Off With Their Heads (9 page)

‘Of all the things anybody has ever done to impress a girl, dressing up as a bunny must be the weirdest and stupidest plan. I do hope she’s worth it.’

Neil smiled and playfully threw some water from the sink at Jiten. ‘She is not just any girl. She is the one.’

Jiten shook his head. ‘Dude, I hear you and I’m sure she’s special but please take a look at us. She’s rich, she’s good-looking and we spend our spare time serving pizzas and washing dishes.’

Neil was not dissuaded. He had heard it all before, and it did not bother him. He might not have had much, but one thing he did have was boatloads of determination. He was only eighteen, but having grown up in an orphanage had matured him much faster than others his age. He had quickly learned that if he wanted to do something with his life, he would need two things – education and money. So he had studied his butt off and got admission into one of the best colleges in New Delhi, and he worked two part-time jobs to pay the fees and save up for a professional degree. He did not know much about what was expected or even whether he would be good at it, but his dream was to get an MBA. For Neil, it was simple – he wanted a job. A job that made sure he no longer had to worry about money; a job that helped him get rid of the label of being a nobody that he had carried ever since he had been born; a job that paid him enough and gave him enough respectability for someone like Neha.

But for now, he still had to get her to date him. The very first time he had seen her, up on stage during a college function, he could have sworn a voice whispered into his ears that she was the one. He had had his share of crushes, but with Neha, it was different. He would hang around after class, whiling away time over cups of tea so that he could see her finish her class and get into her chauffeur-driven car. He signed up for an extra credit in Philosophy and suffered through incomprehensible lectures on Kant and Plato just so he could sit behind her. Of course, she had never noticed him. Neha was one of the most popular people on campus, and he was an outsider. Most of the kids came from privileged families, with cars, flashy phones and late-night parties they attended together. He was the poor orphan from a different world.

With half the college queuing up to be Neha’s boyfriend, on the face of it, Neil’s chances were slim. But he was not one to give up so easily. So a few Google searches later, he had found out something that nobody else knew. Neha was a volunteer for the Make-A-Wish foundation, and so Neil had offered to volunteer there as well. Six months had passed, and then he had been called up for his first wish – to accompany a five-year-old with leukemia to meet her favorite movie star. The movie star had agreed and Neil and another Wish Granter were to accompany the child and her family from their humble home on the outskirts of Delhi to meet the star in a hotel.

When Neil had first seen the little girl with her hair all gone to multiple sessions of chemotherapy, something in him changed. He realized that while he had started this all as a ruse to get closer to Neha, he wanted passionately to help these kids – to give them the joy that came with fulfilling their wishes, to bring some hope into their lives, if even for a day. Joy and hope that nobody had brought into his when he was growing up in the orphanage. Every time one of the kids smiled, it felt like in some way he was making up for all the nights he had cried himself to sleep at the orphanage. So he had dived into his volunteer work with a vengeance and in the New Year’s party, he was given an award for being the most active and enthusiastic Wish Granter in all of Delhi.

That day, Neil learned another lesson – that sometimes just doing what was right eventually got you more reward than any amount of scheming and planning. He sat at the same table as Neha that night, and they immediately hit it off. She saw not another boy from college wanting to get into her pants, but a gentle, sincere boy who gave so much of his time for a cause she so dearly loved. Neil learned that Neha had lost her mother to cancer, which had made her embrace the work of the Make-A-Wish foundation with such fervor. They stayed in touch, and within days, Neil got the news that for the next wish, he was to partner with Neha. In some secret corner of his mind, he wished that Neha had requested specifically for him to be her partner. The more prosaic truth was the Wish Granter paired with her had fallen sick and they had picked Neil at random, but that did not bother Neil; he saw this as a sign from God that the wheels were finally turning in his favor.

Of course, that also meant that he had to go dressed as a giant bunny. It seemed that the little girl they were to help that day was a huge fan of the book Alice in Wonderland, and wanted Wonderland to be enacted for her. She was to be dressed as Alice, Neha was to be the Queen, and of course, Neil was to play the part of the role of the rabbit who led Alice down the hole. Neil knew he looked silly in the oversized bunny ears. He was tall and lanky to the point of looking gaunt, and the large, floppy ears only made him look even taller and thinner. But it would make a sick little girl smile, and yes, it would allow him to spend time with Neha. After the wish, he had planned on asking her out for a coffee, and pleasant thoughts of their first date occupied him as he rode his bike to the girl’s home, where he and Neha were to prepare a Wonderland-themed birthday party for the girl and her friends.

*

Neil had been riding his bike for almost thirty minutes when he first got a sense that something was wrong. Normally, in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, traffic should not have been so bad, but now cars were backed up as far as he could see. The girl’s home was in a compound of low-rise apartments just a few kilometers away from where he was now, near the Delhi zoo, but with the state of traffic that he saw around him, there was no way he was going to make it in time.

Loud music sounded to his right and an auto-rickshaw pulled up. The driver was smiling and singing along, and when he saw Neil stare at him, he turned the music down. ‘Don’t look so serious, young man. We’ll be stuck here for quite some time.’

‘Why, is there an accident or something up ahead?’

The auto-rickshaw driver looked at Neil as if he were an idiot. ‘Don’t you watch the news? The demons are loose now. I hear they think the bloody Delhi Police will stop them. All they know is how to take bribes.’

Neil leaned closer to see what the man was talking about, and caught a whiff of country liquor. There was a half-empty bottle nestled against the man’s legs. No wonder he was babbling about demons. The man saw Neil’s expression and pointed to the bottle. ‘My friend, you also go and get a good drink before the demons come.’

One of the cars inched forward, and Neil maneuvered his bike through the gap. He managed in this fashion for a few minutes, moving perhaps a few hundred meters, when he saw that the road ahead was blocked by a police jeep. Three nervous-looking constables were standing in the middle of the road, diverting traffic. Not able to move further on his bike, Neil got off his bike and walked towards them.

‘What’s happening? Why are you blocking the traffic?’

One of the policemen, a kind-looking old man who looked like he had been pulled out of retirement, stepped forward.

‘Son, we’re just following orders. It seems there’s trouble up ahead near the Taj hotel. Officially they haven’t told us what’s going on yet, but if I were you I would go and spend this time with your family.’

Neil thought back to what had happened in Mumbai a few years earlier when terrorists had attacked a number of hotels and other targets. His heart sank since he knew that Neha’s home was close to the Taj.

‘Is there a terror attack going on?’

The policeman shook his head.

‘No, son, it’s worse. Have you been following the news about the strange disease that showed up in China?’

Neil got most of his information from the Internet, and sure, he had heard about how a new virus was supposedly taking hold, and how some people were spooked about it. But then, that was the media’s job, right? To make everything seem like the end of the bloody world was in sight. He still remembered how they had drummed up SARS, mad cow, bird flu and God knew how many other epidemics that were supposedly going to kill millions, and of course, nothing happened. Plus, the news from the US was just a day or two old – surely no virus could spread so fast? And even if it did, why would the cops be so paranoid?

He took out his phone to call Neha to check what was going on. There were several unread notifications on his Facebook and Twitter icons. As he watched, the count seemed to increase steadily. With slightly shaking hands, he opened up Facebook and scrolled through the status updates of his friends.

‘What the hell is going on in Delhi? Isn’t traffic bad enough on normal days?’

‘They say it’s a virus? I think the only virus has affected the traffic lights.’

‘Maybe the cops just want some bribes to let us through. Recession must be hard on them as well. J’

But then the messages started getting more somber.

‘My bro came home and says he saw something on the road near his school. He won’t stop crying and he’s scared stiff. WTF is going on, please?’

‘I stepped out to buy some Coke and the cops are now telling everyone to stay in their houses and lock their doors. Are there terrorists around?’

‘Stay safe, guys. The government has declared a state of emergency. How can they do that without even telling us what’s going on?’

‘One of the news channels got an interview with a guest at the Taj. He was babbling about monsters.’

At that point, Neil stopped, a knot forming in his stomach. He had dismissed the auto-rickshaw driver’s comments as the rants of a drunk, but what was really going on? What was this talk of monsters?

Then he saw the status update that galvanized him into action. It was from Neha.

‘I’m scared. I can see these… things… walking outside. There are some cops firing at them. I’m alone and my dad’s at work. Don’t know what to do.’

Neha was alone, and in danger. Monsters or no monsters, Neil was not going to leave her alone at a time like this. He responded to her update with a simple comment.

‘I’m coming for you.’

He revved his bike and tore through the police barrier. One of the cops grabbed at the bag that contained his props and in the struggle, managed to snatch the bag away, leaving just the large bunny ears in Neil’s hands. Needing both hands free to control his bike, Neil put the ears on top of his head and rode off towards Neha’s home as fast as he could.

A thin boy wearing pink bunny ears was hardly the sort of one-man army movies or novels would portray, but today Neil George was angry enough to go to war with anyone who was threatening Neha.

*

Neil didn’t have to go far before he saw the first signs of trouble. He needed to take a right turn near the Old Fort to get to Neha’s home, but the road was blocked by people running across the road from the government colonies to the left. Many of them were well-dressed and perhaps the families of the officials who stayed in the apartments, but there were also some pavement dwellers and even some policemen. One of the policemen took one look at Neil and shouted, ‘Have you lost your mind? Don’t go any further.’

Neil didn’t have time to ask anyone what was happening, since the crowd seemed to be seized with a wild panic. While he waited for them to pass, he took a quick look at his phone. There was a new update on Neha’s Facebook page: ‘Neil, don’t come here. They are all around.’

Neil started his bike and rode straight past the fleeing crowd. Neha was clearly in great danger and he was not going to leave her.

Neil had progressed only a half-kilometer further when he first saw them.

An elderly man staggered to the side of the road, blood all over his clothes. His white hair was covered in red and his face was barely visible behind a mask of blood. The man was moving slowly, as if in immense pain, and before he could consciously think about it, Neil had stopped the bike near the old man.

‘Do you need help?’

The man’s head snapped up and Neil realized that something was terribly wrong. The man’s eyes were yellow and vacant and his lips were drawn back, making him look more like a snarling dog than a human being. Neil noticed the foul smell, like that of dead rats, and he wondered what was wrong with the old man. That was when the man growled and lunged at Neil, trying to bite him.

‘Holy shit!’ Neil almost fell off his bike in terror but recovered his wits in time to start his bike and speed away. Now other bloodied figures emerged from the colony. They were all shuffling along in a slow gait and as Neil caught a glimpse at one or two of their faces, he saw the same lack of expression. They snapped and clawed at him with their teeth or clawing in the air as he passed.

Neil was more scared than he had ever been in his life. What the auto-rickshaw driver had said came back to him and he wondered if these were actually demons. A couple of the Facebook posts had said that someone in the government had announced that this was the result of the virus that everyone had heard about sweeping through the US, but Neil wondered how a virus could possibly turn people into the inhuman wraiths he saw all around him.

He swerved his bike to the right just in time to avoid three of them coming at him and rode down a side street. An overweight man ran onto the streets and right into the path of the three Neil had dodged. One of them clawed at the fat man’s face, drawing blood. As the man clutched his bloodied face, another one bit into his shoulder. Blood spurted out in a fountain and the man went to his knees, as another one of his attackers bit him.

When Neil found an isolated patch hidden by a clump of trees, he stopped his bike. He retched and retched again as he remembered the blood, the fat man screaming as he was bitten and the sickening fetid odor.

Neil sat there for some time, wondering what was going on. Just then, his phone rang. It was Neha.

‘Neil, please don’t come here. They’re calling them Biters. They attack any person they see, and once they bite you, you become like them in a few hours. They’re saying on TV that the government is trying to quarantine parts of the city to contain the spread of the virus.’