After leaving the students, Viren, Raj, and Anju headed to the control room. Initially, Raj didn't want Anju to hear about this, but judging by Anju's state, Raj thought he should at least relieve her from a bit of tension.
"So? How is your eye?" Viren asked as they were climbing the stairs of the boys' hostel and boys were running around with mattresses.
"Great! It is sharper than ever," Raj said the truth, but both Anju and Viren thought he was just trying to be sarcastic.
With a frown on his face and a hint of regret in his voice, Viren spoke, "Hey... man... I am sorry... it's because of me..." and then he was interrupted by Raj, "Ohh Please! It was not your fault at all."
Viren just nodded and didn't say anything as he placed his thumb on the fingerprint sensor of the control room doors.
[Welcome, Viren Bharat]
...
After the wardens and the general had left, the remaining kids started completing their orders.
"I'll stay here and let the kids know where to put the mattresses," Kabir said to Jai.
Since Jai was the head boy, he had the authority to lead the boys to a certain degree when both wardens were not present. Being a sincere person, Jai never misused his powers.
In reply to Kabir, Jai nodded and said, "Maya will stay with you and help the girls." But as he finished this, Maya herself said, "I will not." Even if someone had not seen her death stare towards Jai, they could tell from her voice that she was pissed.
She was indeed furious at these attempts of Jai and Sarah to force her into dating Kabir.
Knowing Maya's mood, Sarah just put her hand on Maya's shoulder and with a smile, she said, "It's okay. Riya will stay here; I need her help anyways."
"Hi! I am Kiaan," Kiaan introduced himself to Sam, to which Sam just looked at his hand in annoyance. Without shaking it, she just said, "Hmm."
But "There he goes, throwing himself over me," was what Sam was thinking.
After holding his hand for a while, Kiaan just let out a sigh and continued, "Generator room is this way." He used his left hand to gesture towards the right side. Sam hadn't even looked, but she started walking in that direction.
"Why is he ignoring me?" Kiaan said as he scanned Sam from top to bottom while walking behind her."
...
After being greeted by the computer system, Raj asked both wardens to sit at the conference table as he placed down all three backpacks he was carrying.
"Look, I'll not sugarcoat anything, but Viren, you are forked," Raj said calmly. "But, there is a way that might help you survive this virus," the general continued.
Hearing this, Anju's sorrowful mood changed, but then as sudden as it came, it went away. "But you said there is no cure," she said as her voice faded.
To which Raj replied calmly at first, "It's not a cure but..." Raj's voice then became heavy as he too didn't want to say it. "But it's... it's a sort of curse," Raj completed his words as he put his hand on his stomach. He was actually feeling hungry; he hadn't had any food since yesterday evening.
Let me explain what has occurred since yesterday, and let me start this from the beginning," Raj said as he pulled out a box from one of the backpacks and handed it to Viren.
"About the virus and about the people who bonded with this virus and became the mutants we call 'The Evolved,'" Raj said as he took out a big lunchbox from the backpack and went to dine.
....
Raj will tell a lot of unnecessary details and will be interrupted by Anju and Viren from time to time. So, instead of him being your narrator, allow me to give you the important details of what Raj had told them. (Allow, lol, Like you have a beeping choice.)
....
The Covid pandemic's first wave was very immense and had created a huge havoc last year (2020; the story's timeline is 2021), and it had caused many deaths. Luckily, a private organization had managed to create a vaccine, Covid Kawach (Kawach means shield), for this virus.
This vaccine was supposed to be distributed in two phases: Phase 1, the dose of the vaccine, and Phase 2, the special immunity booster vaccine. Phase one had gone without any trouble and was a huge success. So much so that India became the first country to not only be vaccinated 100% but also to help other countries and provide them with these vaccines.
But then the second wave of this corona hit the world, and it was affecting people even after vaccination. The Phase two vaccine still needed to be tested several more times on patients, but due to the emergency situation, the company was forced to release the vaccine without proper experiments on humans.
And the camps for vaccination were started four days ago throughout the world. Unfortunately, this phase of vaccine backfired. Instead of boosting human immunity, it mutated the virus and made them capable enough to latch onto humans' brains and control them after they die.
Unlike any living being, this virus too needed a source of energy and it had two ways: either slowly eat away their host or make the host eat flesh and then consume it through the host's body.
This virus was not a big threat since it started the day before yesterday, but somehow the virus discovered that it can reproduce itself and infect others by saliva or blood. It is not clear to anyone whether the virus discovered this or the humans discovered that after being bitten they too will act like the infected humans. But they assumed that it was the former.
The Indian government protected the scientists who were on this project and provided them with enough resources to continue their research along with some other scientists.
...
This is from where it starts getting intresting.
The team of scientists discovered that there were some individuals who were able to bond with the virus. This bonding was random; there was no specific reason why these people were able to bond with the virus and others were not able to, and this bond also altered the humans' bodies.
The mixture of virus and vaccine mutated them, densing their muscles and bones. These humans weighed from 200kg to 500kg depending on their sizes and had unimaginable strength and speed. But this newfound power had two drawbacks.
1st: These humans could only consume raw meat and nothing else.
2nd: They also had to go through the same process of dying and then waking up, but instead of being controlled by the virus, they were in control of their bodies, and after the resurrection, they would be hungry and should eat up to 20-40 kg of meat.
The scientists and people gave them the name 'Resurrected,' and they even managed to create a few bottles of resurrection serum with the help of the first resurrected girl, Agent S.
Later, people discovered that severing the bite mark can also save these people from dying and give them a slight boost in strength and speed without becoming a resurected, and they didn't even have to eat raw meat. But they too had a drawback, that after they die, they were bound to turn into these infected humans.
The team of scientists named them Undeads.
The resurrected can regrow their limbs and can only die after their brains are crushed, just like the zombies, whereas the Undeads didn't share these benefits.
...
During this explanation, Raj had told them that Agent S was the first resurrected, Agent G was the first known Undead, and his left arm was not real but prosthetic. Raj himself was the first test subject of the resurrection serum, which was made with the help of Agent S. Raj even revealed his left eye, which was fully healed, surprising both wardens as they knew that Raj's eye was damaged in his last mission.
....
"The box I gave you," Raj pointed at the metal box he gave Viren earlier, "it contains the only serum currently in existence and a syringe you would need. I suggest you take it as soon as possible," Raj completed while he put his lunch box back in the backpack.
"Also, judging by the time you were bitten, you only have 2 hours left to take the serum. The more you delay, the much fewer chances you will have to become a resurrected," Raj continued in a firm voice, as if he was ordering his best friend.