Golem

It was pouring heavily outside when Prakash realized he forgot to lock Floor Alpha. It was Friday, everyone from Dr. Katekar to Mirza, the janitor had left the facility. On Fridays, the facility closes at 4 in the evening, long before the sun goes down. I still have time, thought Prakash.  He contemplated. There were two possibilities; he could rush in the rain, go to the facility and lock Floor Alpha or he could wait till the weekend was over and do it on Monday morning. The only problem was the Golem. On weekends, the Golem is placed inside the facility rather than outside. Remembering this piece of information, Prakash’s feet went cold. Nobody had ever seen Golem on active duty. They say he is state of the art. Designed to guard all the secrets locked at Kundankulam Atomic Research Facility.
He messaged Sanju about his dilemma. He immediately called him.


‘You left Floor Alpha unlocked on a fucking Friday!?’, he screamed while panicking.
‘Jeez, I made a mistake hiring you fucking fool’ he went on to curse Prakash. Prakash started to realize the gravity of his mistake.
‘If you go now, the Golem will fuck you up. And if they got to know you didn’t lock Floor Alpha, you will get everyone on the team fired!’
Prakash was getting nervous. Sanju wasn’t mincing words. In fact, he was stating what exactly would happen.
‘I am not letting your mistake get us all fired. So, you better go right now and fix this.’

Sanju wasn’t requesting, and Prakash did what he said. He knew if he made it out by 6, he would be fine. The weather had turned tables and sent a thunderous storm with fierce winds. He saw the time, and it was 5 already. He punched his office card at 5.24
The service didn’t let him inside because an employee can punch in only twice a day. Prakash was redirected to unaccounted entry server where he stated his purpose of entering. ‘Left unauthorized article in the facility’ he wrote. He gained access, but for only 15 minutes. Floor Alpha was the facility’s hard copy room. The facility did away with soft copies ever since servers were poisoned by militants. Prakash couldn’t access Floor Alpha via lift because of restricted entry. He climbed seven floors only to have 4 minutes on his clock. He immediately punched his access code and locked Floor Alpha. He looked at the time. One minute to exit.  His race against time was fueling adrenaline in his entire body. He reached the base floor but suddenly the door slammed shut. He was out of time and the Golem was on patrol. The lights had dimmed to a hazy blue, he wasn't able to see anything clearly. He could hear metal clanking on the floor. Prakash went cold; panic, fright, and despair. The Golem stood at a few metre distance. He scanned Prakash and approached him.
***
'What exactly happened?'
'He forgot to lock Floor Alpha'
'And you said he should go back?'
'Yes, sir'
'You did the right thing. We must protect our secrets and the Golem is the only way'
Sanju nodded pitiably. He glanced at the Prakash's corpse.
The officer authorised Prakash's removal and stamped his death by broken protocol.