Night at the Highway: The Lost secrets (Part I)

What happens when you take a short cut inspired by the local villagers at Ranikhet?

You tend to think twice but with the sun going down, you decide to risk it without any second thought. The initial 35kms of road stretch around the mountain were not that great but we had the hope that it will get better. The sun had taken its way for rest and darkness was getting more dominant and powerful. And suddenly we got stuck at the middle of intersection. Now the dilemma was which road to take to reach home. We were approximately 300kms far from destination New Delhi, India. There were no street lights on this barren lean mountain road and on top of this there were no signboards. The mobile and GPS was of no use due to absence of network. The only confidence to stand in such a spooky place was the lights coming from the motorcycle headlights.

So I decided to take a stand for exploring one road out of two. With my friend Surjit, we started to explore some clues. The silence in that road was getting into my ears making my eardrum sick. The darkness had engulfed the whole area and it was deflecting the light coming from the headlight to the mountains creating weird images. After 3kms we found that there was a pattern of missing slab at every curve of road which was exactly present continuously at the previous 35kms stretch. We went back and informed our group and started our journey.

It had been just few kilometers of journey that one of the motorcycles stopped and one of our fellas in an astonished state informed that he saw a lady in a white outfit. It was little scary situation which was amplified by the sound of the stream coming from the gorge. The only thing I could think was to move on. I advised my group to continue the tour without wasting any time. We started our trip, but on the back of my mind I was thinking that, with 12hrs on the highway, the brain might have got exhausted wherein the beam from motorcycle headlight would have created some images. Suddenly, my thought process was disrupted by hyena or maybe it could be fox which I saw from the rear mirror of the motorcycle. As my motorcycle was moving last among the six, the brake light would provide illumination at the rear end providing visibility at rear mirror. I took a decision not to inform about the sight of hyena or fox to group which might scare and discourage them. Luckily it didn’t follow!

 After the twisty turns and gravel road, finally we reached Ramnagar near Jim Corbet. We stopped near a water source to wash our face. There was an ATM and a post office at that illuminated area. I could see some of my fellas withdrawing money and some of them inspecting the conditions of the motorcycles. I was busy observing the area as it felt shady to me. The road was silent with both sides covered by long trees; I think it was bamboo, after some more observation, I got to know we were in middle of forest.

 The moment I looked towards the path, from where we came, I saw something crossing the woods. For a while my heart beat slowed down, my senses were getting hyperactive. I saw a humanoid structure crossing the road in a hurry. The only thing which was making me astonished was that it was walking like an ape and had no clothes but fur or leaves around the body . This was all going on some 500mts from the point I was standing. I turned my back to call upon others; to my surprise everybody had seen that thing crossing the woods. I was about to react that my friends pointed to same place and we could see that thing crossing the road again. But this time it saw us……………………… and this is where everything started.