CH 5: The Truth

The group rushed into the safe room, Purva was in a state of shock. Dr.Raghav didn't know what to do or why was that happening. Capt. Manasa was diving deep into her thoughts. The situation was getting out of hand, there was chaos in all directions. " Why is this happening? What do they want?" cried Purva. " Is it save here anymore?" asked Dr.Raghav. " Attention everyone, it seems like the first child of the queen is here, she is the first person to be devolved. If you know who that person is report to the briefing room. There will be a background check, a high ranked member will be asking you a question, answer him truthfully or else you will be kicked out of the building." Someone announced. The group looked at each other, no one knew what was going on, but they knew that this means that someone is trying to harm Purva. "From today we are a family, our last name will be "waaghmare". I will be the father, you will the mother Manasa and Purva is our only child. As of today I'm not a doctor, and Manasa is not a Captain, I will be a local merchant and you will be a housewife." Said Raghav in a very commanding tone. " I guess there is no other choice left, if we want to save her we risk our safe house." Said Manasa. Purva started crying and hugged both of them. " I never knew my father and I killed my mother. I thought I would never have a family or a home to call it my own. But, I never realized that I have this family and everywhere we stay in our home. Thank You." Said Purva with tears in her eyes. It was a very emotional moment for the group, even Raghav and Manasa had tears in their eyes.

                                                                                After an hour or so, a tall skinny man with, black glasses, plain clothes, and shabby hair entered the safe room. It was clear that the situation outside wasn't getting any better. " I am Bismil Khan, a member of The New Dawn, or as we call it TND." Announced Bismil. He went around the room asking people about their background and how did they get here. Every person in every group was treated as an individual and every story was crosschecked. Raghav created a fake background story and explained how to tackle this situation. Raghav made sure that everyone was on the same page. Bismil finally made his way to the group. "Hello, I assume you were paying attention as to what was happening. But I know that this girl is the first child of the queen." Said Bismil calmly while he smiled. Raghav was ready to fight anyone who tried to hurt Purva, she was really becoming his daughter in his mind. Manasa reached for her gun, she too wanted this to be her real family. Both of them were ready to kill if push came to shove. " Don't worry, we won't hurt anyone. Just keep smiling and get to the briefing room within an hour. We just wanna help you." Said Bismil and left. The group was in shock, they didn't expect something like this to happen. " What should we do?" asked Manasa. " We can't leave the area, the devolved have captured the first two floors. And if we don't hurry they might get to the third floor. They might be manipulated but they still are human beings capable of plotting schemes and coming up with ideas." Said Raghav. Purva was getting nervous, she didn't know anything about any queen or her children. After fifteen minutes Raghav said, " I think we should go to the briefing room, at least we will get some more intel on these "Things".Wait a minute, that voice. The voice I heard back then when I was one of them. It told me something, it said that it was the queen. And we were her precious children, I think she aims for global extinction. She always told us something about a new world." Said Purva who was trying to remember anything useful. " I think we should report this to TND. I think they might help if Bismil wasn't making stuff up to lure us." Said Raghav who was really worried about Purva at this point. " We should go, if anything goes wrong I will protect Purva at any cost." Said Manasa.                                                                                

                                                                                   The group made their way to the briefing room, where Bismil and three other people were waiting for them. " Welcome to The New Dawn, I assume that you have already met Bismil. I am Ravi das." Said one of the three. " My name is Astha Viswamitra." said the other one. Ravi was an old guy, in his 50 probably. He looked like a chill guy and on the other hand, Astha was a sophisticated lady. She was around the same age as Manasa and Raghav. Manasa suddenly held Raghav's hand and pulled him closer. " What?" asked Raghav in a low voice. Manasa said nothing, but Purva realized that Manasa was jealous as Astha was a really attractive looking lady and Raghav was standing very close to her. " We know who the queen is and where she is and what her objective is. We didn't attack her because one, we needed to secure the first child so the queen couldn't control her again, and two, she is really strong for us to handle." Said Bismil. " Why does she wants Purva?" Asked Raghav. " Purva was the first one to turn into them, she is the strongest one ever. You must be thinking why aren't we using the antidote. The truth is that it doesn't work, Purva isn't cured she always had the ability to switch between the normal and the killer state. She just didn't know that." Said Ravi. " But we never told you anything about the antidote incident, how did you know?" asked Manasa. " Our network is quite large, we can get any information about anything at any time." Said Astha. " We will train Purva to switch between the states and to fight. But first, we need to escape." Said Bismil. " Purva is not going to be turned into that thing again," Raghav shouted. " Don't worry we know how to control her, both of you seem to have become her antidote, she is always calm around you. You guys can ca control her." Said Bismil. " But what if I kill them like I killed my mother?" Asked Purva in a trembling voice. Bismil, Ravi, and Astha looked at each other. Bismil loaded a picture on the screen in the briefing room. " This is the Queen." Said Bismil. Purva's eyes were wide open, she fell on the floor in shock, It was the picture of her mother. " How can this be? That's my mother. I killed her." Cried Purva. Raghav and Manasa had the same reaction as Purva after hearing what Purva said.

TO BE CONTINUED

-Ritik Varhade