“Why are they still not waking up?”, Chin-Hae asked in a perplexed voice, which carried a hint of a shiver within it.

I looked at the people still lying unconscious on the ground, breathing peacefully. The look of serenity on their faces, a sharp contrast to the rough jungle ground, sprawled with leaves, broken twigs and insects, on which they were lying.

But what Chin-Hae said was really something to think about. Why won’t they wake up? And why did we wake up, if they don’t?

Chin-Hae was currently taking the pulse of a man. I saw a drop of sweat roll down his forehead, and fall on the ground.

“I don’t know”, I said what was on my mind, then I added “So did you find anything from their pulse?”

Chin-Hae shook his head, “No, their pulses are all normal”, then with a pause he added, “it seems like they are just,... sleeping.”

I stood up, and some distance away from me was Miss Saito, sitting elegantly with her knees folded. She has been really quite all this time, apart from inquiring once about whether anyone woke up or not. She seemed to be contemplating about something. But from time to time her eyes would betray the uneasiness, which she felt within.

I watched as a leaf fall to the ground. It fell from above, so I’m sure it belongs to one of those giants, as the normal trees are a little distance away… But, I have to say, I’m a little surprised. I was expecting the leaves of these giants, to be at least the size of a small boat.

Anyways, while sitting I’ve had enough time to observe my surrounding properly. The giant trees, are three in number, and spaced roughly diagonally at a distance of about thirty meters from one another, which is also about the the diameter of this clearing.

Apart from them there are also regular trees here, but they are located somewhat further away. And the place where they are located is also a little dark and obscure, because most of the sunlight is being obscured by the forest roof.

The area which we’re in, is a clearing in the forest, like I said previously, and save for the occasional raven calls, I’ve not seen any birds nor any animals, be it small or large…

This is really a big relief to me, because I don’t want to come across any animals now, when the conditions which we're in are not that optimistic.

“Mr. Dhruv”, I was presently brought out of my musing by Chin-Hae, who is standing beside me. Speaking of Chin-Hae, and also Miss Saito, the're actually both quite amazing.

Chin-Hae has already inspected the surroundings, and both of them have checked on the unconscious people, to determine their condition. While I was only sitting and casually observing this and that.

“We’ve waited for about an hour”, I said, “but they are not waking up.” Chin-Hae nodded thoughtfully. While I pondered on what to say next. It is still daytime, and we can clearly see our surroundings.

But I know, and probably Miss Saito, and Chin-Hae also knows it too. That any forest during the day, is completely different to what it is like at night. Its relative serenity during the day, is just a facade, which it uses to lure in innocent preys, only gobble them up whole, under the veil of darkness.

“Well,… there’s still daylight, so we can wait a bit more for them to wake up, but we should try to find a place as shelter during the night.” I said, while looking at those lying on the ground, ‘sleeping’ peacefully.

I then kept quite because I don’t know what to do next, we have no cell phones, so no means of communicating with the outside world. I don’t even know how we got here in the first place, but I know one thing for sure. We were brought here by human intervention. That’s the only way to explain all the weird things, that’s been happening. But why?...

“Chin-Hae, did you find anything on them?”, I asked Chin-Hae, and then added “I hope you don’t mind me calling you that. You can also call me by my name.” Chin-Hae laughs slightly, “It’s okay," he says, but then his face becomes a little disappointed as he speaks, “No, they don’t have anything on them, but for their clothes.”

“What about you Miss Saito?” I turn towards her and ask, though I already know the answer. Miss Saito stands up, perhaps she is also fatigued, as her face looks a little pale. Then she makes her way here.

“Just like Mr. Chin-Hae said. I also didn’t find anything on them.” Then with a troubled look she adds, “Umm… I don’t know, but someone may have brought us here...”

Hmm… that’s also what I suspect…. After a pause I look at them, and ask “...Can any of you make a fire?”

Chin-Hae has a pained look on his face, as he says “No, but I wish that I had learnt how to start one."

Yea. It would have been really great. I was about to sigh, when Miss Saito interjected with an “Umm”, both me and Chin-Hae looked at her, “I can try… to make a fire, but I don’t know if I’’ll be able to”, said Miss Saito looking at us.

I felt pleasantly surprised after hearing that, but then I felt a little elated. if it really works, then that means we have solved a big problem.

But first I should probably look for substances that can make a fire. “What does it require to start a fire?” I ask her. Although I’ve seen TV shows where they collect dry woods, twigs etc., and then somehow rub them together to produce fire, but still it’s better to be certain before I collect them.

“Twigs, leaves, and branches. But they must be really dry”, she says. “Okay”, says Chin-Hae, as he nods towards me, and moves towards the woods. “Wait!”, I said hurriedly.

It is perhaps not a very good idea, to head out into the woods alone, when we don’t even know what might be in there.

Chin-Hae may have come to understand this too, as he says “I wouldn't have ventured too deep into the woods, but it’s okay… let all of us go together.”

“You should come along with us Saito-san, we don’t know what situation we’re in yet”, Chin-Hae tells Miss Saito.

Miss Saito seems to have realized this as well, and comes along with us….

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It’s been about half an hour since we have started scouting the woods for firewood, and all of us are now carrying our lot of firewood with us.

We didn’t venture too deep, firstly because it might be dangerous, and secondly because the further the place away from the clearing, the more dark and moist it is due to the lack of sunlight.

All of us are now walking in silence. We were all probably trying to do our best to forget the situation we’re in, while collecting the firewood.

But now that we're done collecting, we are again slowly walking towards the clearing, which seems to have make the mood oppressive.

“Does any of you think that we were abducted...” I ask Chin-Hae, and then turn towards Miss Saito, while hoping that a conversation would somehow lighten up the oppressive feeling. Chin-Hae answers first.

“Yea that’s possible” he says, but it seems he’s thinking about something.

“Do you have any views of your own?” I ask him after a pause, he seems a bit troubled at first, but then slowly opens his mouth “Well… I know this may sound a little ridiculous,... but were we summoned here?”

He says in a self-doubting voice. Huh, summoned? What is that? He seems to be looking at our faces with some anticipation, but still I say… “Uhhh… what is summoned…?”

“It is like bringing someone from one place to another, the place may be a different planet.” This time it is Miss Saito who answers, then with a pause she adds, “I don’t think it’s possible though.”

Oh? So Miss Saito also seem to know about summoning. I am a little perplexed.

Understanding from my facial expression, she elaborates further “Well it seems to happen mostly in games, and anime.” Chin-Hae nods.

He then says in a slightly uncertain voice, “I clearly remember driving a car, but the next thing I know is I’m here. And not just me, you too Saito-san, were you not in the metro before you suddenly found yourself waking up here?”

They chat for a bit, while with a little inquiry, I gained further insights into this summoning thing. It seems to be a common thing depicted in anime, and games. It is a kind of teleportation, but works with magic.

Hmm... magic, I'm not sure. I would like think from a scientific view point before, I come to any conclusion. But I didn’t tell them that. “Can we not be knocked unconscious by someone, then brought here?”

I ask, because I know of some nerve agents, which can induce instant unconsciousness. Both Chin-Hae and Miss Saito nods, “Yea” Chin-Hae replies. But then he adds “It’s possible, but why would someone bother to do that to us?”

I keep quite. Because I also don’t know the answer.

Ahh… we're already at the clearing. That’s what I call it, since it is somewhat more clear when compared to its surroundings.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Miss Saito quickly gathers the leaves and branches together, and tries to start the fire. I stare at the branches rubbing against each other, but I’m thinking about our uncertain future. Though I’m not that fatigued now, but I’ll soon need to drink some water, and also replenish my stomach with food.

Without food and water survival is impossible, but we don’t have any of that here, so that means we will have to venture out into the forest eventually.

I don’t know what time it is, because the sky is still bright, but we need to move out of this place sooner or later, whether these people wake up or not.

So that means leaving them behind, if they don’t wake up. But does it not imply that we’re simply abandoning them to die here in the jungle? Thinking up to this, I suddenly felt a little sick, the thought itself seem to cause a revolting feeling to rise within my heart.

I’ve seen this being done in movies, but movies will be movies, and life will be life. Will I be able to forgive myself, if I do that? Will I able to forget the faces of these people who are now ‘sleeping’ peacefully? Although I haven’t seen their faces that well, perhaps as a subconscious reaction to what is to come.

And I’ll probably forget their faces, after some time, but I will remember that I’ve condemned these people to die here. And I know… I know that that my memory will make these faces come back to me again and again, as vague horrors.

I subconsciously looked towards the sleeping face, a little distance away from me. Facing towards the sky; her disheveled chestnut brown locks covered half of her face. The part uncovered seemed to belong to an angel, looking up at the heavens.

While from the other side, I thought I felt the gaze of a mutilated demon, waiting in muted silence for an opportunity, to devour us all.

I hurriedly looked towards the ground, and saw a bug crawling on my shoes. I shuddered and quickly brushed it away.

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It has been quite some time since Miss Saito has been trying to light up the fire, but unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, the wood wouldn’t even smoke a little.

Then after some time Chin-Hae took over, but still it was of no use. Finally, it was my turn and I also tried to light up the damned branch, but even when it felt like my palms would spew fire instead, it showed no sign of burning.

Finally having exhausted all my energy, and feeling somewhat giddy again, I threw the stick away, and sat down.

Neither among us were speaking. Each probably engrossed with their own troubled thoughts. This went for some time, when I walked over to one of the giant trees and tried to climb it. But the surface though somewhat irregular in shape was quite slippery. So after trying for some time, I had to give up because the fatigue was again slowly washing over me.

After taking a brief repose, I tried to climb one of those normal trees. But unfortunately, they were also not suitable for climbing, as they were either too thin, or too short.

This gave me a headache, as I slowly made my way back to the group of two awake and six sleeping.

Chin-Hae also came from another direction. He too tried climbing the tree, it seems.

“It will be night sooner or later…” I said in a low voice, “ Any plans?”

Chin-Hae thought for a while and said, “Let’s break some of the thinner trees, and make spears out of them… In that way at least we have a chance at protecting ourselves.” I also found the idea to be quite good, so I agreed immediately.

So we both went to the nearby trees that had apparently thin stems, and tried to break one of them. But after a while I discovered something, it is much harder to break the seemingly frail looking trees, than I’ve imagined.

We tried for quite some time, but the trees would only budge a little but was nowhere near breaking, I looked at the branches and saw that they were too frail to be sharpened into spears.

Dejected, we both returned to where we came from. Miss Saito, who seemed to be looking this way, also seem to have lost the hope in her eyes, after seeing us return empty handed.

Okay, I'll admit it. The situation is bad…. We have no food, no water and we don’t have any means or protecting ourselves. We also failed to start a fire. Furthermore, no one probably knows that were here. So no search parties. 

The forest surrounding us seem to be growing more terrifying with every passing second now. I don’t know whether it is because of the hopelessness or not.

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I looed up at the sky, and it had a shade of crimson in it. Although I can still see the other two's faces clearly, but the forest surrounding us has become darker, and quieter. The raven has also gone silent for sometime now.

Neither of those who were sleeping, has woken up yet. And with every passing breath the fear of the unknown is creeping deeper and deeper within me.

Miss Saito seems to be quite disturbed, and fidgety. And Chin-Hae is sitting with his face towards the woods.

I stood up again, and this may be my fourth or fifth time standing up. Every time I stand up thinking of doing something productive, I end up doing nothing at all, but still I say with my voice raised a little, and it's more like I'm reassuring myself than talking to them.

“Let’s clear this place up a bit”, I say, as they look towards me. The expression on their faces have already become obscure due to the approaching darkness. But still I managed to see clearly their white of eyes, which seem to be the only mode of expression in a world of shadows.

And what I saw with them, was a concealed fear and uncertainty. And I’m sure, that both of them also saw the same within my eyes.

But still I started removing the leaves and twigs from the ground with my feet, and both Chin-Hae and Miss Saito also stood up up and started doing the same.

We stopped after sometime when the place looked somewhat clear. I don’t exactly know why I cleared this place, but at least it gave a me a sense of accomplishment.

It is finally dusk, and the world before me is hazy. Miss Saito and Chin-Hae have both moved closer, but a mask of darkness, seems to have already been fixed firmly upon their faces.

In the hushed silence, I can hear my own heart beat, and after a while I felt as if I could also hear the heartbeat from the other two people sitting beside me.

I looked towards the empty darkness, but I know that it’s a forest, concealed within it. If there’s something in the forest like an wild animal, which poses a threat to us. Then the outcome will be unthinkable…

Suddenly Chin-Hae breaks the silence, as he says with a hushed tone “We need to keep close, and also need to keep watch in rounds, so that we can get at least some rest during the night.”

After some discussing we decided; Chin-Hae will stay on watch first, then it will be my turn, and finally Miss Saito will stay on watch. Also as there is no way for us to keep a measure of time, so we decided to act using out intuition. Each of us will be on watch for about four hours.

Well, as if such a silly technique will work in such a dark and unknown place, but still its better than doing nothing at least…

I suddenly felt my chest tighten with an inexplicable fear!!!! Huh? I woke up as someone is shaking my arm, but all that I see around me now is darkness. “Dh-ruuv?”, someone asks in a very hushed voice. “Yea”, I muttered.

I slowly sat up, “Miss Saito”, the voice asked again. “Hai”, came an answer in a whisper. So it’s my turn huh… I exhaled and then I slowly sat up.

I don’t know how much time I’ve been awake for, and I would at times feel a slight throbbing pain in my eyes, and would see hallucinations of orbs of light dancing in front of me, which won’t go away even if I rub my eyes.

When suddenly I saw a silver thread of light, falling on the forest floor. I looked at it, and it didn’t seem like an hallucination.

Then I looked up, and saw the moon hanging on a small  patch of sky surrounded by darkness. I don’t know why, but suddenly seeing the moon in this absolute darkness, I felt an immense joy surge within my heart. I never knew before, that even the moon can bring such happiness.

I sat up straight, as a forgotten memory from my childhood, which seem so distant now, slowly surfaced within my mind. It was my that of my mother’s singing me a lullaby, as I would look at the moon in a similar fashion, outside my window.

I don’t understand why during my childhood, the darkness seemed to be filled with light. But now as an adult, I see only darkness in darkness.

“Viswa srushti vidhayinam,

Punareva palana thathparam,

Samharathamapi prapanchamasesha loka nivasinam,

Kredayanthamaharnisam, gana nadha yudha samnvitham,

Chandrashekaramasraye mama kim karishyathi vai yamah.”

Actually it is an ancient Sanskrit poem. Which my mother used to sing to me as a lullaby. Though she also used it while meditating.

If I am to translate it in English, it would be something like

“I seek refuge in Him, who has the moon,

Who does the creation of the universe,

Who then is interested in its upkeep,

Who at proper time destroys the universe,

Who lives in every being of the universe,

Who is in play day and night with all beings,

Who is the leader of all beings,

And so what can god of death do to me?

I softly hummed the tune of the poem, as my mind slowly relaxed, and suddenly I had this feeling that the surrounding darkness was not that threatening. I kept looking at the moon, and then when I looked down, I saw the light. The dark forest did not seem so dark, as it was before.