Zombiestan (7 page)

It was a young man, perhaps not much older than Mayukh himself. Except that he was now one of
them
. He launched himself at Mayukh's car, his fingers smashing into the windshield, creating a spider web of cracks inches from Mayukh's face. He then began clawing at the glass, trying to get through.

'Drive!'

Mayukh hardly needed the encouragement from his mother. In blind panic, he floored the gas and their Honda City sped forward, carrying their unwelcome passenger with it. With his view blocked by the man hanging onto the windshield, Mayukh had now way of knowing what lay ahead, but he hoped that as he picked up speed, the man would be thrown off his hood.

Hina's door was now wide open, and she saw several figures crowding the doorway. It was pitch black outside, the streetlights having all gone off some minutes ago. Her lights were still on, driven by an old diesel generator, and seeing the shadows entering her house, she knew that her time was up. She closed her eyes, and began praying when she heard an ear-splitting crash.

She tentatively opened an eye and saw a sight that she had never imagined. A car had come to a halt just outside her house, and had plowed through the creatures trying to get to her. Some of them were lying scattered out on the street, and one seemed to be trapped under the car. The back door of the car had been flung upon in the crash, and the driver was revving the engine, trying to get away. Without thinking too much, other than the fact that she was finished if she stayed in her home, Hina ran as fast as she could toward the car and dove in through the open back door.

Mayukh had just started the car and was about to get away from the carnage when he sensed someone enter the car behind him. He spun around, his gun in hand, only to see a thin, old lady. He had no idea who she was, but she was not one of
them
. Relieved, he stepped on the gas and the car sped ahead. They drove in silence for some minutes, each of them still too shocked by what they had endured in the last few hours. Finally, Hina took the initiative and introduced herself.

'I'm Hina Rahman. I am, well I guess I was now, a Professor.'

Mayukh just nodded at her and told her his name. His mother said nothing. Mayukh looked at his mother, to see what shape she was in. She was continuing to try and call his father on her mobile, but all the networks seemed to be down. Her hands shaking, she finally threw the phone hard against the floor and began sobbing.

Hina reached out and held her shoulder, and this simple act of kindness seemed to make his mother further collapse into loud sobs. Mayukh's mind was blank. At one level, he was more terrified than he had ever been, but at another level, he still had hope. Hope that this was somehow all a bad dream he would wake up from, hope that there surely was some government in control somewhere. The world as we knew it couldn't all just end, could it? He looked at his mother.

'Mom, we just need to get to the stadium. The Army will be there. Whatever this infection is, they will contain it and get a cure. All we need to do is get to the stadium and we'll be okay.'

His mother seemed to take some heart at his words and they drove on in silence, their car's headlights providing the only illumination in the dark streets around them.

David had taken a bike he had found abandoned on the roadside and rode it, hoping that the US Embassy could offer some sanctuary. Given the chaos all around him, there was no way to be sure of that, but it was not as if he had any better options. After ten minutes of riding, he realized that it would be suicidal to continue riding in the darkness.
They
owned the night, and all around him, he could see groups of the infected gather, and while he could outrun them, with none of the streetlights on, it was but a matter of time before he stumbled into one of them.

He stopped his bike near what appeared to be a cluster of shops. With his small flashlight, he saw a broken sign saying 'Khan Market'. Not seeing anyone around David figured his best bet was to hunker down for the night, and then proceed in daytime. That was unless the creatures were now active in the day as well. He walked around the shops cautiously, using the night scope on his M4 to watch for any sign of trouble. The market seemed totally abandoned. After a few minutes of walking, he came upon, of all things, a McDonalds. He realized his stomach was growling with hunger, and the prospect of eating something other than MREs made up his mind for him. He kicked in the door and went in, sweeping the room in front of him with his rifle. There was nobody there, but it looked like the staff had left in a hurry, as food littered the kitchen.

David barricaded the door with tables and then went upstairs, where he finally took a breather after a day where he had spent every single minute trying to stay alive. He bit into a burger, and looked out the window. He was done with running for now. He would spend the night here, but there was going to be precious little rest. He couldn't afford to let his guard down, so he ate a couple of burgers, drank some Coke and then unslung his backpack. He set his rifle against a window that offered the best view of the road outside. He knew that he would have to conserve the batteries for his night vision scopes, so he turned the scope on his M4 off, planning to turn it on only if he really needed to. He saw a group of the infected, perhaps twenty strong, walk on the main road, some five hundred metres away, before they ran into one of the housing complexes nearby. He heard screams coming from the darkened houses, and he tried to block them out. He spent the next few minutes just staring out the window, hoping that none of the mobs came towards him. As much as he tried, fatigue and stress got the better of him, and he fell into an uneasy slumber.

Mayukh had never seen the city so dark before. All the streetlights were off, and none of the houses or shops lining the road had their lights on. Even if some of them had generators, Mayukh guessed the occupants were trying not to draw attention to themselves by keeping all the lights off. That was the dilemma in which he found himself. Without his headlights on, he could barely see what was on the road ahead of him, yet he knew that his headlights would be a magnet for any of the marauding bands of the infected now rampaging through the city. He didn't even know what he should call them. Were they zombies? He shook off the thought, reasoning that giving them a name would only make this nightmare more real. His mother had dozed off, the stress proving too much for her, and the Professor in the back seat had also not spoken for many minutes, realizing that she was better off letting Mayukh concentrate on driving in the darkness.

After a few minutes, Mayukh saw a faint glow over the horizon. As he came closer, he realized that the light was coming from the giant floodlights installed at the stadium. If the lights at the stadium were still on, it could mean only one thing- that someone was still in control there.

'Mom, look there!'

As his mother also looked at the looming lights, Mayukh threw caution to the winds, turned on the car's headlights and accelerated. This close to safety, he was confident he could outrun any mobs trying to pursue them on foot. Within seconds they were at the stadium, which resembled a war zone. Bunkers dotted the perimeter, with gun barrels sticking out of several of them. A few meters ahead of them, Mayukh saw some men in Army uniforms. They saw a sign in the middle of the road.

'Get out of the car and proceed on foot. You are safe here.'

They could drive no further since the road was blocked with barbed wire, and they got out of the car, looking anxiously around them for any attackers. Not seeing anyone, they broke into a run towards the soldiers.

Hina was the first to notice something was wrong. In a situation like this, surely the soldiers would be carrying guns? She was about to shout out a warning, when shadows leapt out of the bunkers to their right. Mayukh was now just feet from the nearest soldier when he came to a screeching halt. The man who had turned to face him was wearing an Army uniform all right, but his skin was the now all-too familiar yellow, and he shook a bloodied finger at Mayukh.

Mayukh's mother was just behind him and as the man leapt at him, she pushed Mayukh out of the way, going down with the man on top of her. Mayukh rolled on the ground and came up, finding that more of the creatures were now converging on the prone figure of his mother. He realized that he had forgotten his gun in the car, and started to move towards his mother, wondering how he could help her. She looked at him and shouted only once.

'Please run! Run! Hina, take him!'

More of the creatures now jumped on his mother, as he felt Hina's arms pulling him.

'No, let got of me! Let me go!'

Hina slapped him hard, and he faced her, shocked.

'Son, she gave her life so you could live. Don't let her sacrifice be for nothing. Let's go!'

She half pulled, half dragged Mayukh to the car, and realizing he was in no state to drive, got into the driver's seat and backed the car out of the approach road, driving away as fast as she could.

Mayukh sat next to her, his head between his legs, crying and screaming as if in absolute agony.

***

FOUR

David saw Rose, dressed in one of those flowery dresses that she seemed to like so much.

'Baby, you must be so tired. Let me make it better.'

She was kneeling over him, holding his hands in her own. He reached out to caress her hair, and then he saw that her hair had come out in clumps in his hand. He looked up to see her face. It wasn't his Rose anymore. The impish smile and blue eyes had been replaced by a feral grin, white sockets where her eyes should have been and yellowed skin.

'Baby, come to me', the creature who had been Rose crooned again.

David woke up, covered in sweat and shaking. He took a minute to calm down and remind himself where he was. As much as he tried to reassure himself that Rose was okay, his mind kept replaying the nightmare he had just seen. Suddenly he heard the sound of a car approaching. He looked at his watch- it was now almost one in the morning and only someone very stupid or very desperate would be out at this time with the hordes of infected all around. For a split second he considered whether
they
might have learned to drive a car, and then dismissed the thought. He put his eye to the scope of his assault rifle and turned the night vision optics on. About a kilometer away, plainly visible in the greenish glow of the night-vision, he saw a car driving slowly down the road. It had its headlights off, which perhaps explained the driver's caution.

David involuntarily shrunk back as he saw four figures leap out from the side of the road and jump onto the car. One was on the hood, two on the right side and one on the left. The car swerved from left to right, either in an attempt to shake off the attackers, or because the driver had given into absolute panic. Out of instinct more than anything else, David tracked in on one of the attackers clinging to the car with his M4 rifle. With the car moving erratically, it was far from an easy shot, and he certainly could not guarantee a head shot, but he knew he would not miss. Then he stopped himself. What was he thinking? This was not his fight. All he wanted to do was to wait the night out in his hiding place and then get to the Embassy in the morning. Just then the car braked hard and the man clinging onto the hood was thrown hard to the ground. The car accelerated, running over his prone body and continuing down the road. Another form clinging to the left door, the billowing embroidered saree looking incongruous on the mindless killer's body, was thrown off. That left one attacker hanging onto either side of the car.

David watched through his scope as the car came closer, now no more than fifty meters away. The driver had done well so far, and something in him thought it would be a terrible waste of a brave person if the attackers got to whoever was inside. He caught a glimpse of the driver now. It was a woman, and she had a young man next to her. Perhaps a mother and son.

To serve and protect
.

He had sworn to defend the innocent, and now all his training took over any thought of self-preservation. Whether it was his fight or not, he could not sit back and watch the family be slaughtered. He already knew that the infected brutally killed those who resisted, and before he had even consciously decided to join the fight, his finger pressed lightly on the trigger.

Hina was now screaming at the top of her lungs. All the bravery or desperation that had kept her going till now had dissipated. Seeing the two yellow, decayed faces with their deformed teeth and features glaring at her from each side, she felt that her time was over. Mayukh was still in shock, and had not even recovered enough control over his senses to try and use the gun that was lying uselessly by his side. Hina hadn't even bothered to reach for it. She had never held a gun in her hands, and didn't think she would do anything to increase their chances of survival by trying to use one for the first time when under attack by these fiends.

She realized she was running out of road and turned to face the attacker on her right. He had lost his turban in the chase, and his head was half bald, patches of yellow scalp showing. He looked no more than fifteen. A boy, who had perhaps been playing games with his friends a day earlier. What a waste of a life. What a waste of all the lives. Before she could think any further, the boy fell off the car as if an invisible flyswatter had swatted him away. She looked behind to see him sitting up, and then another hammer blow knocked him flat. When she turned to her left, the same fate had befallen the attacker there. She had been so transfixed by the sight that she noticed too late that she was about to crash into the parked cars just ahead.