The Sound

by Anjali Khurana (India)

I didn't expect to find India

My fiance Vikram and his friend Yogi had geared up to ascent the Hampta Pass in Himachal Pradesh state of India. They'd been advised to take a local guide along which they denied as they trusted Google Map for directions and the guide was charging as much as the whole trip. "The mountain is calling", they told each other as they looked up at its peak and then at each other before taking their first step. The crackling sound of the rock, under their boots, was musical to their ears. Their smile grew wider as they moved upwards. They'd started with the first ray of the sun falling onto their tents and they knew they'd be there before the last ray shone on their reflectors. As two men would, they spoke about sports, alcohol, weed, recalled their college days and drunk incidents, their last trek together and upcoming treks.They twice halted to take a leak, make tea with the brew set they were carrying and continued to nibble their munchies. At 4 pm, their happiness touched the sky when they reached the peak two hours earlier than their estimated time of arrival. They cheered the very moment and clicked pictures when their phones suddenly started to blink low on battery. Vikram tried calling me but there was no network. He decided to take one last shot of the view from the peak before it conked off and there, behind those lens, he saw Hampta Pass, miles away from where they stood. Astonished at the sight, he showed it to his friend who confirmed that the peak they could see was Hampta Pass and hell! They had no idea which hill they'd climbed. They hurriedly descended only to realize that they did not meet any mountaineer or local on their way up, neither did they see a water fall or a lake let alone the huts that were to be spotted at every level of trek. They were uncomfortable with the decision they'd taken, wanting to blame their scary route on Google Map. In the next few minutes, the sun went down and the men repented not taking a guide along. With just one water bottle left and a few wafers to nibble, the duo went around haphazardly, looking to get help. As the night progressed, unknown sounds from the jungle started to hound them. Some from the trees and the other from the bushes, sounds of unfamiliar creatures were causing them to fear the dark. Inability to call for help and the absence of light, made their descent almost impossible. It was new moon that night and the nocturnal noises were setting in their decibels. They made a pact while finding their way out that if a wolf or a leopard attacked one of them from behind, the other would run to save his life. And just then, they heard a sound of something running towards them, they couldn't tell from which direction but something sure was about to get one or both of them. The sound of the fallen leaves and branches being crushed mercilessly by a creature's feet, the sound of hunger, the sound of the smell of the blood, the sound of 'you shouldn't have come here', the sound of countdown ticking to death; the sound grew closer. At its closest, they held their breath and stood still while the unforgiving beastly sound went past them roaring away to glory, missing them by a whisker, leaving tens of thousands of leaves and sticks colliding in the air looking to resettle on the doomed mountain. Vikram and Yogi exhaled hard while the sound was still there. The sound dug its canines into the flesh of what was presumably running for its life. As it mercilessly tore its flesh with its paws, splashes of blood from bursting blood veins fell onto the two. This nauseated them. Amidst the tear of the carcass, the sound stopped. This was perhaps the moment when their hearts pounded the hardest. The sound now had eyes; red glaring eyes staring deep at them from merely two feet away. They closed their eyes and then, the sound of chomping of the bones continued.