Shyam stood up, with the support of the bike and sat behind Charmi as a pillion rider. His legs were aching and his hand had a rising pain inside it. The light inside his eyes was fading. He was unable to sit. One of his hand was causing great pain, making his head throb with it. His right hand fumbled the seat and got a hook to get support while sitting.
Charmi wasn’t riding fast, the bike was barely on the 20 km/h. The road on which the bike was running was not of asphalt but of only stones and perhaps more speed wasn’t possible there. Even on 20 km/h, the travelling was bumping, mostly for Shyam, it was hard to keep balance. He had to roll up his hand over Charmi’s waist to stop himself falling off the bike. Charmi knew his condition, she didn’t react but just smiled to herself.
After one km she stooped bike, still, the road was stony.
Shyam poked over Charmi’s shoulder, craning his thin neck. He saw a massive gate.
“Stay here,” Charmi said and went to the gate.
She opened the gate, slowly without making a noise, like a thief as if she had done such work umpteenth times.
“You are good with gates.” Shyam managed to smile even in pain his head when Charmi returned and took steering of the bike in her hand.
She drew bike inside the gate. Now the road was of asphalt, smooth one. She could increase speed but she didn’t. she didn’t even torch headlights of the bike. Maybe forgotten in haste or she had intentionally not torched them. Shyam couldn’t know anything that she was doing.
With no headlights, it wasn’t wise to raise speed and so do Charmi. After five minutes she turned right. And after another five minutes they saw some men, not clear but their shadows in the darkness. Shyam inhaled a deep puff, knowing he was breathing in open air, not in the prison.
Streetlights came to sight, and in their light, she could have increased her speed but instead, she turned the bike in a narrow street where again it was hard to raise speed.
Bike roamed in a maze of narrow streets and came on the main road, illuminated with fox light poles.
After a long period of time, Shyam found so much light. He saw shine board over the building in front of them. It read ‘HDFC BANK’
“We are in phase-1,” he said as he knew the area. He would often come there for his company’s work. When he was a newbie in Chandigarh, it was hard for him to remember phase-1’s maze of lanes so he had remembered this bank as a landmark of phase-1 so he never lost himself there.
“How do you know?” she asked.
“HDFC BANK, haven’t you seen the board?” he said, “it’s in phase-1.”
“I think you are familiar with this city.”
“Just some of the sections,” he answered, “don’t you think we should go to the police?”
In answer, Charmi torched bike’s lights, also the indicator for side signals and Shyam saw red and blue lights twinkling like tiny stars.
“This is police bike.” His voice shocked.
“Yeah, and unluckily the person whom we shot while escaping was of the police department.”
“Traffic police?” he hoped he would hear yes.
“No,” she said, “he wasn’t traffic police or lower ranked officer. He was a high-rank officer from crime department.”
“Kidnappers and police are working together!” Shyam exhaled, “going to police means going to kidnappers back!”
“Yeah,” she said, “how are you feeling now?” perhaps Charmi was trying to distract him from fear.
“Feeling like I should visit a doctor,” he said, “the dogs weren’t kind.” He paused, as if thinking something and added, “but after killing a policeman now it’s impossible.”
“We haven’t much time, Shyam. They must have broken the door or have called their companions for help. I don’t know how but I feel they have broken through the house and they must be hunting us in the city.” She said, “And the policeman has been shot by us so police also have made another story.” She was confused.
“We have barely escaped before fifteen minutes and in a half hour they will have sealed the city off.” He said, “we have just another fifteen minutes and we can’t make for barriers in this time.”
“Then what should we do?” she said, “first we should get a secure place where we can think over it. We ain’t at a safe place now.”
“Mani Majra.”
“Is it safe?” she turned bike towards the railway station.
“I need medicine and up to ten, we can get it only in Mani Majra. My office is in the nearby area so I am familiar with the area. If we need to hide, it will be easy for us, and one plus is you hardly see any policeman in this area. We can hide in nearby villages like Saketadi or Kambala.”
“Is there forest area nearby?”
“All these areas are like forest and mostly have single lane roads. And there are big tunnels under road here and there for a water flow of the monsoon. Tunnels would be dry now so they can be a good hiding place.”
“Okay. Let’s get medicine and go there.”
“Take the left and turn right at next light.”
Charmi obeyed.
“It’s hard to pass main light with no helmet,” Shyam said as the railway station was visible.
“Let’s see.”
“And this bike must have tracker or GPS.”
“We will abandon it before busy light.”
She stopped bike away from busy light. Charmi left the bike and led Shyam near the signal. She showed her hand, and an auto stopped.
“Where Ma’am?” the driver asked as they got in.
“Mani Majra.”
“What happened to him?”
“Tipsy.” Charmi fabricated smile, “he has no control over him when he sees the bottle.”
“You should take him the hospital.” Driver said.
Shyam didn’t like his advice but kept mum.
“Oh! I am taking him home. We have a good neighbour and he is a doctor.” Charmi said, “I feel he doesn’t deserve a doctor.”
Charmi’s words compelled the driver to misunderstand them as husband and wife.
“Okay.” He kicked start auto.
After ten minutes when Mani Majra came Charmi said, “let us drop here.”
They got down some yards away from the bus station. She led him to the bus station. Shyam sat on a bench there and Charmi went to a store nearby. When she returned, she had a bag in her hand.
They got out of the station.
“Now?” Shyam questioned.
“We need to steal a bike,” Charmi said, her eyes were travelling around. it was nighttime there were no people around.
“Here we can’t.” Shyam said, “to get the bike we should go to the motor market. You get so many bikes resting there, even during night time.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, “and this place isn’t safe as it’s near station.”
She led him to the motor market but there wasn’t any bike parked.
“What shall we do now?”
Charmi took out her gun and said, “still it has three bullets.”
Her smile told him she was planning to jack a bike.
“Don’t you think you are making haste in taking your gun out?”
“Oh! In your opinion, what should I do?” she asked and the next moment her eyes noted the bar. She caught two bikes parked in front of the liquor shop.
***
To be continue...
