Mo Yaling

The second Gunshot

‘Could it be you gun Neel?’ The professor asked me.

I didn’t know what to reply. He has said that I am a shooter. So there were every possibility that it could be my gun. But the question that aroused in my mind was – if it WAS my gun – WHO was firing it? And why?

‘It means that there is a so called demon in reality.’ I said thoughtfully.

‘What the bigger meaning than that is – there are people in search of US!’ He said excitedly.

‘Who?’ I asked.

‘Think Neel – think – who were with you when you came here.’ There was a longing in his voice.

‘I can’t remember – but we can search them out anyway. Can’t we?’

‘Yes. Of course we can. And we will. Let’s complete our sleep. Wisdom opens at dawn. If there is a demon really outside there – no one knows in which track the flow of events will take place!’

I was walking through a forest with my gun in my hand. There were many more people around me. They were very familiar to me – as it seemed – but I couldn’t see their faces. From among them a beautiful female voice was calling me by my name. ‘Neel! Sweetheart! Neel! Where are you!’ I couldn’t see her. I was looking here and there. Then the voice slowly turned coarse. ‘Neel! Darling! Neel!’ Then suddenly somebody pushed me.

And I woke up with a jolt.

‘Good morning darling!’ The professor greeted me with a grin.

The morning sunlight was bright and tepid warm. The fires were still on. Peoples were shoving woods and sticks onto the fire to keep the demon away by the smell of smoke. When I returned after laxation I saw the professor was busy explaining something to Thera and the other aged person from the village he came.

‘Darling – come here quickly!’ He called for me as soon as he saw me. ‘I am trying to convince them to search our people out there. Help me please.’

I didn’t realized at first what he meant to say. But then what he started, it became hard to hold back my laughter.

‘Last night … you know … what you call it ...’ he tried to recall, ‘yes! Yo … yolyan? Sound? Boom? Gun! Gun! Did you understand?’

Thera and the other man nodded their head and looked at each other. Only they and their god knows how much did they understood. The professor looked here and there and picked up a stick. ‘Darling – just act as I say.’ Then he turned towards them and showed the stick. ‘Gun … this is gun – okay?’ He held the stick like a gun and pointed it to me. ‘Boom!’ He shouted. ‘Fall down darling! You are hurt or dead maybe!’

I sticked my tongue out, bent my body a little and acted dead.

‘That’s it! See? They are our people! They have come for us! They are searching us!’ He acted like a primary kid as he said.

Thera and the other man nodded once again seriously. The professor gave up.

The rest of the day we spent lazily imagining various ways to get out of here.

Long before the dawn of the next day Thera pushed and woke us up. There were few people ready with baskets and trusses and torches. One of them was the person from the third village, who brought the news of demon. Thera said with gestures that these people are ready to guide us to search our people. The professor was astonished to see the arrangements. When we left the sun has merely risen.

We left the village and entered the paddy field followed by the jungle. Very soon the jungle became thick and the path though gradually becoming hilly and zigzag, it was very clear. We were walking very carefully. It was taking a little longer than normal as we had to move slowly and search for somebody. Me and the professor, the two of us were shouting from time to time and trying to figure out if anyone was responding. When the sun went at the top of our head we stopped for a long break. After having the meal I went down to the stream to quench my thirst. As I was finished and coming back something caught my attention.

‘Professor!’ I shouted for him.

Soon the professor and the others came. I pointed them to that thing with my index finger the other side of the stream. There was a piece of cloth stuck on a bush. We all looked at each other. One of the people from the village slowly approached towards it. We all followed him. It was a torn shirt. The professor hooked the shirt out of the bush with a stick and smelled it. His eye got bigger.

‘Perfume!’ He said with astonishment.

I smelled it too. The odour seemed very familiar but it didn’t tinkled anything in my mind.

‘Which man will use a lady’s perfume in this jungle?’ The professor said thoughtfully, ‘and why is it torn? What has happened here?’ He looked here and there for any other clues.

One of our team member smelled the shirt and sniffed the bushes around. After sometime he pointed out and lead us the way the smell has disappeared. We followed him and searched the area for any other clues. Suddenly it become very quiet. The leading person gestured to stop us and sniffed sharply.

‘What?’ The professor whispered.

‘Naru! Siiyin!’ The man whispered back.

God knows what does that mean. But it didn’t felt good at all.

They were all moving with hunting posture. Me and the professor were following them. Suddenly it seemed that we were being watched. Before I could think anything more – the jungle resounded with the chirping of birds and echoes of animal followed by an intense ROAR – very close to us.

‘Haarleee!’ The villager shouted and started running.

‘Nooo! Don’t! Don’t run! Stay close! Stayyy CLOSSEE!’ The professor shouted. The other peoples too were shouting something in their language. Probably they were saying the same thing as they didn’t left their position. The man who got panicked stopped immediately and came back.

‘Lit the torch! Lit the torch!’ I yelled. ‘Professor! All of you – lit the torch!’ I grabbed the bunch of the torches, ‘come help me!’

We hurriedly untied the bunch of torch and lit them from the burning one. We turned round facing outwards with torches in our hands.

After sometime a second roar came from the distance.

‘That’s good! It’s going away.’ The professor said.

We all were relieved. The villagers had some talks among themselves quickly. Then one of them said something in his language hurriedly and gestured us to move fast. But it was easy to say, difficult to do, particularly in this dense hilly forest.

‘Where are we going do you think?’ I asked the professor.

‘Probably to some other village which is nearby.’ He replied.

We were walking briskly, as fast as possible in that hilly forest. Suddenly the forest become thin.

‘Atoka lemba!’ The man from the third village exclaimed as he pointed to a distance.

I couldn’t see anything at first. Then I noticed a thin line of smoke emerging out over the trees. Now we were moving downwards, so we had to step very carefully. The sun was getting down. It was getting dark rapidly. The birds were coming back to their nests. Suddenly once again all the sounds almost stopped for the moment and increased double on the next. We were all scared. We almost started running as fast as possible on that hilly mountain forest. Very soon we reached the plain land and we entered the paddy field. We were keeping our hands up so that the paddy field does not catch fire.

I was in the middle of the line just behind the professor. All of a sudden like a yellow lightning, something from my right jumped over me from behind the rice plants. My torch extinguished by a gust of wind. The tiger clamped me within it’s jaws and tried to run away with me but failed. Somehow it slipped it’s leg and fell on it’s face. I fell from it’s mouth. The tiger manages itself and attacked me on the next moment before anybody could do anything. The tiger grabbed my leg and threw me into air to catch me again with it’s jaw. A shrill sound came out of my throat. But before the tiger could catch me again I heard a loud gunshot. The next moment I fell on the tiger’s head and lose consciousness.