by Abhishek Roy
Two of them started moving towards us and instantaneously I felt something hot near my chest. Instinctively, I pulled out my amulet a little and sure enough, it was glowing.
“Ram,” I dropped the amulet back beneath my shirt. “We need to go right now.” I kept a one hundred Rupee bill on the table and got up quickly.
“Why?” Ram asked me, surprised.
“My amulet is glowing just like it had glowed during the incident at our orphanage. I have a feeling that these are the same men I saw in the orphanage.”
“Are you sure?”
“No I am not! But let’s go!” I exclaimed and I ran out of the tea shop with Ram close to my heels. Both of us walked away from the band of men.
The head start we had was of great use. The footpath we were standing on was near a man selling hats and was sheltered by buildings. The dense river of people played a very good role as a barricade. Even if the people were to reach us, they would have to cross this barrier.
“Wait, who are these people and what do they want?” he asked in an exasperated tone.
“I don’t know. What I know is that they are not close to friendly. I think they were trying to stalk us,” I said and looked around to get my bearings right. When I looked back I saw that we were standing at the juncture of two alleys leading to two different ways.
“Ram, we have to split up. My suspicion is that these people are here for us and are probably the ones at the institute too. We cannot give ourselves over to them. Find a way to the highway where we are supposed to meet the truck and do not get caught. Now go!” I pushed him away.
He went west towards the DN Degree College while I took the longer route, towards southwest.
The group of men broke up into teams of three and five. While the five men chased me the other three ran behind Ram. I must have been the valuable one to whoever gave them the orders since the majority of men were behind me hot in pursuit. I shoved my way through the awe struck mob and quickly took to an alley. While I ran through it smoothly the big men found it difficult to fit through. This attempt of mine to slow them down turned out to be a success. I burst out of the narrow alley and scaled a small brick house from the outside. As I reached the roof I glanced down and was impressed to see the bulky men doing the same. I did not however waste time admiring them and ran across the roof for all I was worth. The roof of the building I was running on came to an end and the roof of a higher building started. This roof was at a height of nearly ten feet that I scaled with some difficulty, my light weight and agility notwithstanding. Nothing however seemed to stop the men from chasing me. There were a few more such elevations after which came a road. The building on the other side was at a distance I could not reach by jumping. The road was at least 35 feet below. The men were advancing at a rapid rate and were gaining on me. Fracturing my shin or my ankle was inevitable if I jumped down. I saw a van coming my way and out of desperation jumped off the roof hoping to land on it.
I caught my head and turned sideways in mid-air so as to take the maximum impact on my right side. I was free falling for a second or two until I made contact with the hood of the van. Due to my momentum, which I later calculated as more than 1000 kg.m/s, the roof of the van bent inwards awkwardly. This caused the windows and the windshield to shatter and explode outwards. The vehicle was in motion and hence due to inertia I rolled on the opposite side of the motion of the van and fell on the road with a thud. The driver must have had the shock of his life for which he skidded to a stop. Most of the people nearby rushed to my aid and helped me up. On one side I saw the five men climbing down a ladder. A new wave of adrenaline rushed through me.
“Are you okay mister?” asked a local.
“I reckon. Listen, those men over there are behind me and they are not friendly,” I said whilst pointing at them. “They are hoodlums. So please sir, see to it that they are stopped or are slowed down. In short just buy me some time.”
“If what you say is true, then I am willing to help,” the genial bloke said with a concerned gesture.
He spoke to some of his friends and as soon as the “European” people crossed the road in an attempt to reach me the friendly man along with some of his friends formed a blockade and gave me cover to run away.
“Hello sir, how do you do? Would you like to buy some of our latest products? We have this great lubricant capable of lubricating everything....” he unleashed a salvo of blabber. To my astonishment his blabbering turned out to be a success since the huge men whom now I realized were henchmen, stopped in their tracks and looked at him and his comrades with a puzzled look.
I glanced across the street and was relieved to see Ram emerge from a gap in the buildings. He was panting for breath and tried crossing the road that was now choked by numerous cars because of my recent actions. He weaved his way through the traffic and as soon as he looked right our gazes met and an understanding passed between us. Shortly afterwards the three men behind him emerged from the same alley. However instead of weaving their way through the cars they simply jumped from car to car denting the roofs and the bonnets of the cars they laid their feet on. In the meantime Ram had slipped into the alleyways. When he was gone I too turned back and was about to make my way through another alleyway when I heard a sudden scream from the throng of people gathered behind me. I turned and saw that one of the giants had picked up the amicable chap, who was ready to help me, by the throat. The man appeared puny in front of Big Man and was flailing his feet that kicked at nothing but thin hair. He was gasping for air but something started to happen in his throat.
I wanted to run away, but my feet felt rooted to the spot.
The man’s throat started to turn blood red and started swelling up. Slowly it turned purple in colour. The man was writhing in pain. Consequently, everybody started to back off in fear of the group of men who seemed to be harmful. All the people gathered there watched as the man’s neck turned from purple to blue and then to black. Nobody dared move as the group of men were menacing enough and on top of that they were now holding a strange weapon in their hands. It was a white gun like weapon which seemed to be made of some polycarbonate material.
It was as if all the blood in the man’s neck started to clot and turn to solid. He was not able to breath until his eyes shut and he went into eternal sleep. When the man was completely dead, the killer crushed his ugly, swollen throat in his fist that burst open gruesomely splattering everybody in blood. Big Man then tossed his carcass aside and gave me a cold sneer while every soul in that area ran for his or her life. I had never seen a feat so grotesque and awful in my life. The poor man just wanted to help me and in return he received death.
“You are next Thorson,” he said in a raspy voice.
I was frightened but didn’t want to waste my time standing there and so I turned and sprinted into the alley. I could sense Big Man and his comrades close behind. A dozen thoughts ran through my head as I dodged obstacles and made my way through narrow inlets. I was bothered by two thoughts clouding my head.
One. Big Man knew my name.
Two. My surname is Thompson but he said something different...Thorson.
I dumped these thoughts in one of the corners of my mind and for the time being, focused on escaping from this cat and dog chase. The power behind this, the one who sent these men after me, knew me. I had this sense of suspicion growing inside me that all this had something to do with the distress call Ram received that evening on his radio.
In the meantime, my amulet had started glowing again.
***
INTERLUDE
SOMETIME, SOMEWHERE
A faint humming noise resounded through the body of each individual. They felt it not as a surge of common energy but as something very distant yet increasingly powerful. For many years, they hadn’t experienced something like this until recently, when the activity of the Brainstone had escalated.
A bystander exchanged massless energy, a carrier boson with his companion. The receiving enti
ty agreed with him as he was awestruck too. Momentarily, their entire world had come to a standstill. Everyone had stopped what they were doing as they felt the divine energy. So did the scientists and military. After a while, the scientists continued their work on getting the Brainstone from the sister universe, the soldiers prepared for a possible war and the bystanders translated to their destination to carry on with their routine work.
Kapittel 8
Mathias’s story
NEAR DN.DEGREE COLLEGE, MEERUT, INDIA
March 7, 2017, Tuesday, 1630 hours 1ST
I scooted away in narrow alleys as fast as I could. I turned right then left then right, trying to get rid of them but they turned out to be resilient. I finally reached a main road since it was broad enough for two cars to fit. I ran along the road for sometime while people screamed at me for shoving them away from my way. I looked behind to see the men gaining on me. As I looked ahead of me I saw a two-storey building coming up which had its first floor window open. Thankfully, there was a pile of jute bags lying just underneath it. I had to rely on my momentum and as I reached the residential house, I planted a foot on its wall and launched myself high enough to get hold of the window. I hauled myself up and arrived in an old house. The houses of Meerut had a certain charm to them. They were closely packed which instil the feeling of community among the members of society.
The family seated inside this particular house consisted of nearly a dozen people who seemed to be having a good time gossiping and roaring with laughter. My sudden entry through the window must have shocked them for all their laughter stopped and everything was silent except the noise outside the house. I felt the awe struck stares of all the people on me.
“I’m sorry for the trouble,” I remarked in a casual manner and jogged through the dining area. All the people seated there followed me with a conspicuous gaze, too stunned to move.
When I reached the window on the other end, I glanced at the window from which I saw a ladder rise and rest against the parapet over the window. No sooner had the ladder come to rest the body of Big Man appeared. I did not intend to lose time and so climbed outside the window and grabbed the parapet above it. I set one foot on the sill and pulled myself up over the parapet with ease. The closed windows of the second floor had a wire mesh attached to its outside which helped me climb up the rooftop. Unfortunately, Big Man and his comrades were standing about ten meters away from me on the other end of the roof.
On the roof I had a bird’s eye view of my surroundings. I looked around and was relieved to have spotted the highway on my west. I looked at them for one last time after which I ran or rather sprinted up to the ledge and jumped with all my might.
I landed on a building several feet away on the opposite side of the road. It was only because of my gift of agility that I could do this. Otherwise, I would have long fallen into the hands of Big Man. The group of men on the roof of the other building were just standing there for a jump which was apparently not possible for them to make. So what they did was simple. There was not a single soul on the road between the house I was on and the house Big Man was standing. Hence they simply jumped off the roof en masse. The road cracked and broke beneath their feet owing to their sheer weight. This group often amazed me with their actions. A drop like this would have injured, if not killed, a normal human. But they seemed to be unaffected by such force since they were still in perfect shape and running. It was only there massive bulk which made them slow and lumbering and difficult to catch up with me straightaway.
I wanted to utilise the time I had gained and so, turned and continued running. After a few long strides I jumped down a couple of feet and landed on a lower level of the roof. Building up my momentum I leaped from this roof to a taller building where I caught on the iron grills and climbed up to the roof. Occasionally I would look back in order to keep an eye on Big Man and his fellow mates. They seemed to be having a hard time keeping up with me.
A few blocks away I spotted a large gathering of people who were probably having a party since they seemed to be in a jovial mood. They were drinking, dancing, talking and were having fun. This could help me in getting away from Big Man and his party of strange men. Hence I decided to go there and blend in.
I came down the stairs and found myself in a courtyard thronged by men and women. Blending in could help me buy some precious time and so I did try, despite my foreign looks. When I reached the dead centre of the courtyard, I saw Big Man and his comrades come in. They did what I was hoping they would not do. They split up.
Promptly I turned and did my best to hide my face from their keen gaze. It was the best time to isolate one of them. I assumed one of the pale men as my target. If I could tackle him down, then I could get one of their intriguing weapons that I could use against them. But most of all, I could interrogate him and find out who has sent them for me.
It was probably a ceremony or simply a get together but for some unknown reason they had large cartons of fireworks stacked up at the back of the courtyard. If only I could use these little sacks of gunpowder against the men behind me. In search for a plan I made my way through the dense crowd and slipped through the small rear gate without anyone noticing me.
I escaped from the courtyard and half jogged towards an alley or a road that lacked in people and population. If I were to have a fight with one of these men, I wouldn’t want locals gathering around the place and clicking photos. I found such a road a few blocks away from the courtyard. It was now that I had a clean chance to escape but my curiosity overcame my urge to escape.
I scanned the area with my eyes carefully. The area was desolate and old buildings flanked the road on either side. The road was dusty and some abandoned stalls and shops lay covered with soot and dust. There were some things I could use effectively. There was no shortage of wooden planks nearby and there were also some termite eaten furniture. However, the thing that attracted me the most were gas cylinders kept in a corner in one of the shops. On closer inspection I found out that the cylinders were full with LPG. I carried one cylinder and kept it near a brick wall in the open. The only thing I needed now was available only in the fireworks and appliances likewise.
I knew what I was about to do right now could send me to jail but at that moment, I really didn’t care. I ran back and grabbed one of the cone-shaped firecrackers and jumped over the wall. The Big Man had alerted the other three men of my presence and they were jumping down from the various floors of the building. As usual, the soil beneath them cracked and they landed like meteorites crashing on the surface of the Earth. Astonishingly, however, they went towards the north instead of chasing me towards the west. I wondered what plan they were cooking up.
I sprinted with all my might. And while doing so I separated the fuse from the cracker and threw the cone away. I looked back and was glad to see a large distance between the men and me. Finally, I reached the deserted road where my cylinder was kept. Quickly I connected the fuse with the small outlet for gas. A slack of nylon rope was lying on the floor of an abandoned shop on my left. I could utilise it as a weapon and so, I went inside the shop and grabbed it. No sooner had I grabbed it than the men arrived on the far end of the road. Both of them had scornful expressions on their face and glowered at me with cold, blue, lifeless eyes. I walked to the middle of the road as casually as I could feign. From the corner of my eye however, I noticed the several men who had earlier broken away from the group. The three of them stood on separate roofs in such a way that the whole area was sealed off. This meant one thing. I could not escape.
“I give you both the liberty to take him down and capture him as our master has requested. Besides, he has no way to escape.”
The men smiled. They had a strange look in their eyes - that of blood lust.
“Why are you people after me?” I asked.
“We have clear orders from our commander to capture you and bring you to him,” barked one of the men in a raspy voice. Their English was broken and the accent w
as unknown.
“And who is your commander? Are you with the police?”
“Why, he is Lord ...” replied the simpleton when he was interrupted by his comrade with a nudge.
“Well, that is confidential,” said the smarter man while gritting his teeth and looking at his accomplice with a sneer.
I quickly tied the rope into a Cowboy Bowline and readied myself for a fight.
The two men slowed down just before reaching me and the mentally dimmer one instantly raised both his hands high up and jumped high into the air to get maximum leverage. I however, took advantage of this motion. Instantly, I moved a little to my right and just when he came down, I kicked him on his stomach. What I hadn’t seen was another fist coming at my face from my left. The fist of the mentally brighter one connected with my jaw and the pain that I felt was searing. I fell down right next to my dumber adversary. Whilst he was getting up, I held my jaw with a hope of suppressing the pain. My rope was no longer with me but was under an abandoned wooden, make shift stall, withered with age. The man punched me in the gut and my face. In a few seconds my nose had started bleeding.
Immediately I lifted both my legs and kicked the man in front of me which sent him backwards. I too, fell back on the dimmer one and due to our combined weight, the man could not balance himself and fell down on one of the old and withered make shift stalls. The poor stall could not support such a weight and gave way. The man took the maximum impact and we fell down in a pile of rubble. Instantly, I broke away from his grip and sat over him with my legs on both of his sides and punched him hard on the face, twice. When my skin touched his skin, I felt a cold sensation as if I was hitting ice.
The cylinder was nearby and so, I quickly retrieved my rope and tied the other end of the rope to the handle bars of the cylinder tightly. I took out the lighter inside my pocket and lit the fuse. I had about two seconds before the cylinder exploded. I ran as fast as I could away from the cylinder. By now the other guy had got up and was heading towards me, completely oblivious to the danger of the exploding cylinder. By the time they got their guns out and loaded, it was too late. I managed to get to a distance of nearly twenty feet from the cylinder full of combustible gas before it exploded.
