Shan

I rushed out of camp in no time. It was considerably dark and I wasn't carrying anything that could come in handy to illuminate the scene. All I could appreciate was a man, laying motionless on what seemed like a dampened surface.

Is this blood?

I thought to myself. Even the mere thought of a dead bleeding guy was frightening enough to send chills from my head to toe. I wasn't sure though, if it is actually blood since the dull moonlight was not sufficient to give a clear picture about what sort of fluid he was laying upon. I gathered all the courage and advance ahead to take a closer look when I notice that he wasn't entirely motionless. The security guard, who stopped me earlier, he was having constant vibratory motion throughout his body, as if he was jerking in a rhythmic fashion. His eyes were rolled up beneath his lids, his tongue was out and partially crushed between his teeth. Saliva was drooling from the corner of his mouth. Though he seemed conscious because his eyes are wide open, but he wasn't responding to any of my queries.

There was a single barrelled shotgun on the floor a couple of feet away with three empty cartridges close to it. As I raised my head in search of something that I can use to help that guy, I saw a faint diffused glow emerging from the village side. People must be heading our way with lanterns and whatever weapon they got their hands on.

While I was inspecting the surroundings, I shifted my gaze to the northeastern corner. What caught me off guard was the sight of a fiery creature. It was significantly distant from where I was. Roughly, the only details which were perceivable was the size and vague shape of that being. That thing had an apparent humanoid body. Even from that far away, I was able to appreciate it's four limbs, a head connected to its body by what seemed like a neck, but the size of that thing was enormous. Approximately, it was nine to ten feet tall, red-hot flaming entity. It was swiftly moving away on the opposite direction as if it was floating in the air.

Sense of horror and fright dispersed through my body like a drug. I felt cold, despite the fact that I was sweating copiously. I could clearly hear my heart pounding inside my chest. I tried to call for help, but my voice got stuck somewhere deep down within my throat. My gaze was fixed. That thing still wasn't completely out of sight, but the radiance emerging from it, was shrinking with every passing second. I made another attempt at shouting for help. Only that time, I did managed to say it out loud.

"HELP!"

And I repeated,

"HELP! Somebody!"

The imperishable connection between my gaze and that creature was dissolved by a hand on my back. It was Daneen, with a disquieted concern apparent on her face. She looked at me intently, as if she was searching for any sign of trauma. There was none physically, but I was traumatized to the core. I was shaking badly. She must've had sensed an obvious perturbation in me which was an effortless observation at that moment. The concerns in her eyes rooted deeper as she followed my gaze.

She uttered an audible gasp as her jaw dropped open, her eyes widened, her hand started to shake, which was still on my back. She was entirely forzen at her spot, not making any movement what so ever. There was a hint of dismay in her quivering legs.

"Daneen."

I called out her name almost in a whisper, a dreadful whisper. She didn't responded. I somehow managed to snap out of the appalled influence that thing had created, and looked at Daneen. She was lost too, just like I was few seconds ago. I shook her a little to divert her attention and made her look into my eyes.

"Daneen. Listen to me! There is something wrong with this guy. I don't know what." She was staring at me with a cold, impassive face. There was a fair possibility that she wasn't understanding anything that was coming out of my mouth. I continued anyway, "You need to help me. Can you help me?"

She turned around to see what I was blathering about and shifted her head towards that creature once again. I held her by the shoulders and repeated myself with better intensity. "Can you do that!?" To set her free from the terror spell, I had to clear her saturated sensorium. She needed a distraction and I needed her help.

She faced me again. Only that time, tears were surfacing around the edge of her eyes. "Please!" I pleaded. I didn't realised I was holding her trembling hands in mine. She closed her eyes momentarily which caused the spillage of tears droplet on the back of my hand. She nodded in agreement, wiped off her watery eyes and scooched down to take a look at the security guy. After a quick inspection, which took no longer than ten seconds or so, she ran towards a tent. It was beside the one in which we were dining earlier. In a moment, she reappeared with a syringe, a finger-long vial containing some liquid medicine in it and a scissor in her hands.

"Here! Hold this!" She handed me the syringe and vial and unbuttoned the cuff of his uniform's full length sleeve. She then took the scissor and cut through the sleeve till she reached the shoulder. I was watching her intently, not sure if I could be of any help at that time.

I hope she knows what she's doing. She's a doctor. She knows better. I just hope she does.

My inner instinct convinced me to trust her then. I had no alternate choice anyway. I had to trust her. My speculations were crudely interrupted as she snatched the syringe and vial from my hands, drew the liquid from the vial into the syringe and injected it into the upper arm of security guard which she exposed earlier with the assistance of scissors.

In no time, all the jerking movements of that guy came to halt. He seemed to be at ease then. "He's alive, right?" I asked, unsure if he was calm because of the drug or if he was no more. Daneen looked at me with rather dubious expressions, uncertain if she should declare him alive or not. So she checked his pulse and there was a sigh of relief.

"He'll be fine." She declared with a clue of confidence in her tone. When the tension subsided to some extent as we took modest control over situation, I realised that it had only been few minutes since we heard the first gun shot. I failed to understand why, but it felt like forever. As if the time was halted, freezing the moment in an infinite loop of fear and perplexity.

We weren't alone anymore. Villagers grouped around us in an anticipation to witness something dramatic. Radiance emerging from the all the luminosities around helped me appreciate the dampened surface. I touched it with the tip of my two finger and squeezed the soaked sand with my thumb. It was a relieve to see that squashed mixture had no sign of red tint. In that time of hassle, I was thoroughly pleased to see a familiar face. Mujeeb emerged from behind the crowd. "Shan! What happened?" He asked. He was out of breath, hyperventilating, as if he had ran a marathon. There was a kitchen knife in his hand.

A kitchen knife! Seriously! We might . need a tank to kill that creature. I thought to myself

The thought of explaining everything as it was, in front of that significant crowd crossed my mind, but the threatening command of Maulana Asghar echoed in my head.

'Any word out will be considered as treason and the person guilty of such act shall be punished accordingly.'

I decided to keep it to myself, but when I glanced at Daneen, the look on her face was clearly indicating that she was about to spill the beans.

She gulped down in an attempt to clear her throat. "There was... Umm... There..." Her quivering voice faltered midway.

"This dude has accidentally pulled the trigger before losing consciousness. She gave him some medicine which helped him calmed down." I said,

I took that opportunity to jump in before the completion of her disclosure. She frowned at me after hearing the story and was probably staggered by the fact that I skipped the entire part of inflamed creature. Her mouth moved a little as if she had stopped herself from saying something. Confused, she looked at the security guy and then towards the direction where we both witnessed that thing few minutes earlier.

I'm sorry Daneen. I just can't admit what happened. I really am sorry.

I pleaded for an apology in my head. "What's going on!?" One of Daneen's teacher, the guy with stern look asked us firmly. She looked up and handed him the empty vial with a brief explanation, "Here Dr. Murtaza, this man had a seizure attack, generalized tonic-clonic type I believe. I don't really know what triggered the attack, but I gave him this as a seizure abortive therapy."

She emphasized on the word 'what' with a display of scepticism through her glare at me. Her teacher took hold of that empty glass vial, lowered his spectacles to read the name of the drug on it. With that, his tensed narrowed eyes showed a hint of relaxation. He putted the spectacles back on, looked down at Daneen and said,

"Well done Dr. Daneen! Quick thinking! You've just saved this guy."

With that statement, a loud applause rose from the crowd. Though everyone was appreciating her effort, she wasn't paying attention to all the praise. Her eyes were locked on the northeastern side. I knew that I had to face her bombarding concerns the very next day and had to play the pretentious 'nothing happened' role in fornt of her.

I knew what was coming, but I didn't realised how complex it would get with time. I wasn't prepared.

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Author's Note

I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. Please leave a comment or vote for this chapter. I'll appreciate your valuable feedback :) Cheers!