The Truncation

A teenager wakes up on his birthday to find out that the reality is not real.

                  The boy hurried through the dusty rabbit trail heedless of the sharp stones and brambles that lay along the path. He could hear the heavy breathing of the creature chasing him as it was drawing closer with each passing second. The dense, wet forest intervened upon the path threateningly and the path seemed to disappear into the dense foliage forever. The sun seemed to be retreating behind the hills and darkness was enclosing rapidly. He knew that the creature pursuing him was waiting for him to slow down. The thought made him run even faster until his legs became numb. He tripped on a root protruding from the ground and fell down with a loud thump.

                 The creature chasing him leapt over him gracefully and turned to face him. It was a figure of a man enshrouded from head to toe with a black cloak. The boy looked up at the man, staring straight at his eyes or where his eyes should be, for his face was hidden beneath a dark cowl. The man raised a pale hand towards the boy and clenched his fingers into a fist.

                 His heart skipped a beat as he felt his body going numb. The man then raised his extended hand over his head and to the boy’s horror he felt his body acting on its own accord. Slowly his body raised itself up, lifted off the ground and hovered in mid air. The hooded man then relaxed his fist and clenched it back again swiftly. The boy wanted to scream as pain seared through his heart, but his mouth wouldn’t budge. He felt his heart being torn apart from within and blood spewed out from his mouth at an alarming rate.

              Jeyanth woke up from the nightmare with a convulsive start. His hands were tightening a cloth. It was the blanket; in fact his whole body was wrapped in the blanket. It had been a dream, every story he had heard and read all jumbled in together with the nonsense from his friends and movies.

             He rubbed his bleary eyes and looked around the room. Sunlight was pouring in through the single window. Jeyanth was a teenager who had just graduated from high school and was staying in Kota city of Rajasthan ,a state in the north western part of India. It is a hub for coaching for Engineering and Medical Entrance examinations, attracting hundreds of thousand students every year. Students from all over India came to study in Kota and prepare particularly for the IIT-JEE and AIPMT. He was hoping to crack JEE this year. Kota was his hometown and he had rented a small apartment to stay while he attended the coaching classes. Like every other bachelor apartment his room was a disarray of clothes, books and wrappers.

              Suddenly it dawned on him that it was his birthday today. He grabbed at his mobile phone to look at the list of messages and calls that he had missed. Reading the messages he walked sluggishly towards the bathroom. Then he spent the next ten minutes in the shower. While he was dressing the bell to his apartment rang. Hastily shrugging into his T-shirt he ran to get the door. Without caring to look through the lens he opened the door.

               A figure filled the doorway, a figure of a man with a stout frame and a protruding belly. The man was wearing a coat over his shirt and had an old pair of slacks on. One hand clutched a briefcase and the other was flung up to the newsboy cap perched on his head. The darkness in the corridor veiled his face; but Jeyanth could still recognize the man. It was Dr.Chandra Paul who lived two blocks away. He usually dressed up like a mad scientist and behaved like one.

              “What’s up doc?” asked a clearly surprised Jeyanth. “Did you walk two blocks wearing that coat? Then you must’ve been in a hurry to meet me. Come in.” he said stepping aside to make room for the scientist to enter.

                “Yes I’m running behind schedule” he said closing the door behind him. “Happy birthday Jeyanth” he said extending a untidily packed gift towards him.

                 “Wow, thank you. That’s very nice of you; but, did you come all the way just to wish me?” he asked gingerly. He cleared the heap of clothes lying on the sofa for the scientist to sit.

                  “Well, Jeyanth I need you at the lab immediately” said the scientist pursing his lips.

                  “Not today doc; today is my birthday”, Jeyanth groaned. “I have planned to spend the day with my friends and coming with you would rob away all the fun.” He looked like a man who had not heard any good news for a while.

                   The scientist shook his head disapprovingly. “This morning I got a call from the Kota blood bank society. A man is urgently in need of blood and the worst part is his blood group is same as yours. You know the value of your blood and regrettably they are out of stock of the Bombay blood group.”

                   Jeyanth looked clearly baffled. He knew that the Bombay blood group which he possessed was very rare among humans; in fact he had never met a fellow human with that blood group. This very rare phenotype is generally present in about four per million of the human population .Chandra Paul was looking at him, he realized, waiting for him to decide what he should do. Jeyanth knew the situation in which the man was and he placed himself in a similar situation.

                    They were then walking down the street towards the scientist’s house. The scientist had a lab at the basement of his house. The scientist worked all alone in the lab and Jeyanth had paid him occasional visits. The scientist led him towards the lab.

                    “But, don’t we need to go to the hospital now?” asked Jeyanth. But he followed the scientist into the lab anyway.

                     “You just follow me”, said the scientist nimbly with a sidelong glare.

                     He led Jeyanth to the far end of the lab to which Jeyanth had never been before. There was a shutter, behind a massive machine which Jeyanth could not identify. He pulled up the shutter and walked inside gesturing Jeyanth to follow him.

                     Unsure of what the scientist had in mind he stepped in. The scientist then pulled down the shutter behind them. The small space looked exactly like the inside of a lift. The small space was dingy and the floor was covered with several layers of dust. Jeyanth wondered why the scientist had brought him here. The scientist moped the floor with his leg and they both coughed as the dust rose. There was a red circle in the centre of the floor.

                    “Stand on that circle, and don’t move till I tell you” said the scientist as he himself walked over the circle. The circle was just big enough for two fully grown men to stand facing each other. As the scientist was obese they barely had enough room. Jeyanth was starting to feel uneasy. He feared that the scientist had really lost it.

                     “May I ask why we’re doing this instead of saving the man?” Jeyanth said into the momentary silence.

                     “We are going to save him and everyone else” said the scientist absent mindedly as he was working with a remote in his hand.

                      “I beg your pardon?” said Jeyanth abashed.

                       Before the scientist could reply, the whole room started vibrating rapidly as if there was an earthquake. Then he realized that it was not the room but his body; as if every cell in his body was vibrating individually. After a while, the motion ceased.  Then the scientist stepped out of the circle and opened the shutter.

                       The draught that hit them was not the dank air of the lab but a mixture of a cool breeze and a familiar odor; the smell of an air conditioned room. Jeyanth stepped outside shielding his eyes from the bright light until his pupils contracted so that he could see clearly. He was dumbstruck at what he saw.

                       He was in room so large that it could occupy his whole apartment. The walls were adorned with confusing scriptures and paintings. Massive pillars supported the ceiling which was at an unbelievable height. Many people were present in the room but they were unmindful of the two people who had just walked in. The people in the room didn’t look like Indians. Jeyanth looked through the window, to his astonishment it was snowing.

                               When was the last time it snowed Kota?   

                      The scientist was paying no attention to Jeyanth. He was looking around as if searching for someone. It was clear that the place was not new to the scientist. All of a sudden he grabbed Jeyanth’s arm and led him through one of the many doors in the room. The door led to a corridor, along which were several other doors. There was a template on each door with some terms embossed on it which Jeyanth did not understand. Then they reached the door with a template embossed with the term “TRUNCATION”.

                     He had heard it somewhere before. But he did not care as curiosity had overwhelmed him. They stepped into a room which almost looked like a combination of psychologist’s examination room and a living room. There was a lounge chair in the middle of the room and other required furniture. A wizened old man was sitting in a chair watching a television which was mounted on the wall. His head was tonsured and his face was clean shaven. On hearing them enter he turned towards them and smiled.

                     “He’s here at last” he said clapping his hands. “Thank you Chandra, you may leave now” he said turning his gaze towards Jeyanth.

                         The scientist bowed and disappeared through the door. With the succession of events Jeyanth was too dumbfounded to speak. The old man motioned him to take the chair in front of him. He slowly came back to his senses and he sat down on the chair. He looked around the room mesmerized by the strange instruments that occupied the table in front of him. Jeyanth’s eyes finally rested on the old man who was peering at him with deep interest in his eyes.

                        There were many questions coursing through Jeyanth’s mind. “What is this place? Who are you?” he asked dazed.

                         The man smiled at him. He took the remote and muted the audio in the television. “This is a facility for control of human intellect; you are presently sitting in its headquarters in Michigan. You came here through a teleporting machine. My name is John Stryder and I’m the chief of the Truncation department. I suppose all these revelations suddenly being thrust upon you might be hard to digest. But this is the truth.” He paused taking a deep breath.

                           “Mr. John if you’ve decided to get my blood, well and good, then get it over with soon, but please spare me of your nonsensical tales” retorted Jeyanth.

                          “Do you say all this is nonsense? Look around you Jeyanth, do you believe that the scientist has this huge building hidden beneath his house? Isn't that evidence enough to you?  Remember the people whom you met outside? Did they look like Indians? Don’t be foolish Jeyanth. Remember everything that has happened since you walked into this building.”

                            It took some time for everything to sink in. John was glaring at him. To avoid his gaze he stared through the open window, at the clouds scuttling past the sun. He did not want to answer. He did not want to remember anything more, but he did remember. He knew that John was not lying.

                          “What do you want with me?” he asked frowning at the old man.

                           “Some things are meant to lie dormant; but I’m afraid it cannot be hidden from you. So I might as well say it.” he said solemnly. “The world in which you live, your planet earth, is not your real home.” He paused to give a sour look. The words reverberated through the room. Seeing that Jeyanth had nothing to say, he resumed “The humans are originally alien species to this planet, they were brought here from a planet called Relior, in the Alpha Centauri system, 4.3 light years away from the Solar system.”

                “But, why were we bought here?” Jeyanth asked his voice shaking in frenzy.

                 “The people of the Relior are known as damons. Damons appeared on the planet of Relior about 4.5 billion years ago; by the time your planet was born. Since then they've evolved in terms of appearance and intelligence. About two hundred thousand years ago a mutation spread among us. These mutants far exceeded in intelligence than any other damons. We named them humans."

                    Jeyanth could not speak. Words failed to come out of his mouth. “You say “us”, does that mean...” his voice trailed off.     

                    “Yes I’m a damon and the scientist who bought you here as well.” his face was still, but Jeyanth had the feeling his mind raced behind those dark eyes. “All this time we’ve been living among you.

                        “About 0.2% of our population possessed this mutation. We could not find problems that they cannot solve. This small group of humans started to change our systems and the way of our life. This was not encouraged by the majority. We feared that the humans might dominate our world. And that lead to a mass revolution in all the corners of Relior. So we captured all the humans, killed the adults and erased the memories of the children and brought them here” he said sounding unruffled by the content of his speech.

                         “What about all this technology? Does everything belong to us? How did you manage to get hold of them?” Jeyanth shouted desperately.

                          “Time travel. We got hold of the time machine several centuries ago. Of course, it was invented by a human in our planet. It is a pity that the man had to die after his first journey in the machine. You see, we cannot risk revealing our existence to you, so all inventions that lead to us, being discovered were seized from the humans and their inventors executed. Many machines that you humans fancy to see and much more unimaginable devices are now in our possession.” said John with an evil grin spreading across his face.

              Jeyanth felt like smashing the vase that stood on the table over his shiny head. But he needed more answers.

              “Why are you telling this to me?” he asked gingerly.

              “Now that you’re familiar with the mutation process, this explanation will not confuse you. A few centuries ago a new kind of mutant appeared among the damons. Their intelligence level was similar to that of the damons, but they had a kind of power. They had telekinetic powers. But only one damon possessed that power, so he wasn’t considered a threat to the damon race. The power seemed to appear only in one living person. Another person with that power appeared only after the previous one died.” he said glancing at the muted television.

                A sudden jolt went through Jeyanth’s body. He had heard of telekinesis, the power to manipulate the movement of any object with mind. But he had thought that the power was supernatural and didn’t believe that a human could possess it. Well, in this case it wasn’t a human.  

                “Telekinesis can evolve to a point that it can control anything at a subatomic level. They could be dangerous if you mess with them. These mutants not only occurred among damons, but also among humans.” he said staring through Jeyanth. “But the power possessed by these mutants was different from those among damons. These mutants had telepathic powers, the ability to transmit and receive information from anybody’s mind. The mutant among humans too appeared one at a time.”

                     Jeyanth was starting to feel uneasy; he wasn’t sure whether to believe this part of the story. As far as he was concerned, he wasn’t a mutant and of course he didn’t know anyone with such powers, so he was safe.

                “As you can see we keep our real identity in complete secrecy, such a person who could read our mind would be a nuisance. So it is the duty of the Truncation department to find those mutants and bring them to justice.” he said without a hint of emotion.

                 “You call this justice? For God’s sake these are lives of people you’re talking about.” Suddenly he remembered what truncation was, he had learnt it in math.

              The process of discarding least significant bits in a decimal number. Least significant. Are these people least significant?

             Anger surged through him like wildfire. He picked up the vase and threw it at the old man. But it missed and hit the wall behind. He could have sworn that he had aimed accurately and the old man hadn’t moved an inch.

             How did he evade the attack?   

                 John was still calm as if nothing had happened. “We are just upholding our law. We are doing this for the greater good. We didn’t want this to happen. It was not just that we had already chosen- by accident, but there it was. We must keep it neutral before it got any worse.”

                 “How will you find out who the mutant is, in a world of nearly seven billion people?” he asked without resigning the anger in his voice.

                 “The earth is an interesting planet. There are yet innumerable mysteries about that need to be revealed. The mutation occurs in a pattern and it is always a person with the rarest blood group on this planet. We’ve learnt the pattern and we can easily identify the person.” he said still calm.

                  “But I am not a mutant. I cannot read people’s mind. Then why have you brought me here?” Jeyanth said with irritation.

                  “The mutants can tap their ability only when they turn eighteen. Isn’t today your birthday? You will be able to utilize the ability at the exact time you turn eighteen and...." he glanced at his watch  " we are just seconds away”

                    Jeyanth didn’t speak. The room fell into complete silence. He could almost hear his heartbeat. Suddenly he heard faint voices, it was not his ears that were picking up the sound but he could feel it in his mind. More voices crashed into his mind like a lead ball. The memories that were not his, were so frighteningly strong and clear that it sliced through his control. He closed his eyes, he could see all the visions that the old man had seen and most of it was filled with blood, there was blood in almost every memory. It slowly dawned on him; the old man sitting next to him was the mutant from the other planet.

                   John rose from his chair. “It’s time”, he said without any hint of emotion.

                     He raised a hand towards Jeyanth. He had seen the same pale hand somewhere before; yes, it was the hand from the dream he had had this morning and then, he remembered the whole dream.

               John looked at the lifeless corpse on the floor. It was surrounded by a pool of blood. Now that his work was over, he could retire to his planet until the next mutant appeared. He took the remote and increased the volume of the television.

           A man on the television said “Darwin wins inside these walls. Not Einstein. Darwin.”  

 

Author's Note

This is my first story. As I'm not a native English speaker, I'm bound to make mistakes. Please suggest me the areas I should improve.

Reviews

[Brandon Wilson]

You have some interesting ideas here. There are some issues with order of words and how you faze some things but that would be due to the fact that your not a native English speaker. I like how you described his room " Like every other bachelor apartment his room was a disarray of clothes, books and wrappers." I think that this story could become a very good one with a little bit of editing.

[Goku Rd]

Thank you very much for your review. It means a lot to me. I'll work to improve......

[once upon a time]

Really good! Loved the plot!

[popper]

It was a fun reading your story.

[Gutsyco]

Choice of words is a little bit lousy, but the story and ideas are good.Continue the good work .wish u luck! :-)

[Goku Rd]

Thank you!!!!!

[Hey Hey Renee]

I am in love with this. It's such a good story. I think the only thing that needs improvement is, as a non-English speaker, you should find an editor. I'm sure many people would be interested in helping you out with that. Besides that, this is great!

[Goku Rd]

Thank you for your review. I'll seriously consider your advice, and I'm really glad that you liked my story.