DIE ANOTHER DEATH :- THE UNDERWORLD RELOCATED

DIE ANOTHER DEATH:- THE UNDERWORLD RELOCATED [2]

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                                     CHAPTER 2:- 

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           I panicked. Big time. A thin film of sweat covered my face as I tried to remember who I was. A shudder of terror passed down my body. I became aware of my palpitations.

           I tried to command my brain to recollect my personal data but try as hard I could, I came up with only blanks. Who was I? Blank. Where did I live? Blank. My relatives, friends, a girlfriend perhaps??? Blank, blank, blank. It seemed that I had somehow forgotten my entire antecedents. I became more and more frustrated by the minute.

          "What is going on? Am I in the middle of some horrendous dream?" I thought out loud.

          An inner voice told me to calm down. Don't become hyper, it said. Try to think straight.

          I walked towards a bakery across the street and stood beneath the awning in front of the shop. I could smell stale bread. Stale?

          Suddenly I got it. "How foolish of me!" I exclaimed.

          My wallet. My freaking wallet.

          I found it in the right back pocket of my jeans. I had it on me after all. My attacker/s didn't steal it. Eagerly, I opened it. It was stuffed with a dozen hundred dollar bills and a couple of credit cards. I whistled in excitement. Apparently, I was not hard up on cash.

           Bingo. I found what I sought in the form of a driver's license.

           "William R. Anderson. Address is 404, Clearview Apartments, Lexington Road, Jacksonville."

           So that's my name. William Anderson. I looked at the youth smiling genially up at me through the photo on the card. I am quite handsome, I thought, my spirits rising steadily.

           There was no sign of any living body. No smoke came out of the chimneys, no hustle bustle in any of the houses. Where is everyone? Is this some sort of ghost town?

           I spotted a newspaper kiosk a block away. I jogged to it and picked up a newspaper. The Jacksonville Mirror. A glance at some other newspapers and magazines- The Jacksonville Daily, The Jacksonville Tablet- cemented the fact that this was Jacksonville.

           I looked at the front page. There was a big headline that read- Biggest fireworks display in the history of Jacksonville. The article mentioned that there would be a fireworks display at Bradford Hill to celebrate the Fourth of July by a pyrotechnics team from Chinatown, especially hired by the Town council. Everybody was invited to come and join in the celebrations.

           Maybe that's where all the people have gone. This Bradford Hill must be far away and the people left early to be in time for the fireworks display. But my inner voice told me that this was not the case. Somehow I knew that Bradford Hill was not that far away and moreover, it didn't look like it was evening time, what with the bright sunlight and the clear blue sky.

           A glimmer at my left wrist caught my eye. It was my Casio G-Shock watch, half hidden by the sleeve of my jacket. I peered at the dial. It was 11.15 a.m. Now if everybody were still in their beds, it was pretty late, I thought, chuckling.