wondered if he'd stay alive long enough to put that knowledge to any use. The thought that he could turn into a mindless creature like those milling around in front of him was too horrible to even contemplate.
As the attackers began swarming through the base, David saw some soldiers turn their weapons on themselves, preferring to die instead of being turned into the monsters that now teemed around them. David considered the idea, but then Rose's face came before his eyes. He had to live. He had to get out.
One of the Ospreys had its rotors on, a young pilot standing nearby, too terrified to do anything. David ran to him.
'Son, can you fly this?'
The pilot nodded.
'Then let's get out of here!'
The man just looked at him blankly.
'But I haven't got my flight orders yet.'
David realized he was in shock, so he grabbed him by the shoulders hard and shook him.
'Kid, see those monsters coming? They'll rip your neck out in a second. Let's get out while we can.'
He climbed into the Osprey's cockpit as the pilot prepared for takeoff. The base was now teeming with the infected, and he could see fallen soldiers everywhere. He now also knew that the next day, as soon as the Sun set, these soldiers would join the hordes who had attacked them. As they flew by, he saw the roads filled with mobs of the infected, moving in their slightly stiff gait.
He looked straight ahead, and felt something wet on his face. He checked to see if he was bleeding, and saw that without realizing it, he had been crying.
'Kid, where do we go?'
The pilot now seemed to be more in control, but his hands still shook as he checked the map.
'Sir, I'd go to India. It may not have spread there so fast.'
A few minutes of flying later, David asked him which city they were flying over. The pilot looked at him with tired eyes.
'Does it matter? It's all Zombiestan down there.'
THREE
Hina saw that the Sun was about to set and then drew the curtains close. She had gone to college in the morning but had found it almost deserted. The Principal, who lived just off the campus, had looked at her as if she were out of her mind.
'Ms. Rahman, I would go home and be with my family if I were you.'
And so she had come home, but she had nobody or nothing to come home to. She realized that if her family had still been with her, she would have reacted very differently. She could understand why her colleagues were in a state of panic, because they were terrified about losing people or things precious to them in the chaos that threatened to engulf them when the Sun set. Hina had nothing or nobody to lose. And certainly she had nowhere else to run to. She had lived in this house for the last thirty years, and could not imagine going anywhere else. Her children were still not picking up their phones, and while she hoped that they were fine, she realized with a heavy heart that even when things had been normal, they had always been too busy to take calls from their forgotten old mother back home.
So she sat down in front of the one thing that was precious to her-her writing. The shelf in front of her study desk was lined with her books, and as she booted up her laptop, she wondered when people would read books again. Would there be a time in the future when people would write books about the time humanity had gone crazy under the influence of some mysterious plague and nearly destroyed itself? She certainly hoped so. It would be such a waste if nobody read books again.
She began typing, but found that she just could not concentrate with the sounds of panic coming from outside. The sound of people trying to get home; of people honking their car horns and of people shouting at others to get out of their way. As soon as the Sun set, she suddenly felt an ominous silence descend. It was as if some giant unseen hand had just pressed the `mute' button on the world. Hina peeked out through the curtains and saw that everyone on the street had stopped to look at the setting Sun.
Then it began.
The first sign of the chaos that was to come was the sound of guns being fired. There was a police station nearby and she figured the cops were trying to keep things under control. Then she heard screaming, and then the guns stopped firing. She had opened a new bottle of wine and finished her glass in a long swallow, her heart hammering as she wondered what would come next. People on the road were running now, and several were screaming. There were desperate cries for help outside her home, and Hina wanted to do something to help. But what could a frail, old woman possibly do?
Her home was an old colonial style house with two floors that would in today's market cost a fortune to buy. Her study was on the second floor, and she looked out the window to witness a scene that would forever be etched in her mind. There was a mob of people; no creatures would be a more appropriate description, transformed by the infection to mindless wild animals. They all seemed to be wearing black turbans, men and women alike, and with their tattered clothes, yellow skin and bloodied bodies, looked nothing like the people they must have been just a day ago. They wandered through the street in their stiff, loping gait and every time they saw anyone, they would attack like a pack of wild animals, surrounding their prey and scratching and biting till they brought them down. Hina saw one or two young men try and fight back, and she watched in horror as they were killed, their necks broken by their crazed attackers.
She watched a young girl, perhaps no more than fifteen, who was running from one house to another, pleading with the occupants to let her in, to give her some refuge. But there was no safety anywhere today. The creatures had entered several homes along the road and the screams coming from inside them told Hina what the fate of their occupants would have been. The young girl was now directly below Hina's house, and while Hina had turned off all the lights in her home, she saw her peeking out the parted curtains.
`Please let me in. Please help me.'
Hina looked straight at the girl's eyes and then saw four of the creatures moving towards her. Hina could have gone down and let the girl in, but then the creatures would no doubt see her. She stayed rooted where she was, paralyzed by fear, as the girl tried to run, only to be encircled and then brought down by several of her attackers. Crying at her weakness and ashamed at having done nothing to help, Hina hid under her study table, praying that they would think there was nobody home. When the sounds of the attack outside abated after about five minutes, Hina worked up the courage to part the curtains and look down. The girl was lying there, curled in a fetal position, blood all around her. Suddenly, her body twitched and spasmed and then after a sudden, violent jerk, lay still again. Then the girl suddenly sat upright and looked at Hina. Her face was yellowed and bloodied, and her eyes narrowed in hate. She scrambled around herself, as if looking for something, and then tore off a portion of her black skirt to tie around her head. Hina's heart was pounding. Everyone had said that the infection took one day to transform its victims. It seemed that the effects were now taking hold of their victims in ten minutes or less, transforming healthy, decent people into bloodthirsty, crazed killers. No wonder so many countries had gone under so fast. The girl pointed straight at Hina and emitted a shrill, ear-piercing scream. Several of the other creatures started to come towards her. Hina knew that she was trapped and with no way out.
Less than two kilometers away, Mayukh's mother was struggling to start the car, dropping the keys again because of her badly shaking hands. Mayukh saw that his mother was on the verge of a breakdown, and took hold of her hands.
'Mom, let me drive.'
She handed over the keys without any protest. His mother had believed that they would be safe in their government colony, with the armed guards who normally did duty outside. However, by evening, it was clear that she had been badly mistaken. When Mayukh had gone out at about four to see what was happening outside, he saw that all but one of the guards had left their posts. The remaining man had shrugged at Mayukh.
