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.