Mitron Dilliwala
Page 6
He turned to look at Ravi.
The men shouting were close and they yelled in Urdu, “Catch him. Catch him.”
A huge iron rod was struck into his face and the world went black before him.
On the other side, Yashwant was listening to what Hasan had to say.
Yashwant said, “Get out”
“What about Hasan?” Ravi pondered.
“Leave him there”, came a curt reply.
Before his eyes were closed, Hasan heard bullets being fired.
Chapter 16
Same day
Vindhya Hill range, Maharashtra and key entry points between Central and South India
Lorries with huge drilling equipment lined the hill that served as a barrier between Northern and Southern parts of India. Scores of men were burning down crops and cutting down trees for a kilometer and a half. Fences were being brought up with spikes on top. The whole scene resembled a De-Militarized zone.
IAS and IPS officers who were opposing these changes were kept under house arrest. All their communications were cut. It was ensured that men were working day and night shifts without any rest to put up the spiked iron fences. The reason that they were given was ‘To keep the animals at bay’.
Tara found work at the drilling site. Surprisingly nobody cared about her religion, gender.
The men and women cared for Kiara as if she was their daughter. Everything went well.
But she carried a fear that the priest and his men would find her anytime. Even while sleeping she had to sleep with an eye open.
Since their pay was good nobody questioned the logic behind keeping animals at bay.
What they didn’t know was that the wall was raised in stretches along with the hill range for a distance of 1800 kilometers.
Trains were abruptly stopped. India witnessed one of the worst train jams in history.
Trains that connected North and south were stopped. They were waiting for the signal to turn green. It was never going to.
Governors of Southern states were held in their massive mansions under house arrest by the state police. All communications between them and Union Government were cut.
Roads were blocked too. Nobody saw it coming.
All interstate buses that were supposed to ply between Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana, North West Karnataka and parts of Madhya Pradesh were abruptly stopped. Those who complained about it were arrested and jailed under Tada act. No bail or no meeting.
Army regiments in cities like Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kochi were being closely watched. They were virtual prisoners, since their commander in chief, The President of India and Defence Minister were locked up in Yelahanka Air Base, Bangalore.
All these events took place over three days.
The intelligence got wind of it and notified the National Security Advisor.
Air Space over Kolkata
As the news started pouring in, Karan was furious and sought to meet the PM. He was in his cabin.
“Sir, the situation is getting out of hand..!”, he said.
In all his years, PM Kishore Mangat has never watched Karan so angry. “Tell me what”s happening?”.
He briefed him about the buffer zone being created, transport services being cut off, the army is being watched.
“Are they planning a coup? Where is the President?” asked Kishore.
“Coup is a possibility, Sir. Since the judgment, various groups have been protesting the call for a separate country by the name of ‘Dravidanad’.
“That’s ‘Dravidanaadu’”, said Subramaniam, who was the chief scientific advisor.
“Are you sure? What if they were just raising the fences for a different reason? Like to keep the animals out. As it states in this report submitted by the intelligence.”
“Sir. We are those animals. They are keeping us out. They held a secret meeting 3 nights ago and came up with this plan.”
“Why should they do this?”
“The thing is they wanted to meet you since the judgment, but we denied access to them.”
“Why did you do that? They are Chief Ministers of respective states? Karan, Are you hiding something from me?”
“No. Sir.”
“But I would advise you strongly to keep out of the Delhi conference”
“I am not going to until you tell me the truth.”, PM was sharp with his words.
“I will, Sir. But we need to address the issue. If word of this spreads, we will have to face separatist pleas from North East and Kashmir. Our rapport with them is already facing a steady decline.“
“Okay. Okay. What are the options?”
“Declare Martial law and send in the army.”
“They are our people, Karan.”
“With due respect, If they are still our people, this shouldn’t bother them, Sir.”
“As if on cue, Vijender Singh, Chief of Staff was online”
Kishore Mangat said, “I am not authorizing the take over these five states. Until further notice I want you to keep the respective state CM’s under our scanners.”
“Sir….”, He was stretching it.
“I spoke with Mr. Karan before calling you.”
"And”
“I am not able to reach any of the field commanders in Pune, Coimbatore, Kochi, Mumbai or Bangalore”, Vijender Singh was waiting for a response.
“What about Chennai and Hyderabad?” asked Karan.
“Nothing, Sir. No contact”
“What is happening? Where is the President? Do we know his whereabouts?”, asked PM.
“We are trying to figure it out, Sir”
“Send in Garrison from the Northern states”, interrupted Karan.
“All of them have been sent to help the situation in Punjab” PM”s head was reeling
“About the situation in Punjab?
If we bring in soldiers from the western borders, the Pakistan army would take advantage and send their men in. We don”t want that, sir. I”ll ask a small detachment of BSF and army to head into mainland Punjab”
“Punjab wants to go alone, Southern states are not happy.” PM was holding his head now
Find out what happened to the units and get back to me”, yes sir.
Indian satellites that were monitoring international borders were tasked with finding out why there was no communication in and out of South India. The satellite was over several cities
For a few brief moments, the people monitoring the drones and satellites saw it.
“Loads of men were seen entering the premises of the International Film Festival of Goa.
And the President was escorted in a car. Cars were being switched and...
It was all they could see before the signal went black.
Only selective frequencies were being used across South India”.
“By this time they would have realized that we are staging a coup of sorts,” said Nalan
“Isn”t it?” Amravati too asked the same.
“President has been taken” Chennai city Inspector General broke in to the meeting.
“We instructed our people to take him” said Victor Basvappa
“No, Sir, not our people. It”s someone else. He guards who were guarding the compound were killed” the IG said.
“Is it the army?”
“Not them. Seems to be a private mercenaries. They have gone into the sea. Indian Navy knows what is happening and they are waiting for us to make one wrong move” IG had to move out and find answers
“No. They will realize why we are doing this. Don”t fret. What we are doing now is a precautionary measure. Nobody is willing to see the seriousness behind it. All our efforts to reach PM has been useless.”
All the state CM”s had to go live on public and all the regional channels and press people were called in.
“The past few days had been turbulent. I apologize for all the trouble. Domestic flights have been canceled and communication channels have been brought down.
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We have unconfirmed reports of a deadly bacteria spreading across Northern parts of India and it is likely to reach South India in the coming days.
Reporters jumped up from their seats and posed questions
If this was the cause why weren”t we informed earlier?
We had to confirm.
Why didn”t PM Kishore Mangat talk about it in public?
Because he didn”t know
Why was PM not informed about it?
Amol didn”t let us meet our PM. He doesn”t know that there is an invisible wall around him.
Are you accusing Home Minister Amol Gupta?
Do you know thousands have already died in Punjab and Haryana?
It”s the bacteria that was used to curb pollution.
What went wrong?
Everything.
We strongly urge people to head south or go to the mountains, do it as fast as you can!
The people around PM are hiding the truth from him.
“If you are watching this, Mr. PM act now. You are being kept in the dark.”
It was a joint statement from all the southern states, Goa had joined them too.
He was on his way to India Oratory meet and Amol was sitting next to him.
Television was on and Kishore was furious.
Channels in the North didn”t broadcast it because there was an official instruction not to.
What”s happening?
All of this is a lie.
The Army is controlling the situation as we talk.
I want the truth, Amol.
It”s the truth, the southerners are using this as a prelude to becoming a separate country.
Summon the navy?
And do what?
The situation in Punjab has been taken care of
Shell them. They will run to us with the tail under their legs
Why do you hate them?
“Send in the Navy!”
I won”t.
Chapter 17
It is worsening
Meanwhile, the situation in Punjab was dire.
Hasan was dazed by the time he woke up. He had been asleep for 3 days. He vaguely remembered stuff.
Wrapped in a black cloth, he came to terms that he has been taken to a refugee center.
The old man was standing next to him. He seemed tired
He didn”t expect Ravi to turn against him.
The last thing which he saw was that the bacteria has mutated and started feeding on Sugarcane.
Walking out of the tent, he saw soldiers running to and fro, few were carrying people around, few had guns, and few were using flamethrowers to burn the infected crops. The Refugee center was situated at a fair distance from all the action taking place.
It seems to him that the separatists were defeated.
And who was the army fighting now?
It should be the bacteria. It has mutated and started spreading outward.
“Hasan” what is happening, asked a voice
He introduced himself as Major Bandopadhay.
We were waiting for you to wake up. We have created a dead zone for one and half kilometer as per your instructions, whatever the hell that is unable to spread beyond this zone. It is completely sterilized”
We found you in the sugarcane field.
Thanks to Thakur”s intervention, pointing to the old man timely call for help, we managed to rescue you. Separatists were killed.
All the greenery was gone.
Thakur started crying, “All I had, the money invested in sugarcane, it”gone. It was supposed to pay for my daughter”s wedding” he fell down.
“Were there any rats in the lab?” he asked Thakur
“We brought them back, all of them are dead,” said Bandopadhay
There was a serious discussion about who was going to drive the truck into the Hot Zone.
As far as he could see all the crops have been razed, some livestock were roaming around but it was not hard for him to notice they were going to die a horrible death. Their skins were corroding.
He went inside the makeshift lab and saw that all rats were eaten from inside. There was no answer or hope.
Ravi was lying in a pool of blood.
Amid the pool of dead rats, he heard a screech, a rat named Terra C-53. It was partly alive gasping for its last breath.
He jogged through his memory. Was it given any antibiotic?
No.No.No.
That was it.
This rat was not fed anything on purpose by the team. It was alive. Everything seemed to come together
“The bacteria is mutating because it ran out of food”
Hasan told the major, “We need to starve it. The bacteria are feeding on anything organic”
Everything that was alive and organic was razed to the ground in minutes. It was tiny invisible Piranhas
Army had to roll their trucks in and get people out.
Loads and loads of Army trucks were taking people out of the villages.
“What is happening?” I asked one of the BSF heads sent in to handle the situation.
Sandpits were dug and trucks put on automatic gear were driven into it. Trees were burnt and there was a clear distinction between the green and burnt down the buffer zone.
People were taken to the nearest refugee centers.
It resembled a huge wave of air with zillions of bacteria corroding through life.
Anything that it touched became dust.
The wind pointed in their direction.
“Will it work?”
“It”s working for now!” said Hasan
“Let”s hope.”
“It”s a self-replicating machine. Have you heard about Grey-Goo Scenario?
It feeds and dies not before making a copy of it.
In the place of Nano-bots, we have these bacteria.”
“What about the people? Will it affect us too?” Asked Bandopadhay
Not as of now, But once it finishes gorging on plants and animals. When it has nothing enough to eat, it will mutate and finish off humans.
Those who have died were already weak and it had the better of them.
“We need to alert the Chief of Staff.
Call in Airstrikes”. Said Bandopadhay
“No. We need to wait. We don”t know how it would react to fire”
“AQI was steadily raising. It was touching 230.
The bacteria are starving to death. Let them die.” said Hasan as he was watching the situation unfold
It rained and the bacterial dust was visible. Wafts of light displayed red-colored dust floating about crazily in the air.
“You see those red-colored dust. It”s the bacteria.
They have adapted to the most visible end of the color spectrum” Hasan said
“It looks as if they are intimidating us” said the army chief
The wind blew and hundreds of trucks stopped them, the bacteria doesn”t differentiate between organic and inorganic, when it eats inorganic stuff, it kills them. But they could pass on only when there is living being to hop onto.
“It has been an hour since the wind crossed.” said Hasan looking into his watch.
The red dust was slowly reducing which means bacteria are withering off without anything to hold onto.
They sent in a goat and it was not affected.
They hooted and celebrated.
We stopped it. For the next three days we are going to have to make sure that it gets nothing to eat
“The dead zone actually saved the life of people”
“Sir”, yelled a soldier.
It”s best to send these people to the mountains.
“Where are we going?” asked Hasan
“Delhi.”
“Why?”
“Deuce is arriving and we are going to provide him with a report”
“What about the people? Where are we sending them?” asked Hasan
Hundreds of missiles flew they were visible against the dark batch of clouds.<
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SAS missiles
Everybody run. Someone shouted
The entire garrison started running away.
And it struck.
A Thousand balls of flames exploded. A Chunk of corroded pieces of metal fell on the goat.
It died instantly. But it exploded into million pieces and the goat”s blood was all over the place.
And that was it.
Trees were corroding into dust in a matter of minutes.
Red color dominated the sky. It was their turn to terrify people.
“It”s time to evacuate.” Said Bandopadhay.
Every able-bodied man and woman were called to help with getting as many as people from the zone as possible, tell them to head north into the mountains.
“This bacteria won”t survive in icy areas. That”s our best bet” we have to go there.
“Find whatever truck, car, bike or van. We are moving away from this place”
“And whoever can drive, were asked to take whatever vehicle they could away from Punjab on a condition that they take people out with them” said Bandopadhay on a speaker as their convoy broke off from the highway and headed in the direction towards Delhi.
Hasan was holding a compartment with C-53 still alive, somehow he believed that it held the key.
The devastation was unlike anything he has ever witnessed and it all began from his brain.
Chapter 18
Kumar, Nalini, Ayyapa, Grace, and Kanishka were in the car.
They could see the red swarm approaching in the car”s mirror.
Up ahead as they crossed the Yamuna river, people were scrambling for help and there were accidents and looting across the board.
Grace drove the car by passing trucks, smashed up cars and vehicles that were coming in the wrong direction.
Her driving skills amazed her gang. Ayyapa after the initial jolt was conscious now.
A huge water tanker skidded in front of them and nosedived against the wall and lost its balance and fell sideways.
Grace pressed the brakes hard. The car came to a stop inches away from the truck but not before Grace and Kaniska were thrown out through the windshield despite wearing seatbelts.
There were honking noises ahead, followed by spurious shots of gunfire.
Grace and Kanishkha were fine except for a few scratches on their hands and bodies.
20 Minutes Earlier