It was a silent afternoon, hours before sunset, the streets looked abandoned as Ash approached the village. He walked across the first street, there were four houses built with wood and the roofs were covered with branches of palm. He couldn't believe his eyes, the first hut he passed by, looked like it was evacuated days ago, but he sensed that was a sudden evacuation. The door was left open, the utensils were on the floor when he entered the house. Everything inside was either wood or stone, carved with perfection.

The daylight started to fade, few minutes before the sunset, Ash walked across the village and noticed that the entire village was vacant. He was annoyed by the thoughts that were raising in his confused mind. He struggled trying to connect the dots, he wondered if it's all his hallucination as the busiest city in South India turned into an empty ancient village. Amidst all the confusion, his eyes rolled towards the stone well, he ran towards it and spotted some water at the bottom. A pulley was mounted on top of the well, it was built using carved stone and the rope was made of coconut fiber, Ash used it to draw some water and gulped it down .

The night seemed bright and silent, the stars were so clear and Ash felt they were actually closer to the earth than ever. "What is this place? , Am I being pranked for breaking in to that house ? , Is this all my imagination? " thoughts running through Ash's mind while he was sitting next to a guava tree . He was too tired to climb the tree, he grabbed a guava lying on the floor and took a bite. It was delicious, sweet and juicy, he thought it was probably the best fruit he ever tasted. He gathered some of the soft leaves from around the tree and turned them in to his pillow, he laid his head on it and fell a sleep staring at the brightest moon and the shiny stars.

It was about three to four hours that Ash fell asleep, the blowing wind was lifting the dried leaves off the ground, the frogs were croaking in a rhythm searching for their mates, and the ambience was filled with various sounds created by wide variety of insects. Out of the blue, there was a loud thud, few feet away from where Ash was sleeping. He woke up instantaneously and grabbed a stone, walked towards the direction of that sound. He was shivering in fear , adrenaline rushing in his body, fight or flight was his question, he saw someone moving behind the hut near by. Ash dropped the stone and yelled " I need help , please help me" and rushed towards the hut. As Ash approached the hut, he saw two men, who bear resemblance to apes, holding their stone headed spears, pointing at Ash. In a split second, even before Ash took a good look at those huge men, the third man came from behind and knocked him down to the floor.



------ To be continued------








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