"Why are you locking them? I have a business appointment in Cholapur! Let me pass or I'll refer to your superior!" Said a man with a complex outfit.
"Sir, I can't access your request, the order came straight out from the king himself." The guard politely refused before jumping on a high ground platform. He announced. "To all citizens, the king requested you to head back home, and lock yourselves for the two next days. Those who cannot may head to the nearest mandir." 'I can't believe we can't inform them of the problem.'
The tone in the crowd rose, making more than one flinch at the same time made the people emanate their frustration.
The same man spoke again, not to complain but to help the other notice.
"What's that?" He said, pointing at a thick black cloud next district.
A fire started when a woman got attacked while she cooked. The fire first caught on her dress and spread once her and her assailant fell on the ground.
"Another fire! That's the monster's deed! He came back to kill us all!"
"Come on old rag, you can't randomly shout that every time there's a bit of smoke around!" Another said. Alas, everyone's thoughts were cut short by a crowd running toward them, hands up and scared faces.
"Run away! The evil army came, they kill blindly and eat our flesh!"
One of the things approached from afar, its gurgling could be heard while it staggered forward. To the soldiers, guarding the west gate, it was but a joke. The threat looked like a beggar after a mud bath.
Three of them came near it with their weapons at hand.
The man being non verbal, one of the naivest guard stabbed it in the leg, but the man came closer without seemingly feeling the pain. The guards' tingling senses told them to back off because of eminent danger. Three other beggars came with the same approach, distracting the people for too long.
One more person was bitten and his blood was contaminated.
The mixture of corporal fluids embedded in an unknown curse led to all of this, a mutation developing for months until maturation. The thriving disease held Keith's hunger.
The man leading the gate's crew couldn't disobey his king and, from the top of his lungs, he shouted until his head got all red.
"RUN AWAY! SEEK REFUGE IN MANDIRS!"
Even though the alleys weren't narrow, people piled on the other as soon as one tripped. Their weight killed more than one from the youngest to the oldest. The weak died first. Panic spread faster than the multiple fires in the southern district.
---
In the palace, Keith was once more forcibly escorted. He had only words to argue, he was against exiting the palace to encounter the other dead walkers. He begged.
"Please, don't let me out! I don't know what to do, I don't know how the one from the hall died!"
"The sole reason you've lived peacefully in your room is now happening, why would you miss the occasion? If you're not 'the' solution to my problems as Foresee said, I'll throw you both in my special underground grave." Replied Chandragupta, not caring about trampling on Keith's hope.
He clung on the king's outfit, tearing it apart with his blunt nails and thin fingers, thinking about how he could buy time. 'What can I say? He's not buying any of it, we're done for. Say something Show.'
'Tell him you stole something from him, and you won't be able to return it if you go outside.'
"Listen! I stole from you! I'm not returning it if you push me out." The kid said.
The king barely lifted his eyebrow before answering. "I don't care, I can't suffer from a stolen object, I can buy tens of Varanasi and still have enough excess to paint a mountain blue."
'Tell him you'll curse his lineage then! I don't know how to anger a king, I can't go out and help you, it's too bright outside, kid.' Show had not much solutions, he never spoke about his sun issue. Why wouldn't he come out ?
The kid was annoyed on his owner's complex but he did his best to stay focused on the main problem.
"I'll curse you! I'll bind your lineage to dogmeat and maggots so you and your family will have a horrible way to die"
This came out a little to high for some provocation. It turned into hate toward the one about to abandon the blind kid outside. Keith became more agitated and scratched the king multiple times, disrupting the long walk.
"I don't care! You are here to save my city, I've used my walls to imprison the calamity falling upon us, trapping with me twenty thousand citizen, and twenty thousand more soldiers to fight against it. Do your thing, curse me, but save my city. I'm counting on you Seven. PREM! You go after him, you are allowed to let him ride you if you need to run."
Prem regretted passing nearby.
Keith gritted his teeth.
The main gates of the palace were crowded of citizens, begging for shelter. The temple next to it was stormed and few were wise enough to not approach the place. they banged on the door, stepping on the others if needed. In the end, the two locations reflected their problems in each other.
Both had their doors tightly shut, but inhabitants were determined and once more their weight pushed them toward achievement with each passing minute.
From a rear balcony, the kid and the servant were hung with torn curtains and gold lined ropes. Keith's hands were tied together and put around Prem's neck to ease their slow fall. During their descent to hell, the masculine voice of the guard who vanished muttered in Prem's ears.
"The first occasion I get, I'll bite your throat and drink the red liquid coursing your veins until you resemble the corpse in the main hall."
'Hell what?' Prem thought before lifting his head, screaming to draw his king's attention.
"My king I am afraid of Seven, can't I switch position with Kianush? Or anyone? I wouldn't mind if I was to commute with Rhodo!" He said with a high pitched voice.
He was already five meters below the balcony and had almost reached the ground level, attracting more attention on him before he landed.
The rope was cut before anyone became ambitious enough to climb it.
'Great! Now I have to run with that frightening kid on my back to where? Like hell they would give me a direction before throwing me down with Seven!' Thought Prem.
The servant could see the two atrophied limbs around his neck. Keith's hands hung in front of him all along, the mask was just a fig leaf for the worst part. As for the kid's loose clothes, they caught air while they ran together toward the nearest housed area, making Prem look like the King's fool with a balloon on the back.
"Go south, find a house, do your king's ambassador thing Prem, we both need place to think, a quiet one at best." Said Keith with his voice.
Prem touched Keith hands, but they retracted closer to his neck in the blink of an eye. The manly voice whispered again.
"Don't try me. I still have the mask but I can strangle you." The strength emanated from Keith's sleeves. Two tiny feet could be felt on his low back, putting more effort in the strangling. Show pressed harder and harder until he heard a shy "Understood."
---
Twelve hundred meters away, Picco and his eight comrades sweat profusely. The captain in the basement kept hitting the door, its hinges wouldn't last long.
"We need to prepare. Vilero did not come back yet there's barely a kilometre to the headquarter, and a few meters more to reach the palace. Anyone can cover this distance thrice in less time."
Said one soldier.
"Our archer may not be the fastest arrow in the group but he's loyal, he can't have deserted his outpost. Picco? How's outside?" asked Jaggar, the head of the group.
"Situation unclear. There's no civilian around, just the people from before zoning around. There's also my friend outside, but I'm afraid he's in no better shape than the captain."
Yotoh was outside, the bitten arm had swollen beads of pus all around. From the mark, the liquid leaked like honey drips from honeycomb. The pustules spread to his throat and black veins coloured his face.
In-between two planks, Picco's eyes were sad but unnoticeable through the thin fumes and the flying sand.
"We'll attack the captain." Said Jaggar with a determined tone. "He's putting us in danger, and judging from the outsider's wounds, the injury is getting more severe by the second, I don't think we'll find him in a shape as good as the one we left him with. I'm not even sure he'd heal from those, his hand was already swollen. Rotten blood is a common way to die even in the great city."
He kneeled in front of his arched saber, muttering for the forgiveness of the upcoming patricide.
"I'll cut your wish of dying old with my blade, for every years I'm taking from you, I'll spend as many millenias in Hell."
With his pray over, Jaggar unsheathed his saber and ordered his men to open the door.