Zombiestan (10 page)

Mayukh's hands were shaking, but he tried to keep his voice steady.

'Look, I don't want to hurt you. Just leave her alone and go.'

The larger of the two men took a step towards him, flipping out a switchblade.

'Kid, you've never killed anyone, and I have killed many men, some in prison. Get lost before I kill you and then rape her.'

David was crouched behind the perimeter wall, and while he couldn't clearly hear what was being said, the actions of the men were clear enough. He had his rifle raised to his shoulder, his finger on the trigger. All it would take would be a little bit of pressure and the man closest to Mayukh would die. As he watched, the man advanced on Mayukh, raising his knife as if to bring it down. He tensed, ready to fire, when he heard a gunshot. The man collapsed to the ground, holding his leg and screaming in pain. David saw the smoking gun in Mayukh's hand as he walked over to the man and kicked the knife away.

'I don't want to kill you, but if I shoot you in the other leg as well, you won't even be able to run or hide when
they
come out.'

The man kept howling, holding his bloody left leg as Mayukh turned to his friend, who had now dropped all his bravado and had his hands up.

'Take your friend and get out of here.'

Mayukh kept his gun raised as the man took his bleeding friend and the two of them struggled to cross the road. When they were on the other side, he motioned to the girl to follow him. When she hesitated, he just pointed to the Sun.

'We don't have time for formal invitations. Come on.'

He walked back towards the bookstore, followed by the girl and the toddler holding her hand. When Mayukh passed David, he saw the soldier standing there with a bemused smile on his face.

'I never figured you'd go Rambo on us.'

David was surprised when Mayukh turned to look at him. The weak, traumatized child was gone. His eyes were steady and confident, almost challenging David to mock him.

'You said we need to watch out for each other. That's what I intend to do.'

David followed him back inside, gripped with a feeling he had experienced many times before. A feeling of mixed emotions when he saw another sensitive, caring young man turn into someone who could take a life.

By the time they entered the bookstore, the Sun had set, and David took position outside, watching for trouble through the greenish hues of his night vision optics. Hina immediately went about tending to the girl's wounds, and was relieved to find that it was but a small cut.

Mayukh was sitting in a corner, still shaking a bit from the adrenaline rush of what had just happened, when the little boy walked up to him. Mayukh got his first good look at the boy, curly hair framing his chubby face and his eager, bright eyes. He was wearing a crumpled Mickey Mouse t-shirt and khaki shorts.

'Are you Batman?'

Mayukh didn't know how to respond to such a question so he just said he wasn't Batman. The boy smiled, showing prominent dimples.

'Good. I don't like Batman. I think you're Pete.'

Mayukh didn't know what the boy was talking about but smiled back, and was shocked when the boy sat down next to him and leaned against him, placing his head on Mayukh's shoulder. Mayukh had never been around kids, and he had no idea of what to do or say, so he asked the boy if he wanted something to eat. The boy's eyes lit up.

'Ice cream.'

Mayukh had no idea what to say, so he said he had no ice cream. To his horror, the boy's lip quivered, and he seemed to be on the verge of tears. He was grateful when the girl came up and sat down next to them, speaking to the boy in a soft, cooing voice.

'Abhi, we don't have ice cream now. We'll have some tomorrow. Ok?'

The boy seemed to be fine with that and then took out a small red toy car from his pocket and got busy playing with it. The girl turned to face Mayukh.

'Thanks for helping us.'

Mayukh just nodded and the girl continued.

'Abhi is my kid brother. He'll turn three in a month, and when he calls anyone Pete it's the ultimate compliment.'

Mayukh had no idea what she was talking about, so she smiled.

'I gather you don't have a kid brother or sister. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, the big guy Pete? Abhi loves him because he's the biggest and strongest of them all. As for my promise of ice cream, anything in the future for him is tomorrow and anything that has happened in the past happened yesterday.'

Abhi smiled a cherubic smile at Mayukh, as if sharing a big secret.

'I will have Ice Cream tomorrow.'

Mayukh held out his hand towards the girl.

'I'm sorry. I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Mayukh.'

'Hi Mayukh. I'm Swati.'

Then her smile was replaced by a sudden look of vulnerability and she seemed to shake before she regained her composure.

'Who would have thought...'

She never completed her sentence before she stifled a sob. Mayukh tentatively held out a hand to hold her shoulder, as she continued.

'Our parents were taken the first night. We hid in the closet and since then I've been trying to keep Abhi safe. Thanks for helping out, but I would have died before those goons got their way with me.'

Mayukh took a closer look at her face in the fading light that was still coming in from the open front door. Her black hair was tied behind her head in a ponytail, and if they had been in the same school, Mayukh could imagine she would have been the object of every boy's affection, with her sharp features and slim body. But her eyes were glowing, even defiant and for a moment, Mayukh felt ashamed of the weakness he had shown over the last day. Unarmed and alone, this girl had maintained her courage and composure, while he had broken down. He shrunk back against the wall, suddenly very ashamed of himself. Swati caught him staring at her and saw his expression. Somehow she seemed to be reading his mind.

'Mayukh, whatever happened before we met, we wouldn't be alive if you hadn't helped us. So if Abhi thinks you're Pete, he's right. You're his hero.'

As she got up to walk towards Hina, she turned towards Mayukh and added softly.

'And mine.'

***

They had a dinner of some cookies and canned fruit in near total darkness. Abhi had decided that Mayukh was his idol and wouldn't leave his side, even insisting that he feed him at night. He kept up an incessant chatter about Disney characters, cars he liked, the fact that he loved chocolate chip cookies and so on. Mayukh was clueless about most of what Abhi seemed to be blabbering on about, but it didn't seem to matter.

'See McQueen, he goes so fast!', Abhi exclaimed as he raced his toy car over Mayukh's leg.

Hina looked at Mayukh, smiling.

'You seem to have got your own little fan there.'

Mayukh could only grin back. He had never been around kids much, but now seeing the curly haired bundle of energy next to him, he felt fiercely protective, and he began to realize just what might have made his mother sacrifice herself to save him. He reached over, tousling Abhi's hair.

'Don't you need to sleep now?'

Abhi looked up at him with big, innocent eyes.

'Give me a fresh diaper and milk.'

Totally out of his depth now, Mayukh looked towards Swati for help. She came over, grinning from ear to ear.

'He normally doesn't take to strangers this easily. You must have made quite an impression. Come on, Abhi, no fresh diaper today. Let's go to sleep now.'

Abhi burst into tears, bawling at the top of his voice. Swati tried to hush him and looked at Mayukh and Hina apologetically.

'I'm sorry, but he's used to sleeping in a fresh diaper. He's not potty trained yet, and he always has milk before bedtime.'

A mother of two grown children, Hina immediately went to the bathroom to see if she could rustle up something, and then came back with some toilet paper.

'This is all we have. And no milk of course.'

Swati tried comforting Abhi, but the boy kept crying, and she looked at Mayukh, an almost apologetic expression in her eyes. David came inside, whispering to Mayukh.

'We need to calm him down.
They
hear that crying, and we're in big trouble.'

Mayukh realized that somehow he had been given charge of Abhi, and also realized that he did not really mind it. He looked out the door and saw something across the street.

'David, just cover my back.'

'Where are you going? It's past Sunset.'

Mayukh answered over his shoulder to Hina.

'I see a Pharmacy, and its just a few feet away. I'll see if they have anything there.'

He wondered if David would stop him, but the soldier just tapped him on his back.

'Be quick, and stay sharp. If there's any sign of trouble, aim for the head.'

Mayukh slipped into the darkness, gun in hand and a flashlight tucked into his belt. He realized that even after just one day, his eyes had adjusted well to the darkness. The sky was clear, perhaps the one positive effect of all the cars and factories being silent, and in the moonlight, he could see pretty clearly. Now that he was outside, he felt a stab of panic. David was a trained soldier who knew what he was doing, but Mayukh knew that he was just a kid in school who may have liked to play soldier on video games, but knew nothing of what to do in real life. He gripped the gun in both hands, both to steady his hands and to give him some confidence. He crept across the road, watching both sides of the road. With his heart hammering, he entered the store, and turned on his flashlight to see what was inside. Much of the store had been looted, but to his delight, he found what he wanted- several packs of Pampers. He had never figured diaper packs could be so bulky, and he realized that carrying just two would mean that he would not be able to hold his gun in his hand. He looked around frantically for bags and finally found a large black garbage bag. He put two large packs of diapers in it and also several packs of what looked to be baby milk powder. Then he went back out into the darkness.

He was halfway to the bookstore when he thought he heard voices in the distance. All his bravado gone, he ran at a full sprint, entering the open door panting for breath. As he handed the bag to Hina, she looked in and chuckled.

'I think he's a bit big for an M size.'

Mayukh rolled his eyes.

'I'm kidding, Mayukh. That was a very brave thing to do.'

Hina started making some milk for Abhi while Swati sat down next to Mayukh. In the darkness, he could barely see her face, but she held his hand and squeezed lightly.

'Thanks again.'

Before he could say anything, Abhi ran up and hugged his knee.

'I want him to put me to sleep.'

And so, Mayukh sat down with Abhi as he drank his milk and then the little boy put his head on Mayukh's lap.

'Can you tell me a story?'

Mayukh looked around for help, but could only hear Hina and Swati chuckle, so he began.

'Once upon a time, there was a little boy, whom his mother loved a lot. But he never listened to her and never told her that he loved her too. One day, some monsters came and took her away, and the boy was all alone.'

Abhi took his hand and said, 'Just like my mama.'

'But then the boy had to be very brave because so many others needed him to be strong. So he decided that wherever his mama was, she would be proud if he didn't cry and was brave.'

He fumbled, feeling tears well up in his eyes, and struggled with what to say next. He didn't need to continue the story, because he felt Abhi asleep, his little chest rising and falling rhythmically. Mayukh put Abhi's head on a cushion and then sat down nearby, the tears now coming freely. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Swati.

'I thought the boy was going to be brave.'

Mayukh put his head against her shoulder and cried, and she just let him sit there, the two of them thinking of families they had lost, and of the uncertainties ahead. Mayukh didn't realize when he dozed off, and when he awoke, the glowing hands of his watch told him it was three in the morning. Swati was fast asleep just inches from him. He took out his mobile phone and turned it on. It was useless as a phone but in the glow of its screen he took a look around the room. Hina was sleeping next to Abhi, a hand over his chest, and David still seemed to be outside. He then moved the glow over Swati's face. Her cheeks were still streaked with dried tears that she herself must have shed after Mayukh slept. There was a swollen bruise on her forehead but despite that, Mayukh thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He would have loved to linger on her face for longer but she stirred in her sleep, and he hastily shut the phone off and lay down.

He lapsed into an uneasy slumber when a tap on his shoulder woke him up. It was David.

'Come on, you have to see this.'

He followed David out, crouching low and then taking cover behind the podium outside the door. What he saw shocked him.

In the pale moonlight, he saw five men standing just a hundred meters from the bookstore. In any other time, they may have passed for a group of friends just shooting the breeze, but at this unearthly time of night, and with their black turbans, there was no doubt as to who they were and what their agenda was.