Burn (Part 1)

Pain.

It seared over every inch of my body, tongues of white hot flame licking my charred skin.

It's okay. This was my choice. This was what I chose. There's no going back now.

***

I remembered that pleasant spring morning when I was working in the caves just east of the old Brahmaputra river. My work as a paleontologist required me to spend most of my day in the dark, excavating ruins and underground passages, stuff like that. But that day, I discovered something that set in motion a series of events that eventually led to my death.

I found an inscription on a moss covered wall. It wasn't just any inscription though. It was a story, followed by an instruction.

When translated into English, it read:

The Bhavishya tribe of the Himalayas was a group of peaceful nomads with a power many seeked and wished to exploit. The people born into this tribe had special eyes- orbs in which one can see the entire universe! Stars, planets, vast expanses of space and the heavens. But that was not all. The Bhavishyas could see the future. They have made many predictions and not a single one has ever been wrong. With their eyes, they have been able to find the safest place to camp in the treacherous Himalaya mountains and have moved their tribe well ahead of dangers such as avalanches and attacks by animals and enemies. 

In the year X992 however, the tribe was attacked by a king. King Sadhaka, a great emperor, had wanted to know the future and everything related to him, his kingdom and his fortune. He came to the Bhavishyas to learn what was in store for him, with the intention of changing anything unfavorable to him. The Bhavishyas however declined King Sadhaka's request and asked him to leave. The tribe knew very well that altering the course of time will cause many problems if done successfully (it was not an easy feat; the universe does not allow the predetermined events of time to change) and for this reason they rarely publicized their visions for the grave danger he could put himself in through his knowledge of the predictions of the future. King Sadhaka, not understanding these intentions, stormed away, seeking revenge.  

The Bhavishyas knew King Sadhaka would return with a vast army to capture them and make them tell the future. The tribe cleverly migrated from one place to another, sometimes just missing the King's army, hiding in caves and ridges and snowy peaks. Slowly they moved down the mountain range and along the banks of the Brahmaputra. It was along this course that they found a deep, dark cave in which they realized their ancestors had once lived, thousands of years ago. Here, they found an inscription that indicated their ancestors had foreseen these events with King Sadhaka. They had written on the walls of the cave that the Bhavishya tribe will come back to this cave one day, fleeing an angry king, but they cannot escape. Soon one of them will be caught and time itself will change. Tragedy after tragedy will shake the world and the universe along with it by the King's actions. The only way to escape that... was total annihilation of the tribe.

The Bhavishyas, knowing full well what needs to be done, decided to jump into the arms of the Brahmaputra river to protect their clan's secrets. 

I, however, a young girl named Ishara, saw something in the future that I think needs to be known. I have broken away from the rest of the tribe, travelling deeper and deeper into this cave where none of my clan members can see, till at this spot I write the story of my tribe, my family, and warn the world of something. I saw five million years into the future. I saw the world ending. An asteroid the size of the ninth planet from the sun, Pluto, will enter the sun's orbit and hurtle straight towards Earth almost at the speed of light. It will crash into Earth and the planet will be engulfed in fire, tsunamis, and earthquakes. The earth will crumble and fall apart, parts breaking into space and the rest dissolving into the fire in its core. I believe the beings on this planet can be saved. Humans, animals, plants, birds, fish...

I foresee someone will one day come and read what I am writing now. I will die in the Brahmaputra tomorrow at dawn, but those of you in the future can be saved if you know this. Five million years from X992, on the summer solstice, the world will end. I know you will have the means to save yourself if you have the knowledge.

Whoever is reading this, tell the world. Only you can save them all now.

I rushed out and told my team. Within a week, the whole world knew. Now we had to build the spaceships to carry all the inhabitants of Earth. We had ten years left. Not a lot of time, really, because we needed to find an alternate planet.

There was a frenzy among the people, of course. Fear spread like wildfire across the globe. But we were technologically advanced enough to know how to build the spacecraft we needed.

Our problem was finding a new home for us.

I went back to the caves, to the spot where Ishara had written her story, and there in one corner I saw something I didn't see before. A hole. So I pit my hand in that hole and my fingers touch a stone tablet.

***

Hey! This is the first part of a new story I've started writing, and I'll write the next part soon. I hope you like it!

Please do tell me what you think in the comments!!!