Something from Behind

CHAPTER 2

Suddenly cold grew through my feet and I woke up. Still confused where I was lying. After a moment, I realized that I was dreaming.

"Are you okay? "asked someone standing just beside my bed. It had grown dark and I couldn't see him.

He turned on the lights and said, "Rishi, your roommate." "Samar" I said softly.

"Bro, it's really cold out there and you are sweating" he said with a laugh.

"Yeah, just a nightmare" I replied.

I really don't know what is happening with me. Some kind of curiousness is growing which is just consuming me from within. Who was that boy in my dream? Why did I dreamt of him? I am really a lot confused and just feeling irritated about it.

It's just 7 pm in Rajauri and am unable to feel my breathe. My face had grown pale red and there were those scars on my back which came out of nowhere but gave immense pain.

One thing which is very good about army is that their punctuality for time is great. At around 8.30 pm, I and Rishi reached mess. Rishi was particularly a guy from urban areas, his dad was himself an ex-army official which actually meant Rishi would join the armed forces. He is quite friendly, as long as me, thin as a rake and very polite for sure. He has this habit of blabbering all the time but I guess I need to bear that.

The food was pretty much as I thought.

"Let's go for dinner. The warden says after one hour no one is served the food" Rishi said.

"The food here is so pathetic dude" he added. Going through all those hectic trainings and numerous no of tiring workouts followed by some really irritating and foul food, I think its stupidity to comment on what is being served here.

After our dinner, we decided to go for a walk. Actually I needed that after that dreadful dream.

"So what's your story?"Rishi said.

"What story?"

"Everyone has a story. Parents?"

"My father is a manager at TRI Bank and mom is a housewife. Have a younger brother and an elder sister." "Girlfriend?" He asked with a wink.

"Not really. Actually I cant really get along with them."

"Don't worry, I have a way with them, you'll learn"

After few more chitchats we returned to our room. There was a notice hanging on our door. It was about our schedule for the camp. From last few years, I have been accustomed to such schedules. Surprisingly, there was network on my phone, enough to make a phone call. The very first call I'll make is to my mom. My mother is a typical Indian mother, she worries about every single thing for me. Sometimes it becomes irritating but rest of the times I find it pretty obvious.

So that was it. My first day here was no more than a shocker for me. A wrongly went dream and one hell of a roommate my day was pretty much over.

Next Morning at around 6.30 I heard some weird noises while I was asleep. While I was struggling to open my eyes I saw Rishi doing pushups there. Howsoever, jibber-jabber sort of guy he is I must say he has one great buildup. He is kind of an insomniac, he really finds it difficult to sleep.

As I was over with my morning day to day priorities and was heading over to the only torn apart temple in my camp, I saw something elegant and serene as never before.

Dressed in pure white salwar suit and her brisk steps with a tint of smile on her face made her look not less than an angel. For a moment I felt myself falling for her.

"Don't even try bro" someone whispered. I just turned a bit and saw a

guy with enough amount of moustache, fairly tall, nicely combed and in all a total gentleman.

"The one whom you were staring at is Colonel Mehra's daughter" .He said.

It was a fraction of seconds, I turned back and she was gone. God, she was beautiful. From last night I have been listening to this colonel mehra and his stories, I reckon there is something behind him. Nevertheless, I did my prayer and went back to the room. By this time Rishi was all set to go for the breakfast.

According to our schedule, we all have to report at 8.30 am at the camp centre, from here we are directed about the schedule for the rest of the day. This is the place where first time I saw colonel mehra. I don't know why but there is something strange about this, every face here feel familiar to me. Total head counts were made and we were off to our duties.

"Its nice that we both got assigned at the same place" Rishi said.

"I wish I could say the same" I murmured, slow enough so that he couldn't hear.

We were appointed at the north front, our work is nothing just to sit ideally and wait for any kind of disturbances within our radar. Not much of a difficult work but needs some extreme level of observance. Blink once, something is gone. Blink twice its all gone. It just needs a second to execute a terror.

"Such a scenic beauty right". Vikram said.

"Imagine a day when these mountains were covered with rivers of blood, thousands of innocent lives being slaughtered" Rishi replied.

They went on for few hours, I wasn't much interested in their talk so I decided to remain quiet.

Its growing dark in here. Finally someone came for a shift change and we can go back to our rooms. Sitting like that in that posture really broke my back. After dinner we came back to our rooms and I fell over bed and immediately went to sleep.