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.
Ryan led his army to city that was kind of still a home to
few humans…place that zombie hunter protected his clan.
Rudrappa had been watching out for danger from the makeshift
tower for past 6 years. Not once he had failed his duty. But today his eyes
felt droopy and couldn’t stay a bit longer. This was an advantage to the zombie
clan. They headed into the so called protected area without being alerted.
Rudra was awaken by noisy bunch of zombie. Before he could
alert Prashant, he became meal to them. His flesh was torn into pieces. His office
was messed up with his blood and flesh here and there. The room was stinking of
blood.
Prashant got a strange feeling when he tried to call Rudra.
He would always call him around this time to tell him about any impending
danger or any other update. There was no call. After sometime, the dial tone
stopped coming. “Where is this guy?
Hope he’s not in trouble?”, he thought.
He grabbed his keys and sped his car towards the tower. He
saw something startling when he was close to the tower. Zombies! They had started infesting the town. The same
town.. that he thought would be safe abode to human refugees. He had no time.
He had to take rest of survivors out of the town. But how?? He didn’t have the answer for that.
Anita had secretly ventured out. She was tired of living an
empty life. Pramod was not there. Her dreams were not there. From whom was she
living her life for? Her brother was busy focusing his negative energy in
killing zombies. The only person worth living for was her nephew who has lately
been missing his mother.
She didn’t realize how far she had come. She was in
graveyard, sitting on the tombstone. She didn’t notice the zombies coming
towards her. They looked hungry for her blood and flesh. Suddenly her thoughts
were disturbed by the gunshots fired at the zombies by Irina. “ Run! Anita
Run!” she called out. Anita was lost in the action. She didn’t know what to
do.. where to go. She stood where she was.
Irina waved her hands at Anita to guide her to run. But
Anita didn’t pay attention to that. She fought bravely against the zombies as
she moved past them. She grabbed her hand when she was closer to Anita. They
ran as fast as they could. They hid themselves near safe enclosure. They tried
to control their panting. “ Where did you find me?”, Anita asked. “ I followed
you. As soon as I saw you walking outside, I knew you would be in trouble.”,
Irina smiled.
Irina’s words reminded Anita of her late sister in law. She
did care about her like that when she was a rebellious adolescent. She
remembered the times when she would secretly get into trouble and how her
sister in law helped her out in worst situations.
Prashanth stood confused counting people in the club again.
Someone was missing from the lot. He checked closely. Everyone was there
except… except his sister and Irina. Shit! Where were they? His eyes travelled
back the room. He didn’t find them. He searched them everywhere. He prayed that
they were not outside.
No one had clue where they were. Worst possibility was
turning into nightmare. He thought for some time before opening the door to the
torturous surrounding.
“ I think it’s better to leave now. They must have lost the
track of us.” Irina whispered. Anita agreed. They cautiously moved from their
safe haven and looked for any impending dangers.
Prashanth searched them every corner of the street. They
weren’t there. Where were they? He lost patience and felt fear in form of
tiredness aching every part of his body. He bent himself to revive his energy
back.
In other corner of the town, Irina and Anita searched for
the way they could connect to their own. They were nearing to the club, they
saw a shadow of human standing close to the entrance. This bought euphoric
feeling to the girls. As they came
closer to the shadow, they encountered their darkest fear- the leader of
diseased-Ryan Scott.
“ How did Ryan come here? Where the people safe inside?
Where was Prashant?”, they wondered. Ryan limped as he walked slowly towards
them. His hands were stretched. His sight was poor and blurry. However his
scent was strong. He could smell their presence within a few distances away
from him.
Everything happened so fast. The girls didn’t realize when
Ryan had captured Anita. He grabbed hold of her by her neck. He was about to
take a bite of her. Anita was shell shocked. Her body was numb except the hot
tears rushed out of her eyes. She felt like a vulnerable deer under the
clutches of the prying tiger. Irina tried to catch the attention of hungry
zombie. But nothing attracted his attention. He was only bothered about his
prey.
Suddenly a gunshot distracted Ryan. There was another shot
which hit him on his right hand. He moaned loudly in pain. He released Anita
due to unbearable pain. Irina looked behind to see who shot Ryan. It was
Prashant. He was heading toward Ryan. He punched hard on Ryan’s face , almost
breaking his nose. As Ryan lay on the ground, Prashant kicked him. He then
grabbed Ryan by the collar and punched him on his stomach. Ryan was bleeding.
But Ryan didn’t feel less powerful. He gathered all his strength and pushed
Prashant aside. Later Ryan bit his opponent’s left arm. Prashant screamed in
pain. The pain was tantalizing every
part of Prashant’s body. The virus was quickly spreading in his body. He slowly
fell on the ground. As Ryan was about to take the final bite, Irina stopped
him. “ Don’t kill him. Please I beg you. You don’t want to do that. I…have the
cure. Everyone of your clan could be cured… Please! Please, don’t kill him.”
,she cried.
“ Cure! You have cure.. You think it will cure us….”, Ryan
said in his thick zombie accent. It was surprising that Ryan could speak few
words of human language. Irina nodded and said, “ Yes… I have tested on
animals…” “ Ani..mals! Not hu..man.. ow
can you be sure?, he asked, his voice sounding more of growl.
“ Yes it does work on humans. But you need to believe me.
Please, let me show.”, Irina begged. Ryan thought hard and then released
Prashant from his clutches. “ F..ine..You ..do .. this … “, he said still not
convinced.
“ Ok, I will use my cure on you first. If it doesn’t work,
you can have the whole town. But if it works, you have to help me cure the
others like you.”, she said. Ryan agreed. She tested the cure on both Ryan and
Prashant. She worked hard and prayed
harder for the cure to work. Few days was disastrous. Prashant was turning into
a monster like Ryan. But miracles did happen. They were recovering, not fast, but slowly.
***********
The sun was still not out. The days were still cold. But
hope had started to awaken. The cure was discovered. Irina’s first batch of
patient- Prashant and Ryan had recovered from the disease. Now people from
different wakes of life came to get cured. The disease was slowly getting
eradicated. Life had started glowing beneath the death.
****** The end********
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