Border of the sun (15 page)

  Karthik had always imagined himself dying as an old man. One who had achieved all his dreams and was now ready to let it go. His dreams. There were many of them. He always wanted to scale mount, Everest (Surprise!). He wanted to own a stock company, and many more. But now, everything was looking far away. Death was close.

  So this is how everything is going to end for me, he thought. His wrist felt sore. He tried to squirm his hands, but ropes dug deep into his skin. He felt like crying. He really did.

  Men don't cry. His dad used to say.
Of course, they do they are human after all. You prissy little bastard!

  The two guards, in front of him, were talking with each other. The guns were poised on their shoulder. He heard someone coughing, and turned his head toward the source of the sound. It was Lilly. She was staring at him and nodding above him.

  What, He mouthed.

  Above you, she mouthed back.

  He slowly turned his head and stared above. All he managed to saw was the stone ceiling. Disappointed, he looked back at her.

  What, He mouthed again.

  Lilly glared at him. Behind you and then above you, she mouthed back. 

  He nodded. Glanced at the guards and looked behind him. There was a desk, and more importantly, there was a dissecting knife on it.

  But how to get it was the big question. He pondered for a while, trying to find an answer, and came up with an idea. He jerked his head and mouthed, Distract them.

  She nodded. Then she started shouting, "Hey! Hey, you fools!"

  The guards stopped at once and glared at her. "What is it?" One of them barked.

  "What do you want from us?" she cried and tried to stand up.

  "Shut your fat mouth!" He pointed the rifle at her.

  For a moment, Karthik thought that they would shoot her. But they didn’t. Instead, they started quarreling with her.

  The guards were shouting at her. Karthik exhaled and slowly edged to his left. He did not stand up. Just slid to his left. He glanced back at them.

  They were still quarreling. Karthik Edged to his left. Glanced back. Still quarreling. He sighed and kept sliding. Good work, Lilly. Just hold them for few more minutes, he pleaded.

  Soon he reached to the desk. Glanced back at guards. Their backs were facing him. His heart was now almost in his throat. What if he get caught? What would they do with him? Shoot him on sight? Or will beat him until he die? The stakes were high. The failure was not an option.

  Gingerly, he gave the desk a little tackle, and the knife dropped on the floor with a clink. He turned his back to the knife and tried to pick it up with his tied hands.

  He found it quite difficult to pick up a knife without looking at it. Finally, he grabbed the Knife and lifted. But felt someone's feet pressed on his hands. He turned and found another guard glaring at him. "Not so fast," The guard growled and smacked him the rear end of the rifle. A sharp pain shot from the back of his head, and everything went black.

  Karthik found himself walking on an empty road, surrounded by a forest from both the sides. He was wearing a white school uniform. A red bag, crammed with school books was slung on his shoulder. His hair was matted with oil.

  The dusk was falling around him. He was singing a song when someone called from behind. “Karthik!” He turned, and saw three boys glaring at him. They were taller than him. The middle one was fat and his fist was balled. “You told the teacher that we trouble street dogs!” He barked.

  “Oh no,” Karthik muttered and ran. They ran behind him. They caught him and slammed him on the ground. Then they kicked him, punched him.

  Few minutes later, Karthik knocked on the door. His father opened it and stared at Karthik in horror. Karthik explained to him what had happened. After he finished his dad’s horror turned into pure rage. “They beat you and you did nothing?” He said curtly.

  “I was one. They were three,” Karthik said.

  “You’re not coming in this house until you teach them a lesson,” His dad said and slammed the door on Karthik’s face.

  Karthik sat outside as the night drew around him.

  The door opened and his mom’s voice said, “Come inside.”

  Karthik winced when the antiseptic touched his peeled skin. “It’s okay,” his mom said. She dressed his wounds. “Your dad is not a bad man,” She said.

  Karthik said nothing.

  “He just wants you to become a brave man.”

  “I’ll change,” Karthik said feebly, “I promise you, mom, I will change.” 

  Karthik opened his eyes. His head felt murky and dizzy. Everything around him blurred. He blinked and things started coming back in focus.

  The two guards were staring down at them, clearly more alert and watchful. and he knew that they had lost their last hopes of getting out from this mess. His head seared with pain.
It's all over. God, please help us.

  And something cluttered of his left. He turned his head and found a broken flask rolling on the floor. The guards were also staring at it suspiciously.

  One of them moved toward it and lifted his gun. The other guard stood there staring at him.

  Suddenly, something behind him moved, like a shadow. The shadow pounced at him and smacked his head with a metal rod. Karthik realized that the shadow was actually Mr. Walker.

  The guard dropped on the floor. Dark, red blood poured out from his head.

  The other guard turned around and before he could act, Mr. Walker dashed at him. Mr. Walker swung his metal rod and knocked the wind out of him. The guard dropped into his own pool of blood.

  Gasping for breath, Mr. Walker turned toward them. “You guys are okay?” He said and started untying them.

  “Who are this guy? Why did they tie you like that?” He asked.

  They said nothing.

  "How did you get in?" Lilly asked, picking up the rifle from the floor.

  "Remember that guy told us the basement has two entrances?" Mr. Walker said.

  "Oh..." Lilly said admiringly.

  "This is the third time I have saved someone's life," Mr. Walker said. There was a pride in his voice that made Karthik feel guilty. I failed them, he thought, shaking his head. Then the promise came back to him. The promise that he will change. I will change, Karthik told himself. He gazed around.

  Piper pulled herself up and examined her red wrists. She could easily see the marks where the ropes had dug into her skin. She ran her fingers over them.

  "You alright?" Karthik asked her.

  She nodded. This was the second time she had come so close to death, and thinking about it made her legs rubbery. She felt like falling.

  "Let's get out of here," Jack said, picking up the rifle from the pool of blood. "Yuck..."

  He turned to Javed. "You know the way to get out of this place, right?"

  Javed miserably nodded.

  "Good. Karthik and Piper, you both stay behind us and also you, Mr. walker."

Piper and Karthik nodded.

  Mr. Walker snorted. "I’m not a kind of person who hides behind people’s back."

  “Mr. Walker, thanks for saving us. But now you’ll have to cooperate,” Piper said.

  “Fine,” He said. 

  "Okay, Guys! Let's move!" Jack announced.

  They silently clambered up the narrow staircase. Their footfalls echoed in the narrow tunnel. As they neared the door, Karthik wondered what kind of horrors awaited them at another side of the door. He even wondered how many men did that guy had brought with him. Four? Six? Ten? He didn't know and he was afraid to guess.

  Piper was climbing ahead of him. He bumped into her and realized they had reached the end of the stairs. The wooden double-doors loomed in front of them. The archway was small and Karthik felt like he would die of suffocation. Jack turned toward them and said, "Okay, guys no sudden movements. You’ll have to stay quite as far as possible. Okay?"

  They all nodded. God, please save us, Karthik thought. Then he thought that god could not save them only they could save themselves. 

  Jack grabbed the doorknob and slowly pushed it open, not completely, just enough for him to peek outside. After ensuring that the coast has clear he completely opened the door and said, “It’s safe. And remember no sudden movements.” He slowly walked out of the door. They all silently followed him.  

  The sky was still dark. Few lights on the third floor were on. Jack again looked around and found that they were the only people outside. He turned to Lilly and said. "We need to grab our bags."

  "Let's not worry about them now," Lilly whispered. The door on the third floor opened, and they all dropped on the ground. They stared in silent as the man with a gun on his shoulder strolled through the corridor. He opened the washroom door and went inside. They all sighed.

  "They contain our weapons and passport. we'll need them," Jack said in a formal tone. He was a person who always planned ahead. Lilly understood what he was talking about. Without the passports, they would be able to escape the building, but not the country.

  "But it's risky." she insisted even though she knew that it was hard to change Jack’s mind. He was a kind person who always stick to his plans, and now that he has planned that he will not leave without passports that squarely meant that he won’t.

  "Okay, then I'm going alone. You guys go ahead." He started for the stairs. She knew he won’t listen.

  "Wait..." she whispered and sighed. "I'm coming with you."

  "No, you can't. What about them? They don't have weapons," He said.

  "We can take care of ourselves," Mr. Walker said, "Or precisely speaking I can take care of them. You people go and bring our passports. I’ll take care of them."

  "Okay, Keep low," Jack replied and he started climbing the staircase. Lilly reluctantly followed him.

  "Follow me," Mr. Walker said and crouching he started heading toward the entrance. Slowly they edged toward the entrance. The wooden floor creaked under their weight. Everything will be alright, Karthik told himself. That was the time the worst things started, and the flower pot of his left shattered into pieces.

 
Someone fired at us!
He spun around and saw the guard on the third-floor shouting and firing. “They have escaped!”

"Run!" He called and they broke apart. Flowerpots and other stuff kept shattering around them. Lilly, Karthik, and Javed plunged to left, but Mr. Walker turned right and ran into a staircase.

  Damn it, he thought and started ascending the stairs. More guards came out of the room. Two of them ran toward Mr. Walker. They fired at him as they ascended the stairs. He quickly grabbed the huge flowerpot and threw the flowerpot at them. It hit one of the guards and the guard lost his balance and rolled down the stairs. The other one kept firing. Mr. Walker rounded a corner and came upon the first-floor. He glanced at both the sides and saw an archway that led to the exit. He ran toward it and felt a sharp pain in his back. Then another pain in his head.
I've been shot.
Then he felt Hot liquid flowing down his neck and on his back. His own blood.

  Karthik and Piper stared in horror as Mr. Walker toppled over the railing and dropped on the ground-floor. His back was drenched in blood. He stared at them and just kept staring.

  Piper ran toward him, but Karthik seized her arm. "It's too late," he said and for the moment, she felt like she was staring at someone else. Not the Karthik she knew but someone else, someone much wiser.

  "This way!" Javed called and they ran behind him. Karthik was now ahead of them. He was a much better runner when it came to the matter of life and death.

  Javed fell on the floor. Piper skidded to a stop and looked back at him. Javed’s right leg was bleeding. She quickly helped him to his feet, and ducked under his shoulder and heaved him forward. Karthik never realized that what had happened behind his back. He just kept running. 

  Lilly glanced out the door then looked back. "Hurry up," she called to Jack, who was pushing things in his backpack. They had heard the gun fires.

  I hope they are alive, Lilly thought. Jack bolted out of the room.

  “Take it,” He said handling her a Swiss-knife. Her favorite Knife.

  How could I forget about it, She thought, taking the Swiss-Knife from him. she pushed it into her pocket. 

  "Let's move," he said and thundered through the narrow corridor. Lilly ran ahead of him. She ran for a few seconds and then skidded to a stop. Jack ran into her. "What's wrong?" he cried and soon got his answer.

  A seven feet, muscular man was standing in front of them. But what they found more astonishing and frightening was that we saw not carrying any gun with him.

  Even though she had a rifle in her hand, she felt afraid of him. He was radiating the unimaginable sense of confidence and power that made her stomach queasy. He almost brought back her childhood horrors. 

  He stared at them, first smiling and then glaring. He moved forward. She moved back.

  “What are you doing?” Jack growled.

  “I don’t know,” She replied and kept walking backward, and without warning Jack started firing. The man did not flinch. He stood his ground.

  Jack stopped firing and waited for the man to fall on the ground. But nothing like that happened. In fact, to his surprise, the men laughed and bullets started popping out of his body. His skin started healing itself.

  "That's impossible!" Lilly cried in a profound astonishment.

  Jack grabbed her hand and tugged her away from the man. The man stomped on the floor behind them. What is that thing? They both thought as they ran away from him.