The Fallout

 

The dawn dwindled into the night as the Sun sank deep into the cold, windy bank of the treacherous, monster. I peeked from inside the pit that had been my home for the last seven days; trapped and terrified.

I came from Mars. We (me and my aunt) left the Earth in the beginning of the third millennium.

“Where is my family?” I would iterate.

“They are barely humans now.”  She would reiterate, “Look Tara, just forget the past.”

Forget it? Was that so simple? It had really never been. I got the chance when I chose the Earth for my field project in the final year of Planetary science under my subject, “Mission Earth-The Remnants”.

6th July 3035,

Khetoloi, Jaisalmer,

Rajasthan.

Temp:  201 degrees.

I activated my heat sink to avoid any damage to my system. I felt the burning sensation on my fibre skin. I had carried my oxygen pills with me, a stock that would last for six months. I had programmed my Food/Water flags full for the next six months before the launch of my space shuttle ET0X103035.

I collected the samples of the desert and the plants that showed strong resemblance to the species of cactus, though much enormous in size and of white colour, in the small polythene pouches and pressed it hard on my fibre skin until it got fully absorbed in it.

I fiddled with the control panel and set the time at 30^th May 3005.My mind delved in the lost traces.

It was a big day for India indeed! The colours of life reflected in the clothes of the natives, happy and proud faces all around, people glued to their TV sets, applauding and cheering as the news reader flashed the glory moment

30 May 3000,

Place:  Pokharan

Mission:  Pokharan101

Time:  12.00 pm

Temperature: 57 Degrees.

101 th Nuclear Test Successful.

I reset the time at 30^th May 3010.

There was chaos everywhere as I watched houses burning and the flames licking the sky. I saw myself crying for my parents and my aunt dragged me out of the place with her.

The government declared that it was the last space shuttle to leave for Mars. We must leave the Earth as soon as possible. People were fighting each other to get on board. The level of humanity dropped drastically in the humans. My aunt struggled hard to get both of us into the shuttle. She was bleeding profusely. I noticed her torn lips murmuring the prayers and kissing my head before she passed out. We were safe.

I reset the timer to my present time.

They were close; I shrank myself in the perimeter of the pit. The rustling came closer; clearer and louder. I located the figures, two of them, as they swept pass my hiding, nearly 26 feet high, their head being much bigger than a normal human but the body of flesh and bones. I noticed their gigantic arms, right hand much longer and stronger than the left hand. Their legs, six in numbers, were elongated and uneven and the toe was nearly two feet long while others fingers were one and half feet each. Were they monsters or the destroyers themselves?

I kept my ray gun handy.

I was not laced with proper weapons to keep the monsters at bay. So I waited here and scanned every visiting man, a dozen of them.

My head hung in despair once again as I scanned the first figure, “No genes similarity detected.”

I scanned the second figure, my screen went green colour this time: “Gene similarity detected.”

I scanned his face, my brother! The red signal beeped, “Caution; Zero level humanity.”

“Brother! It’s me, Tara!” I ignored the warning as I ran to him. My sensor detected 0.1 microns of feelings in him.

“What happened?” I whispered.

“The air, water and land got contaminated due to the fallout.” He moaned. “The poison flooded the village and now flooding our nerves. The virus travelled to other places outside the village perimeter too. Handfuls of us have survived the doom with the deformed bodies and the dead soul. We are the monsters now!” His face stiffened.

I examined my sensors, Humanity level grounding to zero. He too sensed the beast aroused in him, “Go!” he screamed. “Leave! Now! ” My sensors went mad.

I ran for my life. They were barely humans!