431 YEAS OF DEATH: The origin

by Divya Singh

  People have a right to live. They must live enough to die a natural death; but if the death is caused before the death should come naturally, their right to live further comes into being. I died of something I cannot evoke of, but life was sucked away from me by an early death. May be; by something incurable then. But the cause of death could be undone today giving rise thereby to my renewed right to life.

  I may not be very appreciative of my life today but I have the obligation to value its preciousness. If I cannot protect my life, I will put to stake the feelings, patience, hard work, sleepless nights, sweat and hopes of people who have toiled hard, to gift me this new life.

  No life is without a reason, like it or not, there is vested unto it, a will, of an undefined supreme power, sitting above all this world in the skies, somewhere who directs life into being. I will not allow Despondra to contaminate my mind with her abhorrent outlook about me. Now, it is not about the right to live but it is about the duty to respect this life bestowed upon me by some power and hard work of others who have wasted an enormous portion ….

  ZA-vi: “I think, you said that I should have stopped you from slitting my throat apart the previous time? Do you still mean the same, as I can sense your plan on doing something of similar gravity?“ ZA-vi obviously had my thoughts read and was supposed to oppose as asked of him by me.

  I said: “Yes! You are right! I asked you to stop me that last time; one time. That was because it was about harming you ZA-vi! Look at you! You are just a machine who cannot do beyond what you are programmed to do. You do not, actually cannot have indignation towards any human being. You are not expected to perform a task favoring some human.”

  I continued: “In the same way, you cannot inflict injury to any person. You cannot harm anyone except if you are so programmed to do. But if you are so programmed to injure any person, it is not your fault again but it’s that of your programmer. You must be destructed if you turn out to being a killing machine. But it still would not be your fault. People, like Despondra have the ill feelings. They hate people, irrespective of the fact that those innocent people, like me, are not responsible for flaws in them. On the contrary, you are just a machine who does not have the ability to hate any person.”

  I sighed a little and inhaled a little reassurance into me. Then I continued again-

  I said: “Hatred sprouts in the hearts of such people. I am still not sure as to what is to be done with her. I was not born again just to be a killer and hatred certainly isn’t what I prefer to return. But the way she called me a monster wasn’t likeable exactly. The blue skin I have is due to the blood substitute which manifests itself more when put against partial albinism I have resulting from the process. If I had a blood stem cell donor, this blue complexion can partially be corrected. VON mentioned commencing upon pigmentation treatment as well. But the truth be said, we don’t have a bone marrow and blood donor. Her repeatedly calling me a Blue Monster has irritated me to the core. Let us choose her to change that. Let me be a Monster to not be Blue for a while now here. I will knock her down tonight and you suck her blood out from her, just to leave enough in her so as to not let her die. This is the only way of confirming the fact about my bluish tint being corrected by transfusion of natural blood. Yes, I will be a little selfish this time. Also it is about time for the next transfusion, I would prefer to choose transfusion of real blood this time, as we have selected a donor. Essentially the donor has come to me. I have known that she is atrocious but I won’t be killing her. I am undertaking this risk upon her life, just so as to make her realize how wrong she is. Instead I will make her feel how it feels when you are helpless just like me, craving for each drop of valuable blood that her body readily makes. I will try to make her understand that what pain really is like, so that she will find a reason to respect what she has got but doesn’t realize its significance. I want to make her slightly deficient in blood as me, a suffering donor. It will be recuperated in days’ time, but it might instill an insight into suffering.”

  ZA-vi: “Okay, I think you have some reason to do that which I think is ‘Humanly’ sufficient. But how will you take her blood out to transfuse into yourself? I am not a medic exactly.”

  I said, imparting a stern look at him: “Just suck her blood out using machines they have these days! Anything; like suction pump or whatever.”

  ZA-vi: “Okay! I will show you which device I am planning to use. Now tell me, do you think that you are confident and sure about having decided to do this act? Because I don’t want you saying that I must have tried harder in stopping you, should you regret having committed it later.”

  I replied: “Yes! Because I will not be harming her at all. I don’t even hate Doctor Despondra, but I hate the way she hates people like me. If the Earth suffers from being on the verge of extinction of our kind, then I think that repopulating it with any kind of human beings is a good opportunity. Again, it was not my wish to be reborn, but somewhere inside, I am debating with myself against my own will. Why should people like me be ever denied their second chances? Especially, when the Earth cannot have naturally born humans. We have reached the face of extinction because of people with reason had such mentality. At any cost this type of mindset must not be permitted by some laws or whatever we must have today. Hatred has no place in a struggling society. Besides, I am not planning on killing her. I just wish to make her realize the wrong in her thinking; and no, I will never have to regret my this act ever. Because, this will not be an impulsive act, rather, I have thought over and over about it and also fished in you in the brain storming. I will not tolerate this thinking. If I remember nothing about myself I will choose battling evil with evil as my purpose of life.”

  With a little break and a pause I began again-

  “If there exists evil in the world I pledge to fight it however opposite it would appear given my otherwise peaceful personality. I sense a different kind of difficulty in conflicting my otherwise peaceful outlook with taking to violence, but I will prefer to accommodate the sense of guilt with more practice.”

  ZA-vi: “So let’s act as you wish then!” He showed me a yielding face, though devoid of much expression and I returned it with an obliged smile.

  I was beginning to trust again in my machine now. I no longer needed to explain it to him, advantage; he read my mind!

  Chapter 16: I took to violence again

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  11:00 pm: The Plan

  ZA-vi: “I have found out that the two assistant doctors with Despondra will not be working today with her because Dr. Klinex (the woman) is on leave and Dr. Wornfeih (The male) has already worked in a different shift. So she is working absolutely alone tonight. So, essentially, we are in a little bit of luck tonight. The ‘Hospital’ gets empty after midnight. The department head office where her room belongs is inaccessible to most except higher ranked staff and doctors. But today is a strange day! Everything fell in place and most doctors are gone but only junior resident doctors are on duty totaling just 3, are left in the hospital. They do not report to her, except in an emergency. It’s after midnight that we strike her for the best.”

  I said: “In precise 1 hour from now! Let’s gather our equipments.”

  ZA-vi had brought a device which I interpreted to being like an advanced suction pump, thoroughly sterilized. To the pump was attached a 5 liter glass tank which would be filled up with suctioned out blood. I could not wait to see it filled with Despondra’s blood. But we were not going to leave her to die so we were taking bandages to immediately contain the bleeding if any. Instead, we both would be making sure that we left her on a hospital bed to be able to seek medical attention ASAP (as soon as possible), without slightest delay. So we were playing the nice guys, just with a little pinch of Bad! The best part was we both coordinated perfectly thanks to the telepathic connection ZA-vi had with my thoughts. We looked at each other and nodded in agreement to get
along with the plan ahead of us. ZA-vi carried the suction pump and bandages while I carried an aluminum rod some 2.5 feet long, which was round and clubbed at the front just enough to ensure that it did not create any large open wound.

  I walked ahead using my own authorization key to the elevators, while ZA-vi used his own at extreme right. ZA-vi followed me to Despondra’s cabin on the floor just above ours. ZA-vi stayed out of the glass hall. Despondra was busy with glass screen facing back towards entrance about same as last time. The plan was to let her know who did this to her and do it with an addition of surprise element to it.

  I walked ahead and reached till I was just 3 feet away from her and called her “Doctor!” She turned towards the direction of my voice. I swayed the rod in my hand to hit her with a heavy momentum, but I then noticed that she had held a device in her hand at which she looked while turning her face at me gazing down, I realized that she wouldn’t now know that who knocked her out but it all happened in the split of moment, and my right hand with rod hit her because it had gone to an uncontrollable level.

  My rod’s round club hit her above her right temple, with the sudden impact her head and body were force moved towards her left, as she fell down, the round screen type device jerked a bit above and hit a tray with knives kept on the counter at my left, a knife flew up in the air, swirled up and down and force of gravity turned its blade towards the floor where the calf of her left leg had just place itself, and the knife’s blade impaled through her lower calf and made a 2 inch wide and about the same dimension deep incision. It was now obvious to me that the knife which now stood tilted on her lower calf wound was heavier and sharp for belonging to this era.

  Despondra wore a knee length gray pencil skirt and white blouse today leaving her legs open and vulnerable to such an accidental wound. Well, cutting an open wound was certainly not a part of the plan; rather it was a mere accident. I didn’t want the blood to spill out and make a mess but there was nothing I could do. I didn’t want to tear off my or her clothes to make a bandage to avoid any possibility of accidently creating evidence and as I glanced at the dim lit room there was not anything to soak the blood in.

  But, where was ZA-vi? He must have been here by now, as he is the one who carried bandages and suction pump. Where did he get stuck at, especially when I needed him? I was a little suspicious about somebody coming into this hall belonging to the head of the hospital. I thought I had to leave here with her unconscious body right away. Hence I turned my head back to look at the gates, it was bright and there was nobody around. So I went up to her hands and held her by her arms and rotated her body to face towards the entrance. Then I started dragging her towards the gate, the wound in her left calf started to leave blood trails behind as I dragged her towards the gate.

  Then I recalled something of having seen about the trails of blood I left behind. Yes I correctly now remembered that I saw such trails of blood from dragging a woman behind that I saw in my nightmare. Then I gazed at Despondra, she is about 40 or higher, traces of tiniest wrinkles have begun to appear on her face. She is white, but there is an exotic blend of Mediterranean genes in her skin color.

  She almost resembled the woman from my dream. But Despondra does not appear weakened by sickness or age as was the woman in my nightmare. Although she is slender in shape and tall about 5’6”, just enough to make for an arrogant lady boss. She is muscular with long slender pins. From looks, she does not sound so bad to me; despite the fact the she does not look strikingly beautiful or even slightly innocent.

  But I am doing this to her in order to teach her a lesson about starting to value human life more and for hating some humans like me. But that dream catches my attention again. I did see this zig-zag blood trail in my dream too as her left calf sways on the way responding to my cautious movements. I now begin to consider this dream too being more of a premonition to me rather than just being a nightmare.

  But why would I have such a dreaded premonition? My plan did not include biting her jugular for sucking her blood out but it did concern itself with suctioning out her blood. Did I get some sort of indication through premonition? They must have some kind of consequence on the future acts that is what premonitions are for. To see the future first so that you have enough time to prevent something evil or to act in a way desired.

  But this to me was happening and I was doing it, yet it seemed the right avenue to tread on to. It just felt right. I stopped a little tangled in the lines of thoughts. I looked back at her and the blood trail and reminded myself of nasty things she puked earlier and my determination to do what I did consolidated further.

  The door slit open when I approached it as it was photosensitive. I realized that ZA-vi was still seen nowhere. I decided to move her to the alley at the left of the entrance as it was dark there, enough to hide my prey and the culprit, myself.

  As I turned 90 degrees to reach the alley, I saw ZA-vi coming and turned towards him thereby rotating the body a little. I said-

  I said: “You know, you were supposed to be here when I knocked her down, now look at the mess that got created!” I flew my right arm up to sway my fingers towards the blood trails.

  ZA-vi: “I agree but I had to wait as the Bouncer on the floor is here at the Out Patient Ward. I needed to wait to let him pass.”

  I said: ”But, have you seen the mess yet?”

  ZA-vi: “It won’t take long to wipe it all out. But we agreed about no cutting wound, yes?”

  I was assured by ZA-vi’s words.

  I said: “Do it first, hurry up! I will explain later.”

  ZA-vi placed the pump at my right and took out some cotton. In few seconds, he wiped out Despondra’s blood trails, but the glossy white floor was still stained. So he went up and grabbed a water tumbler and splashed its water against the stained floor. He took some more cotton and wiped out the floor clean in a few more moments. It was done till the gate but rest was still there, though the trails had lessened outside which took lesser time to get wiped out clean, I gestured him to come out and do what we were here for.

  ZA-vi: “We will infiltrate at the veins in her hand.” I nodded.

  He inserted a cannula in her right hand and fixed the other end of the IV tube at the mouth of the suction pump.

  I said: “Let us just get it done!”

  He looked at me and started drawing blood out from her body. The red color of the blood looked so enticing to my eyes. It was what made me distinct from the crowd. It is probably why we have to do this to her. It was what made me freak out of my own appearance. It was a shame that my body, my centuries’ old body was not able to produce it.

  But above all this, people for reasons unknown and not understandable, would not donate it to me; to the hospital these days. I thought people in my era used to judge others by color of skin, sex, ethnicity, community etc. it was probably the color of the blood they would judge me by.

  ………..and, I was a Blue Monster for her. I kept looking at the blood of hers and admiring the red color of the blood as my thoughts sunk me deeper, while the container of the suction pump kept getting filled up higher with her blood. So it caught my attention.

  I said:”Hey ZA-vi wait! How much blood have you drawn till now?”

  ZA-vi: “It reads 2.5 liters, why?”

  I baffled: “Stop! Stop! Stop right now……..!”

  ZA-vi: “Why? It seems okay to me so far…………”

  I screamed: “NO! Just stop it will you, right now!” and he stopped working with the pump.

  I asked: “What is the threshold of Exsanguination? We have drawn too much blood! The wound has even stopped bleeding!” I pointed towards the cut that the knife had made in her left calf’s flesh. The blood which trickled down from the large wound had stopped, indicating a huge blood loss from the suction. Although clotting could have also stopped the bleeding.

  I said: “How much blood does a human body have? 4-5 liters?? How much? Have we killed her already?” I got jerked to my core.


  ZA-vi instantly removed the cannula and held her wrist

  “We still have the pulse!” said he. “…and a heartbeat!” as he touched the heart with his flat palm. Now he took his hand towards her nostrils. “Breathing too! She is not dead!” He exclaimed.

  I said: “Hurry up!” I screamed, Let us rush her to any emergency room!”

  ZA-vi pointed towards the alley in the front-

  ZA-vi: “There!”

  Although her wound was not cleaned we rushed towards the Emergency ward as fast as we could. I was strong for carrying her alone by myself but we did not want to make any possible trail so I carried her by her arms and ZA-vi supported me by carrying her by her legs.

  We ran till we made it to the last but one room, which I saw read, ‘Emergency Ward 1207’. I kicked it open and put Despondra’s body on the first bed we saw. We had to run out immediately while also alarm somebody hence while returning I hit the red button on the wall in the front of her bed.

  The voice began calling the ward number and we ran towards the alley where we had suctioned her blood out. The pump and the cotton were held by ZA-vi, which he handed me over and I took the corridor in front of Despondra’s room straight to the elevators. I took the elevator down to my floor and reached my room.

  On the way all the time I wished for her farewell. I just wished that she would be alright. If I had been a believer of God, I would pray for her health and well being. But I didn’t know of my earlier faith.

  As I placed the pump on the counter at the back of my bed, I began thinking that ZA-vi stayed behind to cover me up. If anybody would have seen him, they’d not have suspected me of any such crime and ZA-vi, being an android lacks a motive behind the heinous attempt of killing the head of the hospital.

  Soon after, he returned and said that he had wiped clean the last traces of the blood stains.