Day 2 Contd...(2)
Day 2 Contd...(2)
She was panting hard due to the effort it was taking. Not only was the air was putrid inside but it also felt as if there was shortage of it in that long tunnel. She was really thankful for all the cardiovascular exercises during the past few months which had made her lungs become strong enough to handle this. Even though most people seemed to be coping well, Mriga thought that she heard few breathless pants around her. Then again, it could have been her imagination. She was nearly blind in here, relying purely on her ears to move ahead.
"Abhirath, close your eyes," she said softly after a bit.
She had just caught a glimmer of light and realised that they were nearing the exit. Like earlier, she waited for him to question her but nothing was heard.
She didn't want them to be blinded by the sudden exposure when they went out and had hence told him to shut his eyes. But when he didn't question her, she was really surprised. Did it mean that he was finally accepting her word 'blindly' as she normally did?
Warmth bloomed in her heart and she didn't realise that a small smile had crept on her mud streaked face. She crawled out faster, feeling the ground with her hand. All rough or slimy things which had bothered her when she entered the place, didn't register anymore in the rush to reach the end.
Sometime later, they were out of the damn dungeon!
"Ahhh, it feels so goo… wait, what is that thing?" Mriga who was in the process of stretching her arms above her head, froze with her hands extended halfway in the air.
When the officer had mentioned that they were going to cross a bridge above the lake, he had conveniently forgotten to mention that calling it a bridge was a joke or an overstretch of one's imagination. A bridge meant that there was some sort of a place to put one's foot down and walk. A person needed to climb up this really high bridge by using a rope ladder which didn't look sturdy enough. Then there were hardly any wooden planks on the entire stretch and even the ones which were there, had huge gaps between them, making a person leap over the space. To make it worse, this rickety, rotting structure looked as if it wouldn't be able to take even a child's weight. There were rusty poles which were holding this contraption together on both sides. The poles in the middle of the lake acted as an anchor. The other set was at the start point.
The official was informing everyone that they couldn't use the poles to climb down to reach the lake. Everyone needed to jump from the end of the bridge which was nothing less than fifty feet, not a small 'feat' by any standard.
Mriga saw in horrified fascination as most people who were attempting to cross the bridge were falling in the lake mid-way and were being sent back by the sentry to the start point.
No wonder, there were so many people still standing at the lake's bank.
When she turned to look at Abhirath, his gaze was fixed at the few people who were coming out of the water on the other side of the lake. One of them was the acrobat from the previous day, Yuvati. He was thinking that she was a really strong opponent and the first two obstacles seemed to have been tailor made for her.
Mriga followed his gaze and suddenly an idea hit her.
She grabbed Abhirath's arm urgently and started speaking in excited but hushed tone, "We could…"
He followed her gaze and nodded his head, as if he knew exactly what was she going to say. But then his eyes fell on her hand on his forearm. In consternation, he took her palm and examined it closely. These wounds looked as if...
"What exactly happened in the tunnel?" he asked her but she shook her head and told him that this was not the time to worry about small matters. Abhirath looked at her in dissatisfaction but then a loud scream snapped his head towards the bridge.
One of the contestants had managed to reach more than halfway before she was unceremoniously pulled back by another contestant and thrown in the water. A loud gasp could be heard from the people around at the unashamed behaviour of the girl. Apparently, she intended to be a spoilt sport which was confirmed by her next set of words, "If I can't cross the bridge, I won't allow others to do so as well."
After saying so, she came back and stood at one of the few solid planks, right at the beginning of the bridge. Few girls including Vindhya went to the sentry to complain about it but he stood there unmoved, uninterested.
Abhirath bent down to whisper in Mriga's ear and they slowly started to make their way towards the bridge.
Cutting through the crowd, Abhirath and Mriga reached the place where the rope ladder hung. Mriga stood aside as Abhirath started making his way to the top. The bullying girl who remained unmoved, looked at him belligerently.
"Do you think that I can't tackle you?" she bent down and jeered, flexing her bicep muscles.
He continued to climb up calmly, unfazed by her words. Once he reached the top, he looked at Mriga who took the hint and started climbing up as well. Abhirath reached the rebelling girl in quick strides and swooped her in his arms bridal style, catching her by complete surprise.
Before she could resist or fight back, he used his body weight to push them through the gap in the planks and jump off from there, taking her along. Meanwhile, Mriga had reached the top. While the others cheered and immediately started climbing, Mriga waited on the top step for Abhirath to comeback.
He had told her that this was the only way to remove the girl effectively even if it meant letting others gain advantage as well.
Vindhya was one of the first ones to go past Mriga and she did so with a malicious grin. She was laughing at her naïve plan because of which others were gaining an upper hand. But few others smiled and dipped their heads in acknowledgment before walking ahead.
Not long after, Abhirath reached on top.
Fully drenched, he was grinning triumphantly as he asked her, "Ready?"