Blast Aftermath….

Everything’s so quiet, so eerie. Nobody’s stirring. Wait, I can hear someone moaning. I can see people around me moving a little bit. Hey, where am I? Why am I lying down on my back? Was I alone or was there someone with me? Last thing I remember, I was inside a train. But what’s this? This is not train! This has no roof at all! And where are the berths?
All I can see is a mess of twisted metal and equally twisted and grotesque people around me. I can’t make out why there is shattered glass and metal shards everywhere. The air is full of acrid smells of burning fabric and flesh. Oh God! I am having a terrible pain in the back of my head.
May be I should get up and see what has happened, I need something to hold to get up. My right hand! Where’s my right hand? I blink my eyes and stare again. There is absolutely no right hand. It’s impossible. It was there until some time ago, I swear! I do not feel the pain; I am numb out of shock. May I should look around for my hand. It must be lying somewhere here. May be I can get it stitched back. Stop! I shake my head. The loss of blood is making me dizzy. I can’t think clearly. I look myself and around me more closely now. I am drenched with blood, and so are the people surrounding me. It’s getting dark, and they are trying to find their way out in the dim light of the fire burning at the far end of the coach. They are equally dazed and shocked.
Nobody knows what has happened. An old man is crying out his wife’s name, but she isn’t replying. A young lady is searching for her lost child. Look at her! She has gone crazy. The child is there in her arms, lifeless. But she refuses to acknowledge the fact and keeps looking out for the child that was alive some moments ago.
I turn my head away. But the gory pictures follow me everywhere. Here’s a boy of 10, trying to extract his father’s body lying underneath a heap of twisted steel. He is pulling his dad’s leg with all his might, when suddenly the legs come out from the heap. But they have no body attached to them. The body is still lying buried deep down, the soul departed long ago. The boy gives out a blood-curdling scream and faints.
I force myself to drag ahead with the help of the remaining hand and legs shrouded by glass. Suddenly I stop once more to look at a body lying ahead. I think I know this woman. I try hard to remember where had I seen her. My head is reeling, and the memory is becoming foggy. Like the flash of a lightning, it strikes me that she is my wife. I married her only yesterday. Hey sweetheart, wake up! We are on the way to honeymoon! I shake her with my left hand. She must be quite tired after all the marriage ceremonies to sleep like that. Wake up, dear! We shall go out, and everything will be normal again. Nothing bad ever happens to us, right? My wife is not responding. Somebody wake her! I must get out, I tell myself. This coach is haunted. Whatever happened can’t be real. People can’t die in such a gruesome way. This is all a nightmare. I will just go out of this coach and it will all end. I start dragging myself towards the door. The door is coming nearer and nearer. My vision is getting blurred, my body is getting weaker. A burning sensation is clawing at my throat. I can’t think anymore. I must be….I……..I……