Sravan was asking him something. The others were talking to him. But it didn’t matter. He smiled. He knew the final chapter now; how it all ended.
“A paper,” he mumbled.
“What?” Sravan looked puzzled.
“A paper and a pen,” the Librarian asked. “I need to write.”
“We do not have paper and we do not have a goddamn pen,” Sravan’s anger was apparent to the Librarian now.
“We don’t have food to eat,” his voice reported. “We have followed you out of the caves to survive. Not to starve ourselves to death. Tell us what you have seen. What do we need to do?”
The Librarian pitied them. How foolish of them and how selfish, he thought. There was nothing they needed to do. Nothing they could do as a matter of fact. The forces at play were already in motion. The wheels were already turning. Their pathetic little lives were only a mere blimp on the radar of meaningfulness of the End Age.
“Get me a knife,” he said. “Time to write.”
Sravan shook his head in disbelief, sighed and exited the room. Soon he came back, wielding a pocket knife.
“Leave me now,” the Librarian commanded them all.
“But why?”
“I told you already. I need to write.” This was the only way.
As the puzzled Forgiven left the room, the Librarian took the knife in his right hand and pulled up the sleeves of his left hand, exposing his fore arm. Then he went to work.
Clunk.
The yog mandap was crowded and filled to the core. Hordes of men, women and children filled it like a concert. All of the Sinless were gathered inside the mandap - the Avadhanis, the Ashvins and the common folk. They were all on their knees, chanting and praying under their breaths.
Some prayed silently while others prayed out aloud. Most of them were dressed in their prayer robes. No one dared look up. It was part of the ritual. They were not to speak unless their saviour spoke first on this auspicious day. Fires were lit all around the mandap, illuminating it with an unearthly warm light.
Clunk.
Clunk.
They could hear him coming. The chanting grew in intensity. Some of the Sinless were shaking.
Clunk.
Many of them felt ecstatic with religious fervour.
Clunk.
It was a trance like state.
Clunk.
Their saviour approached.
“Brothers and sisters,” his voice was steady and calm as it travelled on the air.
All of the Sinless cheered in a cacophonic frenzy. Many of them were in tears of joy. The Forgiven were ecstatic too. They all looked up.
Clunk.
Clunk.
The sound of his mechanical leg was music to their ears as their new saviour limped onto the centre of the stage. He wore long robes that covered him completely except for his ankles and feet. The metal in his mechanical leg glared in the light of the many fires that were lit for the ritual. It was built out of many joints and metallic pieces. The Avadhanis had put in a lot of work into it and it clearly showed.
On his forehead was marked the holy mark of the Purohit. The sacred Vishnu yantra. This was a saviour quite unlike the previous one. He was young and clean shaved –a particularly handsome man.
While some unconditionally accepted him as their new Lord once the old Purohit had been killed, some still had their doubts on his ability to lead. But such was the rule of the Sinless. The one who vanquishes the Purohit becomes the new Purohit.
The striking difference though was that the new Purohit carried a long katana with him. The crowd went crazy as their new leader lifted his weapon to the skies.
“Kalki Commands!” Roy’s voice rang like a conch in the smoke-filled sky.
The fires raged higher and fiercer than ever.
THE BEGINNING
Sravan looked at the door in anticipation. It had been four hours since their lunatic leader had locked himself in. The rest of the men he had convinced to follow this man out of their old home had now gone out to find food. Sravan was almost sure he had led them all astray. The General maybe a stubborn old fool but at least that man knew where he was headed and they had always understood him.
Now, Sravan and the rest of them were following an unpredictable miracle worker –a man with visions. What were they following him for and where to? They had no idea and the Librarian’s random visions and his riddling speech didn’t help. Sravan had decided what he would do next. When the Librarian would come out, he would tell him that it was over. He would take the rest of them back to the caves. He was sure the Librarian would object to this and he would have to be ready for a confrontation. And he was. Sravan nervously ran his fingers on the handle of the Librarian’s gun. The same weapon with which two cave guards had been killed.
A few minutes later, the Forgiven had returned and by the dejected looks on their faces, Sravan knew that they hadn’t found much food. They looked at him sitting there, with the gun in his hands and from the look on their faces, he knew that they understood. They all sat around him and waited. This was it. They had left one leader at the caves. Now today they would leave another one. Maybe they were better off without any leader; not following in someone else’s foolish footsteps.
They all sat up when the door opened and the Librarian walked out. Sravan immediately held up his gun and pointed it at him. But he gasped and his hand shook. He almost screamed. Many behind him had actually screamed as they saw what the Librarian had done.
The Librarian was stark naked. His entire body was covered in blood. He was a red mess. The blood was his own. His entire body was filled with cuts. But not random in nature. Sravan blinked in horror. They should have got him some paper. The man had used his body as his medium of expression. Every inch of his body was filled with words that were cut into his skin crudely using the kitchen knife. Words of red; words of blood. The Librarian had a goofy smile on his face.
“Don’t move!” Sravan said. His hand trembled.
“I have done it!” the Librarian’s voice shook with excitement. “The last chapter!” he said, looking at his own body in amusement.
Sravan flinched. The wounds of words on his face stretched and opened a little every time the Librarian spoke.
“The words are me now. I am the words. I know how it all ends,” he said looking at all of them with eyes sparkling with wonder.
“I know where it all ends! No more waiting. I know where we are going, Sravan!” he rambled.
Sravan hadn’t lowered his gun. The Librarian walked up to him and placed his hand on the gun and pushed it down.
“There’s no need for this, Sravan. I have seen our destiny. I know what we have to do. I have seen each and every one of you. Doing what you were born to do,” he said. “Tell me, will you follow me?”
Sravan’s doubts had vanished like they had never existed. He now knew why he had followed this man in the first place. He looked back at the others and saw the same in their eyes. He looked back at the Librarian.
“Where are we going?”
The Librarian smiled. The red words around his mouth crinkled and compressed.
“To the only place we should,” he said. “To the place where everything was, is and will be. Our final destination,” he proclaimed.
“We are going to Area Zero!”
Sravan nodded his head in approval and so did the rest of the Forgiven.
The march of the Forgiven had begun.
“We are not slaves,” Vikranth heard Roy say to a thunderous applause.
Vikranth stood at the corner of the mandap with Urushi by his side. Her arm was entwined with his and her head rested on his shoulder. Vikranth knew she was tired but excited about what was to come.
The dark days were over.
He was the one who had found Roy hanging by the ruins in the first tower. Roy had been almost unconscious by the time they had found him.
Vikranth knew the rules.
When he had found the Purohit’s
body, wrecked and mangled deep down the central shaft, he had known Roy would be the new Purohit. Vikranth himself still hadn’t recovered completely from that day yet. His muscles still ached and his head throbbed occasionally.
But today was a big day. A new leader was taking over the Sinless. A man from the Forgiven. He looked over to the bulky man that the Forgiven called ‘The General’. A tiny bandaged stump protruded from this man’s shoulder where there would have been his left arm. Vikranth looked at the other Forgiven and wondered how different they were from the Sinless and their way of life. Even Roy, their new Purohit was as distant to their way of life as Vikranth was to the Forgiven’s way of life. But maybe it was for the better, he thought.
“The repairs to the first tower will take place over the next few months,” Vikranth heard Roy say. “Starting tonight, there will be no more judgements and no more executions. Anyone is free to join us and live along with us if they agree to cooperate and to contribute. This will be the new law.”
There were murmurs all over. This was a historic moment. Their lives were no longer going to be the same, Vikranth realized. After a moment, there was a loud applause from all those gathered there.
“Your previous Dalapathy has proven himself worthy, and will continue in his post. There will be more female Avadhanis now along with Urushi. Men and women can now do whatever they please with their lives and their own genitals. No one’s going to cut your head off,” Roy said.
The crowd laughed and clapped.
“The Ashvins will still remain our faithful warriors but they will only help us defend ourselves from hostile forces and to explore the wastelands with greater confidence. We are no longer just survivors. We are now explorers.” Vikranth listened with attention. He wasn’t sure what the point was that the new Purohit was trying to make. What does he mean by explorers?
“We still serve our Lord Kalki, not by building walls around us and definitely not by being hostile to other colonies. We will serve him by accepting everyone and more importantly helping humanity and offering justice and truth to everyone in this dire time of need.” The applause continued.
Vikranth knew there were many in the crowd who were applauding but deep down resented these changes. He knew there were many who would like to cling to the old way of life. But that would be a problem to be dealt with later, once things had settled down.
Roy continued, “And those who need us most are the ones who have been taken from us without reason. Without any explanation. Without a warning. The ones who were the future of humanity. The ones who were the only hope for next generations.”
Roy paused.
“The mothers and their unborn children,” he continued. “The first thing we will do is a search and rescue mission to get them back. The Ashvins will lead this mission.”
Surprised by this sudden proclamation, Vikranth looked at Roy and Roy looked back at him. This had come out of nowhere. The Ashvins were not ready for this, Vikranth thought. But maybe it’s the right thing to do. Roy was still looking at him. For a moment Vikranth hesitated but after that he nodded and Roy nodded back.
“We travel to Area Zero and reclaim our humanity,” Roy declared.
The crowd bent their heads and knelt. The march of the Sinless had begun.
The night was ringing with all the din and clamour of the Sinners’ gathering. Tonight, their leader had promised to address them all. Many of them were naked. Everyone was celebrating. The cold night winds didn’t stop them. The fires were warming everyone up. Food and loot was ample and up for grabs. They all gathered around the radio tower in the middle of nowhere. The Nameless One stood atop the circular maintenance scaffold around the tower high above.
“My fellow sinners!” he bellowed. And the crowd cheered like madmen.
The Nameless One was not using a megaphone but still all of them could hear him as if he spoke to them personally in their ears.
“Tonight is the night of the Sinners. This is history in the making,” he said. “We are about to embark on a journey of holy significance and sinful revolution. We no longer be afraid. Now come the days when the world would fear us. We are not just a group of survivors anymore. We are revolutionaries fighting against a tyrant God,” he said and the crowd cheered again.
“And to lead this war against oppression, we now have a man with us who is going to lead you all from the front lines, someone who will die for your sins and more importantly someone who will kill for your sins.” The crowd grew silent.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, your Commander,” the Nameless One proclaimed loudly.
The Commander’s footsteps rung on the metal scaffold as he walked into the public view. The crowd saw a young tall man whose face was covered in bandages walk up. A red scarf fluttered around his neck in the cold night wind. He then slowly reached out to the back of his head and started unwrapping the bandages around his head. Slowly and steadily he pulled out layer after layer and threw the bandages into the night air. The bandages descended, floating and swinging like feathers. The Commander had a stern face which now bore an eerily glowing red scar all the way from his right eye to left cheek down to the jaw line. He then looked down onto the sinners, raised his fist and shouted.
“To sin is my birthright.”
The crowd chanted passionately from down below.
“To sin is my birthright. To sin is my birthright. To sin is my birthright.”
Then the Nameless One spoke again.
“Here is the man who will lead us to our salvation. The time has come. All the men standing here have my blood running in your veins. All women here have my seed growing within you. We truly are one big family. And today our family shall claim what is truly its right. Tonight, we begin our march to the land of our killer. The murderer of our kin who took away those we love,” he said and paused.
The Sinless waited impatiently in awestruck silence.
“Tonight, we begin our march to Area zero,” he bellowed with an intensity that would have shook the heavens if they existed.
“For the Age of Iron shall never end,” he chanted and pointed north.
“For the Age of Iron shall never end,” thousands of voices chanted in unison.
Dense dust rose and clouded the moon as men and the women and their fires walked north with the Beam in their sight.
The march of the Sinners had begun.
EPILOGUE
Nivedita woke up.
The long sleep had ended. She gasped for air and took it in huge gulps. Her body was rigid and pale. She fell down; rolling from what she thought was a bed. She wasn’t sure if the dream had ended. Oh, what a dream it was! What things it had shown her. The corruption and the fires. She had seen her death as well, but here she was – breathing. She quickly touched her neck. There was a deep open gash that was dry and numb.
She realized that she was naked. She could see the colour returning to her pale, ashen hands as she looked down at them. Everything that she knew about human body and biology was saying that it was impossible. But she had also seen the dreams and knew this was what was coming.
She was a dreamer now. Other dreamers had been there in her first dream during the long sleep. The crazy Librarian that had been brought to the caves had also been there. Now she knew what he was. That he had had his long sleep too. That he had woken up too. Just like her.
The smell was horrible. She looked around and realized that what she had thought as a bed was a pile of lifeless naked bodies–others who had been judged as sinners along with her. She had been a part of the pile before she woke up. She quickly crawled away from the pile. Her legs were still not completely functional. The sensation was slowly returning to them.
She sat up slowly. She knew what she had to do. She knew what she was and what she was supposed to do. She had also seen the man she loved in the dream. What he had become. What the corruption had done to him. She had also seen the woman he was with now. Everything was a mistake. She stood up, naked and pink from
all the blood that came back to her. She walked up towards the door. It was time.
She was going to find Pradeep, bring him back from what he had become and this time, she would also bring him back to her, no matter the cost.
Tears rolled down Veda’s eyes.
Panic gripped her heart.
How could it be? She thought.
The timing couldn’t have been so wrong. She ran into Pradeep’s tent. He was sitting with the Nameless One. Though a sense of comfort had for a minute moment seemed to creep into her, it was quickly replaced with a crushing fear.
One look at her face and Pradeep seemed to realize that something was seriously wrong. He stood up, took leave from the Nameless One and walked out with her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
His eyes were a little different now and his scar seemed to glow dully, but she knew he was the same deep inside.
She couldn’t stop sobbing.
“Save me, Pradeep!” she managed to say between sobs. “Save me!”
“What happened, Veda? We are safe. There’s nothing to worry.”
“I don’t want to be lost,” she hugged him, crying into his chest.
“What’s the matter, Veda?”
Finally, controlling her sobs and trying not to choke, she told him.
“Pradeep, I am pregnant.”
Vikranth was sick.
Something was wrong. He still hadn’t recovered enough. They have to be soon on the road. His head was hurting and his nose bled. He quickly washed his face and came back to lie down. He had just closed his eyes when Urushi walked in. She smiled and crept into bed with him.
“How’s my favourite Dalapathy doing today?” she asked.
Vikranth nodded. “Will be better soon.”
“Your eyes look red,” she said, looking concerned.
“Not enough sleep, I guess,” he said. He was just unnaturally tired.
Sinners- The Dawn Of Kalki Page 21