"Skronk-crunch-screech-smash-shatter-rrrrrr"

  Shraiyen was holding the dog as he warned his parents of the danger closing in, in matter of two to three seconds he moved the puzzled dog to his right hand side and grabbed his sister hand firmly while dragging her by force, approaching their car was a perfectly orchestrated metallic screech choreographed by at least ten scraping cars and a few bikes, five seconds ago Shraiyen had shouted. By the time his parents turned back, they saw their daughter being dragged by her brother from the right side. As they tried to locate the reason that made their son freak out in such a way, their gaze landed on rear windshield, a blood-smeared truck ploughing through traffic with its unrestrained speed, tons of people clawed their hands at its roof as a magnificent struggle of last ditch effort, there was a tennis ball sized crack directly in front of the driver's seat with the driver missing.

  The truck itself was at least seven breaths away from Shraiyen's parents, which ideally would be enough time for them to escape. But what petrified them more was the great horde of vehicles it was carrying in front. The closest vehicle from their car was now just two breaths away, meaning just after two breaths of time, Shraiyen's car would start feeling the impact and would be swept away by this vehicle horde.

  Currently they were in a very binding position, being in the left most lane of the highway they only had one direction to escape unless one wanted to die by jumping in the river, the approaching metallic horde now spanned two lanes wide, means to ensure survival one would need to jump over fifty five centimetre long diversion and land on the opposite lanes of this highway, to do all this under two breaths in the age of forties was simply impossible not to mention the crowd that was now acting wild seeing their death approaching and trying to reach third lane were pushing and stepping down on others, Shraiyen however had already made his way towards the third lane and was watching the scene unfold as Shailani constantly urged him about their parents, Shraiyen however was making no move other than looking at his parent's car.

  From Shraiyen's perspective, there was a car in the left-most lane in which his parents were losing their nerves, trying to unfasten their seat belts. Behind this car was an approaching metallic horde pushed by a large truck. His sight was hooked towards the driver's seat on the left, past his mother. He was looking at his father, eager to see what decision his father would make when he should be making efforts to rescue his parents.

  With not even a fraction of minute left, Shraiyen's father, strengthen his resolve, made a very crucial decision, he figured out Shraiyen's location, looked at Shailani, the mother's side door was already open and both of them had their seat belts removed, with only a single breath of time left, he pushed the love of his life out of the car with all the force he could muster up while shouting "SHRAIYEN".

  Shraiyen had his sight fixed on his father from the start. When both their sights matched, he understood that his father, although took some time, had made a wise decision, and before his father could even have shouted his name, Shraiyen had already crossed the diversion and was rushing towards the car.

  With less than a breath of time left, he held his mother by the shoulder as she had lost balance after being pushed with this far, without even looking at the car he placed his hand at his mother's waist and her hand around his shoulder and as he started running, in front of him came a family who were running slowly than others as they were protecting their less than five year old child by keeping him in his mother's embrace, not being able to take even the slightest detour Shraiyen needed to run through them thus he pushed this slow running mother father bond and forced through them, thrown of their running course they lost their balance and fell, especially the mother who was holding her child, she fell completely to the right. The distance between Shraiyen and the horde of vehicles was less than two meters; he had to run almost half a lane horizontally under a breath's time, or he would get crushed by all the vehicles. And so he accomplished, with less than a second left he jumped over the diversion and forced his mother towards his side by pulling her hand and they finally succeeded, his mother received only a slight injury near the calves section by a glass poking out of a damaged car.

  "HONEYYY..." for Shraiyen's mother, these past few seconds passed in an instant, as just a few seconds ago, she was in the car with her husband, but now, she stood beside her two children,

  "What...happened to him *shakes her son by his shoulder* Son...my sweet child...where is your father...WHERE-"

  *bleghhhh* His mother's breakdown was interrupted by Shailani barfing suddenly, from the time Shraiyen went to rescue their mother, Shailani was looking at her parents and her brother, as she was strictly instructed by her brother to not go anywhere or approach him during a precarious situation in an attempt to save him, hence she kept on watching, what she saw was her mother coming out of the car alone and running a little further but by the time she was about to trip and fall her brother came to save her which made Shailani felt relived but her gaze was still stuck at the car as her father wasn't coming out, suddenly her attention got diverted and she saw her brother pushing a lady who had a small child in her hand, before that lady could even get up or try to protect her child, her head came under a heavy duty car, the explosion splattered the brain matter and blood in a nearby area but most of the grey looking matter landed on the child's face, before the child could react his instincts had taken over as he started to run and even forgot to cry but his hope of surviving lasted no more than two steps and a considerable windshield shard pierced his back causing him to fall face first on the ground but even before he could get up his legs started getting crushed by the same blood bathed tire that killed his mother, the painful cries resounded afar, one hardly could tell the contrast between cries of victims in a battlefield and the whining of the child as well resistance filled shrieks of people still stuck in both the lanes due to traffic and crowd, although the misery of the kid prevailed less than two breaths, the tire first rolled over his leg and as he struggled to squirm out, his hands extended in hope someone would take hold of him and save him, his eyes filled with hope, pain, fear of death were blurred with tears but nobody dared notice him as everyone was busy saving their own hide, car rolled further and pressed the glass shard through his back to the stomach area but before he could even get a cry out of his mouth, the tire had reached his upper body and started squashing his stomach and guts, mouthful of blood got spotted out by him and as the blood stopped his heart and lungs had been pulverized, his consciousness started fainting due to intense pain as he looked once more in hope that someone would save him, someone instead stepped on his stretched hand and continued to run, *squelch* his head got smashed by the weight of tire as it proceeded on its path of massacre.

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  Shailani had observed all this in great detail. This incident had happened so fast that she didn't even have the chance to avert her eyes. This was the first time in her ten years of life when she saw someone getting killed, and not just dying simply but dying a gruesome death. Emotions built up and bottled nigh her throat, a stream of tears ran down her cheeks, the whimpering dog she held licked a few tears, but she didn't seem to notice. Shailani wanted to cry, puke, run away, do anything other than being there and most that she seeked was comfort, she wanted to hug her brother and mother and be patted by her father, as all this took place both Shraiyen and his mother had landed on this lane safely, since Shailani had missed what happened to her parents and brother she assumed both her parents and brother were back safely but what she saw finally couldn't control her bottled emotions anymore, she saw her mother crying and asking about her father and her brother not responding but just looking in the general direction where there car was, she vaguely understood the situation without anyone even telling her the details, all this finally resulted in her throwing up.

  Despite how everything was unfolding, Shraiyen's gaze was nailed on their car, a slender trail of sweat streamed from his forehead; he had completely ignored the surrounding havoc as he eagerly anticipated his father's next move. By the time the child in the second lane got his guts squashed, Shraiyen's father had managed to open the left door on his side but what awaited him was not an escape but a river, despite that he continued to struggle, in a matter of half a breath time as the child's head got crushed, the vehicle junk had reached Shraiyen's car, through the immense pressure from rear the car began charging forward itself, but just as the car moved out the sight, his father was nowhere to be seen, only Shraiyen saw what transpired in that past split second, just before his father was about to jammed between highway's fence and vehicle junk he decided to jump in the water.

  "A futile attempt, albeit praise your dedication towards life, I'll ensure that Mother reaches the cantonment safely."

  "Where is...he...son, where is (brother *sob* what happened to father)" both the sister's and mother's cries resounded in his ears as he finally decided to break the silence.

  *External sigh* "I saw Father jump in the river, he made the right decision, but *External sigh* I don't know if he....I loved him so much, Mother, I don't know what will happen now, but let's take shelter in the cantonment first."

  "You...said...he-he j-jumped in the river? Do you know how deep it is? I never once saw him swim even in a pool since I married him, HE DROWNED HIMSELF TO SAVE ME, I-I-I'm going...I'm going where he is....UNHAND ME...I'll jump in the river and save him."

  "Mother, you can't, it would be suicide, father would never wish this, please mother, don't lose your composure as you-"

  "Maa *sniffle* don't leave us, dad left *sniffle* us, please don't go anywhere."

  "Shailani is right. Mother, you still have us. Let's ensure that at least we can survive."

  "I don't know what to do....I feel like I'm going insane, this-this has to be a dream, he was right beside us this morning, how can he be suddenly gone, I don't even have the strength to go anymore...leave me here...children go."

  "Going by vehicle won't be possible anymore. I'll support her until we reach the cantonment. I'm sorry for what happened with your husband."

  "Uncle? (Uncle?)"

  While Shraiyen's family struggled, Sharvyn's family was fighting for their own life, just as Shraiyen, Sharvyn was the first one to see a truck approaching from the bike's side mirror, after informing about the same, his father initially tried to cut through traffic instead of abandoning the bike and running across the lane, but not long after they got stuck in a minor accident that happened in front of them, several cars had collided resulting in a complete jam in both lanes furthermore due to this much delay in fleeing their back route had closed as people swarmed here and there, after leaving their vehicle as it is, thanks to Sharvyn's quick thinking they managed to climb over the car with least effort and just before the vehicle junk erased every living being in its path, they were successfully able to land in lane three.

  After thanking and praising their son for his cognitive abilities, they had decided to move towards the cantonment without wasting a second, but it was Sharvyn who demanded to check on his friend, although facing refusal to such thoughts in the start, his parents eventually gave up when his mother also agreed based on, "HIs father showed us kindness by giving his bike otherwise there would have been further delay in departure, perhaps it's better to not get separated before reaching cant, we should check on them."

  "Alright Alright, but I swear to God if entry points get closed because of this...."

  Saying that, they all moved back to where Shraiyen's car was supposed to be, and when they saw the current situation unfolding with Shraiyen trying to manage the situation alone, although cursing inside, Sharvyn's father decided to help.

  "Please get up, we don't have much time I'll support you since it seems like you got injured." Sharvyn's father crouched down maintaining a rather sorrowful expression.

  "I...no...don't want to go...he *sob* jumped, leaving me alone."

  *External sigh* "He was like a brother to me, and he jumped so that you could reunite with your children, maybe he is alive so why don't we take shelter first and ask the military personnel to search for him, and you are like a sister to me I can't leave you alone, come *places Shraiyen's mother hand by his shoulder* I'll support you...get up."

  "Sister? Like hell *scoff* bastard I bet you must've been planning to run away alone it must be Sharvyn who dragged your ass here." Shraiyen had a hunch about what would've happened and was quite disgusted by how double-faced Sharvyn's father acted.

  "Here, Mother, I'll support you, let's move fast."

  "No Shraiyen, you children should prioritize your safety, instead take care of your sister, she seems quite shaken too, me and my wife will take care of your mother."

  "Sorry for the trouble, uncle."

  *weeping* "Brother..."