by Mainak Dhar
As they restarted, Swati tried to heed his advice, but she found it tough going. Mayukh seemed to be coping much better with the altitude and they swapped places. There was no sign of anyone around, so they did not really think twice about not having the extra firepower of the shotgun readily available.
Abhi was in high spirits, no doubt boosted by the apples he had eaten. While all the others were worried about what lay ahead and also thinking of Hina's loss, he was exhibiting that wonderful and most envious of traits of children-the ability to live fully in the present. So he delighted in pointing out birds he saw, and screamed in delight when they saw what appeared to be a deer dashing into the trees. Despite the hilly terrain, Mayukh was trying to go as fast as he could, conscious of the fact that they needed to reach Ladkah before Sunset.
David suddenly shouted in triumph.
'Just saw a sign. Ten kilometers more to Rohtang Pass. We're well on our way!'
Mayukh knew that was both good news and bad news. Good because they were making steady progress; bad because from what the guide had said, after Rohtang Pass, they would well and truly be in mountain terrain. The roads would not allow them to go as fast, and he was also increasingly worried about how Swati would cope with the altitude as they went higher.
After half an hour more of driving, they decided to stop for a break. Mayukh's arms and legs were cramped and aching from the sharp turns and he was exhausted from always having to watch that they did not fall off the edge of the road. David was of course not in any position to drive, and Swati bravely volunteered, but one glance between Mayukh and David told both of them that they thought she was in no shape to drive. David handed each of them an apple.
'Eat and rest for ten, then we start again. We'll get through Rohtang in a few minutes, and then it should be no more than a couple of hours.'
Mayukh sat down on the ground, his back to the van, preparing for the home stretch. Swati came over and sat beside him, resting her head against his shoulder as he pulled her close.
'I'm so sorry. I'm not helping at all.'
Mayukh held her hands and looked at her.
'Swati, you've been just amazing so far. We just need to hang in there a little bit longer and we're safe.'
Abhi was busy playing with some rocks by the roadside, and when David tried to tell him it was time to go, he looked at him with his wide eyes.
'But I want to play!'
No amount of cajoling could get him to budge, so finally David decided he'd try another strategy.
'Come on and I'll tell you a story.'
That got Abhi's attention.
'What story is that?'
'Remember Mayukh told you about the boy who needed to be brave. This one's about how that boy met a brave and beautiful Princess. Want to hear it?'
Abhi whooped in excitement and got into the van as David winked at Swati.
'Will the brave Princess also get in?'
It was now four in the evening and Mayukh was beginning to wonder if their decision to take a nap in the morning would come back to haunt them. They passed a sign proclaiming they were beyond Rohtang Pass, and soon enough, a breathtaking vista of snow-capped mountains unfolded before them. There was not a soul in sight as they continued down the highway, which was in much better shape than any of them had imagined. When David saw several abandoned Army trucks by the roadside, he realized that the roads must have been kept in good condition to allow easy transport of soldiers and equipment to Ladkah, which he knew was a strategic choke point near both the Chinese and Pakistani borders.
They drove for another hour of what seemed to be bliss. It was as if they had come out for a picnic together, instead of having endured the horrors they had been subjected to over the last week or so. Abhi kept pointing to birds in the clear sky and at the snow in the mountains around them. It was the first time he had seen snow, and he cried out loud.
'Is that a giant ice cream cone?'
Swati forgot about the troubles she was having breathing and Mayukh joined her in singing some old songs. They discovered that they both liked Ronan Keating and soon they were crooning away with a pretty off key rendition of `When You Say Nothing at All'. David, not one for pop, couldn't help but wince at their singing skills, but equally, he could not help but be caught up in everyone's excitement and enthusiasm. Once they had finished singing, he treated them to his own rendition of Enter Sandman, which Mayukh assured him sounded nothing at like the original.
And so they continued through the hilly roads, seeing nobody or nothing other than the occasional car or Army truck by the roadside and making. As he saw a sign by the roadside, David struck a note of caution.
'Folks, we should probably be a bit more careful in the stretch ahead.'
'Why, what's up ahead?'
David turned to look at Swati to answer her question.
'We just passed some place called Keylang, and up ahead is Baralacha. The guide had said that the roads there suck.'
Mayukh laughed.
'Could our navigator be a bit more specific about how it sucks?'
David slapped him playfully on the shoulder.
'It can be dangerous since at this time frost has started appearing and the roads are narrow to begin with. Now can our fearless driver concentrate a bit more on driving instead of singing?'
Five minutes later, Mayukh was no longer smiling. If anything, the guide's warning had been an understatement. Looking down to his right he could see the valley hundreds of feet below while up ahead, he could see no more than a few feet before the road turned again. He thanked his stars that at least he didn't have to worry about traffic coming from the other direction, but with the bumpy, narrow and winding road, he was having more than his share of trouble in managing to keep them in one piece.
David's joking had also stopped abruptly, and he was looking nervously at the road ahead as well, and Swati was trying her best to not shout out warnings to Mayukh. She knew that the last thing he needed at this time was backseat driving from her. If there was one saving grace, it was the fact that Abhi, bored by what he saw as the sudden lack of interest from the adults, had curled up in Swati's lap and fallen asleep, oblivious to the bumps.
As Mayukh turned a corner, the van lurched hard and he struggled to keep it from veering off the cliff to his right. David leaned over and with his right hand helped Mayukh pull the steering wheel so the van did not swerve out of control as Mayukh applied the brakes and the van came to a halt, one wheel almost at the edge of the cliff.
David got out of the van, hoping that it was not what he feared it would be. He exclaimed loudly and let loose a stream of expletives.
'What's wrong?'
Mayukh was now next to David and he shouted in exasperation when he saw what David saw.
Two of their tires were flat, and in the hurry to get away from the Ashram nobody had even checked if they had spare tires, a fact that Swati soon confirmed.
So some eight thousand feet above sea level, in biting cold, with one hour or less to go to Sunset, the four of them gathered together to face what the night might bring.
TWELVE
'They are coming.'
Abhi had said the three words in no more than a mere whisper, but Mayukh, David and Swati stopped in their tracks. Mayukh put him down and knelt before him, looking into his eyes.
'Abhi, who is coming?'
Abhi pointed to the cluster of huts a few kilometers to their left.
'The not nice people are coming.'
David took a good look in the direction Abhi was pointing and then turned towards Abhi.
'Abhi, I don't see anybody out there. They're not coming so don't worry.'
Abhi didn't look very convinced and muttered, barely audible to the others.
'But I can feel them coming.'
Swati had been trekking through the hilly terrain with the others, gamely trying to keep up and not slow the others down for the last hour since they had abandoned the van and proceeded on foot. The S
un had just begun to set, and David had just told them that based on what he remembered from the guide they were still at least a couple of hours walk away from the Thirse Monastery. They had taken turns carrying Abhi through much of the journey, with Mayukh taking on the lion's share of the carrying, but even Swati had volunteered to carry her brother when she had seen Mayukh tiring. But now she seemed to lose much of her composure at Abhi's words. She grabbed hold of Mayukh's arms.
'What if they're really out there?'
Mayukh tried to sound confident, but was too tired to do a convincing job of acting.
'Look, we haven't seen a soul for hours. The best we can do is to just keep walking. Come on, Swati. Hang in there, we're so close.'
David was watching their exchange, and suddenly he picked up the small bag filled with apples and water he had been carrying and started walking. Mayukh called after him.
'David, where are you going?'
He turned towards them, his face all business.
'After all we've been through to get so far, I am not about to quit. If we do, all that pain, all that loss, Hina-all of it would have been for nothing. Now, are you coming or not?'
Swati said nothing, but picked up her own small bag and followed, and Mayukh picked Abhi on his back and was but a step behind.
It was now almost pitch black, especially with no lights on in any of the adjoining villages and the cold was now almost unbearable. They were all wearing gloves and caps and had bundled up Abhi as much as they could, but as Mayukh walked, he could feel the cold breeze bite into his face like a thousand needles. Swati keep casting anxious looks at Abhi, wondering if there was any truth to what he had said, but for now, Abhi seemed content to be riding on Mayukh's back. They stopped for a short break, both to have a bite to eat and also plan the last leg of their journey. Mayukh's relief at getting a break from marching with Abhi's weight on his back was matched only by Abhi's visible disappointment as he pouted.
'But I want to go piggyback again!'
Swati hushed him, bribing him with an apple that he began munching into immediately. David had siphoned off some fuel from the van and filled three bottles with it. Mayukh carried one of the Molotov cocktails, and he carried two of them. He and Mayukh broke off two sturdy branches from a nearby tree, tore one of their bags into two and fashioned crude torches from them. David had also taken a lighter from the van's glove compartment and he poured some of the fuel on the torches and set them alight. They were all instantly grateful both for the warmth and the fact that they were now no longer walking totally blind. David carried one and Swati the other, with Mayukh continuing to carry Abhi on his back and with both shotguns slung over one shoulder. As they proceeded, David whispered to Mayukh.
'I know we had to make the torches but I have a bad feeling.'
'Why?'
'Because if anybody is actually out there looking for us, now we're practically lit up like a neon sign.'
Swati had overheard him and spoke up, more hope than certainty in her voice.
'But if there is a government base out there, they'll also see us more easily.'
As soon as she said it, she clammed up, and none of them brought it up again. They had been proceeding so far on the leap of faith that there actually was a base here where they could find safety. All they had to go on was that one radio broadcast, and if they were wrong, they would likely all die in this snow-covered wasteland. Mayukh sensed what Swati was feeling and walked next to her, holding her hand. He wished he could have spent more time with her, wished he could have told her how much he loved her, wished he could have done all the things a young man would have done for the young woman in his life. But for now, all he could do was to hold her hand wordlessly as they continued trudging through the road that was now frosted over with snow.
Mayukh could feel Abhi's head now resting against his back. The boy had no doubt fallen asleep and he wondered aloud how long it would take for them to get to their destination. David looked at him and sighed.
'Not really sure. There aren't any road signs I can see and we don't have a guidebook with us any more. At the rate we're going, it could be anything from thirty minutes to an hour more.'
They saw a fork in the road with a small temple or pagoda drawn on a sign by the roadside. David remembered from the guide that they needed to keep going straight as the smaller path to their right supposedly led to another smaller monastery a few miles away. Seeing the sign gave them all renewed hope since it meant that they were on the right track and they were not far from their destination.
They walked for a few more minutes when suddenly Mayukh felt a jerk as Abhi sat upright.
'They are coming.'
Mayukh paid him little attention, assuming the poor boy would be terrified and exhausted after all he had gone through, and looked wordlessly towards Swati. She took the hint and tried to distract Abhi with a story, but he was not going to be consoled and began crying, and then David stopped.
He had not seen anything. Indeed in the dark with only their makeshift torches for light, he couldn't see beyond a few feet anyways, and he had not heard anything. But he had felt it. The same feeling he had experienced several times in combat, the instinct that had come from years of training that told him that there was danger.
'David, you okay?'
David looked at him, and Mayukh saw that same inscrutable, stony gaze that he had seen on David's face when he had been in action before-in front of the bookstore, at the Ashram. One evening, when he had mentioned it to David, he had jokingly called it his `war face', but on a more serious note, had told him that was when he was intensely focused on action, reacting with instinct and training. Abhi once again insisted that `they' were coming, but more than the boy's insistent pleas, David's expression scared Mayukh.
Swati could also sense the change in David's mood, and was about to ask him if he had heard anything when they all heard it.
It was the sound of a mob on the move, the shuffling and stomping noises of many feet coming towards them. In the utter silence of the mountainous wasteland, that was further amplified and Swati felt her own pulse quicken as she heard the sound.
'Could it be government soldiers?'
David shook his head.
'The sound is coming from behind us. Someone is following us.'
They were all standing in the middle of the road, and suddenly they felt totally naked and exposed. David seemed to be thinking over something, and then as if making up his mind, sighed and turned to Mayukh.
'Mayukh, see that high snow bank there? Take Swati and Abhi and hide behind it. Swati, give me your torch so they don't see you moving there.'
He held his torch tucked under his left armpit and took the torch from Swati, who was not sure what he planned to do. Then it struck Mayukh.
'David, no! We're in this together.'
David looked at him, his eyes softening.
'Kid, you've been more than a brother these last few days. You're like family now, and as much as I'd like for all of us to make it together, what matters is that Abhi gets to safety. The only way any of this will be worth anything is if someone can figure out why he's immune to the Biters and help others. Now go.'
Swati was now crying and Mayukh felt himself choke up as he called out to David.
'I can't let you fight them alone. Remember what you said about the guy next to you?'
David turned to him, dead serious now.
'Mayukh, the fight's not over. You still need to get Abhi to the Monastery. I'll just try and buy you some time.'
Then he turned towards Swati, touching her face gently.
'Take care of yourself and the two men in your life. And don't worry about me-I'm a hard guy to get rid of so easily and I do want to get back to Rose. Chances are you'll hear from me one day. If not, know I tried my best and tell my Rose about me.'
He handed her a small piece of paper with a name and a telephone number.
Then he was gone.
***
>
David walked back to the fork in the road and looked back once to ensure that Mayukh and the others were safely behind cover. In the darkness, it was hard to see much but he could barely make out the outline of the snow bank, and he could discern no movement. If his eyes, which were trained to operate in darkness couldn't make them out, he had to bet on the fact that the Biters wouldn't figure out their plan either.
The thump-thump of the approaching Biters was now louder than ever, even though he couldn't see them yet. He knew that there was a turn in the road, blocked by a small hill that they had passed minutes ago, and as the sound of approaching footsteps grew ever louder, he judged that they would be about to turn around the bend any minute. The turn, bordered by a sheer cliff on one side and the hillside on the other, was such that even a very large mob would have to pass through two or three at a time.
He cocked back his right arm and threw the torch with all his strength. The torch spiraled into the sky, lighting up the ground below it like a flare and in its dull orange glow, David saw a sight that chilled him. The first Biters had just emerged from the turning and behind them, he could see the pass packed with so many Biters it was hard to count them all. As the first Biters saw the other torch lit in David's hand, they bared their teeth and screamed, a cry that was taken up by the others till their unearthly howling filled the valley.
David ensured his pistol was tucked into his belt, and looked back once in the direction where Mayukh, Swati and Abhi were hiding.
Then he did the single most absurd thing he had ever done in his life. With one broken hand, two makeshift Molotov cocktails that he was not even sure would catch fire in the cold and frost, and a pistol that had only four rounds left in it, he turned towards the hundred or more Biters closing in on him. Then David charged towards them, screaming the battle cry of the US Navy SEALs.
'Hooyah!'
Mayukh heard David's yell, and as much as his heart cried out for him to go to his friend's assistance, he knew what he needed to do. He grabbed Swati by the hand, and with Abhi tied firmly to his back, he began running up the road as fast as he could. His ears were ringing with the screaming of the Biters and when he looked back, he saw several fiery shapes flicker in the night before disappearing. He kept running, wanting to put as much distance as possible between them and the Biters. He could hear Swati gasping and panting, trying desperately to catch her breath, but he had her wrist in a vice like grab and literally dragged her along.