Can you think of anything more permanently elating than to know that you are on the right road at last! --Vernon Howard

A2Z Post for the letter C --Read Post for B here.

The Starter:

Arjun is on a rescue mission searching for a woman unknown to him who placed an SOS on his private phone. No further communication to locate her, to assure her about his mission, but he passionately believes she would wait for him in her trust.  He comes across a car crash-- where would it lead his mission, wait for the letter D. 



 Three cars passed him in the opposite direction, showing no sign of chasing one another. He drove three kilometres when Zak messaged him about alerting the guys at the tower about the mission-– he added that the reinforcement would reach him soon.


For another two kilometres, the road remained deserted—the Monsoon clouds ramming vigorously in the sky signalled an impending downpour.  The rain would put another damper on his mission and aggravates the criminals.  There are correlations between violent crimes and weather conditions he has read in literature.  The adverse weather heightens the aggression in criminals, aggravating irritation and discomfort and the motivation to commit crimes.

He was eagerly expecting a response from the police tower when they informed him that the woman was not traceable, she didn't respond to their calls.  They could trace a phone location only when it went on user mode.  Unless that happened, they were helpless.

He tried her number—got cut off after the first ring.

Had she feared a response would heighten the danger or had she lost hope in his help.  Then he realised she was unaware of his rescue mission- there was no communication to let her know of it. She trusted him, the reason she dialled his number.  How she accessed his number made no relevance. In that trust, she would believe in his mission--he got assured.      

Then he put another planned call.  At the first ring, the phone got connected.  He shouted into the phone his identity—Arjun Madhavan, Circle Inspector, Thampuran Kotta.  He heard the same appeal in response, 'help me," in the credence of a murmur. Then he lost the connection.

"We located the phone," he got a call from the tower after a minute.  After exchanging details to prove his identity, Arjun received the phone location-- 457 meters in the North-Eastern direction from where he was. 

The drizzles dimmed his sight.  He set the wiper at low.  The shimmering of the shy moon in the sky thinned to nothing.  Like a nightrider, he forged ahead, slicing through the dark mass.  The road narrowed, and he geared down.  The luxuriant façades of the bush rioting on the sides had swallowed the namesake shoulders on the sides and progressed further, rendering the road narrower.   

Arjun would have missed the scene if not for a shaft of gold bolting down from the sky to earth at the instance of a thunder crash that shook the world.  The back of a big vehicle plunged into the side from across the road. He slammed the break and pulled over to the side--got out and crossed the road.  A silvery four-wheeler had plunged from the road into the gorge on the side.

The carrion was blanketed by lush trees, rooted at its base, camouflaging its appearance and depth to the road users.  A danger sign and a speed limit of 30 km per hour remained hidden under a tree's luxurious branch.  The car rested on the narrow strip on the roadside slopping towards the gorge with its heavy butt sticking upwards. 

He listened to any sound emerging from inside the vehicle or anywhere nearby.  The bushy thickets flourishing along the strip had swallowed most part of the vehicle.  There was no sign of the driver or the passengers.  

The road took an abacus shape bent there -- devoid of any road barriers, it was a site of frequent accidents and deaths.  Repeated calls from the public to erect barriers on the road had fallen on deaf ears of the State's transport department.

It was a Mahindra Scorpion

In the torchlight he used, Arjun noticed that the car's back door was ajar, allowing the passengers to come out, and they would be still waiting for help and alerting the police.  The accident was fresh- fumes of petrol thickened the air.

 Arjun considered the possibilities—he connected with Zak to inquire about the road accident reports made in the nearby police stations within the last twenty-four hours. 

This post is part of the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge hosted by Blog Chatter

You can read all my posts for Blog Chatter A2Z here.



**