'B-Boom'
A Thunder cloud hovered in the sky as sounds of thunder broiled throughout the troposphere while sparks of lightning occasionally flickered through it.
A torrent of rain descended upon the flooded land and served to further increase its water regions. Faint undercurrents formed in the murky waters as the falling rainwater increased its height which in turn made it flow further into the land, carrying tonnes of debris along with it.
The evening sun was mostly blocked by the thunderclouds while the occasional flashes of lightning lit up the dark skies.
Inside a massive concrete structure that occupied a large area within the murky waters like a small hill, activities resumed in full swing as the people of the base began to rebuild their Lego structures.
Treating the injured ones, planning and building new structures, and mourning for the deceased; the humans in the base engaged themselves in a plethora of activities and busied themselves, all in an effort to suppress the memories of their dear ones who had lost their lives.
The ability to endure and survive; humans were the species to exhibit this trait the most, the only reason they could survive on the planet for as long as they had.
In a corner of the shopping mall, directly opposite to their base, it was a scene of blood and carnage. The entire floor was littered with fresh blood of birds that was layered with thick yellowish pus.
Broken organs of birds lay haphazardly scattered all throughout the floor, mixed with faint traces of purple blood that belonged to the humans. There were no longer any signs of life in the cinema hall.
Within the cinema theatre that was named 'Screen-1', the body of a headless bird continued to twitch while something tried to force its way out of its stomach region. At least 4-5 bird carcasses were piled above it which pressurised its bird body.
The bird had lost its head due to reasons unknown while the entity within its body continued to climb its way up.
From the stomach, it continued through the throat region with great difficulty, occasionally stopping in place for some duration in order to rest before resuming its motion.
After an unknown time had passed, a slender hand forced its way out and pushed the contracting muscles to the side. From within it, the head of a woman peeked out as she struggled to anchor her leg in the food pipe of the bird but its insides proved way too slippery and constricting for her own good.
"Haah," The woman exerted force in her hands and pulled her body out of the muscle mass with one last struggle.
'Plop'
Banking on the force of her force exertion, the body of the woman flew out of the bird's throat; her motion was followed by a jet of red blood that had faint traces of purple mixed into it. Her body was like the cork that had been forced into the mouth of a coke bottle that had been shaken to the extreme and had burst out as a result.
She had to face the pressure of the muscle mass that constricted her from the sides and the pressure exerted by the blood from below that wanted to gush out. So, the moment she had crept out forward enough to the neck region of the bird where the force exerted by the surrounding flesh had decreased to a considerable extent, she was sent reeling forward to a couple of metres.
Her speed of exit made her fragile body slide on the slippery floor and collide into many bits and pieces of flesh, blood, feathers, and organs along the way. The blood that had covered the floor dyed her body red while the lightweight feathers got stuck to her body, almost suffocating her.
'Tss' 'Plop'
The woman tried to get up by pushing her hands on the floor and using the resulting force to prop her body up, but her hands failed to find any grip on the slippery floor and slipped in response to her application of force. The fall made her head crash into the floor; a faint trace of purple blood leaked out of her forehead.
"Is this where I am going to die?" The woman despaired as she looked at her surroundings that were filled with blood, feathers, and gore. Remains of birds were scattered everywhere.
"I…I want to live. I don't want to die, not yet."
The woman rubbed her hands over her stomach that had bulged to a considerable degree and felt a feeling of despair as something seemed to have been smashed within it.
"No..no…noooooo!"
The woman hollered in defeat and despair, even after she had survived with great difficulty, she still lost something that was even more precious than her own life. Her husband had made the ultimate sacrifice just to gain her that window of life, a window to safeguard their creation. Now, it seemed like it was all in vain.
Her voice echoed through the vacant surroundings as she exhibited all her anger on the floor, flailing her limbs like a deranged person as the accumulated pools of red blood on the floor splashed every time she hit them.
She was three months pregnant; it was a joyful situation as she and her husband were in tears. Finally, they could have a child of their own.
"Finally, finally… thank you Shristi, thank you," A man hugged his wife and bawled like a baby, without minding the stares of the surrounding doctors.
They had gotten married when she was 26 while he was 28 years old, a slightly delayed marriage as compared to people in their city who got married one or two years prior to that age. But, they didn't care about that.
They loved each other dearly and cared about spending time with each other more than their social personas. They were already couples for more than 5 years, so they planned to take their own time, enjoying their youth, settling somewhere in comfort, etc.
But, fate had planned otherwise; no matter what they did, Shristi could never become pregnant.
The husband for the first part had a low fertility rate, something that was relatively rare in their city while his wife suffered from hormonal imbalance, possibly due to all the contraceptive pills she had consumed during her younger days when she had an unbridled nature and wanted to enjoy with her lover.
As a result, they couldn't have a child of their own. Moreover, they felt averse to even consider the option of artificial insemination, not to mention other medical alternatives.
But thankfully, 7 years later, when Shristi was 33 years old, she was finally conceived with a baby child, not one, but a pair of twins. It was a joyous occasion. Finally, they were rewarded for all their years of hard work.
The couple then decided to watch a movie on their return home in celebration. It was when things went south, horribly.
The apocalypse descended and they suddenly lost consciousness in the middle of the movie. When they woke up, they were shocked to find their shrunk bodies.
The moment she woke up, she reflexively inspected her stomach region and heaved a sigh of relief when nothing seemed to be amiss in that part. It was then she saw her husband fall beside her and hurriedly inquired about her well-being. The man had jumped over the hand rest and poorly landed on her seat. He wasn't a physically fit man, mostly attributed to him being an IT employee.
The entire theatre became chaotic as the helpless people struggled to hop from one seat over to the other. Thankfully, they hadn't faced any threat to their lives. Owing to the fact that the theatres were sealed for the most part, except for the AC vents and the hole where the projector light beamed through.
Eventually, the people somehow found their way around stuff and huddled together near the screen and began to brainstorm about their future actions.
There were many emotions that were streaming among the people due to the resulting confusion the change in their body sizes had caused.
Shristi noticed a strange fact; as time passed, the bulge in her stomach was steadily growing in size.
The night passed in a peaceful manner baring any external threats. But, it was during the morning on the following day that trouble struck them.
An intense sharp knocking sound echoed from the door that sent the chills through their spines. In preparation for whatever that may come through the door, the people within armed themselves with any and all sharp objects they came across.
Pen refills, broken Debit/Credit cards, hair clips, etc. they used their meagre strengths to make their impromptu weapons deadlier as they waited with bated breaths. A small hole had finally opened in the door.
In their fear, everyone had huddled themselves in a corner far away from the door so that they wouldn't b the first to face the unknown. But as a result, they couldn't see anything that occurred near the door with their poor vision.
The stomach of Shristi had already bulged to be big enough that only mothers who bore a six-month-old baby would have. She inserted herself within a seat cushion while her husband half inserted himself into the entrance, acting as bait with the resolve to die etched on his face.
Time passed in such a fashion as a hole big enough for the birds to pass through was opened up. The birds rushed in and attacked them. Their resistance proved futile in the face of their overwhelming flight-capable giant foes.
Even though they had the advantage in numbers, their size and strength were so low that they were practically easy targets for the most part.
Barring any surprises, everyone was either killed and eaten or swallowed whole. Shristi was among the latter and hence managed to temporarily survive as the birds attacked each other after each consumed their fill of all the humans.
After that, cancer-like sprouts appeared all across their bodies that began to burst one by one after they had grown big enough, slowly killing the birds they grew on.
It was the sequence of actions that led to the current state of Shristi. She currently lacked a leg and bled profusely all across her body. Moreover, she had sustained an irreparable injury to her stomach, precisely to the entity growing within her.
"I refuse to accept this! I refuse! I refuse!" Shristi continued to scream, but her screams could not reverse that which had already happened.
She had already lost a large amount of blood; as a result, her consciousness was fading. Shristi hadn't resolved herself to her fate yet, but it seemed like her body could no longer hold on.
"If there's someone out there, please save my child; whatever the cost I have to pay, I don't care. Please save my children."
Her eyelids closed upon her final prayer. Nothing happened!
"As if I can accept this bullshit!"
Shristi mustered every last ounce of her strength and bellowed at the top of her lungs. She struggled to raise her body and stand up.
"If I want to do something, I should struggle for it myself," Shristi had just managed to stand up with great difficulty on her one leg when her head began to spin. Her blood loss disoriented her spatial perception and physical sense of balance.
On her efforts to control herself, her leg slipped due to the slippery blood-coated floor and fell down. She hit her head on her fall, leading to another injury that bled purple blood.
Her eyes turned vacant, she had expended the final reserves of her strength.
It was at this time, something mystical occurred. In response to her desire, two clouds of purple smoke emerged out of her stomach and hovered in the air.
"My….childr…..ren," Shristi weakly muttered as she gazed at the two clouds that had formed. Her maternal instincts instantly related to the appearance of the two clouds to her two children.
The two clouds of purple smoke rotated around each other as they voraciously began to suck the air around them. Like a vacuum, two streams of air gushed towards them and entered their bodies.
At the same speed it entered their bodies; the air emerged out from the other side, with no indication that it had experienced any change.
But the two purple clouds were rapidly changing as they sucked in the surrounding air, becoming more defined as time passed. The purple clouds gained more mass and sentience as the air flowed through their bodies. They then began to shrink and further raise their density.
A steady stream of purple smoke gushed out of the head of Shristi before splitting into two and entering the two purple clouds. On closer inspection, small image fragments floated within the stream of purple smoke that entered the two purple clouds which depicted various instances of two figures in various situations, experiences, emotions, etc.
Her entire life experiences from the moment of her birth until the present flowed out of her and transformed into the image fragments. The two purple clouds gained sentience the more they digested the image fragments gushing into them while the mind of Shristi was slowly becoming dull and vacant.
The clouds slowly condensed into the bodies of two babies that looked like they were in a sleeping position.
"Ah..ahh…ahhhhh!" Shristi felt a sense of fulfilment and relief as she gazed at the figures of two babies that revolved around each other before her and breathed her last.
In the reddish-brown waters, the Gharial abruptly surfaced and came to a stop while a crow landed atop it. The mini Shaggy within it retracted itself towards the body of Vikram and entered the body of Victoris. It seemed that Victoris had urgently commanded for its return.
Ugly Shaggy then emerged out of the crow and controlled the body of the Gharial. The Gharial hurriedly swam towards the steps and climbed a couple of them with great difficulty and rested. Ugly Shaggy once again entered the head of the crow and took off to the skies.
The crow then landed near Prakash and kicked him awake. Without waiting for him to fully wake up, the crow clutched the body of both Prakash and Vikram and took off towards the skies while Victoris gazed in a certain direction with a sense of urgency.
The crow hurriedly flew in the direction opposite to their base, accelerating to its peak speed in a matter of seconds.