A thunderous roar hurled me from my bed and slammed me hard against the floor. Like a madman, I rushed out of the house in nothing but my underwear. Dust had blanketed everything. At first nothing could be seen. The darkness of night would not permit me to make out anything clearly. Gradually a choking sensation took hold of me. The smell of earth rose thickly. Murmurs could be heard: ‘What happened?’ No one knew.
Half an hour later, when the dust began to settle, I found myself confronted with a bewildering scene. Believe me, I very nearly soiled myself. Something like terror, or perhaps overwhelming astonishment, had seized my entire being. My hands, my legs, even my eyes had gone numb. I stood there like a man suddenly frozen solid. With great effort I turned my head. The neighbours, all lined up in a queue down the length of the street, were staring straight ahead just as I was, motionless.
Suddenly they began to shout from the far end of the street. Like dominoes the cry reached me, and from the depths of my soul I too let out a scream. I could not believe it: the house of my neighbour, and everything he owned, had been buried beneath the rubble. Slowly the sirens of police cars, ambulances and fire engines could be heard, racing towards us.
The numbness had turned to madness. When I came to myself I realised I was frantically hurling bricks, iron rods, fallen plaster, anything I could lay my hands on, tears streaming down my face. I kept shouting, ‘Where are you?!’
At times I would drag myself to the other side and cry out again: ‘Are you alive?!’
I do not know how long I continued in this way, but little by little I regained my senses and found myself sitting beside an ambulance with my friend, gently slapping me on the face, ‘Are you all right? Are you all right?’
I stared ahead, mouth agape, like one stunned. My friend placed a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘What happened?’
That was the question on everyone’s lips. I glanced around. Ambulances lined up in a row all the way down the street. Some were already clambering over the rubble, picking up whatever they could find and flinging it aside.
Over the following days several other districts encountered this rare and astonishing phenomenon. Hundreds were estimated to have been killed: old and young, children, men and women, all dead in an instant. News came from the outskirts of the city that villages had been destroyed. No one knew what had happened. Even the government was in turmoil and had formed a committee to investigate the crisis. I too was part of it; my task was to gather data and reports.
In the first few days I found nothing of substance. The intelligence agencies knew no more than we did. Some people declared it was divine punishment. Others believed it was some kind of earthquake. Yet among those interviewed, one man swore he had seen a creature. I listened to his words again and again:
‘It had no feet, no hands. Its face was covered. I didn’t see its eyes. There was nothing. I don’t know what it was. But it was something. Perhaps it came from space, or maybe it was Azrael himself.’
When I presented his account to the committee everyone sneered and said he was in shock and talking nonsense. But when I observed that the crisis itself was hardly rational and had no logic behind it, they all fell silent.
I was sitting in my friend’s office, drinking tea and discussing the matter. He joked, ‘One might think Frankenstein has come here!’
I replied seriously, ‘No body parts have been stolen from anyone. So it cannot be him.’
He laughed. ‘I’m only joking.’
I collected myself and smiled. ‘The things one hears these days. It would hardly be strange if fictional characters had come to life. Imagine Rustam riding Rakhsh, coming to fight this creature. It would not be far-fetched at all.’
He shook his head, picked up his teacup and walked over to the window. He drew the curtain aside, pointed at the houses across the street. ‘Imagine all of these,’ (he gestured behind him) ‘collapsing in a single moment.’
At that very instant a thunderous roar, exactly like that of the first night, rang out. I leapt to my feet. The earth trembled. All the buildings he had indicated came crashing down. As I stood there, mouth half open, staring ahead, something suddenly flashed past. In that moment the words of that man returned to me:
‘It had no feet, no hands… I don’t know what it was. But it was something. Perhaps it came from space…’
In a fleeting moment, I too saw something… I don’t know what it was, but it was something. We survived the destruction and found our way out of the dust and rubbles.
The following days, more came forward who had seen what that man and I had witnessed. Eminent scientists entered the fray. Their first step was to establish laboratories in every affected area. They began searching for a blood sample or any trace of the creature.
Progress was slow, and more districts were destroyed while the scientists worked hard. Nothing seemed to stop this being. Stone, concrete, iron: nothing seemed to bar its way. It destroyed everything in its path.
A large portion of the population abandoned the city. The few who remained declared that they were no different from the rest. ‘We will stay,’ they said. ‘One day we will die anyway. Death will find us not matter where we go.’
One afternoon, someone was pounding hard on the door. It was my friend. As soon as he saw me he embraced me and exclaimed, ‘We’ve worked it out! We’ve worked it out!’
‘They found it?’
He nodded joyfully. We both leapt on his motorbike and raced to the committee meeting. The results of the research were to be announced. The office was in uproar, everyone talking at once, until the head of the research team presented the findings as follows:
‘It is human, but not like us. It may resemble an animal, particularly in behaviour. But it’s still human…’
He paused for a moment, studied the papers in his hand carefully, and continued: ‘Its behaviour is not like ours. We believe they may be our ancestors, or some astonishing new being. It bears some resemblance to animals; it is violent. But it is not a beast, for animals resort to violence only when they need food or defence. But these creatures are wanton destroyers.’
He fell silent again. A murmur filled the entire room. Some muttered, ‘Nonsense, what are you talking about?’ Others joined in, ‘What do you mean?’
The head of the research team resumed: ‘We believe we have encountered a new species of human, or an entirely new creature. The research conducted so far is limited, and we shall continue our work.’
Once more the room filled with the question: ‘What do you mean?’
My friend, standing beside me, asked, ‘Do you have no images or footage of it?’
The head of the team sighed, pulled a photograph from among the papers and passed it to the person next to him. Once again there was uproar and everyone surged towards the photograph. It was a strange scene: no one could see anything, yet they all strained desperately to look at the photograph. The man holding it was heard to gasp weakly, ‘My breath! My breath!’
The head of the team banged on the table and shouted, ‘Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Please! Quiet! Let us do this in turn. The photograph will reach everyone.’
Attendants came to their senses, sat or stood in their places shamefacedly. Some took advantage of the lull to claim the spots of those who had been near the man with the photograph, so they might see the photo sooner. Those who had lost their places grumbled under their breath.
The man with the photograph passed it on, saying, ‘It’s the same one. No feet, no hands, or perhaps, as that man said, it is Azrael.’
The photograph made its way around the room until it reached my friend and me. We examined it carefully together. Nothing could be seen. Its face was covered. It was exactly what I myself had seen.
At that moment the door flew open and a man burst in, shouting, ‘Gentlemen, we’ve caught it.’
I stared at him and at the photograph in disbelief. How had they captured this creature? It seemed impossible. The man turned around and left the room and everyone rushed towards the door. My friend and I, fearing we would be trampled, pressed ourselves against the wall and were the last to leave. My friend murmured, ‘Any of us could be like that creature,’ my friend said. ‘All it takes is a little power.’
We followed the crowd running towards the other building. In the main hall we saw a large cage containing a creature of moderate build, covered in hair and humanoid in form. It looked at us in astonishment. Contrary to what I had imagined and seen, it had feet and hands – though covered in thick hair – and did not appear to be Azrael.
It unwound the cloth wrapped around its head. When it saw our onrush it retreated to a corner of the cage. The head of the research team showed courage and approached closer than the others. He looked at the creature, huddled into itself. Its eyes were filled with terror. The head of the team said gently, ‘Poor thing, it’s frightened.’
Our hearts went out to it. From every side came the sound of empathy.
With the passage of time new aspects of these creatures emerged. It became clear, for instance, that they were in fact humans and among our ancestors. Their forebears had lived thousands of years ago; they were notorious for bloodthirstiness and outlandish way of life, and showed mercy to nothing and no one. They had not developed intellectually, living as they did in a land far from civilisation. The only differences were their extraordinary speed of destruction and bodies like armour that suffered no injury when striking hard objects. Yet, the researchers were divided in their classification. Some said simply, ‘Well, it is human.’ Others insisted they were neither human nor animal, but a new species that had undergone genetic change over time.
Over the next few weeks, further research made it clear that these creatures had families and the government captured and brought them to the city. At first they were provided with shelter and food. The aim was for them to adapt to modern life. They gradually learned to use various new tools; yet their nature and behaviour remained resistant to change. The researchers hoped the next generation would prove different.
* * *
A thunderous roar, exactly like the one that had startled me from sleep years earlier, woke me. Though my ears had grown heavy with age, the sound was loud enough to rouse this old man. Leaning on my stick, I made my way to the door. The same event had occurred again. The houses across the streets had all been destroyed. The difference this time was that those ‘creatures’ were doing it with laughter and amusement, using tools of our own making, and without the slightest fear.
