train 9 2 11 (the end part)

I GOT TERRIFIED WHEN THE PHONE STARTED RINGING. I was reluctant to pick up the receiver. What was more surprising was, the booth owner picked the receiver saying, “Sorry for the inconvenience that call is for me.”
He talked very softly and hurriedly. He ended the call within less than a minute. I came out of the booth. The light was still falling on the milestone. I decided no matter whatsoever I’m going to trace the source of the light. I started towards the telephone pole again. While was walking towards the pole I felt like someone was following me, I slowly turned back to see if anyone was following me… TTHHUUUDDD!!!!.... Aaaaahhhaa… I received a heavy blow on my head, I started to bleed heavily…. And started losing my consciousness.

next day 6:00am
I started gaining my conscious. I slowly opened my eyelids. I was on the hospital bed. My forehead was heavily bandaged. As I was trying to get up off the bed, there was a voice from behind.
“Hey pranky, just lie down, why are you getting up?”
I turned to see who it was. And surprise, it was DCP Ram.
“Hey good morning sir thanks for joining me in the hospital.”
“Hey that’s nothing compared to the way you helped us!”
“Stop kidding sir, how did I help you?”

DCP Ram came near my bed and sat next to me. “Ok now sit tight and listen, I’m going to narrate the list events happened yesterday night. Well it all starts like this, I get tip off that train no. 9211 is going to blasted tomorrow morning. This train is a new one, which was to flagged off today morning. But every next moment I receive a call that Godavari express was bombed. Well no one knows this fact that it was actually bombed and not the fire accident due to cylinder blast. When I reached railway station, I saw you there, I wanted to meet you right then but I had some work to attend. After an hour or so I searched for you, I saw you near the telephone booth. When I was coming to you, I saw you going towards the secluded place. I followed you. I saw you observing the telephone pole, I was about to call you and I saw a dubious character in the bushes right behind. He came out of bushes to attack but you started running towards the platform. That person went into bushes again. I thought of seizing that person but I had second thoughts. So I was following you. I saw you sending off your friends and then saw you once again going to telephone booth, but you came out soon. This time that dubious person was outside the booth standing next to you. You once again started towards the pole; I got a telephone call just then. By the time I finished the call I saw that person attacked you with a rod. I fired at him. We arrested him and took him for interrogation. He revealed that due to lack of proper communication his team member blasted the bomb in the Godavari express. The actual plan was to plant the bomb at the first track parallel to the milestone. It went off, as it was not properly triggered. Then after the incident, they thought of implementing their second plan. The plan was to call the telephone in the telephone booth to implicate everything was okay to plant the bomb. Moreover, telephone booth owner was the team leader. But you spoiled their plan by walking over to the spot frequently. And that red light which was falling on the milestone was the indication for the spot where the bomb was to be planted.”

“Boy thank God! They didn’t shoot me… sir but that train which arrived to the station and got halted far away from the station.”
“Well that’s TRAIN 9 2 11!”

train 9 2 11 ..... continued part 4

OH SHIT! I COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT I WAS SEEING. There was another train nearing the station on the third track. I started sweating heavily; I could not think what I should do next. First thing I thought was to take Rachana out of the station, so I ran towards the platform. While I reached the telephone booth Rachana was talking to her mom on the phone, I squinted for the wire, which was not the telephone wire. I bent down the phone box and watched for the probable interfaced bomb. After the close watch, I saw no bomb triggering circuit. But one thing was apparent that it’s not the telephone wire, as the wire was approaching from the different pole. When Rachana finished her call, we came out of the telephone booth. I saw that the other train halted some 100yards away from the station.
While Rachana and I were exiting the platform, I turned towards to the pole again. I saw an unusual thing out there; there was red light falling on the milestone near the telephone pole. I thought of saying about the things I observed to Rachana, but felt that it will do no good. To my respite, I saw Rachana’s cousin in the station.
“Rachana, you people all right?”
“We are fine Mahi.”
Mahi turned to me. “Thanks for accompanying her”
“Mahi, are you also going to Vizag?”
“Yeah Avinash.”
“Rachana, well sorry to say but …. I want to return Hyderabad. You go to Vizag along with Mahi.”
“What happened to you? You feeling all right Avinash”, Rachana asked me worriedly.
I turned to her and said softly, “Rachana seeing this accident, am bit down and I really think it would be better if I go back to Hyderabad.”
“Ok fine, anyway thanks for accompanying me”
“Hmm… now what’s the need to thank me huh?” I said smiling at her foolishly.

At 22:20pm, Rachana and Mahi boarded the bus towards Vizag. I bid them goodbye and returned to the station. I again saw the milestone. There was still red light falling on it. I tried to trace the path from where it was coming, but it was difficult to trace. This time I didn’t wanted to go near the pole as it may probably being observed.I went towards the telephone booth for calling Prashanth. Now the rush at the booth was little less. After five minutes, I got my turn to utilize the phone. I stretched forward my hand to lift the receiver………… Trigg….tringggggg…..trig…tringgggg…!

(will be continued ............ very soon i guess)

train 9 2 11 .... continued!

LATER THERE WERE MORE THAN FIFTY REPORTERS IN STATION AND AN OVERFLOW CROWD OUTSIDE ON THE PLATFORM. There were representatives from television, radio, and the press, many of them loaded down with microphones and television gear. They all seemed to be speaking at once.
“We’ve heard reports that it was not a fire accident due to blast of cylinder….”
“Is it true it was a terrorist attack…?”
“Is the government trying to hide the truth from the people?”
The police officer raised his voice to regain control.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t tell you lot anything now not before any investigation takes place. It is our government’s firm policy that if we should come across any such evidence, we would immediately make that information available to the public. If there are no further questions…..”

It was 2200hrs and I was feeling hungry. I brought two food packets given by relief party out there. Rachana and I ate.

I tried to call Prashanth’s mobile but there was no signal. Rachana and I walked over to telephone booth, which was crowded. While we were waiting near the booth, I noticed something odd, there were two different wires aligned with the conventional telephone wire. I followed the wire where was it coming from, after walking nearly 200 yards from the booth I found the telephone pole, but the wire, which aligned along with telephone wire, was coming from the other direction. OH S H I T !!!!!
(to be continued............... soon)

TRAIN 9 2 11 (continued)

“WHEN DID YOU COME TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FATHER?”
“There was a message for me when I got home. I was having lunch with Sindhu.”

I looked down at the biscuits. “I’m not really hungry right now. I’ll get something at the station later.”

Rachana started eating biscuits, and I took one for tasting purpose. It was eight o’clock in the evening. Train halted at some remote station, which was not properly lit. The passenger who was sleeping on the opposite seat was waked by the halt. He looked at his watch. He walked over to the door and cautiously opened it. In the doorway stood a short man, with thick glasses and a thin, sallow face.

“Excuse me,” the man said differently. “You have a lighter”.
“No”
“Do you have matchbox?”
“No,” he said rudely. He started to close the door.

Fifteen minutes later, as the fellow passenger was trying to sleep, we began to smell smoke. The smell was getting stronger. I stood up to open the door. The fellow passenger pushed against it. It held fast.
“Hello?” he called out. “What’s happening out there?”
There was no response.
“Hello?” I pressed my shoulder against the door, but there seemed to be something heavy on the other side of it closed. “Mister?”
There was no answer. The only sound we could hear was a loud crackling noise. The smell of the smoke was becoming overpowering. The bogie was on fire that is probably why he left. He must have gone to get help. The passenger slammed his shoulder against the door, but it would not budge. “HELP!” he screamed. “Get me out of here!”

Smoke was starting to pour under the door, and we could feel the heat of the flames beginning to lick at it. It was getting difficult to breathe. The passenger was starting to choke, Rachana became unconscious. The passenger also was beginning to lose consciousness. I slammed my shoulder against the door with whatever energy left, door budged a little. I slammed harder this time; door budged little more, which was enough for a man to get through. With great difficulty, I fished out both of them.

I pushed my way through the crowd of passengers and bystanders and hurried over to the concrete bench along with Rachana. Three bogies’ had been engulfing by the fire.
“How did it happen?” a bystander asked me.
“I don’t know.”

At 20:30hrs, the station began to fill with official vehicles, fire engines, ambulances, and police vehicles. I watched as two ambulance attendants pushed a gurney carrying a body into the ambulance. The body was of the man who smirked with the co-passenger.

(to be continued.............)

TRAIN 9 2 11

IT WAS FIVE O’CLOCK in the afternoon when I woke up. I opened my eyes reluctantly, not wanting to let go of the dream. The room stank of cigarettes and empty wine bottles. I rolled out of bed and almost fell as I stumbled over Prashanth, my friend, sleeping on the floor beside my bed.

He didn’t move as I walked across the room, rolled up the shade and opened the window. It was raining, some of the rain hit Prashanth. It didn’t wake him; he merely rolled over on his side. I circled around him to go into the bathroom. I still had an hour to get over to railway station and meet Rachana, my girlfriend. If I rushed, I could make it.

Twenty minutes later, I was on my way out the front door. I rushed across the rain-swept sidewalk and got into the car.

I jumped out of the car and dashed for the train. I made it just as the train was about to leave in ten minutes. Rachana was sitting at the window seat. “For heaven sake, Avinash,” she complained. “Why did you come so late?”
“What do you think? I was out looking for a gorgeous.”
“Oh, yeah?” she winked. “It was raining and you stayed in the bed waiting for it to stop.”
“You read my mind,” I said, winking back to her. She smiled as she gave me the peck on my cheek. “Two years, been dating you this much I can understand.” She said, teasingly.
She looked up to me out of the corner of her slightly slanted eyes. “Hmm… where is Prashanth?”
I smiled at her. “He’s probably waked up by now.”

I got into the train. Prashanth was standing in front of me. He was dressed gawkily. He turned as I came in. “You forgot train tickets at home.” He blasted on me. “How careless you are?”
Without answering, took the tickets and turned to my seat next to Rachana. She was laughing, and to my relief the train started moving. Prashanth got down the train. Quickly he trusted a bag of water bottle and biscuits in her hands. She took it and we both stood there and waved at him. He gestured towards parking lot. “I’m gonna have a roll with the car,” he shouted.
“Hey—“I called as he went through the door to the parking lot. He turned with a big smile and waved at us.

Rachana was attractive, in her early twenties, wearing black jeans, and white sleeveless top that has a message in pink on it. ‘SHORT CHICKS ROCK’… long enough to be sexy, but short enough to remind you she was probably smarter than you were.

“Without love, everything else is meaningless.”
She nodded weakly. Lovely.

“Avi” her voice was soft. “I’m sorry to bother you.”
I looked up to her. “That’s not at all a problem; Prashanth will take care of the project work”. She was silent for a moment, and then she nodded.
We had the rest of the journey without further talking.

(Stay glued…... adventure is yet to start!)
PS: Rachana’s father met with an accident and he was in critical condition. She asked me to come with her to Vizag to meet her father. Well this was for story.
Rachana was my plus one crush, the best one of all the crushes I had. : D