Dead Meat

Debjit's Point of View

The bus stopped in front of the main gate of the temporary shelter. A quasi stampede occurred as everyone wanted to go inside the camp as fast as possible. We are lucky enough to be at the near the entrance gate of the bus, so got off fast.

The first impression of the temporary shelter is that it looks like a refugee camp. The entrance gate has Gaurd-posts, two army soldiers are controlling the crowd and are making queue for entry to the shelter.

The whole camp is surrounded by 3 meters, incredible thick wall. The whole wall is wired with incredibly sharp wires and the base with shattered pieces of glasses.

One small camp is provided for one family, as we are two families therefore we are provided with two camps. Being fortunate enough, we received camps which are side by side.

Each camp is covering approximately 15 sqm, made completely by waterproof, white looking cloth. A communal latrine is provided per 20 persons and shower per 50 persons. Administrative department, clinics, food distribution and other important facilities are present at the heart of the temporary shelter.

Currently, the most important thing for us is to collect information. Information about what is happening around us.

And by the way, WHAT THE HELL IS REALLY HAPPENING???

We Indians are way too social animals. Especially Indian aunties, they will not stop until they say everything they know, therefore it is easy for us to gather information. Too easy for my mom and my aunty to gather information. Normally it irritated me greatly as they can start talking anywhere and also for quite a long time, but this time, the 'special ability' of theirs came especially handy. Today I can use this dialogue freely, "No special ability is trashy, it's the user who is trashy."

My mom and my aunt both started talking to our 'temporary-neighbor'. She is fat, literally fat, her skin is dark in color, have chubby cheeks and beautiful black eyes. She is wearing a yellow saree, she has messy hairs which are completely black in color. She said, her name is, Sukriti.

We gained lots of information from her. The information we gained can be summarized this way,

'The World has completely changed, Monsters exist now. Some sort of otherworldly existence has caused all types of animals and plants to start evolving, and now humans have the power to form a contract with monsters. When someone forms a first contact then he may or may not receive a special ability, but in this world a monster companion is a must.'

I felt genuinely happy as now the old and boring world of ours is gone. This new world of ours awaits many beautiful adventures, new journeys, and new experiences, I can't seem to wait to form my first contract. And I surely believe that I will receive a cheat like ability since I am one of the MC 😎.

And another amazing news is that the army is providing insect type monsters to people who are not able to form a contract with a monster themselves.They are providing Insect types because they are in abundance and it is easy to gather these types of monsters.

Also, the army is giving us two choices, we can rather choose to join the army or not to join the army. If we choose to join the army then we will get a better monster, an evolved animal could also be allotted to us if available. If we do not choose to join the army then we will receive a random insect type monster.

Sukriti aunty also said that you can live in this temporary shelter as long as you wish to stay, but if you will contribute by killing the monsters or if you get stronger then you can have your own flat or even bungalow.

This world of ours has become a living example of SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

Me and my family members all choose to get our own monster companion. Sukriti aunty and her family members also came with us to grab their first companion. We stood in queue for more than 40 minutes at resource allotment center.

An army official was sitting in his chair emotionlessly, he asked people whether they would like to join the army or not, the serving term is about 10 years. All of my family members agreed except me, I am those type of guys, who would open his own business and would choose to start from scratch, rather than serving under someone.

All of them tried their best to persuade me, Sukriti aunty, her family members and even a few strangers in the queue tried persuading me. My father and my uncle even yelled at me and calling me arrogant because, it is incredibly rare for people to refuse to join army at this time, but I stood firm in my decision.

All of my family members were signalled by the army officials to go towards the left side of the building, named 'Future Recruits', whereas I was signalled to go towards the right side of the building, named 'Dead Meat'.

I hesitated before entering the building, since it will be finalized if I enter the building, and the name written on the gate puts forth an invisible pressure on me. But at last, I went inside.

The inside of the building looks like a warehouse. It is slightly dark inside. Different types of sounds from different insects are coming from different cages in the warehouse could be heard by me just as I entered the building.

"Choose one of them.", a hoarse voice is heard by me from one of the corners of the room, I tried finding the caretaker/ owner of this place but was not able to find him. Finally, I decided to choose my companion and leave.

I saw different types of insects, Beetle, Ant, Butterfly, Flea, Cricket, Aphid, DragonFly and many more. No animals are present in the warehouse, only insect type monsters and occasional rats could be seen inside the cage.

Finally, I decided to choose Praying Mantis, as this fascinating insect is a formidable predator. Only two Praying Mantis is present in the entire 'Dead Meat' warehouse. The Praying Mantis I chose is 40 centimeters long, and 15 centimeters in height, they have triangular heads poised on a long "neck", two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them, their legs are equipped with spikes as sharp as a new knife for snaring and pinning the prey in place. They use their front legs to snare their prey with reflexes so quick that they are difficult to see with the naked eye.

The Praying Mantis I choose is slightly bigger as compared to the other one.

The Praying Mantis is inside the cage, completely chained up. But half of the chain has already been cut by it, using it's exceptionally sharp spikes.

"Spill your blood on his head and stick through the end, the knife is on the table.", the same hoarse voice was heard. This voice has a unique ability by which it prevented someone from telling from where the voice is coming from.

I picked up the knife, and believe me, it's frightening to cut your finger with it.

Finally, I made a small scratch and squeezed a few drops of blood. And it is FREAKING painful doing this.

Usually I have never touched insects. And now to touch an insect this big is really really frightful. But I choose to stick through it, and finally with shivering hands, I put my squeezed out drops of blood on its head.