The group of passengers were walking across the forest for almost half a day nonstop which was greatly exhausting on the passengers. Since these were just normal citizens most of them did not have such good fitness as to walk for hours trekking in a forest and some were quite aged old people so naturally they were not able to keep up when we compare them with these masked men who seemed to get some kind of commando training which can be deciphered by the way they were walking and their body language.
Out of all these people, one of the passengers had fallen as he was not able to keep up with the others since his fitness level was not that good since he was quite fat. But when the masked men saw that one of the passengers had fallen they immediately came up to him and started to beat him up since due to this they were getting delayed.
And at this point of time, they could not afford to delay more since they knew very well that the Government had already come to know about this train hijack incident by now and they must have dispatched highly trained commandos to neutralize them so they have to reach their secret hideout and report to the high command before they get stopped by any other forces.
The masked man kicked the passenger heavily on the stomach and said: "Hey get up quickly we do not have time."
The passenger grunted and said: "Ahh! Please have some mercy. I am unable to walk anymore. Please give me some water."
A few more of the masked men came and said: "Hey what's happening here? Why are we stopping? Boss said we have to reach our secret hideout as soon as possible."
The first masked man kicked the passenger and cursed: "Hey! Get up now. We are not going to wait up for you any longer."
However, the passenger could not move from his place as he was very tired and exhausted due to the continuous walking in the jungle through difficult terrain.
The other masked man said: "If this one cannot walk then we do not have the resources to carry him around. Just finish him off quickly because if we let him live then he may give information regarding us and the commandos may come to our trail and track us faster."
The passenger heard the conversation in horror as he came to know that these men were planning to put an end to his life right away so he started pleading: "No please have mercy. I will not reveal any of your secrets please."
The masked men looked at this man menacingly as they laughed and then shot a bullet at the man's forehead. The man was dead the next moment as his dead body slumped on the ground.
The surrounding passengers saw this in horror as there was an unusual atmosphere of lingering fear among the passengers and nobody said anything.
While this happened Eklavya, Mohit, Avantika, and her PA heard the gunfire and came to know that there was some fight between a passenger and the Masked man, and the passenger got shot.
They could not see it because they were nearly at the front of the group so they had come quite far as the back of the group was stopped then.
One of the masked men near them who were escorting them said: "Hey! You guys do not stop. Keep walking."
Nobody was allowed to stop or converse among themselves as they were only able to mutter softly.
Mohit said to Eklavya: "These men are ruthless if there is slight disagreement with them then they do not hesitate to pull the trigger and extinguish someone's life."
Mohit was only a teenager and had not gone through such harsh conditions so naturally, his sentiments were different as he was seeing the killing of a person for the first time in his life in comparison with Eklavya Mohit was so naive because if we talk about Eklavya he had already seen the harsh reality of life when his parents were abducted. At that time he was thrown out of his own home by his uncle whom he and his parents had trusted so much. He lived on the streets during that period.
All those tough times, harassment, and bullying hardened the character of Eklavya and made his will power stronger.
So when he heard that someone was shot he could understand that in this kind of scenario, killings were quite normal so he just nodded to Mohit and did not show much of his emotions.
The Personal Assistant said to Avantika: "Mam it seems that I will not get back home alive anymore. As an employer, if you escape from this hellish place please look after my children and family."
Avantika who came from a high class background had been trained to face all kinds of trouble and taught martial arts so she just rolled her eyes at her PA and said: "Just keep your mouth shut otherwise next they will come for you."
The Personal Assistant reprimanded by her employer quickly shut her mouth and did not say any more stupid words.
Eklavya on the other hand could not understand what he could do to stop these masked men. He had full confidence in himself that he could overpower these men even if they came at him together with guns however if he acted then there was a probability that all these passengers might lose their lives which was an outcome he did not wish to see.
The masked men ordered all the passengers to walk again as they started going forward. They kept walking for nearly another five hours before finally coming to a halt as the men ordered them to stop.
The men cheered as they said: "Finally we have reached our secret hideout."
Everyone looked around only to see that there was a lake in front of them and besides it at the left side there was a huge rock boulder was kept adjacent to the lake and at the right side there was again a cluster of green trees and at the other end of the lake, there was again forest with lush green tree and at the back of them was the way from which everyone came here.
However, no one could see any building or construction of a house or a cave where people could live, as everyone wondered.