TV was back on-if a handful of news channels and a few entertainment channels showing reruns of old shows counted, electricity was restored in several places, and they could have just hunkered down for a comfortable life at the base. But after all they had been through, they wanted to do more. So Swati began teaching kids at the small school they established at the base, where Abhi soon made lots of new friends.
Being one of the few to have gotten so close to the Biters and lived to tell the tale, Mayukh began to help in briefing new recruits and also passing on survival tips to human communities everywhere. There were hundreds of millions spread around the world, living in cities where the Biters came out at night, or hiding in isolated farmlands, too scared to come out. Mayukh used the radio on the base to pass on tips and talk to them, and his story gave them all hope and his knowledge helped them survive till human forces got to them.
But of all of them, the one who helped the most was Abhi. The doctors had already cloned vaccines from his blood samples, and these had been tested already, showing that any human injected with it was resistant to being converted on being bitten. Old drug factories were quickly reclaimed by Special Forces and the vaccine was being churned out in the millions, to be distributed to human survivors everywhere. If they could get the vaccine to every human out there, one thing was certain. No more Biters would be created.
It was perhaps only appropriate that the solution to the madness and destruction the world had inflicted upon itself lay in the blood of an innocent child.
They walked out of the chapel hand in hand, to applause from everyone present. Swati left with Abhi for school and Mayukh joined his duties in the radio room, when one of the operators called him over.
'Mayukh, there's someone on the radio who wants to talk to you.'
Mayukh put on the headset and was electrified at the voice he heard.
'Congratulations, kid. Sorry I couldn't be there in person.'
Mayukh sputtered out in astonishment.
'David! God, where are you? What happened to you?'
'Long story. I woke up in a farmer's hut, half dead and more than half frozen. Took them two weeks to get me coherent enough to tell them who I was. But my buddies didn't leave me. Of all the people I could have imagined meeting, once my story was out, I was picked up two SEALs who took me to the base in Ladakh. By then, you were in Alaska and I thought I'd get home before I checked on you.'
'Did you find Rose?'
There was a brief silence on the other end.
'Kid, I found her. I buried her behind our old home.'
'Oh God, I'm so sorry, David.'
He could hear David sigh at the other end.
'No, Mayukh. It's better than never knowing. I buried her and then rejoined my unit. Hey, I gotta go now. I promise to come and visit you guys.'
'Where are you going?'
'The only place a SEAL can be at a time like this?'
David paused for a second before finishing.
'I'll be out hunting in Zombiestan.'
***