The Rising Sun: Episode 5 (19 page)

From the balcony of the four hundred and
thirty seventh floor, he could see the rest of the colossal
structures that made the city. Large glass tunnels twined over the
sky and in between the structures, meant for vehicle travel. But
the stream of vehicles flowing down the tunnels had thinned. Across
the distance, he could see most of the lights of the tower opposite
to his switched off.

An atmosphere of fierce gloom had settled
over the entire planet, and the entire spectrum. It had reached
him, through a newsflash, that countless republics and states were
at the brink of unravelling: the hysteria and mayhem that some of
the planets were facing, caused by panic and confusion, were
starting to thwart the establishments themselves. Madness and
anarchy had come close to a brimming point in the world.

This planet had experienced a complete
dreadlock. Widespread panic had loosened out as the bombs took off
one by one. People were seen flocking to religious and spiritual
sites. As panic and confusion spiralled, crimes broke out in an
unhindered wave, and law and order blurred. Almost dissolving the
entire state into hysteria.

A large fraction of citizens fled the planet
to other planets which they calculated, were not likely to be on
the hitlist than this one: this planet was developed and therefore,
more likely to attract a terrorist attack. There was a fraction of
the people who had fled to the outer spectrum, deeming that it was
the safest of all. Assuming that planets in the outer spectrum were
completely unlikely to be one of the ten marked ones.

But they had been wrong.

The news of the fourth planet that had just
blown scoured the world of the faintest trace of hope. Because this
new development raised the catastrophe scale to a whole new level.
Firstly, this was a planet in the outer spectrum. Nobody had
thought that the mystics would blow off the less populated planets
falling in the outer spectrum, and waste their bombs. Secondly, and
more alarmingly, this bomb had been blown early … It had been blown
before the hour had been completed. And this brought a fresh new
eruption of panic and chaos. For the people now understood that
nothing was certain anymore: if the mystics had lied about one
thing, they could have lied about more: they could have lied about
ten bombs, when in reality, there were a hundred…

Feeling strangely nauseatic, Wargo trotted
over and sunk to a chair placed in the middle of the large balcony.
He had lived life as a level headed, extremely rational man.
Everything he did had a sound, intelligent reasoning based behind
it. But now, he let his guard down and did something he never
dreamt he would. For the first time in his life, Wargo clasped his
hands before him and prayed.

For he knew that there was nothing left at
all. But this.

He prayed for hope.

He prayed for light.

He prayed for the world … and for
mankind.

To be continued …