Chapter 1
The Awakening
The primary instinct rules that one must seek survival.
At all cost.
And survival exists at the other end of escape.
But how does one escapes a terminator with four arms? All clad in an expertly tailored expensive striped suit.
Wait, wait! A suit? I must be seeing things. Who tailors a four arms coat?
I could swear when he began chasing, he only had two normal arms, clad in the same suit.
Surely my vision is playing with my senses. Maybe, trepidation is clouding my sanity.
It must be!
I am petrified.
My body echoes in affirmation by turning into a sweaty fall! Or…could it be due to all the running?
I started running from a railway platform ending up in midst of this thick jungle full of hundred feet tall trees!
How long have I been running?
An hour?
A day?
Hard to tell; seems like I’ve been running ever since my existence. But not any longer! I can not run any further. My feet are growing heavier - more with terror than fatigue.
My bursting lungs may collapse any time.
But …wait!
I can not hear any footfalls behind me. Is…is he gone? Or I left him far behind?
I must make sure. A quick look behind will confirm my escape.
I turn slowly. Apprehension is regulating my palpitation. What if I am wrong? What if he is still there?
I’m too young to die! Only 17!
I turn my head.
I can see a half-African origin imprinted on his face very clearly. Shadows created by sodium lamps of the street light make him appear even more menacing. A deep cut extending from his left eye to right cheek across his broad nose thickly underlines his wild past. All four of his arms end in weirdly designed complex metallic chopping edges, each of different contraptions! He is jumping forward to catch up ‘n finish my race to survival quickly, and I’m sure, painfully!
It looks like he is floating on air, almost flying, taking unbelievably long jumps!
So that’s why, chasing footfalls fell silent.
Hey, what the …?
A street light in the midst of a thick, inaccessible jungle, lit up with no electric power!
Where the hell am I? Is this some magical land?
Must be, must be! It has to be!
He is using magic to hound me!
Will the magic work for me too?
Test it, lad, test it! Try flying jumps to escape.
I grit my teeth, and jump!
I…I’m…I’m flying! I can not believe I leapt across that 30 feet wide muddy pool with one jump!
Yes!
I land like a falling feather on slippery wet soil at the other end and take off again.
This jump is even longer! For a few seconds it felt like I’d keep on flying.
I glance again over my shoulder. Only this time, apprehension is replaced by repose.
My confidence is not misplaced.
I have left my tormentor far behind. He is no more than a blur; a smudge on the canvas of the horizon.
I have escaped.
I turn my head, now looking forward.
Lo and behold!
I’ve cleared a hill without even noticing. Still hovering over it, I can see the tip of the hill at least fifty yards below my feet.
Now it’s fun! I want to keep on jumping till eternity.
I don’t wish to land and find my way back to habitation. But I’ve already started descending. I’m accelerating towards a rocky bed at the foothill. My speed is increasing with every falling foot. It is no more the fall of a feather.
What’s happening? Why I’m no longer in control of my descent!
And then, what’s this happening…?
Is the rocky bed caving in? It is! … It’s becoming a deep gorge!
I’m falling in!
The darkness of the gorge is engulfing me! Force of rising air is ripping my clothing away!
I’m… bare!
Darkness is all around me! I want to scream out of sheer terror. But the air has already been sucked out of my lungs!
I feel like a meteor falling through the blob of atmosphere! Air is rubbing all over my body like a million pumice stones.
I feel heat generating around me.
Suddenly there is light, though nothing to see. What is glowing?
It’s me!
I am burning like a meteor! The pent up volume of excruciating pain hit me all at once!
And I shout with the loudest shriek I could muster with no air in my lungs!
“Maaaaaaaa!”
Peat would surely have fallen had it not been for the firm grip of that feeble arm.
The descent halts, but the burning persists.
“I’m…burning”, Peat gasped with a choked throat, “Douse it! Put it off! Save me.”
“Save yourself, moron! Just get off from the sunlight. How many times I’ve told you not to sleep on this bench. It is the first to be hit by sun at the dawn.” Jiala was almost scolding him, “And don’t forget to thank me for saving a few of your bones. You could’ve fallen from the bench and rolled down onto the tracks, you know!”
The fond voice of Jiala scolding him played like music in Peat’s ears.
Finally a connection with the sane world!
He slowly opened his drowsy eyes, gazing at the surroundings.
Everything was as familiar as the back of his hand. It was what he called his home!
He looked around as if looking at everything for the first time!
The long railway platform no. 13 was bustling with activities as usual. Passengers were scampering in all directions with their large bags trying their best to avoid red-shirted expensive coolies dotting the platform.
Like every other morning, Shambhu was busy unpacking freshly arrived cartons, crammed with paperbacks and magazines for his book-shop, obstructing the morning routine of Kichlu, the sweeper. An altercation between the two was arriving right on time, unlike the trains scheduled for platform no. 13. Tea stall owner Brinda was gesturing daily passengers to wait for tea as he was busy thrashing his helper. Another customer just slipped on the soapy water he forgot to mop.
The only creature unperturbed by all this commotion was Giddu. He was looking at the huge wave of humans with pity in his eyes, huffing with his wet tongue hanging out and his bushy tail spreading defiantly. Every passing passenger tried his best avoid stepping on it being well aware of the consequences. The only person who could match Giddu in laziness was Peat and Giddu respected him for that.
Common interests bind creatures together. Peat and Giddu were best of friends, even during their sleep.
It was chaotic and haphazard as usual on platform no. 13.
The suddenness of Peat’s hysterical laugh startled Jiala. Her beautiful face contorted with frowns in a second. She knew she looked ugly when angry. Though Peat always tried to convince her otherwise, she always suspected it to be a ploy to coax her into cooling down. She knew Peat since the last 13 years when he was only four and she was three. Out of all abandoned kids living on platform 13, he was the laziest but cutest and she was sweetest but loudest. They grew up together on the platform and by now she could name every single bone of his body.
“What’re you laughing at, you bagful of shit?” Jiala thundered, “Just because I asked for thanks? That was a joke, moron. I know you could never afford one.”
“It was a dream, just a dream!” Peat chuckled.
“So you…!” Jiala had no time to finish as Peat pulled her up by the arms and started jumping and twisting his body at awkward angles. Jiala had no option but to respond with equally unfathomable twists.
She knew what it was. Peat called it dancing.
He performed this unbearable routine only when he was very happy. Otherwise he never liked wasting so much energy.
“It was just a dream! It was just a dream!” Peat was almost singing the lines.
Giddu joined them uninvited, running around and shaking his tail vigorously. He never quite liked the proximity between Jiala and Peat. Jiala was too energetic for his liking.
“What did you dream that’s making you so happy?” Jiala laughed.
“Not a dream.” Peat sighed, “A nightmare, girl. Am I glad for waking up! It was weird but so vivid. A black man was chasing me to kill. He had four arms. We were flying…!”
“A black man?” Jiala stopped him short in tracks, “Like an Afro-American? Having a deep scar from his left eye to the right cheek?”
Peat suddenly found his legs shaking involuntarily. “How… how did you know?
“I saw him in my dream few days back.” Jiala sounded worried. “He sort of warned me to keep away from you. But I forgot about it as soon as I woke up. Now that you mentioned, I recollected. But it sure is… weird!”
“We both saw the same person in our dream, without even mentioning him to each other.” Peat was developing a headache. He was not used to thinking so hard. “How is it possible?”
A few seconds of silence followed.
Jiala spoke first.
“What if you…eh…die in your dream?”
“I don’t know.” Peat’s voice was trembling, “I never did!”
Another thought lit up Jiala’s face.
“Hey, I saw him, you saw him, let’s ask others living on this platform. Maybe they saw the same person in their dreams too.”
“Great idea!” Peat concurred, “I bet they too dreamt about him. We are not alone in this. Come! Let’s ask them.”
It was then that they noticed something amiss!
Usually platform no.13 was so full of noise that if the air had a limit to hold sound, it would have had burst!
But now, not even a single sound could be heard.
The silence was deafening.
Peat could hear only one sound; his racing heartbeat!
He turned his head very slowly, exactly as he did in his dream.
Nothing was moving on the crowded platform. Each person, every object was frozen like a statue! Even flying birds were frozen mid air!
Peat was baffled. “What’s happening, Jia?”
Silence persisted.
Jiala was not moving. She had joined the others.
It was as if time had stopped for everyone but Peat.
No movement. No sound, except his own heartbeats!
Now he could hear a shrill sound mixing with heartbeats.
He knew this sound since he was four. It was the whistle of an approaching train.
At least, there was some thing moving.
He could see the silhouette of an approaching engine.
The train was hurtling towards the station, growing bigger with every passing second, as did its deafening sound. But there was something else!
Someone was standing in front of the approaching engine.
Peat could see him very clearly now!
He was an Afro-American man with a scar running from left eye to right cheek across a thick nose. His striped suit fluttering in air! All four of his arms clinging to the front of engine as a spider glued to surface!
Peat did not wake from his dream.
He woke up in his dream!
The nightmare was far from being over.
It had just begun!
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