The Forest

The Toyota Qualis and the Chvrolet Tavera stopped after a long journey. It was almost 9 in the night and it was pitch-dark. Night times in a forest are always pitch-dark. Adding to that it was a good `thirteen days since the last full moon day. Adding to this, the cloudy weather made visibility close to zero. Later in the night the forest would be engulfed in a fog making it nearly impossible to see. The only noise audible was that of silence, few random insects and that of a train going at a distance.

After a long journey they all were quite weary and all they wanted was some rest so that the next day morning they can head for tiger and rhino spotting among many other species of flora and fauna in the wildlife sanctuary. Right now it was time for some parathas, maggi and booze. All fifteen of them headed for the cottage which they had booked, sat near the fire place relishing food, chit chatting about college life, universe and everything. But chit chatting wasn’t what they came there for. They wanted to see some wildlife, tigers to be specific. So they planned to roam about their cottage and try to spot some wildlife. But it wasn’t that easy. Being a human settlement, tigers rarely came there. Adding to the woes was the railroad which was close by, through which couple of trains passed during the course of day. Nevertheless, they decided to give it a shot. Maybe, they would have some adventure, spot some inhabitants of the jungle and will have stories which they can recount back in college, and future generations.

So close to midnight, they left their cottage and began their search. Four of them weren’t too willing to risk their lives, so they stayed back while others moved forward. Initial few minutes of search yielded no result. Yet they decided to continue with the search. The path was barely visible; the mobile lights were of little use. The temperature was close to freezing point. Nevertheless, the hunt for stories continued. They were relatively confident that nothing will attack them. Because tigers rarely visited that place and other animals didn’t scare them much.

Half an hour and 100 meters later, half of them retreated to the cottage as it was unsafe to wander further. Five of the group were of more adventurous kind and decided to wander further. They got one of the cars and some leftover booze to keep them warm and carefully treaded through the forest terrain. After a luckless first hour, they decided to call it quits and return back to the cottage. But no one knew the exact way back. They were probably around a mile away … or maybe tens of miles away.

They came out of the cars and tried to find a direction, if at all they could make any sense of it. They couldn’t they were completely lost. In next few minutes the rains will arrive accompanied by hailstorm, which would be lashing the place for half an hour. Trying to drive through the inundated pathways would result into a flat tire. As of now, they were just concerned about finding their way back.

Meanwhile they decided to call up their friends. But their cell phone couldn’t catch the network. There was no network present in a radius of many miles. And now with rains and flat tire, they had to spend rest of the night at that place it seemed. It was around four hours before the first ray of sun would arrive. Till then, they would be shivering, and weather would be not the only thing that would keep them shivering.

Maybe some talks would help. Maybe something light, sort of chit chat. Or maybe someone can crack a joke. But no one gets a joke in such a situation. No one can even think of cracking a joke in such situation. Just as they started speculating whether they would get out of that place alive, they heard a noise, noise of something being trampled. This was followed by complete darkness. With limited visibility, they could gather that a group of few wild elephants, may be 4 or 5 of them were roaming about in that place, and one of them stepped upon the bonnet of the car resulting into breaking of the headlight. “Elephants must be on way to their night mess” – one of them exclaimed. No one was interested. They waited for few minutes inside the car and hoping that they didn’t return. But they were wrong. The elephants were back and trampled the engine once again. The humans were second time lucky. Their lives had been spared.

The car was not safe anymore. They had to come out of it.

But how will they manage it?

Where will they go?

They could do nothing within that jungle. Even if they ventured out they would be eaten by tigers for breakfast. Suddenly they heard a noise. The only noise coming from distance whose roots can be traced to humans. This was followed by a light from some direction. In next few minutes the noise increased and the light moved closer. It was a railway engine. It was some passenger train which would arrive probably in few minutes at a point closer to them. But where was the railway track? As the light grew brighter, few things were visible … but not the railway track, and defiantly not the elephants.

Meanwhile one of them looked outside the window and exclaimed

“We are on the railway track”.

“Damn! We’ll be killed by train after having escaped the elephant assault”

“Let us get down and hope that the train stops. They may stop on seeing a wrecked car on the railway track”

With a minute to go before train arrived, they stood on side of the track and moved a tree which fell down during the rain such that a part of it was on the railway track. Having 5 people made it easier. The train stopped, they talked to engine driver who was kind enough to accommodate them. They removed the tree and the car from the track, climbed on to the first bogie and were in a mood to celebrate safety.

They told their story to an old man who was awake at that point in time. He listened patiently, and gave them an advice – “Never mess with the jungle. Respect its laws. Don’t roam about in the dark. I could have killed you if I wished to, as I have done with many people like you before who disturbed the jungle equilibrium in the night, the same mistake I did moments before I died … but then ... I wasn’t in a mood to do so today, as it is my 300^th birthday. That is why the elephants went away after partly trampling your car. That’s why those tigers did not attack you”. Saying this, the old man disappeared. The train chugged off, with each of those 5 people staring at the green eyes at some distance from the track.