This thirilling Ride Of Anitale 2023 competition brought us amazing stories and creative content. We witnessed stories from various genres and everything were fantastic. Mr. Swpnanil Das created a wounderful Action story named “Murder of Dreams” which banged in the 2nd place of our competition:
Murder Of Dreams
My name is Schaffer aka #M71271. The question which you are probably thinking is why my name is a number. That’s because I am a Gewölbe dweller (German for vault). The Gewölbes are created to give shelter to the people of the nuclear war affected world. The war has almost destroyed the whole world. According to the government’s notice, we had to go inside the Gewölbe. Today so many memories are coming back to me. Otto and fritz used to play in the vault corridor. One day, Otto asked Fritz and me, “What do you wanna become in future?” I said, “Soldier”. Fritz said,“Scientist, and you?” Otto didn’t want to answer that but I and Fritz both were curious to know. After pressuring him a lot, Otto said with his head down and whispered, “Doctor”.
We both laughed and said, “Don’t you hate blood? A brave doctor will never fear blood.” Otto almost cried. He said, “I would become brave doctor and you guys would be then jealous of me.” I said, “Then promise us.” Otto with his sorrowful voice said, “Promise”.
Otto ran away. “It has been 20 years”. My daydreaming stopped and I was startled by the voice then I looked beside. I saw Mama. I replied, “Yes.” I was getting prepared with my dress. Today was my first day as scouting soldiers. We have been living in this Gewölbe for 20 years. This Gewölbe is numbered as Gewölbe 71. Inside of every Gewölbe there is its own governing body. Every male has to serve for the Gewölbe government. I was first appointed as an internal soldier who looks after the Gewölbe 71; but due to lack of
soldiers I was transferred as scouting soldiers. Scouting soldiers has the hardest job.
They have to scout the surrounding area and protect the vault entrance from mutants. They are the frontliners of every vault. I said to mama, “Goodbye.” Mama was tearing up. I hugged her and said, “Don’t worry”. I will definitely come back and it’s a promise.” I
was going towards the central area of the Gewölbe. Suddenly I met Fritz. He has become a scientist and I asked fritz,” Do you remember Otto? I haven’t met him for a long time. Fritz was uncomfortable and said, “Nope”. I would have talked with him but I was in a
rush, so I decided to hurry up and meet the captain of our scout team led by captain Hans. I saluted him and he saluted me back. I introduced myself to the team. Our team consisted of four members – Henry, Jacob, Alfred, Max. We entered the chamber
connecting the Gewölbe and the outside world. We were prepared with our own modified hazmat suit. The door opened and after 20 years I saw the outside world for the first time. It was devastating. It felt like it was out of a science fiction book.
The whole area was foggy and deserted. We decided to explore the area via jeep. We had to travel 20 km towards a forest where a potential new mutant has been found. We have to collect data for it. Jacob, one of the members, asked, “How does it feel seeing the world after this long time?” I was not ready to say anything. I replied, “The world has changed a lot. I don’t know what happened to rest of the world. But the world looks a lot dull as if the world has asthma. It is trying to take her last breath. It is worse than what I had seen
the last time.” Max, another member, said, “Wait till you see those goddamn mutants”. I knew about the mutants. I researched about them but seeing them in action would be a different scenario Captain who was in the driver’s seat laughed and said, “Hey! Don’t
fear the rookie. He would probably piss his pants”. He laughed loudly. I was stunned to see a German to laugh so casually. Jacob took my side and said, “Hey! I think he is brave.
We all feared when we first saw mutants.” Henry and Alfred, the twins on our team were silent. They didn’t took part in our conversation. After travelling 11 km, we reached a deserted city’s cemetery. I asked, “Why are we here?” Jacob said, “To hide something from the public.” We all got out of the car. The skeleton of the city was still there. I saw a mutant immediately running towards us in a high speed. I was startled. Before I could even aim at that, Jacob killed it with his silencer gun. Jacob said, “Be prepared and hand on the gun. Mutants are basically zombies. If they even scratch you, you will turn into them. Shoot at sight and use silencer, because bullet sound will attract them.” We were moving towards the cemetery. A big hoard of mutants was standing further away. We didn’t wanna call a hoard upon us so we didn’t shoot them but Alfred and Henry took their positions. Commander Hans, Max, Jacob and I walked and Hans
pointed at a place and said, “Dig.” Jacob and max were digging and created a hole.
Captain Hans was carrying a bag. He dumped three mutant bodies inside the hole. Suddenly I noticed one of the bodies and it was Otto. My brain just stopped working. I screamed, “What the hell is this? How did he turn into a mutant? He was always inside the Gewölbe. I realized I did a huge mistake. I have alerted the hoard. General Hans screamed, “Are you out of your mind? This rookie is a goddamn idiot. Everyone fall back and rush to the car.
We ran towards the car. I couldn’t even say goodbye to Otto. A violent screaming sound was heading towards us. I tried to see the hoard but I slipped and fell. Henry and Alfred was behind me. They didn’t even try to help me. This was my mistake. I stood up and ran as fast as I could. I entered the car and the mutant hoard almost caught us. Commander started the car and our journey continued. Max asked, “How did it feel?” I was breathing heavily. I could not even speak. Jacob asked, “Who was he? Someone you knew?” I silently nodded. Jacob said, “Bad luck! He was probably not good for Gewölbe; so he died as a lab rat. There is much more that meets our eye.”
Commander Hans said, “Rookie, Do you think government created this facility to live there peacefully for rest of your life? This is a big research facility where those who don’t fit in that society are lab rats and who’s gonna stop them. Now ask yourself, who
are the true enemy? Humans or mutants? I thought to myself humans are those who destroyed this beautiful world into a wasteland and now these people are killing more peoples for some reasons. Otto’s crying face came to my head suddenly. This time I was
almost gonna cry. Jacob said, “Don’t worry. Death is peace in this world. He has now got peace. We all have seen our closest friends die. Thus this affect us? No, not at all. So be brave and keep moving.” Max said, “Alfred and henry saw more deaths than us. They
spent the longest time in this job.” We reached the forest. Commander said,” Inside the forest there might be a new mutant. We have to investigate it. Everyone take defensive formation. Don’t let any mutant get close.” we slowly entered the forest. We killed quite
a few mutants on our way. Everything was drop dead silence.
We could hear every single sound. Suddenly a gust of wind passed and there was a hole in Jacob’s chest. Blood started gushing out. Our defensive formation broke. We are fighting an invisible mutant. We aimed at random direction. Henry suddenly threw some mud in the air and it stayed there. Henry screamed, “Shoot!” We unloaded our bullets towards the flying mud. Suddenly something exploded and the greenish slimy substances were everywhere.
We saw a huge bee, whose stomach has exploded. The bee has mutated into something unthinkable. The bio and nuclear warfare didn’t even leave the insects. Looks like the insects are also starting to mutate. Max started collecting the body parts for further investigation. I noticed Jacob was mutating but he was laughing. He said, “Peace finally. This is what…” Alfred shoot him before he could even say his last words. I was in no mood to even talk. I was just a dumb spectator. We reached the Gewölbe. Upon entering, the whole military congratulated us for our mission’s success. I saw Gunther, the person behind controlling Gewölbe 71. The inner military was congratulating us; but I felt no happiness. The cheering felt blank.
The reality of the scout soldiers was becoming clear to me. Finally I was freed from all of this. Instead of going back to my room I knocked at Fritz’s room. He opened the door and I entered. I asked him, “How Otto did become a mutant? Tell me everything. You are a scientist, you have to know. He was inside the Gewölbe all the time. Fritz suddenly started crying and said, “Do you even have a clue what is going on here. This Gewölbe was created to find cure for the mutants; but the catch is everyone is the guinea pig.” I didn’t understand what fritz is saying. Fritz also said, “Otto didn’t excel at studying or at physical activities. Gunther decided that those who don’t do anything for this society will have to become a guinea pig. The inner military higher ups choose who will be the next guinea pig. If we say anything we would be killed and one day Otto was selected. Oh god! I had to do it for my own survival. We transformed him into mutants and we experimented even though we knew the outcome would never be successful.” Fritz broke into tears. I sat on the
bedside. Fritz screamed, “I can’t do this anymore. I have become a sinner that hell wouldn’t even allow me. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was too stunned to even react.
It has been two years. The atmosphere inside the Gewölbe has gone worse. Revolt has started. The government was falling apart. Open firing on the public has been allowed. But I on the other hand, in two years, I have been promoted multiple times
such that I became really close to Gunther. Today is the board meeting day. I entered the cabinet. The guard outside the door saluted me. The chair beside Gunther was allotted for me. I had a flashback of being just a soldier to such a position due to continuous
success in mission. Vice leader Bruno started the meeting and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the food inside the vault is insufficient to provide the upcoming months so our decision is that only 30 people will be moved from Gewölbe 71 to Gewölbe 73.
Gewölbe 73 has more food supply but can’t provide space for more than 30 people. So we have prepared a list of the peoples to be shifted. If someone protests they will be executed.”
Gunther nodded. A person in the meeting said, “What about family members?” Gunther calmly said, “Abandon them. Why do you even need them? Praise me that I pitied upon you to add your name on the list.” Gunther asked, “Any questions?” The room was silent. The allotted day came. A soldier knocked on my door. I opened it.
He said,” Sir, please hurry up. People are revolting.” I asked for a moment and went to washroom. I injected myself and the flushed the needle and the ampule. I set a timer for an hour. Fritz gave the ampule to me and said, “I don’t know if it will be of any of your
work; but this can be used to turn into super mutant but the time it needs to start becoming one is an hour.” Fritz suicide some days later. Today is my turn. I will finally meet Otto and Fritz. The soldier took me to my car. I suddenly said, “Oh I forgot to tell something to Gunther.
The soldier took me to Gunther’s car. I saluted him and asked for his permission. I was thoroughly checked if I had any firearms. I entered his car. The convoy started moving. I was not speaking. Gunther said, “Didn’t you say, you have to tell me something?” I said, “Of course.” I started a normal conversation. My goal is to cross one hour without suspicion. Gunther talked casually. I asked him a question while looking at my clock, “We are all sinners, aren’t we? We abandoned them.” Gunther
replied casually, “I don’t care.” I replied, “Then go to hell.” …the timer struck zero.
All I remember nothing but extreme
Written By,
Swpnanil Das
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