Death Apocalypse

“Ah, am I dead?” Manav wondered when he looked at the evening sky with his partly blurred vision. He noticed the silhouettes of a few round heads surrounding him when his vision slowly got cleared. “Hey, why are you lying on the street?” A man asked and shook Manav’s leg with his foot to check if he was conscious. Manav could not comprehend whatever happened around him. It was all of a sudden that he arrived to this uncomprehensive scene. He slowly lifted his head and looked around to see where he was. He saw that there were many people surrounding him and giving him nasty looks. “Kids these days, they don’t have any ethics.” “Yes, look at this boy. He is lying on the street while drunk.” “Today’s kids don’t care about their parents. I bet he used his father’s hard-earned money to drink.” “Huh? What are they talking about?” Manav wondered. He could not hear them properly as his head ached badly. He held his head from his hand and stood up when he finally came to his senses.“Wasn’t I eaten by the zombies?” He thought. The picture of zombies tearing him apart moved around his eyes and sent shivers down his spine. “How did I reach here?” He walked from the midst of the people while holding and trying to clear his head, and tried to figure out the sudden change in his surroundings. After looking around, he realized he was at Chouraha market near his house. He looked around curiously and headed towards his home to see if everything was alright. Also, there was a hope. A hope to see his parents and family one more time. After what he had witnessed earlier, it was all natural for him to rush home and check once more. The horrifying visuals of the zombies and the screams of the people continuously rampaged his head which made his headache unbearable. He stopped at his house’s gate and stared at his two-story house. He had lived his entire life in that house but it never looked so beautiful before. “Mom! Dad!” He called upon entering the gate. He got no reply. He moved his head around and wondered, “Is nobody at home?” Maybe, there was nothing to do. His parents had died and no matter what happens, they would remain that way. But... something unusual happened. Something he did not expect. Suddenly, he sensed someone coming outside of the house. “Why are you shouting, Manav? Is everything okay?” Manav was utterly shocked when he saw his mother. He never imagined seeing her alive again after he witnessed her getting eaten by the zombies. He could do nothing to save her and just... watched her die. "Mom?" He muttered before his eyes got soaked in tears. "Is that you, mom?" His mother was a typical Indian middle-aged woman and a house maker. She tied her hair as a bun and she wore a brown saree. She had a fair complexion and was short heightened. Upon seeing his mother alive and well, Manav ran to her and hugged her tightly. “Mom...” “Manav?” His mother could not understand her son’s unusual behaviour, but she knew something was wrong. “Are you okay, son?” She held his cheeks in both her hands and asked, “Is something troubling you, son?” Manav could not tell her what he had gone through, and tried to hide his emotions. “Ah, I am hungry, mom. Is there something to eat?” He tried to act normal after the emotional reunion. A mother can go through any difficulties but she cannot see her children in trouble. She knew something was wrong, but decided not to push it. “I have kept some bread in the fridge.” "Okay." He ran inside the house to get the bread. Food was never this delicious for him as it was right now. When he was eating the bread at the dining table, he thought — “How did I end up here? Didn’t the zombies eat me? Am I in some kind of dream?” Manav was a good-looking teenager with short black hair, a fair complexion and a noticeable jaw-line. He had a splendid physique and wore a full-sleeved grey t-shirt and black jeans. After he devoured the bread, he went upstairs to his room. When he was still climbing the stairs, his cell phone that was in his jeans pocket rang. He stopped midway to his room and looked at the screen to find it was a call from his dear friend. “Ashwin?” He read the name that flashed on the screen. “Why is he calling?” He received the call and walked into his room. His room, his dear room. His kingdom where only he lived and ruled. The best part of his heaven until it all turned into hell. It was in the exact condition he liked. The bed was messy with his laptop on it. A book shelf was there on his left with comics and novels only, while a window on his right. The street and the main gate of the house were visible through the window. One could observe every person walking into the house. “Hey, Ashwin,” He said in the phone. “Hey, Manav. What team are you placing your bets on?” Manav could not understand what he meant. “What?” “Didn’t you say you would place your bets on a team today?” “I don’t understand,” He responded in confusion. “Hey, don’t joke, man. You know that the first match of the Indian Cricket League is happening today. You told me to place your bets.” “What?” He was shocked when he heard it. He pulled his cell phone away from his ears while Ashwin still spoke and looked at the date on the screen. “What?” He could not believe that the date it showed was ‘21st April 2019’. The zombie apocalypse happened in the year 2020 and he died the same year. He still did not believe his cell phone, thinking he must have set the wrong date by mistake, and turned to the calender hung on the wall at his left. “How?” He uttered even more shockingly when he saw the calendar was of year ‘2019’ and he had marked the current date ‘21st April’ with a red marker. He had the habit of marking the current date each morning after he woke up. He was dumbstruck when he thought about the impossible. “What is happening?” Ashwin still spoke but Manav was too dumbfounded to listen to him because of the shocking discovery he made. He quickly jumped to his laptop and searched for the latest news articles and got even more shocked when he found that every latest news article showed last year’s date. “How can this be possible?” He thought while he grabbed his head in disbelief. Suddenly, he heard someone calling him. “Manav! Manav!” It was his father’s voice. Oh, the voice of the man he loved the most in this world. “Yes, dad!” “Come down here!” After hearing his dad's voice, he had a bad feeling. He knew he was about to get scolded, but didn’t know for what reason. He ran down to find his father glaring at him with his arms crossed. His feet slowed down when he noticed his father’s red nose, which always happened when he got angry. Although he wanted to hug him tightly but controlled his emotions at the moment. “Yes, dad?” He said. His father scanned him up to down and asked, “Where were you half an hour ago?” "Nowhere." He scratched his head awkwardly. "I can't remember exactly." His father was a middle-aged government employee with a bald head, a short mustache and a beer belly. He wore spectacles, a brown half-sleeved shirt and grey balloon pants. “Stop lying to your father!” His father rebuked him, making his mother arrive at the scene. Manav could remember nothing before the moment he found himself on the street. The memories he had were of the moments he and all of his kins died. “Oho, what happened? Why are you angry with him?” His mother asked. “Do you know what your son did, Urmila?” “What did he do?” “He was lying on the street while drunk. Mr. Mathur told me. He had seen him at the Chouraha market,” replied his father while breathing fire. Manav never liked Mathur. He always filled his father's ears against him. It was because he always scored higher than Mathur’s son in the exams. Jealousy kept Mathur alive. It ran into his veins in place of blood. "Come here." His father signaled him to come to him. He sniffed around his son's mouth to check if it reeked of alcohol, but could smell nothing. “What did you used to get rid of the odor?” He asked, raising his brow. “What? Nothing.” It was all too sudden for Manav. It seemed this all had happened already in the past. It was like everything was getting repeated from the last year. “You won’t get dinner if you don’t tell me the truth.” His father headed inside, leaving him lost in thoughts. His mother held his arm and said something, but he was not in a position to listen to her. “If what happened is true, then it means I have travelled back in time. The zombie apocalypse has not happened yet. That means we can stop it.”