Attack of the Locusts
Attack of the Locusts
The child shouted “Mother they are back. What do we do?”
The sky is blacked out. It feels like an apocalypse. The child shivers in his mother’s lap. Mira tries to cramp into the small space beside the storeroom, frenetically adjusting her position every few minutes.
They were here. The dreaded time had arrived. This was the routine for the last 3 months ever since that fateful day of September 2020. Unlike today, the sun had shined the brightest that day and everybody in the city of Udaigarh was ready to resume their work, especially since they had come to grips with the apocalyptical pandemic that had swept the whole country and the world for so long.
The fumes had broken out all of a sudden and induced panic amongst the gathering. The source belonged to a chemical plant, the oldest and a source of pride for the city. It was opened recently after the lockdown had been lifted but perhaps nobody saw this coming. In a short while, the fumes had spread all over the town and it took the incoming swarm of locusts in its clutch.
The aftermath was shocking and disastrous. People died inhaling the poisonous gas. It was like a coming of a second mega wave of destruction after the pandemic. Those who survived had enough problems to live in fear for their whole life. The locusts were now a hungry carnivorous lot. The gas had changed them and made them worst. Earlier, they were destroyer of vegetation, now they became the annihilators of all living things.
Mira and his son lived in this fear for the last 3 months. She had lost her husband to the pandemic and now she was just wishing that the last day of year would pass without taking any further casualties. It was terrible to survive in these conditions, but she had done it and she was wishing she could do it for another day. She believed in her heart that come 1st of January 2021, everything would get vanished like a master reset that will wipe away all the bugs, viruses and crashes that had happened throughout the year.
The swarm was increasing in numbers. Their ability to reproduce has multiplied and they had essentially fragmented the human populace, reducing it to bits and pieces. Only a few lucky ones survived and passing through each day became a challenge.
But Mira was determined. Everyday there were casualties but she was adamant to see the morning of January 1st, 2021. She had a firm resolve in her beliefs. She wanted to gift her son a better world and for that they needed to reach 2021.
She knew hiding would not solve their problems. They would come back again. Mira knew she had one chance but she was not willing to take it so far as it could make matters worse. But deep in her heart, she knew this would be the only chance she would get. So, listening to her heart, she went with her final weapon. She ignited a ring of fire around her house and quietly sat down in the aisle with her child in tow. The swarm followed their body scent and came in numbers, all burning to ashes.
She put her child to sleep and then closed her eyes with a belief that when they wake up, it will be the dawn of the new year.