Death and Dishonor

by Abhimanyu Saxena

  I saw the assistants approach Prateek with some small guns and tried to get him. They appeared to be shooting some kind of syringe darts at him. They were failing to aim any skin until one of the syringes shattered on his helmet and few drops hit his eyes. He did not like that and took the tranq gun from the first assistant in the front and emptied the magazine in him. The second one dropped his gun in fear and tried to run, but he caught hold of his neck and the neck of the third one and struck their heads together. They dropped on the ground lifeless, and he destroyed their tranq guns.

  The officers tried to shoot carefully as he started moving fast and they were worried they might hit the other people. Somehow, people didn’t give a shit about me right now as getting killed by an armored zombie outweighs a mass murderer. I ran and slid across to pick up the gun and managed to shoot the biometrics of the sliding door in the distance in front of me. Then I shot a few rounds at Prateek’s helmet which got his attention away from people.

  He reared away from them and faced me as the surviving people started running out. He was breathing very heavily. Two officers entered who were just outside the entrance, but they met the same fate as the assistants.

  “Arjun!” Pratap shouted and indicated the biometrics of their escape door. I looked at him once then aimed and shot the control to open the door. They managed to get them all out of the room, but the scientists as Devraj pushed them inside, screaming, “You can’t leave until you fix this. Ajeet, keep an eye on them.”

  I turned my glance away from that entrance to find Prateek standing in front of me. I can’t believe that it came down for me to deal with two hulks in a day. I couldn’t finish the thought as I got a face-full of titanium and was thrown away to hit the side of the stage.

  The scientists reached beside me as I got up slowly, choking up on blood. In the meantime, Pratap was busy commanding his surviving officers to attack Prateek.

  Aurobindo sat me up, saying “Are you okay?”

  I asked, “Aren’t you afraid of me?”

  He and Raghav looked at each other. Aurobindo continued, “You helped innocent people escape. I think you can help us.”

  Raghav said quickly, “We do not want to die.”

  “But you can turn people into monsters who kill?” I said sternly.

  “We can explain,” Aurobindo said, “And help you with this situation. Please get us out of here.”

  I thought for a moment and saw everyone else was still busy in overpowering Prateek. I asked the scientists, “Do you have any electronics which can unlock any rooms here on this floor?”

  “We don’t need electronics for that,” Raghav said, “We have a key card. We booked a room for tonight.”

  I escaped with the scientists through the entrance along the width, and they took me to their room. We didn’t encounter any cops or guards on the way, and I figured Pratap might have pulled in all of them into the hall. We entered the room, and I locked it behind me.

  ~*~

  Pratap took a deep breath. All of his worst nightmares had become a reality. Arjun was here, and all these security measures did shit. However, the most disturbing news was the star attraction of the night – Prateek, who had turned into an uncontrollable monster. He knew that a debacle at such a high profile event could mean disaster for him.

  “Don’t just keep standing here. Move your asses, help the guests and ensure that there is minimal damage done,” he barked at his men.

  “Sir, are you alright?” he asked a middle-aged man who was shaking with fear.

  “Ye-Yes, I thought that there was a revolutionary announcement today. I di- didn’t know that it would be something else entirely.”

  Pratap escorted him towards the nearby elevator and asked some officers to take care of him. He looked in front of him and saw a known face rushing towards him. It was none other than Ajeet.

  “What is the plan? Devraj uncle is getting pissed off. It’s his oath ceremony tomorrow morning, and this is all just bad publicity.”

  “Do one thing, try to clear the hallway on this floor and evacuate the guests outside the hotel. Ask some officers to check the other floors too and ask the people not to leave their rooms at any cost.”

  Ajeet nodded. “Where are you going?”

  “I have to find Arjun and stop Prateek.”

  “Is it that easy?” remarked Ajeet.

  “It is not but we all have to grind our gears otherwise your uncle would make sure that our careers are over.”

  “Let’s do one thing. We will split up and try to find Arjun,” suggested Ajeet.

  Pratap liked the idea. He ordered another officer to help in evacuating guests and sent a team of six officers as a backup to the other floors to make sure that they don’t leave their rooms.

  “I will check out this direction, and you can proceed with the other one” added Ajeet.

  He was about to leave when Pratap placed a hand on his shoulder. “Our first priority is helping guests and stopping Prateek. Keep your personal vendetta with Arjun aside. I want him alive.”

  “Sure thing boss, I bet that you will find him yourself.”

  Pratap nodded and went in the opposite direction. Little did he know that Ajeet had already a clue where Arjun was hiding. ‘I don’t care about any other person, I just want to kill Arjun,’ he thought and started taking calculated steps ahead.

  ~*~

  I turned and looked at the two men with great interest.

  “We don’t have much time, start talking right now.”

  Raghav and Aurobindo looked at each other with a saddened look and despair in their eyes. I was lucky that they had a room booked for themselves. But, the danger was still there. Prateek was still at large, and we didn’t have much time.

  “I told you Raghav; this program was not ready. We should have waited and perfected it. Everything has fallen flat now, and our asses are on the line.”

  “Do you think they listened to us? All they wanted was a nice show, no one wanted to understand the pros and cons of the project, or whether it was even ready,” replied Raghav. “You do remember their words, just get a workable demonstration ready, and you can complete the remaining work later.”

  “Guys,” I intervened.

  “What will we do now?” Raghav asked.

  I was about to say something but was stopped by Aurobindo. “We can do nothing. We are doomed. All of the hard work and struggle went down the drain. I don’t know how to get up from this. The name Delta Solutions is a joke now.”

  “SHUT UP! Both of you are bickering like a married couple.”

  Both of them stopped fidgeting for the moment and diverted their attention towards me.

  “I didn’t get you guys inside this room to make small talk. What kind of a zombie is this? And how to stop him?”

  Aurobindo stood up from the bed. “Raghav and I researched for years and found a mixture of a special polymer –”

  “Dude, don’t talk gibberish. I need a crash course only”, I shouted out in anger.

  Raghav placed a hand on Aurobindo’s shoulder. “Let me explain. There is no quick solution to this. Our best bet would be to wait for the short-term effects of the serum to wear off.”

  “Didn’t you guys test this out?” I asked.

  “We did, but we cannot guarantee the outcomes every time. It varies from person to person. It changes as per the DNA design of the subject. Prateek was the most stable subject at the labs, hence he was chosen.”

  “I can see his stability,” I remarked which made Aurobindo stand up hyperventilating in tension.

  “We had our doubts and were working hard to refine the serum, but the Government wanted it today. Arjun is public enemy number one; this was fed to us constantly.”

  “Huh! We all can see the real public enemy. Anyways, is it possible to stop Prateek before the serum’s effect fades away?”

  “We have the last tranquilizer gun left with us. You can have it; we trust you,” replied Raghav handing me a small pist
ol with a metallic syringe attached to it.

  It felt nice to hear that someone trusted me. I kept the gun in my pocket. “Enough of this nonsense,” I sighed and removed the black coat and threw it on the bed. It took me a couple of minutes to remove the fake beard and wash the makeup off my face. I looked at myself in the mirror, the stubble suited me, but all the scars and bruises didn’t. However, this was not the time to care about my looks.

  “Guys, one more thing. Did you know about Shikha Rathore? She also worked at Delta Solutions.”

  Aurobindo opened his mouth, but the front door of the room unhinged completely on top of him, knocking him out instantly. Prateek had spotted me. “There you are,” he said.

  I quickly toppled the dressing table on him and motioned Raghav to take the passed out Aurobindo with him. We were about to escape out of the room when Prateek caught hold of my right leg.

  “Let go of me, you freak!”

  I somehow managed to free my leg and knelt down. This was the right time to tranq him. He was stuck beneath the table. I pulled the tranq gun out of my trousers and pointed at him when he broke the table into two pieces. I couldn’t even see the pieces as they flew right in front of me. One of the pieces slashed me good in the right hand. There was a deep gash on my right wrist, and the tranq gun fell on the floor.

  “Ahhhhhhh!” I shouted in pain.

  “Raghav, take him and get out of this hotel right now,” I shouted.

  Raghav nodded and took Aurobindo away. “All the best Arjun!” he said.

  My hand was throbbing with pain and Prateek had got back on his feet. Within a second, he caught my neck and started choking me.

  “Surrender right now or fear my wrath!”

  “I – I – I am not a cr- criminal.”

  I heard the noise of some footsteps coming towards the room. “Holy shit!”

  I knew that voice. Somehow, Ajeet had entered the room, and my hatred towards him knew no bounds. Prateek released his choke hold a little, and I managed to take deep breaths.

  “Get out of here. I want Arjun only,” Prateek shouted looking towards Ajeet.

  I sensed that this was the right opening, I pushed his head to the mirror with all my might. There were cracks in his helmet and a red display on his eyeglass.

  “We meet at last,” remarked Ajeet.

  However, he didn’t waste any time and pointed a gun towards me. I jumped ahead and kicked him right in the face. “I hate you for what you did to Aditi, but there are greater issues here currently.”

  “Huh, that bitch deserved what she got, and you deserve the same,” scoffed Ajeet.

  I growled and punched his stomach with my left hand. He swung his hand which I evaded easily. I knelt down and punched him twice again. Ajeet fell on the floor spurting blood out of his mouth. I picked up the tranq gun from the floor and turned around to hit Prateek with the same.

  “Who is a good boy? You are, come to papa.”

  Prateek was still confused as his optics had turned red and were acting strangely again. I was this close to injecting the tranq when suddenly Ajeet punched me from behind.

  “Don’t be a spoilsport Arjun, I want to see a battle between you two.”

  “Even your life is in danger, you bastard. Help me to take this zombie down or stay out of my way. This is the last tranq that is left with us.”

  “Oh really? Show it to me,” Ajeet replied.

  With this, he quickly pounced on me and started grabbing the gun out of my hand. “I don’t care about anyone. I just want to see you die and Prateek is the right guy for this job. So, just give me this gun and let him do his work.”

  Amidst all the scuffle, the tranq got injected in Ajeet’s left hand. “What the fuck?” he shouted.

  I cursed my luck. The one thing that could have stopped this monster was gone now. I punched Ajeet’s face repeatedly out of anger. His eyes got swollen, and the entire face turned black and blue.

  “You fucked us all, bastard.”

  He gave a crooked smile and fell unconscious on the floor. The tranquilizer had knocked him out easily. Prateek had also managed to get up and looked straight at me and then Ajeet.

  “Is this you Arjun? I will kill you now.”

  I had an urge to take Ajeet out of the room, but bad guys deserve the worst. He had deserved this for what he did to Aditi. He killed her mercilessly torturing her and cutting up her limbs one by one. Even thinking about it sent shivers down my spine.

  “Serves you right. Karma is a bitch!”

  I jumped out of the room and looked inside out of the corner of my eye. Prateek clenched his wrist and punched him right in his face. Ajeet couldn’t handle a single punch, and his head burst into bits and ligaments. The whole room was a bloody mess, and it looked horrific. A headless Ajeet was lying on the floor. Prateek didn’t stop and kept on punching his hollow head. I could see his brain and other gooey stuff lying on the floor. I wanted to throw up but controlled it and ran ahead in the corridor. I had finally put an end to Ajeet. It was a small feat, but I felt a little nicer.

  “This is for you Aditi.”

  REUNION

  A cell phone rang nearby as the scream died. Pratap breathed in heavily and coughed a little while getting up from the rubble of glass and ceramic. It was his phone, and the caller ID was showing private number.

  More policemen joined the dilemma of either arresting me or dealing with the humanoid zombie on their hands. I ran quickly towards safety and met Pratap on the way. He looked pissed off when I told him about Ajeet’s death. However, we didn’t have much time to bicker as Prateek had joined the party and smashed us to the ground.

  I will have to do something about him. I had already lost the tranq syringe and now have to think of some other way that might disable him. Either that or face the situation that even after death, Ajeet managed to finish me off. The policemen were getting in formation in front of me, some shaking in panic seeing the state of their fallen comrades.

  ~*~

  Pratap knew that the party hall was empty now and took cover inside it to pick up the call while I hid in the corridor.

  “ACP Pratap Singh!” he panted.

  “Pratap, its Devraj. The situation has been handled, right?”

  “No, sir. I am afraid that it has worsened. We are trying to subdue or kill him somehow but-”

  “What about the people from Delta?” Devraj shouted, “Where are they? It is their mess; they need to fix it.”

  “They hightailed it out of here at the first chance they got,” Pratap blurted back and flinched as he heard Devraj slam something in anger, “They had one dose of tranq left which they had given Arjun but he failed to dose that beast, and he is still at large. I have lost half my men here and Ajeet- Ajeet-” his voice broke down.

  Devraj took a deep breath, “What happened to my nephew, Pratap?”

  “He- he didn’t make it. He got trapped with Prateek inside the room when Arjun ran out,” he lost his voice.

  “No, no, NO!!” Devraj cried, “No one will leave the hotel until you finish that thing off. I don’t care if you lock yourself down nor do I care if you die killing it but he should not escape the hotel.”

  “Yes, sir!” Pratap said.

  “One more thing that I need you to do and I will not tolerate failure.”

  “Sir?”

  “Arjun should not leave that hotel alive too, make sure he is collateral in this unfortunate situation. If I see anything otherwise in tomorrow’s news before my oath, I will make sure to turn the rest of your living days to hell.”

  ~*~

  Time was running out. It was time to finish this although everyone’s efforts including mine were futile. I had not planned beyond Ajeet for the night and still had got more than I bargained for. I had managed to expose myself to half of the capital in a single evening, thanks to some scientists playing God. Pratap ran back towards me, and we got inside one of the unlocked rooms and locked it behind us.

  There was only o
ne way at this point. I had to get to my van where I had stashed some serious firepower. I believed that those high caliber rifles should pierce through that armor. I wished that I had brought some explosives though, those could have done the job quicker. That suit had taken significant damage by now and just needed a finishing touch.

  I felt a big smash at the other end and saw wooden splinters come off the hinges when I dived aside. I landed in the clear just in time to see Prateek’s armored metal hand pierce through the door. The following spontaneous blows sent the door crashing onto us as we jumped to avoid it and he came inside with a battle cry.

  We hit Prateek with pieces of furniture and managed to get out of the room, crouching behind a potted plant as Prateek got distracted by the officers fighting in vain to hopefully do some damage. Prateek had procured an SMG as well and was shooting back, forcing the officers to take cover. We tried hard to stay out of his sight, and Pratap said quickly, “What the fuck has happened here? Ajeet-”

  “There’s no time to discuss that; we have to act now before he turns us into pulp. Do you have anything more tactical right now than these standard issues? Any explosives?”

  He raised his eyebrows, looking at me like I have asked something impossible. He said, “You might be aware that all of this was for you and I didn’t expect you to be a rogue heavy-armored sentinel.”

  I was still looking at him, expecting something different and he scoffed and said, “NO, I don’t have explosives.”

  “Well, I have some toys in the van that I brought here. Prateek’s armor has weakened, I think I should bring those so that we can try overpowering him.”

  “You have a van full of guns,” Pratap said quietly, “When you are a wanted man?”

  “Are you really pointing that out, right now?” I replied, “Those guns might be the only way that can save us.”