Zareen was clutching her abdomen as tightly as she could as the blood gushed out from the cut on the belly. Her labored breaths were the only noise audible in this dilapidated hut. She shut her eyes as tears threatened to spill from them. After her heart rate had calmed down considerably, she placed her ears on the door of the hut and tried to hear whether there was any noise outside. When she didn't, she got up from her crouched position on the floor and limped over to a trunk that had clothes strewn all around it as if someone had packed all their stuff in haste. She picked up a checkered blue shirt from the pile and tied it firmly around her midriff to reduce the blood flow.
Now breathing a bit evenly, she decided, I have to find them.
Again she placed her ears on the door and waited for any sound but it was so quiet, so calm. It was as though no riots had taken place in the first place, as though no blood was shed, nobody was harmed, nobody died. It made her more anxious. It made her sick.
She slowly opened the door, cringing when the hinges made noise. She stepped outside, all the time expecting some barbarian to jump out of the shadows and kill her.
Good. Now stay calm. One step at a time, she chanted in her head. Her grey eyes flitted across the mud pathway in front of her as she tried to locate a means of transport. She hurried over to it and examined it carefully. She thanked her stars for the bicycle, which was lying in the dirt, covered with mud but was there and that to intact nonetheless. Quickly getting on to it, she started peddling her way towards her home. Suddenly there was a scream followed by a gunshot but Zareen kept peddling. She didn't care about anything anymore. All she wanted was to find her sister and her fiancé and lead them somewhere safe, even if she died after that, she didn't care.
She sped through the abandoned houses, the ruined buildings, the burning vans, and cars. Finally, when she found herself in her neighborhood did she slow down a bit, not because she was relieved, but because she could hear voices in the distance. Coming to a stop, she carefully placed the cycle on the ground and tiptoed her way towards the noise. She hid behind a concrete wall from where she could see her house and also the people whose voices she heard. There were two men, one of them bald, their backs facing towards her, and both wearing khaki uniforms, whispering in low tones but not low enough for Zareen to not hear them.
"Arre I just can't!" the bald one yelled.
"But I am telling you. I heard paayals from that house. Don't you think we should check it?" the other one said, pointing towards Zareen's house. Her spine straightened at the mention of her house.
"Why does it matter anyway Rajat?"
"Oh, it does. Who knows what we could find there? Or better who we could find there?"
The meaning was not lost on Zareen as a shiver of disgust ran down her spine. But then another fear lodged into her mind. Aamna. Horrible scenarios raced through her mind of these savages finding her sister and then doing god knows what to her. Zareen picked a small piece of rock and was ready to throw it towards the men to draw attention away from her house when one of the men took out something from his pocket.
"Ji Misraji," Rajat said on the walkie talkie. "We are on our way. Over and out."
"We need to go," Rajat informed the bald guy as he put the phone in his pocket. Both of them looked once more towards the house, got inside a Maruti, and drove off.
As soon as the men were out of sight, Zareen hurried inside the wreck of a house.
"Ansh?!" she whisper-yelled. "Aamna?!"
No answer.
"Guys! It's me, Zareen!" she tried again as she kept walking. First, she checked the ground-floor bathroom, bedrooms, under the beds, wardrobes, and cabinets, then she went on to do the same with the second floor. With each empty room she entered, panic started to build inside her, one room at a time. By the time only the balcony was left, Zareen was already cursing herself for leaving.
She unlatched the latch on the terrace door and pushed but it wouldn't budge. She softly knocked on the door. When she received no response, she said, "Hey! It's me! Zareen!" Immediately she could hear the latch from the other side being unlatched. The door opened a tiny crack and then completely. A young girl almost lunged forward which made Zareen lose her balance and stumble back few steps but she caught her in time.
"Oh, Didi! I was so scared! I was so scared!" Aamna sobbed, as her arms went around her sister's and she hugged her tightly, so tightly as if her life depended on it, maybe it even did.
"Shh, everything's okay now, Ammu," the elder sister pacified her younger sister, as she rubbed small circles on her back. "Everything is okay."
When Aamna shivered slightly, Zareen's hold on her tightened, both of them lost in their own thoughts.
Suddenly a thought occurred in Aamna's mind. "Di, did Ansh find you? Where is he?"
Zareen grabbed her sister's arms and broke the hug with more force than she intended. Aamna winced a little. "What do you mean where is he? He is here, isn't it?" Zareen was frantic.
Her young sister's eyes widened in realization. "He left almost an hour back."
"But I told you both to wait here, didn't I?!" A labored breath left Zareen, pulling her sister's focus to the bloody cloth tied across her stomach.
"Oh my god Di, you're bleeding!"
"Yes Ammu, don't state the obvious," she said harshly.
She staggered her way towards the bathroom, where she hoped she would be able to clean her cut. Her sister followed. Opening what remained of the bathroom cabinet, she took out the medical box which was broken as a result of which all the gauze pads had become dirty. The girl took the one which was least dirty and bandaged herself and with the help of her sister. They both drank some water from the tap and freshened up.
"Aamna, I need you to listen to me very carefully now," Zareen stated. Zareen rarely called anybody by their first name but when she did, they better listen. And that's what everyone admired her for. Or at least the people who understood her. It was her no-nonsense attitude which had made her a few enemies but even fewer friends, but those who were her true friends, loved her immensely and the feeling was mutual. As for Aamna, she idolized her sister and knew her sister the best. When her forename came up, her entire focus shifted from what she was doing, to her sister. Nothing could have been more important than what Zareen was about to say.
"When we leave this place, I need you to be very quiet and never and I mean it, never leave my side."
"What are we doing Di?"
"We have to find Ansh."
"Where will we find him? How will we find him?"
"We'll find a way."
