He was still in his office when he heard the news. A riot had broken out in the city. Office was closing up and everyone was going to their homes. And so was our hero. He had called his home and everyone was safe, however he was still worried about them. As he was leaving his office, he was wondering which way he should take.

He was gifted with an analytic mind by birth and he loved to solve puzzles. Also, he was of that particular type of dreamers who saw adventures everywhere. To him, life was never dull but a bit much too exciting. To add to that, he was liberally exposed to video games in his childhood where he had saved the universe countless times. So, to him, this seemed like another adventure of which he was a hero.

Who knows? One day, maybe he will really save the whole universe. But for today, he wasn’t fighting to save the universe, he was just trying to get to his family. But to him, it was all the same. His family was his universe. So, as he was leaving his office, the child inside of him had already envisioned the whole adventure. His goal was set and now the work had been given to his analytic mind.

He told himself, there are six possible ways I can reach home. Since the goal is to simply reach home, it would be best to avoid any conflict. Which route would be the safest? Considering such incidents in the past, the neighborhoods around the city and the news he had heard so far, he determined a particular route that should be safe.

He kickstarted his bike and started his journey towards his home. Just a couple of blocks later, he saw some people coming in the opposite direction. Judging by their faces, they looked confused and a bit afraid. He concluded that they are probably in the same situation as he. He asked them, “Is it safe this way?” pointing towards the direction in which he was going. “No.” said a stranger. He hit the brakes and asked, “Do you know which way would be safe?” The stranger inquired, “Where do you want to go?” “The mad gorillas park.” “That way… I don’t know… but don’t go this way. It isn’t safe.”

Considering this new bit of information, he turned around and headed towards his second option. Just a few blocks later, again, a similar episode followed. So, in his quest for reaching his home near the mad gorillas park, he turned towards his third option. Again, a similar episode followed. However, this time it had twist.

The stranger seemed to know a safe way to reach the mad gorillas park. However, the problem was, the way he was describing wasn’t in any of his options. He was describing a completely different way. Our hero didn’t even knew if this way really existed. The other startling thing about this stranger was, it seemed that the stranger wasn’t normal and acted like he had just fell out of the sky an instant before.

The more startling thing was the intensity with which the stranger showed the way to our hero and stood there as if demanding to our hero to take that route. As he looked at the stranger, it seemed as if the stranger was getting larger and larger by every second. The stranger just stood there, but he stood there with a force of a mountain.

Our hero had never felt anything like it before. In his heightened state of mind, he did something he would have never done. He took a route that he didn’t know to reach a place he did know through a city that was trying to devour him all because he met the strangest stranger he ever met.

Not surprisingly, the stranger was right. Our hero reached his home safe and sound and lived happily ever after.

^ That never happened. I made it up. Why? Well, I wanted to tell something and I needed an illustration. You can read all about it.