6. Hide out plans

A Chapter by Dr.Vishnu

John seemed to be relaxed now. He is chewing a nicotine gum to make out of depression. Lucy and Stanley were sitting by side of john giving company. Neil went to washroom for refreshing himself.

Neil came out of the room saying, “hushhhh. I didn’t know anything about these stupid dead things here. I suddenly faced them. At last Jesus helped me amigo!”

“But he didn’t help my car from your hands!” interfered John.

“Hey you are offending me !” said Neil.

“I am worrying about my car dude! ‘m not offending you!”

“My life is at stake there! What I care- life or your car? Huh?” shouted Neil.

“For me? Then it’s my car” shouted back John.

“You are such an *beep*…you are worrying about your damn old car. That’s not even 98’ model”

“Enough about my car. You are touching a raw nerve there”

“No, I am sitting on a raw nerve. What will you do?” yelled Neil.

John then looked at Stan and said, “Stan, kick him out for me!”

Stanley puzzled and replied, “What? It’s your fight. Don’t drag me in.” Then he bent to john’s ear

and whispered in his ear, “I think you can deal with it!”

John also bent over Stan’s ear and said, “I thought so before, then I saw his biceps! I changed my opinion.”

Disappointed with Stanley’s rejection, john looked at Neil and said, “Okay, I excused you”

“What? You excused me? A goat can’t excuse a tiger. But a tiger will. So, I am excusing you. Have a life!” said Neil.

Stanley and Lucy laughed indistinctly. Bob also laughed at John’s stupidity and Neil’s retort. John looked at all of them and felt uncomfortable, went inside.

* * *

Neil came to bob and asked, “Bob, what have you got for safety?”

“You mean, weapons?...hm…then Stanley has a colt, and…”- bringing out a box from a rack and handing it over to Neil- he said, “ I got a 12-catrdige pistol!”

Neil opened that box and took out a blackish-silver colored pistol, that was shiny than me. It was Walther 99 semi automatic pistol from late 1990’s. It must have 18-20 rounds according to its nature. Wow! Bob got that?

Stanley looked at that from distance and asked loudly, “You have a pistol and you didn’t say me that?”

“Actually I don’t have a license Stanley…it was just for safety; you know highway troubles”

“So you never took a shot at any highway muggers?”

“I don’t know even how to use it; I can shot myself, that’s why I never took it out. Now I thought it would be helpful, so I took it now”

Hearing that Neil said, “Ja! I know how to use it, so I will keep this temporarily” and he tucked it in his pocket.

Suddenly john came out from inside and said, “Lucy! She is moving”

Lucy and Stanley stood up to go inside, but Lucy said, “I will go in. No one accompany. I am gonna tell her everything clearly.”

“Why shouldn’t we come?” asked Stan.

“I don’t want to ruin. You don’t know about women very much. You will create a mess while telling her.”

“Shall we at least see?” asked John.

“Nope” she said and ran inside.

“I thought I could see some lady-sentiment!” uttered john.

(Have a break; Lucy will take sometime to console her. and I hope you didn’t wanna know about that lady-sentiment thing here. So, I am skipping. )

* * *

After skipping that part

Betsy was sitting aside on a small chair in the store. She was still crying even after two hours passed by. No one talked much during this time, because that won’t be fair.

Then slowly john looked outside and watched his car. Stanley and Bob also looked out slowly.

“What are these things actually? Zombies?” asked John.

“Yes like in the movies- Dawn of the dead, and Shaun of the dead” said Bob.

“They are not Zombies!” said Stanley and looking at others he said, “Zombies are actually living that get infected. But these are not living, they came from dead and not infected.”

“But one thing is same in both. They are trying to kill us!” said bob.

“They are here because of curse!” said Betsy in a low husky voice. There was still sadness in her voice.

“What curse?” asked all of them in chorus.

“Curse of Cerr Hanley!” she said.

“Who is that b***h?” asked john.

“Witch” she replied.

“Okay, who is that bitchy witch?” asked John.

“She was buried in the church along with her diamond about 120 years back. Now whoever takes that diamond will release this curse”

Everyone just didn’t understand and they just can’t believe. But after analyzing it in mind, they understood. Then Bob asked, “So who released it now?”

“We did. My husband was an archaeologist and we came here for that. He knew about the curse in the course of his research. But we ignored it. We thought it was just a warning! So we took the diamond and….”

“The curse was now in action!” uttered Stanley. She nodded her head.

“Oh my god! It was you who created all this mess!” yelled Stanley.

“We don’t know that was true. It said BACK FROM THE GRAVE. Who believes that sh**?” yelled back Betsy, “and I lost my husband because of that!”

Everybody chilled and lost every bit of hope they had about becoming normal. Betsy was crying. Then Stanley said, “So we have a curse that is forever in action. Nothing to do?”

“No, it has a remedy” said Betsy.

Stanley got some little energy on hearing that.

“When we took the diamond, a voice said like �"put it back otherwise the curse continues! So we have to put it back!” said Betsy.

“Thanks god” murmured John. Thinking for a while, Stanley said, “Keeping the diamond back may be a difficult job, but at least we have a hope.”

All others agreed with him by sighing. Then Stanley asked Betsy with a relaxed tone, “Okay give me the diamond”

She simply said, “I don’t have it!”

“What? If you don’t have, who else did?” asked Stanley in rage.

“It’s in Rhodes pocket!” said Betsy in a frigid manner.

* * *

Stanley put up with thinking-what to do? At last Neil became desperate, stood up and said, “Let’s go and drag him out. Some will hold him and some can take out that diamond from his pocket. We have to do this!”

“But he is dangerous now” said Lucy

“Yes Lucy, but that’s the only thing we can do” said Bob. Betsy turned her head aside and started weeping AGAIN!!!!

They were prepared to take that step. And slowly they approached the stockroom where Rhodes was ceded. Neil got a strong hammer in one hand, Bob got one long rope and John got another one. Lucy and Betsy didn’t participate in the act. Stanley was almost at the door. Slowly, without noise, he opened the door. It was dark. His heart was beating like a motor. He perspired all over. Everyone was ready in their positions. But they heard nothing from inside. They felt nothing. Stanley slowly walked inside and switched on some lights. CLICKKkkk. No one was there in the room.

“Where the hell is he?” they again shouted in chorus. Then john pointed at a small square window at the corner of the room. There were blood marks over the window. It’s like Rhodes escaped through the window. Stanley shouted loudly, “F***kkkkkkkk”

* * *