Eden Rising by Brett Battles Page B

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.”
    “Do not worry,” Darshana said, shooting a look at Prabal. “We are all coming with you.”
    “I was not saying I would not come,” Prabal said. “It was merely a suggestion.”
    “Maybe you should keep your suggestion in your head,” Darshana said.
    “If anyone else has something to suggest, say it now,” Kusum told them. “Once we go, you need to be quiet.”
    When no one spoke up, she led them out of the factory onto the street. From there, she kept to the same route she’d used on her trip to the camp.
    She could tell the silent city was having its effect on the others. The looks on their faces were often wide eyed and shocked, as if this couldn’t really be Mumbai but perhaps a replica or a movie set they had somehow wandered onto.
    Their path took them through a dense residential section that had once been teaming with life, each place they passed no longer a home but a tomb.
    “Please tell me we don’t have to walk through something like that again,” Prabal said, after they came out the other side.
    Darshana twisted around and shushed him.
    “No more like that,” Kusum whispered. “But we are getting close now, so we need to be extra careful.”
    She led them down the street, keeping them tight to the buildings.
    The roar of the motor seemed to come out of nowhere—one moment silence, the next a car engine revving to life only two blocks away. Kusum jammed to a stop, and pressed up against the shop they were passing. The others followed suit. Down the street, headlights popped on, pointing in their direction.
    She glanced back the way they’d come. The businesses lining the street were smashed together, in a continuous wall with no breaks between them for at least a hundred meters. No way she and the others could make it down and around the end without being seen. Most of the entrances to the stores were flush with the wall, providing no place to hide.
    Swinging her gaze back around, she focused on the cars parked at the curb only a few feet away.
    “Down,” she said, pointing at the ground near the vehicles.
    As they ducked behind the cars, she was sure it was too late. The car with the headlights was already heading in their direction. She could almost feel the light touch her skin.
    “Listen,” she said quickly, and gave them an address. “That is the building we are supposed to meet Sanjay in. Third-floor apartment, number sixteen. Say it back to me.” They each did. “If we have to split up, go there.”
    From the increasing growl of the vehicle’s engine, she knew it was almost abreast of them. For a second, she thought maybe their luck would hold and the car would drive by, but a squeal of brakes and a drop in RPMs told her the problem was not going away so easily.
    A clomp, clomp, clomp of feet hitting the road, but no sound of doors opening. Strange.
    “Please come out,” a male voice said. “We know you’re there. We are here to help you, not hurt you.”
    Kusum looked back at her three friends and mouthed, “When I say run, run.”
    They stared back at her, all three looking as scared as anyone Kusum had ever seen.
    “It will be okay,” she whispered.
    “Come out now, please. If you are ill, we can treat you. If you are not ill, we can vaccinate you so that you will stay that way.