4. In The Smoky Sorroundings

A Chapter by Dr.Vishnu

Stanley and bob was waiting for someone to show up in the road. But the road either ways showed no one. Then Stanley looked at the wrecked car of Rhodes and said,

“I am gonna take a look at the car, any availabilities! Okay”.

Bob shook his head and Stanley went towards the car. The car was lying by its side. He peeped into the car through front window. Everything inside was damaged and useless. There was Rhodes dairy torn out, and ME. Stanley leant into the car and took out the dairy and the gun (me).

Considering me he announced, “He has a gun! Nice gun!”

Bob looked at me and said, “Hmmm. Great! But obsolete.”

I screamed-- ‘Hey .no one calls me obsolete. You never heard that old is gold. I am one of the best guns in century, you know that. Oh god, these people are so ignorant.’

But Stanley said, “But still fires, right? Something is better than nothing! And it looks beautiful!”

‘Aah, I like Stanley. I know I am beautiful, even Rhodes didn’t tell me that. I Love your company Mr.Stanley’, I felt.

“There is this dairy also! Am..um..My Research-Please return back!-it says” said Stanley by looking at the dairy.

“Poor old man, huh?....uh… Can he make it?” suddenly asked bob.

With a deep exhalation, Stan replied “I don’t know. But I do know that he has very little time left.”

“Why sir?”

“He was already in shock. And he has severe head trauma creating blood deficiency to brain. Brain can’t withstand O2 insufficiency. Yet, his brain was functioning now because of collateral circulation and that won’t last long. That’s the problem. He needs urgent medical attention.”

“How do you know all these, you are not a doctor. Are you?”

“No. In EMSA camp of California, they taught us about basic life support and some emergency procedures.”

“So you are a mini doctor!”

“No. Doctors are empirical, I am theoretical, I attended few classes only” said Stan.

Both of them smiled at each other and looked their sides of road.

* * *

Stanley and Bob were standing all alone on the road. Unintentionally, Stanley looked at the distant raised land south-east to him. There was a group of people seen vaguely from here. Stanley looked more deeply to them. There were about 6-10 persons moving slowly towards them. They looked like shadows to Stanley from here.

“Hey bob, is there any village here?” asked Stan.

“Village? Are you kidding me? There is not even one house in the surroundings until City.”

“Then who are those people?” asked Stan by pointing his fingers at the distant people.

Bob observed them keenly and said confusingly, “I don’t know! There is nothing here for so many people, except bare lands, graveyards, slaughterhouses,…..”

“Graveyards?”

“Yeah, this was the biggest graveyard in the whole country dude! There was one at the back of this store too!”

“Oh I hate burial ground” exclaimed Stanley and again asked, “So, who the hell are they?”

“May be from the church or just walkers or just oooh ha ha…Zombies!” laughed Bob.

“God! At least they should have got vehicles. Hushhhh” felt Stan.

Then Stanley turned back and asked bob, “I am going in. You want something?”

“A cigarette!” said Bob.

Stanley went inside. Then bob looked at south-side direction and amazed-there were six more people.

“So, Am I getting a Hell of customers?” he thought.

Then he crossed the road and went up the raised land straight ahead of him and looked all-over. He went mad, “What the……”

* * *

Bachelor Party at church

The professional photographer, Wills was taking the photo of a bachelor couple in the yard by the

side of the church. They were giving a beautiful kissing pose to Wills. Just before he was trying to take a photo, he heard a big noise from inside of the church. They looked at the church, which was surrounded by the dreadful bats. They were flying all around the church.

But then they heard big screams from inside. They looked at each other and they ran towards the church.

* * *

Stanley was talking to Lucy and john about the situation. Then Bob came exploding in between from outside and said, “Hey, you gotta see this!”

On seeing Bob’s apprehension, Stanley and Lucy anticipated some bad and ran outside along with Bob. Bob showed them distantly- south-east direction, 30 people approx. In north-east direction, approx. 20 people and along the road there were few more of them moving here and there.

“Oh, people! So we have company!” said Lucy.

“No, No. There is definitely something wrong” said Stanley and thought for a second.

And in a nick of time he turned back and walked towards the back of the store. Slowly, Bob and Lucy followed him.

As Stanley reached the back, he just looked yonder- again there were a bunch of people wandering in the graveyard. Now Stanley can see them clearly, they were�"

{ Dombies a.k.a Dead Zombies

They just came from their own graves may be due to the curse called- BACK FROM THE GRAVE.

As I ought to explain how they look, I can give you the description of one Dombie. It was moving dozy, goosy and its left bony leg was dragging behind. Its left half of the face was lost and was replaced by dust and mud from the grave, added with the left eyeball- hanging with the support of a blood vessel it seems. He didn’t have his right arm because he lost his shoulder already. With the half brain exposing and the intestines slightly hanging, that Dombie was not just interested in anything but killing. }

Seeing that Stanley almost became spppppechless, Bob’s heart made a call to ambulance. Apart from this as usual like a lady, Lucy screamed bigger. ( AAaaaahhHH..)

With the scream, all the Dombies, who were minding their own business, stopped and looked at them slowly.

Bob’s heart redailed 911. Observing that, Stanley slowly stepped backwards. Still Dombies were staring at them.

“Just go back to the store, now and now only and I am not going to count 123, Just-run-inside. Okay!” whispered Stanley.

Lucy shook her head, but Bob was already inside- before Stanley finished his sente…

* * *

Stanley and Lucy were running towards the store entrance. Even they didn’t noticed whether those Dombies were chasing them, they just ran. They went inside and closed the door. But john was confused on seeing Stan and Lucy running. He wanted to know what happened.

“Hey what happened? What’s the game? Why were you running inside?” he questioned continuously.

But no one replied as they were panting away.

He wanted to know by himself, so John quickly opened the door and went outside. Stanley and Lucy realized after few seconds that John had done something stupid by entering outside.

As soon as John went outside, he saw that there was a fleet of big bats coming towards him. He saw that and felt, “I got the game!”

Within seconds, those bats muddled up the area.

Promptly, Stanley and Lucy dragged him inside. Just before they were closing the door, a bat escaped in to the store. All other bats left the area after rambling for few seconds.

The bat that entered the store was trying to bite someone. It was cruelly wandering in the store behind everyone. Everyone ran chaotic inside. Then John accidentally picked up a baseball bat from a corner and smacked that cruel bat.

It hit a wall and fell down. John proudly said, “K.O. dude!”

“You literally… killed a Bat with a Bat.” narrated Bob. All of them came as a group and looked at the dead bat. Silence muffled up. They were just looking.

Then suddenly that bat again rose up and had flown all over frantically. Now it became difficult for them to control it. John’s bat movement over it went useless. It was flying all over the store with its wide big black wings. Those wings were destroying the things there.

Then Stanley suddenly remembered me and took me from the back pocket. He aimed me (gun) at the bat.

‘Oh .. hu ha..Come on Stanley, ha ha. Shoot it down. I am really very much excited about my first bullet firing. No one fired me until now. This is going to be great. I am becoming mature now, with my first bullet leaving me. Stanley! Do it now. Shoot out the bullet!’ I cried.

Then Bob shouted with Stan, “Don’t waste bullet against an immortal bat!”

But Stanley didn’t thought of quitting. He was still aiming me at the Bat. But the ridiculous bat was very much confused. Then in such confusion, it went inside a Micro-wave. Cleverly, Lucy ran to the micro-oven and closed its door. The Bat was fighting inside to come out. At last they got rid of that bat. So they collapsed in their places and looked at each other, nothing to do!

( My desire about the first bullet is lost here, let us see whether I can fulfill it in future or not?)

* * *

Few Minutes later

The filling station was surrounded by lazy Dombies. They were roaming here and there in the smoky surroundings. The whole of the atmosphere went silent, except the breathing sound of

exhausted people inside the store. They were lying on the floor in the centre of the store, surrounded by big racks of food items.

Slowly bob stood up and looked at all others. They were still in vain. So, he decided to move to the front side where he can see the situation outside. Frighteningly, bob reached the front side of the store. He saw the outside condition through the big glass doors. The area was completely filled with red smoke and in the smoke there were Dombies. Bob slowly stepped backwards for some distance, hoping they didn’t see him. Then he went inside and said,

“Hey guys! They were still outside. Just outside this store. May be they can see us through that big glass.”

Hearing that, Stanley stood up and said, “Do those doors have curtains?”

“Yes, I got it. I will close them now.” said bob and slowly moved to the front.

* * *

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