Mainak Dhar - Zombiestan

'First of all, I wanted all of you to see these remarkable young people. You have all heard their story in one form or the other, but what they have achieved is amazing. When we put out our radio broadcast, we were hoping to attract people from nearby areas-and we did get several thousand, who are now at the airfield. But they made it all the way from Delhi, with all the adventures you have heard about.'

He glanced at Mayukh.

'You don't know this, but while the Internet is still not up, the ham radio operators are as active as any chat forum, and for the last few days, all they have been chattering about is your adventure.'

Mayukh flushed a bit at all this unwanted attention. He certainly didn't want any attention, and nor did he feel particularly brave. He had done what he had done for those around him and without Hina or David to share the moment with them, it all seemed somewhat empty. Vij must have sensed on what was on his mind, and spoke again for all those assembled in the room.

'More than anything else, you have all heard tales of the boy who could not be bitten, as the ham operators called him. And every step of their journey was relayed and amplified by those willing the boy on to safety, hoping like all of us, that this boy could indeed hold out some hope.'

Abhi was now holding onto Mayukh's left leg, looking more than a little intimidated at all the attention. When Vij turned to him and smiled, he dug his face into Mayukh's leg.

'I must be honest, I had my doubts to begin with. Perhaps it was all an urban legend. Perhaps people were just trying to grasp at straws. But after having seen this little boy with my own eyes, it's obvious he was bitten but was not turned. We have sent samples over to an American base for testing, and we will have results soon.'

The next morning, Mayukh was sitting in the small room he was sharing with Swati and Abhi. She had her head nestled against his chest.

'What now?'

Those two words were simple enough for Swati to ask, but Mayukh didn't know how to answer it. Their ordeal may have been over, but it was obvious the world was still very much at war, and that war was only going to get uglier and more destructive as the human forces now organized themselves and retaliated against the Biters. There was no question of going back to any of the big cities, which had been the worst hit by the Biters epidemic, so he really didn't know what lay ahead for him and Swati. As he thought that, he corrected himself. No, he did know what lay ahead. He had been thinking in terms of where they may live, what they may do with their lives, but not about what they would do with each other. And if there was one thing he took away from the ordeal they had shared, that was all that really mattered.

'Sweetheart, we've known each other just about two weeks, and we're both not yet out of school. So this may sound crazy, but maybe in a world gone crazy, this is the only thing that make sense.'

Swati was now looking at him, and from the expression in her eyes, he got a feeling that somehow, she knew.

'Swati, will you marry me?'

She just smiled, with tears forming in her eyes and whispered.

'Yes'.

He brought her closer to him when Abhi spoke up.

'Once you finish kissing, can you talk about cars with me?'

Mayukh picked up the boy and the three of them hugged, laughing together.

There was a gentle knock on the door and when Mayukh opened it, he saw General Edwards there.

'Son, they finished the tests from Abhi's blood samples. The reports will be with us any minute. I thought you'd want to be there.'

They were about to file out the door when Mayukh asked him if they had any news about David. The previous evening, he had relayed the full story of their trip and of the role David had played in it.

'Thanks to your detailed debriefing, we've already sent out search parties for Captain Bremsak. We recovered more than eight burnt Biter corpses where he made his stand, and then the trail indicates he jumped off the cliff, taking at least a few more with him.'

'Sir, is he…'

The General caught his gaze as Mayukh saw a pin on the General's coat. An eagle perched on an anchor, holding a trident in its talons. He remembered seeing a similar pin on David.

'We don't know, son, but we will find him. We SEALs don't leave our own behind.'

'You may now kiss the bride.'

Mayukh leaned over and kissed Swati as Abhi looked on, clapping in glee, not fully understanding what was happening, but knowing that everyone around seemed to be happy.

It wasn't quite the marriage Swati had dreamt of. There was no family, no dancing relatives and friends. They were surrounded by hundreds of soldiers in combat fatigues and their marriage was solemnized in a small chapel at the US Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.

They had flown there a month ago when Abhi's test results had come in, and it had been their home ever since. They had begun their life together, while the war still raged outside. The Biters could now operate tanks and heavy armour, and while the human forces had most of the air power, the brutal war continued.

TV was back on-if a handful of news channels and a few entertainment channels showing reruns of old shows counted, electricity was restored in several places, and they could have just hunkered down for a comfortable life at the base. But after all they had been through, they wanted to do more. So Swati began teaching kids at the small school they established at the base, where Abhi soon made lots of new friends.

Being one of the few to have gotten so close to the Biters and lived to tell the tale, Mayukh began to help in briefing new recruits and also passing on survival tips to human communities everywhere. There were hundreds of millions spread around the world, living in cities where the Biters came out at night, or hiding in isolated farmlands, too scared to come out. Mayukh used the radio on the base to pass on tips and talk to them, and his story gave them all hope and his knowledge helped them survive till human forces got to them.

But of all of them, the one who helped the most was Abhi. The doctors had already cloned vaccines from his blood samples, and these had been tested already, showing that any human injected with it was resistant to being converted on being bitten. Old drug factories were quickly reclaimed by Special Forces and the vaccine was being churned out in the millions, to be distributed to human survivors everywhere. If they could get the vaccine to every human out there, one thing was certain. No more Biters would be created.

It was perhaps only appropriate that the solution to the madness and destruction the world had inflicted upon itself lay in the blood of an innocent child.

They walked out of the chapel hand in hand, to applause from everyone present. Swati left with Abhi for school and Mayukh joined his duties in the radio room, when one of the operators called him over.

'Mayukh, there's someone on the radio who wants to talk to you.'

Mayukh put on the headset and was electrified at the voice he heard.

'Congratulations, kid. Sorry I couldn't be there in person.'

Mayukh sputtered out in astonishment.

'David! God, where are you? What happened to you?'

'Long story. I woke up in a farmer's hut, half dead and more than half frozen. Took them two weeks to get me coherent enough to tell them who I was. But my buddies didn't leave me. Of all the people I could have imagined meeting, once my story was out, I was picked up two SEALs who took me to the base in Ladakh. By then, you were in Alaska and I thought I'd get home before I checked on you.'

'Did you find Rose?'

There was a brief silence on the other end.

'Kid, I found her. I buried her behind our old home.'