TUM MILE

Chapter 25

Sanskar felt cold drops of water on his face. Someone was sprinkling water on him. He opened his eyes and felt a little heavy. His body was covered in soot.

"What just happened?" He asked as he stood up and felt a little dizzy. His colleague Manish was standing in front of him with other juniors.

"Sir! You are not well! Please let us take you to the hospital!" Manish insisted.

"Those terrorists?" Sanskar asked.

His juniors lowered their gazes. They knew they could not lie to Sanskar. But the truth would be more hard for him.

"Laksh? Where is bhai?" Sanskar realised the absence of his brother. He knew he would never leave him alone in this condition.

There was no reply. Sanskar's heartbeat raised. All the bad thoughts he could think of, swarmed his mind at once!

"I asked you all a question!" Sanskar felt the rage taking place of all the weakness he was feeling, "Where is your senior, my senior, Laksh Maheshwari?"

Manish trembled. He looked at him and finally mustered to say, "Sir! Laksh sir was taking the cover. After the blast, when he saw you unconscious, he asked us to take you to a safe place. And he along with some others, took the cover. He successfully managed to catch two of those, the rest went away."

Sanskar wanted to run behind Laksh. At this moment, he could not see anything except his brother's safety.

"And then, sir, they shot sir in the chest! And then, took his cover, and ran from here! They took sir along with them!" His another collegue Sooraj told the rest of story, "Our team is behind them. But they are threatening to shoot him again."

Sanskar felt his legs getting numb. Sanskar had never seen anyone being out of hostage safe and sound. He remembered the words of Laksh himself

If anybody got taken as hostage ever, don't expect he will come out in a good condition.

Without thinking for a second, he immediately ran outside. His colleagues ran towards him too.

After a little argument, his colleagues had to give in. Sanskar's condition was not good. It's been just a month since his recovery from the most stressful even of his life. His body was quite exhausted. But his mind was alert. His brother who cared for him like anything, was between those monsters, that too in an injured state.

Manish got a call. He looked at Sanskar.

"Tell me! Don't dramatize things much!" Sanskar said.

"Sir! Those two met with 4 others too. Now they are standing near a cliff and asking to let them go otherwise they wil..."

"Throw bhai off the cliff na! I know what they can do or what not! These are not trained militants. These are just some misguided youths. The original ones ran away leaving these kids behind. I bet if even one of them had crossed 19 years of age!"

Sanskar was right. As he saw towards the cliff, 6 young man, hardly 17-18 years of age were standing near the cliff. On their side, Laksh was lying, semiunconscious.

Sanskar felt pity on these ones. They did not know what they were doing. They were terrified. A visible terror was there on the face of each one of them. The way they had kept Laksh, it did not seem like they wanted to kill anyone.

Sanskar took a deep breathe. There were negotiations going on. But Sanskar knew what he should have done! He need to save his brother anyhow. He can't let any harm happen to his brother.

"Sir!" Manish exclaimed, "What are you doing?"

Sanskar had put down his gun and other weapons in such a way that it was quite clear to the militants. He took out his wallet but stopped seeing the jhumka he had taken of Swara. His Swara was waiting for him as his bride and here he was, fighting for the country. He smiled a little. Though he knew there was no harm here. He knew how to negotiate with such young minds very well. He knew the outcome too. But something was trying to stop him. Was it his own conscious! He felt as if someone was forcefully pulling him away from his family. He felt as if his bride would wait forever for his return.