A continuation of The Last Man Standing
“I have all the poachers of the Niligiri Hills after me now.”, I thought, “And it’s all my fault that Tom is in this mess as well.” More than my safety, I was worried about Tom’s. I stood gazing at the wall and contemplating on my predicament. “How could I have been so foolish?”, I thought. I banged my fist against the wall as if that would help. This only served to create an angry, purple bruise on my skin, which did not help relax me. But, I needed to stay calm. Tom had nobody else with him. If not for myself, I had to keep my head for Tom’s sake. I tried to put up a smile on my face and turned around to face Tom. But, he wasn’t there…
I didn’t even attempt to call him, knowing that my efforts would be futile. I decided to use my energy to search for him instead. I had also realized that the other policemen were not here as well. “They must have kidnapped Tom.”, I thought to myself. As I looked around, I noticed that this was another cave that had another exit in the back. There were drag marks on the ground, suggesting that something heavy had been dragged along. “Must be Tom…”, I thought to myself and rushed forward to the exit.
As I exited the cave, I was hit by bright, dazzling sunlight. Surrounded by trees and without Tom, it would be very difficult for me to find a way out. I groped through the trees, climbed over boulders, slithered under low hanging branches, and finally found myself in yet another clearing. Covered in scratches and mud, courtesy of journey through the forest, I looked around. This clearing was similar to the first one we had been in, except that there were five fir trees in the clearing. Another cottage lay beneath them, but a significantly larger one. I approached the door of the cottage, but this time I would cautious. I did not want another experience like the last one. I took one step towards the door. And another. And another. I was one step away from the door when the ground under my feet lurched, and I saw myself going under.
Down, down, down I went. Not a ray on sunlight reached my eyes. But I was still falling. The hole above me reduced to a tiny dot, before vanishing altogether. But I still kept falling. Finally I landed on a large tarp set out on the ground of who knows where. As I got to my feet, the world swayed, and I sat down to steady myself. But I was still swaying. Finally everything came into focus. As I looked about me (there was artificial light in the place), the first thing I saw was Tom tied to a pole. I rushed towards him, but a step away from, he vanished. I looked around me and saw him behind me, in the very spot I had left. I rushed towards him again and the same thing happened. When I looked around, I found himself in a spot under a lone, swaying lightbulb. This time when I rushed towards him, he did not vanish. When I touched his shoulder, I heard a muffled voice behind me. I looked beyond Tom and saw the superintendent tied up just like Tom, a few steps behind him. I loosened Tom’s bonds then rushed to do the same to the superintendent. The superintendent was about to say something when shadows moved away from the walls.
“Well, well, well…”, one of the shadows said. The closed space magnified the voice a thousand times, so it seem like all of the shadows were talking at once. As the shadows entered the light, I saw that all of them had donned police uniforms. “You guys were with us in the cave!”, I exclaimed. “True.”, said a man, “We were.” “Are you guys the Underground Poachers Association?”, I enquired. “We are.”, said another man, “And we are here to finish you all.” Not all of them were the same men in the cave with us, but others also had joined them. There were about three hundred of them in total, and we were outnumbered a hundred to one. “No we’re not.”, said a plain-clothed man, “We are just going to take you three hostage.” “You two,”, he said pointing to me and the superintendent, “are spares.” “We are really interested in Tom.” “Why Tom?”, I asked. “Oh! Didn’t you know?”, he asked, sounding surprised, “Tom is the president’s son!” And at this very moment, the ceiling above us exploded, and a huge helicopter descended into the clearing.
Black clad army men, jumped out of the helicopter, and showered bullets and stun grenades at everyone but the three of us in the clearing. A big man caught me and Tom and threw us into the helicopter. The superintendent followed the man in after us. “The President has sent us to save you.”, said the man dramatically. Apparently, Tom was actually the President’s son! The superintendent was also as baffled as I was. He was staring at the man with his mouth hanging open. The helicopter then took us out of the cave and we landed in front of our home in a matter of seconds.
Once we got out of the plane, the man informed us that Tom would now be living somewhere else. Permanently. The place was just too dangerous. Tom apologized to me for not saying anything about this earlier. Apparently, he had been forbidden to do so. With tears in my eyes, I pulled Tom into a hug. I didn’t care if he hadn’t told me. All I knew was that I was about to lose my best friend. When we were separated by the man, I saw that he had tears in his eyes too. As the helicopter ascended into the sky again, I turned around and walked away. My best friend Tom had left. Life would have lesser meaning without him. At that moment, I promised myself that I would never ever go on an adventure again. And I would never forget Tom, my friend, who helped me defeat the Underground Poachers Association.