The Puzzle of Death Rain

He heard, the announcement being made, was in his language.

“The passengers are requested to move about 200 kms away from this place within TEN minutes, as acid-rain will occur within this range after that duration. It will thaw everyone.”

The announcement made him go mad. It was impossible to move about 200 kms in ten minutes.

There was no cover over the station and the trolley. So nothing could save him from the rain. Then an idea struck him mind and he got up on the trolley. It suddenly began running speedily on the track.

He found two indicators. The first told about the speed while the other depicted time. Reading stated 100 kms per minute. He sighed deeply. With this speed, he will cross 200 kms within two minutes. He happily started humming. But his ape-form allowed him to just screech. So, he stopped humming. He observed the indicator.

After one minute, the trolley jerked. He observed that the speed reduced to 50 kms per minute.

“Never mind. If not two minutes, the trolley will surely cross 200 kms within three minutes. Seven minutes will still be remaining.” He tried to console his heart. He lifted his face and looked at the sky, where weird clouds were hovering. Those clouds were as red as blood.

After another minute, the trolley jerked again. Now, the indicator displayed speed of only 25 kms per minute. He realized that the speed decreased to half after passing every minute.

Though he had always been a loser in terms of math, he tried to calculate the actual time it will take to cover the desired distance as he was in a big trouble. The results blew his mind. In this way, he realised that he will not be able to cross 200 kms even after travelling for infinite time.

...Excerpt from the e-book “Elusive Numbers”

It is available Free for next 5 days (24 Jan to 28 Jan 2015) at the following link :

http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00M3UCF3K