Zombiestan

'They all have families. I can't blame them for wanting to get home before Sunset.'

The TV channels had reported that as the Sun slowly set over Asia, the darkness took hold over one country after another. The pattern was the same. As soon as the Sun set those who had been infected transformed into bloodthirsty creatures who savaged anyone in sight.

Mayukh inserted the keys and they left the colony. They had packed their car with as many provisions as they could, and Mayukh had the loaded handgun next to him. His father had called earlier in the day saying that if their colony did not appear safe then they were to try and get to the old Kotla stadium, which was being heavily fortified as a safe haven. Mayukh's mother had waited till the last moment, perhaps too long, to decide that they were better off trying to reach the stadium instead of staying at home. The Sun was about to set and Mayukh turned to look at his mother. He had often hated her for her nagging, but now he saw that she was looking to him to lead the way. Seeing his mother so vulnerable scared him more than anything else, reminding him that things were well and truly out of control now.

Mayukh was jolted back to reality by the repeated staccato sound of guns firing nearby.

'Mom, the firing seems to be coming from the police station. We can't go that way any more. Let's try and find another route.'

His mother just nodded.

While he did find another road, it meant he had to drive through a narrow road crammed with houses and narrow alleys on either side. That was why he never saw the three men who ran into their car. His mother screamed as the window on her side shattered and a yellow, bloodied arm reached in. Mayukh slammed his foot on the accelerator and their attackers were left behind as their car shot ahead. Another infected man came right in front of his car and Mayukh made the mistake of trying to swerve out of the way. The car hit a small shop on the sidewalk and Mayukh was temporarily winded as his head hit the steering wheel. He could hear his mother shouting.

'Hurry up, they're coming!'

Mayukh reversed the car, feeling the thump of an impact as he hit someone or something, and then resumed down the road. There were now people running all over the street, many of them pursued by screaming attackers.

A group of five infected men emerged from the shadows to their left and Mayukh turned the car into a gut- wrenching turn and sped into one of the alleys to his right. As he exited the alley on the main road, just a hundred meters to the right, attackers were beginning to break down the front door of Hina Rahman's house.

***

David came out of the Osprey, his rifle at the ready. In the fading light, he tried to make out if anyone was there at the airfield, but it seemed deserted. On their way in, the young pilot had tried to make contact with the Indian Air Force base at Hindon, just outside Delhi and also the International Airport. But both had been closed to all traffic, in anticipation of the chaos that was to unfold at Sunset. Instead, he had been advised to put down at the Safdarjung airstrip in central Delhi, which was used for microlights and gliders of flying clubs. With the ability to land vertically, the Osprey had no issue putting down. But now, David and the pilot, whose name he hadn't even asked, had to somehow make their way to the US Embassy. David wondered if that would provide any real safety, but it was better than taking one's chances on the streets.

'Kid, what's your name?'

'Stan.' The pilot looked pale and his hands were shaking.

'Get your handgun. Have you ever been in combat before?'

The pilot shook his head, and David wondered why he of all people had to babysit this kid.

'Look, just stay close and you'll be fine. When I ask you to shoot at someone, do it and aim for the head. Got it?'

Stan nodded, his eyes widening at the prospect of having to come close enough to one of the infected attackers to have to shoot him or her in the head. The streets of the Indian capital were in a state of complete chaos, clogged with cars and people who were trying to get to safety. David looked at his GPS. The US embassy was about ten kilometers away. In a straight line and without having to worry about being attacked by crazed mobs, he would have made it there in less than an hour and a half. But now, they would have to trek through a hostile landscape in the dark. They had been walking for no more than ten minutes when they saw the first evidence of the carnage around them. Cars were scattered across the road and people were running in a state of panic. David saw the cause for their panic when he spotted a group of a dozen or more of the infected walk into view. The streetlights were still on, so he could see the attack unfold clearly. They split into pairs and then attacked their chosen prey, one bringing the target down with a tackle to the leg or waist, and the other then coming in for the bite, usually to the shoulders or neck.

David watched, a bit stunned by what he saw. The black-turbaned wraiths he saw were not just mindless zombies, they were actually using some sort of tactics and thinking, even if that intelligence was as of now no more than what a pack of wild animals would have demonstrated. What he saw next was even worse. The victims seemed to lie lifeless for a few minutes, and then they got up, transformed into the same kind of creatures who had attacked them.

'Sir, let's get out of here!'

David realized that they had probably stayed too long, and then began to walk away when a young man ran up to him.

'Sir, please help us!'

The man looked like he had been trying to get home from office, and was wearing a tie and carrying a laptop bag.

This was not David's fight. He wanted to get to the Embassy and then somehow get back to the United States, so he began to turn away.

'Wait! You're soldiers, you're armed. Please do something!'

David would have kept going had he not been nearly deafened by the sound of a gun going off inches from his head.

'Shit! Stan, what in God's name are you doing?'

David watched as an attacker approaching the young man from behind was hit in the head and keeled over. Stan was standing with his gun in hand, and as another attacker approached, he fired twice, one of the bullets striking the young woman in the head. By now he had attracted the attention of the other creatures and all of them began approaching them, clambering over the cars that stood between them.

Now, whether he liked it or not, David was in the fight. He selected single-fire on his M4 and brought it up to his eyes. Three carefully aimed pulls on the trigger, three head shots. Their attackers had now stopped, standing in a state of apparent confusion, seemingly surprised at this sudden resistance. That gave enough time for the other people there to run. David looked at Stan and saw a transformed man. Gone was the nervous rookie. Stan was standing straight, holding his gun in both hands, screaming at their attackers to come on. He had often seen battle and stress bring out both the best and the worst in people. It seemed inside Stan there was a brave soldier, after all. The problem was that his bravery was likely to get them both killed. Stan gasped when the ones he had shot in the head got up after a few minutes, looking even more terrifying with the bleeding bullet holes in their heads. A young woman, or rather something that had once been a young woman, dressed in jeans and a bright red t-shirt, leaped over a car and ran straight at Stan, screaming. Stan was too shocked to react, but David put two rounds in her body, which slowed her down, and then a round to her turbaned head.

Stan was now shaking, his bravado slipping away by his realization of just what they were up against.

'Sir, what do we do now?'

David saw dozens more of the infected now converging on them.

'Now would be a good time to run for our lives.'

They sprinted through the streets, hearing the footsteps of their pursuers just behind them. Every once in a while David would turn and fire a shot or two. Running at full tilt, he had no hope of hitting them, least of all in the head, but he hoped that it would at least slow them down. When he saw that it was having no effect, he concentrated on running. The streetlights were now off, and they had no idea of what lay just a few feet away, let alone being sure of whether they were on track to get to the US Embassy. For now, immediate survival was about as far as they could plan.

Stan tripped on something and went down with a howl of pain. David's momentum carried him forward a few