Social Short Story – Death of a City
Photo credit: click from morguefile.com
This is a story of a city named Kupra. There’s this thing very few people know, it is that every city plays a role in deciding the fate of the nation. This one too has a role to play as it is located on the border of Bhaarat and beyond its city limit begins another country. Kupra is a very small city with comparatively less people. This city is calm, peaceful and innocent at all times still it is willing to do whatever it takes to protect the mother land.
It is just another regular day, morning time. Suddenly with a shock-wave a plane is spotted approaching the city. Everyone get back to what they were doing ignoring the distraction, but one. One man, a homeless guy, a drug addict, a waste of life, burden on the land stands up finding something unusual in the approaching plane. This person in his whole adult life did nothing worthwhile, he simply kept on gazing the sky, everyday, blaming the god for his life and what has become of it. But sky gazing has taught this useless guy something. For a city that is located on the border, a jet plane passing by is nothing new to see, but this was different, he could tell. He had observed other planes and something about this one wasn’t right, its color.
This homeless guy like many other had built his shack on the edge of a playground. So the moment he spotted the plane he walked, while keeping his eyes fixed on the iron wings, to the middle of the ground. As the plane got closer, the homeless guy smiled saying, “He is finally answering my prayers.”
In the morning time every citizen had begun their daily routine, children to their school, working people getting ready to leave for the office, housewives doing their daily chores. Among them were few 50 to 60 who came to the ground for exercise and play. These were the youth, training to be in national defense one day. As the plane advanced, the screeching got louder. While for the others on the ground the noise just irritated them more, for that homeless guy the noise got clearer.
When the jet was exactly above the ground something was deployed off it, a letter package? food? a bomb? it was too soon to say. But now that there was an object falling down, the noise was loud and concentrated. All the people on the ground couldn’t ignore it anymore. They all tried to cover their ears while they stood there watching. But the homeless guy was different. He kept staring the thing falling with his ears wide open.
“So this is how you decided to end my life, with a bang?” he asked. Suddenly the time appeared to slow down for that guy as the noise was more understandable to him.
“Yes. This is what you asked for, to bring an end to your ‘disgusting’ life. At least now you will believe that god does fulfill the wishes of every man.” these exact words fell on his ears in form of that noise.
“But a bomb! You intend to kill the entire city just to fulfill my wish.” he paused and then continued, “What of these people around on the ground, the future defences of the city and the nation. Why do they have to die?” he asked.
“Yes, indeed they are the guardian angels of the nation but still they are half cooked. Say if evil is to strike, then how many of them would be brave enough to put up a strong fight. Strong ones would die with torcher, weaker one would give in and share the secrets of the nation and those who survive would be traumatise for life being useless for their families, themselves and clearly of no use to the nation.”
“Instead as the bomb drops they would be made aware of what a war zone looks like as the pressure wave would send them off balance. It would give them a microsecond window of opportunity for them to see the death that is going to follow.” There was no point in arguing with the words of God, so instead he moved on.
“What of the students, the children who are right now in the adjacent school. Innocent children of all ages, who are preparing for their possibly bright future and currently praying for the same, praying to you.” the guy without a family asked pointing at the children standing outside in corridors for morning prayers.
“What bright future do they have here in the current situation? With one terrorist strike half of them would be killed brutally while the other half would be recruited as terrorists themselves, doing wrong deeds as they grow up…”
“And what of their parents?” the homeless guy interrupted, “Parents who are working hard to give a better future to their children.”
“The parents, once the terrorists hijack the school, they would be in a state of panic trying all they can to rescue their children and yet helpless as they won’t be able to enter the school boundary without being shot. It would be constant physical and mental struggle of theirs which would end up in disappointment and failure. ”
“On the other hand with the bomb strike the explosion would vaporize the children and their parents, then and there, not knowing what happened to them. They will have clean death after which they could comfortably move on to the next life.” When he was told that even the families deserved to die, he tried to talk about the grayer elements of the city.
“And what off the corrupt government officials and the greedy businessmen, building their industries on the border for profit.” the jobless guy asked.
“You are talking about the officials whose poor management was the reason why the terrorist activity would happen and the businessmen who financed the terrorists in return of their own safety. Do you think they deserve to live a happy life?”
“Those areas are outside the blast radius. So the pressure wave initiated by the blast would make the building structures collapse and the people would be crushed under the debris. No struggle, but a comparatively more painful death, which they had it coming.” Seeing God dodge his questions with proper answers he went on further, darker.
“And the prisoners in the jail, which is located on the edge of the city away from the border, what would happened to them?” asked the drug addict.
“Certainly the pressure wave would crush the jail, but instead of instant death they would be buried alive. Since help and rescue don’t come to places like this, they will die taking the last breaths of their life doing the last few moments of their jail time after which they would be free of their sins.” hearing that God has plans for the good and bad he asked the last question on his mind.
“There’s an army guarding the border line just outside the city limits. Do they deserve to die too?” asked the guy who tried to get in the army several times and failed.
“Those brave soldiers have sworn to die protecting the nation. They would accept death proudly as it comes.”
“One thing that you not know about is, as we speak, there’s an ongoing fight between the army and the terrorists. Clearly the army is outnumbered and outgunned. Any moment now this impenetrable wall made by the men of steel would be crushed.”
“The things I said from the beginning, was the exact plan of the terrorists. They would crush the army, brutally killing every one of them. Then entering the city, they would take control of the school and free the prisoners from the prison. The government officials and the industrialist won’t resist and so with their support, the back-up which was going to arrive later the day would take control of the city. And hence the events would follow as I described.” the somewhat atheist guy had nothing more to ask as his conscience was cleared of all doubts and so he decided to accept death with arms stretched wide.
But God was not done talking, “There’s one more, who will die today, you didn’t asked about.” the guy was confused, thinking what he was talking about. But then God continued, “The city itself will die today. Yes, the city has a soul, the soul which is kept alive by the people living in it. Just like an actual person the city thinks, decides and acts.”
“Don’t believe me? The jet with a bomb had actually targeted the capital city of the state. But while the jet crossed this city, there were electromagnetic disturbances that prematurely deployed the bomb which was programmed to trigger remotely.”
“As I’ve said before, every city has a role to play. And Kupra decided to be a soldier. Kupra is a city that would guard the nation being the wall of defense on the border, willing to sacrifice itself for the safety of the nation. And hence it chose a quick death instead of being corrupted and half dead while crying with tears of blood.”
The bomb closed in further and co-incidentally the bomb was right on top of that weak skinny man. For a fraction of second there, it would appear as if he was lifting the bomb in his hands. That’s when God spoke the last few words,
“I can, right now, give you the strength of Gods so that you could stop the bomb from hitting the earth and avoid the explosion from happening. But with strength you need to have wisdom to understand when it’s time to use your strength and stop something bad from happening and when it is time to stop resisting and accept your fate.”
–END–
