It didn’t take long for the knocks to turn into loud ringing bangs, and the bangs to become an attempt to tear the shutter off the wall! I could imagine the thin sheet of metal shuddering like a leaf in a strong wind, breaking from the joint a little bit every time it was struck.

It’s alright. Kalki comforted herself. The zombies aren’t strong enough to rip a steel shutter. We wouldn’t be alive if they were.

Right? She turned toward me for support. You are strong enough to do that, right?

Did she just compare me to that thing outside? That was no normal screamer; I could ensure her of that. However, I decided to stay silent. My heart was pounding in my chest, not from anger, but fear; and it was getting difficult for me to breathe.

The thing didn’t scream when it couldn’t get through the shutter, but it let out a roar: the same kind of roar that had made the screamers pull away from us when they could have torn us to shreds in the afternoon. The whole house shook with the sound. It was scentless; I couldn’t smell the sweetness of screamers of the stench of rot form him. However, unlike the screamers I had seen in the park that could barely walk, it was strong as a beast. The crying shutter was proof itself.

Even though scentless, I could feel it, and that scared me. It had eaten all the other screamers and now it had come for me! I turned tail and ran, but there was no place to go. We were trapped, and no petty tricks were going to help us this time around. We were done for; we were dead.

I whimpered and ran for the room and hid under the folding bed that Kalki had set in the center of the room.

She called me, but I was too scared. I could not move. She fumbled in her bag for something before bending over at the edge of the bed. She put a hand toward me —a brown treat lying at the flat of her palm— and called me out.

Come out, boy. It’ll be alright. Here, She threw me the treat. I didn’t eat it, yet she continued. It’s only a zombie. No need to worry. You did so well against them earlier today. And there were so many of them! So why are you scared? Come out, please. Her hand shuddered and so did her voice. You are scaring me.

She didn’t know how different it was to the screamers. The screamers screamed because of hunger. They were always hungry and they wanted to eat, but the one outside was not hungry for flesh. It wanted more. It wasn’t looking for hu-mans, because they didn’t have that mouthwatering sweet smell. It was instead looking for those like the screamers, those like me.

She didn’t understand its roar. I did. It was calling me out of hiding. It wanted me. And it was intent on getting what it wanted.

Kalki squinted, clenched her fingers, made a fist, and pulled the hand out. Alright, She said. Stay there if it scares you so much. I’ll take care of it myself.

The banging continued as she pulled away from me and stood back up. I could only see her legs from under the bed. She stood motionless for a few moments, looking around. Her feet were all I could see, but they depicted a clear picture of her mental state for me. She turned toward the gate and I knew she was considering our chance of us escaping with our lives intact. she stepped back three steps when the monster roared outside, and her feet turned toward the shop when the banging intensified. Nervous taping ensued when she couldn’t find a way, but they became still and flat on the ground when facing the kitchen.

I thought she wanted to offer food to the roarer. Well, I was wrong. She was thinking something far more sinister.

The shutter wasn’t going to hold forever. It was also causing a lot of commotion. At least there weren’t going to be any screamers at our door, since it had already dealt with them.

But the commotion that Kalki created in the kitchen made me curious. She grunted and a few seconds later screamed when something fell. It must have been pretty heavy considering the ringing noise it created. Even the monster outside the house stopped banging the shutter for a few seconds to figure out the cause of the commotion.

Thankfully, Kalki had the presence of mind to stay still until it started acting up again. It already knew we were inside, but it could have gotten attracted to the gate, which was the only way outside. We would have been doomed had it changed its target to it.

I crawled a bit closer to the edge of the bed to see what she was doing and saw her dragging a large and bright red cylinder from the kitchen inside the room. She had placed a mop underneath it to muffle the scratching sound, which I thought was very sensible of her.

It smelled odd, the thing she had brought; it really smelled like old wet farts. I sniffed it from a distance and sneezed. She heard me, but moved away in a hurry and started fumbling around in clutter that she had pilled near the wall.

Yes, she exclaimed not even a minute later. Soon she returned carrying a large wooden dowel in one hand, and a stone in the other.

It’s only half full. She shook the cylinder and murmured. Do you think it will be enough to kill the thing? She asked me. I had no idea what she was doing and how that thing would kill the monster, but she was confident, and it was contagious.

We’ll have to run for it, as fast as we can. She started speaking to me, but I was sure she was doing it to distract herself from the banging. Thank god I didn’t lock the gate. It’s only closed from inside. I don’t think I could have unlocked it without the monster finding out. We could have run to the roof if the adjoining buildings weren’t blocking our escape paths. Really, who chose the place to hide? Then she turned toward me. You have to run when I tell you to, okay? We are done for if this thing blows in our face, and by that I mean if we are in the blast radius. I’m pretty sure this home will go up in flames when it blows. She paused and made a correction: If it blows.

She looked really nervous when she stopped speaking. However, that was fine. At least one of us was doing something. Her voice was really pleasing to my ears. Even though I didn’t understand most of what she said, it did help me relax. I also found it easier to control my heart once I had relaxed. She rubbed my head when I crawled out from under the bed. But she was not done yet.

I could hear her beating heart, but she was confident, though in haste. She had a plan and I was of no help to her.

Only a single door separated the shop from our room. I could not be of any help to her, so I sat down on my hips with my back straight, and watched her as she collected things from the shop.

Do you know what I’m thinking? She asked as the banging intensified in the background. It was loud and she was screaming without knowing it.

I shook my head, which made eyes open wide.

Did you understand that? She asked. I shook my head again and she burst out laughing.

Silly me. I’m thinking we need more balls. You have finally found yours but they are no use to us, are they? Did she want me to shake my head again? Looked like so to me. She burst out laughing and almost choked on her own spittle.

Oh, God, help me…

I gently pushed her back with my legs as she slowly stopped laughing. There were tears hanging near her reddened eyes when she got up on her knees. She swiped her face on the loose fur of her arm and carried on as if nothing had happened.

We need some —she coughed thrice, before continuing. Something we can throw away after use if we are to face the princess outside. Something like those disposable balls of cotton. OH, I KNOW, we need more lighters!

The shutter banged.

Who's there? She asked the question in jest. It was obviously the roarer. It responded with a roar and she almost jumped in reaction.

She looked a little lost. I barked to remind her of our situation and she smiled again.

That was quite a coincidence now wasn’t it, boy? To tell the truth, she scared me a little. She smiled too much. She didn’t use to smile this much before everyone went bananas.

Wait here for me. She patted my head and went headfirst toward the shop, screaming at the top of her lungs and aggravating the monster in the process. I think she was planning to confront the beast with the red cylinder.

She returned with a box full of small things that could call a child of fire with a click. I believed she called them lighters. The fire it produced was similar to the one eating the long white sticks; it was tame and unresponsive to my barks. And yes, I had found my voice again. Her confidence was really contagious.

That’s when there was a tearing sound. Kalki had also placed one of those burning open flames near the shutter, so we could see how it was faring. Well, there was a hole in the center of the one thing protecting us from the monster, and two white bony hands were sticking inside, slowly expanding the fissure with raw brute force.