46
THE ATTACK
[“I know not of what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stone's.”]
- Albert Einstein
SAMRAT:
Train’s whistle wakes me up, like a nightmare in midnight.
My heart throbs hard I can feel it in my ears. It’s unusual. Something is wrong. The train can’t come so early is the first warning from my instinct and if the train comes early then why troop of Nirbhaya didn’t come before the train. Always a troop of Nirbhaya always comes a day before the train comes. They come to ensure is everything as it should be. But this time something is wrong.
And then I hear knocks on the door and my heart comes to my stomach.
Did the Devatas know about our training?
Did the creator smell the rebellion?
If so then today I have to see many people dying. Many huts burning and everything will be over in just a night.
I leave the cot but my feet are trembling. I’m unable to keep myself steady.
“Samrat,” I hear my father’s voice, “open the door,”
I force my legs to walk and reach for the door handle. I open it and see Tarun, Teena and half of my training friends standing with my parents. They all are ready with bow quiver and swords.
“Train has come before the arrival of Nirbhaya troop means there is something wrong.” Tarun says, “This time my father has planned to come with other Nirbhaya that aren’t under the effect of serum.”
“Why?” I ask and step out the hut, armed not with bow and arrow, but with a plan in my mind.
“To start a rebellion against the Kaliyuga,” Teena answers.
“We should go to the station and if the Nirbhaya troop is coming to fight. We should be ready to welcome them.” I say, “It’s my plan.”
“We should make you safe,” Tarun says, “the troop coming will be brain dead, obedient to the Kaliyuga and ready to do whatever the devatas have ordered them to do.”
“And if they knew about the training the order will be of your assassination.” Teena adds, “Assassination of all trainees and trainers.”
I go inside my hut, throw quiver over my shoulder, tugging the bow to another shoulder and pick up the sword; my father also picks up my old hunting bow and quiver of hand-made arrows.
We came out of the hut and I say, “I’ll fight.”
“You shouldn’t as…” Tarun starts but I cut him off, “I can’t leave my people to die. I’ll fight.”
“As you wish,” Tarun says, “we have not all the night.”
My father and I follow Tarun and Teena, all my training friends following us. When we left my mother said nothing, just her big eyes stared me as if saying ‘come back alive,”
But I had nothing to assure her.
We aren’t ready for war against beyond the wall. We all would perhaps die. But our options are narrow – or zero. We must take the path to the war. I will save my family, I will save my people, I will fight back. We will fight back. And if I’m Avatar I’ll win.
We ran in darkness, on the path dotted with huts. Above us, I can see clearly millions of bright stars dotted on the black canvas of night, yet none of that light seems to filter far enough down to make any difference when I turned my eyes on the way.
“Where are other trainees?” I ask as Tarun has come with only six trainees.
“They have gone to get help,” Teena answer instead of him, “they believe other people want to fight. At least they know some of them who want war against beyond the wall.”
“It’s good if they can get help,” I say, panting but still running.
“Be careful,” Tarun says dryly, “don’t die. Everything depends on you.”
“I’ll try,” smile and hear my father laughing, still inside I know he is too scared to war against a troop of Nirbhaya.
“Great, you are bloody inspirational,” Teena adds, seeing around her at all the trainees, “you all know the plan. We are preparing for it for a month, I accept is’ not enough time but for the years of being treated like dogs, tonight you’re making a stand. Tonight you’re taking the fight back to the Kaliyuga, no matters what you have to go through to win the fight. Tonight you Sunyas will teach the Nirbhaya what is being scared.”
Someone cheers and then someone else. Soon I hear shouts and battle calls breaking out, rising in volume, filling the darkness of night like thunder. I feel the courage inside me, the courage inside my people. Perhaps that’s real Nirbhayaness. Tarun and Teena are real Nirbhaya and even their company fills our heart with courage. Her speech was courageous, growing the trickle of courage inside us into a mountain.
She is right. Tonight, we will fight. Tonight, we will make our stand, once and for all.
I’m ready. I roar with my training friends and soon find other trainees joining us with crows of my people carrying axes and spades and spikes and whatever they found which can be used as a weapon.
It’s starting of a rebellion.
Someone thrusts his weapon into the sky and roars, “hear Nirbhaya! We’re coming!”
And thus yelling and shouting and roaring we run into the darkness, our bodies barely visible. Our legs are barely noticeable. The air has been filled with the dust and turned to gray instead blackness of the night due to hundreds of feet.
We are running among shadows and blackness, all ready to die.
All of us know we are heading to the death but still my people cheering around me, their weapons in their hands, and running with me.
I know they were ready always but just needed someone to trust and when two Nirbhaya convince them I’m the Avatar they were ready to even die.
Most of the Sunya has joined us as they know about our training. The gossips of what I did beyond the wall have filled their hearts with courage and they aren’t ready to lose that courage again.
But am I doing right?
To take them into the den of death – is it right?
In no time the station would be crowded with Nirbhaya coming by train all equipped with weapons and trained to kill.
Am I doing right?
The sudden feeling of responsibility for my people overwhelms me – make it hard for me to run but I keep going, determined to win.
I keep a steady pace as I run among my people along the path towards the station. I’m used to running as in the wall every child must volunteer as a messenger for a year when he grows fourteen. I’ve served as a messenger for a year and that time I’d grown used to running on the dusty and stone covered road of in the wall otherwise it’s impossible to run on them. Tarun and Teena are greenies for this road but they are well trained so don’t feel any hardship,
The sounds of shuffling feet echo the surrounding huts and all those who want to join the war joined in our troop. The more and more people are joining and my troop gets tail as long as half a kilometer.
“Sacred?” Daxa asks a girl nearby her.
“Yes,” she answers honestly as any Sunya should, “but I’ll fight for my people. I can’t see them just killing my people.”
GREAT – that’s response in my mind for her answer.
She is right next to me but the darkness is so thick so I can’t know who she is.
Now every step is agonizing for me. My feet are aching and my lungs are burning but I keep running.
Some of my people who have joined in the way are old and they are tired by running. Who knows from where they get energy but they don’t give up. No one quit. On and on we run, the sight of the station is visible now but we don’t slow.
Its longest hour of life passed when we reach station building.
We all stop, our heart thumping, sweat slicking our skin.
“Don’t touch the fence,” Tarun shouts but before it, one of the young Sunyas has kicked the fence.
His leg glues to the wire and he passes away, his body shakes violently and then falls to the ground, lifeless.
He should hear the hum of electricity.
“We need to cut the electricity,” Tarun says, “but for it, we need to enter inside because the generator is inside the fence.”
“There is a way,” I say, “We can use the same method of sending someone over the fence which we use in the coal mine...”
“It’s right.” My father says and at the same moment, we hear the train enters the station, from another end, by an underground tunnel.
“They have come,” Teena shouts, “we have no time to cut electricity.”
***
to be continue...
