Episode 57
The apprehension of the last scenario becoming real was cluttering Archana's mind with chilling sensations. She was constantly praying to the God, and telling herself that she had to kill the tiger in her first five shots. In the last minute, she started warming up to prepare herself to climb the wooden stairs. She estimated that she had to climb 2 to 3 stairs at a time to reach the top quickly.
On the opposite end of the field were waiting Rajan and Siddharth. After warming up for a while, they had taken their respective positions to run. The Joker had provided them with starting blocks. They placed their feet there in set position. The two participants were placed at a distance of 20 meter apart on each side from the centre point of the baseline. The cage of the tiger was placed at the centre point. It would be opened after the first participant passed the 20 meter mark. The 20-meter mark was drawn on the field with white colour.
Looking at the body language of the tiger, it appeared to Rajan that the tiger must have been trained to hunt his prey in this manner. Otherwise, wild tigers are shy animals, and they always hunt stealthily. Rajan was praying hard to the God for not letting the tiger to choose him as his prey. Rajan thought Siddharth was younger than him, and he could sprint harder to beat the tiger in the race. So, Rajan thought if somehow the tiger didn't choose him, and once he crossed to the other end, he had a chance to survive.
Of course, Rajan would have loved to see all of them emerging as survivors, but Rajan had no faith in Archana's shooting abilities. Actually, he could not believe his ears when the Joker was spelling out the stipulations of this game.
From the body language of Siddharth, it didn't appear that he was thinking too much. His face showed no tension or no emotion.
Ranjan's voice could be heard via a microphone,
"Candidates, ready, set," and after waiting for a second, he fired a pistol shot in air.
Everything happened very quickly after that. Rajan and Siddharth ran as fast as they could for their lives. Siddharth was slightly, about 1 meter, ahead in crossing the 20 meter mark, when the 2-days hungry tiger was unleashed from the cage.
Rajan was on the right side of the tiger, while Siddharth was on its left. The tiger took 2 seconds to choose his prey, giving both the men 10 more meter of advantage. Siddharth was running straight, but Rajan ran slantwise to make more distance from the tiger after crossing the 20-meter mark.
This dilemma of the tiger gave Archana some precious moments to climb on to the top of the tower. But, she had to take the gun from the floor and unlock the safety catch. It was a similar type of gun with which she had practiced in the last couple of days. She looked at the other end to see what was happening.
Even though Rajan ran slantingly to make a longer gap between him and the tiger, the tiger, Raja, preferred chasing the shorter, slower and fatter Rajan. He started running towards Rajan at such a brisk speed that made Archana totally puzzled. She was not prepared for hitting targets having such a brisk speed. The tower where Archana was standing was placed at the middle of that side's baseline. Had Rajan ran straight like Siddharth, it would have been easier for Archana to shoot the tiger. But for whoever's sake, Archana didn't understand, Rajan was trying to run towards the corner of the lattice wall.
Archana knew there was not much of time, and she had to act. She had been trained how to time and direct her shots in order to hit moving targets. As Archana practiced with a similar type of heavy long range gun, she didn't hesitate any more and pulled the trigger targeting the rib cage of the tiger. Raja was not prepared for this assault, and he couldn't react. But, to his good luck and Archana's agony, the first shot missed the target by at least 1 meter.
The tiger stopped for few moments, and tried to understand where the shot came from. Had it been a wild tiger, it would have definitely fled. But from the reaction, it was evident that Raja, too, had been trained by the Joker's team for this life-and-death drama, and the Joker must have told a lie that he was made hungry for only 2 days. Archana estimated that the tiger hadn't eaten anything for at least 7 days.
Without wasting any time Archana, shot the static tiger. Archana was more comfortable at hitting static targets, but to her utter dismay the tiger jumped forward as soon as Archana shot. This time Archana's shot was on the money, but as the tiger had moved afer hearing the gun shot, she missed her target for the second time.
The tiger didn't waste any more time, and it increased its speed tremendously to come within a jumping range of 8 meter of Rajan. Now, the lattice wall came in between the tiger and Archana. Siddharth had reached the wall, but he didn't climb it. He was looking at Rajan and the tiger.
It was true that the trainers had imparted good training to Rajan on both high jumps and long jumps. Rajan wanted to make a jump to reach the lattice wall, but the tiger's roar from such a close distance had a severe panick attack on him. Suddenly, he found that his legs were paralysed. When he looked back at the tawny eyes of the tiger, he was almost hypnotized.
Meanwhile, Archana fired two more shots to the tiger. But, the luck was not favouring her, as both the bullets hit the steel portion of the lattice wall. Archana was left with only one shot, and she searched for a perfect opportunity to kill the tiger.
Watching his dumbfounded prey with numb legs, Raja jumped on him with glee. Archana knew that this was her last chance to kill the tiger before he killed Rajan. Making a silent prayer to the God, she fired her 5th bullet to the jumping tiger. She didn't know whether her prayer worked or not, but the lattice wall didn't come as hindrance this time.
Rajan had lost all hope. Not only his legs became numb, but also his mind was not working. He had never seen such a ferocious animal prowling on him from such a close range. The tiger jumped on the hapless Rajan, but Archana's 5th and the final shot allowed for killing the tiger had a dramatic effect on both Rajan and the tiger.
The shot hit the left hind leg of the tiger, and the impact of the bullet made him miss his target partially. Raja's paw missed Ranjan's back, but just scratched it. But, Rajan got back to his sense immediately. He observed that the bullet had made a serious injury to Raja's left leg. Blood was gushing out of the injury, and Raja made growling of severe distress.
Siddharth could have easily reached the other end. But, he was waiting for Rajan. Watching the injured tiger Siddharth shouted,
"Don't waste any time, Rajan Anna. It will pounce back with more vigour. Climb the lattice wall."
Indeed, Rajan got slighty relaxed watching the injured tiger lying on the ground. Siddharth's words made sense to him, and he started climbing the lattice wall turning his back towards the tiger. But, Raja had not eaten anything thing for more than a week. He was in no mood to let his prey escape so easily, and who doesn't know that an injured predator is more dangerous than a normal one? Despite the injury, Raja recoiled himself and jumped on Rajan who could climb just 8 feet on the lattice wall.
Due to his injured leg, the paw could not severely injure Rajan, but it made sure that Rajan fell on the ground. Rajan didn't expect this as his face was turned away from the tiger. He was again startled to see the tiger in front of him. The tiger again growled before forcefully hitting Rajan on his shoulder with his right paw. Even though Rajan was alert this time, he could not evade the blow.
To be continued on today night
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