After One Week
Time Morning 4.00
As usual, Peter threw the paper in the Highway Bar. After few
hours, one car came and stopped near the Highway Bar.
"Johnson!"
"Happy to see you again!"
"Come be seated," – said the bearer inviting him.
"Stephen! Park the car near the cartage," – shouted Johnson
walking into the bar. Stephen parked his car near the cartage and
walked into the bar.
Time Early Morning 4.15.
"The time is only 4.15 am, Sir!"
"Take these keys and take rest in the relax room," – said the
bearer giving keys and walked to his room.
Time Morning 8.00
Someone rang Walter's door bell. Walter opened the door.
"Johnson!"
"Glad to see you again," – greeted Walter inviting him inside.
Sophia brought tea and left to do her household chores.
"Walter! I need to say something."
"Actually we thought to steal the treasure in the D-Street. But
now, I do not have such opinion. As per rule, we will return the
temple‟s treasure to government and leave."
"Please cooperate with us! – requested Johnson.
"Of course Johnson! Sedrick and I will help you."
"You be waiting in the watch house. I am going to call
Sedrick," – said Walter. Johnson went to the D-Street main gate.
After reaching to the D-Street, Johnson accosted Michael who
was sitting in the watch house.
"Sir!"
"How are you!" – greeted Michael respectfully.
"Michael, forgive me!"
"I unnecessarily raged on you."
"In fact, I thought of plundering the D-Street possessions.
"I felt you are interrupting me, so I angered you." – said
Johnson requesting him to forgive.
While Johnson and Michael were having conversation on
some serious matter, Walter came along with Sedrick in his car.
"Where is Stephen?" – asked Sedrick.
"He is in the tent."
"Come, let us go there," – said Johnson and took them to the
excavation spot.
Stephen was already sitting inside and was going through the
papers thoroughly. Johnson kept the papers on the table.
"Listen all of you!
"See here,"
"The mark you are seeing is the Picto Hills left way, we must
go there and excavate there. I came to know that our ancestors used
to live there, so we can find some important antiques, and later we
will search for the temple," – said Johnson to everyone.
Time Evening 4.00 PM
They departed for the Picto Hills in Johnson's vehicle. The climate
was so pleasant and cool. They parked their car aside and started
walking. They walked left to the cave. They saw a vast place with
full of dry grass. They embarked on their mission by digging the
ground there.
Everyone got assigned with different places to dig, and they
started up their work taking their respective positions.
Meanwhile….
"Sir!"
"Come here".
"I found something," – shouted Stephen at Johnson, who was
digging somewhere.
Everyone walked to Stephen. Johnson was surprised seeing it.
He wiped the dust on the antique and cleaned it carefully with his
brush.
"Wow! Nice. This looks like king‟s walking stick," – said
Johnson.
They kept it aside and continued their work. While Walter was
digging, he saw something shining, he took it out with his hand. It
was a ring, which was very old. The ring had some picture carved
on it – a girl and a baby with blood in mouth. Walter realized that
it was the same picture as the idol, they had discovered from
beneath the ground of the cave. He found the ring so interesting
and attractive that he decided to wear it on his ring finger.
Sedrick went to Johnson who was still digging.
"Johnson!"
"Your hat is nice."
"Can I have it for some time?" – asked Sedrick.
"Oh! Of course."
"Take this. I have one more with me in the cartage," – said
Johnson giving the hat.
Sedrick put the hat on his head and walked to his digging
place and continued his work.
Time Evening 6.30
The weather was windy. The atmosphere was cool. The sky was
getting darker as the sun seemed to be setting on the horizon. They
ceased their work and were keeping the equipments in jeep.
Johnson was walking with king's stick in his hand.
"Johnson! Give the stick to me."
"I brought it," – said Sedrick taking the king's stick.
The sky turned out with deadly clouds, the place was full of
dimness.
"Walter!"
"See here," –shouted Sedrick.
It was evening and the sky got slightly darkened. Walter saw
Sedrick, coming from some distance. Walter got terrified seeing
Sedrick in that dimness.
Sedrick resembled a lot with the person wearing hat on his
head and holding a king's stick in his left hand. Walter realized
that he saw the same person near the tunnel.
"Is Sedrick the one who followed me!" – questioned Walter to
himself.
It started raining again heavily. All returned to the D-Street
from the place of digging. After spending some time at bar, Walter
and Sedrick returned to the D-Street.
Time Night 9.00
Walter had his dinner and moved into his bedroom to sleep.
Outside, it was raining heavily. The only question which was
constantly striking Walter's mind was whether Sedrick is the one
who was following him. Walter was thinking of Sedrick all the
time.
"Why did Sedrick follow me?"
"Are Sedrick and the tunnel person the same?"
"I think Sedrick may not be the one, because one day when I
was playing cards I saw one person near the bushes, Sedrick was
with me at that time. Then how can he be? If not who followed
me? – asked Walter to himself.
Morning 8.00
Walter visited Sedrick's house to meet him. When he entered his
house, he saw Sedrick and his wife Serena were having coffee.
"Hi Walter! Come!
"Have a cup of coffee." – invited Sedrick.
"Sedrick!"
"I need to talk to you," – said Walter taking him outside.
"Say Walter! What‟s the problem?" - asked Sedrick.
"Sedrick! I might have said this to you earlier. Actually
someone is following me secretly."
"I thought it was you who followed me," – said Walter
everything what he overcame.
"Walter!"
"You are thinking unnecessarily. Don‟t keep anything in your
mind. We will think of it later after the archeology work finishes,"
– said Sedrick.
Time Morning 10.00
Walter and Sedrick went to meet Johnson.
"Morning Walter!"
"I should tell you something."
"We should start our work right now. So that we can find the
temple earlier."
"We have wasted a lot of time. Now our final task is the
temple," – said Johnson to Walter.
Having completed their work at the Highway Bar, they
traveled to the Picto Hills.
Time Morning 10.30
Everyone reached the Picto Hills. As usual, they parked their car
and started walking. They walked into the cave as guided by the
route map they had.
Time 11.00 Am
They all started digging together. After 10 minutes of their
digging, they heard some sound and everyone got alert. They could
not see properly under the dim light of the lamp because of the
pitch black darkness permeated in the cave from where the sound
had come.
"Walter!"
"When we were digging earlier, we heard the same sound but
did not know where it come from," – said Johnson.
"I think some stones from hill might have fallen down because
of this digging," – said Walter.
"May be you are correct," – said Sedrick. Everyone again
started digging. Time was passing by. They dug for several hours
but could not find out a single sign of temple.
Time Is 8.00 PM Night
"I think we have almost reached, we will try again tomorrow. I
hope we will find it," said Walter to everyone. They left the
equipment and ladder in the cave itself and returned.
Time Night 9.00
They finally reached out the dense forest and came to their car.
Walter sat in the back seat of the car and from there he could see a
red hue coming from cave. Walter sat silently observing it.
Meanwhile, the car started moving on its way.
Time Night 10.00
After finishing the night-shift, Serena was returning home through
the highway. While crossing the D-Street highway road, she saw a
diversion board – "Archaeology work in progress, please take a
diversion," Serena seeing it came to know that the road was
blocked. She drove through the old way. It was too dark at night,
Serena reached the tunnel and heard a moaning sound coming from
it. She fled from the place swiftly on her bike out of fear and
reached the D-Street at last. Sedrick was already at home. Serena
said that she came through the tunnel, so she was late and went to
sleep.
Time Morning 9.00
When Walter and Sedrick went to the D-Street main gate, they saw
Johnson and Stephen were talking with Michael. They got down
from the car and walked toward them.
"Morning. Walter!"
"Today we are going to see the temple," – said Johnson with
excitement. All of them along with Michael, they went to the Picto
Hills.
They all again started digging. The time was passing on. They
were almost unstoppable in their digging. The time passed, and it
was 7.00 in the evening. Meanwhile …. a sound came to Walter's
brown bar. For quite a while, everyone saw each other's faces
excitedly and started digging again. Johnson threw the crown bar
aside and stood surprisingly.
"We found. We found. Yeah ha!!!"
"Walter. We won!" – shouted Johnson out of uncontrolled
happiness showing the temple.
The temple was very small, a miniature form of the real
temple. It was 5 feet height and 3 feet long. Everyone's eyes filled
with glow as their mission got accomplished with the discovery of
the temple. They saw a small idol within that temple with plough
holding in his hand.
"I think he is our ancestors god," – said Johnson. Walter was
unable to believe on his eyes when he saw an ancient temple
existing in the D-Street.
"Johnson! I see no treasure here, as you said," – questioned
Walter.
"Treasure!"
"It is under the idol," – answered Johnson out of excitement.
When Johnson was about to touch the idol.
"No Sir!"
"Please do not touch the idol."
"If you do so, all the evil spirits will come out."
"No one can help us," – warned Michael.
Without even caring Michael's words, Johnson turned the idol
to the right side and pulled it out. He could see nothing except
brown ash. Johnson took ash in his hands.
"Ash?"
"After struggling for many days, we found this??" – said
Johnson being irritated and out of frustration.
"You made a big mistake Sir!"
"You released the evil spirits," – said Michael and left the
place.
"Forgive me Walter!"
"Sorry for wasting all your time."
"All our hopes went in vain."
"We came here as if there is any treasure lying behind, but
nothing except the shit ash," – said Johnson and walked away.
Everyone felt bad for their failure and walked out feeling
disappointed.
"Stephen! You go and get the equipment," – said Walter
heading outside.
"Don‟t worry Johnson!
"We at least found the temple. Right!" – said Walter to
Johnson who was sitting sadly on a stone.
"Our task is complete".
"We must leave now".
"What are we doing here, come let‟s go," said Johnson
starting his car. As their work proved to be failure, they sadly
drove to the D-Street.
Night 11.00
The sky was fully covered with deadly rain clouds. They reached
the highway bar. Johnson got down from the car.
"OK. Stephen!"
"Come let‟s go," said Johnson. But he received no response.
"Walter! Where is Stephen!!! – asked Johnson.
"I sent him to bring the equipment from cave," replied Walter.
"Is he not in car??" – asked Walter being nervous.
They came to know that Stephen was not in the car. For the
moment, Walter was fiercely surprised.
"Oh my God! Stephen!!??!"….