Down in the lab, the team of scientists stood frozen in their places, as if all their movements had suddenly come to a halt.
The two shadows were still fighting freely in the air inside the lab. Gradually, the effects of their battle began to appear in the physical world as well. It was as if the spiritual form in which they had been fighting until now had become incapable of bearing their weight any longer.
The machines installed in the lab began to short-circuit, and soon fire spread throughout the entire laboratory. The gas and chemical cylinders kept inside started exploding one after another.
"Boom..." A loud explosion echoes.
Upstairs, after killing Priya, Alok begins walking toward Avinash, holding Avinash's gun.
"Boom..." Another explosion follows. Everything blasts into the air with a violent jolt. Alok crashes hard against the ceiling and falls down to the ground. A large wooden plank breaks from the ceiling and falls on top of him.
Avinash, who was tied to a chair, crashes into a nearby pillar, causing the chair to shatter into pieces. Somehow, Avinash manages to free himself from the loosened ropes caused by the broken chair and stands up. Leaving Alok struggling beneath the wooden plank, he runs toward the library.
After pushing the wooden plank off himself, Alok rushes behind Avinash into the library. There he sees Avinash entering a hidden room behind a painting on the wall, and the painting is sliding back to close the doorway. Alok grabs the painting, causing it to stop halfway.
As soon as Avinash enters the room, he sees Aarav sleeping peacefully inside a sleeping pod. He closes the lid of the pod, lifts it, and sits on a cargo cart placed in the corner of the room. Then he punches the wall.
A section of the floor in front of the cart tilts and slides downward. A tunnel appears ahead, with iron tracks laid across it. The cart descends into the cave and begins moving forward along the track.
"No... no... damn shit!" Alok shouts from behind while firing his gun, but by then the floor has already closed back into place.
"You're all idiots!" Alok shouts at his men while rushing out of the mansion.
"Get the bikes out. He can't have gone far. The tunnel probably leads only to the base of the hill. Spread out in every direction. Inform me if you find anything," Alok says to his men as he sits behind Viraj on a bike.
The tunnel ends in the forest slightly above the foothills. Avinash opens a gate hidden beneath leaves and steps outside. Seeing bikers standing a short distance away, he quietly moves forward through the moonlit forest, staying under the shadows of the trees. But suddenly Aarav starts crying.
"Eh... aah..."
Hearing the baby's cry, the bikers turn their attention toward the sound and soon spot Avinash.
"Sir, we've found him!"
"Good. Chase him. I'm on my way," Alok replies.
Seeing that the bikers have spotted him, Avinash stops moving quietly and begins rushing downhill as fast as he can. Behind him, the bikers keep firing bullets at him.
Using the trees as cover, Avinash runs while carrying his child. At that moment, he hears the distant whistle of an approaching train. Seeing it as his last chance to escape, Avinash runs toward a bridge at the base of the hill, beneath which trains frequently pass.
"Sir, he's heading toward the bridge," one of the bikers informs Alok after seeing Avinash running in that direction.
"Damn... stop him! He's planning to escape using the 11 PM train. I'm heading toward the entrance of the next tunnel where the train will come out. Try to stop him there," Alok responds over the walkie-talkie.
"Yes, boss." The bikers put the walkie-talkie back into their pockets and resume firing.
Dodging the bullets, Avinash reaches the bridge and looks at the train approaching in front of him.
"Just two more minutes..." Avinash mutters to himself as he watches the train getting closer. His tension keeps rising as the bikers draw nearer with every passing second.
The train and the bikers reach the bridge almost at the same time. Avinash jumps down from the bridge onto the moving train.
"Bang..." A gunshot echoes, and the next moment a bullet strikes Avinash in the shoulder.
Suppressing the pain somehow, Avinash climbs down from the roof of the train and enters the last empty compartment, collapsing into a seat.
"Sir, he managed to escape... but he's been shot in the shoulder," a biker reports over the walkie-talkie while watching the train move away.
"It doesn't matter. He's destined to die by my hands anyway," Alok replies before cutting the connection on the walkie-talkie while standing above the tunnel.
"Viraj, tell the men to be ready at the next station. I'll board the train from here," Alok says to his assistant Viraj as he looks at the bright light of the approaching train.
As the train approaches, Alok jumps onto it. There is barely a hand's width of space between the roof of the train and the ceiling of the tunnel, so Alok lies flat and drags himself forward, scraping along the roof in the darkness. After some effort, he carefully climbs down from the roof and slips inside the train compartment, moving toward the next coach.
Searching for Avinash, Alok finally reaches the last compartment. There, he finds Avinash sitting on a seat with a sleeping pod beside him.
"So, what exactly are you angry about, my little brother, that you're in such a hurry to get away from me?" Alok says as he looks at Avinash. "What made you think it would be so easy to escape from me? No, my brother."
Alok takes out the key from his pocket—the same key he had earlier taken from Avinash. The number "24" was engraved on its back. He holds it in front of Avinash.
"Where is the watch?"
"Haa... ha... ha..." Avinash begins laughing as he looks at him.
Seeing him laugh, Alok grabs Avinash by the neck and lifts him up.
"I'm asking for the last time—where is the watch?"
"Ah..."
Just then, hearing the sound of a baby crying, Avinash turns his head toward the sleeping pod.
"You may not have told me, but your son certainly did," Alok says, pressing the gun against Avinash's head.
"There's still half an hour left until twelve, my brother. You are about to become one of those rare people in history less than one percent whose birth and death happen on the same day. How fortunate you are. People will celebrate your joy and mourn your loss on the very same day. Happiness and sorrow together... ha... ha... ha..."
He pauses and laughs mockingly.
"But for that, someone in the family needs to be alive... ha ha... Oh, I almost forgot. I'm still alive. My dear brother, I'll take care of both your joy and your sorrow." With that, Alok forcefully pushes the gun into Avinash's mouth.
"So now, my dear little brother, it's time for you to go to the other side."
"Haa... haa... haa..." Avinash starts laughing again, as if all fear of death has suddenly vanished from his face.
Seeing this, Alok pulls the trigger.
"Bang..."
Blood splatters across the wall behind him.
Alok then presses the button on the sleeping pod and opens it.
But the sleeping pod is completely empty. There is neither a baby inside nor the box containing the watch. The pod is entirely vacant. As soon as the pod opens, the sound of the baby crying—heard until now—suddenly stops, and instead a countdown begins.
"Ten...
Nine...
Eight..."
Alok remembers Avinash's smiling face just before his death.
"Oh no... there's a bomb in it," Alok thinks to himself.
He quickly picks up the pod to throw it out of the window, but then realizes that the pod has been chained to the train seat with a thick iron chain hooked to the back.
He pulls with all his strength, but the pod does not budge.
The countdown has already reached three. Seeing no other option, Alok jumps out of the train compartment through the door.
By now, the train has emerged from the tunnel and is passing over a bridge built above a deep gorge.
Alok falls into the deep ravine below.
Inside the train, the countdown continues
"Three...
Two...
One..."
Then suddenly a recorded voice begins to play "Alright, son. That was the countdown from ten. Now Papa will teach you the alphabet...
A... B... C... D... E... F... G...
...." JUMPING ACROD THE LINE FOR RIVER BANK TO SOLVR MY HOLE LIFE