Dawning

Chapter 12

That night, their agent met them at the shore with a small motor boat. They were excited for this part of the journey and happily got into it. The boat travelled the shallow waters for couple of hours. Kamal could almost smell the Indian soil. Jassi's stomach was in knots. It would have been another couple of hours on water and they'd reach home. That's when Kamal spotted something atop the hills lining one side of the river.

"What's that?" He pointed at the structure.

Hardy and the agent squinted their eyes to see what he was pointing at. The agent looked through his binoculars and passed them to Hardy.

"It's a watch tower. I see one guard." Hardy confirmed.

"Shit. It wasn't supposed to be there. It was clear last month." The agent muttered.

"I can't take this boat further than this. They'll fire at is and you will get me killed." He declared.

Hardy was furious at the agents inability to keep himself updated on the recent developments on the route. Millions of hopeful people take the Dunki route every year and it was his job to provide a safe passage.

"We'll manage to get past them right? We're very close now Hardy, we can't just give up." Jassi spoke up for the first time.

Kamal agreed with her much to the agents protests. Hardy was already looking around for options. He spotted a hose pipe in the boat and came up with an idea. It would take longer, but it would have to do for now. He borrowed the agents Swiss knife and cut 3 lengthy pieces of the pipe. He handed one to Jassi and Kamal each and kept one for himself. They put on their bags, held the pipes in hand and jumped into the cold water. The agent turned the boat around leaving them to their own devices.

The plan was to walk through the water, using the house as an oxygen tube. With one look at each other they took a deep breath and went underwater. The bags on their back kept getting heavier as they got wet and kept pulling them down. Hardy was young, had millitary training so he could cope with it. But Kamal was finding it difficult to drag the load.

Midway into the walk, Kamal slipped on a stone beneath and lost his balance. He opened his mouth to gasp involuntarily and injested mouthful of water. He also lost the grip of his oxygen tube. He had to hastily come up for air. Hardy who was walking at the end of the group, swam towards him and pulling him under the water just in time.

But all the commotion had created several ripples and breaks in the smooth water, and it drew the guards attention. He started shooting at the unknown threat. The group quickly swam towards the side, finding shelter among the rocks.

Jassi saw a bullet whiz past Hardy's hair, she let out a scream, loosing her makeshift oxygen tube too. The guard was continuously shooting the same area, so she could not go up and retrieve the piece of pipe; She had to hold her breath. But couldn't do it for more than a few seconds. She started gasping.

Hardy swam towards her, holding her by her waist with one hand and exchanged his oxygen tube with her, encouraging her to breath through it. After a moment he took it back for himself and then passed it back to her. They repeated the exercise until the guard stopped shooting.

Once the shooting had stopped, Hardy singnaled her to take his oxygen tube we swam up to the surface ot retrieve hers. Once he was back, and it was safe enough, the three of them stated walking on the river bed again.
They kept walking the whole night. In the early hours, they finally made contact with the other shore. They were exhausted to the bone, and decided to take rest before starting the trek in daylight.

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Jassi was the first one to wake up when the sun came up. She looked at her pruned hands and swollen feet. The water had left a mark. She looked besides her, Hardy's state was no different. But he was there, breathing, besides her, keeping his promise. A small smile crept on Jassi's face as she ran her fingers through his wet, moppy hair. That woke him up and she retracted her hand.

"You okay?" It was the first thing he said when his eyes landed on Jassi.

"Yes I am fine, tired but fine. Let's go home." She gave him a small smile.
Hardy groaned at his sore body as he got up from the ground.

"Wake up Kamal Ji, it's time to meet your family." He called out for Kamal but there was no response. He looked at Jassi, worried.

He approached Kamal's sleeping figure and tried shaking him awake. That didn't work. So he checked his pulse.

There was none.

Kamal's body had given out on him after coming this close to home.
Hardy looked back at Jassi who already had tears running down her cheeks. She had come to look at Kamal as an older brother during the time they spent together. Now they didn't have an option. They had to go on without him.