Zombiestan (20 page)

David put his gun aside and turned towards Mayukh.

'I don't know his story, but I'll bet he has some military experience. However, shooting zombies from a safe distance is one thing, being shot at with automatic weapons is another. I think big Mikhail there pissed his pants.'

Mayukh laughed but then realized that David was dead serious.

'As for who was shooting at us, it was the damn Biters.'

A chill went down Mayukh's spine. The Biters had shown signs of evolving, but so far the most he had seen them do was throw rocks. If Purohit's theory was correct, and they were remembering common memories from the origin of the infection in Afghanistan, was it possible that they had learnt how to use weapons? David clapped Mayukh on his shoulder.

'They can't aim to save their lives and were just spraying in the sky. But what if they remember or learn how to aim?'

Mayukh didn't even want to contemplate what would happen if that ever came to pass. Even though the rest of the night passed without incident, none of them slept a wink. They all moved into one villa, and David sat by the door, his pistol in his hand.

Sometime before Sunrise, Abhi woke up and was quite confused to see all the adults sitting around, looking so serious. He first turned to Swati.

'Are you happy?'

She couldn't help but laugh at his innocence and assured him that they were all happy. Then, a look of concern came over his face.

'Where is McQueen?'

Mayukh fished out the red car from under a bed, and passed it to Abhi, who immediately began playing with it, oblivious to the worries that were gnawing away at the others.

Mayukh stepped out at about eight in the morning, and saw some of the Ashram's residents walking about. All of them seemed to be moving quickly, as if in a hurry to finish whatever work they had and then get back to the perceived safety of their villas. He saw Sharma walking along the road, and called out to him.

'Mr. Sharma, what's the Swami doing? We'd like to have a word with him.'

Sharma just nodded and went on his way. Mayukh was beginning to wonder whether Sharma had passed on the message when ten minutes later, Swami Vinesh came to the villa. He looked haggard, and his usually sharp eyes were tinged with dark circles. When he was inside, he first addressed David.

'You are the military man here. If those Biters can indeed learn to fire guns, what are our chances?'

The Swami seemed to further crumple on David's reply.

'Swami, the short answer is zero. You have a handful of armed men, and honestly, though they haven't told me who they really are, they seem to have some experience in the military. But it was easy when the Biters were launching themselves into the electrified fence and standing about, waiting to be shot to pieces. If they can learn to shoot straight, then it's just a matter of time before your guards are dead and they come over. All it requires is for them to develop the sense to run a vehicle through the fence and break a part of it.'

The Swami mulled his answer before saying it out loud.

'Walter and his friends were soldiers in the Russian and Eastern Bloc armies, and later became arms dealers. They peddled Eastern European small arms to anybody who had the money. Walter became my devotee a year ago, and they were here both for the meditation and to meet some clients for their shotguns.'

David spat on the floor. For a professional soldier, there was nothing quite lower than a gun runner who sold weapons in the black market, which all too often ended up in the hands of terrorists.

The Swami got up to leave when Hina stopped him.

'We are thankful for the shelter you gave us, but we must be on our way. If we leave now, we may yet make it to Ladakh by nightfall. Do you know if there are any running vehicles in the neighbouring villages? I'm sure lots of tourists would have driven here.'

A bit to Mayukh's relief and surprise, the Swami agreed readily, saying he would get Sharma and his staff to rustle up a car that was in running condition and had enough fuel, adding that if they left within the hour, they could get to Ladakh by nightfall. When he left, Swati commented with a smile.

'Now, that was easier than I thought it would be. Maybe he just looks creepier than he is.'

With everyone's mood considerably lightened, they began to make preparations for their journey. They unloaded all their remaining supplies from Walter's van and had them piled up near the gate, ready to be loaded into whatever vehicle Sharma managed to find for them.

Swati was feeding Abhi some cookies, so that he would not be hungry when they set out on what would undoubtedly be a long drive, and Hina was taking stock of their remaining food supplies. Mayukh checked his watch- it had already been forty-five minutes and there was no sign of Sharma or any car.

'David, I'll just go over to the Swami's villa and check what's going on.'

David was too busy cleaning his gun to notice, so Mayukh just headed over to the Swami's villa. He knocked twice, and hearing no response, peeped in through an open window to see that it was empty. He then figured that his best bet was to go to the administrative office and see if he could find Sharma or the Swami there. As he approached the villa, he was surprised to see Sharma walking out of the villa, smoking a cigarette.

'Mr. Sharma, did you find the car the Swami asked you to get for us?'

Sharma fumbled with his cigarette, almost dropping it in surprise on being accosted by Mayukh. He then rushed away before Mayukh could ask him anything more. Suspecting that something was amiss, Mayukh was about to storm into the villa when he heard raised voices inside. He peered in through the open door and saw the Swami and Walter talking.

'Walter, you've seen the damn piece of paper as well! It's clear what they want. Let them have the boy and maybe they'll leave us alone.'

'Look, Vinesh, they are goddamned mindless zombies! We've killed dozens every night. Let them come again and we can hold them.'

'Oh yes, we have held them when they were walking in blind. But now they can shoot! Don't you get it? They can think. They can write. They can shoot. They can't do any of them as well as us, but they are learning. How long before they break in here and turn us into creatures like them. No, no, actually, they won't do that. You've heard from the radio broadcasts what they do to those who try and fight.'

Walter looked deflated and sat down.

'He's but a boy, Vinesh. Also, if we do hand him over, what guarantee is there that they'll leave us alone?'

'I know, but what choice do we have? When the Biters tossed the paper over the wall during their first attack, I went to their villa, thinking I could take the boy then. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Then they came back with automatic weapons- as if to warn us. There are no guarantees that they'll leave us alone, but I can guarantee that they will tear us all to shreds if we don't do what they say.'

Mayukh heart was already pounding with what he had overheard, but when he saw the bloodied piece of paper in the Swami's hand, he was terrified. Scrawled in red, as if with blood, were just three words on it.

Gives the boye.

Mayukh turned, to go and warn David and the others when he saw Mikhail standing behind him. Before he could do anything, the big man shoved him, and he fell into the villa. The Swami and Walter both looked at him in shock and then at each other. Seeing the outrage and anger in Mayukh's eyes they knew that he had overheard their conversation. The Swami walked up to Mayukh, even now trying to be his usual smooth and civil self.

'Mayukh, we don't have a choice. If we give the boy, we can all live. So many have already been lost. One boy could save us all.'

Mayukh got up unsteadily to his feet and waited for the Swami to get closer. Then he put all his strength into a kick right into the Swami's groin. The Swami doubled over with a scream and fell to his knees, as Walter struck Mayukh with a blow to the head with the butt of his pistol. Mayukh found himself flat on the ground, his head spinning and warm blood beginning to stream down his face. He tried to get up, but Mikhail kicked him in the stomach, sending him down again, his body wracked with pain.

He heard the Swami shout.

'Go get the boy! And kill the soldier if you have to!'

Mayukh tried to get up again, but his legs felt like jelly and he fell again. He saw Walter looking down at him, grinning and then lashing out with his leg towards Mayukh's head.

Then Mayukh saw no more.

***

TEN

Hina crawled along the side of the wall, conscious of not making too much noise. It was now almost five in the evening, and from what she had heard, Abhi was to be handed over as soon as the Sun set. She knew she had less an hour in which to do something about it. The problem was that being an old college Professor and closet romance novelist meant that she had little by way of the practical skills such a situation warranted.

She remembered Walter and Mikhail running towards the gate earlier in the day, shouting that they had found a car that was in running condition, and that they wanted David to have a look at it before they loaded all their supplies into it. Swati had been playing with Abhi near the gate while she had stepped into one of the communal washrooms to relieve herself. Hina had looked outside, hearing the loud voices, and had been overjoyed at hearing the message that Walter and Mikhail brought with them. David had put his gun in its holster and started to walk away with them.

That was when everything went very, very wrong.

One of Walter's men had come up behind David and hit him hard on the back of the head with the butt of his shotgun. David staggered to the ground, bleeding from the head, but even then, he had not gone down without a fight. He had roared in anger at this betrayal and turned around and struck the man in the throat with his fist. The big man went down, screaming in pain, and did not get up again, but he had done his damage. David grabbed at his bloody head when Walter and Mikhail hit him again, sending him down for good. Two more of Walter's men ran onto the scene, grabbing Swati and Abhi. Swati scratched and kicked with all her strength, but it was not enough, and they were carted away. Hina then saw the Swami and Sharma appear on the scene. The Swami was shouting to Walter.

'Where is that old hag? Go and find her!'

Hina had slipped out of the villa that had acted as a communal washroom and hid under its slightly raised stilts for the next few hours while Walter and his henchmen searched for her. She had no idea what had happened to cause this betrayal at that time, and had been focused purely on remaining hidden. That was till she overheard the Swami and Walter talking. Then it all became clear.

She was old, she was weak, and she had no idea what to do, but if she was sure of one thing, it was the fact that she could not let Abhi be sacrificed like this.

Mayukh woke up, his head pounding with pain and his face sticky with dried blood. He could barely see out of his left eye, and as he awoke, he wiped the blood off the left side of his face so he could see clearly again. The first thing he heard was a sobbing noise to his right, and he turned to see Swati there, looking pale and scared. Her smile was gone, replaced by a mask of fear and desperation.

'They took Abhi!'

It all came back to Mayukh then. What he had heard at the Swami's villa, the blows Mikhail and Walter had showered on him, the deal the Swami thought he could strike with the Biters. He tried to speak but his throat was parched, and a mere croak escaped his lips. Swati rushed to him, cradling him in her arms, and pouring some water into his mouth. He drank it greedily, and then sputtered and coughed as he took in more than he should have. As he got up, he saw that he and Swati had been locked inside the bathroom of the villa he and David had been assigned, with nothing but a bottle of water to eat or drink between them. He asked where Hina and David were but Swati merely shook her head between sobs.

The pain in his head was excruciating, but Mayukh felt something even more overpowering than the pain. Anger. A red hot rage more intense than anything he had felt before. He was sure that if the Swami or Walter had been in front of him, he would have killed them without a second thought. The problem was that he was unarmed, locked in and as he looked at his watch, he realized that there was very little time left before the Swami offered up Abhi as sacrifice to the Biters in his misguided hope that they would leave him and his followers alone. He banged on the door and kicked against it with all his strength but it would not budge. Then he closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down, praying that some idea would occur to him.

Hina heard the scream and stiffened. It had sounded like Mayukh, but she could not be sure. Yet, if there was a chance that he was alive, joining him would at least make it two of them, and hopefully he would have some ideas about how to save Abhi. She overcame her fear and crept out of her hiding place behind the villa and saw that the scream had come from the villa David and Mayukh had been in. Then she stopped in her tracks. In front of the villa were seated Sharma and one of Walter's meatheads, a tall, strongly built European cradling a shotgun. She flattened herself against the villa's back wall again, thinking furiously of what she could do. What the hell could she do? She was an old woman, and her only skills were a passing knowledge of history and the ability to write steamy romances.