The Arms of the Almighty by Rakesh Gupta (great reads .txt) 📕

in spite of my highly weakened state. It must be madness… well fuck it!.. I kept walking , I was barely three feet away from him. When he turned.

His eyes registered surprise and with one quick movement he grabbed the rifle with one hand while dropping the pda with the other.

Calmly…….I felt like I was moving in slow motion…….. I stepped on the assault rifle and pinned it down. Being in an awkward position that he was, there was no room for him to maneuver, I laced my fingers together and drove it into his throat.

He fell back choking and wheezing; I followed the thrust with a kick that took most of his nose off and damaged his pretty face. There was a lot of blood.

I picked up the assault rifle and aimed ; waited for a second and shot him on both knee caps.

He screamed… an unearthly piercing yowl. Satisfied that he was not much of a threat I looked around and picked up the PDA and put into my over coat pocket. I waited for him to stop screaming; he eventually did and we looked at each other. Master and Captor, he did not recognize who I was… but he knew 'what' I was and where I came from.

Both of us looked at each other unblinking for what seemed like 5 minutes. It had started raining.

There was nothing to say, what words would suffice for this moment. I did not know what to do with this man or why I had crippled him so. I should feel angry, I should have felt rage.. A couple of months back I was prepared to kill entire families of this cursed coalition.

But now I didn't feel anything, I did not want to kill this man. What would be the purpose of killing him ? What would it achieve?

A shadow of confusion passed through his face; he was expecting death and was wondering why it had not visited him yet. I walked away; the assault rifle by my side.

And then I remembered my people; the thousands of staunch men, crying women, confused children and resigned elders who had perished. I had always wondered whether there was a meaning to their suffering ? That meaning had escaped me the day Sasha and my parents were carried away.

But they deserved Justice... An alien word to me and one that I haven't conjured up for many years. Vengeance was a familiar companion, vengeance was finding some gasoline and setting the man on fire or devising some other method of his slow death.

But no.. Justice… For the innocents that had died in Sepuika bay all in the name of 'cleansing'. There was no anger in me, no sadness, no emotion and this was the best state to make decisions. I have never felt this clear headed in all my life.

For all of them.

I walked back now to the Captain; with a purpose. He must have seen the expression or lack thereof in my face. And for a moment through the pain, the monster's face betrayed what might have been regret.

I walked behind him, aimed for the back of his head and pulled the trigger.

His 'pureblood' sprayed over my untouchable body.

I turned around and walked to my original destination, satisfied that my life's purpose had been achieved , something had destined him to be in my path and I had carried it out. There was nothing left for me anymore.

I walked closer , it was sundown and it had stopped raining.

The air seemed clean somehow; fresh. I shook my head to push away any conflicting thoughts.

And then it happened.

The sun came out the clouds; it was majestic in all its brilliance. The formation of the clouds was such that the rays shone through in a dazzling amber light .. Enveloping me in its arms…. His arms

The Arms of the Almighty and they had a message.

Standing there on the hill, with the hood of my overcoat over my head and within seconds of ending my life, an act of nature had stopped me. The brilliance and the beauty of what I saw flooded through me when I had my epiphany … I believed that my purpose was over… my meaning in life fulfilled by killing the captain, that Rakshasa.

But no; the magnanimity of the spectacle I saw whispered to me that there was something bigger out there for me. Something that gave meaning to the deaths of Sasha, my parents, my friends … my comrades. Something that qualified me for a bigger task ahead. My life was never mine to take; There was a higher power and I would not understand his ways but he had a message for me...

The PDA beeped.

I picked up the PDA and looked through the mini feed in it. The Shakti coalition had pierced the western front and there were 45 more 'secret' camps out there, their GPS co-ordinates all laid out in the pda. It took me a while to grasp the enormity of what I was seeing in my hand. No doubt the captain was looking to escape to the next closest camp. I knew if I could get in touch with somebody from the Shakti coalition and give them the coordinates we would be able to liberate those camps and their survivors.

We would have to build for a better tomorrow; I was determined to do so. The only way what we went through made sense was because we were only thinking about ourselves, the present generation. The pains and agonies so many of us suffered was so the future for our people, our children could be assured. Never again will we allow for such an event to happen to our people … ever. We had to earn this security from the lessons learned …. For the future……….

For the child that Sasha and I had were going to have.

I walked away from the ridge and found the path. I put the PDA in my pocket, cocked the rifle and walked towards the setting sun. Towards the arms of God... Imprint

Publication Date: 01-18-2009

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Dedication:
To my Father.