The Last Man Standing
By: Vishnu Vusirikala
Tags: Stories, Action, Thriller

P.C: Unsplash

The Last Man Standing

A continuation of Symbiosis

As I went to bed, I replayed the day’s events in my mind. Tom and I had managed to help capture the most notorious, infamous and violent poachers of the Nilgiri Hills. It had been quite an adventure, just as Tom had promised me. Suddenly, something struck me. I sat bolt upright in my bed. “What happened to that clearing?”, I asked myself, “The one Tom and I had found ourselves in after being knocked unconscious?” This was certainly a question to answer.

The next morning, I woke up early in the morning and went to Tom’s house. “Do you remember that clearing we had found ourselves in?”, I signed. “Yeah…”, he signed back, “What about it?” “Well, I was just wondering if that place had any special significance to the poachers.”, I signed. “We can have a look.”, he signed, “But we’ve got to be careful. The last guy is still on the loose remember?” “Yeah, yeah.”, I replied with a wave of my hand. Shaking his head with disappointment, Tom and I went back to the clearing.

When we got there, Tom confirmed that it was the same clearing as it had the same scent. With this confirmation, we began our search. After about fifteen minutes of searching, I struck gold. “Look here!”, I signed excitedly to Tom. Once he reached, I moved back to show him a tunnel, so narrow that only a single person could fit in it, but it seemed long enough to travel miles underground. Tom was in shock. “Another adventure?”, he signed as he had easily understood the expression on my face. I didn’t even give him and answer and simply jumped into the hole.

Tom landed the second after I did. But where we were, neither of us knew. We started looking around, and this time it was Tom who found something. “Look at this picture.”, signed Tom as he pointed above him. The picture was of a solar eclipse with a dazzling, white ring around it.

P.C: Unsplash

Although I had been in this area for quite a few years, this was one image I had never seen before. “I haven’t seen this before…”, I had started to sign, when for the second time in two days, the both of us passed out with a loud ‘klonk’.

When we had regained consciousness, we found ourselves tied to a pole, both our hands intertwined around it. “Well, well, well.”, a voice said from the shadows. “Oh Tom!”, I thought to myself, “You have no idea what is going on and I can’t even sign to make you understand!” It was all up to me to get us out of this sticky situation. “What do you want?”, I cried out to the voice. “I don’t want anything…”, said the voice, “I just want to know why you are so bent on going after me and my buddies!” “Ah!”, I thought to myself, “So, you are the last poacher.” Getting out of this was not going to be easy. So, I decided to focus on the first part of not getting killed. “You’re not gonna kill us are you?”, I asked him simply. “What makes you think I won’t?”, he replied. “YOU COST ME ENTIRE LIFE!”, he screamed. “My whole life was dependent on me and friends killing animals and getting money.”, he said, “Without that, I AM NOTHING!” “You are making too big a deal out of this.”, I said to him. At that moment, I realized that in his anger, the man had not tied the bonds securely to the pole. Using my dexterous hands, I managed to loosen the rope sufficiently enough so that Tom and I could escape whenever we wanted. We simply needed the right time.

Tom seemed to realize this and stayed put. I decided to keep the man talking for more time, and if possible lure him closer to me so that I can attack. “TOO BIG A DEAL!”, he shouted, “HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU LOST EVRYTHING YOU EVER HAD!” “Okay, okay calm down.”, I said to him. He rushed forward and took my face in one hair hand. He squeezed my head tightly. “Time for you to lose everything.”, he said. He would have said more had Tom not punched him square in the jaw knocking him unconscious. “Thanks Tom!”, I signed, “I don’t think I could handle that smelly breath any longer.” We made our way out of the hole and went back to the police station.

I hadn’t even said a word to the superintendent, when he gathered an already prepared platoon of soldiers and simply followed us to the hole. We took him down, and showed him the unconscious man. After securing the prisoner, we showed him the poster and he let out an audible gasp. “You two have found the headquarters of the Underground Poachers Association!”, he exclaimed. “The what?”, I enquired. “They are the meeting place for all poachers in the Nilgiri Hills.”, he explained, “They all meet here regularly to trade the exotic animals that they have caught.” This discovery was worse than the previous day’s. We were now going to be the next kill of all these poachers…