The Fog - 2

Read  Part 1 here :  http://spectrumofthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/06/fog.html

 

Continued ........

God Dammit ! I mumbled the prayers my grandma taught me when I was a kid.I become alert due to the fear. I could even  hear minute sounds like that of the clock ticking in the living room.I was becoming mad.

Minutes passed .Finally I mustered up guts, rolled over and  tried to switch on the bedroom light.

Ughhhhhhh .. NO POWER !

What the hell ! How worse can it get ? I could sense shadows lurking in the other room.I did not want to look there.

I wanted to talk to someone.But there was no one to talk to. The only friend I had will not talk to me anymore !  Can't blame him. I dragged him into this.He never wanted to come.

Kevin was the kind of guy who  lived life on his terms and did things he wanted to without caring  about people around him.He was tall and well built.He looked intimidating and had tattoos which he flaunted. But he has a great guy once you got to know him.He was my colleague at the call center.We had worked together for 4 yrs.We joined as agents and got promoted as team  leads around the same time.

My wife never liked him.She thought Kevin was a prick .The truth was that she hated his guts.Stupid Bitch ! He made fun of her couple of years back during one of  our team lunches. It was something regarding her dressing sense  (which according to me was retarded).But whatever! Who am I to say ! She never forgot that and hated him eversince.

 Kevin lived in with his gf in his apartment at the other side of the city. They never visited  my house due to obvious reasons.

I cursed myself  for going for the ride that night.It was a typical friday night at office.It was almost midnight and there were very little people in office . There were no chicks in the bay .So no entertainment there too.

Kevin was sitting at my desk and we were discussing the new call  targets and the pressure on us from the management to deliver.There were 2 agents sitting opposite to us .They did not have any calls for sometime now. We decided to take break and asked them to take an aux (break ) and come with us outside for a smoke .Both these kids were new joinees and were getting used to the way stuff worked here.There lived away from the city and their village persona came out in the naive way they spoke.

We walked out and  went to the  tea(cigarette)  shop outside.There were few like us there .Stray dogs were sleeping cozily on the roadside.We took tea and cigarettes and moved to the corner.One of the newbies started talking about his village which was somewhere near Anchetti forest .The Forest was  located arout 150 kms from Bangalore.It seemed like an interesting place.It got little spooky when they spoke of the superstitions about the place.They talked about this forest banglow located right in the middle of the jungle.In the past, people had gone missing when they travelled near the place inside the jungle at night. We laughed it off saying that it was obvious that in a jungle with wild dogs,leapords,elephants,boars and hell even fresh water crocodiles,this seemed 'business as usual'. But they argued that it was not animals that had to  be feared and that there were other things in the dark waiting for you.

Kevin started giggling. So did I.The newbee got serious and  put up his hand and pointed to his wrist,There were couple of threads tied to his wrist .A red one and a  black one.It resembled the ones you get in temples.He said that, he had once trailed off into the forrest as  a kid .He remembered something chasing him .Hours later someone from his village spotted him lying unconsious in the bushes nearby.He also said that he wore those mantric threads on his wrists everysince and it kept him out of danger.

I looked at Kevin and told him we have to give it a shot.He said it was not worth it.The boys warned us saying that it was not wise to do something like that .I ignored it and said they have to treat us if we made it till the jungle rest house and got back.One of the boys smirked and said we won't be coming back for the treat.That ticked me off.I said then and there that we are going to that place tonight.I proceeded to ask them all other details and land marks around the place.They warned me again but reluctantly gave me the details.When they tried to  advice me again,I shooed them back telling them that  their break is over and they have to get back to calls.

I looked over at Kevin.He was thinking about something.I told him that we should go and check out the place and that it would be a thrilling experience.He was interested but said he wasn't sure if he wants to do it.I stood there for the next five minutes and convinced him to join me.We decided to leave my bike at the office and take his bullet.It would save lotsa petrol that ways.His was '95 make 350 cc heavily modified bike.Kevin spend half his salary maintaining the bike.We did not call our homes and tell  about this trip as our logout time was 8:30 am.So we told one of our  colleagues to handle the team and said we will be back in couple of hours or so.

Uncharacteristically,Kevin's bike did no start .We had to try for a good 5 mins until it finally did.Good sign to start a trip!

We took the hosur main road and traveled to hosur where we refueled(full tank as bullet is not a high  mileage bike.Also,we did not know where the petrol pumps were) and stopped for dinner .There was a small roadside shop which served liquor in the back side.We had roti and chicken and couple of beers to top it up .

The Tamilnadu roads were pretty good.It was slowly getting windy which was uncharacteristic for July .We travelled for another hour or so.I rode and rode.There were villages on the way but not a soul  outside.

The road started getting narrow and there were no vehicles around . We passed another village on the way.There were no street lights or even electricity in the huts.

The slopes slowly started to appear.It was nice riding in this place.It was windy too.I kept asking Kevin not to sleep  sitting at the back.I did not feel drunk.But the pitch darkness was making me little uneasy.

Now we were approaching hair pin bends and we could see the forest area slowly starting.It baffled me that there no vehicles coming either way.Not even trucks ! Kevin asked me to stop the bike.I asked him why ? He said he had to pee.Great !

I somehow did not like the idea of stopping the bike .I asked him to get down .I kept the light on and started gunning the bike.Stopping and listening to the sights and sounds of the jungle(Which was growing thicker on the road side ) was not great.There was something in my head which was telling me to stop and turn back. Alcohol ! Wat else?

Kevin came back.We drove away .I looked at my watch.It was almost and hour and a half since we started.It was pitch black all around us but we were getting a lot of  moon light .We were nearing our destination. I looked out for  the sign board which the boys had told us.That was the place where we had to take a diversion from the main road. The forest guest house was another kilometer or so from there.

There it was .A small sign on the left .It was made out of white cloth.Somebody had drawn a stop symbol on it.I slowly took a left turn into the narrow bumpy road.Kevin was fully awake now.He was asking if we had reached.I nodded.This small and narrow road had vegetation on both sides which made it very difficult to ride the bike.Finally, we decided to get down and push the bike.The Place was beautiful.We were somewhere in the hills and we could see lots of land from where we were.It could have been nicer if there was daylight though.I had turned off the bike and started using the pocket torch I carried in my  bag.There was lots of fresh grass on the road now.It felt as if this trail had not been used lately.I could hear birds and crickets now. Birds…must be some nocturnal ones.It was getting a lil chilly too.

I stopped for a second and pointed something to Kevin.There was a lil bit of fog in the air.It was weird that there was fog in a summer month.The sounds of nature around grew a notch louder and our vision blurrier.I could sense the uneasiness with Kevin too.We were near.

                                                                                                          
                                                                                          to be continued......