"What are you going to do now?" Prakash asked Vikram as he gazed at the figure of Arvind who unleashed his mini Victoris upon the bodies of the four zombies.
"Just the usual," Vikram commented as Victoris manifested beside him and plunged into the body of a pigeon and began to consume its flesh.
"Currently, three lego structures have been completed, while the fourth is being built as we speak. We need to build at least 20 of such structures to satisfy all of our needs, collect karma from the dead bodies and rescue the people upstairs," Vikram paused for a second as his Victoris finished devouring the flesh of a pigeon and went for the next.
"There are still people surviving in other places in this shopping mall?" Prakash felt confused. Based on his general estimation, there were about 2000 something humans in this base and considering the survivability ratio, he thought this was the entirety of humans who had survived in this shopping mall area.
"The people we are planning to rescue are the ones trapped in the cinema halls above, but we lack the brute strength to open the door leading to it," Vikram said.
Prakash nodded in response. He could understand why Vikram would think that there might be people who survived in the cinema hall.
Each cinema hall was perfectly insulated in order for the cinema sound to not leak outside; this implied that there were practically no routes for any creature to mount an attack on the humans inside.
But, this also implied that the humans inside were trapped forever with no avenues of escape unless Vikram created a path that lead inside.
"Yes, moving the door is next to impossible with our strength. Then, are you guys planning to use the AC vents?" Prakash asked.
"That is our plan," Vikram said and then remained silent as he gazed at the slumped figure of Arvind. He had tried his best to bring back the youth to his feet, so all that was left now was for the youth to find another reason to strive forward.
Even if the youth's fighting spirit had been replenished a little due to his pep talk, it was not like the memories of the death of his friend would be buried at the back of his head for the rest of his life. It would continue to be a memory that would haunt him forever unless he becomes mentally strong enough to face it head-on.
Prakash remained silent as he noticed that Vikram was unwilling to speak any longer. Even though he too was sad that so many people had died in front of his eyes, he wasn't as mentally shaken up as Vikram or Arvind. After all, none of the dead people were his friends or family.
Had it been Vikram that had faced the same fate as the others, then he might have been the one in place of Arvind, wallowing in tears and denying at the fact of losing his precious brother.
Prakash then began to stroll through the other areas as he didn't want to disturb the mourning duo. The atmosphere there was way too delicate which he didn't want to poke into with his untimely inquiries.
Sure, he had many questions that needed the inputs of Vikram to be answered but that would have to wait. The fact that Vikram was even ready to answer some of his questions until now was due to the respect the youth had on him.
Prakash didn't want to impose on Vikram any further and diminish the respect the youth had on him and decided to take a refreshing walk to clear his mind.
The moment he walked away, the lady Shreya who had been silent till now slowly inched forward until she stood beside Vikram and began to console him. Prakash could hear muffled sobbing sounds echoing in the area after that as he silently walked away with a heavy heart.
Seeing their sorry plight even when more than two thousand humans had gathered together, Prakash began to worry about his wife Anita and son Akash. The world had become infinitely dangerous and their small insignificant selves would be hunted everywhere on the surface of this vast Earth.
"I need more Pigeon Karma," Prakash thought as his thoughts shifted to his Karmic Art. As long as he gained the Karma of a creature, he could then convert it into the Karma of the creature he desired. But in order to gain Karma, he needed to kill the insects, birds, etc. out there that was almost impossible without using his Karma to transform into suitable creatures for the task.
In this manner, it might take him forever to amass enough Pigeon Karma to fly towards his house and search for his wife and son.
"Right, I could use the Gharial," Prakash slapped his forehead on his foresight to have forgotten about his strong ally that was practically invincible in the waters.
"I only need to do something about the blue transformation that I have transferred to its body," Prakash thought in his mind as he had reached a Lego building by now and entered it.
Traversing through the numerous boisterous halls, Prakash stood in front of a hall that was practically dead silent as compared to the others. He entered it and found a row of soft cotton that functioned as a makeshift mattress and proceeded towards a spot in the corner.
Prakash laid his weary body to rest atop the mattress and felt that it was quite comfortable to sleep on such a soft surface. He had wanted to rest for a long time.
Ever since he woke up atop the small mound in the middle of the murky waters, he had been continuously on the run in order to save his skin and also had to overexert himself in many situations. After having to fight against the pigeons and finally those freakish bluish figures, his mental faculties had been fully expended.
The bluish figures or the 'Zombies' as the people in the base referred to it as was a result that transpired when a person undergoes too many transformations without pause or stays transformed for a long time in the absence of sunlight.
It seemed that the sunlight purifies their bodies from the contamination that their transformation brought to it, but when transforming too many times without coming into contact with sufficient sunlight, a scary process transpires next.
All of the Karma accumulated in their bodies flares up and permanently transforms the body. Numerous traits of the creatures that the Karma belonged to in the original place will manifest on the human body, while, the stuff that happened to the mind was on a much horrible scale.
Each creature had to have lived a significant life and must have its own thought processes and life experiences it had accumulated until death. Now, all such experiences, logic, thought processes, instincts, and mentality would conflict, mesh and fuse into the mind of the human and seek to gain dominance. This would break their spirit and corrupt them into mindless monsters that retain the bare minimum of their once human intelligence.
This makes them lose their sense of reasoning and act based on the mangled mess of emotions and thoughts that belonged to the plethora of creatures whose Karma they had absorbed. This implies that they would start to desire human flesh as it was the one trait that every creature that roamed the surface of Earth seemed to possess now.
Moreover, their combat prowess would experience an additive increase that makes them a scary foe to face against.
"Ugh, it would have been simple if our transformation powers didn't have such severe consequences. It's like signing a deal with the devil. Our transformation powers come with a price but we don't have any other choice other than to use it repeatedly for our survival," Prakash murmured as he felt his eyelids droop due to the comfortable feeling that the mattress was transmitting to him.
The desire for more Pigeon Karma was the final thought that occupied his mind before he entered a dreamland.
-------------------
A mass of consciousness floated aimlessly inside a structure that seemed to be an elongated sphere. The mass of consciousness could neither move nor think as it silently continued to stay submerged inside a viscous fluid.
Slowly, days passed as the mass of consciousness began to gather itself together more and more. As it gathered itself together, some changes had also taken place in the surrounding place.
A yellow fluid that was submerged in the viscous fluid began to slowly solidify over time in response to the rate at which the mass of consciousness condensed.
Over time, faint impressions began to form on the yellowish fluid that had almost completely solidified itself into a round ball.
Indentations formed in some places while the other places experienced an outgrowth; the mass of consciousness then settled within the yellow solidified structure.
Organs began to form with the heart taking the lead, followed by the numerous connecting nerves and tissues that formed the body. The surrounding transparent viscous fluid then began to get absorbed into the formed yellow body.
The yellow body then began to turn a certain shade of pink as the transparent viscous fluid got absorbed into it and began to form tissues and other prominent muscle mass.
Many days had passed by now as the mass of consciousness had completely solidified and settled somewhere inside the fleshly body.
Occasionally, the limbs of the fleshly mass twitched in response to the various nervous stimulations actuated by its brain while its body began to grow in size and complexity.
Many more days had passed by now, the fleshly mass had grown large enough that the elongated spherical space that enclosed it began to feel cramped. The mass of consciousness that had settled inside it began to gain luminescence as thought processes were initiated.
Finally, when the fleshly body had grown large enough, it began to peck at the surrounding space with its beak.
'Crack'
The space that enclosed it finally began to finally show some signs of cracks under its relentless efforts.
Traces of sunlight leaked through the cracks and illuminated the cramped space and finally, a huge portion of the once dark space opened up as a tiny beak peaked out into the world.
Prakash opened his eyes and gazed at the familiar ceiling once again; his dream had finally ended.