An Unlikely Hero

A bullet passed straight through my chest. A gush of warm blood rushed out of the wound. I pressed my left hand against the wound to stop the bleeding. With my right hand, I aimed my gun at the terrorist and shot at his head. The terrorist lay flat on the ground as his brain was blown out. I looked around and saw that all the five terrorist lay dead. The hostages had safely evacuated the office building. I could hear loud sirens from the ambulance and the special forces deployed outside the building.

The pain in my body had now increased to a point where I could not stand any longer. My head swirled and I felt the earth caving in. I fell on my knees as my mind imagined the horrors of the past two hours. At last, my body became numb as I fell unconscious.
I woke up to hear the beep of the Heart Monitor. My chest and arms were connected to several electrodes attached to monitor my heart rate. The wound on my chest was stitched and covered with a gauze. I blinked my eyes to adjust to the light in the hospital room. A nurse approached me and asked me to lay down. She told me to take proper rest and took out an injection and injected the serum to my shoulder. The anesthetic took effect within a few seconds as I dropped back to sleep.
It was meant to be a regular day at the office. My boss called me to his cabin and said "David, we need better results this quarter. You need to push your team harder and meet your billable targets". I responded meekly,"Yes Bob, we are planning to work this weekend as well." I came out of his cabin a little upset as the job was taking a toll on my personal life. I was tired and frustrated stretching for long hours every day. I returned to my cubicle and sat down to work.
I opened my Outlook and started reading my emails. I was just in the middle of reading one of the emails when I heard a loud crashing sound of glass accompanied by a gunshot. I panicked and looked up from my cubicle to see a few masked man holding automatic rifles barging inside the office building. People were screaming and running around in panic. A few of my colleagues took cover underneath the cubicles as the masked men fired a few gunshots in the air.
A masked man announced,"You are being held, hostage. Do not move from your place. If you try to do anything stupid, you will be shot". I was in a state of shock. My hands became cold and my legs shivered in fright. I had seen this kind of thing happen only in the movies. I had never imagined that this would happen to me in real life. I immediately ducked and took cover under my cubicle. I heard a few footsteps approaching me and a masked man started dragging the people from their cubicles. They were assembling the people in the break room.
After some time, all of us were assembled in the break room. One of the masked men was giving instructions to the other men and seemed like their leader. They were addressing each other with numbers. The man who was giving orders shouted,"We are making some demands from your government. Till our demands are fulfilled, you will be kept hostage. We expect you to cooperate with us till then. If you act stupid, we will be forced to kill you". He said the last part with a lot of hostility and a chill of fear ran down my spine.
It had been almost half an hour since we were being kept hostage. A masked man had been deployed in front of the break room. I had counted the men and there were five of them. The other men had taken up positions near the office entrance and the fire exit. Our office was located in the heart of the downtown on the second floor of the building. I suspected that they had targeted our office specifically due to the location. They could create more panic in the city if they targeted a centrally located building.
I looked around me and saw the scared faces of my colleagues. Everyone sensed the danger of being shot and never seeing their families again. I had no family. My girlfriend had broken up with me a few months back. Since then I was living alone. I suddenly realized that there was no reason for me to be afraid anymore. Unlike the people around me, I had no one who cared for me. No one was waiting for my safe return. I decided that I should help my colleagues so that at least they could return safely to their families.
I started thinking of a way to counter this threat. I checked my cell phone and saw that the terrorists had jammed all the mobile signals. So, we could not communicate with anyone outside. I could hear loud sirens outside. I looked out of the slits of the closed window to see that the police were evacuating the people from the neighboring buildings. My eyes scanned the area around me to find some sharp objects. I saw a ball point pen in my boss Bob's front pocket. I signaled him to pass on the pen to me. He looked to make sure the terrorist wasn't looking in his direction and carefully passed on the pen to me.
I opened the pen's cap and looked at the shining sharp steel nib. I held the pen with a firm grip in my right hand with the nib pointing to the ground. Carefully, I walked to the terrorist who was looking elsewhere at the moment. As I moved to within a foot of him, he saw me approaching him. "Hey you, what do you want?" he spoke angrily. I made up an innocent face and told him that I wanted to go the loo. He looked at me disgustingly and accompanied me to the washroom next to the break room. As he turned his back to me, I immediately seized the opportunity and drove the sharp pen's nib into the side of his throat. I covered his mouth, to cover his scream. After a brief struggle, the terrorist lay dead covered in a pool of blood. I dragged his body inside and cleaned the blood stains with the napkins. I took out his gun, silencer, magazine, and radio. I flipped through his pockets and found a pocket knife and a wallet. On opening his wallet, I saw his ID card. It looked like he was an ex-military person.
I checked out the gun. It was a powerful M16 assault rifle. I was aware of the nuances of the gun as I used to spend most of my free time at the shooting range. I stepped outside the washroom carefully. I ducked and cautiously checked the positions of the remaining terrorists. One of the terrorists was guarding the entrance to the fire exit. Two others were guarding the entrance of the office and one of them was sitting in Bob's cabin and making some phone calls.
I adjusted the silencer on the rifle and aimed it at the terrorist's head who was guarding the fire exit. He was standing with his back to me. I pulled the trigger and the terrorist lay flat on the ground. A spitting sound was produced and I made sure that it was not heard by the other terrorists. I dragged his body to a corner so that it would not attract their attention. I went back to the break room and asked my colleagues to follow me in batches of five people. We all ducked and moved slowly to the fire exit. I made sure the terrorists had not spotted anything unusual and signaled my colleagues to leave the office building. After about half an hour, I had managed to evacuate around eighty people. At last, there were only five more left to be evacuated.
As I inched closer to the fire exit, I saw one of the terrorists head towards us. I sensed there was something wrong and asked my colleagues to rush back to the break room. I took cover under a cubicle. I saw the terrorist check the fire exit and as soon as he spotted the dead body of the other terrorist, he immediately radioed to the other men. I jumped from underneath the cubicle and opened a burst of fire on the terrorist. He was killed instantly. But, the other two terrorists rushed towards me firing indiscriminately.
I ducked and rolled over to the side. I knew if I stayed there, I would be a sitting duck. So, I ran to the other end of the floor as soon as I could.The firing continued heavily, as the terrorists approached me. I could hear their leader shouting,"Where are you hiding, you little coward? I am gonna slaughter you like a pig."
Suddenly, I got an idea and I fired at the closed windows across the floor. I knew that the police snipers would have taken positions in the neighboring buildings. As soon as I fired at the windows, the police started firing at the terrorists. One of the terrorists was shot dead. Their leader took cover and hid somewhere. I rushed to my colleagues in the break room and thought that this was the right time for them to escape. I covered them as we rushed to the fire exit. As I reached the entrance of the fire exit, the terrorist came out of his hiding place and opened fire at my colleagues. One of them got badly injured and I was shot through the chest. My other colleagues helped my injured colleague and carried him out through the fire exit. I aimed my gun at the terrorist's head who had run out of bullets and was running outside. With one last shot, I blew his brains out. After this, I fell unconscious.
After about a month after this incident, I was discharged from the hospital. I learned that the terrorists were ex-Military people who had planned to assassinate the mayor. They were holding the office people hostage so that they could trade the hostages for the mayor. It seemed the mayor had passed a legislation which had cut down on the pensions of the retired military people which had not gone down too well with some of them. After this incident, the legislation was revoked and the mayor accepting his responsibility had resigned from his post.
As for me, I was thanked by the police and my colleagues for my bravery and was presented with the Bravery Award by the President.

The End

The Social Stigma

I got pushed around quite a lot in my childhood. In my school, I was always bullied by the other kids. They would hurl racial abuses at me and would insult my religion. They made provoking gestures and faces at me. They called me by several offending names. It seemed that they enjoyed abusing me. Their sole intention was to make me feel bad.

I often returned home with tears in my eyes. My parents always taught me to be a gentle and a kind person. My mother would hug me and ask me what had happened. On hearing my story, she said that I would continue to meet many such people in my life. She told me not to feel disheartened and not to lose faith in people. She advised me to ignore such people as they were ignorant.

I continued to be abused by many such people. But, I never retaliated. After some time, these people realized that their words were not having any effect on me. I would just hear these people calmly and ignore them. This maddened them and they would just feel frustrated and leave me alone after some time.

I soon noticed that there were many good people around me. These people started standing up in my favor and would chase away all the bullies. These people would treat me with dignity and never judged me by my appearance or my religion. They were curious nonetheless and would ask me about the reason behind several things that they found unfamiliar. I felt happy to clear their doubts. These people earned my respect and friendship.

One fine evening, when I was riding back home on my bicycle from my school, I was stopped by a group of students from my school. I recognized these boys. They were the same bullies who used to trouble me every day. I sensed that something was wrong, as some of these boys were holding baseball bats in their hands and were looking at me menacingly.

I thought of simply riding away. But, a big boy came over to me and pushed me from my bike. I fell down and my shirt tore away in the process. Seeing this a few boys laughed. But, the big boy looked angry. He kicked me hard in my belly. I gave out a cry of pain. He continued to hit me. I tried to block his blows and begged him to stop. But, the angry boy continued to hit me. The other boys cheered his every blow and my every shriek.

I thought that enough was enough and picked up a stone lying on the ground and hurled it at the boy. The boy gave out a cry of pain and his forehead started bleeding heavily. I was in a state of panic. I had never intended to hurt him. But, I had only acted on instinct for my self-defense. The other boys also panicked and fled the scene. I got up and ran straight to the big boy. He was holding his forehead with his hands and blood was dripping heavily from the spot where I had hit him. The big boy was weeping inconsolably.

I took out my handkerchief and tied it tightly around his forehead. I asked the big boy to sit on the crossbar of my bicycle and took him straight to the doctor. The doctor immediately cleaned and stitched his wound. I was very upset and ashamed at my behavior. I cursed myself and asked the big boy for his forgiveness. The big boy was himself feeling very sorry for his behavior.

He said that a couple of days ago his Dad had died in a remote land fighting for his country. Since his Dad fought against some people that followed my religion he developed a sense of hatred towards me. He hit me to avenge his Dad. I felt very sorry for his loss and asked him to forgive me. He hugged me and asked me to do the same.

After all these years, when I look back at this incident, I reflect at the Social Stigmas which exist in our society. We have divided the people in the name of religion, race, caste, sect, culture, language and appearance. We have spread so much hate around us that not even our children are safe from it. We need to take urgent steps to quell this hatred and spread love, tolerance, and peace. Remember that there are several children being misled who need proper care, attention, and guidance. We all need to take a collective responsibility to ensure a better future for our children and all the generations to come.

The End

A letter to God

I received a letter from my good friend John the other day. He had dropped the letter for me in the old Officers' colony church. The letter read as below:

Dear God,

I do not know if it makes any sense for me to write this letter. Our good Reverend Rev. William and my wife Emily think it is best if I communicate my feelings to you.

As you already know, I am a retired serviceman. I have lived a full life and I have devoted my last years to the services of the Church. But, of late there are few things which have started to trouble me. I have seen young men and women destroy their lives and the lives of those around them ruthlessly with their vile ways. My only son Edward was killed last month by a Gunman when he had gone to the grocery store where he worked every day after his college. The Gunman it seems was a disgruntled store employee who had been fired a few weeks back. He shot at everyone in the store that day. My son too inadvertently became a victim of this person's lunacy.

Lord, I have served you and the Church all my life. I have never asked anything back in return. Then, why have you punished me so severely? Why have you taken my only son away from me? Edward was such a nice boy. He took care of me and his mother with so much care and love. Why have you then inflicted this suffering on us in our last years?

I really need your answer to this question as my whole life's faith is being tested by this ordeal.

Regards,
John

As I read the letter my eyes filled with tears and my heart went out to the grief of my dear friend John and his wife Emily. I decided to reply to his letter immediately.

Dear John,

I am very sorry for your loss. There is no greater pain than the loss of one's child. I want to inform you that Edwards is now in my care. He watches you and Emily every day from the skies and loves you just as much as he did when he was with you in his life.

The Gunman who shot Edward was a person named James. He was a devoted and good person too. He had a small girl by the name of Emma. Emma was suffering from cancer. When Edward took over the job, the grocery store fired James as he used to be often late for his work owing to his frequent trips to the hospital. James could no longer afford Emma's expensive medicines and in a few days she passed away.

James became angry. He was no longer the same person that loved me. His heart was consumed with hate and anger. His mind could no longer reason the good from the bad. He blamed the people of the Grocery store for Emma's death. He decided to take revenge.

I tried to talk to him as I do with everyone all the time. But, he was not ready to listen. He had already chosen to enact the grave sin. He walked with a fit of rage and shot at everyone in the store that day. Edward could have chosen to remain hidden under the desk and he would have remained unharmed. But, he chose to come in the way of James's bullets and saved the lives of two young children. He gave up his life for a good cause and this was an act that he chose to perform as well.

I am very sorry for your loss and feel the same pain as you have been suffering. But, please remember that though I have given lives to all men I have no power over their actions. I can guide them and show them the right path. But, everyone has to choose the right path themselves.

Have some more faith in me and continue your good work. Remember that life itself does not have any meaning but it is an opportunity to create a meaning.

Lots of Love,
God.

The End

A Game of Chess

I started playing chess about two years back. My friend Ismail introduced me to the world of chess. He said it would keep my mind engaged and it would help me forget everything else. At first, I hesitated. I was never drawn to any board games all my life. I found them dull and boring. I liked to play outdoor sports like tennis and cycling. Nevertheless, I did not want to disappoint my friend and accompanied him to the chess club. My friend introduced me to some of the club members. "He is my good friend Robert. He is an amateur player. So, be kind to him". I shook hands with the club members. One of them invited me to play alongside him. He asked me if I knew the basics of the game and I replied in the affirmative. "Very well then Mr. Robert, let's commence the game".

The game went on for about half an hour. After the game ended, the club member stormed angrily out of the club and Ismail came running to me. He inquired what had transpired. I told him that I had defeated him with 30 moves. Ismail stared at me with great disbelief. I could see that the color had come off the face of my friend. Almost everyone in the club was now staring at me and I was feeling very uncomfortable. "Why so much fuss over one game?", I retorted. "Do you know what you have done? You have defeated the Fide Master Marcus Field.  Who would have known that you could play chess so well?" and he started clapping. All the club members surrounded me and started clapping.
The applause was quite unexpected. Apparently, the Fide Master was the only undefeated club member until I came along. After this game, there was no stopping me. All the prominent club members started playing chess with me and somehow I managed to defeat all of them. My friend Ismail said that I had some God gift when it came to playing chess. He arranged for me to play with players from other reputed chess clubs.

In all, I played around 500 chess games at club level in one year. I lost only five games and managed to draw twenty games. I won the remaining 475 games. I had become a sensation in the chess circles of the city. The Times also carried a publication about my chess prowess. I was invited to play at the State level. I won the silver medal at the State level. And, then the big call came for the National level championship where I won the bronze medal.

I had never imagined when I started playing chess that it would change my life so much. When Ismail brought me to the chess club I was a troubled person. I had lost my only child and wife in a car accident a few months back. I could not eat or sleep properly after this incident. My every thought would take me back to face the horror that would haunt the rest of my life. My friends and family had given up trying to convince me to come out of my grief. I was on the verge of giving up the pathetic ruse which we call life. Ismail who had been my friend since school days could take it no more. I knew that he saw me every day in a sad and forlorn state and grieved for me. But, my heart was so filled with grief that I could not see any further in life. One day, I decided to end it all.

I slung the rope on the fan and got up on a stool. As I was about to sling the rope across my neck and fling from the stool along came Ismail. He held me back and slapped me hard. He said that he had never imagined that I would perform such a cowardly act and then he started sobbing.

I could not see my friend sobbing and I sought his forgiveness. That is when he told me to accompany to the chess club that evening. He said that it would help to keep my mind engaged and help me to forget everything else. I have to say that although I still remember my wife and child every moment, I have made my peace with God and I have accepted the truth. Now, I just seek solace in the game of chess.

The End