Story 03: Episode 01
The story begins showing Zara and Amir traveling by a rural local bus packed full with farmers and the farm produces, both animate and inanimate. Zara looks out the window to see the charms of a green Bangladesh, while Amir listens to the farmers chat. One young passenger hails the driver to announce that he'd like to disembark at certain place. The chatting stops, while the driver groans - "We don't stop there." The young man argues that the bus has been stopping at every request, and this place should be no different. The driver groans louder and more irritated, "What you don't know, boy, you don't know. Now shut up and sit down. I'll drop you at the nearest convenient stop."
The nearest convenient stop comes five kilometers down the road, and both Zara and Amir decide to follow the young man to the forbidden destination. The more they proceed to the intended place, the less frequent become people, birds, cows and animated life form. All three, who have already become acquainted, notice this. They Zara and Amir gets to know that they are heading to the parental home of Yasser, the young man.
They reach a village where everyone is going through their daily chores like Zombies or robots, without any apparent emotion or botheration. Otherwise it's a perfect reflection of a regular village. They don't fail to notice this either. Yasser and his new friends are received well by Yasser's parents. They fresh up, have a snack, and then go out to take a stroll around the village. Yasser tries to chat up a some people he was friendly with in the past, but no one entertains him beyond a few cursory one-word responses. They give up, and start looking out for signs of non-human animal life. None is seen.
Night falls, and they start going back to Yasser's home. On their way back, they suddenly discover that all the villagers are heading toward one single house in the middle of the village, the house that has a battery run TV. Yasser laughs, and says that some things never change. They head to that house to take a look at the TV program that attracts everyone in the village.
Coming closer to the house, they see the TV brought out onto the courtyard like so many other rural Bangladesh households. But, there's a certain strangeness to the scene, as the TV is only showing static noise, and everyone is watching it like it's the best TV show in the world. In unison they laugh and cry, shout in anger and whisper in anticipation. The three stops proceeding any further, rather they hide behind a fence to watch the scene in awe, until a little boy approaches them from behind and startles them bad.
"What are doing here? You are not like them," demands the boy. "I was about to ask the same question," replies Zara, while Amir adds, "Why are you not watching the TV?" The boy looks at them apprehensively and then says, "I am don't watch it, and that's why I still remain human. I'd recommend you do the same... better, you run. I don't know if I can survive long. But, you must get away." While this is going on, the TV site changes a bit. One by one the villagers go up to the TV and touches the screen. Everyone touching the screen is overwhelmed by an expression of deep pain, as if something is drawing the life-juice out of them. One of the older villagers collapses down with a shriek, but no one cares to take a look.
The episode ends on this high note.
Story 03: Episode 02
The episode begins exactly where the last episode ended. The boy, Suman, leads the trio away from the TV lot. He narrates how a year back one day the TV, the only one in the village, stopped showing shows, but the villagers kept watching the static noise ("zhir zhir" in Bengali). This apparently drew out all humanity, as well as life energy out of them. They started killing off all moving beings and eating them raw. Then with a shudder he tells how they ran out of moving beings sans the people, and they started eating people. Well, they only eat those who collapse after touching the TV screen, and only after the viewing is over. He also describes how the rest of the world, at least the world according to him, has blocked the area off and ceased all transaction with them. While he narrates this horrifying story, glimpses of flashbacks can be seen, to make the story more appalling.
"Outsiders are easy prey, like you three are," Suman declares somberly, adding, "I survive, because I keep hiding all the time, and unlike them, I eat only green things that grow on trees and bushes." All four of them wait the night over, not returning to Yasser's parents' place. All the while they can sense that there's a search party looking for them.
With day-break Suman urges them to leave any how they can. Yasser tries to protest, as he wants to take one last look at his parents. But, the rest of companions convince him not to. Zara starts a fight with Amir, who doesn't believe in anything unexplainable by science. Amir really can't argue back. Suddenly he looks like he's been hit by an idea pretty hard. He rises and declares that he's going into the village with Suman for one important reason, telling the rest to wait till they come back or two hours, whatever comes first. Completely perplexed everyone in the group try to resist him, but he presses on and manages to take Suman along.
Suman and Amir stealthily approach the TV house to find the TV still out on the courtyard. Amir picks up a shovel lying unattended, and runs towards the TV set. He hits the set with all his might, and keeps smashing it down, until Suman draws his attention to a mob of villagers approaching them for all corners. The two run, hide and run back to their companions. When the original three starts to move out, Zara decides they can't leave Suman back. All four of them start together, including an ecstatic Suman.
This would be the first case that Amir and Zara couldn't solve in any damn way. But, that's the beauty of the unexplained.
The story begins showing Zara and Amir traveling by a rural local bus packed full with farmers and the farm produces, both animate and inanimate. Zara looks out the window to see the charms of a green Bangladesh, while Amir listens to the farmers chat. One young passenger hails the driver to announce that he'd like to disembark at certain place. The chatting stops, while the driver groans - "We don't stop there." The young man argues that the bus has been stopping at every request, and this place should be no different. The driver groans louder and more irritated, "What you don't know, boy, you don't know. Now shut up and sit down. I'll drop you at the nearest convenient stop."
The nearest convenient stop comes five kilometers down the road, and both Zara and Amir decide to follow the young man to the forbidden destination. The more they proceed to the intended place, the less frequent become people, birds, cows and animated life form. All three, who have already become acquainted, notice this. They Zara and Amir gets to know that they are heading to the parental home of Yasser, the young man.
They reach a village where everyone is going through their daily chores like Zombies or robots, without any apparent emotion or botheration. Otherwise it's a perfect reflection of a regular village. They don't fail to notice this either. Yasser and his new friends are received well by Yasser's parents. They fresh up, have a snack, and then go out to take a stroll around the village. Yasser tries to chat up a some people he was friendly with in the past, but no one entertains him beyond a few cursory one-word responses. They give up, and start looking out for signs of non-human animal life. None is seen.
Night falls, and they start going back to Yasser's home. On their way back, they suddenly discover that all the villagers are heading toward one single house in the middle of the village, the house that has a battery run TV. Yasser laughs, and says that some things never change. They head to that house to take a look at the TV program that attracts everyone in the village.
Coming closer to the house, they see the TV brought out onto the courtyard like so many other rural Bangladesh households. But, there's a certain strangeness to the scene, as the TV is only showing static noise, and everyone is watching it like it's the best TV show in the world. In unison they laugh and cry, shout in anger and whisper in anticipation. The three stops proceeding any further, rather they hide behind a fence to watch the scene in awe, until a little boy approaches them from behind and startles them bad.
"What are doing here? You are not like them," demands the boy. "I was about to ask the same question," replies Zara, while Amir adds, "Why are you not watching the TV?" The boy looks at them apprehensively and then says, "I am don't watch it, and that's why I still remain human. I'd recommend you do the same... better, you run. I don't know if I can survive long. But, you must get away." While this is going on, the TV site changes a bit. One by one the villagers go up to the TV and touches the screen. Everyone touching the screen is overwhelmed by an expression of deep pain, as if something is drawing the life-juice out of them. One of the older villagers collapses down with a shriek, but no one cares to take a look.
The episode ends on this high note.
Story 03: Episode 02
The episode begins exactly where the last episode ended. The boy, Suman, leads the trio away from the TV lot. He narrates how a year back one day the TV, the only one in the village, stopped showing shows, but the villagers kept watching the static noise ("zhir zhir" in Bengali). This apparently drew out all humanity, as well as life energy out of them. They started killing off all moving beings and eating them raw. Then with a shudder he tells how they ran out of moving beings sans the people, and they started eating people. Well, they only eat those who collapse after touching the TV screen, and only after the viewing is over. He also describes how the rest of the world, at least the world according to him, has blocked the area off and ceased all transaction with them. While he narrates this horrifying story, glimpses of flashbacks can be seen, to make the story more appalling.
"Outsiders are easy prey, like you three are," Suman declares somberly, adding, "I survive, because I keep hiding all the time, and unlike them, I eat only green things that grow on trees and bushes." All four of them wait the night over, not returning to Yasser's parents' place. All the while they can sense that there's a search party looking for them.
With day-break Suman urges them to leave any how they can. Yasser tries to protest, as he wants to take one last look at his parents. But, the rest of companions convince him not to. Zara starts a fight with Amir, who doesn't believe in anything unexplainable by science. Amir really can't argue back. Suddenly he looks like he's been hit by an idea pretty hard. He rises and declares that he's going into the village with Suman for one important reason, telling the rest to wait till they come back or two hours, whatever comes first. Completely perplexed everyone in the group try to resist him, but he presses on and manages to take Suman along.
Suman and Amir stealthily approach the TV house to find the TV still out on the courtyard. Amir picks up a shovel lying unattended, and runs towards the TV set. He hits the set with all his might, and keeps smashing it down, until Suman draws his attention to a mob of villagers approaching them for all corners. The two run, hide and run back to their companions. When the original three starts to move out, Zara decides they can't leave Suman back. All four of them start together, including an ecstatic Suman.
This would be the first case that Amir and Zara couldn't solve in any damn way. But, that's the beauty of the unexplained.
