fighting and kicking. If you do not let me carry you, I have a satchel of morphine in the car. I will have to inject you, morphine acts differently on different people. You may remain unconscious for a few minutes, a few hours, or may never wake up. Please don’t make me do it,” the morphine satchel was a lie, but Saket hoped he would get away with it.

  He did. Shilpa’s eyes showed the terror she felt, but when he picked and slung her over his shoulder she did not protest. With a semi conscious woman on one shoulder and a rifle on another, he took first tentative steps on the broken bridge. It supported their weight, but now that the rain had stopped he could hear a terrible gust of wind blowing, making the precariously placed bridge sway the tiniest bit with it. Every forward step was greeted with noises from the bridge. Here a brick falling in the storming river below, there a hinge creaking with its burden. Saket held the guardrails with the hand that had Shilpa on it and walked very, very cautiously. Suddenly, she started to kick and punch him in the stomach. Saket dropped her to the ground with a loud thump and with the sudden weight the bridge cracked.

  Two of the poles supporting the whole structure had crumbled due to the rain, and therefore the bridge was curving inward at a small angle, forming a very shallow v shape. Now the side towards town lost one more supporting pole, and Shilpa in her bound state started to slide down. Saket dropped his rifle and grabbed her before she could roll all the way down and into the stormy river below.

  He realized she was trying to say something. He reluctantly removed the tape once again, and strained to listen. He knew that this time if she fought he will have to take the risk of knocking her unconscious once again.

  “I can walk, please free my feet, if you don’t trust me let my hands be bound but I can walk,” she said in a hoarse croak. Saket was on his knees besides her, trying to come to a decision, when there was another dull thunk and one more supporting struts collapsed. Now he had to hold her with one hand and support himself on the guardrails, to prevent them from their downslide. And that really made up his mind.

  Taking the knife he had taken off Rajaji’s dead son, he cut her cords tying her ankles and then turned her on her stomach to cut her wrists free too. Shilpa sat up, and massaged her ankles and hands to get some circulation going in them.

  “No time for that Madam, please hold my shoulder,” he said and brought her to her feet, the wind bellowed about them.Shilpa tried to cover herself modestly. This undoubtedly was a good sign. Whatever possessed he
r down there, seemed to be leaving her.

  Together, they walked cautiously towards the most dangerous section of the bridge. When they reached there, Saket saw that the bridge had actually become two parts now with a gap of about four feet between them. The side they were on had suffered most of the damage. Then Shilpa slipped and fell.

  It was so sudden; Saket had no time to react. One moment she was standing beside him, next moment she took a hesitant step forward and slipped over something and with a thin scream which was more surprise than fear, fell below. With a presence of mind that could only come from hours of physical training, she grabbed one of the iron struts jutting out of the broken bridge and tried to haul herself up. But her shoulders simply were not strong enough to do that. And the bridge was leaning at almost 45 degrees now. Saket let go of his rifle and hooked his leg in one of the guardrails for support and then he hung upside down to reach for her.

  “Go away, the bridge will collapse and I have no strength left now. Please save yourself,” Shilpa said. She was crying. And in a moment of stunning clarity, Saket knew Shilpa was the woman who had once come to him for help and he had denied her. There was no denying now.

  “Just let go of your right arm and extend it to me please,” he said. Shilpa hesitantly let go of the strut with one hand and extended it. But even both of them at full stretch left a distance of about six inches between them. The town side of the bridge was now collapsing piece by piece in the water below. Saket hauled himself back and Shilpa knew he had seen it was impossible to save her. He was now trying to save himself. She debated whether to let go of the support and let the water swallow. She was in pain. Her forearms and shoulders howled with the outrageous pressure on them. Her thighs felt raw and scraped and her whole body felt used.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them once again there was the rifle shoulder strap hanging in front of her and Saket was back in his acrobatic position once more.

  “Grab it and turn it around your hands as tight as you can, I will pull you up. Hurry,” he screamed to be heard in the wind below.

  Shilpa caught hold of the strap and turned it around her wrist before letting her other hand go holding it around the strap. She could hear Saket groan with pain as now he had her entire weight to support, but he proved himself equal to the task. Shilpa felt herself rising through the falling debris and soon they were at face level.

  “Now let go of the strap and hold my belt as tight as you can” he said. His face was a mask of pain. Shilpa let the strap go and held his heavy leather belt. Then she grabbed it with both hands and supported her weight on his upside down form. They looked like some acrobats performing weird sexual act midair.

  “Keep climbing up,” he shouted, Shilpa used his body like a human ladder, and finally got hold of his knees and hauled herself up on the bridge. Next moment Saket, with a final burst of strength, pulled himself up using his hooked knee as the only lever.

  They had no time to rest. The bridge tilted even more now so that they could see the water not more than ten feet from where they stood.

  “Grab the rails and climb up and when we are level with the other section, jump,” Saket ordered. Shilpa started to climb using the guardrails like a vertical ladder. She could hear the bridge groaning in a manner that told her that time was at a premium here. Saket was behind her, pushing her, asking her to be quick.

  Finally, Shilpa came level to the other side of the bridge and when she extended her arms found she could reach one of the struts jutting from the opposite end. She grabbed it and next moment she was on the other side with Saket joining her, asking her to run.

  They ran towards the safety as fast as their tired, abused bodies would move. Saket heard the Kumbhpur side of the bridge collapsing completely in the angry river below and now as he ran; he could hear this side cracking under the strain too. But there was no further damage as he and Shilpa crossed the bridge and lay in the grass on the embankment, panting with exhaustion. Saket felt his heart would burst, but he knew that he had atoned for his crimes.

  He had saved the woman. His war was finally over.

  Book 3

  Heart Attack County

  Chapter 1

  Courageous Leader was very much worried about his operation by then. He did not read too much into his crew’s victory at the local hospital, or the addition of fifty odd, should we say volunteers, to his crew. The opposition was not yet neutralized and that was what mattered right now.

  He wondered and he pondered. He had tried the animals and the meek banker of all people, had foiled it. He had tried the force of the numbers and the crazy cop had foiled it. Finally he had sent the incarnation of the dead investment advisor after them, thinking that the sheer hatred of him for his killer would be enough to finish them off and still they had somehow survived. Now the group from the city had proceeded from nuisance to a fucking threat and the Courageous Leader did not appreciate any threats, for him victory was more than overdue.

  He was standing in the woods with one of his disciples Aleem, who had been a drug runner on the Pakistani border in another life.

  “We tried threat and they just stoned the animals…… we tried superiority of numbers and the crazy cop had to choose that moment to go crazy….. Hell I even resurrected that dead man, thinking that we will see the back of them, but NO!!! NO!!!! NO!!!” his voice shook with outrage and a lot of follower still in the camp shook with fear. Through painful experience they had learnt that bad things happened when the Courageous Leader was angry, or worse still frustrated.

  “No no no….. This is not going where it should be Aleem my trusted friend,” The Courageous Leader intoned and then raised his hands skyward.Aleem marvelled at the raw anger the leader was able to generate.

  “Now we need to be a little subtle, don’t you think my trusted followers?” He asked to no one in particular. But every one agreed. When their boss was in this mood, only a lunatic would argue with him.

  Rani and Ragini were sleeping, when Rani first heard the faint sound, so much like Sonia, her long dead younger sister.

  “Didi….. Didi ….. Rani Didi are you there?” the sound asked. It came from far away, as if Soniya was calling her from a different planet.

  Rani sat up in her bed, she wanted to shake Ragini awake when she heard Sonia’s voice once again… “Didi I am so thirsty, please come and give me some water…..” Rani was taken back to Sonia’s death bed in a moment.

  Sonia and her fiancé Kunal had met with an accident in Kailesh Marg in Delhi when Soniya was twenty one. Rani and Happy traveled together to Delhi upon hearing this and the one thing Rani remembered, was her father standing at the door of the hospital and spreading his arms for his surviving daughter crying “Rani Sonia, Rani Sonia” over and over again. Kunal was dead even before Rani and Happy arrived, but Sonia was hanging on by the thinnest of lines, she was thrown off the bike when the bike had hit a car coming from the other side and landed on the road divider, the hard divider cracking her skull open. But miraculously she was still alive when Rani reached Delhi.

  Rani remembered walking into the ICU and seeing her younger sister lying swathed in a giant bandage covering her entire head save those brown eyes so much like Rani’s own. She was nearly buried beneath bandages, IV drips kept her alive. A row of monitors kept score of this young life’s remaining few hours. The doctor had already told their parents that there was no hope; it was only a question of when to turn off the life support system.

  Rani collapsed in a chair watching her younger sister like that and sobbed uncontrollably. Alok put his arms around her, but she pushed him away and moved closer to Sonia. Sonia’s eyes were open and for a moment Rani had this giddy illusion that when Sonia’s eyes opened to consciousness, she saw her elder sister. And her lips moved beneath the bandage.

  “I can’t hear you Sonu,” she said and moved closer. Behind them, her mother broke into fresh sobs, seeing her elder daughter trying to connect with her younger one when no con
nection was possible.

  “Please speak up…. Please …. I know you are worried about Kunal, but he is fine…. In fact …” Rani completely broke down there and she had to be removed to an adjacent ward and sedated. When she woke up six hours later, her mother informed her that they had turned off the life support system. They cried together and for the next few weeks Rani spent in a daze, when she was not sedated, she was crying, when she was sedated, she was dreaming of Sonia trying to tell her something.

  Now she realized what her beloved sister was trying to tell her. She had been thirsty; of course anybody would have been thirsty after an accident like that. It did not strike her the least bit of ludicrous. Her sister had lain thirsty there and nobody had thought of giving her a drink of water. And now she wanted some water and damned if all the undead in this crazy town were going to stop her.

  She stood up and walked out of the small guest room she shared with Ragini. On her way out, she picked up a water bottle and went to the water tank outside the main temple. It had steel taps meant for devotees to wash their faces and feet before walking inside the main temple. Rani opened the tap and filled the water bottle. Then she realized that she was bare feet, her sandals were lying inside the room where she had kicked them off at the end of this crazy day’s activities. Now she decided not to risk going back again and waking Ragini, besides Sonia’s voice had taken a decidedly plaintive quality.

  “Water please …. Didi I am thirsty, won’t you give me a drink of water please.”

  “I am coming Sonu,” she said unsteadily.

  Rakesh and Rajat were sleeping on the hard cold floor in the main temple area. Rakesh heard a woman’s voice saying “I am coming Sonu” and he sat up in a moment, fully awake. He shook Rajat awake. Rajat sat up, looking like he had died a week ago. He was not sleeping peacefully, in his dream Adesh was still coming with that maniacal bony face of his. Coming for them, and not all the mud in the world stopped him.