An Incident

It was a cold evening of the winter season and after spending hours in the laboratory, Dr Singh and his companions Dr Swami and Amisha were enjoying the campfire in the farmhouse. The farmhouse was the property of Dr Singh spread over the area of about 50 hectares having a house, a laboratory, orchards, and vast space for growing crops. The farmhouse was located in a small village some miles from the city. Dr Singh along with his colleagues was working on a secret project funded by an unknown source. For this purpose, he had a well-equipped laboratory of his own. Dr Singh was a nature lover and was fond of camping. He used to set a camp on his farmhouse and enjoy a warm campfire, especially in winters.

Dr Singh said to Swami, "I am surprised with the growth rate of a new strain of the virus. Many times more than that of before." 

Dr Swami, "it is doing well on the host. I introduced it to the host early morning today. Kumar is there to check all the parameters of the host's body."

Water for coffee was boiling on the fire and they were busy talking. It was a cold evening. Sun had already set and the moon along with stars was spreading cool moonlight. At this time nobody else was in the farmhouse. The servant was sent to leave by Dr Singh. The dog named Rocky who was a half pet dog was enjoying the warmth of the campfire sitting near. The farmhouse was situated about two miles away from the village and was surrounded by partially a raw wall and partially by hedges. It provided Dr Singh and his colleague complete privacy to work on their project.

Dr Singh was a famous virologist and was working as a visiting professor at the University. Dr Swami was a famous biologist. And Amisha was a research fellow working under Dr Swamy. Dr Singh and Swamy were close friends. The trio was working on a secret project those days. And Kumar was working as an assistant to them.

Coffee was ready and Amisha was pouring it in the cups. Dr Singh said, "Kumar is still in the laboratory. He is working so seriously."

Dr Swami said to Amisha, "call him here?"

After serving coffee, she began to call him on the mobile. She was unwilling to leave the warmth of the fire. 

Her call was not answered. She tried again but this time she got no response. 

They were sipping coffee. All of a sudden Rocky rose to his feet and ran towards the laboratory. Dr Swami saw Rocky running towards the laboratory and he asked her about Kumar. She told him that he was not attending the call. Rocky began to bark loudly. None of them gave attention to the barking. They thought that Rocky was barking at any small rodent. They got busy in their talking. After a minute or two, the barking turned into a growling, and then the growling ceased to come. No one gave attention to it. They got so absorbed that they even forget Kumar.

After a few minutes, when Amisha moved to take some more coffee, her eyes fell towards the laboratory. In the darkness of the way to the laboratory, she saw someone was limping towards them. She put pressure on her eyes to look through the flames of a campfire. After one or two moments, whatever she saw was dreadful enough to send chills down her spine. She began to tremble with fear and looked at Dr Swami and somehow said, "Kumar..." She could not speak any more words and spread her arm towards the laboratory. 

Dr Swami looked back and saw Kumar was limping towards them. Kumar, by this time, had come to them. In the light of the campfire, they saw Kumar drenched with his blood, paled and trembling with pain and fear. Before they could ask him what happen, he fell on the ground near the campfire. 

Dr Singh was shocked at Kumar's state. Somehow he managed to come to action. He with great fear and excitement touched the paled and cold body of Kumar and asked him, "What happened to you?" 

With great difficulty and in a trembling voice, Kumar replied, "he has come round and become a zombie and attacked me." Saying so he got unconscious. 

Hearing this, Dr Singh got startled and yelled out with excitement and surprise, "What! He became active! So much early!" And looked at Dr Swami and said, "now what?"

Swami cried with fear, "soon the zombie will get out of control." Saying so he picked up a thin and long log of wood from the nearby pile of woods.

Just then they heard the growling sound coming from the direction of the laboratory. Dr Singh threw the light of his torch and found someone was coming towards them. He shouts with fear, "Oh no! The zombie is coming towards us. Let's go into the house."

 And rushed to the house. Amisha followed him. Dr Singh saw the unconscious Kumar for a moment. All of a sudden a sense of pity prevailed him and he picked Kumar upon his shoulders and rushed to the house. 

 Up till now, the zombie had come near to the campfire. When it saw Dr Singh going to the cottage, it let out a shrill shriek of anger and rushed to Singh. 

Singh got just one or two moments for closing the door of the cottage. As soon as the door closed, the zombie reached and began to bang the door. All of them were now in the hall of the house. Kumar was still unconscious, Singh put him on the sofa set. Hearing the bang at the door, she began to cry with fear. She was trembling with fear.

    

The window of the hall was open. The zombie stopped bagging and came to the window. It looked into the hall through the iron grill of the window. Now the result of their evil project was before them. The zombie recognized its creators at once and began to look at them with rage. All of a sudden the zombie began to bang on the grill with all of its full force.

Dr Swami darted to the window and struck at the iron grill with a wooden log. The zombie cringed away and Dr Swami closed the window. He then turned towards Amisha and said to her, "control yourself and don't be afraid. I have a revolver to use if the situation arises. Please go to your room and close the door."

She followed his suggestion and went to her room. 

Dr Singh said to Swami, "the virus reproduced themselves in the host's body at the rate more than we calculated. And it turned the host's body into a zombie much sooner than we thought." 

Dr Swami said to him, "and what about Kumar? How much time will it take to turn Kumar's body into a zombie?"

Singh said, "a few hours." 

Semi felt sorry for Kumar. He said, "then we have lost him."

All of a sudden, Kumar who was lying unconscious on the sofa, came round and looked around. He let out a horrific and shrill shriek. The shriek was horrific enough to make Swami and Singh shudder with fright. They got so frightened that they couldn't move even a single foot to run away. 

               

Now Kumar was not the same as he was before. Several changes were taking place in him which would transform him gradually into a zombie. He knew what was happening to him but he couldn't do anything. A zombie bite initiated these changes in him. Gradually he too will become a zombie. 

                

Swami and Singh were looking at the results of their evil experiments. Kumar's skin colour changed to white and his eyes became wider than usual. He would have to face many other changes and then within a few hours he would become a zombie. Kumar moved to them. At this, they began to run away from him. Kumar said to them, "don't be afraid of me. I won't harm you. What wrong has happened and what will happen is not the fault of only you. I, too, was involved in this deed. And I have no right to live after doing such a misdeed. I don't want to live being a zombie. Zombification has been beginning in my body. Before it is too late, I should end my life." Saying so he began to go to his room. 

Singh and Swami looked at each other for a moment. Something came to Swami's mind and he moved to Kumar. Seeing this, Singh held him by his hand and said to him, "Let him go."

After a few moments, a report of gunfire came from Kumar's room. They rushed to the room and found Kumar dead on the floor. A gunshot had opened his skull. Swami couldn't see the dreadful scene and immediately got away from the scene. Singh stayed there for some moments. 

Swami was feeling sick and wished to run away. He took notice of the fact that now there was no sound of the banging at the door. For a moment he thought that the zombie who was banging the door had gone and he moved to the door but suddenly he stopped. He did not dare to open the door. 

Just then Singh came out saying, "Why did he kill himself! He did not need to kill himself." 

Swami turned to him and replied, "because he didn't want to be a zombie." 

Singh argued, "Why!"

Swami stared at him with anger. Seeing him in anger, Singh got silent. After some moments, he murmured to himself, "there is a zombie inside all of us."

Swami didn't want to be with Singh. Swami knocked at the door of Amisha's room and said loudly, "open the door, I want to come in."

She opened the door. He entered the room and said, "He has gone mad." 

She was in a panic after hearing the report of gunfire. She asked him about the gunfire.

He replied, "Kumar has committed suicide." 

Hearing this she got aghast and looked at him. 

"He didn't want to be a zombie, " he said.

She asked him, "what comes next?"

Ignoring her question, he said, "I must destroy the virus cultures." Saying so Swami rushed to his room and took out his gun and rushed out of the villa, out of the room. He found the door of the cottage open and Singh was not in the hall. He went out and looked for Singh but he was nowhere. He rushed to the laboratory. On reaching the laboratory, he found Dr Singh fallen unconscious on the floor. The blood was oozing from his body. He leaned over Singh's body and turned it and found several marks of bite on it. He took out his gun and looked around and found no one. "Where is the Zombie? " he murmured. He began to look again carefully at Singh in an attempt to find a clue. Here Amisha came to join him. When her eyes fell on the body of Sing, she moved back in fear and let out a muffled shriek in fear. Hearing her shrill, Swami looked at her and said, "he, too, was bitten. And he will soon turn into a zombie."

He continued, "come with me and help me in destroying the virus cultures. I don't want to continue this destructive project."

"But where is that Zombie?" She asked. 

"He is now roaming free somewhere. And the dog, too, is roaming free." 

They closed the door of the laboratory and then tied Singh's limbs with a rope and then put him into a storeroom. Then they proceeded to the chamber where the cultures of the virus were stored. Here they worked for about two hours to destroy the virus culture and other stuff.

They didn't know what was going outside the laboratory. 

After destroying the virus cultures, Swami said to Amisha, "We will have to do away with Singh."

She looked at him with an expression of sadness and disapproval on her face. She had sympathy with Singh. He continued, "look, he has no chance of recovery. There is no medicine for this virus. It is better to kill him otherwise he shall certainly kill others."

Tears began to roll down from her eyes. She said nothing. Swami took out his gun and went to storeroom where Singh was imprisoned. From inside the sound of howling was coming. They stopped at the door of the storeroom. Swami opened the door with little noise and went in. As soon as Singh looked up at him, he opened the fire. The bullets killed him piercing his chest.

Sun was about to rise when they come out of the laboratory. They immediately left the farmhouse and headed to the city. On the way, about a mile away from the farmhouse they saw Rocky with four other dogs standing in the middle of the road. He blew the horn but instead of moving aside, they began to run toward the car. Seeing this aggressive movement of the dogs, Swami accelerated his car and Amisha closed her eyes. After a moment the car ran over the dogs and sped away leaving behind the painful screams and cries of dogs. They took a sigh of relief when they reached their homes. They didn't know what would come next. 

Having gone through such a terrible night, they were so tired that they immediately fell into a deep sleep after lying on the bed. After sunset, their sleep was broken by the loud noises in the streets. They felt something bad was happening outside. They were hearing the sounds of sirens, horns, gunfires, and cries of peoples. Amisha began to tremble with fear. She was still under the influence of whatever had happened last night. Swami gets out of the bed to look at what was going outside. He opened the window with trembling hands and looked out and he got shocked seeing what was going outside. Due to shock, he couldn't say a single word.

Outside, there was nothing but chaos all around. People were running for their life. Streets were filled with police vans and ambulances, and fire trucks. He can see through the window the cause of this chaos. The result of their evil experiment was before his eyes.

"What is happening out?" Amisha asked him. 

Somehow he managed to open his mouth to give her a reply. He said to her in a trembling voice, "zombies have come." 

Hearing these words Amisha did what was unexpected to Swami. She let out a scream and ran out of the apartment. He ran behind her to stop her from going out. But he couldn't stop her. Coming out of the apartment she ran straight to a swarm of zombies and got lost in the swarms. The swarms of zombies were getting bigger and bigger with each passing hour.