'Thud'
Prakash's head spun in place as he kissed the solid wall along with a bear hug. His arms creaked as he wiped away the stream of blood seeping through his nose when his eyes constricted in surprise.
His blood was purple in colour!
And moreover, he couldn't help but take a second look at his body since he felt pain signals transmit to his brain from all over it.
Ant heads! Tens of ant heads came into his view as they were desperately clutching onto his flesh. Their bodies long severed from their heads when Prakash fell on the floor and rolled around every time his 'Purple Transformation' activated as they bit into his flesh. Among the ant heads that were clutched onto his body, only 3 seemed to be still alive, the rest had long died in their struggle.
'Tsss'
Prakash hissed out in pain as he tried to remove the ant heads but it seemed as if they wouldn't come off unless Prakash decides to remove them along with parts of his flesh they bit into.
'Tsk'
Prakash kicked with his leg towards an ant with an intact body that was about to bite him with its sharp mandibles.
He could only resort to kicking since he seemed to have lost his refill during his charge through the horde of ants.
"Prakash!" A shrill voice abruptly snapped his attention from the horde of ants as he gazed at the figure of Anita who was bleeding from head to toe and also had dozens of ant heads clutching onto her flesh all over her body.
Purple blood was also flowing out from her nose in a steady stream as she tried to block them with her fingers but to no avail. She also seemed to have crashed into the 'wall' (the head-rest part of the bed) just like Prakash.
"Look there!" Anita bellowed as she kicked numerous ants with a sweep of her legs and obtained some breathing space.
She had to restrain her strength otherwise, if her 'Purple Transformation' activated again, then she would be drowned by numerous ants within a second that it takes her transformation to wear off.
Prakash ran towards Anita, making sure not to step upon the ants and gazed in the direction Anita was pointing at when his body shuddered involuntarily.
He could make out a blurry silhouette on the top of a small bookshelf that was just below an open window. The silhouette kept kicking at the ground, scurrying between a few books, doing everything it could do to survive as it held something small in its hands.
Prakash was filled with a sense of hope as he saw the silhouette. Even though it was blurry but, based on its body language as it moved about, Prakash figured out that the silhouette had to be Diana, their housemaid.
And, the small thing in her hands could only be…..his son Akash.
As soon as his mind came to this conclusion, his body was filled with vigour but, before a second had even passed, it felt like his body was doused with icy-cold water as his gaze went up a little.
There was a screen on their grilled window made of a wire mesh that was installed to prevent mosquitoes from entering their house and also to ensure that fresh air could enter and circulate within their house to ensure that they wouldn't feel stuffy.
But now, he saw numerous house lizards working together to tear open a hole in that solid wire mesh. The hole was already big enough for mosquitoes to pass through, just that there weren't many in the vicinity of the hole.
The house lizards that were usually lone wolves were now acting in groups and moreover, Prakash could make out the shadow of a huge bird that swerved its head in all directions behind the group of house lizards.
'An Owl!'
Every hint of heat that was circulating within his body seemed to seep out as Prakash felt a chill creep up his spine and his limbs shivered in response.
Shaggy was also big, but they could somehow survive because everything about shaggy from its movement patterns to its nature was known to them and moreover, Shaggy had lost most of its wild nature due to it being brought up from its childhood as a house pet. Even then, Anita was severely injured and it was a close shave against death to them.
But now, that was the predator of the night waiting for them beyond that wire mesh, its predatory gaze and the smell wafting out from its body seemed to make his legs jelly.
There was also a significant distance between Diana and them, not to mention, they had to descent this bed, run on the floor for about 5-6 feet and then scale up the bookshelves that were 4 feet in height with almost no support. Their entire path was also filled with ants that numbered in the tens of thousands.
If there was a grim despair-inducing situation, it was this. They also lost their refills so, they were currently defenseless.
"Dear!" Anita called out, her eyes filled with a resolute look. With the safety of her child compromised, she no longer cared about her own well being.
"Fine," Prakash responded with an equally fierce determination. So be it if they were killed, but before they died, they would drag their enemies to the pits of hell so that their only son could live on.
"But, we need weapons," Prakash said. Even if they were to eventually reach their destination, they would just end up as dinner to some random creature without a weapon to defend themselves. The light weighed but sharp refill was the optimal weapon for their current selves.
"Then, let us take back our refills instead of finding new ones," Anita said as she pointed towards a refill that was a foot away from them and another that was a little less than 2 feet away from them.
"We'll charge together!" Prakash pumped up his spirits; taking Anita's hands with his own, they charged together.
Learning from their previous experience, they stopped running in straight lines but began to long jump. Each of their jumps made them cover an approximate distance of 4 centimetres.
Each time they landed, their 'Purple Transformation' activated as they completely squashed the bodies of the ants they jumped upon. Every impact due to their jumps splattered the blood, flesh, and shrapnel of ant carcasses in all directions, impacting upon the surrounding ants.
The surrounding ants were hurt and disoriented by the splatter but before they could reorient themselves, the couple finished their transformation and executed their next jump.
7 jumps and 7 transformations later, the couple finally managed to get their hands on a refill and another 8 jumps and 8 transformations later, they finally got their second refill too.
The rear ends of the shafts of both the refills were damaged a little as they were nibbled by the ants, but the sharp nib remained intact. They proceeded to do the same as they charged out and, 16 jumps later, they were standing on the edge of the mattress.
A couple of feet away from the foot of the cliff that was their bed, another horde of ants were squirming. The couple dropped their refills over the edge, maintaining their throwing angle so that the refills wouldn't end up too far away from them and then, they jumped.
The bed was almost 3 feet in height. As the couple landed on the tiled floor, they rolled their bodies forward to transfer the effect of the vertical impact into the roll. But, they didn't fare as well as they had imagined this time. A height of 3 feet was too much for them who were untrained in the art of jumping, that too reducing the impact upon landing after a high jump.
Prakash sprained his right ankle, his shoulders hurt, his hands were in pain and his head was bleeding. Anita hurt her knees badly but seemed to fare better than Prakash in the end.
As Prakash stood up, his head spun, his vision went black and he fell down. He didn't faint; he still retained his consciousness as he lay on the cold hard floor.
10 seconds later, he groggily got up to a sitting position, massaged his temples and looked towards Anita's direction only to find out that she was doing the same. Anita gave him a helpless expression, her eyes red, seemingly on the verge of forming tears. Her fears, frustration, and confusion had finally hit her emotional limits.
Prakash hurriedly hopped on his one good leg and propped her up slowly. He hugged her as her downcast expression frightened him the most. She was his pillar of support and also the source of his strength. Her showing such a weak look made him almost despair.
They had been struggling so much just against a bunch of measly ants. How the hell would they fare against the vicious lizards, not to mention that horrifying overlord of the night skies hovering above them? The death god seemed to love them as he gave them way too many invitations within a few hours.
Will they ever be able to save their son? Their only source of hope in this despair-ridden world was him.
Anita clutched her hands until her palms began to bleed. She then removed herself from Prakash's hug and picked up her refill.
"Let's go; to save our child," Anita said in a small voice as if she was overexerting the last embers of her strength.
As Anita began to walk forward with weak but determined gaits, tears welled up within the eyes of Prakash. He controlled his tears, picked up his refill and chased after Anita. He would make sure she wouldn't fall.
Prakash was hopping due to his sprained ankle while Anita took small steps forward as she could feel a crack sound from her knees every time she took a large step.
The couple slowly charged once again into another ant horde with their eyes having only a tiny ember left in them. At this rate, will the injured couple ever be able to save their son from the clutches of vicious predators?