punishabel

[punishabel]

But we weren't the kind of friends to lose contact despite all that. Akash went to Delhi to continue his Higher Secondary, he hated it over there. All kinds of new people, mostly racist towards him, but in any kind of place you went to, there was bound to be that initial discrimination, soon he had made some good friends and was starting to have some slight fun although the barely bearable heat and the recent heatwaves had him crying tears of blood at night.

The bastard really missed me and Bishu, of course we grew up in the same neighborhood but only became friends way later in 6th grade.

Summer really hit him bad this time.

He tried to find at least one good thing that Delhi had going for itself, but sadly the poor guy could not come up with even one thing, it was simultaneously both saddening and hilarious.

Myself being in Guwahati, proudly reputed as being one of Northeast India's most boiling cities, I could relate to him. We would often call and ask which city had it worse in terms of temperature. Guwahati lost a few times but was off with just one 3 or 4 degrees.

He really really missed Shillong and his old house, our childhood base of operations.

Bishu on the other hand had it easy since he went to Bangalore, the Tech City situated in the southern peninsula. Weather there was much like Shillong, "Very very pleasant and welcoming" in his own words, miles off from Delhi, though he got sick and caught a fever as soon as he reached the place he was going to stay at. Must've been the variety of new microbes entering his body.

We all had summer break for approximately 2 months and in the deepest and most unused corners of Akash's brain, rose an idea. And before we knew it, we were standing infront of our most cherished meeting spot, Akash's infamous house. The pungent smell that defined his home, though nostalgic, always remained a mystery to me.

Even after four years, I still can't seem to forget his house.

Me and Akash were just chilling inside his house, lounging on the worn-out bamboo couches and reminiscing about our old days. The air was thick with laughter and inside jokes, echoing through the familiar rooms that held so many memories. Bishu brought out a dusty old board game from his house, it was Ludo, and soon we were engrossed in a heated competition, teasing and cussing at each other mercilessly with every move. The hours slipped away unnoticed as we caught up on each other's lives, sharing tales of triumphs and setbacks since graduation. It was a moment frozen in time, where worries faded and bonds grew stronger amidst the oddly comforting scent of Akash's dilapidated wooden floor.

But suddenly, ours phones started to vibrate at the exact same time, almost in harmony. The sudden notification sound and intense vibration startled all of us. There appeared to be texts from the NDCAI

The messages read "Citizens are strictly prohibited from going outdoors and if you're outside head home immediately. this text is for your safety. Stay inside your houses and do not let any suspicious or strange individuals inside your houses.

National Disease Control Authority of India"

They were texts from the government. Normally messages that came from the government bodies were very detailed

with precise instructions but this text sounded very abrupt and seemed to be very much written in a hurry.

We get curious and turn on the news and we were blasted with reports of people panicking and screaming and right then...... a cameraman pointed to a scene where maddened people were eating and attacking others, it was a scene of blood and carnage everywhere and for some reason the channel operators didn't censor all the gore happening on the streets.

It was the doing of a zombie virus that was plaguing the streets of lower Shillong, it was called the Avita virus and there were more than 5800+ cases of infection, in one single day. It was insane.

Every major country had been the victim of Avita, there were infections everywhere. Scientists were also baffled as the RNA structure of this virus was impossibly unpredictable, they couldn't get a hold of Avita.

The three of us get dazed from watching the carnage unfold, I instantly reach for my phone to call my parents, but as I dialled the call, I was hit by a robotic voice saying communications are down for the network service provider.

It was to be expected, I couldn't imagine the number of people trying to call their loved ones to make sure they're okay.

I looked over Akash and Bishu and they had the same problem. It was incredibly frustrating, I wanted to know how my parents were doing and above all if they were safe.

All the screaming and panic from the news was starting to disconnect me from reality before Bishu turned it off.

I could see visible panic and uncertainty from Akash and Bishu, it was to be expected as they too must have wanted to know about the safety of their parents and siblings.

"Man we gotta figure something out guys" I said.

"No way this shit is real. A zombie virus seriously? What is the army doing?" Said Bishu.

He was visibly confused. He had every right though, seeing a zombie apocalypse unfold in front of our eyes was as unreal as the word unreal could define it.

"All our parents live in scarcely populated rural areas so they should be relatively safe." I said to reassure them.

Akash sighed.

"I guess you're right, my property in Manipur has very few people near us, but you know, still worried about my family man." said Akash.

I understood it all too well because that was case with me too.

Akash was trying to take it calmly but I could see a trickle of sweat on his forehead. Worry and panic are contagious things much like a virus.

"Fuck it man, we will survive. We ain't dying no dogs death. These undead fuckers can come to all they want, we'll send them back to hell as many times as they want. And don't you fuckers dare die on me now, I need y'all to think of yourselves as gods if you have to but make absolutely no fucking mistakes, make every decision with everyone's survival in mind. YOU WILL FUCKING SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN THIS WORLD!" I exclaimed.

I don't know where that speech came from, but at that moment I felt it, no we felt it together, something awakened in the three of us, a change that we all furiously wanted, but it had to be suppressed because of the peaceful good times.

This was what we always wanted, an apocalypse. A test of our wits and will, a challenge to push ourselves to the extremes of any moral, physical or psychological dilemmas. We dreamt of surviving an apocalypse. We will survive. We will protect each other until death, even after death.

"Guys now who wants to live and kick zombie ass?!" I cheered.

"We do!²"

They both forgot about their worries and cheered back

"Then now lets check what we have in stock in the house, check for any food and some weapons too, wait I saw a sack of potatoes Akash, how old are they?" I inquired while trying to distract myself from my thoughts.

"We just bought that sack 4 days ago, my parents wanted to take it along to Manipur but it was too much of a hassle" answered Akash.

The moment Bishu heard the word weapon he had a silly grin on his face. He was always into weapons, any kind, melee weapons such as aluminium bats, kukris, traditional swords from Meitei culture, he even crafted ranged weapons such as slingshots, bows and arrows. He was an incredibly crafty guy.

The houses of Akash and bishu were connected to each other, Akash's house being directly above Bishu's house. Though my house about 30 steps away. Very near.

There were a few knives in Akash's house but not the kind we could defend ourselves with but thankfully he had a few small shovels in his storage room. There were lots of useful things stored in the room, things like tarps, many buckets, hammers, axes, wood and planks and more.

"Aye Bishu, what happened to all those weapons you collected?" I asked.

"Shit man, I sent them all to Manipur, who'd know there would be a damned zombie apocalypse waiting for us man." He answered with remorse.

"Ah man, its alright, you still know how to make them right?" i said

"Yep its all in my brain. I can craft them again if i get the materials."

" We'll be counting on you for that then."

He flashes a confident smile.

I had two Kukris in my house as well as tons of firewood, I also had a 500 litre tank of water filled to half, for now we didn't have any worries for food, water or shelter.

While we were planning and looking at our inventory, there was a loud scream outside, probably of a middle aged woman, we ran to the front door and before we could pull the curtains to see what was happening, there was blood being splattered everywhere on the front porch and there it was, our first encounter with The Mad a.k.a. the zombies.

These 2 infected "people" if we could call them that were tearing this old lady's legs apart.

Akash was about to bolt outside because that woman was his neighbour who lived just beside him.

He was a brave guy, and I always admired that courage of his to shoot towards any kind of problem without a care for himself, a Hero if we could call him.

But just before his hand could reach for the doorknob, I stopped him. He gave me a questioning look, it was to be expected. I pointed to the woman's legs, Akash after catching a glimpse of the woman's legs was horrified. Her legs were practically none-existent from the Mad feeding on them, we could see her femur poking out of her right thigh. Akash appeared to be deeply saddened probably because he grew up seeing that woman as an older sister.

It was regrettable but any hope of her living was gone.

Akash composed himself and said "Although we cant save her life anymore, we can grant her life a peaceful end."

His determination exorcised any hesitation Bishu and I had. A brave lad he was and we had to honour his decision.

He opened the front door and ran towards the half alive woman.

we followed in suit to protect his back.

Akash was strong guy. He never boasted his strength and was always humble. He could give his literal all to have his people's back.

And with one swing of that blunt decade old shovel, he severed the head of the first zombie who appeared to be a middle aged man. His hands were trembling because even though whatever he put an end to could hardly be called a human anymore, whoever that zombie was, it still used to be someone's father and husband.

After finishing off the zombie, his eyes met the old woman's eyes. Her retinas were starting to dilate.

While he was staring at the motionless woman, the other zombie lunged at him, but was repelled by a straight kick from Bishu. The zombie appeared to be of the same age as the other zombie and made a strangely human shriek as it crashed onto the asphalt.

"YOU BRAINLESS FUCKER! What the hell are you just standing there for?" said an enraged Bishu.

"Give him some slack man." I said to Bishu as i finished off the fallen zombie.

"...akash.." muttered the old woman, she was barely holding onto consciousness.

His lips quivered.

The old woman didn't have any children, her husband too died in a housefire. She saw Akash as her own son and he saw her as another mother figure.

"....aunty why did you go outside?..." said Akash, while tears started to well up in the corners of his eyes.

"...Beverly..called in a hurry saying that her husband was acting.....very strange." said the woman as her voice got increasingly softer and quiet.

Mustering the last bit of her strength, the old woman moaned

"...than..k.....you kids." before her body went limp.

It was a grieve-stricken goodbye.

"God fucking damnit." sweared Bishu at the absurdity of this forsaken world.

Akash bit his lower lip as he looked away from the old woman.

I embraced him, not knowing what to say in a situation as dire as this.

"Let's bury her in a nice and quiet place, okay?" I told him.

"Yeah okay." he replied.

As Akash went inside, me and Bishu investigated the zombies for anything that could come in handy. The male zombie had a phone, a pack of Marlboro cigs, and 150rs.

The female zombie didn't have anything useful on her except for tattered rags.

We didn't notice it before but there was a thin trail of blood reaching from, the old woman's body to the what would be the old pair's house.

I made a mental note to go check it out later. For now we needed to head back inside but as we were heading back, I saw movement in my peripheral vision.

In the blink of a eye the old woman's body began showing erratic movement similar to a person experiencing a seizure. We were mortified, seeing a phenomenon like the dead coming back to life was so absurd to comprehend, yet, there she was, rising to what seemed to be an imitation of life.

I don't know how it was possible, she appeared to have died from blood loss, how could a body devoid of blood even move?

No use applying common sense to this situation.

Her body was moving in ways not quite human. In fact, I don't know in what way any part of her could be considered human.

I sure was glad Akash wasn't here to witness her try walking with just half a leg. In a flash, "it" realized how it's moving was inefficient, and quickly adapted to use both her hands as well.

This virus was adapting at an alarming rate.

Before we could see her become more and more inhumane, we put an end to an end to her now miserable life. It was getting late so we decided to head back home and check how Akash was doing. As we entered through the front door, we saw Akash peeling some potatoes and onions. We