8. No‘W’here To Go..?

A Chapter by Dr.Vishnu

Q; Now where to go? A; No where to go...

They slowly stepped back and hid somewhere behind a wooden door. There was a sound of foot steps approaching them. Bob whispered, “They are inside!”

Stanley said, “Yes. I know.”

Then the foot steps stopped just before the wooden door. A voice came out, “Guys, I know you are here. Come out, I am not one of them. I am type 1 alive”

Hearing that they opened the door and there was a brown haired man looking happily at them.

“I thought I am the last man of the world….”he said.

“Yeah, will smith too thought that in I AM LEGEND, but he is not!” uttered Bob.

Then that man shook his hand with John and said, “I am photographer Williams! I came to shoot a bachelor party in the church, but suddenly…”

“Bachelor party? Where are all the people of the party?” asked Stanley.

“They were all dead. Turned to type 2 alive” said wills.

“What’s that types you are talking about?” asked Bob.

“Type 1 alive is like us, living, not at all dead. Type 2 is living like those zombies. They are dead, but alive again, understand?” said wills. They shook their heads.

The Stanley looked all over the place and asked, “So is this place safe?”

“Completely. Nothing except some type 1 alive cattle. I mean some buffalos”

“So what about the butcher couple living here? Where did they hide?” asked Bob remembering them. Everyday they used to say bye to Bob on their way home. So even though Bob didn’t know them completely, he liked them.

“Couple? There is nothing inside, like I said. May be they are also dead” said wills.

“Oh god!” exclaimed bob.

Don’t worry, this place is cool. We can see everything from that office(pointing at the office upstairs). Let’s go there” said wills and escorted them to the office.

The office was very big and spacious. It has a table at one side with a pile of papers and a telephone. Seeing that telephone, john ran towards it and lifted it. There was no dial tone. Then he looked at wills. He nodded his head.

They went to the window and looked outside. The dombies were roaming like earlier.

“So tell me about you? Where did you come from? I saw you guys running from that explosion site..how did it happen?” asked wills.

“It all started at Bob’s gas station……”

(You know the rest…just shut your ears. You don’t need to hear all this once again. Wills will.)

* * *

Stanley was showing diamond to wills. Wills looked at it and said, “So this is the crooked diamond…it’s beautifully ugly.” And again shaking his head he said, “So this is all because of that smoke?”

“Yeah. Wherever the smoke goes, there the curse follows!” said Bob.

“Man this is too hard now. Do you guys know where to put the diamond?” asked wills.

“Actually Betsy did. We didn’t.” said Stanley.

Then suddenly bob remembered something and gasped in happiness. He pulled out a small pocket diary from his coat pocket and waved it in the air. Stanley understood that it’s the research diary of Rhodes. He also thundered with the excitement.

“Bob you are awesome. How did you get it?” shouted Stanley.

“I don’t know man. You gave to me earlier. And I kept it with me.”

Others just kept blank faces looking at them. Then Stanley took that and said, “It’s Rhodes diary. There will be way to that witch’s tomb.”

Everyone then understood their excitement and joined Stanley to look into the diary.

* * *

A moment later, wills was watching that diary and others were just looking at each other. They tried sincerely to understand the diary. But no body can, except wills. Because wills has some sort of experience in the church’s interior. He used to photograph every part of the church during his photo shoot. So they gave him dairy and let him understood.

Wills studied it carefully. Some parts of the book, he kept his face amazing and at some he felt afraid. He is drawing some thing in the air, may be map.

Everyone is just looking at wills while he is doing that magic finger art in the air. Then he looked at them and said, “Anyway. I got this completely. I understood the way.”

“So? Are you willing to tell us? I mean, any case, we lose you…others can still keep that diamond back there. Right?”

* * *

“It’s simple. Go to the church. Enter the prayer hall, find the bell room by the side of religious altar. then follow to stagfield pillars, there comes the cradle rock. Turn a hook, enter the tunnel. Find the tomb, retrieve the curse. That’s it”

“Ok. I think I got it. Just have to remember Five new words!” said John.

“And one more important thing. We have to keep the diamond before 6pm!” wills gave a shock to them.

“What is this new condition?”

“Yes, it’s written here. We can’t omit what’s written. It is said that the diamond should be kept there before the last church bell at dusk. Otherwise the curse will become irreversible and permanent,” said wills with petrified tone.

“What do you mean by the last church bell?”

“It was written- at 6pm in the dusk, the church rings the bells 5 times. Diamond should be there before the fifth ring”

“At 6pm, the church rings the bell 6 times, not 5 times. Rhodes was wrong,” interfered Bob with an uneasy tone.

“Whatever, who cares? We have to be there before 6 pm…”said wills. Simultaneously john looked at the watch and said,

“Dude, its 5.32. we only have half an hour!” john sprayed hot water on burn wound. Everyone became restless.

“Whatever dude, we first have to move to church. Is there any way - like that tunnel?” asked Bob.

“Not pretty much. Do you have any vehicles at your store?” asked wills.

“Vehicles? Dude! You just heard our entire story” said john.

“Oh yeah, but uh…um…. I forgot” said wills remembering.

“You forgot? You nodded like a buffalo when I told you the story, so I thought you heard interesting, s**t!” squalled john.

Laughing to it, Bob went to the table and sat on it.

Over the table, on the wooden wall there was a deer’s head hanged. Its antlers were really big. The head was looking very real. Stanley looked at bob and asked,

“Hey bob, why don’t you flip us some movie tricks, huh?”

Bob was saying something, “Are you guys mocking at me or what?..i am not a ….”

The deer’s head on the wall suddenly moved its eyeballs. They turned downwards and saw Bob. He was sitting directly below it. It opened its mouth. Its teeth were strong. And in a moment, it fell on Bob’s shoulder and Started to bite him. Bob bounced up in terror and he was running all over the room. But the Deer bit him severely. He is bleeding. Others tried to stop it, but bob was not giving any chance, he was just running frantically.

Then Stanley caught Bob. Wills slapped the deer with Rhodes diary strongly. With that blow, deer’s head flew away from the room and fell downstairs. That head moved out with the help of its chin and its big antlers.

Bob was bleeding heavily. After examining bob, Stanley said, “It bit deeply. The carotid artery got injured. Get me some cloth!”

Wills handed Stanley a piece of blue cloth from the table. After pressing on the wound, Stanley tied that cloth all around the shoulder. With the cloth he compressed the artery. So, he is able to control some bleeding.

“Hey Stanley, tell me truth. Am I going to die? Is my heart still working?” asked Bob.

“Heart? Nothing’s wrong with your heart bob! You are talking means, its working” said Stanley.

“Oh my god, it’s very painful. Hey don’t let me die before the curse disappears. I don’t want to be dombie!” said Bob.

“Bob, do not worry. You are not going to die! I am here!” said Stanley.

“I don’t know man. ‘m feeling like De caprio in blood diamond. That means I am….”said Bob.

“Bob, just shut up!” shouted Stanley. He was in tension. John went to the window and Lucy sat at a corner. Wills was helping Stanley.

Then John screamed, “Guys, we are in trouble!”

* * *

They looked out from the window. Some of the dombies were climbing the slaughter house with the help of the wooden planks. And some dombies were trying to break the door. The dombies were turning to be intelligent!

“What to do now? Sooner or later, they will be inside!” said Wills.

Suddenly Stanley’s brain was filled with light, An idea! He called for a proposal.

“Follow my lead!”

The dombies were climbing faster. Stanley took Bob downstairs to the cattle shed. Others also followed him. They entered a big spacious room filled with big, black buffaloes. That room was just beneath the office room. The buffaloes were- black, big, having a hill-sized hump and were about 30-40 of them.

“So, we followed you buddy. Now what?” asked John.

“We ride among them!” said Stanley.

“What?”

“Yes. We go among them, grab a quiet, cool buffalo. We will open the door and threaten them. They will run outside and we can escape then,” said Stanley.

“Is this your idea or did you get it from any asylum!” asked John.

“Shut up john. Dombies can’t stop these! This is our only chance,” said Stanley. And the dombies entered inside the butchery. They could hear the sound of them. And now they had no choice. They had to agree.

“Make good friendship to them. And don’t poke them, just brush them! They can become mad if you poke!” said Stanley.

* * *

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