by Sourav Deka
We took their bodies from the coffins and placed it on a table inside Tanner’s house.
“Their bodies are starting to decay,” I said, eyeing at the dead bodies.
Aaron glared at Ambrose. “If this doesn’t work, you are dead,” he said.
“It will work, I have made it before,” Ambrose said.
I poured the reanimation drink on Keith’s dead body while Aaron poured it on Rowena’s body. Keith’s body didn’t heal, it stayed the same.
I looked at Ambrose. “It isn’t working,” I said in a heavy voice.
Ambrose shook his head. “No, it should. It’s the same formula I used.”
“It’s working,” Aaron smiled. Rowena’s body was healing. Aaron kept pouring the reanimation drink. Her damaged body parts and skin started to form. She became alive in seconds, good as new like magic.
I kept pouring the drink on Keith, but his body stayed the same. He didn’t heal. “It’s not working on him, give me another drink,” I said.
Tanner handed me another reanimation drink. I poured it over his body but still no result. Keith’s body stayed the same. He didn’t heal, he stayed dead.
“Aaron,” Rowena said, after opening her eyes. She was breathing heavily.
“Oh thank god,” Aaron hugged her.
“I died,” her lips trembled.
Aaron smiled and grabbed her cheeks. “I brought you back.”
Rowena saw Keith by her side lying dead. “Bring him back,” she said.
“I am trying, but the drink isn’t working on him,” I said.
Rowena stood up. “Maybe he needs more. Try some more of it.”
“Bring me more,” I shouted at Ambrose.
I poured over ten drinks on him but still he didn’t move a muscle. He stayed dead. Not a single cell on his body was repaired.
“Why isn’t he healing?” I scratched my head.
“Maybe it’s because he died before,” Aaron said. “Rowena used the reanimation drink to bring him back. Maybe it doesn’t work the second time.”
“No it should,” Rowena raised her voice. “Bring me more drinks,” she got off the table.
“He is dead Rowena,” I gulped. “We tried, he isn’t coming back.”
“No, no, he can come back. There must be………………”
Aaron interrupted her by holding her cheeks. “You used the reanimation drink on him, Rowena.”
She shook her head as her lips trembled. “No, there must be something we are missing.”
“It doesn’t work the second time. Ross poured so many drinks but he didn’t heal,” he sighed. “He isn’t coming back. I am sorry.”
Rowena cried. “No, no, no, no, not again,” her lips shivered. “I lost him again.”
Aaron hugged her and tried to console her.
She lost her brother again. We tried again but nothing, no sign of life on Keith. He was gone. It broke our heart to see Rowena. She just came back from dead to find out that Keith couldn’t come back like her. She cried in Aaron’s arms for a couple of minutes. We couldn’t do anything to make her feel better. I glared at Ambrose, I wanted to blame him for this. Every inch of my body told me to kill him, but I knew I couldn’t. Only he was the one who knew how to make reanimation drinks, we needed him.
“We have to kill, Jonas,” Rowena said in a heavy voice and wiped her tears.
“He is dead,” Aaron said. “Tanner killed him.”
Rowena looked at Tanner.
Tanner nodded. “Yes, Jonas isn’t going to be trouble anymore. I took care of him,” he said. “I am sorry that we couldn’t bring back your brother.”
She sprinted towards Ambrose and grabbed his collar. “Do something!! You are the one who made the drink. Make something else that can bring him back.”
Ambrose shook his head lightly. “I am sorry. I didn’t even know that the reanimation drink works only once.”
Her face reddened and she slapped him. “You piece of shit! All this happened because of you,” she slapped him again.
Michael, Aaron and I stopped her. “Rowena, stop!” I said, grabbing her arm. “We need him.” She was so furious that she wanted to kill him. We dragged her out of there.
“We can’t change what happened, Rowena. We are starting over here,” Michael said softly. “You can too.”
I knew how it felt to lose the people we love. There was nothing we all could say to console Rowena, she was devastated. She needed time, which was the only thing that could heal her. After a few days, we buried Keith and mourned him. Unlucky Keith, he just came back from dead a few months ago to die again, this time for good. He didn’t deserve it. But we couldn’t do anything now. He was gone. Rowena was heartbroken. He was the only family she had and now she lost him again. Aaron tried to console her, tried to change her mind, but it wasn’t easy, she needed time. She was angry at Ambrose, she blamed him and wanted to kill him, but we couldn’t let her. We needed Ambrose as he never shared his recipe of reanimation drink with us. He knew it was his only chance at survival. That’s why we didn’t kill him. He is our only chance to increase the population. Michael suggested that we should torture him and make him tell the recipe but I refused. We couldn’t risk it. If somehow he dies, the recipe of the reanimation drink will die with him.
***************
As days passed, Ambrose made a lot of reanimation drinks. I thought of bringing back dead people. It was time, we needed more people. If we really want to restart everything, we needed more manpower. More people will help produce more resources. To discuss this I went to Tanner’s home. I decided to start by bringing back Luke’s parents.
Tanner was sitting inside his house eating an apple. I knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“It’s Ross,” I replied.
“Come in.”
I opened the door and stepped inside.
“I need your help,” I said.
Tanner took a bite from the apple. “What do you need?”
“Some reanimation drinks.”
“Why?”
“I want to bring back Luke’s parents…….and……… my parents too.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I was also thinking about doing that, but on a large scale, you know.”
I sat on the chair in front of him. “Large scale?”
“Yeah, we have to fix everything, Ross. We should start bringing people back from the dead.”
“But we should have more resources, or else the same thing will happen again. People will start killing each other due to lack of resources.”
He took another bite from his apple. “Yeah I know, we can start it now. For now we have enough resources to support about fifty more people.”
“I will start from my hometown then. Bring back my parents, Luke’s parents and some other people there.”
“Okay, but be careful. We don’t know everyone. People are different. We don’t know how people will react when we bring them back from the dead. Take some of my men with you. If anyone tries to attack you, they will help,” he took another bite from his apple.
I stood up to leave. “Okay, I want to go now.”
“Take Michael with you. He will gather some of my people for you.”
I nodded and left the room.
Michael was playing outside with his daughter and Luke. Luke was very happy, as now he had a friend of his age. After a long time I have seen him smile. Kids of his age should be playing and laughing, but he spent months with us surviving. Seeing him playing with Michael’s daughter put a smile on my face. He was doing what he was supposed to do. I was happy for him. It was his lucky day. I was going to bring back his parents and he was going to see them again. I remember how I felt when I saw my parents after so many years. It was bliss.
I walked up to Michael. “We need to go,” I said.
Michael leaned down towards his daughter. “You two play, okay.” He turned to me. “What happened?”
“We should start bringing people back.�
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His forehead creased. “What?”
“Yeah, I have spoken with Tanner. We are going to start from today. Gather some people. We are going to my hometown.”
“But that won’t work. We wouldn’t have enough resources.”
“Tanner said we have enough to support fifty more people. We can do this. We are not going to bring a lot of them.”
“Are you sure, Ross?”
“Yeah, we have to do this someday. We need to restart the civilization. We need people, Michael.”
He took a pause and nodded. “Okay, meet me at the gate after an hour. I will gather some people.”
Luke came running to me, he heard what we talked. “Where are you going?” he asked.
I leaned down towards Luke and smiled. “Today I am going to bring your mom and dad back.”
His eyes widened. “Really?”
I pressed his cheek. “Yes, kid. Today is your lucky day. You are going to see your parents again.”
He looked down. “But dead people don’t come back.”
“They will come back, Luke. We have something that can make it happen.”
His face glowed. “Really?”
“Yes, Luke,” I ruffled his hair. “You will see it.”
His heart filled with joy. “Yay!!! Thank you, Ross,” he hugged me.
I was glad to see him happy. He has been through a lot, but now it was going to change. Michael’s daughter, Gina came towards me. “Can you also bring back my friend Paul, he also died,” she said with her innocent lips. “A bald guy killed him and his family.”
I smiled. “Yes, Gina. I will bring him back too.”
She smiled back. “Thank you.”
Gina and Luke went back to play. I told Aaron everything and invited him along, but he didn’t want to come. Rowena was depressed. She was not over her brother’s death and Aaron was trying to cheer her up for days. He didn’t want to leave her.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Aaron nodded. “Yeah, I will stay here. Make sure you bring mom and dad back.”
“Yeah, I will. Ambrose has made the antidote, now the reanimation drink will work on them,” I put my hand over his shoulder. “We are going to see them again, Aaron. We are going to see them.”
He smiled and hugged me. “Be safe.”
I tapped his back. “You too.”
After an hour Michael gathered some of the people from camp. We took a jeep and left for my hometown. It was a long drive, and took us five hours to reach our destination. As I planned, we first stopped at Luke’s house to reanimate his parents. The whole house was burned and turned black. It smelled like rotten eggs from the gate. A lot of ashes were lying around with some crows on it. We stepped inside and looked for Luke’s parent’s bones or ashes, or anything we could find. To bring them back we needed something of their body, anything would work. We looked around the house and went upstairs. The stairs were not in good condition, so I climbed up with the help of my people. There were some bones lying at the side of the balcony.
“This must be it,” I said, eyeing at the bones.
“What if it isn’t?” Michael said.
“It should be. This is the house where they live.”
“But………….what if it’s someone else.”
I shrugged. “Then what? We need people anyway.”
He nodded.
I took out one reanimation drink from my bag and poured some on the bones. The bones began to assemble and new muscles and bones began to form. After a few seconds a woman formed. She opened her eyes and looked around.
“Luke…………..Luke……………..where is Luke?” she mumbled.
I leaned down towards her and grabbed her shoulder. “It’s okay. He is fine,” I said.
She was naked. Michael gave her a blanket to cover her body. Her breath quickened. “I died….How is….. this……………possible?” she said, shivering.
“I brought you back,” I said. “You must be Luke’s mother.”
She nodded nervously. “Yes, how do you know that?”
I smiled. “Because I know where Luke is.”
“Where is he?”
“He is safe in a camp. I will take you there. But I also have to bring back his father. Do you know where he died?”
She scratched her head. “I was here trying to escape. I helped Luke go down through the window. But…………..for me it was too late. The fire got me…………….and……… I died.”
“Where was your husband at that time?”
She gulped and rubbed her temples. “I am trying to remember, wait!”
“Try to remember what you did that day.”
“He went to the shop in the morning. After he came back, all the chaos happened. People started killing each other outside. We shut our doors and hid inside. But then some people broke the door and stormed inside. They hurt him, he ran towards the basement. Yes! That’s it,” she nodded. “He was in the basement I guess. After that those people lit out the house on fire.”
“Okay, let’s go to the basement then.”
We all came downstairs and went to the basement. There was a broken skull lying on the ground with a lot of ashes.
“I guess it’s him,” I said, eyeing at the skull.
Michael nodded. “All of his body parts were burned. Luckily his skull survived.”
I poured some reanimation drink on the skull. It began to heal. New bones formed and assembled on its own. New muscles and skin are created forming a whole body. After a couple of seconds he became alive, opened his eyes and looked around.
“Tina!!!!!!!!!” he screamed. He saw his wife Tina standing with us. “You are okay?”
She leaned down towards him and hugged him. “Thank god!”
“The fire………………the fire………………” his lips shivered.
“I know,” a tear ran down her cheek. “We died.”
His eyes widened. “What?”
“Yes,” she looked at us. “They brought us back.”
Michael gave him a blanket to cover his naked body.
“Where is Luke?” he asked.
“He is with us,” I said. “He is safe.”
“Where is he?”
“He is at the camp. Don’t worry I will take you two there.”
He nodded and stood up covering his body with the blanket.
We came out of the house and gave them a couple of minutes to understand what happened after they died. We explained everything to them. They wanted to see Luke. I promised them to take them to him but first I needed to bring back my parents, so we all went to the graveyard a mile away, where my parents were buried. We dug out their bodies. Fortunately, their bodies didn’t deteriorate completely.
I took out the antidote Ambrose made and glanced at it. “If this doesn’t work, Ambrose is dead,” I said.
“He should be dead,” Michael said. “I can’t even stand the sight of him. Everything happened because of him. He started this,” he clenched his fists. “I wish I could kill him, but he doesn’t tell me the recipe to make the reanimation drink.”
“He knows it’s his leverage, Michael. Because of his reanimation drink recipe we are keeping him alive.”
“I suggested Tanner that we should torture him and get it out of him, but Tanner refused. He said we can’t risk it, what if we end up killing him.”
“Yes, he is right. We can’t risk killing him now. We need him to make more reanimation drinks. We have to restart civilization, bring a lot of people back.”
Michael nodded. “You know Ross, bringing billions of people back,” he gave a half shrug. “It will take a long time.”
“I know,” I said softly. “But this is a start,” I poured the antidote on my parents’ remains and then the reanimation drink. Their bodies healed after a couple of seconds and they became alive. Their breath quickened. Michael gave blankets to cover their body.
“Ross????” Mom and dad said together unaware of what just happened.
>
I hugged them. “It worked,” I said. Joy welled up in my heart. They were back, it worked.
“How?” Mom asked, looking at her body. She was still finding it hard to be real.
“I used the reanimation drink on you two.”
“What?”
“Yes, I brought you two back from the dead.”
“Where is Aaron?” Dad asked.
“He is at the camp.”
His forehead creased. “Camp?”
I nodded. “Yes, a lot of things happened, dad. I will tell you everything.”
CHAPTER 13
I brought back some other people from the dead, including Gina’s friend Paul and his parents as she asked me to. I took my parents, Luke’s parents, Paul and his parents back to Tanner’s camp. I explained everything that happened with us to mom and dad. Dad didn’t like that Aaron and I were living in Tanner’s camp. He never forgot what Tanner did to him and us when we were hunting the seeds, but I convinced him that Tanner changed. I told him how he saved us from Jonas. It was hard for me to trust him too, but the time has changed. He now wants to help people and restart everything. That’s why he built the camp, it’s a start.
Luke was playing with Gina. He saw his parents entering through the gate.
“Mom! Dad!” He ran towards them in joy. His parents hugged him and cried. It felt so good to see him reunite him with his family. They kissed their child in joy and hugged him tight.
Tanner came towards me smiling.
“Thank you for saving my son,” mom said.
“You are welcome,” Tanner smiled.
“I guess you have changed then,” dad said, with a straight face. Even though he said that, it was hard for me to believe that he meant it.
Tanner smirked. “Yes, Richard. I am not the man you knew before. Sorry for what I did to you for the seeds,” he sighed. “I just went crazy for the seeds you know, I was so scared to die. I wanted to be immortal so badly that I didn’t care who died in the process,” he pressed his lips together. “Please forgive me for what I did in the past.”
