Chapter 4: Red Glowing Eyes
Anu whimpered and held her bleeding hand against her chest. The bleeding stopped shortly but the pain remained. She had scraped her knees when she fell, as her hand and knees throbbed in pain, Anu opened her eyes to see the level of damage they had suffered.
Despite the discomfort, she was experiencing there wasn't a single scratch on her body. Looking ahead, the demolished house was standing upright in its full glory.
"How can this be?" The ruins that she saw from a distance had completely changed into a magnificent medieval-aged villa.
In the absolute silence of the place, Anu entered the house.
The floor made of white marble, wooden furniture, carpeted floor and the golden chandelier that hung in the living room gave the house a luxurious vibe.
At a glance, it was no different from a five-star room with extravagant decorations all over the place, A presidential suite with three bedrooms, fully furnished and in its best condition.
Surprisingly, the kitchen was equipped with all the utensils. However, there wasn't anything that could placate her hunger.
Coming out of the space, Anu had to face another hurdle before she could eat something. And that hurdle was the presence of her dear relatives right behind the door and the certainty that they were ready to welcome her as soon as she would open her door.
Even the thoughts of the beautiful scenery that she would see as soon as she opened her door sent a chill down Anu's spine.
Sighing loudly, Anu glanced at her hand which had weird tattoos on it.
"The blue and white one is the tattoo for space, then what is this red tattoo for?" Anu thought aloud.
Hearing that someone was inside the room, her lovely relatives became excited and scratched the door with renewed passion.
*ding* " Looks like the phone and laptop I put on are charged already" Saying so, she put the phone directly into her track pants as she put the laptop in her space.
Scanning her room, Anu decided to transfer some more stuff to her private space. Clothes, books and everything she had a memory of ended up in her bedroom inside the space.
'Okay, now it's time to greet the elders' The sun was already out, as Anu peeped through the windows she could see some people running for their lives, shouting for help as loud as they can but little do they know that zombies are not animals.
Animals may get scared of you if you shout at them. But for zombies? shouting itself was an invitation for a meal.
Anu stood motionless as she saw her old neighbour run as fast as an athlete. Running behind him was his twenty years old son who had probably turned into a zombie.
In her mind, she prayed that the neighbour uncle would survive.
Due to the distance between them, she was not able to see the zombie's condition or how it looked, the only reason she was able to identify him was because of his funky hairstyle.
The other zombies that she could see were either just standing motionless, or moving at a pace that was slower than a toddler's crawl.
'Thankfully, they are not fast like the ones in movies ... Thankfully' Murmuring to herself Anu picked up the cobweb cleaner, she held the doorknob and twisted it.
The door opened with a click and the other side applied force, trying to enter and have their morning meal.
As the rotting smell thickened in the air, Anu's fight or flight response was activated.
She let go of the doorknob and retreated to the furthest corner of the room. As soon as the door was opened the zombies threw themselves at Anu, jaws widening and ready for a tasty meal.
'SHIT!! Why are they so fast? Compared to the zombies that looked sluggish on the roads, the ones inside her house felt like an arrow from the bow, now she knew how the neighbour uncle felt while being chased.
"SCREECH~"
"Ah... looks like my cousin is hungry, well then come at me you rotten piece of shit!" the metal rod collided with the flesh. The zombie's body parts came off, uncomfortable with the blood and flesh that was sprayed on the floor, Anu recoiled in disgust.
The metal rod she treated as her weapon had betrayed her and bent in such an angle that it seemed to mock her overconfidence.
Standing just a foot away from her was her death "SCREECH~" Now she wanted to run.
Her knees 'yet once again' decided to give up on her when she needed them the most. Her body which had been overexerted both physically and mentally went on power-saving mode.
Simply saying… she fainted…. In front of a group of zombies. Yes.
When she opened her eyes, harsh lights beamed, piercing her eyes. She squinted at the sight as her stomach growled from hunger and she felt herself trembling.
If not for her cramping muscles and the purple walls with boy band posters all around her, she would have thought of the previous incident as a dream.
"Are you awake?"
Before Anu, stood the eldest of Seth's siblings, Reyansh Seth. Shirtless. As he rubbed his head with the towel, he spoke "Oh, you must be hungry, let me call Summi."
Loud shrieks and howls did not dissipate even a little, it was still chaotic outside. "Arghh! what has happened to this world"
Sumira made some whining sounds as she placed the tray on the table, it was a bowl of a simple porridge.
Without speaking anything, Anu gulped down the whole contents of the bowl in one breath.
"Oy! hungry ghost, how many days did you not eat for?" Sumira asked as she widened her eyes in surprise.
"To be precise, three and a half days. Can I get more of this?" She extended her hand that was holding the bowl towards sumira.
"Looks like you'll eat everything in my house then" with a scoff, sumira snatched the bowl but still filled it up regardless.
After Anu felt her hunger subside, only then did she notice that there were more than three people in the house.
"Um... What happened? Do you have any idea about it?" As soon as Anu asked that question a zombie screeched out loud, scaring Anu.
Reyansh who was already ready with his research spoke: "Well we have no idea what happened, but some online theories say that it was purple radiation that struck the planet.
Weirdly, scientists were not able to detect it before it collided with the earth's surface. The species that were affected were monkeys, apes, and other animals that belong to the same infra-order as humans 'Simiiformes'.
As for humans, there were some exceptions, people who were older than 15 years old and younger than 45 years turned into zombies as soon as their bodies came in contact with this radiation. We do have some living proofs here, before we rescued you, we have these three kids whose parents had turned into zombies. They were shouting from their balconies when we saw them and we had to rescue them using ropes."
Sumira continued, "we were lucky that the internet is still working and there are other people safe enough that they are posting the information on the net."
On the bed that was arranged beside hers were three kids, the older one looked like he was in his early teens, and the younger girl looked like she was just a toddler. "Since they were locked out, we did not bother to do anything to the zombies." Sighing, Sumira sat down on the bed.
"What to do now?" Anu said as she saw the smoke rising at a distance. The sound of gunshots was agitating the zombies as they crawled and dragged their bodies towards the noise.
"This is a zombie apocalypse, we might have watched multiple movies or read novels about them, however, we don't know how much truth those novels and movies contain," said Anu as she looked at both Sumira and Reyansh. "Therefore, we need to be ready for everything that comes our way"
The screeches from the zombies outside acted as tense background music every once in a while.
As they peeked out of the window, three of them were able to see the zombies who used to be normal humans but now their behavior could not be called humane.
"Nature has always worked on the principle of balance, it would always try to balance out the things in its control." Muttered Sumira as she looked at Anu.
Anu stood up from the bed after she heard what Sumira said, 'Now that I think of it, my space abilities came to me after the apocalypse' Anu thought as she came to a realization.
"You got that right" Reyansh spoke to her as his eyes travelled to her half-exposed hand.
"You mean...." but before Anu could complete her sentence, she saw one of Reyansh's eyes turn bright red as if all the blood in his body had traveled to his eyes giving them a weird glow...
Anu's eyes widened as she asked in amusement, "Wait, Reyansh, why are your eyes shining like a red light bulb"
Sumira burst out laughing as she remarked, "Pfft- Ahahahaha, 'Light bulb' you say, hahaha Rey you got a new nickname: the red light bulb, it suits you HAHAHAHAHA"
After listening to Sumira laugh, a vein visibly popped on Reyansh's forehead. 'This girl doesn't respect me even a little bit...'
Sensing a sharp glare directed at her happy mood, Sumira looked sideways to find her red-eyed brother glaring threateningly at her.
Her throat felt parched from all the laughing, Sumira picked up the bowl and hurriedly went out of the room, "I-I'm thirsty, I should go drink some water."
Sumira's brother, Reyansh, did not live with them, he was a student of the Defence Academy which trained the future armed forces and he rarely returned home.
This year he had turned twenty-two, due to the pandemic Reyansh was at home for the first time in a few years. Trained and kept away from the family since childhood, he had not seen anu for nearly a decade.
The snotty child in his memory had grown up to be a pretty girl, the kid whom he had once pushed in the mud during the rainy season was a grown-up lady now, standing before him and scrutinising him from top to bottom.
"Ahem, I saw that your hand has a red tattoo. It is similar to mine that I have on my temple and that sumira has on her left arm." Reyansh pointed at her hand and said, "It is likely that you are the fire type."
After she heard him call her a fire type, Anu wondered if she was now to be categorized like a Pokémon. The thought of creating fire out of nowhere made her excited as well as a little fearful.
Anu scratched her chin as she looked at Rey. "So, colours decide the type?"
Reyansh wanted to reach out to her but was hesitant to do so. Therefore, he asked Anu from a distance, "Do you feel anything where the design is?"
"As of now, No, I don't feel anything" Anu tried to focus on the red tattoo as she did with the white and blue one.
Extending her hand away from her, she concentrated at the back of her palm as she felt her hand heat up, in no time her hand was hot as electric iron, but it did not emit any flames.
Anu felt herself being hollowed at the same time she felt her hunger returning. She hurriedly broke the concentration, only to find that the cloth glove was burned to ashes.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone