The Three Kids

Anu moved her hand a little. Even before they could touch the ground, remnant ashes turned into vapour in the blink of an eye.

Her hand, which was supposed to be bare after the glove burnt off, was slowly being covered by a black slimy substance.

In no time, except for her middle finger, the black substance covered her hand till it reached her elbow.

The black substance covered colourful patterns on her hand as it settled on her hand and gradually turned bright red in colour.

The material that concealed her hand seemed unusually light to touch, even though scales covered the substance. Her hand no longer looked like she was wearing her gloves, but showed like a dragon claw.

When she tried to remove it, it stuck to her arm like her second skin. The scales were red at the roots and gradually darkened till they became black at the tip.

Rey was left wide-eyed. "I can't see it anymore..." is what he said after a couple of minutes.

"Mhm, me too. The tattoo disappeared."

"No! I'm not talking about that! I can look at the flow of power but now I can't look at the flow inside you!" Flustered, he tried to grab her arm to check what was wrong but as soon as he got close to her, the scales sensed something and became sharp spikes.

"Ah! Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, I was just excited." Moving a couple of steps back, Rey showed a submissive smile and her spikes turned back into scales.

Standing outside the door, Sumira jumped like a five-year-old and exclaimed, "WOW! What was that?! That was so cool! Can you do it again? Make them into spikes, please, please, please?'' Without thinking about anything, she grabbed Anu's hand. From a third person's view, it looked like she was carefully searching for some kind of trigger mechanism on Anu's hand.

"Why is it not working for me?!"

Rey spoke like it was a matter of fact, "She is not wary of you and trusts you that's why, and right now you should be more concerned about her condition. This was not some mechanical device but her skin!"

Sumira sneered. "Isn't it the same as your eyes? It must be some sort of superpower. Try doing it once again, will you?"

"OH! Sure, let me try, but right now I am hungry." Anu flashed her sheepish grin, and her stomach growled at the same time.

Sumira glared at her. "Did I take a pig inside my house! Why does she eat that much!"

Even though she was complaining, Sumira generously poured her some more porridge, saying that she would be embarrassed if Anu faints and people blame her for not feeding her enough.

Looking at the scene that was unfolding in front of him with an amused smile, Rey momentarily forgot about their current condition.

On the other side—

*bark* *bark* *bark*

Fierce barks broke out on the streets. From a considerable distance, one could see a group of stray dogs running in their direction. Behind them were a few wobbling figures following them.

Last night, when people turned into zombies apart from attacking other humans, they also attacked any living animal that was in their sight. Those zombies who were attacking other people noticed stray dogs and attacked them as well.

Dogs who have a strong sense of smell seemed to be disturbed by the rotting smell and were running off. Even after a whole six hours, they didn't seem to be much physically affected. Unfortunately, running for such a long time took a toll on the body of a Lil pup.

The stumbling corpse caught a puppy that didn't look over three months old.

The scene would be bloody, not something a weak-hearted person could see. Blood and flesh would intermix with painful cries of the pup as hungry zombies would slowly devour it.

Just as the zombie reached out and was about to catch the puppy, its mother, who was running ahead, turned back and ran towards the puppy. The mother dog barked agitatedly and the ground on which the zombie was standing rose abruptly. Sharp stones pierced through the zombie's body.

She picked up the puppy in her mouth and turned around to escape.

The spikes successfully eliminated the sudden danger, but the other zombies did not fear the power. They worked on instincts. As soon as they smelled the living, they would pounce with no thought of their life.

*ssk* *ssk*

Zombies about to touch the mother dog fell to the ground with a thud.

The dog saw her saviour, that person was riding a bicycle, as if trying to register him in her memory she looked at him and sniffed in the air and then moved along with her pack.

"I can't look at it anymore. What the absolute heck is happening here?! I hate it!" Sumira closed the curtains before the zombie could touch the puppy.

Putting a hand on Sumira's shoulder, Rey said, "Calm down Summi, your shouting is only going to attract more zombies here."

Hearing about zombies, Sumira immediately stopped speaking, and the room was once again filled with silence. The only noise they could hear was the sound of the growls that occasionally crept inside the house.

As if remembering something, Anu suddenly turned to sumira and asked, "What are we going to do now? And where are auntie and uncle, sumira?"

"We don't have any idea. Yesterday afternoon mom and dad went out to visit grandmother in the hospital and now I cannot contact them."

Looking at their sad faces, Anu stopped speaking, for she did not know how to comfort them. Even though she, too, had lost her parents, there's a probability that Sumira's and Reyansh's parents might be alive.

People of the working class died. It wasn't because of some special phenomenon, but most of them turned since they were out in the open at night.

Now the problem before them was to safely escape from the clutches of these full grown-up and sturdy zombies.

"What are you zoning out for?" Sumira mocked the dazed Anu. She could understand what Anu was thinking, but she wanted nobody's sympathy.

'Ah! I almost forgot that Sumira saved me not because I was her only friend, but because she has a dream to surpass me someday.' letting out a shaky breath, Anu flashed her a weak smile.

"No, I was just wondering...how do we get out of here?"

"I think it is going to be really hard," Rey said.

"Why?"

"It took us 6 hours to kill a few of those things. It might even take us days to reach our parents." Sumira explained.

"Then should we wait for them here? What if they come home and don't find us?"

"That is a big problem but we have to take this risk." Sumira pointed at the bloody axe that was kept on the balcony of her room.

"Then what about these kids?" Rey pointed at the neighbour's kids they saved by coincidence

Sumira, who had almost forgotten about the kids, looked at them and said, "Should we take them with us?"

Compared to Sumira, who looked like she was asking to take the kids in like they were pets, Anu showed a disagreeing face and said, "We can't possibly take care of them. We will need to take them with us and drop them at some safe place. What do you think about it?"

"Then it is decided that we will first go to the hospital to find your parents and then we will decide what to do after that, how about it?"Rey completely agreed with what Anu said. While his decision lacked any kind of sympathy for the kids, he still had to be logical.

They were not even sure about their parent's well-being and could not possibly take care of such young kids.

All three of them were not capable enough to take care of three additional people. Leaving them under the care of someone capable was a much better idea.

".... Agree" while Anu agreed without missing a beat, Sumira was a little hesitant but still agreed in the end.

One of the kids that were sleeping soundly woke up with a start and started crying