A TREASURE OF TALES

THE PLAGUE OF STEEL(HORROR/THRILER)

Every year, in America, the U.S Government hosts the annual purge, an opportunity for everyone to become better citizens and cleanse themselves of hatred and revenge and be better humans for the betterment of the American economy. How? By letting the citizens vent their anger and violence on others or the non-contributing members of the economy, where all sorts of crime is legal for 12 hours and police, fire and emergency medical services are suspended from 7pm to 7am. No government officials with authorization levels of 10 and higher are to be disturbed, and all weapons above Class 4 (explosive devices such as grenades, rocket launchers, bazookas, etc.) are forbidden. Sounds like literal hell on Earth doesn't it? When people go wrong, leaders should be there to guide them and show the right path, but when the so called leaders themselves are wrong, who's going to stand up to the ones responsible for this dreaded night, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA)?

Teesta Agrawal, a 20 year old Indian CA was currently on vacation at the moment. She spent a few months preparing for competitive examinations and tests as a part of her CA course, and now she was on a much needed break. Teesta was currently in New York sitting and relaxing at one of the cafes, which also had books in it. In simple words, it was a book café and Teesta was having the time of her life, with a steaming mug of hot chocolate with caramel drizzled slightly on the top and whipped cream on one hand and a book in her other hand. Teesta decided to go see the Statue of Liberty after she was done with her hot chocolate. She was immersed in her book and didn't glance around at the other people around her, but she couldn't help but overhear something rather concerning and worrying from the two women sitting behind her

"I can't believe today's purge day. God, people are such monsters'' said the first woman to her friend and the second woman replied "But the purge isn't necessarily that bad, I mean, for America to flourish as a successful nation, people have to cleanse themselves and be better citizens'' as she sipped her drink. "Yeah, but not by killing other people, especially innocent people who have nothing to do with this. I don't know about you but I am so not supporting this madness'' the first woman said and Teesta couldn't believe just what on Earth she was hearing? Purge? Killing? Were these people insane? Teesta didn't think much about it and thought maybe they were making a reference to a book or something. Thinking exactly that she tried to reassure herself as she went back to reading her book slowly sipping her drink

Unfortunately her thoughts were interrupted as the café workers went around telling people that they needed to leave soon since they were closing up early and Teesta grew concerned. She called to one of them and asked "Uhm.. excuse me, I couldn't help but hear that you were closing early today, could I know what the reason is?" and the café worker looked at her like she'd grown a third eye or fell from the moon or something. "Miss, today is purge day. Quite surprising you didn't know about it'' he spoke and Teesta widened her eyes in surprise and asked "So are there blue flowers outside your café then?" and the café worker looked surprised and spoke "Miss, our owner doesn't support the purge. Please excuse me, I have to get going'' he bowed down a little and went on his way

Teesta sighed and gulped her drink down quickly, paid her bill and went out of the café. She could see some shops around putting blue flowers around them and she thought 'I wonder what the purge even is and how the hell is it even legal? And why are some people even supporting this monstrosity? I need to find out more about this' but at the same time she thought it was some elaborate joke and it couldn't possibly be real.... Right? She went for a walk at one of the parks and decided to go sight-seeing around the place, like visiting various museums and iconic landmarks around New York City. It was now 6:30 and she decided to go back to her hotel, just to be safe

She was currently outside Bryant Park in the 6th Avenue and her hotel was a bit far from the destination she was at the moment. Teesta felt a bit nervous there were barely any people outside and the streets around her looked so desolate and deserted. She was having trouble finding a cab and she checked her watch and saw that the time was 6:40 in the evening already, there were 20 more minutes left for the damned purge to start. Teesta cursed under her breath when she checked if there were any flights, buses or trains available to get out of the country but they were all disabled for the time being and she started panicking a bit, would she be able to make it back to the hotel in time, would she be all right? Would she even survive? She couldn't possibly be outside on the day of the purge, she wouldn't even last for a single moment. Thoughts started churning and reeling in her mind at hundred miles a second but she took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Just then she saw a cab and she put her hand out, indicating the driver to stop and to her relief, he stopped