“Wake up shyam”, shouted manoj from outside. I was startled at first and then remembered that today was Sunday and we had planned for a movie. I came to my balcony and asked him the time and he replied “dear sir, you are just 1 hour late from your usual time.” I felt a disgusting feeling under me and replied coolly “is it so?” I called him up and made him comfortable at my room and rushed to my bathroom. After exactly 30 minutes i heard a call from outside that i was now an hour and a half late. I stopped the shower and cleaned myself thoroughly, then adjusted my hair and wore my blue denim and a white ‘text t’ which said “i am never too late.” As i came out manoj almost boxed me. We then rushed to our bike and went out with a guilty smile on our face. We stopped our bike at a panwallah’s shop and asked him to pack 3 bottles of cold-drink and 7-8 packets of chips. Next i took out my mobile and called to sweety and manoj called mansi. They reached the shop by 5 mins with a bag hanging loosely at their back. Both of them looked good and then we were off. We were going to the nearby city for movie, lunch and a fast drive over the main highway through the forests and back to our city by 6 p.m. We had just planned everything the last day. We stopped our bikes at a petrol pump nearby and got our tanks full. I gave out my credit card and by a minute or two they returned it to me saying “ hey give the correct card, this is a blocked one” and then to my horror i remembered that I had picked up the wrong one at home. I felt ashamed but as always there was a silver lining in the clouds. I found out that i had enough cash in my wallet. We then rushed to the next city at a high speed. We both were good riders. We enjoyed our way and by 12 we reached the “inox” of that city. Manoj went inside and got the tickets of the movie of 3p.m. We went for lunch at the nearby restaurant and ate to our full. We ordered everything that we could and celebrated, enjoyed the day. We couldn’t get up from our seat and all of ours stomach popped out. We however went to our bikes and rushed to “inox”. We reached there 5 minutes before the show and got ourselves seated with popcorn and cold drink each and for god’s sake we were not in a mood to eat anything but for formality we took it. The movie started and all went in a fix. Mansi’s cold-drink fell down and mine too. Something vibrated and then we realised that it was a slight earthquakes reaction. We just had a laugh and sat back for our movie once again. It was a love story of a politician and a normal girl turned into a politician. It was first time i ever saw a movie in which a girl loved a boy but the boy didn’t. It was amazing. We liked it and it was 6 by that time. We had just 1 hour to reach home. We rushed out of the theatre and jumped on our bikes. We accelerated off to the highway. We screamed and enjoyed a lot. On the way before the forest we had tea and bhajia. I thought to skip the plan of the forest and the highway once more but nothing works in a group of 4 with ratio 1:3. We entered the forest and crossed about 1 kilometre and found something unusual. There were two to three people standing on each side at distances. I felt a bit scared and actually we all four were but my terror turned into horror when i saw at a distant. There were lamps of fire and when i turned back we were completely surrounded. I felt almost unconscious when i remembered last days headline “a man murdered by tribal’s in the forest area.” As i was hoping that it would not be this forest i saw a skeleton or to say more properly a heap of dead bodies at a distance of where we were standing. Two men came to us and tied our hands. We were pushed to their camp where there were posts made with choppers. We had lost our thinking sense and they tied us to the post. They tossed the names that who would be killed first. The first one was to be my dearest friend manoj. They untied his hands. He hugged us and then mansi exclaimed “if he has to be killed then you should kill me first.” The boss told they don’t kill girls but she argued. I went and brought her back. She couldn’t see how manoj was stripped of and then with just one choke the blade went through his body. We three gave out a scream as it was natural. Mansi went and sat beside manoj’s body. She was weeping continuously and even we two couldn’t stop our tears. It was my turn next and i don’t know what happened to me, a feeling of confidence came to me. I went all by myself and stood on the stand. All my good times i spend with my family, friends, and sweety came to my mind as a slide show was being presentated to me. I couldn’t stop thinking what they would do to the girls after my death, will they leave her or they will also meet disastrous ends. As i was thinking all this i heard the police siren coming nearer and nearer. They got panicked and in this we three got a chance to escape from there. As we were running i realised someone was following us. As i turned around i saw one of the tribals coming nearer with a bow and arrow. I thought our end has come but to my astonishment he said “here sir take your bike keys, run from here as fast as you can, I’m leaving you because in you i see my son and please never come to this place again.” I took the key thanked that man, gave him a 500 rupee note and ran to my bike. There i saw the police van. They at once put us into their van and there we got water to drink. I heard several gunshots and then it was over. The police inspector came to us and told the boss had run away. I jumped out of the van and took mansi with me. I took the pistol from police and told him that he could arrest me after i come back. I knew where the boss was as i had seen him running. I went to his place and first shot him on his leg so that he couldn’t run, next I asked mansi to shoot that guy. She was astonished but in anger she picked up the gun and shot that man who had killed manoj. Her manoj. She was overwhelmed with joy. I went to the police and surrendered. He was also a light-hearted person and told that in an encounter the whole gang was killed. I couldn’t thank him but my friends deaths memories throughout the way saddened me. We reached our city by 1.30 the next morning. All my family members were very happy to see me. When Manoj’s family got the news of her son’s death they were grievened and his grandfather whom he dearly loved got a heart stroke. After that day i never went anywhere without mansi as after that incident five times she tried to commit suicide. She was in a mental disbalance state. One day in our conversation we wanted to know how the police reached there. Then my father explained “the police actually went there for investigation of the murder but then they heard laughing voices of the tribal so they first covered the whole forest by force and then they attacked.” I was amazed but i only thought that if they would attack before 10 minutes my most lovely friend would be alive whose memory i can never forget throughout my life.
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