by Abhishek Roy
The explosion was shocking. The flames took the shape of an overgrown mushroom and completely devoured the two men. They were literally incinerated, screaming till the end. The wall on which I had run in the most recent past got changed into a pile of broken bricks. The land where the cylinder detonated now had a gaping crater. The cylinder was literally torn and the nearby stalls were incinerated. The concussion wave swept me off my feet. I landed on the ground awkwardly. The blast was colossal enough to knock the three men on the roofs off their feet. Compared to their tough and robust bodies, they seemed to be in excessive suffering due to the heat generated by the fire. One of them had his clothes on fire and was screaming in pain, seeming totally helpless as the fire devoured him
I got up just in time to see the remaining men on the roofs crush a tablet in their palms. The tablet instantly vaporised and the vapours seemed to get soaked up by their bodies. The tablet looked like an equivalent of an Energy Drink for them. Each of them found some relief and got ready to chase me again. The man on fire seemed still in pain but recovering fast.
I turned and was about to run again when I spotted the strange, otherworldly gun that was going to be used by the man whom I had just killed out of desperation. The blast had caused the gun to fall near one of the burning shops. I jogged towards it briskly and picked it up reluctantly. Getting over the fact that I had killed two people would surely take time. Hence, using their objects made me feel more and more guilty.
It had a bulky canister attached near the barrel that was about 5 inches in length. There was a screen on the left side of the gun and there were three bars on the right. The first bar and the third bar were of equal length whereas the second bar was a little bit longer. The first bar was blue till one third, about eighty percent of the second one was blue and the third one was blue till a little over four fifths. I had no idea what these meant and didn’t have the time to ponder over them. I slipped the gun in my belt and was off again. This time I didn’t look back.
I simply concentrated on my final destination - the National Highway.
Kapittel 9
Mathias’s Story
165 METRES FROM THE HIGHWAY, MEERUT, INDIA
March 7, 2017, Tuesday, 1655 hours 1ST
The rumbling noise of the engines of the numerous cars on the highway started to amplify as I headed towards the highway while weaving in and out of alleyways and small, arterial roads. I was desperate to meet Ram. I didn’t know what had happened to him. He must have either escaped or got caught by his pursuers.
At the time it happened, I must have been only 150 metres from the highway. I had reached a very narrow alley. It was barely twice as wide as me from shoulder to shoulder. The two walls of the houses, which made the alley, were made of solid brick and ran for nearly 75 to 100 metres. I ran through the alley for all I was worth. Suddenly when I reached the midpoint, one of the men chasing me appeared and blocked my exit in front. I turned to see the second man, who was injured from the fire, block my exit from behind. Unexpectedly, a shadow fell over me and I looked up to see the third man, apparently their leader and the largest of them, block my exit from above. I was totally trapped. There was nowhere to go.
“You cannot escape us. Now do you surrender? If you accept defeat, we will take you to our commander without inflicting any more harm on you. If you don’t, you wouldn’t like the consequences. You getting hurt is inevitable if you do not surrender,” said the man from above.
Was I going to succumb to their threats? NEVER!
Ever so quietly, I caught the handle of the gun and slipped my finger through the trigger ring. I was ready to use it against them. Through the corner of my eye, I looked at the man blocking my way towards the highway. If only I could....
After a moment of concentrating, I took out my gun and in one fluid motion, fired it at the man. Instead of a bullet, a small spherical ball of white came out of the barrel and went straight towards the chest of the man, leaving behind a contrail of white vapour. The man whom I had just shot stood his ground as if nothing had happened. The sphere just dissipated around his chest and got absorbed by it. I fired three more rounds but nothing happened to him. The only change in him was the expression on his face that worsened every time I hit him.
“Such a naive little boy you are. You are foolish enough to use our weapons against us, aren’t you? The Mandaas you live with must produce weapons that they can use against themselves but we are smarter. The weapons we use right now are made to be used against people who do not belong to our realm. They will be useless against us,” cried the Big Man.
Instantly, the men on both my sides started to charge towards me like a bull. If I were to fall in between them when they meet, I would be squeezed like going through a black hole. I had to think fast though the only thought circling my head were the words spoken by the man. He had spoken of realms and some Mandaas. Yet I managed to push these thoughts to the back of my head.
The distance between the two men was closing. It was difficult to think during such scenarios. I started to think about my possessions. I had a watch, a wallet, a glowing locket, a belt and a gun that I couldn’t use against the men. I looked at the wall of the house. I had read it somewhere that the general thickness of a house wall in India is around ten to fifteen cm. There was no way that I could break a wall that thick myself, but if I super-froze it, then I might just be able to break through. When I fired the gun, the sphere that came out seemed to be immensely cold. If the cold was strong enough then I might just stand a chance. So, without thinking I fired at the wall that slowly started to turn grey. Frost appeared on the wall and ice started to get collected between bricks. I gave a quick glance at each men who were only 35 metres away from me. I jammed my finger on the trigger and the gun started to fire the spheres of cold at the rate of a machine gun. The wall seemed to have got really cold and so I kicked at the wall with all my might. Small cracks appeared but overall, it was still strong.
25 metres left.
Again I jammed my finger on the trigger and fired continuous shots of the white super cold sphere at the wall. The wall was full of frost and snow and small pieces of bricks had started to fall. I kicked again this time with my knee. A big chunk of the wall crumbled and fell down but it was still rigid.
15 metres left.
I fired more and more. Suddenly the gun stopped firing. I looked at the dials and saw that the third dial had drained out of blue colour. It was probably the dial indicating the ammo left. I threw the gun towards the person on my left since he seemed to be closer to me who grimaced with pain as the gun hit his knee. He stopped for a second or two. He let out a scream and ran towards me with all his energy, determined to crush me.
I managed to disregard him and kicked at the wall that finally started to show a tiny hole through the wall.
7 metres to go.
I kicked hard and every time, small chunks of brick fell.
5 metres.
I kicked more and more and a wide gaping hole took shape. I tried to fit in but it was just too small. I needed a bigger hole.
3 metres. Both of them were almost upon me.
I could take it no more. I went back up to the wall behind me, planted one of my feet on the wall...
1 metre. They launched themselves towards me with a roar.
...and launched myself with all the power I could concentrate on my legs. I held my right hand up like a shield and broke through the bricks like a missile. I landed inside the house, on a pile of broken bricks to see the two men have a head-on collision. Each of them must have had a momentum of something near 600 kg m/sec. Each of them must have experienced a force greater than 1000 N, which is immense. Due to this, both of the men ricocheted from each other. They fell down painfully and were knocked out cold.
I could hear the man standing above gritting his teeth with frustration.
“No!” he bellowed, “You will pay for this Thorson!” He gave me a baleful look.
It was the second t
ime that he had called me Thorson. Either it was a misunderstanding of the surname or he was doing that on purpose.
After he uttered his statement, the Leader of the giants jumped down through the two walls and landed just in front of me, between his comrades who had just knocked each other out cold, with a loud cracking noise of the concrete. I was still lying on the pile of bricks and tried my best to scramble away but it was too slow. He seemed to be much stronger than his colleagues since he entered the house which was thankfully empty, picked me up from by back with both of his hands and threw me towards the ceiling with brute force. I hit the ceiling hard and the feeling was that of a truck hitting you at a pretty good speed from behind. The ceiling crumbled and fell to the ground in huge chunks from the portion where I made contact. At the same time I too fell to the ground and bruised my head by the bricks.
I gathered some of the energy still left in me, reached out above my head, over the dining table, grabbed one of the plates and threw the object hard at his face like a vertical frisbee. The plate connected with his brow and bruised the region above his right eye.
“Aaaarrgghhh!” he cried while he contorted his face in pain.
While he was busy tending his wounds I used the element of surprise by getting up and grabbing more of the plates and throwing them at him frantically while I made my way to the kitchen. There was no way I could go past him and try to escape through the hole that I had just made. I had no idea where the main door was and hence, the best place to go right now was the kitchen where there was a chance of a back door.
The man deflected some of the projectiles but many hit him indeed.
When I entered the kitchen I was relieved to see a back door from where I could escape but even if I escaped I wouldn’t be able to run now. For now, I looked for a knife and grabbed one in order to arm myself. It made me feel a little better but then suddenly the man appeared at the doorway, livid. The bruises on his face were red, accentuating the whiteness of his face. His eyes had a frenzied look, filled with blood lust. I could sense his anger now.
I held the knife from the tip and launched it at him. He tried to dodge it but it found its spot. It lodged itself just between his right armpit and his right chest. The knife went in deep and drew blood. My opponent howled in pain as he touched the area where the knife had penetrated his skin. He pulled out the blood-slicked knife which made a sickening sound as it came out and threw it down on the floor. The knife clattered to the floor and he touched the area where the deep cut was bleeding a very thick kind of blood.
Suddenly his two comrades appeared by his side. They seemed to have recovered from the collision. They looked dangerous, sullen and they appeared to have the same kind of powder on his fingertips as I had seen earlier. They applied the powder on the Big Man’s wound and slowly, cold vapours started to rise from that area and the blood flow stopped abruptly. His skin over there started to turn a light crimson and I realised that they had frozen his cut in order to stop the bleeding. These people surely had some breakthrough technology with them. They could be from a secret government organisation but I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that why I would be such a valuable target that a country would send in its covert operations team with some top secret other worldly artillery in order to catch me.
The man had found some relief and a new surge of energy burst through him as he started to advance along with his two henchmen, snarling and determined to grab me. I could not move any further, feeling totally trapped. This must be the end. I hoped it would be painless. A whimper came out of my lips as I waited for the end.
Kapittel 10
Ram’s Story
MEERUT, INDIA
SOMEWHERE NEAR CITY RAILWAY STATION ROAD AND DN DEGREE COLLEGE
March 7, 2017, Tuesday, 1730 hours IST
In a dark store room in a building lay a mound of chairs. It was a silent storeroom. There was no noise except the hooting noise of an owl nearby. Everything in the storeroom was still - the buckets, the broom, the bottles of cleaners and detergent, and everything in view. Suddenly, a hand emerged from beneath the mound of chairs slowly. The hand grabbed one of the chairs and pushed it aside which fell to the ground with a wooden clatter. After pushing a number of chairs away Ram’s head came up from under the cluster of chairs. He looked up and pushed aside the remaining chairs and got up carefully. He had a few bruises but most of all, he was disoriented.
The thin line of light told Ram that the door was nearby. He groped for the door handle by guiding himself with his hands. Finally he grasped it and turned it to enter the brightly lit hallway of the building. For a moment he was blinded but slowly, as his pupils contracted, he got accommodated to the light. He inspected his bruises. Thankfully, there weren’t any major ones except the one on his forehead that pained.
Slowly and cautiously, he made his way crossing the many rooms of the hallway to get to the door, wishing he had the Maglite now, instead of it being in Mathias’s bag. On reaching the door, he waited for a while, gathering his breath. Anxiously, he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. It opened to a dimly lit street where there were many other houses, all identical in some way or the other. With bated breath, Ram peered through the door. He inspected the street in front for any signs of the men, chasing him but they were nowhere to be seen. Finally, Ram sighed with relief and walked into the deserted street.
His ploy had worked well. These people could not see his hideout and somehow could not sense his presence either the way they were doing so earlier when he and Mathias were together.
Ram looked at his watch and said,
“Oh, bonkers! Mathias and I were supposed to meet at the highway. I just hope he is fine,” Ram muttered to himself while wiping beads of sweat from his forehead.
I have got to find him and reach the highway. But where do I start? Maybe from the tea shop.
With that he started for the tea shop in Subhash Bazar.
I hope Mathias is alright. The men chasing us seemed to be pretty hefty and muscular. What I still don’t understand is why these men were chasing us. We do not have any dangerous and powerful underworld lord as our enemy..... at least I don’t. Who can these men be?
Ram thought to himself while he walked towards the teashop. Slowly, as he approached Subhash Bazar, the density of people increased. As he crossed a bookshop, he paused and went in to ask for directions to the Highway.
As he came out and started for the highway, he spied two of the three men who were pursuing him, deep in conversation with each other on the other side of the road. He swivelled and tried to avoid his face being seen by them, but immediately came face to face with the third giant. With a snarl the man lunged towards him. Ram was so startled he fell and rolled over quickly to avoid being caught. He got up and started to run towards the left which was clearly leading to a dead end.
In the meantime, the other two men were also alerted and they started running on the other side of the road trying to cut him off. The entire crowd stared at this spectacle and no one dared to interfere after what had happened to the vendor. Nobody even dared to call in the police.
Ram ran hard with all the strength he could muster and within a minute found himself in a narrow alley, his only way out. As he entered the alley, he looked back over his shoulder to see the big men follow him in, slower at first due to their bulk, but catching up as he was losing steam.
With a foreboding sense of dread, Ram continued ahead, not knowing what to do to save himself, catch up with Mathias and survive. All he could see was this long and narrow alley and his salvation lay in crossing this faster than his pursuers; with his breath now coming in gasps, that seemed unlikely.
Kapittel 11
Mathias’s Story
90 METRES FROM HIGHWAY, MEERUT, INDIA
March 7, 2017, Tuesday, 1735 hours IST
Everything happened all at once.
There was a commotion with a roar from behind them which sounded just like their own tongue. The
next second I saw Ram being bodily thrown inside by three more of the giants inside the house. He must have found his way here. I was crestfallen, thinking that my last hope of survival has gone and my friend Ram will also have to suffer the same horrible fate.
Ram rolled in, obviously winded and bruised, and in no shape to fight. The Leader advanced towards me and in one swoop picked me up. Then he did what he had done to the vendor. He placed his hand on my chest and started to freeze my bones. My chest felt like sharp icicles have entered and were cutting my flesh. Icy cold threads seemed to enter the innermost parts of my body, and I felt faint.
Suddenly there was an odd noise. Whoooooosh! The area of my chest instantly felt warm again and started getting hotter. In a trice the man dropped me and shrank back towards his comrades, obviously taken aback and in pain. His hand seemed charred and his entire body in pain.
I looked down to see my amulet glowing a bright red colour, and getting brighter every second, till it was blinding light. As I looked at the men, I saw first awe, and then fear in their eyes for the first time. Ram was looking at me and they in turn, and quickly shuffled himself out from the middle to behind me.
The Leader tried to shield himself but he was mortally wounded. He simply coughed up loads of blood. His blood however seemed to be thicker than human blood. It too seemed to be a very cold. He advanced towards me and grabbed my collar and slowly sank down and dropped to the ground limp. I opened his clenched fist that was grabbing my collar. It fell to the floor lifeless. I couldn’t believe it. I had just killed three people today.
