The Silent One

 

“Come on everyone lets play something” Raj, the class prefect anoounced.

“Yes”, everybody said in unison.

“Hey lets play antakshri” Vijay whispered to Raj.

“Good idea. We are playing antakshri. This side one team and this one other.” Raj declared.

Vijay and Raj were good friends. They had met on the first day of college and had hit it from day one. As everybody gathered around , Vijay moved towards a thin guy sitting alone.

“Hey, hi what’s going on?” Vijay asked Suresh.

“Nothing man, listening to songs and trying to enjoy the view.” Suresh replied.

It had been almost 1 year since the college had started. Many groups had formed and each person had his own group. So did Vijay. But the thing which intrigued Vijay was the fact that Suresh was always alone and never mingled with the class. Suresh was a super-senior and repeating the year, that’s the reason he looked elder to them. Vijay had tried to talk to him in the past even though his friends told him to leave Suresh alone.

“Come, everybody is playing antakshri. You too join us” Vijay said

“Leave the shy guy alone, Vijay”, it was Raj.

The class always made fun of Suresh for being the quiet guy, Vijay felt bad for him and had asked Raj not to do this but they never listened to him.

“Naah man, I am better alone. You go ahead.” Suresh replied.

That was Vijay’s cue to leave Suresh alone. He left Suresh to his music and joined the class. It was a technical visit trip to one of the government offices. They had started at 6am in the morning and had to travel far. Since their college had good relations within the government, they could easily arrange a visit to the Vidhana Soudha. This was the place where top ministers including the Chief Minister had their offices.

“Sir, all of us are hungry and would like to stretch our legs. Can you please ask the driver to stop for a bit.” Raj requested to Pal sir.

As the bus came to a halt, students got down and headed to the road side stalls. Once everyone had freshened up, Pal sir asked the students to get back into the bus. As Pal sir was closing the gate, 4-5 men stormed in, pointed a gun to Pal sir and asked the driver to drive. The driver terrified , started driving. Every student started shouting. There was panic all around.

“Quiet everybody or I blow up his head ” said a guy in black mask holding a gun to Pal sir’s head.

The bus went silent. Another of the masked guy started collecting all the belongings of the students, everything including phones, bottles, eatables. Once everybody was stripped of everything they had except the clothes, the goons left Pal sir.

“Everyone calm down and act according to what we say. You will not be harmed. Driver stop the bus.”

After the driver halted the bus, one of the men asked him to step out of the bus and led him to the trees nearby out of sight. The students gasped as they heard a gunshot. The armed man returned alone and took the driving seat to start driving.

“This is getting out of hand. We need to do something. Ask everyone if they have any device to communicate with the police” Raj said to Vijay.

Vijay nodded and whispered to one of the guy who in turn relayed the message forward. As the bus was nearing its destination and the intentions of the armed men unclear, Raj urged Vijay to do the task quickly.

“Ankita has mobile with her and Suresh has one with him.” Vijay said to him.

“No body else?” Raj questioned.

“No.”

“Ok.”

After saying this Raj got up. Vijay couldn’t understand. He whispered him to sit down but Raj walked directly towards the masked men. As Vijay was about to plead the men to leave Raj alone, he and other students couldn’t believe their eyes as he hugged the leader. Soon one of the guys searched and took the mobiles from Ankita and Suresh.

“We are India Liberation Front” Raj proclaimed.

“We are here to liberate people from the tyrant Indian Government. We are gonna assassinate your leader today.” Raj said.

“You fucking terrorist” Vijay yelled.

“Watch your mouth. I am not your friend. I will not hesitate to kill you. Not a word from anyone now, otherwise you will be harmed.” Raj replied in anger.

The whole class looked as a guy raised his finger. It was Suresh.

“What do you want now?” Raj asked.

“Even I am critical of the government. I think it will be better if you dispose those phones, they can still be tracked” Suresh said.

The class looked with shock at Suresh. This was too much for them. Their class topper, prefect turning out a terrorist and an introvert in turn supporting them.

“You asshole” Vijay said.

“Shut up Vijay.” Raj yelled.

“He is right you know. We need to get rid of these phones. Stop the bus and do that immediately”, Raj whispered to his associate.

As the man disappeared out of vision, Raj instructed his other 3 men about things. A lot of time passed and the guy who had gone could still not be seen.

“Where the fuck did Ravi go? Shyam, Nagar go check if everything is allright” Raj said to his men.

Vijay saw as the two men got down from the bus and followed the path of the earlier guy. Raj too got down from the bus and was standing at the door while one was standing in the end of the bus corridor near the door. Suddenly Vijay saw someone rush past him and into the guy in the bus, crashing and breaking the front glass of the bus onto the road.

It was Suresh. Before Raj could comprehend what was happening, Suresh had got hold of the hurt guy’s gun and pumped a bullet into him.

“Stand down” yelled Suresh.

“The fuck you doing. You know a college going guy can’t do anything. ” Raj replied.

“I am from IB. I can kick all of your asses. Also my phone has relayed the location. Armed personnel are on their way. Your guy is dead after I triggered my phone blast.” Suresh said.

The data was too much, not just for Raj but to everyone listening. The whole class was still in shock. Raj, an IB officer !!!!!! Vijay felt like he was dreaming and pinched himself to ensure he was not.

“Well I am not gonna get out of this alive. Protect the students if you can” yelled Raj as he tried getting on the bus.

Suresh was quick to fire under the bus and Raj was hit on his leg, unable to move yelling in pain. Raj saw two of his guys making their way back towards the bus. He signalled them to stop and before they could understand he saw one of them getting shot on the head by Suresh. The other one took cover.

“Blow up the bus, Ranga” yelled Raj.

“NOOOO, stop” yelled Suresh as he raised his arms and came out of the bus cover.

“I can get you….”before Suresh could compete his sentence, he was hit by bullets fired by Ranga.

Ranga kept his gun pointed at Suresh as Raj kicked the gun away from Suresh. Ranga helped Raj up and Raj picked up his gun. Limping he moved towards Suresh.

“You motherfcuker.” Said Raj.

Everyone held their breath as they heard the gunshot. It was over. Vijay believed. They were now at the mercy of these two madmen. Tears started rolling down his eyes but then he saw Ranga running and heard another gunshot wounding Ranga on his leg. Then he turned towards his left and saw.

It was Ankita. She had fired the first shot to kill Raj and the second as well to injure Ranga. She rushed outside the bus and asked everyone to remain in the bus until help arrived. As she held Suresh’s head up in order to let him breathe, she heard siren in distance.

“Sir stay with me , help is almost here” Ankita pleaded to Suresh.

“My time is up Ankita. You did good. We were successful in protecting our CM. Bharat Mata ki Jai”

And just like that another one of India’s braveheart’s had given up his life for the nation.

-Hechet Ray

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