What else could he do but agree? Of course, that didn’t mean he had to stick by the bargain. He looked down the alley again. Nothing.
Dammit. Where are they?
Kusum had gone to the furniture factory to fetch the three others who had come with her and Sanjay into the city. Given the situation at the Pishon Chem compound, it seemed a good idea because their help might be needed.
Patience, the voice of Kusum said in his head.
He moved across the room to the window on the other side. His hideout was an apartment in a building two blocks from the compound. Though the Pishon Chem facility was visible from the window where Sanjay was perched, he could see only the very tops of the Pishon Chem buildings and a small portion of the fence that surrounded the property.
He was supposed to be closer, had been closer, in fact, until just an hour ago when he’d returned to this meeting point, expecting to find Kusum and the others waiting for him. Seeing they weren’t there, he didn’t even consider going back to his former position.
On the roof of one of the compound buildings, he spotted one man in a UN uniform patrolling the top. It was disturbing to him how hard they were trying to sell the United Nations angle. Most survivors would arrive at the facility in a state of shock. If the soldiers were wearing jeans and T-shirts, and only had the letters UN hand painted on the sides of their helmets, people would believe them.
The sound of something scraping the ground floated through the window on the other side of the room. Sanjay quietly ran over and looked outside. The alleyway was no longer devoid of movement. At the far end was a man approaching along one of the walls, his movement odd, off-balanced.
It was another few seconds before he moved into a shaft of light.
Not just any man. It was Prabal, one of the people Kusum had gone to fetch.
He was limping, his right leg swinging carefully forward with each step. And running down the side of his face, a wash of blood.
While it had been disturbing enough moving through the seemingly empty city with Sanjay, Kusum found it downright terrifying doing so on her own as she made her way back to the camp.
The quiet was the worst part. Here she was in Mumbai, one of the largest and busiest cities in the world, yet there wasn’t the sound of a motor, the cry of a child, the laugh of an adult. There was no music, either, something that been such an integrated part of the background noise that she noticed the lack of it now more than she’d ever noticed its presence.
Sticking to smaller streets and pathways, she was easily able to avoid the soldiers, seeing only a single group of three near the site of an old market. She hoped the same would be true when she and the others headed back to Sanjay.
The camp was set up in the courtyard of a small factory that had made and repaired furniture. Semi-organized piles of chair legs and tabletops and bed frames took up much of the courtyard space, but there was still plenty of room for Kusum’s and Sanjay’s friends to spread out. The best feature of the place was that it allowed them to hide from view if anyone passed by on one of the surrounding streets, while still having open air above them. If they needed shelter, there was plenty of that inside.
Kusum entered through a back door that led into a basement, where she took the stairs up into the main workshop. Along the interior wall was a large door that could be opened onto the courtyard, but whoever had left the business last had shut it and locked it in place — a hopeful act that he or she would return. She exited through the smaller door on the right and stepped into the outdoor space.
“Stop.” The voice was low, the tone commanding.
“It is only me,” Kusum said.
“Kusum?”
“Yes.”
Darshana stepped from the shadows behind a stack of wooden planks, in her hand an iron rod. After she could see it was indeed Kusum, she lowered her weapon.
“Sorry, I did not realize it was you,” she said.
“Never be sorry for this,” Kusum said. “I could have been anyone. I would have been surprised if you had not greeted me like this.”
Darshana tried to maintain a neutral expression, but Kusum thought she saw a flash of pride cross her friend’s face. Though they were about the same age, Darshana and the rest of their survival group considered Kusum and Sanjay to be their leaders, and looked up to them more than Kusum thought they should.
“The others?” Kusum asked.
“Sleeping.”
“We must get them up. I need you all to come with me.”
“This way.”
Darshana led Kusum around the piles of wood and metal to the open area where Prabal and Arjun were stretched out on thin blankets.
“Wake up,” Darshana said, shaking first Arjun’s shoulder then Prabal’s. “Come on. Wake up. We need to go.”
Prabal rolled onto his back with a groan. “What?” he asked, his eyes struggling to open.
“Kusum is here. She needs us to go with her.”
Arjun raised himself on an elbow. “Kusum?” He looked around as if he didn’t quite understand, and then his gaze fell on Kusum. “Oh. Oh, Kusum.” He sat all the way up. “I am sorry. I am…um…still…”
“It’s okay,” Kusum said. “Please get up and gather your things.”
Arjun immediately began rolling up his blanket.
“What’s going on?” Prabal asked, slowly sitting up.
“I need you all to come with me,” Kusum said. “We found something and we might need your help.”
“What did you find?”
Darshana shoved Prabal in the back. “You don’t need to ask what. If Kusum needs us to go with her, we go.”
“Of course, we go,” Prabal said. “I was just wondering what we were going to. It was only a question.”
“It is a stupid question,” Darshana said. “We will find out when we get there.”
As Prabal rose to his feet, he said, “It is not a stupid question. It is simply a question. Who are you to—”
“Please,” Kusum said. “There is no need for this. Nothing is a secret here. We are going to a place close to the so-called UN survival station.”
Prabal shot a see-it-wasn’t-stupid look at Darshana.
“So-called?” Arjun said. “So it is not what they are saying?”
Kusum shook her head. “It does not look like it. Many of the people there are the same ones who were in charge of distributing the disease throughout the city.”
“Are you serious?”
“It is even worse than that,” she said.
“How worse?” Prabal asked.
“Survivors are coming in and being locked in holding areas.”
“You have seen this?” Arjun asked.
“Yes. Not too long before I left, a group of four women arrived. Thirty minutes later they were led to one of the holding areas.”
“What is going to happen to them?” Prabal asked.
“No way to know for sure, but I cannot imagine it is good.” She let this sink in for a moment, then said, “We need to go. There may be nothing we can do, but if there is, we need to be in a position where we can help them.”
Darshana, clearly not needing to hear more, started repacking her bag. Within seconds, Arjun and Prabal were doing the same.
As they headed through the building, Kusum said, “Keep conversations to a minimum. There are soldiers patrolling the city. They will be dressed in UN uniforms, but I do not think they are really from the UN. We need to consider them dangerous.”
“Perhaps we should leave all of this alone and go back to the school,” Prabal suggested.
“If you want to return to the school, you can,” Kusum said. She looked at the others. “Any of you can. But Sanjay and I will not leave these people in danger if there is a chance we can stop it.”