Sunless days -part 2

Anita was not herself. She had become very quiet after that episode. She simply sat in one corner , remembering her fond memories with Pramod. The day she met him , she knew she was falling for him. His senseless childish laugh for all dumb things she spoke, his innocent eyes staring into hers, his false promises of being together with her was all gone in thin air. She felt as if someone had taken her only reason away from her.

Prashanth couldn’t see his baby sister’s aloofness. He missed her vibrant spirit. His son –Viaan had tried to pacify his dearest aunt. But nothing lightened her mood. “ Dad, When will Anitha be fine” Viaan asked him softly. He hugged his son telling him everything would be alright. He was tired of telling this false statement. Everything was never going to be alright…. Maybe it could if Irina’s cure worked.

“What harm would it do if I captured one of the diseased for her? Eye for an eye! They killed my dear friend. Now I will take one of theirs. ” he thought.  He made up his mind. He was going to get one of them. 

“ Where do you wish to do your experiment?” he asked , interrupting her from work. “Well! Somewhere safe! I don’t want people to get harmed due to this. Some place where the zombies won’t attack.” , she said. “ Ok I have a place! Basement! That’s safest place we have. “ , he said excitedly. “ Come with me, I need your help.” , he said in raspy voice.

He never took anyone out with him to his horrifying adventure. This was his first time. They were there within minutes. Now finding a subject was big job. It wasn’t that they were few of them or it wasn’t right time. “ Stay here!” he ordered her. He got out of his SUV and climbed the top of it. He stood for few minutes looking out for right candidate. 

The creepy creatures were haunting the place that was far away from them. He took out his binoculars. “Ah! This guy is perfect!” he said, looking at a young adolescent. He had to attract the boy’s attention and then final step was to capture him.

He walked towards the diseased adda. His only companions were his sharp senses and weapons. He took out the grenade and threw with force on them after activating it. The grenade blew creating huge sound , destroying half population of zombies. While many remained injured or dead, few of them started feeding on them.

He was near to his goal. His target stood like statue, doing nothing. He took out his precious weapon-a syringe. He shot him on the boy’s leg, making him vulnerable. He injected the syringe on the boy’s leg. It took it’s own time to make the boy unconscious.  He had to do it soon. He had to get the boy in car. But he could see others coming towards them. 

The world had become upside down for him. The zombie hunter and zombies now replaced their places. They were getting close to him, trying to get hold of his flesh. Fortunately he saw his SUV rushing towards him. He saw Irina driving over the zombies on the way. She took sharp U turn and hurriedly opened the door to him and said, “ Get in fast!”  He got into the car while dragging the body inside. They sped as fast as they could , trying to avoid any contact with the zombies. Few zombies had got on the top and tried to tear the top part of SUV. However, Irina drove haphazardly , shaking off the zombies on the top.

They reached the basement within few minutes. Prashanth took the unconscious body out and laid it on the rectangle dinner table. He tied the diseased boy’s hands and leg with a rope. He tapped his mouth with duct tape. “ Now , do whatever you want.”, he said huskily.

She stood without doing nothing.  She was perplexed by what Prashanth had done lately. She wanted to understand the reason for all his recent actions. She couldn’t believe that the same man had rejected her offer to kidnap the diseased to experiment the cure. What made him change his mind was question to her. She knew that it wasn’t his sister’s grief over dead lover or loss of a dear friend.

“ I want to ask you something. Why are you doing this? I mean you know what I am asking?” , she asked politely. “ You want to know the reason, right. How come I did all this when I was against your idea? (Sigh) I am tired of killing.. This will never end. Obviously they are going to outnumber us and that old guy Vinod , he was right about me. What will happen to these people if I die? I don’t believe in miracles that one day the sun will reappear from his hibernation.”, he said.

She was surprised to hear this from his mouth. Was this same guy who was against her experiment from the time she had arrived here? This mysterious man intimidated her senses as well made her more curious about him.

“ What are you thinking? Get back to your work, lady! We need to keep this fellow in safe place before his guardians hunt us down.”, he said in lighter tone. She smiled weakly and rushed back to her work.

She had inserted small tubing with medicine into the boy’s wrist. She attached electrodes of the ECG system on his skin to read his heart beats. She checked the readings in between the hours.

Days had passed. The boy was falling from bad to worse conditions. There were no sign of improvement in him. This depressed Irina. She had tried several mixtures of medicine. It didn’t work. She worried about the hanging life of the young boy.

Prashant wasn’t happy with his sister’s condition. Anita hadn’t eaten a single morsel of food since that day. She had been aloof and quite. He had tried to lighten her mood in every possible way. But this only increased the frustration within him and he de-toxicated them by killing few diseased ones. He knew that he couldn’t bring back Pramod. He wished that he could have. He blamed himself for their loss.  

“ Anu, I can’t see you like this. Speak something. Cry, if you want to cry! But don’t torture us with your silence.”, he begged. Anita looked at him like a statue. There was nothing inside her. Her soul died on the same day she lost Pramod. He stomped towards basement.

The bang of door startled Irina who was busy finding loopholes in the medicine. “ How far has your experimentation going? Has the boy responded to your cure?”, he asked.

Irina was too scared to reply. She looked down in embarrassment. “ I am asking you something, dammit! Is the cure successful” he continued, this time louder that his voice vibrated the building. “ I am sorry… I am working,…on it. It’s..complicated. I ..don’t know how to explain?” she shuddered.

He couldn’t take this any longer. “ You! Out of this place! Later I will take care of this damn boy!” he snapped at her. Her mouth was shut though she wanted to convince him. The words never came in her mouth.

She turned around to hide the tears. She knew this day was going to come. However she hoped it didn’t arrived. Suddenly she saw some movements in the boy’s hands and legs. She got closer to her patient. But she didn’t realize that the rope had become loose over the hands and legs of the boy. She shrieked as he got up. His mouth was close to her neck.

Before he could get her, he was shot dead more than thrice on his head by Prashanth. She was about to thank him. But he spoke in middle, “ We need to take care of this shit. Help me with this.”

They threw the body outside and closed the door soon while the body became prey to his old friends now nemesis.

“ I am sorry for being rude to you before. I was frustrated about Anita. She has been acting strange these days.” , he apologized as they walked upstairs. “ You don’t have to blame yourself. You were right about me before. The cure was going to fail.”, she murmured.

Ryan Scott was bored with the area he presently ruled. He wanted more. He wanted to control a larger part of it. He wanted to taste new blood and feed on flesh of new place. He had few troops but not so less that they could not fight humans.