Barisal Guns 2 ( The awakening)

July 17th 1979

Tuesday

It's almost midnight and I am wide awake. There is a storm going outside, flashes of bright light, illuminating the entire sky, followed by a thunderous roar. I sit now in my desk, with a pen and my black little notebook, to put down the cause of sleeplessness. Will I ever be able to sleep? or will I ever even have peace?

I would have never wrote down what I am going to write, if not for the events this morning.

A box came for me through the mail. A nicely wrapped one, quite official looking. I opened it and was surprised. Twenty thousand dollars lay inside that box, in cash. I barely manage to make ends meet and here was twenty thousand dollars, right on my rickety table.

I tried to guess who could have sent it to me but failed. I decided to leave it alone, sooner or later a letter will come in explaining what the money is for. To be honest, I have no interest in the money. If I can be more honest, I have no interest in life anymore but I fear hell, so I have to stay in the cursed world for now.

There is a reason why I have lost interest in life, and have become so fearful. A certain phenomena has been terrorizing the countries of Bay of Bengal, Which are Bangladesh, India, Burma and Sri Lanka. Loud sonic booms and cannon like noises have were reported. No sign of earthquakes, just the sound, which many experts are calling "Skyquakes".

These sonic booms were so loud in some areas, that windows and mirrors broke into pieces. Along with that, there also has been reports of animal like roar, comin from the Bay of Bengal. These incidents, add religious and superstitious folks, are causing panic all over south east Asia. Many people are saying that the end is near, while the other, more educated masses, are afraid of some inhuman monstrosity, ready to devour their entire villages and cities.

The entire international world is interested in it. Extensive stories have been done on papers such as the New Yorker and the Times. The air force of India and Bangladesh are investigating the matter, so is the Navy. Experts from Russia to United States of America are on this case too.

The sounds are not from earthquake, that is obvious. No meteorite has been sighted. Some papers and eccentric minds have the opinion that some marine life, hitherto unknown to science, is making those sounds. As fantastic as that might sound, the investigators couldn't dismiss that idea. It could be aliens, as some people are suggesting. They could have a base in the middle of Bay of Bengal. That theory is not without merit either, as UFO sightings has been noted around that area for the past 6 months.

The first thing that I did was to take all the available information about the case. Apart from theories and some obvious facts, there was not much. I pondered on for days as to what my following line of investigating should be. I started reading newspapers from way before my time. Maybe I would get something from those old stories. I also started reading story books, as sometimes imagination can be the window to reality.

At last I made a breakthrough. An autobiography of a Bengali writer who lived in the late 19th century. In his book, around 1880, earthquake like sounds were putting fear in the hearts of men. The strange sound was never identified but they did put a name to the phenomena. They called it " Barisal Guns".Having lived in Barisal my entire life, I was surprised at the revelation. The fact that something like this had happened before, and in our very city, was surprising. I dug through countless other sources, to see if I could find more clues but nothing more came up.

I was exhausted. Walking outside, under the night sky, with a burning cigarette in one hand and tea in the other, thoughts were running through my mind. What was driving to get to the bottom of this? It couldn't be for the paper, cause they couldn't care less. As long as they had a story, they would run it. Maybe it was the curiosity, the want of knowing the unknown. The very curiosity that led men to explore the entire world. It is the same curiosity that lead to the demise of my good mind and, perhaps, soul.

Two days ago, I was strolling through the beach. The sun was setting and the sky was purple with brilliant flaming red and orange streaking through it. Needed the sea breeze to clear my mind, and I loved twilight. As I was ready to come back, I saw something weird. It seemed like stairs on the beach's edge. I walked towards it and there, plain as my existence, was a flight of stairs. Without hesitating even for a second, I took the stairs. To make myself clear, there were stairs descending to the bottom of the sea. As I walked, my head going underwater the last, I found out that somehow I was breathing. Crazy as its sounds, I was breathing. The deeper I went the darker it became, until I could see no further. Suddenly I hit a door. Upon finding the knob, I opened it find myself in a long passageway. On the end of the passageway was another flight of stairs, this time leading upwards.

Fearlessly, I climbed up the stairs, old and dusty, as if no one had touched them for decades. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally came to the top. There were lush trees and thick grass, with flowers of Eden, surrounding me. It looked like a picture from a fairytale, so beautiful and so serene was the surrounding. I kept walking, feeling like a little boy in a playground. After a while, it came to my notice that the road was getting narrower and the lush greenery was getting sparse. It was daylight, the sun was shining bright and the sky was strangely golden. There were things flying high in the sky, I could barely see them but they were nothing that we folks of Earth have ever seen. Soon, all the trees and flowers were left behind, with the road getting narrower. Now I could see over the edge

As I glanced over the edge of the road, a shiver went through my body. A thousand meter high I was at least, and below lay the most fierce blue ocean that I have ever seen in my life. Even the smallest of wave could topple over the building in my city. What was even more astonishing, however, was that I could see an entire city underneath the blue water. The most magnificent sight it was, something out 1001 Arabian nights. Words cannot describe the majesty of it. After gazing at the water for god knows how long, I stood up and looked ahead. Over a mile across lay a fortress, with four towers on each corner. The sheer size of that fortress can never be given by any number or words of men. Even as I stood a mile away from that structure, it gleamed over. A sick aura was oozing from it, making it unbearable to even look at. If a horde of dead men came running towards me from that humungous door, I wouldn't be surprised.

But it soon got to me, that it was not the fortress that was inducing fear in me, it was something that the fortress contained.

As I took a step back, something roared form the fortress. The entire world shook. The waves of the ocean grew even bigger and the sky changed color to light purple. The roar had a very faint touch of a metal screeching. It didn't do anything to me physically but I believe my soul has forever been burned. Neither heaven or hell can take the horror out of my soul even though it is there. I will forever be blind even though I can see, I can never smell anything even though I will breath and I can never taste anything even though I will eat. Life has gone from me, for I saw it. No words made by men can describe the abomination. If hell contains creatures like this, then I shall live the rest of my life as a hermit.

I don't remember how I came back to my place, everything after I saw the Thing is a blur, as if my mind is trying to protect me by forgetting all the horrors my eyes have seen.

A week later and here I am, in my poor room, writing in my favorite black notebook, with 20,000 dollars in the cupboard and a small letter by my side, which came later today in the evening. The letter is from the Bangladesh government, requesting me to give all my evidence to them. They also are requesting me to be silent about my findings, as it pertains to national security.

Those twenty thousand dollars is from them, for my dedicated journalism and for my keeping of silence for national security.

I can still hear the roar, but that doesn't strike fear in my heart anymore. What frightens me now is that there are people out there who not only know of the existence of the Fortress but are doing there best to hide it. Hide the truth from the people that at any moment, life as we know can end.