Chapter 7: What am I?

The hero, the one who would save them all, was himself in need of a saviour. 

             There was chaos all along. Be it morning, noon or night. The world was plagued with constant chaos. Nobody knew what the source was, but everyone felt the wrath. The sky above tore in half, and from there poured down raging drops of molten lava. This wasn’t red or grey, but more of neon purple in hue. As it hit the human flesh, the molten solid appeared to dissolve right into the skin. What it did going inside was the cause for chaos. Nobody was in their right mind anymore, neither the road side paupers  nor the self proclaimed kings and queens of the city. No they didn’t become zombies, that would have been easier to sustain considering how the drug abuse was handled. This was beyond anything ever seen. The chaos. And the pain that followed. 

              A nine year old boy, who was untouched by the rain drops, was running bare feet on the road, without a rain coat or umbrella. His name was Roy. He had been running not in fear, not in worry, not even in panic. His expression was such that it would be tough to make out what was on his mind. He turned right through a round about and to his surprise a high speed truck came right at him. He tried to stop his marathon but the truck was too fast. Roy felt the truck would mow him down, but his expression was unchanged. Nobody was driving the truck, and yet, it was coming straight at him. Trying to get out of the truck’s way he jumped only to find himself tripping right in the way of the truck. His momentum was such there was no hope left. He went straight under the truck. 

             With his back against the ground Roy could see the chassis of the truck as it moved over him, and the moving axle hit him hard on the forehead. In a flash of second the truck had collided into the dry fountain in the centre of the round about. There was destruction and a blast that made the wheels and other parts of the truck spread to quite a distance. In it’s wake lay a nine year old with a big wound on his forehead. Roy opened eyes to realise he was alive, but with blood gushing from his head. His expression still unchanged. Roy tried to get up but he was unable to for sometime. Laid back on concrete with his back bruised, he could see the gap in the sky widen, and wondered if there would be a day again when things would go back to the way they were. How long was it? He couldn’t remember. He had recently learned everything about time and calendar, and was doing good for a nine year old. But today, it didn’t matter. School was over. So seemed his childhood. 

             As he tried to get up again, his eyes fell on a drop falling right at him from the sky. He tried to nudge a bit, but the drop had fallen right onto his wound on the forehead. Roy knew he had only a few moments before the sky fall entered his body. He had to finish his mission he thought. “Brother, wherever you are, we need you”, he said out loud. He then went for his pocket and let out a small crystal wrapped shyly in a piece of paper with some writing on it. To someone before days of chaos, a child hurt on road would have instantly provided assistance. But these weren’t normal days. Roy knew nobody would come to his aid. He made the crystal shine in such a way, that a ray of light fell on the window with a broken glass on a building across. He froze his hand so that the reflection was fixed on the window. If anyone could see him, he wished. 

             As the neon purple fluid entered his body, he could feel a million nano rockets flow through him. In an instant, everything he saw became white. He felt nothing, not even the crystal. His fainting sense of reality made him look at the hand that held the crystal. He saw his palm was empty. For the last time, he felt he was smiling, before everything turned white and senseless. 

To be continued..