A fleet of men surrounded the room as they came in through the doors, windows and balcony. They picked up Akash and carried him away.

Anirudh shouts in agitation, "Hey! Where do you think you're taking him"

Lector speaks from outside, "Don't worry, I did not kill him. He's just asleep and he'll be coming with us."

Anirudh comes over to Avyan where he sees him curled up on the couch, wiping his tears off. Anirudh sits besides Avyan and says, "I cannot believe it. This has to be a trick. I know we haven't witnessed a power like this before. But Pratyush is not an imbecile."

"Bu-But all these weeks we spent together, I couldn't build up the courage to tell him that I did in fact trusted him from the heart."

"What are you talking about?"

"Me and Pratyush. There was this cheating scandal that was busted a couple of years ago and Pratyush was the main suspect. We were roommates then. He told me about the seniors forcing him to take part in the whole plan. I was working on my summer internship at that time, I couldn't get involved. I should have gotten him out in the first place. I looked him in the eye and made him promise that he won't succumb to such measures. But, I did not know the full extent of the story. He was blackmailed. A senior, Manav emphasised that if Pratyush did not become a pawn in his plan, he will ask his friend in the placement cell to blacklist Pratyush and me. This would also have taken away my internship and his PPO. He tried telling me the full story and about the video but I ignored the details and just advised him to stay away from the matter. He then thought that it would be the best to just put a blindfold on his morals for once and get this over with. Things turned out to be worse and he finally had no choice left but to help the seniors cheat in their backlog exam.

He got busted due to an insider mole among the seniors. The seniors blamed Pratyush and things got heated between the two. Manav slapped Pratyush and started a fight. The whole group got up on him to beat him. He ran out of there but he was not fast enough. He got caught in the sports field. It was do or die. In self-defence, Pratyush threw a rock at one of the senior which injured him bad enough to be an emergency. It hit the back of his head, just above his neck and he started fell to the ground and started bleeding. Horrified, Pratyush ran out of there and thought the seniors would surely help their friend but as it turns out, even the seniors ran away in fear of getting caught. Due to not getting immediate medical attention, the senior got permanently paralyzed. The authorities did not catch Pratyush as they were unsure of the main culprit. However, he got a sem-back, he lost his scholarship and his upcoming PPO was cancelled.

I got to know about the incident by Manav. He manipulated the details and made it look as if Pratyush was the only one responsible for the whole incident. I did not make it easy on him. I did not know the whole context and I believed taking someone's life away by paralyzing him was a sin not to be forgiven. I thought he broke my trust. I lashed out on him, stopped talking to him and even changed my room to Ishan's. We had this little physical fight too at the open air theatre. The video got viral in the campus.

Anger and agitation brought out the worst in me. I called his sick mother and told her about the incident as I thought it would be in the best interest of him, but actually it was just my mind bending the truth, it was not for his best interest but for mine. I wanted to see him in despair. But the situation went downhill. The news of his scholarship being cancelled shocked his mother and her medical condition worsened. She is in the hospital since.

I got to know the full truth after many months by a classmate who made a video from afar on the spot at that time."

Avyan's hands trembled with a mixture of grief and rage, the unspoken words of farewell choking his throat as tears silently streamed down his dirt-streaked cheeks. His face was a canvas of raw emotion, etched with lines of anguish and disbelief. His brows furrowed in a deep frown, his jaw clenched tightly, and his eyes, once vibrant with life, were now clouded with tears and a burning fury.

Anirudh's fists were balled up at his sides, nails digging into his palms as if trying to anchor himself to reality amidst the overwhelming grief. His shoulders hunched forward, weighed down by the unbearable loss, while his chest rose and fell in ragged breaths, each one a struggle against the suffocating grip of sorrow. Despite the pain etched across his features, there was a steely resolve in his stance, a silent promise of retribution simmering beneath the surface. "I-I will kill Lector Gonzalez myself". Avyan quivers back in astonishment as he turns his head and sees Anirudh in the eyes. A true indomitable spirit reflected from the depths of his soul.

As Anirudh wipes his tear off, "Doesn't matter what it takes. I am willing to sacrifice each drop of my blood to accomplish this. I do not care about his power, his authority or his honour. I will be the one to take him down. One more reason to get stronger. I have to. I have to otherwise I won't be able to survive. I don't know how I am going to do it or when I am going to do it but Lector's demise is certain"

With despair in their hearts and their feet trembled, Anirudh and Avyan stepped foot outside in the open. Hundreds of cars lined up in a formation. Cars painted with dark blue and black colour and several of them installed with machine guns. An army of soldiers standing beside them, all wearing black masks around their face, eye cover over their eyes and caps and headgears. Among the indifferent soldiers, Lector stood out separately. The bright Hawaiian shirt, white shorts and sunglasses above his long and pointy nose sparkled in the sunshine.

Stolen novel; please report.

Avyan whispers in Anirudh's ears, "Why did they bring so many soldiers for only the five of us? There are women too. There are both male and female soldiers, all equipped with different sorts of guns."

"Are you ready to board?", A commanding yet sweet voice shivered in Avyan's ears. A female voice which he had not listened since weeks. The calmness in the voice reflected very clearly but it also hid a certain burden within itself. Anirudh didn't care and walked forward towards the car whose gate was open for them. Avyan turned back and her gaze fell upon him. Time seemed to slow, the chaos of the world around them fading into a mere backdrop to her ethereal presence. A rush of emotions flooded his senses: awe at her beauty, a flutter of nervousness at the sight of someone so captivating, and a tinge of longing, as if he had stumbled upon a fragment of a forgotten dream. Her features were like a work of art, delicate yet striking, with eyes that held a universe of mysteries and a smile that hinted at untold stories.

As their eyes met, a silent exchange of curiosity and recognition passed between them, a shared understanding that in this desolate world, where every day was a battle for survival, they had found a moment of respite.

"Avyan, come here", Anirudh pats on Avyan's back as Avyan turns his head, "What are you doing? I have been calling you since forever."

"She called-", Avyan turns his head back to find that the lady is gone.

She was incandescently beautiful, yet beauty was the least in her.

Anirudh takes Avyan back to the sedan where they sit in the back seat. The driver and front passenger are wearing heavy equipment around them.

"How much time will it take?", Anirudh asks to the driver

"Sit tight, it's a long journey. The only available helicopter was used to carry the other boy."

A loud shriek baffled the two, "What is this now?"

Avyan looks through the window, "A carnyx. It was used to declare war in ancient times."

The cars start moving one behind the other. The front few were semi-trucks. Then it was a recursive series of 5-6 sedans and SUVs followed by a truck containing equipment and food supplies. Anirudh reclines on the seat and closes his eyes, "Well, the last couple of days were a lot to take in. I am at my limits". Although Anirudh seemed a lot tougher on the outside but the idea of losing one of his friends was eating him from within. His mind clouded by thoughts and regret, "I should have been there with him. The whole plan was flawed from the beginning. We should've never went out of the hostel. Besides, all that sacrifice went into vain if Dauji is really a traitor. I never trusted him entirely in the start but he changed my thoughts. What is happening right now? Why did he save us multiple times?

Pratyush was the only one that did not trust Dauji since the beginning. Can it still be that Lector is actually just playing us? We cannot trust someone who we just met but whatever he said made sense. Well, it is a cobweb of mysteries. What should I do?"

"Wake up", Anirudh opens his eyes and sees Avyan staring at him from above, "What?". Avyan replies, "It's been 8 hours since you are asleep". The front passenger turns back and says, "Tighten your grips. We are entering dangerous terrains". Anirudh looks out of the window and sees himself surrounded by humongous building all around.

"They are ruins", Anirudh says. Avyan leans forward and takes a deeper look, "Okay, I believe that the apocalypse has been there for a couple of years now. Look at this city, last I remember this was a hotspot and now it lies in ruins". Avyan looks in despair as he sees the ruined concrete buildings below the stormy dark weather. The buildings are covered with vines, algae and bushes. It seems as if the city wore a green sheet over it. The cracks in the structures are clearly visible from afar.

The front passenger closes his window and says, "Mass evacuation from large cities has led to the cities being engulfed by nature. They are covered in vines hanging from and across several buildings forming a web. They are covered in green gloomy algae as well. When it all started, the big cities were the red spots where the disease spread. People tried to evacuate but, this caused jams all over the roads. People died waiting for their cars to move forward in the traffic. The cars that remain cause us a problem to move forward. However, that is why our fleet follows a group of three semi trucks whose bonnets are modified to push the cars to the sides and make way."

Anirudh and Avyan close the distance and listen carefully. Avyan seems to be in a thought of his own as well. He continues, "However, these cars and debris is not our concern. What concerns us is the sheer amount of undead that reside in cities like these. The dumped cars slow us down a lot, therefore our own cars provide very less cover due to no speed. We rely on artillery in times like these. Seems like luck is not on your side either, it's your first trip and it is dark. There is no sight of sunrays. The night is also about to fall. You might have been thinking why we brought so many soldiers along. Mr. Gonzalez would alone have been enough for you guys. Actually, these soldiers are not here for you. They are here for this."

Avyan interrupts him in between, "Wait, I have heard your voice. I have been thinking about this from the starting. Do I know you?"

The front passenger removes his mask and reveals his face to the two of them, "Soham?"

Anirudh kicks in surprise, "What? You are a member of this clown group?". Avyan continues, "Woah, how have you been? Finally, someone we can trust to give answers."

"Listen, listen guys, I am not allowed to tell you the details right now. I'll tell you my side of the story once-"

Soham is intercepted by a radio message on his handheld transceiver, "All units behold, the wrath of the gods is about to bestow upon us a sweet elixir of horror."

Soham puts on his mask and gloves and picks up his gun, "It's Lector, he likes to joke around."

Avyan looks out of the window and sees all the cars lined up on a curving road which is directly in between many buildings. The four lane road is covered by dumped rusty cars on the sides and the fleet cars in a line in the middle. The tall and enormous green buildings stand there as a vessel for the undead. They illuminate horror from within. Screeches are echoing throughout the deserted city as the footsteps of the undead begin to shake up the land. Hundreds of men get out of their vehicles and take a formation, covering all four sides. They make a two layer formation, one soldier crouched in front of the other and are finally covered behind makeshift barriers which they have been unloading from the equipment trucks.

Lector climbs up his truck, tucks in his shirt, takes his sunglasses off and shouts in an aggravating tone, "Come on out now bastards, let's have some brains for dinner"