"Come on mom, it is nothing like that. It is normal, just that people and these news channels have hyped this bull shit. I am quite fit. Nothing will happen to me, don't worry." Jalaj said to his mother the third time, and now he felt really irritated, firstly because of staying at home for so long, secondly his mother. "No means no. You are not going anywhere. Didn't your dad tell you what the situation is? He is working day and night just to get over this problem. At least respect his efforts." She said trying to be authoritative but ending up pleading. "Nope, nothing will happen. I am going. I'll be back in some time." Jalaj said and went out of the house ignoring her mother's calling for wearing the face mask. He rode his bike to his friend's house to pick him up as well.
"Hey, let's go for a ride dude." He called up his friend standing outside his house. "No, I won't be able to join. I have some work." He said, trying to avoid eye contact and trying hard to make it sound true. Jalaj understood, "bloody bastard," he shouted and went for a ride alone.
It was a dream come true for a bike rider like Jalaj - empty roads, markets closed, none around to judge or interfere. It was an afternoon in the month of May and all the police men on duty were dormant for a few hours, so there was no hurdle in his way. He had his bike, an empty road and he needed nothing else. He was enjoying it. While he rode, he chuckled to himself on the thought that the world which boasted of destroying itself, just by a single click of a button had been destroyed by something invisible. He was confident that the virus would affect the weak, and he was not weak. He continued riding his bike. There was silence on the road other than the sound of his bike's silencer. Sometimes a sound of the siren of an ambulance would cross his ears and then just fade away and give up to the ominous silence prevailing around the always hustling city. It was the local market road, on which one could never imagine riding even a bicycle. It was a very crowded place, with a market which offered anything one could think of. There were no displays now, no people, no peddlers, no lights, and no life. What one could see was black, grey and brown shutters all over. Jalaj stealthily crossed the police barrier and now he was a free bird. He crossed the market and entered the outskirts of the locality. He increased the speed of his bike and felt the breeze soothing his face and entangling his hair. He had been out with his bike after so long a time and now he just wanted to enjoy.
"Would never return in that prison," he shouted, laughed and increased the pace even more.
He was riding his bike and enjoying, when he heard one more siren of the ambulance approaching him. He looked in the rear view mirror and he was right. The noise became louder and louder with every second passing by. He looked again and found out that the ambulance was just behind him. So he just directed his bike to a side and continued riding and gave way to the ambulance to pass by. The noise had increased to a deafening level. He looked in the mirror again and he found that huge emergency ambulance was missing. "There were damn no turns on the way, where did it go? And where is that noise coming from?" He got confused and he was feeling agitated by that deafening siren from nowhere. He just looked back again. This time he turned his head to look for the ambulance, but he was surprised that, there was no ambulance. And now he couldn't bear that unstoppable sound from nowhere. He turned straight again and as he increased his speed, a person covered in all white clothes just came running from the side of the road and got hit from Jalaj's speeding bike. Jalaj fell down from his bike, but luckily he didn't get much hurt, just a few scratches on the upper body and arms and an internal wound in his left knee.
Jalaj got up limping, and looked for that person who had been hit, but he found himself all alone. There was no such person as he had seen being hit by his bike. Not even a single person actually could he see there. There was no ambulance. There was no sound of the ambulance now. There was complete silence, again. He rubbed his eyes as he couldn't believe what was happening with him. He was seeing and feeling things which were actually not there. "Bad day dude. Let's go home." He bent down to pick up his fallen bike and as he rose again, he found that same man standing across the road looking at the road sign on Jalaj's right. He kept staring at it. Jalaj kept looking at him in confusion and a bit of fear. The man was wearing that white PPE kit which doctors would wear those days. His face was covered with a surgical mask so he couldn't really be recognized. "Shit, Why I didn't see him earlier." Jalaj was astonished, because a few seconds ago, he had been all alone. "May be I missed his sight. I should go and ask him, he might be injured." Jalaj thought to himself and as he was about to move, that unknown person, just turned to him and started staring at Jalaj. Jalaj stopped and looked at that person. Jalaj saw that his eyes shrank as if he was smiling inside the mask, so Jalaj also smiled back. And as he smiled, the white PPE turned blood red as blood gushed out from that person's head. Jalaj couldn't bear the sight and he was so shocked that he fell on the ground. He couldn't dare looking up at that person, who would die any moment. He gathered courage and lifted his eyes to see him. He couldn't believe that that person was still staring at him with blood gushing out of his head. He decided to get up and just take his bike and run away. So as he got up, he heard a loud ghostly shout from that person's end.
