Asrasya Chapter 2: NOWHERE

Noise of water splashing suddenly woke him up breathless, grasping for all the air he could to fill his lungs without bursting it open. He instantaneously got up and sat on the edge of the bed. This startled his dog who was sitting near the bed’s foot a little and started barking looking at him. His eyes were reddish, sweating all over the body. It was a cold morning, even being topless he was sweating like an athlete after hours of workout. He was still breathing heavily with both of his hands on the edge of the bed for the support. He shifted towards the pot which was placed beside his bed. He took a glass full of water from the pot and gulped it down quickly like he was thirsty from the ages. Even after drinking water he was still breathing heavily. He took another glass of water from the pot and swallowed it rapidly again. It calmed him a little and started breathing normally, now even his dog sat quickly down on the floor still staring at him. It was not the first time that this type of incident has happened, it had happened numerous times in the past.

“Don’t know what time it is, but I am starving, aren’t you?” He looked at the puppy who was still looking at him. He stood up.

“I don’t think we have anything in stock right now.” He said while looking at the jars and containers. “But let me check.” He continued while walking towards the shelf.

He searched a few jars and containers and not surprisingly found nothing. “Like I said there is nothing in stock.”

“Looks like we need to go shopping.” He continued, he opened a jar that was empty with just a piece of paper in it. He took it out, looked at it, it was some kind of list and held it in his fist.

He first went towards another pot and fetched some water and washed his face properly. Then to the closet and got his shirt. He wore his shirt which was pretty old and torn in many places. He took some money from the drawer that was kept on the shelf. He kept both money and list in his shirt's pocket.

“What are you waiting for, lets go.” He said while folding his sleeves, his wrist had a tattoo, some kind of barcode.

He opened the broken door of his house. The door was so shattered that sunlight was entering the house left, right and center. Even during the monsoon, the door let the water instead of stopping it. When he stepped outside, he was closing the door showing inside of his house. It was a plain house with no attractive interiors. It was a simple bed with no mattress, besides the bed was a water pot made of clay and a glass on it. Hardly 6-7 feet away from the pot was a kitchen made of a stove, 2-3 dishes and a few bowls kept on a plastic table. Besides it was a rusty shelf to keep jars and containers for food stock. And beside it was a small closet made of woods that clearly indicated it was recycled for his clothes. In the middle of the room, there were 2 small bowls, one was half filled with water and the other was empty, both were for his dog.

He closed the door from outside and locked it, even though there wasn’t anything valuable in there. He turned around and looked in the opposite direction of his house, towards the town he was going to visit for his grocery. Town was way too far from his current location, his house was situated on the mountain’s step. He had to cross the valley to reach the town. Town was surrounded by mountains from all the sides. Main entrance to the town, the portal that connects town to the outside world was on the opposite side of the town. So the order was entrance to the town guarded by the pillars of mountain, road carved in valley, town, again the raw road through valley to his current location. Town was remotely located and was not so rich but it was moderate considering there was the latest technology handy in everyone’s day to day life. Even on a chilly morning, the sun was shining bright from behind the range of mountains. Sun would be visible late in the morning and would set early because of a mountain that stood guarding the town. He looked at the town and knew he had a huge distance to cover.

“Let’s get going, we have to get home back soon. It's Sunday, so I’d like to rest the whole day.”

Both started walking towards the town. It was a special day of a week for town, every resident on Sunday used to organise a small internal market where every villager would provide their service like carpentry or cobblering or items from their farm in exchange for money. Market was situated in the middle of the town. Everyone of them had something to offer in the market. Market would start early in the morning and would end at sunset.

He and his dog crossed the valley and were now in plain fields walking towards the town. He didn’t have any watch on him but he could figure out time watching the position of the sun, it was roughly 11 A.M. 

As usual, the town market was set up and everyone was in the market leaving the town vacant. Some were in there to sell their products while others were present to buy. Everyone would eventually return to their home at noon, for lunch till then it would remain as a deserted village. A scream was heard in the middle of nowhere. A boy was running in town yelling like he was being chased. And that was true, he was being chased by a gang of boys. He was trying to run as fast as possible towards the middle where the market was organised, where he could be safe. Kids chasing him had sticks and stones in their hand and were throwing it on the kids occasionally. Even at his full speed, the market was still far from his spot. One of the kids threw rock at him which hit him and he lost his balance, trying to gain his balance he slowed down a little. Unfortunately, his foot tripped over the rock that was emerging from the uneven ground. Before he could get up and run again, the gang caught up with him and surrounded him.

“Nowhere to run now?” One of them said.

“This could have been avoided only if you could have kept your mouth shut.” Someone said who clearly looked like the leader of this gang. He looked like a spoiled brat. His clothes were relatively nicer than others.

“If we cheat, why does it bother you? Don’t worry, now you will have a reason to keep your mouth shut figuratively and literally.”

Saying this he raised his fist to punch. The kid on the ground closed his eyes and crossed both of his arms in self defense. Other kids surrounding him were laughing. They threw away the sticks and stones.

“Hey” someone shouted from the distance.

To look who interrupted their business, all of them turned towards the source of voice. Their faces went pale and their eyes and jaws opened. Some of them were even shivering. It was him with his dog walking towards them.

Some of the kids from the gang ran away from the scene, though Brat was still standing there in fear looking at his comrades run.

“Hey what are you doing? Why are you harassing the kid?” He asked simply.

Brat screamed and ran away from there while the kid on the ground was frozen in fear. While both him and his dog were walking towards them. All the kid could see was both of them approaching him.

“Hey kid, are you okay? Are you hurt?” He asked the kid on the ground extending his hands for him to get up on his feet. Kid was just looking at his face in terror.

“Hey can you hear me?” He asked again.

This question snapped the kid back to reality. He got up and started running away from him screaming again. While running he was about to lose his balance and fall again but he somehow managed to control it and flee successfully. Looking at the disappearing image of the boy, he took his hands back while nodding his head horizontally looking at his dog. He and his dog again started walking towards the market.

Strolling down the town he finally reached the market which was overcrowded, people bustling around, with too much noise. Walking down the street, everyone parted from his way avoiding him. Everyone stared at him like he was some kind of criminal like a disgust and horror, some even looked at him in pity. Many of them looked away just to avoid eye contact. There was nothing wrong with him, he was not ugly nor disfigured. In fact he was well built and somewhat attractive.

There was gossip among others in the market after he passed them or even when they saw him from far away. One such incident was he passed the group of 4-5 men, who were just standing there idle. All of them except 1 looked anywhere else but at him, while that 1 guy was looking at him neutrally.

“What is wrong with you?” One of them asked the guy who looked at him.

“Why? What happened?” He replied in questions.

All of them just gave a weird look to that 1 guy, while 1 person turned back to look at him, “Why is he here today?”

“Yeah, he creeps me out too..” Other person replied.

“Why? Why does he ‘Creeps’ you out?” He asked. “I mean he is not doing anything to anyone, he is just walking down harmlessly. Everyone is looking at him like he is some kind of criminal.”

“I don’t know, he just gives out the not so friendly vibes that I cannot just explain it to you.” Another replied.

“He does small time jobs like constructing houses, breaking stones and all sorts of odd jobs.” First person replied.

“And that is suspicious because no one is allowed to do that, it's a crime to earn money?” He said sarcastically trying to control and hide the laugh.

“You are saying this because you haven’t seen him at work. We all work for the same construction contractor. We have seen him pulling tasks which are no laughing matter. He breaks the biggest rocks with a single blow and even picks heaviest stuff effortlessly without breaking sweat.” First person replied.

“Yeah that is so freakishly creepy, how can he do that? It’s not like he is well built or something. Oh wait he is.” He was on roll with his sarcasm.

“To give you his actual strength, let me tell you about an incident. We all were working on building a big house which was supposed to be a 2 storey house with a terrace. Our work was done for the ground floor and we were putting the foundation of rods and cements for the 1st floor. We almost had put up a raw unstructured floor for the 1st storey. While many of the crew were working on the ground floor which included him too, an unstructured floor due to unknown reason just couldn’t hold it and collapsed. Many of them feared it was the last day of life, if not death this accident would leave all of them disabled for life. But a miracle happened, he was working in some corner alone, just appeared in the middle of the floor and was holding the whole floor lifting it above all of them with just his hands. He yelled all of them to move out as fast as they could, he cannot balance the whole floor, it will break and fall down any time now. Fortunately everyone got out safely and then he just let it collapse and came out unharmed. Now focus on his words, ‘he cannot balance the whole floor it will break’, not that he cannot hold it much longer, he does not have enough power to hold it.” Third guy narrated the incident.

“He always asks for our old clothes that were to be thrown away anyway. He came to his town with literally nothing. He was just in underwear and some kind of blue gown. He was sitting on the entrance of town mostly sitting in dirt and in the shadow of the tree. All of the villagers ignored and avoided him. He was there for 4-5 days without any food.” Second guy tried to explain to him.

“Finally one person took pity on him, gave him some food and his old used clothes. He ate it hurriedly. Asked him if he is willing to work for him. That was the owner of a small construction company that we all work for including him. From that day he started working for a construction contractor as a labour. Owner time to time gives his old clothes.” First person added to the conversation.

“Freaky part is, he sometimes zones out while working and screams in horror when he snaps back to reality. Sometimes he just keeps hammering big rock and forgetting to stop even when the rock has turned into small pieces of stones.” Same person continued.

“Once we were all doing some labour work of breaking the rocks, summer was at its peak, the sun was hotter than any other day and was directly on our head. We were all exhausted before lunch and sitting in the shadow of trees nearby trying not to faint. But not this guy, he was working without breaking any sweat. He even sometimes forgets to eat his lunch.”

“Speaking of lunch all he brings is a few rotis and jagger or pickle sometimes. Yet manages to work with the same or even more strength than all of us combined. And when I say all of us I mean every crew member works with us.”

“No one knows where he came from. We tried to initiate conversation with him many times but all we get is silent treatment and sometimes even rude behaviour, he just walks away from us.”

He was just confused about what to make out with all the stories narrated to him. He chose to listen to them and forget about it later as he didn’t have to deal with him ever. So why care about it?

As he and his dog walked down the market, he passed two hawkers who were sitting beside the road who were deeply engaged in casual conversation. They didn’t even bother to look at him. One of them was selling vegetables and other fruits, both of them were sitting under the shadow of some kind of shared tent they made to save themselves from rain or the sun.

“Did you notice it?” One hawker said.

“Yeah I just noticed, why is he and his dog doing here?” Another hawker responded.

First one looked here and there to get what other hawker tried to say and finally spotted him and his dogs that had already walked away further from them.

“Not him, you idiot. Did you notice the ground just moved.”

“Are you still drunk from last night? Maybe it is you who is moving while the ground is still.” He asked making fun of first hawker. “Oh look, that rickshaw is moving too.” he continued pointing at the rickshaw whose just rear end was visible from their position. Front end was covered by people standing there.

But to shock both of them, the rickshaw did move. This scared the hell out of both of them but then they realized the driver was driving it out of the crowd.

“You know I think it is that driver who is moving the ground too.” He poked some more fun at first hawker and started laughing.

Ground moved again, this time a little more violent. And this time another hawker noticed it too. They could feel ground shaking and one of them even heard a weird noise like something big just crashed into something even bigger. Since it was like a chamber made out of mountains, it echoed and he couldn’t pinpoint the source of the sound.

“That is weird, I could feel the earth shaking even now but it doesn’t feel like an earthquake. It is just moving . Even with ground shaking for this much time, it is not damaging anything.” Second hawker tried to make sense of it but was still puzzled.

He and his dog were still wandering down the lane of the busy market. He didn’t pay any attention to all the people making faces at him. He reached the middle of the market where there was a big grocery store which was kind of a hub for every kind of grocery available for the village. He decided to enter the shop to restock everything needed for him that could last at least 3-4 days. He ordered his dog to stay out, quiet and not to bother anyone else. He entered the shop, the smile of the shop owner sitting on the cash registry who was working on something on his register disappeared when he saw him entering the shop. People standing in that shop waiting for their products shifted inside when he entered the shop. They tried to keep more distance between them and him, he was still ignoring everyone’s behaviour towards him.

“What do you need?” Shop owner asked him. To his question, he took out the list from the shirt's upper pocket and handed his list of groceries to the owner. 

“You.” Owner pointed his finger towards one of the workers who was already serving others.

“Me?” the worker asked in confusion.

“If I am pointing at you, that means I’m talking to you.” Owner answered a little irritated.

“Yes sir.” The worker replied a little frightened.

“Give this man what he wants first and send him back on his way fast.” Owner said looking down at his register. “I don't want him anywhere near the shop.” He continued.

“Give him your list. He’ll provide you with everything.” Owner said handing his list back without even looking up. He took the list and went further in. People that were already in, moved away from him, some went further while some took this opportunity and came outside. He handed his list to the worker. Worker took a look at his list and went inside the godown to fetch all things required and took the list with him. After some good time, he came back with all the products and groceries with him in a big bag and placed it in front of him.

“How much for all of this?” He asked, putting his hand in his shirt’s upper pocket.

As the worker was about to say the price of all things, “Do not take a single dime from him. Give him his stuff and let him go already.`` The shop owner said, who was working on his register and was also listening to everything that was happening in the store. He took out his hand out of pocket and was about to pick the hefty bags. Suddenly a glass jar fell down from the shelf near the same worker serving him and broke into pieces. His dog sitting outside started barking and howling looking into the sky.

“This was bound to happen, told you let him go, he is a bad omen for all of us.” Owner yelled. And suddenly all of the jars started falling down from the shelf all over the store. Owner stood up fast to show him the door, he fell down on his back. Everyone present in the store felt some kind of tremor in the ground and was not able to stand properly. Everyone was losing their balance.

“Heyyyy!” A guy outside the store yelled at the top of his lungs looking and pointing at the mountain. Everyone tried their best to come out and look at what he was looking at. Everyone outside looked worried and scared and were looking in the same direction that man was pointing at. No one could believe what their eyes were seeing. The mountain that stood as a pillar as entrance to the town was shaking violently and was erupting stones and boulders like a volcano throws lava. All rubles and debris were sliding down from the top of the mountain. It was a horror show, about to end everyone’s life. He managed to come out of the store, looked at the mountain and looked back at his dog who was still howling at the mountain. He facepalmed himself.