Dying Humanity

by Sourav Deka

  Ethan sighed. “Can’t you steal it back from him?”

  “I wish I could. His guards don’t even let us inside his house. I can sneak inside…………I did it before, but I am scared. If I fail, he will kill my family. He already killed my dad.”

  Nathan placed his hand over my shoulder. “I am so sorry, man. We wish we could do something.”

  I nodded. “Take care.”

  “You too.”

  They got in their car with Jonas’s men and left for their camp. After they left, Jonas came outside and walked towards my mom. I knew the look on his face, it was not a good sign. He was going to do something nasty. Mom was washing our clothes in the courtyard. Jonas grabbed her hand.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Your son broke the rules,” Jonas said. “Now it’s time for you to pay for his deeds.”

  Her eyes widened. “What?”

  I ran towards them. “What are you doing? Leave her hand,” I said.

  “I told you, Ross. She will be mine now.”

  “No!!!!!!!!!” I yelled.

  Jonas pushed me. I fell on the ground.

  “You tried to free Nia,” he pointed his finger at me. “You have to pay for that.”

  I grunted and stood up. “My mom doesn’t have to do anything with that. I did it. Whatever you want to do, do with me, punish me.”

  “No, what I am going to do with you, huh? You don’t learn. I guess killing your father didn’t teach you anything,” he gave a devilish smile. “I have to do something else.”

  I grabbed his hand trying to take it away from mom. “No, she is not going with you. I have seen what you did with Nia. She is not going to suffer because of me.”

  Jonas punched me in the face. I fell on the ground and hit my head.

  “Ross!” mom cried.

  My forehead was bleeding. “Please, don’t do this. I won’t try anything again. I…………….”

  Jonas stomped on my head.

  “No, Ross!!!” mom said, trying to get away from Jonas’s grasp.

  Everyone in the camp gathered around. Aaron was with Rowena in her house. They heard the noise and came running outside.

  “What the hell is happening?” Aaron saw me lying on the ground bleeding. “Ross!!!” he ran towards me.

  Jonas lifted mom and carried her on his shoulder. He walked towards his house. She protested and tried to bite him but as Jonas was powerful, he wasn’t hurt.

  Rowena held my head in her lap. “Ross, stay awake. Don’t pass out,” she said, holding my cheeks. I was trying to stay conscious but Jonas hit me very hard. My vision became blurry and my ears were ringing.

  Aaron ran towards Jonas and grabbed his arm. “Where are you taking her?” he shouted.

  “Your brother tried to free Nia, this is his punishment,” Jonas said. “Your mother will sleep with me now.”

  Aaron’s face turned red. “No!!” He punched Jonas again and again. “No, no, no, no, no,” he kept punching him, kicking him and Jonas laughed at him.

  “You know you can’t hurt me kid,” Jonas smirked.

  Aaron still tried to beat him with every ounce of energy he had. When that didn’t work he tried to separate mom from Jonas’s grasp.

  “Okay, enough!” Jonas punched him. It was so hard that Aaron fainted instantly and fell on the ground.

  Mom kept screaming but Jonas didn’t listen. He took her inside. Aaron was lying unconscious on the ground. Rowena left me and ran towards Aaron to help. I was groaning and panting on the ground. Tanner and Michael came towards me to help. They took us inside our home and healed us by some immortal drinks. As soon as we were healed, we tried to go into Jonas’s house.

  Tanner and Michael stopped us. “Wait!”

  “My mom is with that psychopath,” I clenched my jaw. “I can’t just sit here and let him rape my mother.”

  “You can’t do anything, Ross,” Michael said, grabbing my shoulder tight.

  “I am going to go and fight him. I don’t care if he kills me,” I raised my voice.

  “Yes, we will blow up his house,” Aaron said, walking towards the door.

  “No, you can’t,” Tanner said, putting his hand on Aaron’s chest. “Not until he has the watch. We are nothing against him.”

  “Let’s go all together,” I said. “All of the camps have about a hundred thousand people. He can’t take us out all if we go together.”

  Tanner shook his head lightly. “No, Ross, you know everyone is scared of him. They know what he can do.”

  “We have to do something,” I kicked the wall in anger. “This is too much. We have to come up with something. Can’t we cut his hand to separate the watch?”

  “No, as long as he has the watch attached to his body, axe, swords, nothing will cut any part of his body.”

  “Ahhhhhhhhh” Aaron kicked his bed. “We have to do something!”

  “I know this is bad,” Michael said. “But we are helpless. You two can go, but it will be useless. You won’t be able to hurt him and he will knock you out again.”

  Just then Nia entered the room. I haven’t seen her since she died. Jonas brought her back with the reanimation drink I guess. “Nia!” I said.

  “He let me go,” she said.

  “My mom?”

  “She is in Jonas’s room. He locked the room from inside.”

  I pressed my lips and a tear ran down my cheek. “I have to do something.”

  Aaron cried. “Let’s burn his house.”

  “It won’t kill him, instead it will kill your mom,” Tanner said.

  “I am sorry, Ross,” Nia said. “This happened because you tried to free me from Jonas,” she lowered her head. “I shouldn’t have left with you that night.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I wiped my tears. “I will kill him. This is not over.”

  “But how?” Aaron yelled. “How are we going to kill him?”

  “I don’t know,” I clenched my jaw. “But I will.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Tanner and Michael made sure that we didn't try to fight Jonas again. They made us stay inside despite our efforts to go inside Jonas’s house. They were right. We couldn’t do anything until he had the watch. But I can’t just sit around. I had to do something. I had to save her, she is my mom.

  The next day I sneaked inside Jonas’s house when he was outside talking to Stan. I got past all the guards and entered Jonas’s room like I did once before. I opened the door. The view made my whole body freeze, my eyes widened and my lips shivered in fear. Mom was dead hanging in the fan with a rope tied to her neck. One of the guards saw me, and came towards me. “Hey what are you doing here?” he grabbed my arm. Another two guards came and grabbed me. They kept shaking my arms but I was unaware of them. I kept staring at my mom’s body hanging in the fan. My whole world fell apart and my body felt numb, I lost her again. I wanted to scream and cry but not a single word came out of my mouth. I fell on my knees while a tear rolled down my cheek. They dragged me outside grabbing my arms. I was in shock, I couldn’t speak. It felt like everything ended. I died inside.

  “What the hell happened to him?” one of the guards asked.

  “His mother committed suicide. He is in shock,” The other guard said.

  They dragged me to the courtyard and left me there. Aaron, Rowena, Michael and Tanner were outside working. They came towards me.

  “Hey, Ross, what happened?” Aaron shook my arms.

  A tear ran down my cheek. Words didn’t come out of my mouth.

  “Ross!!!” Aaron shook my head. “What happened?”

  “He is in shock,” Michael said.

  Jonas saw all of us gathering there. Tanner looked at him. “What did you do?” he asked.

  “His mother died,” Jonas said. “She committed suicide this morning. “

  Aaron’s face reddened. “You son of a bitch!” he shouted. There was an axe lying near a pack of woods. He grabbed it and ran towards Jonas in anger. He swung the axe at him,
but it didn’t do him any harm. It was like Jonas was made of steel. Aaron got mad and kept hitting him again and again hoping that it will hurt him if he keeps attacking him again and again. Jonas got annoyed and kicked him in the stomach. Aaron fell on the ground and dropped the axe. He was hurt but still he picked himself up and grabbed the axe. Jonas kicked him very hard this time. The kick was so powerful that Aaron crashed into Michael’s house twenty feet away and fainted.

  “I didn’t kill her,” Jonas said.

  “Yes, you did,” Michael said.

  “I raped her, didn’t kill her. She killed herself,” Jonas turned around and left the place.

  Michael, Tanner, Rowena, Ambrose and everyone carried me and Aaron from the ground and took us back into our house.

  “This has gone too far,” Michael said.

  Tanner inhaled deeply. “What should we do?” he said.

  “Let’s burn this place down,” Rowena said.

  “What???” Tanner raised his eyebrows. “Burning our own camp isn’t going to solve anything. Jonas is the problem. He has to die.”

  “Jonas has to be taught a lesson,” Ambrose said. “We have to protest. If we don’t work for him, he won’t be able to do anything.”

  “He will kill everyone,” Michael said.

  “He already killed Ross’s parents,” Rowena said. “What are you waiting for? What will you do if he hurts your family?”

  “He won’t,” Michael gulped. “We won’t go against him.”

  “We can’t live like this every day. We all have to stand up together. Jonas won’t kill everyone. He needs us to do slaving for him.”

  “No, Michael is right,” Tanner said. “We can’t fight him until he has the watch. We have to think how we can get it back.”

  “We can’t,” I said tonelessly. “Everything ended.”

  Everyone looked at me seeing me speak. Nia sat beside me and put her hand over my shoulder. “Ross………..” she started to speak but I interrupted.

  “I couldn’t save her,” a tear ran down my cheek.

  She hugged me from side trying to console me. “Jonas will pay for what he has done.”

  I pressed my lips and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I lost my parents again.”

  “Let’s fight back,” Rowena said, raising her chin. “Let’s burn his house. Who is with me?”

  Everyone raised their hands apart from Michael.

  Rowena looked at him. “We have to fight back, Michael. This has gone too far. We can’t live like this, you know that.”

  Michael tightened his cheeks. “But I don’t want my family to get in danger.”

  “We are already in danger,” Michael’s wife Rachel said.

  Michael looked at Rachel. “Think about our daughter. What if Jonas does something to her?”

  “If we don’t fight Jonas, then one day he will hurt us. He killed Ross’s parents, Michael. He needs to be stopped.”

  “Yes, if we all fight together, he will lose,” Reena said. “He can’t kill all of us.”

  “No, he will,” I said.

  Everyone looked at me.

  I clenched my jaw. “Yes, he is evil. He doesn’t have any heart. He will kill everyone.”

  “No, Ross,” Rowena said. “He needs us to do his work. He can’t kill us all.”

  I lowered my head. “Many people will get killed. We will lose anyway.”

  Aaron woke up a minute ago. He was listening to us silently. “Let’s do this,” he said and got off the bed.

  Rowena nodded. “Yeah.”

  “We will not stop until we kill him,” Aaron said.

  Tanner nodded. “Yes, let’s go.”

  Michael raised his eyebrows. “Now?”

  “Yeah, then when?” Rowena said.

  They all went to their house and gathered some weapons. After a couple of minutes all of them gathered in the courtyard. Jonas was talking to one of his men. He saw all of them gathered with weapons in their hands ready to attack him.

  Jonas rolled his eyes. “Why do you people never learn?” he said.

  “You are dead,” Aaron said.

  All of them shouted and ran towards Jonas to fight. Jonas kept punching them away one after another like it was nothing. People kept flying over to the houses.

  “I don’t want to kill all of you,” Jonas yelled. “Don’t make me.”

  No one stopped. They kept hitting him with everything they had. Jonas’s men also interfered and helped him. Many of us got shot. We ended up killing some of Jonas’s men but there were a lot of them. Jonas didn’t even have a single scratch on his body. He kept fighting. People were scattered all over the camp. They were grunting and panting in pain, some broke their back, some broke their hands and legs, and some even died.

  Michael ran towards Jonas with an axe and swung it at him. Jonas grabbed it and stopped it before reaching his neck. “You have made a big mistake, I am your king,” he said in a heavy voice.

  “You are not our king,” Michael said, pushing the axe against his body. “You never will be.”

  Jonas kicked him in the chest. Michael fell on the ground groaning.

  Jonas grabbed Michael’s wife Rachel. “No!!” Rachel screamed.

  “I guess Ross’s parent’s death didn’t teach you anything. But now you will learn,” Jonas picked up Rachel on his shoulder. She was screaming and hitting Jonas trying to get out of his grasp while he walked away towards his house. Little Gina was crying alone. She was scared.

  Michael stood up and ran towards him. “Leave her.”

  Jonas kicked him again before Michael could stop him. He hit the ground and dust got in his eyes.

  “I will keep doing this if you don’t stop going against me,” Jonas said. “Follow the rules and I will let you live.” He went inside his house with Rachel on his shoulder screaming.

  Michael stood up again and ran towards the house. Stan stopped him with a punch and Michael fell. He wiped the blood on his mouth and stood up again. Stan stopped him with another punch. Michael fell again. Stan got over him and kept punching until Michael passed out. His whole face was covered with blood. Little Gina was crying seeing her father getting beaten up so badly. Luke and his parents came to help her.

  “You made Jonas do this,” Stan pointed his finger at Michael and got off him.

  Aaron, Tanner, Rowena, Ambrose and I ran towards Michael and picked him up. He wasn’t in good shape. It was hard to tell if he was alive. He was helpless, he grunted and coughed up blood. We carried him inside his house and lay him on a bed.

  “Ambrose, bring some immortal drinks,” I said.

  Ambrose went to his house and brought some immortal drinks he had. I poured it on Michael’s face. His face began to heal and he felt better in a couple of seconds.

  “Rachel!!!!” Michael sat on the bed as soon as he healed.

  “Relax!” I said.

  Michael got off his bed. “I have to save her.”

  Everyone blocked the door.

  “Michael, you can’t. Jonas will kill you,” Tanner said.

  “Move away from the door,” Michael yelled, clenching his shoulders.

  “I told you not to go against Jonas. You didn’t listen. We lost,” I kicked the bed. “We cannot defeat him.”

  “Move away!!!” Michael shouted and pushed the people blocking the door.

  “What are you going to do? Fight him again?” I said. “You know you can’t.”

  Michael pushed everyone at the door and went outside. He stormed towards Jonas’s house. Stan stopped him with his hand on his chest. “Looks like you want more, huh?”

  Michael tried to punch him. Stan blocked his punch and broke his hand. Michael screamed in pain and fell on his knees. He stood up and tried to punch him with his other hand. Stan grabbed his hand. “Come on! Give up, Michael,” he kicked him. Michael fell on the ground groaning and panting in pain. He picked himself up again and ran towards Stan to punch him. Stan got annoyed. This time he grabbed his neck and snap
ped it.

  “No!!!!!!!!!!” I shouted.

  We all ran towards Michael. But it was too late. He was dead.

  “It’s okay, we can bring him back,” Aaron said.

  I nodded.

  “There will be more dead bodies if you try anything like this again,” Stan pointed his finger at us. “Be smart. Jonas is your king now. Follow his rules or die.”

  We all carried Michael’s body and took him inside his house, but we didn’t bring him back. If we bring him back, he will go for Jonas again and get killed. So we decided to keep him dead until his wife Rachel gets free from Jonas. His daughter Gina was crying her eyes out, it was difficult to control her but Luke’s parents tried everything they could to console her.

  We lost. There was no choice. We had to live like slaves. It was like a prison from where we couldn’t escape. Aaron even tried to commit suicide once but I stopped him. He was so depressed and angry that he wanted to die. He couldn’t take it anymore. Same thing happened to me. I also had suicidal thoughts like Aaron, but Nia took my mind off it. We got close over time. She was the one who stopped me every time. Whenever I tried to kill myself, she made me remember why I should live. I had to kill Jonas and to do that I had to live or else mom, dad and Michael’s death would have been for nothing. It was difficult but I had to live to kill him one day.

  All the people in the camp have given up hope. Jonas rapes Rachel every night. We could hear her screams from far away. Deep down I was relieved that Michael was not alive to see this. I told them it was a bad choice but still they went against Michael. He didn’t want this. He knew it could put his family in danger and that’s what exactly happened.

  Luke's parents were taking care of little Gina. It took time but they managed to make her feel safe. She comes every day to watch Michael in his coffin and asks me when I am going to bring him back and rescue her mother. I wanted to tell her the truth but I kept lying every day, told her that I will bring back her parents soon. I was worried. What if Rachel commits suicide like mom? But as days passed by it didn’t happen. I used to sneak into Jonas’s house and talk to her. She stayed strong, but she didn’t know for how long she would keep going like this.

  Jonas sends his men to bring back more dead people every day. He made Ambrose work day and night, made a lot of reanimation drinks. The population and the territory of our camp increased. It has come close to five hundred thousand people. Over the time some even tried to fight against Jonas like us, but got defeated. That happened most of the time. Jonas had control over all the people. Whenever someone rebels against him he defeats them and makes them suffer. To send a message he hangs a few dead bodies outside his home to show what will happen if someone goes against him.