Chasing a Familiar Shadow

by Aman Gupta

  As he checked for Emma’s pulse, he couldn’t find one. He realized she wasn’t breathing. He began doing CPR, pressing his arms against her heart.

  “Wake up. Wake up,” he said, repeatedly. “Come on, you can’t go into shock. Please. Breathe.”

  After thirty seconds of CPR, he still couldn’t get her to breathe. He tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

  “Wake up, Hattie..” said Vik before correcting himself. “Wake up, Emma.”

  Tens of memories were coming back to haunt him. But he couldn’t afford to stop even though his arms were trembling. A couple of tries later, he could feel her breathing and saw her body move just a little.

  “Oh, thank god,” said Vik as he picked her up and ran towards the car.

  He searched for the keys on Emma, but couldn’t find them. He laid her down while smashing the windows using his elbows. He put her in the backseat and hotwired the car. They were almost a day away from the nearest hospital, in Fedric County. He knew Emma might not last that long. After few seconds of contemplation, he drove ahead instead of heading back towards Fedric, hoping to find a hospital in the next county. Wherever it was.

  A couple of hours later, when the first light of the dawn was nearly upon the sky, Vik was heading towards ‘Farrow,’ a town that was supposed to be ten miles ahead based on what he could gather from the damaged mile marker he saw thirty minutes ago. Emma was told to keep applying the pressure whenever she would try to relax or move. The roads weren’t straight anymore. Every few miles, he would find himself at a crossroads. After thinking for a few minutes, he would take the road he felt was right. The destinations weren’t marked, perhaps intentionally. The air looked heavy and polluted, inducing coughs and sneezes from Emma and Vik. He felt it was wishful thinking that he could find anyone alive in these parts, let alone a medical facility. The exposure of radiation weighed heavily in his mind. It wasn’t the first time that he had experienced the aftermath of 1/1, but this looked different. It couldn’t have been just that, though, he thought. He could spot road kills on the side of the road. They didn’t look older than a month, which was an encouraging sign. The decision to turn left at the last crossroad had turned from bad into a disaster in a matter of seconds. The track couldn’t be called a road anymore. He felt he was driving on a field, dense sea of vegetation on either side.

  “Oh no,” he exclaimed when he saw a corn field in front of him.

  He reversed his car out of there when he heard a tractor nearby. He stopped the car and turned off the engine to isolate the noise. It was distant yet clear. The sound grew louder every second. Almost as if the tractor was headed straight towards them. Vik searched for a gun in the glove compartment but couldn’t find one. Emma was awake, but her eyes were closed.

  He got out of the car to search the trunk. He found a couple of rods and a few ammunition boxes.

  “Maybe I’ll throw these bullets with my hand,” joked Vik to calm his nerves.

  He didn’t want them to be vulnerable. So he got in the car and reversed out of there. He could see the bright headlights through the vegetation, and the sound of bushes being chopped away. He hit a rock while he was distracted, looking sideways. He reversed the car even more into the dense bushes, before ending up in wed mud, coming to a standstill. He got out and started pushing the car towards the road. As soon as he managed to do that, he saw the tractor emerge from the dense vegetation and halt in front of them, ten feet away.

  Vik opened the car door and picked up an iron rod stashed under the seat. The central beam on top of the tractor was too bright. He couldn’t see if anyone was inside the tractor. He used his hand to cover his eyes every other second. Suddenly, the beam stopped shining on Vik’s face.

  A man emerged from the darkness and got down from the tractor.

  “Are you lost?” said the old man, with a throaty voice. The loud baritone induced a sense of fear in Vik’s mind. He didn’t have a strong muscular built to go with that voice, which slightly eased Vik’s mind. He could overpower him easily unless he were some gifted martial artist, Vik thought.

  “We’re looking for a hospital,” said Vik.

  “What happened?” asked the man, looking inside the car. “Who’s she?”

  “She’s my wife. Someone attacked us,” said Vik.

  “She’s fearless. Taking a bullet like that while protecting you,” said the man.

  “What do you mean?” asked Vik.

  “You’re pretty much unscathed, while she’s lying in her blood. Chances are the bullet that was meant for you, and she took it on herself. No one shoots a woman for any other reason,” said the man.

  “Thanks for the history lesson. Do you know where the hospital is?” asked Vik.

  “Yeah, few miles away,” said the man.

  “Great. Which direction?” asked Vik.

  “Go east three miles,” said the man. “But don’t forget to find a time-travelling machine that takes you five years back.”

  “You’re kidding me! There’s no hospital anywhere in this town?” said Vik, rotating the iron rod with his index finger.

  “Does this place look like a town?” said the man.

  “Where’s Farrow?” asked Vik.

  “You just came from there,” said the man. “You won’t find much luck, though. Farrow is a graveyard.”

  “Please, she needs help. Do you know anyone where we would find supplies?” asked Vik.

  “Yeah, I have a medical box,” said the man. “Going to cost you, though.”

  “Yeah, how much? Anything,” said Vik.

  “This car,” said the man.

  “What?” asked Vik.

  “I’ll trade you the box for the car,” said the man.

  Vik thought about it for a second. “Fine.”

  “Let me call my son. He’ll take the car with him and bring you the box,” said the man. “But first, kick away the rod.”

  Vik kicked away the rod away in the bushes.

  “Do you have a phone? Do those things work anymore?” said Vik.

  “Phone? No, they’re useless. Darren, come out here,” said the man.

  A young man came out from behind the seat of the tractor and jumped on the ground. He was holding a gun and pointed it at Vik.

  “Precautions,” said the man. “In case you got smart.”

  “She can’t stand here,” said Vik. “Get the supplies, let me sew up the wound, and then you can have the car.”

  “Darren, get the box,” said the man.

  Darren hopped back on the tractor and brought a medical box with him. He placed it in the middle of the greenish road.

  “I traded this for a sandwich couple of months ago. Now, I got a car for it. Nice deal, huh?” smirked the old man, proud of himself.

  Vik went for the box, but the man pointed the gun at him.

  “Keys first,” said the man.

  “I need to check it,” said Vik. “Whether what I need is in there or not.”

  “Fine,” said the man.

  Vik opened the box and saw it was a complete medical kit with surgical instruments. He knew he had everything to save Emma’s life. But without the car, they might as well die.

  “Hope you’re satisfied,” said the man.

  “How long have you been living here?” asked Vik.

  “All my life,” said the old man.

  “And your son? Has he ever been out of this place?” asked Vik, trying to understand the dynamics between the father and the son.

  “Not since 1/1. He’s too weak to survive out there alone,” said the old man.

  “There’s no way to know, is there?” said Vik.

  “Why do you ask?” asked the old man.

  “It’s just...I know a place where life has returned to normal. Perhaps, your kid would love to live there,” said Vik.

  “As long as I’m here, he’s not leaving me. His and his four brothers and sisters will continue to live under my care,” said the old man. “Do you have a kid?”


  “Yes,” said Vik.

  “Then, you know you do everything to keep them around,” said the old man. “That’s what family is.”

  “He’s not a kid, though,” said Vik.

  “He’s a kid to me,” said the old man.

  Vik was trying to read Darren the entire time. He could see that Darren didn’t agree with his father’s idea of family. There was an undercurrent of frustration on his face while he put on a straight face to his father’s delight. It looked like a fragile family, and Vik wanted to exploit that.

  “I can’t open this small box, which contains the syringes,” said Vik. “Could you help, Darren?”

  “Okay, I’ll do that as well,” said the man. “Step away.”

  Vik stepped away and went to his car.

  “Darren,” called the old man.

  Darren looked like a skinny teenager who could be blown away with an ordinary gush of wind. Vik helped Emma out of the car and sat her near the box. While Darren was approaching the box, Vik pretended to assist Emma, who was coughing loudly and grimacing in pain.

  “Can you hear me?” whispered Vik.

  Emma nodded.

  “Do what you and Joey did to Emily that one time outside the precinct,” said Vik.

  “What time?” asked Emma.

  “Hey! Stop whispering,” yelled the old man.

  “Sorry, we were just talking about how we have been through tough times, and this reminds us of the time we were concentrating on getting what mattered the most..safe,” said Vik.

  “Safe?” asked the man.

  “Being safe, I mean,” said Vik. “Keeping an eye on the prize.”

  Emma finally understood the reference. She stood up, barely, and stumbled towards the old man. Vik stood still near the box while Darren went down on his knees to unlock a small box inside. Vik had jammed it using a medical thread, to keep Darren occupied. As Emma hobbled away, the old man got distracted. Emma fell on the ground, which caught the old man by surprise. The two seconds it took for him to look at Emma and look back at Vik, was enough for Vik to grab Darren’s neck from behind.

  “Let him go,” said the old man, pointing his gun at Emma.

  “You kill her. I’ll make sure your son dies too. Fair deal?” said Vik.

  “I’m warning you. Let him go,” said the man.

  Darren was unable to breathe as Vik was slowly choking the life out of him with his forearms.

  “He has like ten seconds left. Say your last words,” said Vik.

  The man fired a shot next to Emma.

  “Next one goes in her skull,” said the man.

  “I’ll snap his neck before that happens,” said Vik. “Do the right thing. Drop the gun and walk away.”

  “Go ahead,” said the man. “I have others. Maybe I’ll make another. One who’s not skinny like a stick and a religious nut job.”

  He grabbed Emma by the hair and began kicking her in the guts. Emma was screaming in pain.

  “Hey! Hey! Stop!” yelled Vik. “Call your father. Tell him to trade your life for my wife’s.”

  Darren didn’t relent. He was happy to die. He wasn’t exactly living the life he had dreamed of in his younger days.

  “1/1 wasn’t about havoc created by powerful men. It was a solatium borne by the weak as a redemption for their silent cowardice spanning hundreds of centuries,” said Vik.

  “Your words mean nothing to me,” said Darren.

  “Your actions mean everything to me,” said Vik as he pushed away Darren.

  Emma kicked on the old man’s kneecap, and he went down in pain. Vik rushed to Emma, as the old man let go of the gun. Before Vik could get to it, the old man threw the gun towards Darren, who picked it up and pointed it at Vik and Emma. They raised their hands.

  “Well done, boy,” said the old man as he got up on one good leg.

  “What now?” asked Vik.

  “Now, you’ll live forever as our slaves. How about that?” said the old man.

  He searched for ropes in the tractor. Vik noticed his words had made an impact on Darren, but not quite to betray his father. He looked scared of his father, but not for himself.

  “Of all the things that the future promises, why uncertainty is the one we fear the most?” said Vik, looking at Darren.

  “Actions have consequences. We can’t know unless we carry them out,” said Darren. “Sometimes, inaction is the best action.”

  “Stop talking to him, Darren,” said the old man.

  “Life is measured by the actions we take. Otherwise, we are not living. Just surviving,” said Vik.

  “Survival gives life. Survival gives meaning. Survival is everything,” said Darren. “Death is cruel.”

  “Darren, stop talking,” said the old man.

  “Death is the price we pay to guarantee a future. If the old doesn’t die, how can the new ever take over?” said Vik.

  “Who says the new has to take over? Maybe the old is serving our interests,” said Darren. “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.”

  “That’s enough!” yelled the old man. “Not one more word.”

  The old man began tying up Emma’s hands.

  “So that the new doesn’t suffer,” said Vik.

  “If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, it is commendable before God,” said Darren.

  Darren’s hands were shaking. He was getting caught in the surge of emotions playing tricks with his mind. The abuse, the torture, and the pain afflicted on his siblings were starting to take over. Every physical abuse propelled with mental torture was lighting up the darkness ahead of him. The promise of a better future had taken the shape of a beacon guiding him towards the light.

  “Suffering of the present aren’t worth comparing to the glory that the future holds for us,” said Vik.

  “Darren, shut the hell up!” yelled the old man, and walked towards Darren with his stick.

  Darren took a deep breath and fired two shots. The old man went down on the ground as the blood poured out of his chest.

  Vik untied Emma’s hands.

  “Start the car,” whispered Vik.

  Emma stumbled her way to the car. Darren approached his father and got down on his knees, letting go of the gun. Vik slowly walked towards the dead body. As Darren touched the blood filling up the ground, he unlocked a new emotion. Vik recognized it. It was rage.

  Vik could see the veins popping out of Darren’s forearms. He didn’t know what Darren was angry about, whether it was the pain of losing his father or the anger that he had let a stranger manipulate him into killing his father. Darren didn’t know how he would explain it to his siblings or whether they would understand it. A thousand thoughts were flooding his mind as he held his head and shouted at the sky.

  Emma had started the car.

  “Vik, let’s go,” said Emma.

  “In a minute,” said Vik as he picked up the gun. “Are you alright?”

  Darren didn’t reply. He looked at Vik with red eyes.

  “Do you promise not to look for us?” asked Vik.

  Darren nodded after pausing for a few seconds. Vik sighed.

  “Vik, let’s go!” said Emma.

  “Sorry,” said Vik, and shot Darren twice in the head, killing him instantly.

  Emma was stunned. She wasn’t really paying attention to all the details, as her senses had taken a hit. To her, Vik shot a kid in cold blood after the kid shot his father to protect them.

  “Move over,” said Vik as he got to the car.

  Emma moved over, and Vik drove out of the area. A couple of miles later, he stopped the car. Emma had almost passed out again.

  He put her on the backseat and examined her wounds. He remembered Emma had told him that the bullet went through her when she was blabbering while they were lumbering downhill.

  He cleaned her wounds and removed some shards of the bullet he could spot. After applying stitches, he laid her down on the backseat. She needed a blood transfusion to compensate fo
r the loss of blood, but she was out of immediate danger. Wonder which gun Anton used, Vik thought. He found some medicines in a pouch labelled ‘Tactile.’ Vik recognized one of the tablets as Verati developed it.

  “Here, swallow this,” said Vik. “It will help your body heal any infections and help with the clot. You might feel a bit drowsy.”

  He checked the electric fuel pellets left in the car’s storage belt and realized they would run out of fuel before reaching Morrow, as they were on their last one, which was only good enough for 150 miles, on a lucky day on a smooth road, neither of which Vik was expecting.

  He drove towards Morrow with little idea of what the journey would look like. To maximize the efficiency of the fuel pellet, he was forced to drive at 80% of the car’s top speed.

  The dawn was upon them. A few hours later, he could spot the rope in mid-air as they reached the spot where it all happened. Everything was so quiet. The sun was shining bright in the blue sky. The birds were humming, the trees were dancing with the wind, and the air was talking. Vik felt everything but content. It was a reminder of his failure.

  In the evening, he reached Fedric County. Though cars weren’t exactly known to them, the locals didn’t have any, as they never had a proper supply of fuel pellets. Mayor Pete Gold ensured that New Frontier County bought all of it, through restricted channels. Initially, they were worth a fortune, but slowly other counties realized the luxury of driving a car outweighed the luxury of eating three meals in a day. Still, they were a major source of revenue for New Frontier County.

  If rumors were to be believed, New Frontier had a stash of over a million belts, each having ten fuel pellets. It cost the same as a pound of gold in terms of financial value. Its intrinsic value was far superior to some counties.

  Vik didn’t have a cent on him or anywhere in the car when he checked. He couldn’t buy a sandwich, much less a fuel pellet, should anyone offer it to him. The fuel gauge suggested that they had less than ten miles left, which made Vik proud of his driving skills as he had outdone his estimates by twenty miles at least.

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