Page 149 - Musings 2021

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Monsters
Gairik Mukherjee
2020ABPS1856P

I continuously fired at those monsters, all charging towards us. All that was heard were
growling of those monsters, screams of my teammates and me, shouting.

“COME ON, EVERYBODY! INSIDE THE HOUSE NOW! GO GO GO!”

But I saw all our efforts go into vain. We were out of supplies, and there were too many of
them. I had to see all my teammates, one-by-one, getting eaten by those creatures. “HELP!”
shouted Derek. There was something in me that made me jump to save him. I took out my
knife and started slashing those things in order to free Derek. I somehow managed to pull him
out of their grip. I took a grenade out of my vest pocket, pulled the pin, and threw it towards
that hoard, and BANG! Silence followed that loud explosion. Derek and I pulled each other
into that broken house.

The four walls were barely standing. There was some old furniture inside. The ones who
lived here were gone a long time back. We sat there in the rubble. I took my radio
communicator and spoke into it.

“This is lieutenant Garry. Does anybody copy? HELLO?! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!”

There was no response. I spoke again.

“If anybody is receiving this message, then please send immediate evacuation. The whole
squad is dead. Only Derek and I survived. The charges are set and will go off in
approximately six hours. We are still stuck here in the upstate ruins. Our jet has collapsed,
and we are out of supply. If anybody is getting my message, please send help.”

My watch showed 3 a.m. I sat down beside Derek, both exhausted. We were thirsty, but there
was nothing we could do about it. Almost the whole planet nowadays fought for a single drop
of water they could find. Silence prevailed for a long time, which was broken by Derek.
“What do you think?” he said. I said,” I don’t know. I will keep trying to contact them.
Hopefully, they will be here before dawn.” Derek laughed a bit. “Not that. About us. What
we are doing, what we have been doing for the past few years. What do you think about
that?”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“You know what I mean. In six hours, this city is going to blow up. This city, along with its
people, everything is going to blow up.”

I remained quiet for a moment. I couldn’t come up with an answer. But then the soldier in me
spoke up. “We don’t question that, soldier. And this is the only way to save this planet, you
that. This city is full of the infected. If not eliminated now, the whole world will collapse.
Earth is falling short of its resources. We can’t afford to have those monsters living amongst
us. We are just protecting and saving what is left ...”

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