The front door creaked open which made the people inside the room jump out of fright. There were two people hiding in the room in the dark. The lights of the room were turned off. The room looked simple with three beds having a study table and a chair between the beds. There was a simple wardrobe attached to the wall and ajacent to it were hooks were a lot of clothes were hanged.
Prajwal had returned to his dorm room. He was staying in the room of three and the two people hiding were his room-mates. He turned on the light and looked around the room. The room had not been tended properly. There was a lot of wrappers of packed food all around the room. He gave a strange look to his room-mates.
"What are you guys doing hiding behind the bed? If you are that afraid then atleast close the door and stay properly on the bed." Prajwal asked them as he entered the room. He closed the door and moved onto his bed. He hadn't rested for 2 days. He was mentally tired, but he knew that it was not the end of things so he planned to take a short nap. The temperature was a lot cooler than what it used to be. The temperature of the city was about 30 degree Celcius on average before but it had dropped to 17. It seemed like earth was reverting back to it's form before humans destroyed it's ecology. Earth might be on a recovery phase but who knew how much of it's past it will recover and what phases it will pass through to reach it's past peak.
Prajwal covered his body with the blanked and shut his eyes and tried sleeping not thinking anything about what he had just found about extraterrestrials beings existence within the solar system.
"Hey, where were you?"
"Are you asking me?" Prajwal looked at one of the boy with large built which just contained fat. The boy was a bit chubby with jet black hair and innocent look in his eyes. He was scared to the bone. Prajwal hadn't had much conversation with him before. They had just got to the university about 3 months ago. They were just casual friends, not much of bond was present between them. All of them were international students in India. There was sort of barrier between them. All of them spent most of their time within their own circle.
"Yes, you were out for two days. We though you died somewhere." Prajwal gave deep look to the boy."Well I had some work to do so I was out. What about guys? You two seemed to have cooped up here not even going out and surviving on packed food."
"What do you expect from us? All the super-natural phenomenon are occuring. We don't know what we have to face outside. This a real life not a novel where people go outside in danger in search of opportunity." The guy who spoke was another boy in the room. He was differnt form the two of them. Prajwal and the boy with jet black hair were from neighbouring countries of India but this person was from far away land. He was syrian. He didn't share much similarities with other two.
"Quite a temper you have their. Let me clarify something to you. For opportunity, even previously you had to go out in the danger. Currnetly, only the danger level has spiked and in return to it, opportunities have increased. And to your question, I don't really expect anything from you. I just asked as currently there is no danger outside, it would be better if you go out and eat proper while you still can. Well, it's just my suggestion. You can do whatever you like. Don't disturb me while I take rest, I don't know when I will have a proper rest next time."
Prajwal closed his eyes and immediately felt asleep, he was fatigued mentally. The two boys in the room looked at each other and immediately ran out of the room. They hadn't gone outside even for excreation and had been holding it in. The instant they got the news about condition outside along with walking proof, they ran out. They first did all they had hold on for and went to the lower floor and announced through the speaker that the hiding students could come out as it was safe outside. Not many people were optimistic about the announcement as it didn't belong to the valid source. Only few people came out.
Later at about 5 o'clock, there was campus round announcement for the gathering, stating that it was safe outside. The gathering was for future path to be taken under such condition. The campus was not prepared at all for occurace of such incident, it was to happen as nobody had expected such thing to happen. Prajwal was woken up by the announcement. It had just been about hour since he slept, he felt groggy and sleepy but still woke up to go to the gathering. His aim was to collect intel. He wanted to know, who were the one that participated in the trial and passed it. There was not much chance of the one who passed combat related trial to reveal it, they would keep the advantage they have to themselves. It was human nature, they are divided when they should be together the most. It makes one wonder whether human evolved themselves or was there some additional power guiding it. In the stone age may be human stayed in pack and were able to survive. Later intelligence devloped in them and the more intelligent they became, more they negleted cooperation and went on a path of absolute competitiveness, where if you are humble, helpful, you are potraited as weak. Humans brain just fu*ked up over time. Moral, values, relationship everything had dissapeared from the humans. It just makes one wonder, if this all evolution is just a punishment for the degeneration of beings.
Prajwal too was human, he nevel planned on revealing any of his prowess. He woke up made himself more dirty to act as a person with poor condition. He looked around and didn't find anyone in his room. "They must have mingled with their friends. Even better for me, I get a complete room to myself." Though his face showed he didn't care and his mind thought same somewhere in his heart, there was a feeling of loneliness. It wasn't that he was reclusive in nature. He just had hard time engaging in normal casual conversation. He still had people who he thought of as his friends, who were always with him before but nobody seemed to have though about him even after it was announced that it was safe outside. His heart felt cold. Somthing was happening within him that he didn't notice. He was slowly loosing the feelings as well. His emotionless mind was shutting his heart. If he didn't take quick action, he was sure to live in solitary till someone persistent breaks the wall that was slowly surrounding his heart.
The gatherring was proceeding at cricket ground about miles away from his dorm. Prajwal on his way to the ground, ran using all he could and reached ground within short time interval. After reaching there, he saw the ground was well light with those light on the poles surrounding the ground on, there was a stage prepared as if there was programme that was about to happen. He hid himself inside the buildings outside the gateway to the ground and observed everyone inside the periphery of the ground. He didn't know anyone among them but was sure that they were working members of university not students. After about 10 minutes, buses arrived carrying students from all around the campus. As the student got out of bus and walked to the chair prepared for them in the ground, some looked dead inside, some excited about the future with new possibilities, some in serious state, some troubled. Everyone had different thoughts and feeling about the situation.
Prajwal used his zone skill from where he was, the gate to the ground completely was completely inside his range. He closed his eyes and tried to sense the aura people were radiation. As they passed, he found some were radiating unique aura. They were the one who had the aure of confidence as if everything was under control. They were the people who passed the trial without having their will broken. He was only able to detect those type of people as other had various types of aura, he couldn't differentiate between. The aura of confidence was overpowering compared to other auras radiated by people. Due to their overpowering nature, if one had skills related to sense, one could differentiate them. Something that Prajwal hadn't expected to happened.
As he was distinguishing everyone, he felt that someone was trying to look at him. He immediately closed his zone, held his breath and hid behind wall covering his face without any noticeable movement. This instant descision saved him as a preson in the crowd was looking at the building with the eagle like eyes. As the person didn't find anything, he looked away and moved towards the ground. Prajwal looked from behind the wall at the person as he walked away and remenbered his face.
"I had taken in account if person had skills I might be discovered, but it happened too fast. That person has skill related to vision, still he sensed me instinctively. There might be others who have better natural instincts. I should observe all the people and separate them so it will be easier for me to form team later." Prajwal continued observing. There were many people who had a good time in the trial than what he had expected. But there were only 5 who responded like the one with eagle eyes. About 15 more people showed discomfort and started looking for the cause. Prajwal listed images of all 20 people within his mind to be careful of. He was starting the foundation of his future plans.
As the crowd was nearing its end, Prajwal left the building and blended into the remaining crowd. He changed his expression into a confused and scared look. He depicted himself as a weak person with weak mind. He didn't want anyone to relate any of his future doing to him. Everything was a grand scheme.