Chapter 01: It Happened

He was gone. They had waited for a full thirty minutes, and he hadn’t yet caught up with them. The sinking feeling that had been gnawing at the edges of their minds enveloped them just as the wideness and the emptiness of the barren landscape enveloped their vision. Each bike had been alternating in taking the lead, so nobody felt anything amiss when Shiloh’s had fallen behind. But now, after waiting for him, they were beside themselves. They should have stayed together. They never should have been so far in front. They should have realised it sooner. Life is always full of what should have been, could have been, and would have been. Yet, life plods on. Unmindful of the fact that people actually wish it were otherwise.

Cecil walked over to Nate, a grim expression on his face. “What do you think we should do, dude?” Without a word, Nate pulled out his mobile for the umpteenth time, and attempted to call first Shiloh, then Sudha. The expression on Nate’s face was evidence to the fact that both Shiloh’s and Sudha’s mobiles were still out of reach.

Rohit and Susan were standing a few meters away. They were just kids – barely twenty, yet. Scared and anxious. They knew it wasn’t their fault. They knew that nothing could be done, in case the worst had happened. They also knew, that if Shiloh and Sudha did not turn up in the next few minutes, then all of them would need to go back. Back through that lonely, winding National Highway. Riding through it once had been quite dampening to their spirits. Going back through it again would be sheer idiocy. Nevertheless – it had to be done. With a grim look on his face, Rohit walked over to where Cecil and Nate were standing silently and looking at each other. Silent, but with volumes of conversation passing between them.

“Let’s go back”

Nate looked at Rohit, then at Cecil.

“Can’t we wait a few more minutes? They might have stopped for just a while”

He was almost pleading. Almost as if, if they didn’t go back, then things might work out just fine. As it happens with many people who try to ignore the pain, wishing that ignoring the pain would make it go away. The expression on Cecil’s face needed no words. He wanted to go back.

Nodding his head in agreement, Nate strode over to where Cecil’s Pulsar was standing. A beauty in black, it had captivated him at first. The bold, clean looks of the bike held no affection for him now. Nate kind of understood why Cecil wasn’t speaking much. If anything were to happen to Sudha, Cecil wouldn’t ever forgive himself. Especially, since the whole trip had been Cecil’s idea, right from the start.

Four mute, resolute faces mounted the two bikes. They turned around and started back. As the bleak scenes of their surroundings flashed by, Nate swore to himself that if he ever held a post of importance in the government, he would ensure that all National Highways had plenty of rest stops along the way. Or at the least, street lights.

Painful. Frightening. Arduously long.

The ride back was like nothing that they had experienced in a long time. Eyes scanning the sides of the road on both sides, fearful of what they might find.

There was not one person in the group who had a doubt that an accident had occurred. This did not stop any of them from hoping for the best. They hoped that “something else” might have cropped up to make Shiloh stop. “Something” that they couldn’t explain. “Something” warm and fuzzy, like the feel of freshly plucked strawberries on a bright summer’s day. But what could possibly crop up in such a desolate, dark, lonely place? There had been no one else in sight. No oncoming vehicles or vehicles passing by. Nothing to break the monotonous grim expanse. Despite their hopes, they knew. They knew that an accident must have occurred. Nothing else would explain it. Still, they hoped.

It is a most wondrous thing, this phenomenon called hope. It quintessentially defines human existence while at the same time denying them the very substance of that existence. It makes mere mortals dream of the portals of Mount Olympus, while they are on their way to the deepest, darkest reaches of the Underworld.

Such it was, with Cecil. As his eyes scanned the road, he tried to keep his mind away from what could have happened to Sudha. It was pointless to dwell on things that had yet come to pass; things that he was not sure of yet. His ache deepened as he realised that this may never have happened, were it not for his suggestion. If he hadn’t suggested that they switch the pillion riders, Sudha might still be with him. Then again, none of this would’ve ever happened if he hadn’t suggested the whole trip. Curse his ideas. Curse the foolishness of it all.

It happened, as it often happens with most people who are human. When they are in the deepest, darkest reaches of their lives, they tend to blame themselves. They desperately look for something that they could cling to; some path of reasoning that would place the entire blame of events on themselves.

Susan was brought out of her bundle of confusing thoughts by the screech of brakes. Cecil’s bike had stopped all of a sudden, at a curve in the road up ahead. The foreboding that had been floating in her mind was starting to become a reality now. At any moment, she knew that she would see a sight that she would later wish to forget. She did not know then. How could she? None of them did. She was as scared, and as hopeful, as the rest were.

This trip had been a joyride. Young as she was, she loved spending time with Rohit. He was fun, interesting, and he always took care of her as if she was the only thing that mattered in the world. If it hadn’t been for him, she might have even cried by now. She did not know Shiloh much. They had met just that day. But she knew Sudha quite well. As well as a sister, in fact.

“... must have been them.”

Susan caught up with the three guys, as Cecil just finished speaking. Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn’t been listening as she had walked up to where Cecil and Nate were standing. She glanced at where Cecil was pointing. There were marks. Tire marks. They were leading off the road, into the dusty, wind-swept expanse of the countryside. It couldn’t be. There was no sign of an accident. There it was in plain sight – the tracks of a Pulsar turning of from the highway, into nothingness. The foreboding that each had felt uptil that point, diminished in the light of the curiosity that was swirling in their minds now. They looked at each other. Their faces were blank. There were at least four questions that all were thinking. One was the most important. All other questions were irrelevant. Discarding all the others, the group tried focussing on this one, all-important question.

Why had Shiloh and Sudha, turned off the National Highway, in a spot where there was nothing in sight and where it was an empty landscape?

Cecil walked off into the Wilderness a little ways, trying to follow the tracks. Night had come on quite early, and that hadn’t made things easier. It added an eerie feeling to the already inexplicable episode. Nate thought of the “hour of darkness, when the powers of evil are exalted” as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written. Rohit was clueless as to what should be done. Pulling out her mobile, Susan tried Sudha’s number again. Incredibly, Susan had no network coverage now. She showed her mobile to Rohit, who immediately pulled out his own. One look confirmed the fact that Vodafone definitely did not have any range at that spot. Almost frantic, he asked Nate to check his mobile. No range. Since Motorola wasn’t really an excellent phone maker, Nate decided to check with Cecil too. He walked over to Cecil.

“Dude, give your phone na?”

“Why, da? What happened?”

“Nothing. Just give it. I want to check something...”

Cecil handed over his mobile to Nate, with a quizzical expression on his face. The expression changed to one of alarm, as Nate showed him his mobile. “Look, there’s no range here.” “Maybe it’s just the place dude. Airtel may not have towers here.”

Hope. That frustrating thing.

“No da. Even Vodafone doesn’t have range here.”

Nobody had realised it till then. The instant Nate spoke those words, alarm rose up in everyone’s minds.

With a sinking feeling, Cecil slowly pulled out his PDA which had Google Maps installed on it. His expression turned from fear to one of horror. Google Maps couldn’t get a fix.

Realisation dawned on them, like the sun rising up against a bloody sky. They were in one of the most deserted expanses along the National Highway. There had been no one in sight, on this particular stretch of road. No passersby. No cars, no trucks, no buses, no motorists. There were no buildings in sight. No houses, no restaurants, no roadside dhabas, no Cafe Coffee Day outlets. None of their mobile phones had range. GPS radios were not picking up signals. And Shiloh and Sudha were still missing. Cecil looked at his watch. The duo had been missing for more than an hour now. Nate looked around and knew what he should do. Silently, wordlessly, without moving his lips, he prayed. Hard.