"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?"
"Yeah."
"Then what will happen to us now." I looked at the two corpses and asked in fear. "Will we become man eating monsters like them?"
"Yes." He said and paused for a while before saying with a smile. "And No."
"Yes because we'll all change in Abnormals eventually. And 'No' because that will only happen after we die." He said. "That means that as long as you can stay alive, you don't really need to worry about turning into a man eating monsters"
"As for what happens to our body after we died." He laughed and said. "Who cares."
"So in a sense, we are the incubators of this new 'species' called Abnormals?" I asked.
"Umm. You're right, but I don't like the way you put it in words." He said with annoyance. "I feel like I'm a pregnant lady now."
"Pfft." I laughed at his joke for a while but after the laughter faded, the atmosphere turned tense once again.
"Brother, that woman changed after that man killed her. Was it possible to save her after… you know… after he bit her?"
"You're asking if we'll turn into abnormals after a bite?"
"Yes." I replied.
"No we won't. We'll only change into abnormals after our death. Provided that our brains are still intact." He said.
Then I thought about another important matter.
"Brother. If 80% of people on earth have changed into Abnormals, then… do we even have a chance to survive." I asked, not for myself but for Neha and Rahul. Even if I myself died, I wanted them to live on.
He looked at me and asked. "If I tell you that we don't have a chance then will you roll over and die?"
"What?" the question caught me off guard for a moment before I truthfully replied. "Of course not. But if you tell me that we have a chance, then that'll motivate me to perform better in the upcoming days."
He stared at me for a long while before saying in a calm tone. "Good."
"But don't worry. We're not going to just roll over and die. We still have a chance to turn the situation around in our favour." He said.
"How?" I asked. 'Does he know about some military secrets. Now that I think about it, if we use guns against these Abnormals, then even if they're about twice as strong as us, they will still die a miserable death.'
'We've already confirmed that they die after losing their heads so we really can defeat them with heavy firepower.' Suddenly I felt a little better and the night didn't seem to be so dark anymore.
But contrary to my thoughts, he didn't tell me about any military secret or anything remotely similar. Instead he raised his hand showed me a black watch.
"We will defeat them with this."
Instead of a watch, saying it was a black band would be more proper. Because that's what it looked like. A black band worn by EMOs.
Except that a portion of it was glowing white and showing some kind of interface. Thus it was a bit deserving of being called a watch.
I looked closer and realized in horror that the black watch had merged with his skin.
"Oi brother. Where did you get such a watch from? And it's embedded in your skin you know. Does it hurt a lot? When did you wore it?" I asked at once. I recalled that he was not wearing the watch earlier in the evening.
But he had been in front of me ever since that point. When did he even get the chance to wear that watch. Not to mention that it's permanently attached to his arm.
"You're asking me when I wore this watch?" he asked back with a laugh. "Why don't you look at your own hand and tell me instead."
I was surprised for a moment before I suddenly brought my left hand forward and was given a fright when I found a similar watch in my own hand.
And it was embedded deeply in my skin as well. 'How the hell did I not realize such a thing till now. And when did it attach itself to my hand.' I thought in confusion.
"Oi Rahul. What the hell is this watch. I feel like it's digging deeper into my skin. It won't eat me right?"
"Hahaha" he laughed heartily after hearing my question and then replied. "Relax. It's not harmful. Quite the opposite actually. It's a very helpful thing."
"Helpful. How?" I asked as I tried to remove it from my hands without any progress.
"It's an Omnitrix. It can help you change into various aliens. That way you'll be able to fight those Abnormals under different circumstances."
"What? Really." I asked in shock. Being a big fan of Ben 10, I had always hoped to get such a watch for myself since I was a young boy. But as I grew up, I realized that it was just a fantasy and would never come true.
Being told that I had finally got such a watch for myself excited me to no end and I pastured Rahul for more answer until I finally realized that there was something wrong with his expression and his shoulders were trembling slightly. It was almost as if he was trying to stifle his laughter.
"Pfft. Hahahahahaha." Finally he couldn't hold in anymore and started laughing loudly. He laughed so hard that his stomach started to hurt. So he held on to his stomach, fell to the ground and continued on laughing.
My expression turned dark as I realized that my fantasy would never come true.
'This bastard took advantage of my innocence. He fooled around with my dearest dreams just for some shits and giggles. For this, I'll never forgive you.'
"Rahul, how dare you. Aaah! I'm so mad now." I shouted to started pummeling him with kicks and punches while he laid on the ground and asked for forgiveness pitifully.
After pummeling him to my hearts content, I finally stopped and let him get up. He looked at me with an apologetic face and said with a smile.
"Sorry! I fooled you with that joke once, when we're kids. I never thought that you'd fall for it so easily even after becoming an adult." He was about to laugh once again but stopped himself after looking at my expression.
After a while he composed himself and said.
"Since you've seen this watch and seen how it merged with your hand without you noticing, you must have realized that it's not something that belongs to this world. Right"
"Yeah. I'm not a fool you know." I said indignantly but realized how easily he fooled me back a few minutes ago and my face turned red with embarrassment. 'This bastard' I gritted my teeth and suppressed the urge to give him a few more kicks.
"Of course you're not a fool." He said with a gloating expression but turned serious after looking at my dark expression.
"Ahem… You see. This is a very useful watch which will act as your guide in this Apocalypse and help you in various ways."
"Various way. What various ways?" I asked.
"Well, I'll tell you all it's functions one by one." He said. "But first of all, open the interface and check your stats in the home page."
"Open the interface. Alright." I touched the black watch and searched all over for a button or something similar. Then I tried various other tricks but couldn't do anything.
'I hoped he was not making a fool out of me once again.'
"How the hell do I open the interface?" I looked at him suspiciously and asked.
"Just think about it in your mind." He said softly. I had a feeling that he would have started laughing after looking at my actions, had I not given him a beating just now.
"Alright." I looked at the watch and thought 'Show me the interface.'
A bright light was emitted from the watch as a 3D hologram came in front of me.
The hologram showed a window similar to that of a smartphone, but in a 3D form.
The first page that opened up showed a 3D model of my head which was rotating at a slow speed and beside it were a few written words.
User name:- Ashok Singh Rana
Stats:-
Strength - 0.9
Agility - 0.9
Endurance - 1.0
Perception - 0.9
Mana - 0.0
Skills:-
None
Equipments:-
None
Wealth:-
None