by Sourav Deka
“What?”
“Kick the floor again.”
I kicked it. Aaron came near me and tapped the floor with his foot. “See?”
“It’s hollow,” I said.
Aaron narrowed his eyes. “There is a secret basement below.”
“Let’s break it.”
We brought two axes and started hitting the wooden floor until it broke. There was a hidden basement below but there were no stairs, so we jumped down into the basement. It was dirty like the other rooms covered in dust, spider webs were everywhere and some rats were running around on the floor. There was a small ventilation window in one of the walls allowing some sun rays to enter the basement. There were many things, some chairs, a cabinet, some mugs, bowels and a table.
I opened the cabinet, it had a blue color squared box which had an A letter on it. I unlocked it, it had the watch. My heart filled with joy. “I found it,” I said.
Aaron walked up to me and glanced at the watch. “Wow!” he took the watch and observed it. “What does it do?”
“Wear it,” I said.
“What?”
“Yeah, come on. We have to find out what it does.”
Aaron wore the watch.
“Did you feel anything different?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No.”
“What does it do?”
“It doesn’t look like some special watch,” he said, examining the watch. “It’s just a normal watch.”
Just then, I saw a snake coming out of a bowl. “Snake!!!” I shouted.
“What? Where?” Aaron jumped in fear, the ground shook when he jumped. “What the hell?” the snake ran away through a hole in the basement’s wall.
“Do it again,” I said.
He jumped and the ground shook again.
“Wow!” Aaron punched the wall. It broke into pieces and made a hole. He looked at his hands. “I am stronger.”
Aaron grabbed me and jumped. We came out of the basement and landed on the floor. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It gave him superpowers.
“Amazing, let me try,” Aaron gave me the watch and I wore it. I ran outside and jumped as high as I could. I flew like superman. “This is awesome,” I shouted in the air feeling the cold air on my face. I felt like a superhero. It was so amazing. Now I understood why mom hid it. She didn’t want this to get in the wrong hands. Aivors and Savors already killed so many people for the seeds, if they would have known about the watch, it would have been a bloodbath.
I landed after flying for a couple of minutes.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to give it to Tanner,” Aaron said.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “What can we do?” I gave a half shrug. “We have to stop Ambrose. We don’t have any choice.”
“Let’s have some fun with it before we hand it to Tanner.”
I smiled. “Yeah, why not?”
We took turns and wore the watch. We flew, jumped and broke things. It also made us run fast like a superhero, giving us an amazing experience. Who gets to be a superhero in real life? The watch was precious. We had so much fun that we wanted to keep it for ourselves. It raised some questions on my mind. Should I really give it to Tanner’s hacker? I can see it now why he wants it but this is a very powerful tool. Mom hid it for years so that no one discovers it, so that it doesn’t end up in wrong hands. We had no idea why the hacker wanted it? Does he want to feel powerful? Does he want to defeat someone or worse, rule the world? I had to think about this. Ambrose has already made the situation worse. I didn’t want to add another problem to our list.
“Who would have made this amazing thing?” Aaron said.
“Maybe magic?” I said.
“Witches?”
I gave a half shrug. “Well most of Aivors knew magic. I know Bristy did.”
Aaron chuckled. “Still they couldn’t beat Savors for years.”
“Yeah, Savors were smart. They were just human, but they had Jensen on their side for centuries. He told them the things they needed to know. That was a huge advantage.”
He nodded. “Yeah, that ghost knows a lot of stuff,” I looked at the watch. “Mom, did the right thing by hiding it. If anyone of them had known this existed then it would have been catastrophic.”
“Let’s go home. We need to stop Ambrose. He destroyed the world enough already.”
We went back to the airport, took the plane and came back. I kept thinking about my decision during the flight. What should I do? Is it really worth giving the watch to the hacker? I watched the news on the plane’s mini TV. The riots have become worse. It was going to turn into a war. Government couldn’t control the people. They were killing each other for resources all over the world. Government has shut down the internet but it was too late, the damage has been done. People even broke into internet provider companies and took it over. The reanimation drinks were still selling. I looked at the watch and took a deep breath. I had to take the risk. If the chaos over the world doesn’t stop, the world would end. So I decided to give the watch to the hacker. There was no other choice. This has gone way out of control. Ambrose’s drink needs to be stopped.
After we reached our home, I contacted Tanner and invited him over my house. I knew he hadn't found Bristy and Sam yet, but now we didn’t need them as I already found the watch. We just needed to stop the website.
Tanner came in an hour. “You have it?” he asked.
I nodded. “You will have it. But first take down Ambrose’s website,” I said.
“It will be done,” he forwarded his hand. “Give me the watch.”
“No, first take down the website, after that we will give you the watch,” Aaron said.
Tanner rolled his eyes. “Still can’t trust me, huh?”
“Taking down Ambrose’s website is the most important thing now,” I said. “The entire humanity depends on it.”
“Okay, okay, fine,” he took out his cell phone and called someone. “Do it, I got the watch” he looked at me. “He wants proof.”
I took out my cell phone, clicked a photo of the watch before I showed it to Tanner.
“Send it to me,” Tanner said.
I sent him the photo. Tanner sent it to his hacker and waited.
“Okay, it’s done,” Tanner hung up.
“That’s it,” Aaron asked.
“Yeah, that’s it. Check it. The website is down.”
I checked the website on the internet, it showed an error. “Good,” I smiled. We finally did it. Tanner was right. It was hard trusting him but he wasn’t lying. His hacker really took down the website.
“Now, the watch please,” Tanner forwarded his hand.
I took out the watch from my pocket and gave it to him. “You know this watch is dangerous, right?”
“I know, my hacker wants it. Trust me, he is not a bad guy.”
“Okay. We don’t need another problem. Make sure he doesn’t misuse it.”
“I know, don’t worry,” Tanner said. “He doesn’t want the watch to dominate the world. He is not that kind of guy.” He took the watch and left the house
I wanted to share the good news to Michael. But before I could call him my phone began to ring. It was Michael. I picked up. “Hey, the website is down,” he said.
“Yeah, I know. We found the watch and gave it to Tanner,” I said. “His hacker did what he promised.”
“Oh great,” he took a deep breath. “Finally it stopped.”
“Ambrose will go mad in rage now.”
“Yeah, I am sending some of my people to your house. You will need protection.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t worry, I will find him. He may have been one step ahead of us, but not now. I will do everything in my power to find him.”
“I know Michael. At least now we won’t have an overpopulation problem.”
“Yeah, take care, stay safe. My men will be there in a couple of minutes,” he hung up.
CHAPTER 7
We continued living our life. It has been two m
onths since our parents died. Contessa visited us again to convince us to continue high school. Aaron and I decided it’s time. We have grieved enough. We should continue living our normal life, so we went to school. Everyone was happy to see us.
“It’s good to see you, man,” Nathan said. “I thought you have left school.”
“I have been through very bad days,” I said.
“I know, we heard. Sorry about your parents.”
I nodded.
“I am glad that you are back,” he said.
Aaron saw Rowena standing at the hallway checking out her cell phone. She was wearing a red shirt and jeans. His mouth curved into a smile. He walked up to her. “Hey, you are in school?” he asked.
“Yeah, I work part time as a waitress,” she replied and put her cell phone in her pocket.
Aaron nodded.
“Which class do you have now?”
“History.”
“Me too,” she smiled. “Let’s go.”
Just then Keith walked out of the toilet. What the hell? I was startled, my jaw dropped. He was alive. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He died a year ago in front of us taking the bullet for Rowena.
“Keith??” I walked up to him.
“Hey Ross,” Keith said, giving a wide grin.
“You were………..”
“Dead, I know,” he pressed his lips. “Sam killed me.”
Rowena saw me talking to Keith. She and Aaron walked towards us. “I brought him back,” she said.
“What??” Aaron raised his eyebrows.
“The reanimation drink that launched two months ago, I bought it.”
I smiled. “That’s great.”
I was happy to see him back. He didn’t deserve to die. At least the reanimation drink did some good. It was after a long time. He looked good as new. But his appearance was not like before, he changed his look. Now he had straight hair and bulked up a little.
“The drink gave me a second chance,” Keith said.
“I checked the website, it was down. Did the government ban it?” Rowena asked.
“We did it,” I said.
“Why?”
“It needed to be taken down, Rowena. Look, I am happy for you that your brother came back from the dead, but think about the bigger picture. If people keep coming back from dead, the world will have a huge problem. We already have an overpopulation problem, and this will make it worse.”
Keith nodded. “You are right,” he patted my shoulder. “You did the right thing, I am lucky that Rowena brought me before you took down the website.”
I smiled. “Welcome back, now you have a second chance. Live it to the fullest.”
The bell rang.
“Let’s go to our class, we will be late,” Rowena said.
Aaron, Rowena and Keith went to their class. I went to my class with Nathan. The whole day went well. We began to go school every day. It was nice, I made some new friends. It was helping Aaron and me to cope with our grief. After a few days, Aaron finally asked out Rowena. They even started dating after a week. We were back to our normal life. It was all going well, until one day when we saw the news. There were riots all over the country, people started killing each other. The situation was getting worse day by day. We stopped the website but still it didn’t solve the problem. The riots didn’t stop.
Aaron, Rowena, Keith, Nathan and Ethan, we all were watching the news on our cell phones in the hallway.
“What the hell is happening?” Nathan said.
“There are riots all over the country. So many people died,” I said.
Some people were fighting outside the school. We heard the noise and went outside to look. They took out their guns and started shooting each other. People ran everywhere and many of them died in the crossfire.
“Run!!!!” Nathan shouted.
We ran back inside the school and hid in a classroom.
“Oh my god!!! Who were those men?” Rowena gasped.
My phone rang, it was Michael. I picked up. “It didn‘t stop,” he said.
“What???” I said, trying to catch my breath.
“The reanimation drink.”
“But we took down the website.”
“He has created an organization. There are shops of his drink everywhere around the country.”
“What??” my eyes widened. “How…………..”
He interjected me. “He has created thousands of websites. The drink is selling like crazy.”
I smacked my forehead. “Oh god!”
“The whole world is running out of resources. Thirty billion people came back from the dead, Ross, thirty billion.”
“Oh my god! What are we going to do now?”
“Nothing, we can’t do anything,” Michael said. “It’s over, Ross. The situation will get worse. Save yourself, take care of your brother. This is the end. The world will end.”
I shook my head nervously. “No, no, Michael, there must be a way.”
“There isn’t.”
“What if we kill all the dead people?” I suggested.
“Are you crazy? Thirty billion dead people, Ross. Do you even realize what you are saying?”
I tightened my cheeks. “We can’t just give up, Michael.”
“It’s already done. People are killing each other for food, water and other resources. In a few days, many people will die. Save and gather enough food and water for months or else you are not going to survive. Good luck, Ross,” he hung up.
“Michael, Michael, Michael,” I shouted, but he already hung up. “Damn it!”
“What happened?” Aaron asked.
I kicked the wall in anger. “The reanimation drink, it is selling again. Ambrose has made an organization. They have shops all over the world. He even made thousands of websites so that no one can stop him. Thirty billion dead people came back from dead, Aaron.”
“Oh god! That bastard!” he groaned.
“Let’s go. We need to save food and water. The situation will get worse. People are killing each other for resources.”
Aaron looked at Rowena. “Come with me,” he said.
“But………” Rowena stuttered.
“Don’t think. You should come,” he looked at Keith. “You too. We have enough rooms.”
Keith nodded.
“I have to head home and inform my parents about this thing,” Nathan left, Ethan also left with him.
Cops were fighting outside to handle the situation. There were gun fires everywhere. Keith, Rowena, Aaron and I kept our head down and got into my car. We headed to our home. There were dead people everywhere. People were burning houses, beating each other, shooting each other, it was a complete chaos.
“Damn it! Ambrose, you idiot! What have you done?” I said, slamming the steering.
There was a five year old kid crying at the side of the road. I stopped the car to pick him up. “Hey wait!” Rowena said but I didn’t listen.
I went towards the kid and picked him up. “Where is your mom?” I asked.
The kid kept crying. “Hey, where is your mom?” I asked again.
The kid pointed his finger at the burning house in front of him.
“Oh man!” I sighed. I took the kid in my car and headed home.
Aaron raised his eyebrows. “You brought the kid?” he said.
“His mother is dead, I can’t just leave him there,” I said.
A group of people came in front of our car with baseball bats, their clothes were torn and their hair was messy. It looked like they hadn't taken a bath for months. They were killing everything in their path.
“Run over them,” Keith said.
“But………..”
“Don’t stop, they will kill us.”
I turned my car towards the right and went through the pavement. They growled and kept chasing us on foot like lunatics. Two of them even threw their baseball bats at my car. It hit the back lights and one of them broke. They kept chasing us on foot, but they were not fast enough
and we managed to escape.
We reached my home. Some people were bashing the door with baseball bats, cleavers and an axe. They looked like those people we faced before, their clothes were torn and half of their body was covered in dirt. They saw us and came running towards us growling.
“Turn around, turn around,” Rowena shouted.
“No, no, ran over them,” Aaron said.
“What??” I was confused.
“We can’t let them take our stuff. We can’t run away. We have to run over them.”
“No!!! It may kill them,” Rowena said.
I ran over them, they crashed into the car. Some fell on the ground while some died instantly. The others tried to stand up. I ran over them again and finished them.
“Oh god! What have you done?” Rowena said tonelessly.
“It was necessary. They would have killed us,” Aaron said.
“Necessary???” her eyes widened. “You just killed those people.”
“I have killed before,” I said.
She pressed her lips. “That was different. That was for the seeds.”
“Yes, that was different,” I yelled.
Everyone was startled and we paused for some seconds.
I sighed and gulped. “I wish I would have never done it,” I said. “Look what happened, everything that is happening today is because I killed Ambrose’s father. There is chaos everywhere. People are dying, killing each other for resources.” I put my head on the steering. “It’s all my fault.”
“But we can't undo the past,” Aaron said. “We have to think about what we can do now. Maybe there is something we can do.”
“There isn’t. Thirty billion people are back from dead, Aaron, thirty billion. We are doomed.” I slammed the steering in frustration. “We can’t fix this. We lost, Aaron,” a tear rolled down my cheek. “We lost.”
“Then what do you suggest? We should hide and survive?” Rowena said.
I wiped my tears. “What choice do we have?”
We got out of the car and went inside the house. I closed the door and Aaron checked the kitchen. We needed to know for how long we could last.
“We still have some food left,” Aaron said, checking the boxes in our kitchen.
“How much?” I asked.
“Not very much,” he bit his lower lip. “It will last a few days, three four days maximum.”
