[ D day - 2 ] [ 25 H : 30 M : 18 S ] [ Home Town A ]
Vikram's bag has almost become empty. All it has is lots of bun wrappings, a half eaten bun, and a bottle of mineral water.
He chugged down water, and ate his bun leisurely.
He had been working non-stop for five hours. His stomach is rumbling. He never felt hunger like this till today.
That's how ravenous he was.
As soon as he finished, he changed his clothes to the common black jeans with black shirt with a black baseball cap.
He tremblingly touched the item with his hand, and commanded ' store ' .
Though he opened the item box, he wasn't quite sure it would work.
As expected, it did not.
Vikram sighed and opened the explanation.
' Item box could only store items belonging to the owner. Owner must believe with no doubt that the item belongs to himself. ' the line popped out among other miscellaneous criteria.
Oh….
That takes some work.
This particular crowbar is the one he borrowed from his uncle's place. No wonder it could not be stored. Vikram stored all the other items he bought, including the half ass elephant rifle.
Then, he mentally exercised the path he was going to take.
In the morning, when he entered, the reporters were already copping out in front of the portal. He did not expect the rush to have reduced any by now.
After all, this is the only place in India where the portal has vanished.
In the morning there were rumors that the military is going to add a commando unit here, so it's possible there might even be a military blockade.
All the same, Vikram is confident with his current skills, he could easily evade them.
After all, he has thousands of tricks learned from the movies. After that, there is his night vision.
He rushed forward.
The moment he rushed forward, he jumped onto the roof of the house adjacent to the portal. Within two strides, he was jumping down again into an almost empty alley.
The area portal opened was a commercial center, with the Gandhi statue. Most village layouts are similar. There's a main road, or Gandhi road, or both, which contains shops on either side. These roads join to another less conspicuous road in T-section, which leads to the residential area.
Behind the commercial center, i.e. the shops, there are associated warehouses and attached walking alleys, only the width of a single person walking, or a two-wheeler passing through. These alleys have no lighting whatsoever. It's all too easy to slip away from the hustle and bustle of the commercial square through these alleys.
Vikram jumped on to the roof of the shop beside the portal, then in two strides, he jumped in to an alley. Through the alleys, he switched from the main road to Gandhi road. Then joined the crowd rushing towards the now breaking portal.
The conversation around him is quite interesting.
" Wow ! Is it breaking up again ?!"
" Camera! Oi! Camera! Did you get it on ? connect me to the captain! I will talk to him personally. If we call right now, we could still make it to the eleven o'clock news. Faster! Guys. "
" You there, Intern! Gather some people. We need to get the interviews. Raju! Damn! This guy always vanishes at the most important moment. Get Raju to me, I am calling the chief ! " the news guy rushed his underlings.
" Guys! Guys! Are you seeing this ? The portal is breaking up right now. This sight is one and only in the world ! There were reports of portals breaking up in Africa, middle east , china and USA, but we could not see any of them with our own eyes. Now, here, in India, a portal is breaking up right in front of our eyes. " The live broadcaster exclaimed in front of his mobile on the stick, undecided whether to watch the portal, or to watch the screen to make sure he is not making a fool out of himself.
" Sir! The portal has broken up again. The crowd is increasing. We need more boards. Anand is holding it at the moment, but the crowd is pushing us. " ; " Ah! Yes sir! Ah!.. Ah.. Oh! You are correct Sir. Yes Sir! ' The constable is calling his boss.
"Helllo! Sergeant Jaldheer Singh, reporting from medical station 102, in zone c. The portal has vanished in Town A, Again, Over ! "
Blerh!.. Bhlahh! Blllllleeeep! .. blup.!
" Sergeant Jaldheer Singh, ID XXX , Accepts the Order. Over! "
This town had a military hospital. Jaldheer was supposed to be doing a very leisurely job in a lazy mountain town. Because of the portal breaking up, a military commando unit of the highest order is coming here. As the local officer, he has the command of this commando unit.
He was a medical officer, as such, holds a higher rank by the virtue of his knowledge. The highest fighting exercises he participated are simple infantry exercises. The team coming here specializes air, water and ground all terrain battle. he could already feel how incompatible they would be.
However, Orders are orders, and he would succeed no matter what. That's what we do, Jaldheer decided to himself. Moreover, it's not like he was not prepped for a day like this. Though his physical fitness is only in lower reaches, he was a gold winner in tactics.
The reason that his hospital is acquired is to provide a remote post with sufficient elevation and correct distance from all major cities of South India. so one more organized crime unit does not rise after the last one.
The black mountains contain scattered clumps of protected forest, most of them housing fauna at the brink of extinction. On top of that, they are source of highest grade timber on this side of Himalayas, with century old Teak and rosewood trees. The latter is especially valuable, because the Indian variety is a grade above in strength and beauty.
Thus, the poachers who knew local paths could grow from a random poaching team to organized crime institution that could go head to head with the army in a blink.
So, a military hospital was built, with an unnecessarily large square feet area.
Now, this is coming to good use with a commando unit dropping by.
In Vikram's previous life, there was no commando unit. As the ancestors say, ' the villain's lifeline is long' .
The chances are high the populace of town gets rescued, and in time, he may yet have to face his rotten uncle.
Vikram decided to not do anything at this point. If there is no crime, there could be no punishment. Moreover, as netizens say, 'Karma is a bitch' . It would catch up to his uncle sooner or latter.
After the initial buzz, the crowd dispersed slowly.
Vikram slipped away in five minutes.
Just like that, he missed the most important part of the buzz.
He was well settled into his bed ordering about his brother when the first video came up.
Ravi was just a kid with too much money and time on hand. He had come to the scene with ambitions about becoming the next Pulitzer winner. He was but a fledgling y-tuber, but he had the most sophisticated and updated technology among all that were waiting in front of the portal.
Owing to his clear unpopularity, this second generation got snubbed out of all the good spots with good angles on the ground floor.
In the end, Ravi burned money like any self respecting rich kid would do. He rented out a shop around the corner from the portal, then set up his camera so it covers a wide screen video of the portal.
He settled on a location diagonally opposite to where Vikram exited from. Vikram was caught on the camera with far too high resolution, on an infrared screen with the far too strong scanning ability for civilian equipment and the thousand fps camera.
Between all these sources, the press had a field day.
The you-tuber lucked out, his footage bought for the highest price by Fox and BBC, while the rest of the news networks had only shoddy pictures to show.
Meanwhile, the youtuber still kept the infrared and sports cam sources, to be auctioned in the morning.
While the world is turning upside down like this, Vikram was discussing travel plans with his father.
" We will leave at seven O'clock in the morning." his father informed him.
" No dad ! I won't come with you. It's not often we come here. I want to visit the temple atop Gundam. Right now, the country is going to impose section-144. As of now, the rules they announced are lax, but we never know when they would tighten the curfew. I will visit the place before the security could stump us. Then, I will take a bus to the city. " Vikram proposed.
His father paused.
" hmm.. In that case, I would do the deposit, and leave at 9. " his father opined.
However, Vikram disagreed.
" How about I carry the cash for you? I would buy any grains I see enroute, and rent a pickup truck if need be." Vikram said convincingly.
His father agreed.
" Also, after you go home, take a good rest. Tomorrow night, lock every door, window and otherwise. We would never know what action the military or police might take in the night. We won't want to be affected by strays. " Vikram advised.
His father agreed. After all, it's common sense.
Vikram hoped this would spare him the lecture about how much he spent in vain raising the security of their home.
All the same, he still took time out to talk with Vinod after he was done.
Vinod explained what they did today.
Vikram nodded in satisfaction.
"One of you needs to stay home with mom all day. Tomorrow, buy a few artificial farming equipment. Make sure that it's authentic and working. Vinod… This is important ! After tomorrow, at night, you need to lock yourself in. Don't open doors for any one.
Let Virat download videos. All fighting manuals, any and all kinds of military training - weapons training, armor making all those. Think of it like this. We are making a knowledge capsule for apocalypse level calamity. We need enough skills to survive initial days, and raise civilization in later days.
Download books and videos with that in mind. " Vikram warned his brother seriously.
" Damn it ! don't do this movie bullshit with me ! what the fuck is going to happen ? tell me. " Vinod asked.
Vikram hesitated for a moment.
He initially thought of selling this information, thinking probably the same number of people would be sacrificed with or without this information.
If he releases it too early, it would cause a panic, conversely, that many more people would die.
" Tomorrow at midnight, all portals are going to burst. Instead of portals vanishing, all the beings inside the portal are going to come out. It's going to be dangerous. ". Vikram dearly hoped his brother believed him.