Vineet lifted Abhi up and Walter grabbed the boy, holding him above his head. The Biters seemed to quiet down, their howling reduced to a murmur. As Walter kept Abhi raised, the Swami took one of the lit torches nearby and held it close to Abhi's legs. Abhi now saw the horde of Biters assembled below and was crying and screaming in terror, but his voice was drowned out by the howling that soon began among the Biters when they saw Abhi. Some of the Biters, no unable to control themselves, surged forward and were instantly caught in the electrified fence, where they lay twitching and smoking. The others stood back, but continued howling and screaming. The two men with Walter kept their shotguns trained on the Biters, but Walter could see them begin to lose their nerve. He knew they had to end this soon.
'Vinesh, should I just throw the boy to them?'
The Swami seemed transfixed by the mob of Biters below him, and then looked towards Walter, his face blank, taking out another joint.
Walter shouted at him.
'Vinesh, come on!'
'Do it!'
Walter leaned towards the wall, and cocked his hands back, readying himself to throw Abhi into the crowd below. He didn't know if his throw would clear the fence, and he didn't care. There was little chance the boy would survive the fall, and he hoped that would be enough to satisfy the Biters. He was about to throw Abhi when a bullet hit his left calf, sending him staggering forward, dropping Abhi onto the platform. He grabbed his leg, screaming at his men to get whoever had shot him. Both men now turned towards the inside of the Ashram, scanning for attackers. One of them saw a figure moving to the left and fired.
David felt some of the shotgun pellets pass close by, perhaps even grazing him but from thirty or more meters away, it was going to be difficult to score a direct hit with a shotgun. On the other hand, he could easily hit his targets with his pistol. The problem was his left hand was useless, and with fatigue and pain beginning to catch up with him, he was hardly moving as fast as he could. Another shotgun blast rang out from the platform as David dove behind a fence that shattered as the pellets hit it. David screamed in agony as he landed on his left hand and turned towards the platform. Knowing Abhi was there, he could not fire indiscriminately, so he steadied his aim, ignoring the pain shooting through his left side and fired twice.
One of the men next to Walter spun and fell, and the other dove for the ground.
'You idiot! Get him!'
But now it was every man for himself. Vinesh had been snapped back to reality by the shooting, and his eyes were now crazed with fear and despair.
'Walter, throw the boy!'
But it was too late for that. The Biters surged forward as one, screaming louder than ever, enraged by what they saw as a betrayal. The first few were caught in the wires and burnt where they lay, but others clambered over their burning bodies. Several of them were carrying firearms and a steady volley of rifle and pistol fire soon reached out towards the Ashram.
Walter ducked behind the wall, unslinging his own shotgun. He kicked at his remaining man, asking him to get up and shoot. The man stood up, scanning for David when he was hit by a bullet from behind. The Biters must have fired hundreds of rounds blindly, but this one round struck home, sending the man down.
David clambered out of cover and ran towards the platform, firing at Walter, who fired from his shotgun. At closer range, he nicked David, who went down on one knee, grabbing his shoulder. Walter was about to deliver the killing shot when Mayukh barreled into him. In the midst of the firefight, none of them had noticed Mayukh climbing onto the platform. He could not risk firing the shotgun with Abhi around in close proximity, so he put the shotgun to the next best use.
As Walter kicked him away and tried to get up, Mayukh swung his shotgun like a club, catching Walter squarely on the side of his head. Mayukh heard a cracking noise as the shotgun's butt smashed into his skull. Walter dropped and lay unmoving on the platform. Mayukh grabbed Abhi and was about to climb down the platform when he crossed paths with the Swami. The Swami was unarmed, but his face was contorted with rage.
'You fools! Now they will kill us all!'
The Swami tried to grab Abhi but Mayukh kicked him, all his anger and desperation going into the blow that sent the Swami sprawling. Mayukh began to climb down the ladder that led to the platform, even as he heard the Biters now pounding away at the main gate of the Ashram. It was but a matter of time before their sheer weight of numbers would win and they would be inside the Ashram. Mayukh suddenly felt a tug and looked up to see the Swami pulling on Abhi's arm. The boy was screaming in terror and pain and Mayukh realized that hanging from the ladder with one arm and trying to hold onto Abhi with the other, he had little chances of winning this tug of war.
The Swami abruptly fell back as if he had been struck and did not get up, and a split second later Mayukh heard two blasts close to his ear. He looked over his shoulder to see Swati standing near the foot of the platform, raised pistol in hand. He clambered down, and Swati gathered her little brother in her arms as they waited for the final leg of their plan.
The gate of the Ashram was now beginning to give way and Mayukh saw one or two yellowed hands appear through cracks that had already appeared in the gate. David came up to them, and Mayukh wondered just how badly David had been wounded. His left hand was still hanging limply by his side and the right side of his torso seemed to be covered in blood. Mayukh could now see several of the Swami's devotees try and run for the gate in sheer mad panic. He wondered if they still had not realized that the Biters were at the gate, but it was too late to do anything for them.
The gate gave way with a mighty crash and Biters clambered over each other to enter. Two of the Swami's devotees closest to the gate were set upon by a dozen Biters and Mayukh saw that they were not biting to infect, but ripping and tearing to kill. Swati picked Abhi up in one arm, and kept the pistol in her other hand. Mayukh pumped the shotgun back as David had taught him and stepped between them and the Biters. David was by his side, holding his pistol up. Two Biters spotted them and rushed towards them. David fired till his clip was empty, and hit one of them in the head, sending him down. The other, a short, fat man who as the undead was moving far faster than he would ever have been capable of in life, ran straight towards Mayukh, screaming through yellowed, sharp teeth, his black turban half falling off his head, where clumps of black hair were just visible in the fading light. Mayukh steadied himself and fired, the loud blast almost deafening him and the recoil rocking him back a step. The Biter was thrown back several feet, almost cut in half by the powerful blast. To make sure, Mayukh pumped the shotgun again and fired.
But now, they had run out of time. Many more Biters were now in the compound and had encircled them. Two of them, armed with rifles were now firing them repeatedly in the air, the rifles doing little more than clicking on empty, as evidently the Biters still hadn't learnt or remembered how to reload.
Mayukh moved closer to Swati as they readied themselves for the final onslaught. Just then, Walter's van smashed into the nearest Biters, scattering them. Hina was at the wheels and screaming.
'Get inside now!'
They scrambled into the back as the van drove towards the gate, crushing anyone in its path. Hina looked up to see Walter standing near the gate, pistol in hand, aiming at the van. He fired at least three times, and she felt the windshield shatter before her. Without slowing down, she passed him as he dove out of the way, only to be engulfed by a mass of screaming Biters.
The van sped out of the Ashram, into the uncertainty of the night.
ELEVEN
They drove in silence for several minutes, each of them consumed by their own inner demons and fears. Swati held Abhi tight to her chest, both painfully aware of just how close she had come to losing him, and also dealing with the fact that she had just shot dead another human being. David had moved to the front passenger seat, and was keeping a lookout for more Biters. However he felt more naked and vulnerable than he ever had,
