Firstborn

Chapter 14: Automatic Responses

Was that a gunshot?

Bleary eyed, Una awoke from her long slumber with a residual headache. The talking through thought had exhausted her body and left it limp. The unbearable pressure on her frontal lobes was only surpassed by shrieking screams in her head. She placed her hands over her ears, knowing it to be an ineffective remedy. But it worked! The screaming was outside of her head - outside of the building. It wasn't screaming but squawking.

Squawking? It was the parakeets! They must have remained on the roof till now.

With her vertigo head, Una moved as quickly as she could to the veranda, just in time to see the winged cloud scud across the evening sky.

Poomb! A second gunshot. Una was certain the gun shot came from Major's property. Unnerved, Una didn't know what to do. At home she would call the police but here... God, she couldn't think of a day when she wasn't on edge in Khamosh Valley. What should she do? Perhaps she could start with securing her own safety first. She returned to her room, the curtains were already drawn close from before, as were the windows, which just left locking the doors and keeping low. Sitting alert on the edge of her bed, palms pressed into the mattress, her brain turned to who could possibly be firing the gunshots. The tribesmen might have attacked Major's house and one of them or one of Major's family members fired the shots. Una was tightly wound up on a yoyo's axle.

Could the tribesmen or any other intruder be in her house too?

She had to find out. With one of Grandad's walking sticks from his coat and umbrella stand in hand she quietly searched the house. Nothing was out of place but the usual suspects, her grandparents and the servant, were absent. Originally she thought they might be outside but that thought dissipated quickly. Both main entrances were bolted from the inside. The only place where they could be was on the roof. Una stealthily approached the open roof door and, despite her indifference towards her grandparents, was relieved to see them unharmed and on their own.

"You're here, but where's Tommy and Johnnie Walker?"

"The servant and Tommy are on their evening constitution - nature's call."

A third gunshot ricocheted across the valley. Una dropped to the ground and flattened herself as much as she could. She noticed her grandparents remained standing staring at Major's compound.

So they weren't under fire or in any danger.

Sheepishly, Una stood up and dusted herself off before she advanced to where her grandparents stood. She could just make out Major's profile stepping out from underneath his house's roof overhang, with a rifle aimed at something in front of him.

"Was he shooting at the parakeets earlier?"

"It's not the parakeets he's after," Dev answered solemnly.

"What then?" Una asked, turning to him.

Dev silently stared on. Una glanced a few metres from where she was originally looking. She could make out four people including Major pointing rifles at a person, no two people, one was Meeru. She was hauled away by two of the gunmen - Major's sons. Spying on Avi's household enabled her to identify their familiar profiles. The hair of the person tied to the poles was very familiar too.

"It's Avi!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

Colour drained from Una's face and she hurried to Dev. "Why aren't you doing something Grandad? Is it some sort of soldier game they're playing? Why aren't you worried? "

Dev ignored her and carried on looking ahead.

Appalled, Una held her hand to her mouth then spoke under her breath. "Major wouldn't really shoot his own grandson would he?"

Dev took in a sharp breath. "Shoot his grandson? Of course he would. But he mustn't ...not now. Not after waiting for so long...There are just two more days left."

Una stared open mouthed in bewilderment. It wasn't that Grandad believed Major could shoot his own grandson but the fact that he thought the timing was wrong!

Una grasped Dev's tweed jacket. "You're not making sense...it's not normal to shoot your own grandchild."

He looked at her with pity.

Una pulled on his sleeves again. "What's going to happen in two days?"

Dev impatiently shook her; muttered something to his wife in Hindi and left the rooftop hastily. Grandma in turn grabbed Una's hand and made way for the stairs.

Una had had enough, she wasn't helpless. Applying speed and force, she made a fist of the hand her grandmother was holding, rotated her arm in the opposite direction to where Grandma's thumb was pointing, and broke her grip. This unbalanced her Grandma making her stumbled forwards indoors, while Una simultaneously stepped back. Grandma took a moment too long to compose herself. Una quickly locked the roof door from the outside. Grandma protested and banged the door. When that failed she indignantly slung the bolt up on the other side of the door huffed and made the maximum noise with her heavy steps all the way down the stairs. Fine! Una didn't want to go down – the stairs that is. Breathing hard, Una ran to the wall and looked for Avi and screamed in shock. The Major was whipping him.

"Oh my God!" She had to act before they finished him off. Narrowing her eyes she assessed her Grandad's boundary wall. Could she jump it? She wasn't sure. She had practised parkour skills on school dining tables, and some low and medium walls, railings and school benches. She hadn't moved on to acrobatics yet and had definitely not climbed or jumped anything as high as a building, unless she counted the school shed and the bicycle shelter. Luckily, Grandad's house was only a single storey. She hadn't yet got the momentum of a jumper but there was enough building scope to help her propel her body forward. Her optimism faded when her eyes strayed on the familiar spikes. It couldn't be helped. She would have to vault over the roof ledges, somersault and clear the wall.

Una didn't have time to ponder on where she was going to land. Completely absorbed in her strategy and the distance of the wall she took a running jump. She completely forgot to solve the conundrum of how she was going to protect Avi from four guns and the whip.

A/N Thank you for reading so far.