431 YEAS OF DEATH: The origin

by Divya Singh

  “Proceed with caution!: the people you will meet here have been purposely quarantined on this floor. Some of the genetic diseases these people suffer from are contagious and medical sciences do not have any information about them. People coming directly into contact with quarantined will be kept under strict surveillance and shall present a case of special attention and diagnosis. Going in is putting yourself under specified risk. The equipments under the board in drawer are understood to be sufficient for protection against interacting with the ones quarantined. Going unequipped will be noticed immediately and shall cause your own quarantine. Be careful!”

  Now, it seemed like a serious matter to me. But I had to go out and see for myself. It is a strange feeling, when you want to do what you are forbidden to at any cost, and there is no stopping. I pulled out the drawer, in which I found a whole space suit, gloves and a round glass helmet. I had decided to go in, putting these on.

  Soon I was ready to go all prepared. I knew they must be keeping a watch on me by cameras. I picked up an interacting rod, which I was meant to leave outside while returning. It must have been some kind of technical device, I didn’t know of. May be it would beep when it sensed the tag which was made to identify an infected body, by the extent of danger expected. There was a red light bulb on it, which I thought would glow for the above mentioned reason.

  I came near the door and pushed the red knob on my left reading ‘open’. The heavy doors opened with a screeching clamor. I knew it was a different prison meant to remain closed; hence everything here would be heavy and strong to present a kind of obstacle to the possible escape of any inmate here.

  The light inside was dim, and the enclosures had people who looked dormant, lay still and unattended. I had figured out that they must have ailments as serious as cancers. I moved a few feet then a loud cry disturbed peace of my covered ears. I rushed to look towards the left side where it emanated from. It was an old man; he was bald and very skinny. I rushed to the glass pane through which I tried to see through, there were curtains that had covered most of it but still with effort I could see the scene behind it.

  The old man hung from the bed, with his head buried under towards the ground. I figured out he was vomiting but still I could not see exactly what went on inside the room and what was that he was suffering from. Then I moved right where the curtains were not covering the confines of the room fully. I was shocked to see a lot of blood spilled on the white flooring. He was vomiting blood! I was extremely moved by the suffering of the old man.

  I heard footsteps approaching my position. I turned my face to see, it was an African origin woman, who had dressed like a nurse. I stopped her, saying-

  I asked: “Hello! What do you do here, you seem like a nurse. How have you managed working in a quarantined area?”

  She said: “Yes your guess is correct. Please don’t breach the proximity regulation. You are standing closer than you should. I can work in the quarantined area because I am also an inmate. Yes I have a 3rd stage brain cancer. That was a genetic deformity. So I was quarantined. I am sorry but now I will have to go.” I noticed that she wore a nurse cap over her bald head. Chemotherapy, I sighed to myself inside the precincts of helmet.

  I moved ahead to see a man with overgrown warts over his limbs and face. His nails looked violet and seemed like sick to me and I couldn’t look any further towards his misery.

  In one room I saw two little Siamese girls who had red faces and were weeping with IV drips going inside their nostrils, their mother sat by their side and looked at me with surprise. I considered them to be suffering from pain and all and turned back.

  I walked a few steps ahead, to my right side; there was a corridor, it was slightly dark in there, a little boy some 4’5” tall stood there facing the opposite wall across the corridor. I was going to say a ‘hi’ before which he turned his face towards me which was almost plain and swollen devoid of any facial features. But dangerous outgrowth formations were visible which I hated to look at, and then he turned his body towards me and started walking quickly towards me. He got pretty close to me for which I wasn’t ready. I fell down on the ground trying to move backwards owing to the uncomfortable safety suit that I was wearing. The stick in my hand beeped vigorously indicating me to flee the place immediately.

  I decided to rush back and away from this place, as I remembered the cautious lines of the warning board attached before the start of this place. I got up and stood on my feet quickly and ran away from all these suffering people. I realized then that I could not help them. I turned back and came all the way back to inside of the strong door which would close this place away from me once and forever.

  I cursed the psychopaths who must have unleashed this hell on earth. I cursed those genetic scientists who must have carried out banned cloning tests or genetic experiments excessively on a number of people, enough to have caused massive destruction of the mankind spanning many generations in 4 centuries’ time.

  I have just had witnessed a glimpse of the horrific ‘Contamination’. I was sure the ship’s quarantine regulations were required to ensure the safety of the rest, if the medics feared spreading of this agony among the healthy living humans on the ship.

  My soreness about the inhumanity of the quarantine actions, leaving them to die was lessened to a substantial level, because they were receiving medical attention from among themselves, as far as could be provided to them given the gravity of the circumstances and resource constraints of the ship.

  I came out of the corridor, threw the stick outside to my and closed the strong room. I assumed that I had not breached the proximity regulations anywhere otherwise I must have been under there continuous surveillance and put under the quarantine or specific diagnoses as specified on the warning board.

  Otherwise I must have been stopped from coming back to this room, before having entered it, had I been feared of spreading the contagious dangerous diseases. But I wasn’t! I unclipped my helmet and stepped out of the precautionary safety suit.

  Chapter 26: Tour to the last floor; the embryo bank floor and meeting Lois

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  I pressed the buttons of elevators, and waited for any of them to stop at this floor first. The one I pressed first arrived first, I moved towards it. I was thinking; why did I put myself under the risk of going into a quarantined place? I should have believed the data and the people. I should have trusted Larissa.

  My life was too precious to be spoiled by such curiosities. But I needed the information as much as possible, because I cannot lie on my bed inside my cabin and wait for my next death. Because without reason is no life and reason cannot be known lying idle in my bed. I was beginning to reason out for my own little dangerous adventure. But at least I was out of it without having endangered myself. The risk was a bad choice but being still safe was good.

  I had an understanding that the next floor was uninfected and only viable healthy embryos lay inside which posed no danger to me, until I was proved wrong.

  I stepped out of the elevator on the last floor. It was as ever lit in dim orange lights. The previous time I had visited here, I was slightly feeble and was not authorized for free access. But it was different now, I was healthy and strong and duly authorized for exploration.

  I was told that this last floor had 70000 embryos stored inside. I just had to stroll aimlessly and see if I can see that by myself. I walked out to the corridor, all the rooms facing each other were identical and ambience was all the same, it was actually hard to know where they began and where the corridors ended. Alley per alley; all the same, similar rooms and same tanks. Soon the rooms became darker I feared getting lost in the dim light.

  But through the light I could see some, rooms all packed up till the roof with tanks, endless tanks. One tank had its facing towards me which read ‘Human Embryo’ and I was relieved of having found the secured storage of embryos, being termed
as our future.

  I decided to take a round through the next alley which would take me to another parallel corridor ending towards the lift. It was freezing and even breathing would be labored here. I thought it would be possible that I could find a little warmer corridor and extend my tour without having to flee this place from the fear of freezing. But compared to the apron the only clothing I wore that day, months back on my visit here, today I was rather well clothed, which protected me from the cold here.

  I reached the end of this corridor, and took the last alley towards the parallel corridor, making it look like a U-turn, I was stepping towards the elevators which were quite far away from this place, and then I found an open chamber. This place was appropriately lit up, with lights almost white.

  There were many coffin-like wooden boxes here all arranged one over the other. It was an unending array of them. I felt that they must be used for the last rites of the dead. There were many cabins in this hall, but the hall itself was mostly spacious. I saw some blood drops and footprints in blood, somewhat clumsily smeared.

  It startled me and readied me for something shocking ahead. Now I was vigilant for facing anything. I had seen many things in this life; I was prepared that anything coming would not shock me into inaction. I now stepped onto a lid on the floor, reading ‘Disposal’, big enough to dispose off a car. I figured out it was meant for cremating the deceased. But the blood? It looked like it was warm and came out from a fresh wound. I was a little curious. Even the cremating staff should have cleaned that up. But because nobody would be frequenting these chambers, hence there was carelessness spilled all over.

  But my last thought was flushed out, by what I saw next as I went past crossing this hall towards a poorly lit cabin. I saw an ugly head with white little sparse hair, shaking wildly, over the top of two coffins at the extreme end of this cabin. Through the insufficient light, I saw that head shake up wildly once again, humming strange and crackling noises like breaking something and laughing. I initially thought that it was some sick person, insane with pain. I saw that head shook again but that person did not seem to have noticed my presence, this time I saw many moles and warts in the back of the ugly head. I understood that it was some quarantined person, who could have been considered dead, but actually was not. That blood, which I looked at again, could be his. I thought his suffering must be hard to bear making him this insane.

  I opened my mouth to shout out to him, but I was startled by some movement at my right, between the two coffins kept in the right I saw a little girl wearing a pink and white frock, also looking at that person. I moved towards her, but she seemed fine and healthy, then I stepped further towards the suffering person, he still had not noticed my presence.

  I called out-

  “Hello!”

  But then, I felt a little hand holding my right fingers, the girl had leapt up to stop me, as she nodded in ‘No’ to stop me from doing what I was doing. But she had failed to stop me and stepped back. I had by now reached close enough to look at this person, although the light was a little insufficient.

  I was shocked to my core! It was not a person! It was a ‘monster’ all smeared up in blood! Blood obviously not from his sufferings but that of a corpse he was consuming! It was a skinny woman whose thighs this creature had eaten half!

  Soon enough his face lifted up to look into my eyes. Filled with moles and warts and pus, it was like half tore apart. Yellow horrid eyes; looking now directly into mine. It wore a half white apron, all smeared in blood from the corpse he was eating.

  It was an enormous creature! I was certainly not ready to face this thing, in spite of all the vigilance and courage; I stood frozen facing the terrifying creature. He had large limbs, with big talons and outgrowth of scales and nails. No one could tell if it had fingers and toes or web-like palms and feet. He was all filled up with, moles, warts, scales and nails. It was really the ugliest thing that I had ever confronted!

  His facial skin was diagonally half peeled off from the left top of his face and hung below. He was bony and skinny at the middle. It was a matter of seconds that he leapt forward and struck me hard on my abdomen with his, what it seemed like, hand. It was not before a few moments that I realized that I flew off with the impact and hit the opposing wall of this room hard and almost lost my senses.

  When I was normalizing, I felt hard pain in my abdomen and I vomited blood, my blue blood! I was hurt, badly it seemed. But it felt like I still could feel my feet and arms, so I was saved from any fracture. Damn, that blow was hard and strong. Here I was vomiting, there I saw that little girl running for her life! The monster had found her, and perhaps wanted to start eating her warm flesh for the lunch.

  I couldn’t allow this to happen, the girl had tried to warn me, but it was all my fault that her life was in danger now, just because of my highly overrated curiosity. The monster, I saw was chasing her; to escape his assault she would duck from beneath his limbs. I realized the fact that it must have been strong but it was neither smart nor quick.

  I noticed a coffin in front of me, I pushed it a little, and it seemed empty. I mustered up all the courage I could and gathered it all within a moment and called out- I screamed: “Hey!!!”

  The creature before me stopped chasing the girl and looked up at me. By this time I had pushed the empty coffin towards him with all my might. It seemed to hit him as hard as I had wanted. Since he was a foot away from the wall he got perfectly pinned against the wall by the momentum of coffin.

  I did not feel like evaluating the situation further and grabbed the hand of that little girl who came running to me. Although with difficulty I succeeded in crawling towards the elevators and last thing I remembered was calling out my Passkey. I passed out.

  Chapter 27: Hospitalized again! Receiving medical attention from Despondra herself!

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  When I woke up and lifted my head up, I wanted to collapse again. I was in the hospital bed once again. The little girl was sitting at my right on a small seat. I saw a male nurse keeping a record of my blood pressure and pulse. He recorded something in his pad and moved back. Then came forth Despondra herself, looking worried about my condition.

  Despondra: “Hey Dani! How are you feeling now? Feel like vomiting again?”

  I nodded in No. She continued-

  Despondra: “Thank Lord! You have not lost a lot of blood; this little girl brought you here on time. It is just that you suffered Hematemesis. The impact was on gastrointestinal tract directly above the suspensory muscle of duodenum. We have sutured the ruptured blood vessels. You cannot eat solid food again for a week. But you will be fine very soon.”

  I replied: “Just tell me one thing Pondra! How did we have such a life threatening monster there, on the last floor? Answers? Now!”

  Despondra: “I don’t know! None of us knows! It must have been a mutated person initially shifted to penultimate quarantined floor. But somehow managed to escape to the embryo floor! Shame on us! Why don’t you ask Shelly for details? I think he will have some better explained answers for you! He must already be on the way to here” I could see that face raging in anger and disgust again now.

  I asked again: “But why don’t you tell me your version already?” I insisted.

  Despondra: “I know you must now be aware of the quarantined floor. I had opined to kill all of the ‘rejected’ or mutated people. I knew keeping them alive would be endangering our own selves and other healthy human beings, especially, when we know not enough of the nature of the genetic diseases and deformities. We do not possess accurate and adequate technology to cure them. We cannot help them! But Shelly and his disciples wanted to save humanity through them!”

  By now, I had begun agreeing a little with Despondra’s take on this subject. But I still wanted to scratch the wound further-

  I quipped: “But wouldn’t that be unfair and inhuman Pondra? Killing all of them, wou
ld it be wise? How can we base our future civilization on the edifice of this cruel act?”

  Despondra: “First Dani, it is not cruelty; it is survival. It is the first condition of Sacrifice! If we do not take the healthy ones forward, the whole human race will be extinct one day infested with these incurable genetic diseases. When I order killing, being a scientist here, I know what I am doing! I know the extremity of these decisions and the technicality too. I know of the head and toes. I know it, and I demand my right to act in the light of knowledge of the situation. But who is to hear my cries? Shelly and his team have assembled the face of Death itself at the bottom of this ship. They do not carry out my orders nor do they let anyone else do that. So I know we will be lost one day. All of us. We are sitting on a bomb that is ticking towards its own end!”

  She was furious now. I was silent and heard every word carefully that came out of her mouth this time. To me, honestly it looked right, but the blend of cruelty in safety was yet not ready to go down well and smooth in my throat. She spoke again, this time with a lot of maturity-

  Despondra: “I was a very gentle woman once. But when the mother in me was killed to save the humanity, all the modesty gave way to the empirical nature of life today!”

  She picked up her purse and tablets and writing pad and left me alone with the girl. I was not only left alone but also wondering about her last statement which made her slightly emotional and she had to leave. Despondra was certainly not a woman who would fear facing her opponent and mutiny set against her by Shelly on this ship. She had certainly left to conceal her emotions from me, before whom she had always stood strong. The stern look she gave to the girl beside the left of my bed, also left question in my mind.

  I looked at the little girl. She was looking at the door from which Despondra had vanished. But when I looked at her, she looked back at me. She was alabaster skinned, light green eyes, coral colored lips and skinny. It seemed like she did not have enough food to the full of her little tummy. Her golden blonde hair hung a little more than the back of her shoulder. It was all messed up. The pink white frock she wore was grimy as well. She had long thin hands, with grown up white nails as if weakened by hunger. She looked like she was uncivilized.