Into The Jungle

Chapter 1

With his back pressed firmly against the steering wheel, Ricky was seated in reverse on the front seat of his Mahindra Scorpio Getaway car. His eyes were fixated on the fully grown tigress sitting in the pickup area at the back of the car. The big cat was trying to break the rear reinforced glass by its teeth and claws. 

Ricky had just gotten outside the car to stretch his limbs after a long drive through the Bandipur forest when he saw the tigress running towards him from the nearby clearing. His reflexes saved him, as he quickly spun and got inside his car and shut the door just in time before the tigresses's claw came down on this passenger window, scratching the reinforced glass.

Ricky froze in shock looking at the tiger trying to get in. Terror made him taste bile rising at the bottom of his throat. The tigress was able to break a few shards of the reinforced glass and continued clawing at the back glass in an attempt to get inside. 

His girlfriend Rhea was sound asleep on the other front seat. While all the action happened within a matter of seconds, very little sound emanated from it.  The commotion made by the tigress was not enough to wake up Rhea, the tigress had not roared, nor made any aggressive loud noise. Probably to avoid attracting the attention of other animals towards her cubs who were staring at the car from a nearby bush. 

One of the cubs purred, drawing the attention of tigress, who turned right to look in their direction. This momentary pause brought Rick back to his current state and his survival instinct kicked in, he started to think. He analyzed the situation with a fresh perspective. He realized that he and Rhea were seated in the front seats, the tigress was at the back of the car, the doors were locked and the road ahead clear. He realized that he could drive the car and move away.  As the cubs were very young, their mother may not chase them and may jump off as she will not leave her cubs unguarded. 

He immediately sprung into action and turned around while simultaneously going for the ignition button. Seeing him move, the tigress was startled for a few seconds. Ricky put the car into gear and moved forward, the tigress looked at her cubs and then at Ricky trying to judge if she should continue to pursue her prey or return to her cubs. 

As the Scorpio picked up speed, Ricky looked into the rear-view mirror; his trick had worked - the tigress jumped off the car and ran towards her cubs. The sudden loss of weight from the car made the car jump slightly, waking Rhea partially. She mumbled something about Ricky's bad driving and went back to sleep. 

After driving at a high speed for some time, Ricky constantly kept checking his rearview mirrors for the tigress. Once he was confident that the tigress had not followed and he has put sufficient distance between them, he slowed down the car. He could feel his stomach in his throat, he could hear his own heartbeat. Looking at his watch, he realized that the whole episode did not last for more than a few minutes, however, it seemed like an eternity to him.