They drove in silence for several minutes, each of them consumed by their own inner demons and fears. Swati held Abhi tight to her chest, both painfully aware of just how close she had come to losing him, and also dealing with the fact that she had just shot dead another human being. David had moved to the front passenger seat, and was keeping a lookout for more Biters. However he felt more naked and vulnerable than he ever had, without his night vision, without his weapons, and with one hand useless. For all his training and conditioning, this was as close to breaking point as he had ever come. Perhaps it was the first time that he began to doubt that he would ever get back to his Rose again. Mayukh was numb from the sudden and ferocious violence they had faced the previous day, and also filled with dread for what the night may bring. The last time he had been in a car in the night was with his mother, and remembering what had happened that night made him feel even worse.
The unlikely pillar of strength for the group turned out to be Hina. She kept up an incessant chatter, joking with Abhi, getting David to focus on trying to read road signs in the darkness, ensuring that Mayukh kept a watch out for Biters since he was the only one who could use a shotgun. They did not have any of the guides or maps with them any more, but Hina broadly remembered the way they needed to go, and she kept pestering Mayukh and the others to ensure that she had remembered it right.
'Mayukh, we turn right on this road to stay on course for the Rohtang pass, right?'
'Mayukh, damn it! Focus and tell me what you remember.'
'Swati, it'll get colder in the night. Make sure Abhi's got an extra layer of clothing on!'
David looked at Hina with a mixture of admiration and awe. In the Ashram, he had seen the raw physical courage she was capable of, and now he was seeing her take charge with more authority than the toughest Trainer in Hell Week he had seen. And it was working. She was managing to get everyone to snap out of their worries, and to focus on where they were and what needed to be done.
In the darkness, Hina could barely see a few feet ahead of her, but not wanting to attract unwanted attention, she had kept the headlights off. That was till she suddenly felt the van listing to it's right.
'Holy shit!'
David was more shocked by her outburst than by the van tilting slightly onto it's side.
'That's the first time I've heard you swear. What's wrong?'
Hina backed up and turned the headlights on to discover that they had been about to drive off the edge of the road. With the sharp turns and high mountain roads, she figured it was better to risk attracting Biters than to drive off the edge.
Swati shouted out from the back.
'I see two of them!'
Mayukh followed her outstretched hand and he saw two Biters less than ten feet away, just ahead of the van, lit up by the headlights. The Biters seemed as surprised to see them, and they raised their hands to their eyes as the headlights hit them. Hina stepped on the gas and sped towards them, and they all felt the bumps as they ran over the Biters and sped on. It was a sign of just how much all of them had changed that not one of them flinched when they ran over the Biters.
It was now just past midnight, and they all knew that they could not just drive around all night and hope to survive attack after attack. They had to find some place to last the night and then continue their journey when the Sun rose. They turned into a road that led to a cluster of tightly packed buildings on both sides of the road. As far as they could see, the houses were deserted, but there was no telling who, or what, might be lurking inside.
Suddenly the van lurched to a halt, and Hina slumped against the steering wheel.
'Hina, what's wrong?'
She did not answer Mayukh's question and David turned towards her.
'Are you feeling okay?'
She smiled at him, and for the first time since the escape from the Ashram, he got a good look at her face. She was pale, and seemed to be struggling to keep her eyes open. Mayukh reached over from the back and touched her shoulder.
'Hina, do you need a break from driving?'
Hina smiled and coughed, and David felt his heart catch in his mouth as blood trickled out of her mouth.
'Son, I think I'm done.'
David reached out to feel her and his hand came back slick with blood. He got out of the van and asked Mayukh to help him in pulling Hina out. Now, they had no choice but to seek refuge in one of the adjoining buildings. David picked a second floor Clinic and they half carried, half dragged Hina up the stairs. It was a small two room affair, but David thought their best bet if attacked was to have the Biters come up a narrow passage like the one the stairs presented so they could defend it.
It was pitch black inside, so Mayukh and Swati turned on their cellphones so they could at least see what was wrong with Hina. What they saw shocked them.
Her chest and torso were covered with blood and now she was coughing loudly, blood coming out of the corners of her mouth.
'That bald bastard shot me.'
Mayukh held her hand, tears forming in his eyes as the full implication of what Hina had done for them sank in.
'You knew? Yet you…'
Hina coughed again and said through gritted teeth.
'Son, take care of Swati and Abhi. Promise me you and Swati will be there for each other. That would make an old trashy romance novelist rest in peace.'
David took her head on his lap, and he felt tears sting his cheeks as she addressed him.
'Abhi. He must make it. Please…'
Those were her final words as she breathed her last.
Swati was crying loudly and Mayukh was sitting against the wall, tears now flowing freely. David had lost many good men in combat, but never had one's death hit him quite as hard as Hina's. She had not been a professional soldier. Indeed, if anything, she was quite the antithesis. An aging romance novelist and Professor. Yet, in her last moments she had shown selfless courage that David was not sure even he was capable of. He cradled her head and cried.
Their mourning was cut short by noises coming from downstairs. Their cellphones were off in an instant and Mayukh was at the door, where he saw shapes moving up the stairs. He couldn't see much other than their darkened silhouettes, but their jerky movements gave him a pretty good idea who they were. Any doubt he had was dispelled when one of them screamed-the same ululating screech that he had now come to recognize well. He unslung his shotgun and fired, and fired again. He kept pumping the shotgun and pulling the trigger till it clicked empty. He kept pulling the trigger for several seconds after he had run out of shells, his ears ringing from the blasts, trying to take out all his anger at Hina's loss on the damned Biters coming for them. He felt David behind him.
'They're gone, kid. They're gone.'
David and Mayukh moved Hina's body to the second room. They badly wanted to give her a better resting place, but the best they could do was to put a blanket on top of her. Being in a clinic had one advantage-they could tend to their wounds. David figured he needed some stitches on his head, since the wound there was still bleeding, but he made do with slathering it with antibiotic cream and bandaging it. His left hand seemed to have four broken fingers, and while he put a makeshift splint on it, he knew it was as good as useless. He peeled off his uniform to see that he had been grazed in at least three places by shotgun pellets, but the worst of them were surface flesh wounds which looked much worse than they were, and needed some cleaning up and bandaging. Mayukh's head wound was less serious, but they didn't take any chances, and bandaged him as well. They found a few bottles of drinking water, and drained them, but there was no food in sight
They were all hungry and dead tired, but none of them slept that night. They sat huddled against each other, facing the stairs, starting at every noise they heard. Abhi was between Swati and Mayukh, and to his credit, not once did he ask for milk or a fresh diaper. All of them, in their own ways, small and big, had risen to the occasion and discovered courage and strength to carry on. And Hina's sacrifice had galvanized them in deciding that now they would not give up.
Abhi spoke so softly hardly anyone heard him.
'Hina aunty's is in Heaven now, isn't she? Can she still hear us?'
Mayukh stroked Abhi's hand and spoke, choking with emotion as he did.
'Yes, Abhi, I think she can.'
'Then I want her to know that I love her.'
They all huddled even closer, their eyes open and moist as they waited for the Sun to rise.
***
On daybreak, the first thing they did was to take stock of what they could find in the clinic or adjoining houses and shops that might be useful for the journey that lay ahead. Swati found four bottles of mineral water in a house and they put them inside the van, as they did some bandages and antiseptics from the clinic. Swati had been putting the water into the van when Abhi suddenly cried out.
'Cake!'
They all gathered near him to see the broken glass windows and unhinged door of what used to be a bakery. In the display case was a single piece of cake. Mayukh felt his stomach growl and his mouth water, so he certainly couldn't blame Abhi for rushing into the room.
'Let me have a look first.'
David picked up the piece and saw that it was spoilt, green fungus appearing where vanilla icing once had.
'I'm sorry, Abhi, this is not nice anymore.'
'But I'm so hungry!'
Swati's heart broke to see her little brother like this, but she knew David was right. The last thing they needed was for one of them to fall sick from eating spoilt food. They got in the van, with Swati driving. With only one hand useful, David could not drive, and this left Mayukh free to use the shotgun in case they encountered a threat. They drove through meandering hill roads for at least an hour, seeing nothing but tall trees by the edge of the roads, till Swati stopped.
'We are idiots!'
Everyone was shocked by her outburst and then she burst out laughing.
'We're so used to getting food in boxes and packages that we've forgotten where it all comes from!'
With that, she stopped the van and ran out towards the nearest tree, and Mayukh saw what she had in mind. He felt like kicking himself for not thinking of it earlier. They were driving by the edge of an apple orchard, and less than ten feet from them were several trees laden with fresh apples. The all joined in trying to get at the apples that hung tantalizingly close at hand. However, soon it became apparent that whatever could have been plucked had already been stripped bare. So they tried hoisting Abhi onto Mayukh's shoulders at which he squealed in delight.
'See, I'm as tall as a Giraffe!'
After what seemed to be an eternity, they found themselves laughing especially when he quickly plucked two apples. But beyond that, everything else was out of reach. They divided the two apples between them and devoured them in minutes and Mayukh said that he would try to climb one of the tress, when Abhi suddenly said aloud.
'That girl has apples for us.'
They turned and looked on astonished at a little girl, no more than six or seven years old, who stood just feet away, munching way at an apple with several more apples lying in a basket that she had looped around her arm. She looked at them, without a trace of fear, and then slipped into the thick forest behind her. Mayukh followed her, and after a second's thought, David and Swati followed him, Abhi holding onto Swati's hand.
Mayukh struggled to keep up with the girl as she turned and twisted through the thick overgrowth and around the trees. He kept calling out to her to wait, and that they meant no harm. Suddenly, he found himself in a clearing and was soon joined by David and Swati.
'Where did the girl go?'
Mayukh looked around but could see no sign of her. Tired, sleep deprived and famished, he was panting from the short chase and he went down on his haunches, trying to catch his breath.
'David, she seems to have disappeared. Anyways, that was a waste of time. Let's get back to the van.'
They had begun to turn back when from the trees around them men rappelled down using ropes and surrounded them. The men were bare-chested and wearing tattered loin cloths and they were all armed, carrying a mixture of knives, axes and sticks. Mayukh held up his shotgun and could see David bringing up his pistol when David asked him to stop.
'Mayukh, there must be twenty of them. At such close quarters, we'll get one or two before they butcher us. Somehow I don't think they mean to attack us.'
Mayukh brought his shotgun down and took a closer look at the men around them. They all looked terrified, their eyes wide in panic and fear, and when he put his gun down, he could sense them palpably relax. One of them, slightly taller and better built than the others, stepped forward, examining Mayukh and his friends. His gaze seemed to linger on Abhi and then Mayukh could see the hint of a smile forming on his face. He looked at Abhi.
'Are you the one, little boy?'
Abhi looked up at the man, and said, with defiance in his voice.
'I am three, not one. I am a big boy now.'
Despite the tension in the air, Mayukh, Swati and David couldn't help but smile and the man in front of Abhi also laughed out loud. The tension seemed to dissipate as the man whistled and his friends seemed to ease up and lower their weapons. A dozen or more women now appeared from within the trees, many with small children tied to their backs and others leading children by the hand. The girl they had seen on the road was there, still carrying her apples. The man who had spoken to Abhi motioned to the girl and she gave them an apple each, which they bit into gratefully. The man looked at some of the others standing behind him.
'Four of you stand watch.'
Then he sat down, and Mayukh and the others followed suit.
'My name is Ganesh. We were all workers in the orchards here before the….problems started. The first night the demons came to our village and took many of us so those that remained hid in the orchards.'
'Ganesh, how have you stayed safe so long?'
The man seemed a bit surprised at how fluent David was in Hindi, not knowing that as a Special Forces operator, he was fluent in Urdu so he could blend into the local populace of Pakistan, and that was close enough to Hindi for him to be understood.
'We have all grown up in these orchards since we were children, so we hid during the day and at night, we climbed up into the trees.'
Now that he mentioned it, Mayukh took a closer look at the trees and saw thatched areas on each tree, almost looking like nests. He smiled in admiration at the ingenuity Ganesh and his friends had shown to survive so long.
'Uncle, can you swing from one tree to another like Tarzan?'
Ganesh looked at Abhi, puzzled since he had never heard of Tarzan, and so Abhi tried a different tack.
'No, no, maybe like George of the Jungle!'
Now, his stomach full with an apple in it, Abhi was back to full form as he began singing.
'George, George, George of the jungle, friend to you and me…'
Swati was trying to hush him in vain as everyone smiled. Ganesh's eyes suddenly turned serious.
'We heard about the Ashram and the fact that the boy was there.'
Mayukh was now really curious about how everyone seemed to know about Abhi so he asked Ganesh.
'Everyone knows. At a time like this, any flicker of hope spreads like a wildfire. One of our women supplied apples to the Ashram in return for food supplies, and she heard about the boy who cannot be hurt by the demons.'
Two women brought forward a meal of rice and boiled potatoes and placed it in front of Mayukh and the others, ladling the food onto leaves. It was a simple meal but as Mayukh put the hot rice in his mouth, he thought it was the most delicious meal he had ever had. Swati spoke to one of the women serving them.
'Thank you. I know you must have limited food, so thank you for sharing it with us.'
The woman looked at Swati and gently tousled Abhi's hair.
'Daughter, I am an uneducated apple picker, and I don't know or understand many things, but in the midst of all this darkness, this boy is the only sign of hope we have.'
Ganesh touched Mayukh's arm gently, almost pleading with him.
'Keep him safe and see if he can help us remove this darkness that has fallen upon us.'
It was now close to ten in the morning, and Mayukh heard from Ganesh that Ladakh was a good five hour drive away. He wanted to get going as soon as they could, but they were all dead tired and badly needed some rest and sleep. Ganesh and his friends laid out some blankets in the orchard and they slept, asking to be woken up in a couple of hours. For the first time in many days, Mayukh slept peacefully and when he was awakened by a gentle nudge from Swati, he woke with a smile on his face.
'Why are you smiling?'
Mayukh sat up and held her hand, trying to remember and savour every detail of his dream.
'I saw us-me, you, Abhi. Together. Walking into a mall, eating fast food, watching a movie, doing the small things we took for granted.'
Mayukh could see Swati's eyes start to fill with tears, when Abhi cut in.
'If we're having fast food, I want French Fries.'
They laughed and got up to prepare for what they all hoped would be the last leg of their journey.
***
It was now just past one in the afternoon and they had driven for almost an hour through a landscape that saw the lush orchards of the Manali area slowly but surely give way to long stretches of barren rock, a forerunner of the desolate mountain passes they were headed towards. Swati was still driving, with Mayukh sitting in the back, playing the role of part babysitter and part gunner, with Abhi on his lap and his shotgun by his side. David was watching all the road signs and was trying to ensure that they did not get lost in the hilly passes. Despite it being in the middle of the afternoon, the cold was already getting so severe that they stopped once to put on an extra layer of clothes, and eat some more apples to give them more energy.
David saw Swati's breath quicken as she seemed to be gasping for air, so he asked her to pull over.
'Swati, we're now at much higher altitude than you may be used to, and the air will keep getting thinner. So the oxygen may not go to your brain as efficiently as it normally does. Don't panic, just take slow, deep breaths and you should be okay.'
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.