In Quest for Survival

by Gaurav Jain, April 2004

I was running faster now, for I was sure that I had lost my way in that dense forest. There was hardly any light to see my own feet; the sun was complete obstructed from snooping into the floor of the jungle. I was panting for breath, inhaling sonorously, and couldn't hear anything, save the crepitating sound of the dry leaves when my shoes hit on them. My clothes were drenched in sweat, and my eyes full of tears. I was running like a pig in a pig-run, not knowing where I was headed, for all directions looking the same - dark... pitch dark.

It was not until I felt the pain that I realized I had broken one of my fingers of my toe, and the shoe that covered the toe was missing. I had fallen into something like a trap-hole, almost 100 feet down into what felt like a hard wooden surface. But my physical pain was overpowered by the mental agony that I was experiencing. Here I was, lying helplessly on a hard floor somewhere underneath the surface of the dense, gloomy forest, with a broken finger and deficiency of breath. It was pitch dark, and I couldn't even see myself. Also, it was pin-drop silent, except for my continuous breathlessnesss, I could feel a stillness in the air, which sent a cold shiver down my spine.

After lying there for several minutes, I started thinking about my family, my mohter. I was missing everyone here, but I remembered that I must not lose hope if I wanted to survive. I tried to accumulate the energy to get up, and pushed my weight against the hard floor with my hands. Just then my hand touched upon something hard lying on the floor beside me. I felt it with my fingers - it was firm, probably a piece of rock or stone. It was round, but with big punctures on one side, and almost hollow on the other side. I thought it must be a broken piece of stone, but why should a stone have perforations in it? I picked it up in both hands and brought it up to the level of my face, pretending to "stare" at it in the pitch dark.

Before long I realized it was a skull - human skull. I was holding a human skull in my hands, close to my face, in the doom and stillness and darkness of a place underneath the surface of the jungle. At the thought of this, another shiver, deeper and more painful this time, crawled down my spine, and right into my stomach - I felt a kind of big blow inside my belly, and almost shouted. I didn't know what to do, and started relaxing my hands slowly toward the floor, and carefully placed the skull on the ground, trying not to hurt it, nor to make any sound. I then tried to get up, but realized it was no use. So I tried to crawl - but crawl where?

To my surprise I could see a spark of light coming from far ahead on my right. It was a very weak streak, almost non-existant, and it did not help at all in retrenching the darkness of the place. Nevertheless, I thought best to follow the direction of the distant light, and started gathering all my energy into draggin myself in that direction. My toe was hurting, and it felt almost lifeless and heavy. It must have been an hour or two, before I thought I had moved a dozen yards closer to the hint of glare. The glow had become slightly more prominent, but I could still not reason out what it was. It was something low, almost touching the ground. I was feeling cold now, and my sweat drenched clothes made me shiver. I tried to drag on further, when suddenly I hit upon something on the ground, and to my utter dismay the whole silence of the place was disturbed by sudden resonance, echoing so hauntingly that I covered my ears with my hands as tightly as I could manage.

I had hit upon a metallic bell that was lying on the ground. The jingles were still reverberating in my ears, almost as if unwilling to subside. My cheeks were wet in tears, and I almost felt like drinking them to satisfy my gradually increasing thirst for water. The vibrations were now quietening down, and I started crawling towards the mysterious source of light.

I must have covered half the distance closer to the light by now, and several hours must have passed by. I could now figure out that the beam seemed to be coming from a cleft below what looked like a door. I imagined sun-light, and therefore, freedom behind the mysterious door. This inspired me to forget my almost unbearable pain and thirst, and I started to push to the door with the little left over energy I had. It was only then that I felt as if my body was not moving at all, as if my legs were jammed and refused to budge. I felt my broken toe trapped in a tight grip, and it couldn't move.

Realizing that it was a hand that caught my bare toe, I lifted my other, stronger leg which still wore a shoe, and kicked at the ground-protruding hand with all my might. To my relief the grip losened, and I pulled out my toe from its clinches. I was shivering of cold and sweat, and the pain in my toe was getting more difficult to endure. I pulled my body quickly toward the door, which was not far now. I heard my soul inside me saying "keep going", "you can do it".

Eventually I was next to the door, a huge metallic structure, more than double my own height, and half as wide. I put together my remaining energy to stand up on my better leg, and rested my body against the door. I tried to feel for the knob of the door, but couldn't find any on the door. I felt around the door, and my hand felt something protruding from the wall near the door. It felt like a furry but still object, and had an open slot in the front. I inserted my hand into the slot, in search for a clue to open the door. But suddenly I felt that the stiff protruding object had closed its opening, and my hand was trapped in its clutches.

In seconds I realized that my hand was trapped in the mouth of a stuffed head of a wild-beast. I tried desperately to free my hand, but the beast tightened its bite on my hand, and started shaking my hand between its teetch, trying to break it up. My mouth opened in extreme anxiety and disablement, and I cried for help - but no sound came out of my mouth. The beast was shaking my hand if fury, ready to munch it any moment.

"What's the matter, son. Wake up!" called my mother, who was sitting by my side on my bed, and shaking my hands.