Sunless days -part 3

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********

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.

Sunless day- part -1

He stood pointing the gun at the love of his life. He never thought he would ever do this even in his wildest dreams. But what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t believe his eyes. Was she the same woman he loved and promised to stay with her at wedding day? A disease had taken his wife’s life and changed her into ravaging creature- who knew nothing except feeding on humans. She had become lifeless creature with no feelings but hunger for his blood. 

He shot her head at point blank. He had no time to think. It was too quick. He had to do this in order to save his son, Viaan’s life. He knelt down next to her body where he cried badly. Viaan hid behind the bedroom door and peeped momentarily. As Viaan saw his dead mother’s feet moving, he called out his dad.

He didn’t take one moment and shot her many times until she was dead meat. It was his first kill.

                                                              ***********

(Five years later)

It was year 2025. Life in world had come to standstill. The sun had vanished in thin air. The big dark clouds covered the once upon time blue sky. A rare bacteria infected disease had wiped the whole mankind. The streets that were once filled with people were barren now.

There were only few people left who had taken shelter in their sealed homes. While diseased walked out like ravaging monster hungry for blood. But only one freely roamed in the forbidden street- Prashanth-the zombie hunter. He was devoid of emotions or feelings. He had become cold just like them after that dreadful incident. Only difference was that he was human and they were not.

He drew his car into the parking lot. He steered his vehicle away from the zombie. But it was too late before the car rammed into the body of zombie. He got out of his vehicle and took out his favorite weapon- M1911A1.

He dragged the amputated zombie and shot his thrice on the head. There was no sign of emotion in his eyes. They were cold.

The club was known for it’s wild parties during the bright days. Now it had become an safe abode for many people from diseased ones.  A new member had joined their receding number.  She was known as Dr. Irina Dobreva to the world. She resembled an action heroine of some horror movie than a scientist. Her eyes were innocent green that added to her beauty. Her blond hair was tied back into a pony tail.

She had spent quite few years on studying the disease that had almost killed the mankind. Her goal had become to find a cure to this …that had killed her love. At last she had found one. After so many trials on animals, she wanted to try the medication on human species. She had travelled all over the world to find a person who could help her achieve her dream. This was possible only if she could get hold of the fearless ‘Prashanth’.

“ Hi, Dr Irina. I am Anita, Prashanth’s assistant a.k.a  nanny a.k.a sister.” , a petite round faced girl said. She barely reached her shoulders. Nevertheless, the saying was right-big things came in small packets. Her size deceived her energy that came out of her when she spoke or did anything. “ You don’t look like  a scientist. You look more like Mila Jojovich of ‘Resident Evil’. So what brings you here.” , she continued.

“ Your brother.. I mean I have the cure and I need a diseased body to experiment my medicine. Your brother is only man who could help me with my experiment. And thanks for the compliment.”, she said.

Anita smiled and said, “ Oh cure! Many scientists like you have come and gone. They have pursued my brother. Nothing has changed his mind. He is an atheist of such cure and believes that only death is a cure to such disease. Anyway, you could try convincing him.”

“ She’s right. You can go back to your place, Miss Dobreva. I am not interested.” , Prashanth said in his cold deep voice. However Irina didn’t lose hope and pleaded, “ Prashanth, I have come a long way and worked hard to come up with a cure. Please let me experiment my cure on one of diseased. Who knows, it might work. But don’t let me down.”

Unfortunately nothing changed his mind. He simply smirked and said, “ There was a scientist like you named Ryan Scott. He came with all promises. But in the end he became like one and created many like him.”

Irina prepared herself for the disappointment. She was ready to leave the place. “ Hey hunter! We believe her. We are sure she can help us. What the use of fighting? One day or another, our resources may diminish or you may die. We cannot wait for that to happen.” , one of the refugee said and everyone else agreed on what he said.

It was a routine day for Pramod Nayyak –keeping garbage outdoor. He had been doing this job for past 7 years. He had become an expert to drop the garbage without being caught by blood sucking zombies. It was as usual dark. He held the torch in one hand and black garbage bag in other.

He kept the garbage down and as he turned behind, he saw the creepy pale faced man staring right into his eyes. The man looked like vegetable. He had no senses and  the only thing that he could feel was hunger for 

Pramod’s blood. Pramod froze. How could he not notice him while coming?  After all these years, how could his senses betray him? He wanted to run. But it was too late. He was surrounded by herd of them. He tried to scream loud. But no one could help him now. He could feel them tearing his body apart. His heart beat faster and then all of sudden it became slow and stop beating.

Everyone fed on his body. However their leader-Ryan Scott simply looked. Unlike other zombies, he only directed people towards the prey. He did hunt but it was always occasional. He was the head of them and feed on humans that interested him. His follower’s recent kill didn’t excite him. To him, his perfect feast was a human who would try to defeat him and lose.

                                                         ***************

There was no sign of Pramod. It had been hours since he had gone out. Anita desperately waited for him. She shoved the scary ideas that came in her mind. She knew that nothing would happen to her love. He had done this before and had been doing this for five years. But he was never late.” What took him so long?”, she wondered. She wanted to see for herself that everything was fine.

“Bhaiyya, Pramod has been gone for a long time. I guess we need to check on him.”, she said, trying to calm the trembling fear emitting from her heart. He thought for some time and said, “ Don’t worry, I will check on him. You stay here!” he said. However she didn’t listen, she followed him.

He opened the door to see amputated body lying on the ground. Anita ran out without caring for her brother’s reaction. She hoped it wasn’t Pramod’s body. Unfortunately her greatest fear became reality. She fell down on her knees to the ground. She sat still and cold. It wasn’t true. She was dreaming. It was a nightmare which would go after she blinked.

Prashanth rushed towards her. He held her in his arms and consoled her. “ It’s not safe, dear. Let’s go! He’s gone.”, he said softly. He could relate easily with her- Losing a loved one was not easy. He gently led her inside.