I'm sorry, baby. Mama's so sorry.
Upstairs, the silence tore with frantic pounding on the corridor door.
"Help! Help! Someone, please open the door if you're inside! They will eat me!"
The voice was raw, panicked. The girl froze. She'd followed Mama's instructions and locked the door, but the sound — so loud and close — widened her eyes. The man screamed again, then a wet gurgle and silence.
She stood, rabbit clutched, unsure. Mama had said wait But, the man outside sounded so scared and needed help.
Slowly, the bolt slid. She opened it a crack, peeking.
There was a man standing there, tall, smeared with dark fluid, head tilted.
Then the man spoke, its voice strained but clear. "Thank God. Now please open the door, girl. Please let me in. They will eat me."
He looked just like a regular person, just hurt. He sounded so scared. She didn't think for a second. She reached out and yanked the door wide open and let him in.
NOW
"Your name?" Reyan asked, studying the man who'd saved his daughter.
The stranger lowered his knife slowly, reading Reyan's body language. "Vikram," he said. "Vikram Mehta. I lived in 7B. Two floors up."
Reyan kept counting the facts: name, apartment, why he was there. A neighbour. That made sense. Sort of. "I'm Reyan. This is Samir and Taj. And... thank you. For saving my daughter. I don't know how to—"
"Don't." Vikram held up a hand. "If anyone should be thanking anyone, I should be thanking her. She saved my life."
Reyan blinked. "What?"
Vikram watched the girl, wrapped in a blanket and wide-eyed.
I was up when it started. I heard the screaming, grabbed what I could and ran. Made it down to the fifth before they cornered me. I was pounding on doors. He looked at Reyan's daughter. "Pulled me inside and locked it again before those things could follow." A bitter smile crossed his face. "A seven-year-old saved me because I was too panicked to think straight. Some adult I am."
Reyan looked at his daughter, feeling his chest tighten. She'd been alone, terrified, and she'd still found the courage to save a stranger. "You did good, baby," he said softly. "You did so good."
"Is Mama coming home?" she asked in a small voice.
The question hung in the air like a blade. Reyan felt everyone's eyes on him. Samir and Taj looked away. Vikram suddenly found the floor very interesting.
Reyan crouched to his daughter's level and forced calm into his voice. "Mama is... she's in a safer place right now, honey. She can't come home yet, but she's safe. She wanted me to tell you that she loves you very much."
"But the people outside. They're mad, right? Papa, are they mad at us?"
"They're..." Reyan swallowed hard. "They're sick, baby. Very sick. And yes, they're angry, but not at you. Never at you."
"Is Mama sick too?"
Yes. She's dead. I killed her. I drove a knife into her heart and watched her die in my arms.
"No, honey. Mama's fine. She's just... she'll come back when it's safe. I promise."
Another promise. Another lie.
She nodded and clutched her blanket. Reyan stood, knuckles white, and found Samir staring at him with an expression he couldn't quite read.
"We need to talk," Samir said quietly. "In the other room."
They moved to the bedroom—Reyan and Priya's bedroom, where the bed was still unmade from two days ago when the world was normal. Samir closed the door.
"You lied to her," Samir said flatly
"What was I supposed to say?" Reyan's snapped. "That her mother's dead? That I—" His voice cut off brutal and raw. "She's seven. She needs hope."
"I know. But she deserves the truth."
"The truth will destroy her."
"The lie will destroy her more, Reyan." Samir ran a hand through his hair, looking exhausted. "Reyan, I get it. I do. But we can't build whatever this is—" he gestured vaguely at the apartment, at the group of survivors beyond the door, "—on lies. It'll fall apart."
"Then let it fall apart later," Reyan snapped. "Right now, she needs hope. Even if it's false hope."
"And what about that guy?" Samir asked nodding at Vikram.
"Vikram. Do we trust him?"
"He saved my daughter."
"Or he's been holed up here with her for a day and a half and we only have his word for what happened." Samir's voice was calm but pointed. "I'm not saying he's lying. I'm saying we don't know him. He could be dangerous."
"He's a survivor, just like us."