Vantage Point (PART 3) : THE LADY

War had changed her life, at every phase of life when she was just about to stand up and walk straight war would change it all. First it was her Father who was sacrificed in the name of war, then her brother and then her husband. Now it was just her and her 2 little kids. It couldn't have been more worse for Zainab as she was walking to the market to buy some provision. She had left her two kids playing on their own in her old beat down house.

It was starting to get dark as she walked to the market. The whole village was sorta disturbed after the banished ones arrived. All of them knew that war was coming and would get back to their houses before it got dark and would stay out of sight to save their own lives. That dreadful day Zainab dint have any provisions left in her house to feed her kids and herself and wanted to buy something to make some dinner for themselves. She wanted to just rush to the market and buy the stuff and get back as soon as possible.

But as she was just nearing the market disaster struck, she heard similar noises of some bees whizzing past after banging noises and then a huge blast.. It was war again, she could hear bullets flying past her as an instinct she just ran into the nearest shop for cover without being aware of her surroundings. All Zainab could see were the cover of the shop as she ran blindly towards it she dint see the militant who was running towards her and almost bumped into him. He was one of the banished ones who came into their village and took everything. No one ever questioned them as they knew what would happen if they did.

As far as Zainab was concerned she wanted nothing more than the safety of herself and her kids. She was the only one the kids had and all she wanted was to`get back home in one piece to her kids. These were her thoughts as she regained her composure from the bump in she rose to see the Jawans eyes as he was running to get the militant. And then did she realize he was taking aim past her towards the militant who was about to throw a grenade towards them.

All this happened in a fraction of a second, as she ran into the market for cover she heard a gun shot whiz behind her and a second later as she ran through the rear door of the shop BIG LOUD blast hurled her forward as she hit the ground with a big thud and all kinds of shreds fell over her carcass. She thought she was dead as all she could see was bright light and could hear nothing but a buzzing sound that deafened her ears.

Then came the pain which was worse than being dead, she had bruises all over the place from the fall and some burns from the blast. The pain was so much so that she could not move her body an inch and felt like each and every bone in the body was broken to a million pieces. As she managed to turn over and looked into the sky she saw black smoke rising and it felt like she was entering one hell from another.

All she could think of were her kids who would be waiting for her mother to come back to them and would be scared and orphaned if she dint. She was struggling to keep herself awake but the eye lids got heavy on her. The only words that came out of her mouth were,

"Forgive me. God please forgive me."