Outstanding Stories » A Journey

“A Journey” is one of the outstanding stories (junior) of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Abhinav Agarwal, St. George's School, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.

A Journey

Shrieks and yells could be heard. The yelling of people was furious, when Sophie suddenly looked outside the window of the train. She was travelling by India's second fastest train The Rajdhani Express, from Delhi to Mumbai. She was sleeping while the train was reaching its destination. She suddenly woke up!

When she looked outside the window she was astonished to see something awful.

First let us know who she was and why and with whom she was travelling. She was a twelve year old girl who was going to Mumbai from Delhi with her family to spend her summer vacations. It was the first time she was travelling by such a fast and expensive train.

As being with her family and her relatives they continued to talk late at night. Feeling sleepy Sophie slept.

When she looked outside through the window, it was dark so she could not see properly. She quickly turned on the flashlight of her phone. What she saw was furious. She saw hundreds of jeeps with people armed with hundreds of rifles and shotguns which seem to be fully loaded.

But what should be done? Everyone tried to call the police but they had a number of telephone jammers with them. Unknown to the rail road engineer or the driver of the Rajdhani, the robbers showed a fake red signal to him and the train stopped. Suddenly two robbers came in and killed the driver.

They waited for all the members of the group of robbers to come in. Before the people thought anything, the two robbers started the train as they were specialists.

The robbers captured all the people. All the people were scared. The robbers were wearing masks and hence their face could not be seen. One robber shouted, ''You foolish people are going to die today.''

Scared, one the man stood up and shouted, ''Please leave us and take what you want.'' They replied they will but not at that time. They will do this after taking all the people's lives.

Sophie, hiding in a corner, was afraid. The passengers were unaware that the robbers have captured the entire train. Some men captured the robbers from behind. With an objective to escape from the clutches of the robbers, the entire passengers in a coach ran into the next coach. All the coaches of the Rajdhani Express train were interconnected, so when the people entered the next coach they saw many robbers standing there. The robbers threatened the worried passengers to keep quiet, otherwise they will lose their live. The hard work of the people who tried to enter the next coach was all in vain. Sophie thought that how will she reach Mumbai and how will she be saved. In the hours of tension, a thought came to Sophie’s mind. She had a great knowledge about trains. She quickly took out the train encyclopaedia she was carrying with her and started to find about India’s Rajdhani Express. The book stated that the train consists of special police and on the time of journey from Delhi to Mumbai the police rest at the beginning of night till two hours. The robbers had locked the room in which the police rested.

No police force knew what was going on. But there was a twist in the story!

A single mistake done by the robbers gang was they kept all the telephone jammers at the same place in a bundle after entering into the train. When she read more in the encyclopaedia, she found a help line number to the customer-care centre of the train. She then made a plan. She asked some of the men to cut off the single wire connected to the jammers. First they hesitated and later they did so. She took her phone hiding in a corner and called the number. The phone did not connect. She was slowly losing hope but tried again and the phone got connected. A voice came saying “How can I help you?” In a low voice she told them about the entire situation. It was a case of emergency but no one believed her. She quickly told her father about the situation and asked him to talk to the customer- care centre.

After listening, the officers took it seriously. They quickly contacted the team in the train, told them the situation and asked them to act like they didn’t know anything and to keep quiet.

Half an hour went off but there was no sign of help. Then suddenly they heard the sound of a helicopter and a number of Jeeps. The robbers became alert and knew that something had happened. The robbers were surrounded by policemen. As fast as lightning the soldiers from the helicopter get in through the engine and captured the two robbers driving the train. They increased their speed and stopped at the nearest station. By the time the rest of the soldiers had already walked in. They captured the robbers in the first two coaches and closed the coaches. When they reached the station all the policemen of the jeep got in. The robbers tried to save themselves but all in vain. Indian soldiers were there to arrest them. The robbers at last surrendered. After investigation they came to know that it was a very dangerous gang who was robbing people from so much of time. All of them were arrested and sent to the central jail and waited for the Supreme Court’s order. Thus, a little girl Sophia helped to save the lives of thousands of people. Some were killed too but were paid compensation by the government.

She was given the bravery award by our honourable Prime Minister, “Shree Narendra Modi” who included in her speech to save Girl Child as it was an example set by a little girl that girls’ abilities are not less than boys in any manner. What many officers failed to do was done by a little girl.

The story teaches us “God helps those who help themselves” like Sophia helped herself and we should not lose hope at any cost, despite any problem that comes into your life.