Judaiyaan [ON HOLD]

Fate

“Look, my house has turned into a flower garden.”

Birju scrolled down his X timeline showing videos of his mother's fans' mob in front of their house in Mumbai. It had been over a month since Mahika Dhawan's disappearance—or should I say, her unconfirmed death—from the cruise ship accident. But the amount of fans gathering on her house gate was never decreasing. They laid down flowers, lit candles, and hosted a prayer meet for the lady superstar. The hope among them never faded. They always kept this positive mind that she would come back to them and grace the silver screen again. Same situation also happened in Ruhani and Darshan's houses.

Not getting an answer even after a long pause, Birju lifted his head directing his gaze to Samaira. The girl was so uneasy in her seat with a letter in her hand. Her feet were thumping impatiently while her eyes looked at the clock every five seconds. She must be waiting for the time to open the letter that General Trivedi gave her a week ago. It was the day, 28th March 2023. Birju checked the time on his phone. Eleven past nine.

“What if ... my father is alive? What if he survived? What if there are coordinate points in this letter for the place where I can meet him?” Samaira said softly. Her heartbeat was increasing as the clock kept ticking. Both Birju and she waited for the time when she finally found out the meaning of this letter.

Birju frowned, but then smiled when Samaira stared back at him. “Then it will be a good thing, right? Maybe he also has something to tell about my mother. I will follow you wherever you go.”

The smart watch in his hand blinked a few times, showing 11:10 a.m. Samaira saw that. She hurriedly opened the envelope and got the paper out. Birju peeked his head to take a look. There was someone's handwriting there, one that looked familiar to him. Samaira read the letter carefully. Her face was hardening everytime she drowned deeper into the words.

Birju only watched her reading the letter. At one point, Samaira got up from the couch with a surprised look on her face. He got worried about that and even started wondering himself, what did the letter say? What made Samaira look so frantic? But he did not dare to ask. He only waited there till she finished. He only stood still, looking at Samaira with concern.

The sun was rising high out there. White thin clouds were drawn in the sky. The day was too bright  to receive the worst news from your dearest. But Samaira got it outside of her will.

“What does it say?” Birju asked.

“Papa...” Samaira did not answer him. She instead ran upstairs to Rajpal's office. Birju followed her soon after with a lot of unanswered curiosity. Samaira ran up the stairs while calling her grandpa in a rush.

“Dadaji, are you going to the headquarters?” She asked with a heavy breath.

Rajpal was just putting down the phone handle when Samaira barged into his office. The frown on his head clearly indicated that he was surprised to hear the question from her.

“How did you know?” He walked around the room to get his uniform while fixing his tie. “Well, yes, I am summoned. There is an urgent matter going on there.”

“Take me with you!" Samaira insisted. It only added fuel to Rajpal's confusion.

“You know you hate being in the headquarters. Besides, it is for generals' eyes only,” Rajpal casually walked out of his room without knowing what he was talking about. Samaira and Birju followed him right away. He only received a call from the headquarters saying he was needed urgently for a confidential situation. He could not discuss it with anybody. Not even with Samaira.

Little did he know, the girl knew better than him. Because the next sentence that came out of her mouth makes him stop moving and freeze for a second.

“It is Papa! It's about him! He is here, Dada!”

**

Ruhani opened her eyes in shock when she heard a banging sound from the kitchen. She got up from her comfy bed and walked out to see what it was. Just when she was about to open the bedroom door, she got face-to-face with Mahika. The woman immediately put her finger on her lips telling Ruhani to be quiet. Darshan was behind her, walking backwards with a knife in his right hand.

“What happened?” Ruhani asked, barely audible.

Mahika pushed herself closer to Ruhani's ear and whispered,

“We are surrounded.”

Ruhani lost her words. She looked around the house. Through the window, she could see a group of people holding submachine guns approaching their house. Her legs were suddenly feeling like jellies. Her hands were extended to anything close to her to support herself. Mahika pulled Darshan closer to them. They all were shaking, did not know what to do, moreover with Samar's absence.

“Where is Samar?” Ruhani asked again. Mahika just shook her head while busy taking as much air to fill her lungs as possible.

“He went to walk around. We need to escape,” Darshan said. He looked around the house to find a way to escape or at least to hide for some time. But damn, there was no space left for them. All those weird people had already surrounded them. Their eyes were searching nervously throughout the entire house, hoping to find a way out.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“THIS IS ILF. YOU ARE SURROUNDED. OPEN THE DOOR NOW!”

Ruhani, Mahika, and Darshan jumped in shock when the front door was banged from outside. Ruhani nearly screamed but Mahika managed to cover her mouth. They stepped back slowly to the room behind them. Ruhani was nearly breaking down. She was scared as hell. Mahika and Darshan too, but they chose to stay silent.

“What should we do, Darshan?” Mahika hardly gulped down her saliva. They were really surrounded. There was a sound of the front door being opened forcefully. Ruhani pressed herself to the wall while clasping her hands tightly. Tears have flown in between her eyes. Mahika wrapped her hands around Ruhani to make her calm so the troops would not find them.

Meanwhile Darshan stood in front of them pointing the knife at the door. Sounds of the army boots entered their house and scattered all over the place to find them. Ruhani could not contain her tears, Mahika did not stop praying, and Darshan got ready to use his fighting skill. They were too innocent and naive for thinking the troops would not find them in that room because some intense minutes later, the troops managed to break the door open and pointed their guns at the three.

“Raise your hands up where we can see them!”

And with that, they were caught by the India Liberation Force. They looked like the strange troops who attacked them at that island when they got stranded from the ship accident. From their uniform, Darshan noticed a symbol of gear colored in orange, white, and green on their right sleeve.

**

Samar crossed his hands deep into his chest while walking towards the river. Like he said yesterday, he went to see if the river was a proper resource site for them. It was not difficult to find it because it was only two hundred meters away from the house. But as he got closer to the bank, he smelled a strange fragrance. He sped up his steps towards the river with a frowning head.

Surely after he reached there, he was witnessing the most weird view of a river ever. The water was black, solid black, and oily. The smell was not sulfur from the crater. He knew it. It was more like a chemical liquid. He was curious but did not dare to check. The smell just kept getting stronger when he got closer to the site.

“What the hell is this?” He turned his head, to the right and left, looking for the source of this liquid. The whole river had turned black. He could even see some dead fish on the bank. Looked like they were poisoned.

Now he did not know what to do. He needed to walk farther to find rations for him and his three friends. In the middle of his mindfulness, he heard someone's steps approaching from behind. Some boots stepped on dry leaves, creating a rustling sound. He turned his head slowly to see who it was. His eyes firstly caught a shadow of a man wearing a mask and round hat holding an assault rifle. A second after that, he could not remember anything because the man hit him with the rifle and made him fall to the ground, unconscious.

~ TO BE CONTINUED ~