[ D day - 3 ] [ 6 H : 18 M : 23 S ] [ State capital H ]
Vinod was at home, busy on the computer watching the comments on the youtube video. After he had finished with the video, on a whim, he searched for different articles.
He left misdirecting comments that lead them away from his brother on all the articles, unaware that could be flag raising behavior.
It is for this reason the national police focused on his ID first. Then, Vikram's bank activity is pulled up illegally, confirming the suspicion.
Fortunately, just these two are enough for a private person to conclude, not the government. For the government to take action, the bank activity has to be obtained legally. Then, there must be irrefutable proof of Vikram's presence everywhere the portal has broken.
By noon, when nothing happened, Vinod calmed down a lot.
He informed his brother of the situation. Then, he concentrated on the task he had received, which was buying seeds and downloading all the videos teaching martial arts on youtube.
He bought one more laptop, and tablet, both for himself and Virat.
Surprisingly, Vikram said nothing.
Thus, Vinod had gotten bold.
Along with the tower garden, pipes, and agricultural paraphernalia, he bought live broadcast equipment, on the scale of a second generation rich kid.
As much as he wanted to broadcast everything live, Vinod held back for the time being and turned on TV to check on news.
There were far too many developments in the small time.
England decided to not touch any of its portals.
South Korea, Israel, USA, most of Europe and Africa announced their plans to allow all people to join the military on a voluntary basis, as hunters.
The United Nations was discussing creating a world wide hunter organization.
In China, Korea and Japan the people are excited, thinking the real world was going to resemble webnovels. There, the hunter movement is even more advanced, with voluntary hunters forming cliques called guilds.
The apps are getting released in the USA, India and China as all the small scale software companies rushed to make the first app that's useful to hunters.
Google announced it will remodel glass to suit the hunter's needs.
Apple announced it will remodel the watch to suit hunter's needs.
Once again, Amazon was thrown to the side, with no device of it's own that directly relates to being on the body of an active person.
Pissed, amazon directly called a board meeting, later, a press conference to announce drone delivery will be expedited. It launched a simultaneous testing in two of the sites, where all the deliveries are done through on-station drones, hanging from a helium balloon.
Everywhere on the Internet, there are conspiracy theories going on.
Most martial artists are removing their tutorials from Youtube, and shifting them to skill share.
They left only one or two tutorials on youtube, for the beginners.
All the other videos are being locked as the advanced classes.
A similar thing has happened with the weapon makers videos.
The only ones who left their videos on are DIY weapon makers, who rather depended on the ad-income, for they have only one video.
After some thinking, Vinod went to a skill share website to check on the martial artists classes.
He created a check list of martial artist routines, along with Virat.
" Hey ! I want that guy. He's good. " Virat opined, while Vinod thought the guy is shit.
This pot bellied baldie has been doing nothing but punching a sand bag repeatedly.
" Believe me, he is good. Look, his legs are perfectly bent at forty five degrees, and he really explains how and why we should make adjustments. I have practiced this pose multiple times. No one does as good as this guy. " Virat opined.
Vinod's book marked it somewhat doubtfully.
" Kids! Kids ! Come on over. They are announcing zones. " their mother shouted from outside.
The news is repeating the same things from the morning. They know the general gist.
However, what they are waiting for is the list, which announces their zonal officer, and their zone rating.
" For the county of M, district R, following are the divisions. Area K, C, B would be considered a yellow zone. The citizens are not advised to go out without a safe to leave announcement from the zonal officer.
The ratings are bound to change, and all citizens are advised to check your zone rating before you set out from home.
In further news, ISRO announced its plans to detect portals through a monitor. Currently, a monitor is being tested at the Sriharikota site. Six portals have opened in City B, which is considered the IT capital of India. The citizens are strictly advised to stay home. Various companies announced their plans to allow employees to work from their homes. "
Vinod glared at their area rating. Green zone begins right adjacent to their apartments.
So they are stuck home, while their neighbors can go anywhere as they please.
' Unfair ' he complained in his mind.
However, no matter how unfair, there's nothing they could do .
Their mother is lecturing Virat besides him.
" You little twerp. You saw that, didn't you ? you are not supposed to go out. There's nothing we could do if you go out and get locked up by the police. " their mother continued with her boogeyman story.
" Mom ! it's not the police, it's the military. " Virat chimed in, as if that made a difference.
" Does that make a difference ? Don't go out. " Vinod snarked, before returning to the computer.
However, before he could go out, a banner attracted him.
The banner read ' More predictions @omniscientReader, a paid website from Korea. More predictions from FengshuiMaster … ' there are three such websites.
He searched up the names immediately on the website.
Both of them are paid sites.
While OmniscientReader charged a humane price, FengShuimaster went the high-end route.
LuChan was somewhere in between, with a tiered payment system.
Vinod did not pay money to any of the sites.
However, he was relieved internally.
He had been distracting people from his brother's video all day. Now that all these things have come out, though the interest in the video did not decrease, the comments discussed general affairs rather than the man in the video itself.
Soon, they would lose even this small amount of interest.
Vinod fiddled with the soldier cards they had received.
India did not establish two institutions like the other countries.
They only have voluntary soldiers, however, they accept both males and females. They already have their cards printed.
So, going out is not impossible, but as long as they are in the yellow zone, they need to make their appearance at the zonal office first.
As he was wondering whether he should pay FengshuiMaster or not, a knock came on their door.
Virat rushed to open the door.
A beautiful woman stood outside.
" Namaste. I am Payal. We have rented the apartment above yours just today. I have come to greet the neighbors. Here. the sweets from the offering. " she offered it to Virat, in hindi. Seems like a north-indian.
" Oh ! Come in, Please. " Virat answered, looking at his mom.
" Mom! They are in four zero three. " he told his mom, as he settled the sweets on the table.
" Oh! Welcome to our neighborhood. Come in! Have some tea. It's just about time. Do you speak any language other than hindi ? I am not great at it, but both kids speak. Come! Come ! Sit ! " his mother rushed to show hospitality.
Vinod made way for her.
" This is my niece, Nell and my son, Bablu. " The woman introduced.
The girl looked far too exotic to be indian. Vinod wondered if she is from Kashmir. Maybe. Even Payal looked different to marathi's whom they see usually. Or is he looking at the near impossibility of an indian mixed race kid ?
While he made predictions about Nell's origin, Payal settled on the sofa.
Nell sat beside her, while Bablu was being molested by their mother.
It can't be helped. The child is far too cute.
" Oh ! How very cute. How old are you ? " His mother asked pinching the cheeks of the kid to death.
" I amm Fous yeaahss llold. " The child answered. Some of his milk teeth are gone, and he had a temporary lisp.
His mother is drowning in the cuteness of the child.
The tea was ready in no time, they were drinking the tea merrily.
Bablu was being taught how to play a new video game by Virat.
" This is a bad time to move. Did your husband move here for work ? " their mother asked Payal nosily.
" No, Aunty. My husband's work is flexible. He thought H-city is the best place to live in during these times, so we moved the family. My husband will arrive in time. " Payal answered.
" Indeed ! Indeed ! our city is the best to live in during turmoil. Public order is good and hospitals are near. Ask me if you need anything. We have lived here for decades, I know everything about this area. " Their mom assured Payal.
" Thank you, Aunty. I will ask you if I need help. " Payal responded neatly.
" How about you have dinner with us tonight ? it seems your furniture has not arrived yet. " their mother invited. She liked this girl, who is very pretty and polite.
" That .. we could not trouble you. " Payal resisted.
" Don't worry about that. We are all neighbors. Outside food is not good, moreover, they must be closing restaurants by now. Have dinner with us tonight. " their mother insisted.
" in that case.. Please let me help. " Payal asked, making their mother even more impressed.
" good … ! Good.! " Their mother took Payal to the kitchen, while explaining features of the apartment. Despite each not knowing the other's language, they communicated just fine.
Nell sat silently watching Bablu playing with Virat.
Vinod returned to his computer, to finish search and download of the various videos suggested by apocalypse articles.
At eight O'clock, just as they are setting the table, the calling bell rang once again.