6 If the Dead had remained dead (1/2)
”Rahul. She… she was dead but… still moved.” I stuttered to form my words.
'She had not only moved but had stood up and walked. How is that even possible.' I thought.
All things happening today could not be compared to what I saw just now.
Such a sight had truly changed everything that I had ever believed in.
After all, how can a dead person come back to life.
”I know.” Rahul replied calmly. His expressed helped me calm down a bit.
”What are those things.” I asked in confusion as I looked at the two 'dead' bodies lying on the ground.
”These are what you'd call Abnormals.”
”Abnormals?”
”Yes. Deviating from the known. Becoming something that is undesirable. That's what an abnormal is.” Rahul replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
”Abnormal.” I repeated the word to myself in order to imprint it in my mind. Then I looked at Rahul and asked. ”You didn't just come up with a name on your own did you.”
He looked back at me and just smiled without saying anything.
After that, he pointed at the corpses and asked. ”These look like humans to you don't they?”
”Yeah, aren't they just…” I wanted to say 'humans' but then realized that no human could ever come back to life after dying once. Nor could they possess such extraordinary strength and speed.
”They might look like humans to you but in truth, they are not humans. At least, not anymore.”
”Not anymore?”
”Yes. As I said, they're Abnormals now. You can take them as… a different species altogether.” He said.
”But brother…” I thought about something and asked in confusion. ”They came back from the dead. And eat humans flesh. Doesn't that make them… Zombies? Why do you call them Abnormals.”
”Hmm. That's what we thought at first as well.” He murmured to himself in a low voice.
”What?” I asked.
”Nothing.” Then pointed at the sky for a moment and then asked. ”Tell me. What do you think the black fog did to you. I mean, you won't assume that it came here just to remove the air pollution right?”
I frowned a bit when I heard him mentioning the Black Fog. Indeed, I did have a feeling that the Black fog was not here just to clean up the air pollution.
'The existence of these… Abnormals,must have something to do with that Black fog.'
It gave me a very uncomfortable feeling. And that feeling has not subsided even after it left.
And the sharp pain that followed after it, was even more suspicious.
Suddenly, I thought of something and asked. ”Brother, did the Black fog…” I tried to find a subtler way to put it, but couldn't, so I simply asked ”Did it covered the whole world?”
Although this question sounded a bit, impossible, even a bit stupid, I knew I had to ask it. Even if I didn't wanted to hear the answer.
”Yes.” He replied with a single word that fell like a hammer in my heart.
Till now, I still had a bit of hope. If the Black fog only arrived in the nearby area, then the Delhi government will deal with it. If it covered the whole City, then the central government will deal with it. If it covered the whole country, then the rest of the world would probably find a way to deal with it.
But if it had spread all over the world, then what?
”How many people will die from the pain?” I blurted out, but then realized that I'd rather not hear the answer. Did he even knew the answer. I somehow felt that he did.
And true to my thoughts, he replied instantly.
”About 80%.”
I sucked in a cold breath of air.
The thought that he might be wrong didn't even cross my mind because he had already predicted everything that happened till now.
'A death rate of 80%.' I didn't even wanted to think about what would happen to the world if 80% of the people living in it died in a single night.
'What would happen to society. Would it simply fall apart. What would happen to law and order.'
I couldn't think anymore in this direction because I realized that I truly had no idea what will happen from here hence forth.
”But that's not even the worst of it.” I heard his words once again.
”Wait! What do you mean by that?” I asked in shock. Such words can't be spoken lightly you know.
'If 80% of death toll was not the worst of if then what was.' I once again realized that I didn't wanted to hear the answer because I had made a few speculations of my own.
”The best case scenario would have been…” he paused and pointed at the two corpses before continuing ”If these people had remained dead.”
My brain stopped processing for a moment. Not because it couldn't think but because I didn't allow it to think anymore in that direction.
'If 80% people in the world changed into man eating freaks then…' That's enough. Don't think anymore. The idea alone is horrifying enough.
”Is this all happening because of the Black fog?” I asked.
”Bingo.” He said with a smile. ”See little brother. If you tried to use that brain of yours once in a while, then you can be smart as well…” he laughed in a self deprecating manner but I ignored his words.
”That Black fog. Has is already spread all of the world?” I asked.
”Not really. It only starts to cover the area at around 7:00pm, gets darkest at 11:50 pm and disperses at 11:55 pm. The pain would always strike at 12:00 am. It happens at that particular order and at particular time in all parts of the world.”
”The people from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, etc, etc. Countries that exist to our left. They're probably facing the Severe pain right now.”
”The European countries like Italy, France, Spain, etc would have just started to come under the Black Fog.”
”And America, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, they're probably looking at an eclipsed sun right now.”
”But isn't the moon shining at the horizon.” I pointed at the half moon in the horizon that was gently offering brightness in the dark night.
”It is.” He replied simply but his answer was still shocking to the ears and made me realize something that I hadn't thought of previously.
'Indeed, how come I didn't think about such a thing for so long. If the moon really had eclipsed the sun for so many hours, then it would have already collided with the planet because of it's gravitational pull.'
At this moment, realized that I truly knew nothing about the current circumstance
”Then what was the thing that eclipsed the sun.” I asked in a flustered manner.
Rahul looked at me for a while before saying ”Who knows.” In a nonchalant manner.
'What? So there are somethings that even you don't know about.' I thought in my mind but before I could voice my thoughts, he continued speaking.
”Look. The point is. None of this can be stopped. Do you think that the people from advanced nations like USA don't really know about what's going on, on the other side of the world. Let me tell you, they probably do. I guess that by now, they already might be trying to put some counter measures to stop this catastrophe as well.”
”But, as I said earlier. None of this can be stopped. A power that can eclipse the sun with one hand and cover the whole earth with another is not something we humans are capable of dealing with.”
”Whatever is going to happen will happen. And at this moment, instead of worrying about the world, we should be worrying about ourselves. Okay little brother.” He said as he patted my head.
I was at a loss after hearing this. A power capable of eclipsing the sun with one hand and covering whole earth with another. I didn't even wanted to think where all this was going anymore.
But learning from my previous mistake, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down and tried to think about the important thing at hand.
I realized that I was indeed asking the unimportant questions first. I thought for a while about what I should ask and realized that I should start by knowing about the reason behind current situation at hand.
”Why did we feel that pain?” I asked at last. ”What did that black fog do to us? And what's the deal with these… Abnormals.”
He smiled a bit and said. ”Not the best of questions. But it's still and improvement.”
”Then let me answer your question in the simplest of ways.” He turned to look at the Abnormals and said. ”The real purpose of the Black Fog was to plant a seed in our bodies.”
”Seed?”
”Not a seed really. But think of it as such.” He said. ”Five minutes after the Black Fog left, the seed inside our bodies germinated and changed the constitution of our bodies.”
”So the Sharp pain we felt was because of that?”