THE RAIN CORODES
A mundane Monday. It's been raining in my town since the weekend and I can feel the gloom setting on me. I can feel the cold wind on my arms even with a large jumper on. I reach the building where my classes are supposed to be held but my friends are nowhere to be seen. In fact, it's the first time I notice that there's no one around. I walk out to find the sky has gone darker, the rain has stopped and so has the wind. Everything is quiet and still but not in a peaceful way. I head towards the college canteen to grab a coffee since I was late this morning but I see a man, injured and walking towards me. His face was covered in blood on one side and he was limping. His clothes were tattered and blood spattered. I wonder whose blood he has on him. The worst thing about him was he was missing an arm. Of course I freaked out and was panicking at this point but went against my judgment.
"Sir, are you okay?"
He said nothing. He simply limped closer to me and I was starting to walk backwards. As he got closer I saw his eyes were bloodshot. He made a low growling sound and I decided to walk away from him. He didn't run, he was simply struggling to even limp now but kept walking. I ran towards the main gate but after reaching my path was blocked my injured people. No I wasn't dreaming and no I definitely wasn't hallucinating.
I froze. About 20-30 people, in a zombie like state were walking towards me and I froze in my spot. Fear is a tricky thing. Adrenaline is even trickier because I was terrified but my 'fight or flight' reaction was telling to me stay frozen on the spot when I should be frantically running to look for other people who, like me, were still normal.
Suddenly, a security guard stood beside me panting. I must've been preoccupied watching the oncoming herd of the undead because I don't remember hearing footsteps running towards me from behind.
"RUN! WHAT ARE YOU STANDING HERE FOR?"
And he yanked my hand, I unfroze and we were both making our way toward the main office building. We raced up the stairs but yet again, the zombies were stumbling and growling their way downstairs.
"This way!" I said and we made our way down and turned left out the main building into the 'C' building where my classes are supposed to be held. Oh but I wasn't stopping just there. We didn't stop running until we reached the terrace and slumped against the closed door of the terrace.
I looked at the security guard to see he wasn't Indian, like me. He was white and he sounded British when he first yelled at me. His eyes were small and he had a bony structure. He removed his hat to straighten his dirty brown hair. He was really tall and lanky and I think he noticed I was staring at him because he smiled.
"Did you by any chance get wet in the rain this morning?" he asked in his thick British accent while looking at me as if he was inspecting me, expecting to find something.
"No, but my umbrella probably did" I said, unsure.
"Show me"
I reached my hand down in my bagpack and scooped it out. Instead I found a tattered cloth, some strings and the wire half broken and torn.
"W-what?"
"Oh c'mon, you should've guessed by now it's the rain! You lot have been praying for some decent rain and looks like the parasites have answered your prayers."
"Parasite? Who the hell are you and what are you doing in a security guard's uniform?" I was starting to get slightly annoyed by all the information I was missing.
He stood up as if to make a dramatic introduction and put his hat back on.
"I'm The Doctor. I was passing by last night and noticed unusual clouds above this town so I thought I would get down there to see what it was. Well, of course I didn't detect the clouds, the TARDIS did. She's rather observant." He spoke fast.
"A doctor of what? And what's a TARDIS?"
"TARDIS. Time and Relative Distance in Space. She's a time machine and I'm a Time Lord from Gallifrey. Also, I'm not a doctor, I'm The Doctor."
The fast talk and smugness was getting a little annoying for me. I wanted to say I was surprised but after coming face to face with zombies I thought at least it's great I was alive.
"You didn't tell me who you are!" he exclaimed.
He had that smile on his face again so I smiled back.
"Well, as you can see and hear, I'm an Indian and my name is Rajeshwari but people call me Raj. I study Psychology and I'm 20 years old. That's all the information you're getting for now since I don't know how a British man appears here so early in the morning."
He senses I am holding back.
"Right then, you're cautious. I don't like that."
I start to say something but I'm interrupted by a mob of bloody zombies are climbing up the stairs towards us. It's like they sense we are up here.
"Time to run again, Raj, are you ready?"
"No?"
"Lovely!"
He yanks my hand again and before I know it The Doctor opens the door to the terrace and slams it shut behind him. I see a blue wooden box with the words 'POLICE BOX' written on top of it in white.
"In here!" he shouts and we step into a completely different interior than I thought it would be. Everything is….machine? In the center is a long elongated transparent tube with clear crystal balls inside that hum to life as soon as we step in. It's surrounded by a circular panel that runs around the tube with so many buttons and levers and controls that I wonder if it even belonged on the earth. The floor is metallic and leads to the center of the room. I hold on to the railings because I start to feel dizzy.
The Doctor catches me as soon as I am about to hit the floor, face first. He sat me down and gave me a fruit to eat. It was glowing blue. I took a bite, not realizing what I had eaten and looked at it.
"A- It's a fruit and it'll give you energy and I know you haven't eaten today so it'll bring your insulin and vitamin levels to the appropriate levels. Don't thank me"
There's that smugness again.
"I wasn't going to." If he could do it, so could I. "You're not from here, are you?"
"I am British if that's what you mean" he was standing near the panels and clicking away.
"You're not from earth, is what I meant. I mean you look so human but you aren't"
"Clever girl. What gave me away? My TARDIS or the fruit?"
"Both"
I stood up feeling a sudden rush of energy.
"Hey it worked! The fruit was alien but it worked on me, a human!" I was smiling for the first time today.
"Why else would I give it to you? I know!"
I walked around to see where I actually was and thought to myself that I was surely dreaming. But how? It seems too real to be a dream or even a hallucination. Maybe I was lucid dreaming. But I should've woken up by now…I shouldn't be feeling what I felt after eating the blue alien fruit.
"You're an alien too, I'm assuming?" I walked toward The Doctor and stoof next to him.
"Are you afraid?" he asked looking at me from the corner of his eye.
"Surprisingly, no. I feel alive although that could be the fruit."
He laughed and said "That and adrenaline!"
His laugh stretched from eye to eye and he got wrinkles when he smiled. He had a full laugh, like an overjoyed kid. He looked down at himself and said
"Well, I suppose I could do with a change of clothes!" and ran down a flight of stairs. I assumed they led to a closet because when he came back he was swearing a tweed suit and a bowtie.
"Don't look at me like that! Bowties are cool."
I rolled my eyes and looked out the window of the TARDIS. Fear gripped me as I saw the walking dead making their way towards us.
"Doctor, we have to leave." I say softly as the words struggled to come out of me.
"Yes! Right! And off we go!"
There was a loud bang and strained strumming followed by another loud thud. I saw outside the same window to see the view had completely changed! We were above the earth. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Now that was some hallucinogenic fruit I ate! There she was, the earth glowing and changing by the second. I could see the night over the American continent, the deep blue oceans and suddenly I saw India had purple clouds hovering over her.
"That's the alien parasite cloud that brought me here." The Doctor said. "The parasites fell through the rain this early morning and corroded your country. The zombies are literally the parasites that seeped through the skin of humans and corroded them from the inside. But it's marvelous how the parasites didn't kill them! It's as if they don't want the humans to die, I presume."
"Did you just use the word 'marvelous?' my friends and family are caught up down there and it's amusing to you?" Yes, now I was unleashing the full blown anger.
"Oi! That's a wrong sentiment there, girl and we have more pressing matters" he looked at me and dashed towards the center panel of the TARDIS. "Now! I know just how to stop this parasite zombie invasion over India and then subsequently the earth!"
I ran up beside him.
"I don't doubt that Doctor but how are we going to do that while being over….the earth?"
"Oh don't you be so skeptical! I'm sending another cloud of insecticides to stop the parasites from invading your planet. It'll drive them away after knowing humans have the materials to protect themselves from aliens."
I simply stared at this man who looked human and British, was rather well dressed and a smartass. There was something about the whole situation that made it an 'adventure'.
I looked out the window of the TARDIS to see a white cloud taking over the purple ones. The Doctor explained that there was some amount of lightning to be expected and then voila! It was just like before, as if nothing had happened at all. He took the TARDIS back down again and landed 'her' on the terrace from where we had left off.
"Don't thank me, Raj." He said.
I started walking towards the doors and looked back. "I think I should, Doctor. You technically saved my life and other humans."
"Technically? I most definitely did but I'm not the kind to take thanks for it." He smiled lifting an eyebrow.
"Well, you did mention it a couple of times"
We got out and looked down from the terrace to see students and teachers in tattered, dirty clothes hugging and consoling each other.
"Was I dreaming?" I asked and looked at him.
"Do you want it to be a dream?" he answered with a question, looking at me, now fully facing me.
"No. And to answer my question, I don't think it was a dream. I was most definitely living out today morning in a time machine with an alien"
"You are right then, my friend. Quite an adventure that was, eh?"
I nodded. He turned away waved goodbye. I watched him leave as he stepped inside the blue box and the engines hummed to life.
Weeks later I couldn't stop thinking about the mad man with the blue box so I went to the terrace once again. I did this every week day for the next 4 months when suddenly, when I was close to giving up wishing for him to return, I heard the engines humming. I was about to leave the terrace but turned around to see The Doctor leaning against his blue police box.
"You came back" I said while looking at him.
"So did you" that smug smile was back on.
I chuckled.
"I've been coming back here every day for the past 4 months." I said
"Is that how long it's been? I thought I came back 4 minutes later" He was walking towards me now. "Must've been a silly mistake I made with the wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff that I deal with everyday"
"Must be exciting"
"Are you hoping I will ask you to join me in said adventures?"
He was doing the smiling with his eyes thing again and this time it didn't seem so smug. This time, I kind of liked it.
"Of course I am! Why do you think I've been hoping to see you here again and again?"
"Well, you know I could use a companion in case I run into trouble"
"I think you seem like the type that goes looking for trouble"
He laughed.
"I know you're wondering about how we don't even know each other and what if all this is a dream or if you've been given drugs but I promise, whatever's coming is way more exciting than all that you're leaving behind. All you have to do is say yes"
I paused. He was searching for the yes all over my face and I smiled.
"Yes."