Apocalypse is Certain

Decoding: The Beginning

Sumit had presently stopped talking. He had again started staring blankly out of the window. Somu looked at Jacky, apparently to check if he had understood the things better than himself.

“Don’t you remember anything else you experienced?” he asked.

“Not much. There are many pieces that flash in bits and pieces.” He said still looking out of the window. “Actually, I have not been able to prepare my mind to set those pieces in place. I just do not feel comfortable in thinking about doing that.”

“But we need to know more about it. Honestly speaking, so far what you have told does not make anything clear enough to find a reason to worry. I mean, the entries on your phone and the strength of impression your mind has got from the supposed incidents are substantial enough to doubt that something abnormal has happened but not enough to accept a feeling of panic as response to it.” Jacky had summed up his and Somu’s state of mind.

“Let us do one thing. First we try to put the link we already have to get a basic framework we could work around” Somu suggested.

Sumit did not say anything but yet again came around to sit on the bed to show his acceptance for the proposal.

“I will tell what I have understood so far. I will also include some things based on just rough interpretation. You keep on adding if you have understood something differently or have another possible interpretation” Somu had no other idea to begin decoding the confusing pieces of Sumit’s experience.

They both remained silent but their agreement was clear.

“You got up this morning, apparently due to a shock caused by a nightmare. You could not remember much about the nightmare but feel exceptionally uncomfortable. The experience that made you wake up seems too real to be a nightmare, although you could not remember much about what you had experienced before you got up. You fall asleep yet again after much effort but the discomfort remains with you even after that second spell of sleep is over, which again is something that does not happen usually. Can either of you add something to it before we proceed to what you have already decoded about the situation?”

“Although I can understand well that the effect this supposed nightmare has had on your mind is much more than such things normally have but we are depending in this case almost entirely on what you say. I mean if you feel this was something more than a nightmare, we will take your words to be on the safer side. Let us rather not include our understanding of nightmares in understanding the situation. We will go by your gut feeling, or whatever we can call it” Jacky added to assure Sumit that he could share his feelings with them in whatever manner he could.

One of the most common topics of their discussions on usual days used to be movies. All the three were very fond of movies and horror movies used to be the unanimous choice when some particular movie had not been selected to be watched. One thing that they hated about horror movies was the tendency of the other characters to not believe the character who had so far been the only one to experience something paranormal. They used to talk about it a number of times how helpless the person would feel when even the people so close to him or her would so easily discard what the person had experienced to get badly disturbed just because they could not stop being too practical about there being no paranormal activities in the world according to modern beliefs. Jacky had suddenly got reminded of those discussions and found it absolutely fitting the situation. Now, their friend had apparently experienced something that seemed to be absolutely impractical. He needed to share his experience since he was too disturbed. In such a situation, he could not let Sumit feel the helplessness similar to the sole witnesses of paranormal activities in all those movies. That is why he assured Sumit that they trusted him about whatever he was feeling at that moment. He had a doubt that probably trying to convince Sumit that it had been merely a dream that had disturbed him would be what they would have to do ultimately but for now he could not take it for granted that Sumit had not actually experienced something potentially too disturbing.

“Alright!” Somu continued. He had already hoped that, so far, all the three were at the same level of understanding the situation. “The confusion begins when you try to think of what day it was. You can very convincingly remember two different days as the previous day. And one of these days happens to be a day which is yet to come 2 years from now.”

Sumit was feeling a bit relieved seeing that Somu and Jacky had understood well what he had told. Moreover, despite that Somu was just repeating what he had been told by Sumit himself, but it seemed to make his mind a bit clear. He had already began feeling as if Somu’s description had vacated some space in his mind and he was ready to give another thought to try to remember what actually had happened before he woke up. The stress on his mind was easing up, although, just a bit.

“To add to the confusion further, the record of calls made from your phone is totally different from what it was till you apparently slept the last time putting the phone aside. And this record is showing calls made in the year 2025. So, the record in your phone matches the slight memory you have of having heard of the death of the Foreign Minister in the year 2025” Somu added.

Jacky suddenly got reminded of having seen the evidence in Sumit’s phone records that supported Sumit’s doubts. So, he needed to be more convinced about his assurance to Sumit that they trusted his gut feelings. For a moment, it had skipped his mind that the evidence was available in Sumit’s phone which claimed that whatever happened could not have been a nightmare.

“Is there anything else you could add to it? … Since that is pretty much we could sum up on the basis of what you have told us” He said to Sumit.

“I do not remember anything else clearly. But I feel that now I could try to recall what happened. Let me try to concentrate if something could come up” Sumit now did not seem to get disturbed thinking about introspection to recall what had happened before he woke up in his bed with a shock.

“I will bring something to eat” said Jacky. He left without waiting for agreement from their side.

“You just relax first of all.  I hope you will be able to recall a lot more things if you concentrate with a relaxed mind” Somu advised Sumit. He was well aware that just like a person feels too strong an urge to let it go if a piece of thread is too entangled, the mind also tends to avoid thinking about a situation when it is too confusing.