13 Past Scars

Caesar and Mutant no.20 were standing in a face off . They have been arguing for more than half an hour . Caesar knew he can't defeat the mutant .He thought , if he could stroll time then maybe he and Zet could together beat it . He couldn't back-off as the mutant might attack the Hospital or the injured soldier.

Mutant : "So Caesar , It's your last chance . Join us , we will destroy everything and rebuild things from scratch . A better city where everyone will be able to move freely . A city where nobody has to be afraid of Virus ."

Caesar :- " I want that to happen too but not with the cost of my peoples life "

Mutant got outraged and spoke in anger "You care about people , since when . Did you gave a shit when you turned us into animals . I used to work for the organization but you treated me like an animal "

The mutant came forward and gave a side kick. Caesar blocked it with both his hands but still got some damage . His plans for strolling time has failed now . He has to go on offence .

Caesar moved as fast as he could and then tried to punch and kick but it was all in vain he couldn't even touch him . The mutant was too fast and his fighting techniques were extraordinary .

The mutant used to be an martial artist , he used to work for the organization as a trainer . He had trained multiple cadets .

Mutant spoke in a serious voice " Don't waste my time ". And then caught Cesars hand and gave a chop to his forearm . Any ordinary bone could have broken but his steel endo skeleton got bent . Caesar withered in pain and took some steps backward .He was wrong about the mutant's strength . He stood no chance against it . The mutant was strong enough to defeat the entire Fishkers department alone .

Cesar was sweating heavily . His heart was beating faster in his entire life he had faced this terror for the first time . The mutant showed no mercy . It kept on attacking his vital points , rib cage ,neck , joints , head . He was desperately trying to defend himself from dying . His posture wasn't normal anymore . His limb bones were bent . His rib cage was broken and was tearing his muscles from inside.Most of his joints were dislocated . He could hardly stand now .

With a blow to the knee Caesar fell down on the ground . The mutant was standing infront of him ready to smash his head with his legs .

(Inside the hospital )

Nova was sitting beside Cesar's daughter . She was looking at the two things that she was holding . One was Cesar's diary and the other was note for Zet .

Nova kept the note on table and and opened the diary . It was in a shabby condition.

Diary content

' It's a bright morning I woke up early today, my mother is in our little garden watering the plants . Father had gone to the symmetry for work . My father bury people in their grave yards . My mother grows flower and sell them to people who use them to respect the dead . We belong to a small sect . Our society has been divided into sects and according to that we are given our duties . The upper aristocrats rule the city . The lower aristocrats support the upper aristocrats by helping them in accounting finance and other stuff . Then comes the middle sect they are comprised of blacksmith ,businessmen swordsmen and knights . In the lower most sect people come who become soldiers , shop workers , home cleaner . My family is in the lowest segment of the low sect . We burn bodies , burry people in graveyard . We live in a lonesome area nearby the graveyard . People don't come near us . They say we are death gods assistant . I hate this thing but my mother says I am born to do such work . My father never force me to do anything . According to him this job is actually the greatest and purest thing to do . He says we give rest to the dead soul . With our prayers the dead rest in peace . Every morning my father wake up and chop the wood , he make the finest coffin in the city , all the aristocrats come to us to buy them . They come with lot of gold and silver and bury them along their dead relatives . I always wonder if the dead has a need of gold or money . They can't even smell the flower that are kept on their grave everyday...….

I'm 10 year old now . my father took me to school for admission but they refused my entry . they say they cant allow a lower sect child to study along upper sect children . My father had lot of money but still they denied to gave me admission . we returned home ,my mother knew this would happen . She taught me how to read and write . She was daughter of a gardener so she used to work in the garden of an aristocrat , a private tutor used to teach the upper sect children . My mother listened and learned . My father is illiterate he never got a chance study . He wanted me to study but it was all just a dream . I went to the graveyard today with my father ,thought I could lend him a helping hand . A person came in car . He was there to buy a coffin with unique design . My father showed him a few he selected one and gave my father a gold coin . At the time of burial he put a lot of gold and silver jeweler inside the coffin and also a lot of coins . I asked father why only one coin to the person alive and a lot of coin to the dead . Father scolded me son don't ask such ridiculous questions it is to honor the dead . The aristocrat went after putting a ton of flower on the graveyard . After a few moment a person came in a rickshaw , he had a dead body behind it . He gave my father few pennies . He said he didn't had much money . He also gave my father some rice and vegetable . He was a farmer . My father said no need to worry . He brought out a plain coffin . The man helped my father in digging the grave and then we prayed together after the burial . The man didn't went away . He sat there and wept till night . My mother came after selling the flowers . We use to put the remaining flower on the grave yards to honor the dead . I put a rose on the grave yard of the farmer . The person who brought him there was still crying . He spoke up " I don't have money to pay ". I said its alright its free. The man kept wailing in sorrow . We invited him to dinner that night . He denied , he stayed in the graveyard . The next morning he was gone . He use to come every evening to pray in-front of the buried coffin .

I saw a difference in peoples behavior , the aristocrats use to put tons of flower but just once on the other hand the people from lower sects use to come there everyday with flower or with prayers . I wondered if the dead could hear them .

Days passed and I learned to make wooden coffins , grow flowers and bury people with prayers . One day suddenly the number of deaths began increasing

. A lot of aristocrats used to come every day for burial . Slowly the no of dead bodies were increasing . A time come when we couldn't provide sufficient coffins . Peoples said there was some kind of virus that was killing all of these peoples . Soon people found out that the virus could also be transferred from the dead to the living . People stopped bringing dead people . They began calling us for taking the bodies . Me and my father went from place to place wearing full body clothes and gloves to pick dead bodies . Soon the graveyard got filled . We had to dug deep holes and put bodies in it . My father was extremely sad as he thought its not a proper burial . In the end we began cremating (burning ) dead bodies .

People were terrified due to the virus they stopped coming out of their houses . Any contact with the virus caused instant death . People were dying like flies .

One day my father faced difficulty in breathing . I took him to nearby hospital but the denied for check up as we use to bury dead and they thought we might carry the virus . Of-course it wasn't possible cause any contact with the virus would have caused instant death . But the doctors denied our entry . I went to the nearby house and asked them for a vehicle to take my father to a faraway hospital but all of them refused to help us . They had this blind belief that we are the assistant of death god and if someone help us then he will surely die . I tried to stop vehicles on the road to get some help but all in vain . Luckily I found the guy with rickshaw who used to come everyday to visit his relatives grave . I took the rickshaw and pedaled as hard as I could it took me half an hour to reach to a city hospital . I rushed there carrying my father but I soon realized he was no more . I couldn't even take him inside the hospital . I took him back to our house and buried him in our garden . My mother was depressed she wasn't eating anything . She had always cursed herself for getting born in a lower sect . I went back to work . There were tons of bodies in graveyard to be burned . People were now bringing bodies in truck . The virus was spreading too fast . I have heard that someone had told that soon he will free us from the virus but the research was still going on nobody knew where it came from or what was its weakness .

After a few days I saw bodies were piled up in graveyard covered in plastic . I took a matchstick and walked towards them . I noticed a person fell down as he was walking beside them . He didn't got up, then another person got faint and fell down . It didn't took me long to understand that those bodies were infected with virus. I had to burn them fast or they will get spread all over and more people will get killed . I even tried to tell people not to come near it but they couldn't understand . I had to hurry . I took a bucket of petrol and a lighter . I knew I will die as soon as I contacted the body ,so I built a grave for myself and left some money and a note for my mother . I knew she would come in the evening to put flowers on them . I soaked myself up in petrol and walked towards the dead bodies .