Postmen

        Messengers used to be very important in the ancient world as they were the only way to pass information to others over a long distance. As time passed, people started using other ways to transfer information, at first, it was pigeons, and for a long time that continued. As time passed, people set up post service to send communication over a long distance. Postmen were very important during all of the 19th and 20th centuries and especially during the first and second world wars.

        And as the internet was used more and as mobile communications improved people were able to connect to each other instantly, post office and postal officials were used less to transfer letters but rather to ship items now and people were less and less dependent on postmen for transferring their letters as they could communicate with each other.

        And then after couple hundred years, even that task was handled by drones and robots. People were now not dependent on other people for receiving their packages and letters on other people. Communication was instant for many years now and now the packages were received instantly or rather way quicker than in the past. Now the postmen were no longer required and the post office was now handled by the robots. The world was fully automated humans are totally dependant on machines and most of the tasks were now handled by robots.

            It was theorized for a long time that solar flares can be very harmful to the earth but so far we got lucky but no more as in quick successions and without any warnings, solar flares reached closer and closer to the earth and fried up all the equipment set up on the moon, then even bigger flare rose up to destroy all the various satellites in the earth's atmosphere. And just like that, all the services came to a halt no phones, no Internet, no GPS. This caused more and more issues and without the internet, the public utilities failed that were being handled by robots and over the Internet. Electricity went out all over in some time. The world went dark almost in a blink. Now it was like people were back in the dark ages but they had no experience of how to survive on their own.

            All the countries experienced rapid deaths as people panicked and rioted and before things can be brought under control. Almost 2 Billion people were lost around the world during this time. Even more, people were lost as there was suddenly a scarcity of food and other resources. But soon enough people realized that they would have to come and work together to survive. The entire society was back to a standstill with no travels and communications over a long distance.

        With time people started working together and to build their infrastructure as per 18th-19th century standards. They also worked to set up the postal network again and thus the importance of Postmen was restored.

                

Quiet Evenings

         Rashmi and Rohan were married for five years now. Like the most married couples who were working, they were also busy in the humdrum of daily life. The entire week spent in the office work and after that few episodes of some series or a movie and then sleep. The same cycle repeated over many weeks. Till they couldn't even find few moments for each other.

    Then due to the pandemic both of them had to work from home, now they were together but still busy with work, as strangely the work increases when you are working from home but soon like all the routines they also get in the new routine. 

      And then the unthinkable happened there was a big storm and the Internet and cellphone services went down all throughout the area. And suddenly there was no work from home, no streaming content, no social network, nothing just two stunned people who didn't know what to do with their time. It was quiet all around and both Rashmi and Rohan decided it was the perfect time to enjoy some time together without any interruptions. For some time they listened to few songs they had available offline and danced together they were glad to have some time together at last. 

    They were able to enjoy few quiet evenings bereft of all the disruptions, it was a staycation which both of them enjoyed lost in each other and perfect silence when they needed it and they promised to find time for each other and not to let the daily grind keep them apart.

Robert Rishabh Rustam Rehmat

Based on prompt from Writing-Prompt-s

Fout roommates are extraterrestrials who have taken human form in the hopes of learning about Earth's culture. Unfortunately, each alien is from a different planet and believes the other three are normal humans.

        We all suspect that we might not be alone in the universe and that the aliens exist but what if we don't know about them is that they may be living amongst us without our knowledge. Let's assume that the aliens have advanced technology or they have evolved like Skrulls in MCU to be able to take whatever form they like.

        In fact, this is the way and I know for a fact that at least 4 aliens are living with us and each one of them is from a different planet. The first one is called Robert and he is from planet Q'than, the Second one is called Rishabh and he is from planet Butphan, the third one is called Rustam and he is from planet Milllitum and the last one is called Rehmat and he is from planet Zollathem. And now here's the wrinkle they all are friends and roommates but each one thinks about the other three are humans and thus thinks that they are the only alien on the planet Earth.

        Each has a mission to learn more about the Earth's culture and each one tries to focus on the other three in hopes to learn more about the people of earth but the mission isn't going well as they all are clueless about the Earth's culture themselves.  All are playing the roles of 20 something slackers, staying at home smoking, drinking, and playing games after all those can tell a little about humans too. They very worried about humans after playing games like Halo and Doom where you are tasked with killing tonnes of aliens, thankfully those aliens didn't look like them. They all excelled at puzzle games due to their advanced analytical knowledge but still, they didn't know how to behave with other humans and they all believe them to spoiled young ones who are only interested in parties and fun.

        Rishabh was sitting alone on the balcony observing the people downstairs and thinking about his home he was feeling homesick but he was a good soldier and understood his duties but after living with the others for over a year and observing them he wasn't anywhere close to understanding humans. Rishabh was mulling if he should let three humans living him about the truth.

    Rehmat was sitting on the bench in the park enjoying the evening and of course, noticing the people he didn't understand why would people waste time by just slowly walking around rather than doing something positive. Rehmat had decided to let his roommates know that he wasn't a human and in fact from a different planet.

        Rustam was exercising and running laps around he had a great body and he was maintaining the body and he felt good when people came to him asking him about his schedule and the food etc. this told Rustam that Earth's people paid attention to certain properties, over the months Rustam had made little adjustments to his looks and now he had a boyish face with a body with hulking muscles but that was easy the difficult thing was to learn more about the Earth's culture. Rustam finally decided to bring his roommates the three human brothers in the knowledge that he was from another planet. 

       Robert liked to go to the supermarket to observe people and to monitor the kind of food people of Earth ate and he then bought his food later. Today Robert was walking through the aisles with the shopping trolley and as always felt baffled by all kinds of strange food items available in the market, Robert also always asked his roommates for the items they wanted but they always asked some random products and he wasn't sure about their preferences. Today, Robert was deep in thoughts and he had decided that he would tell his roommates the truth and would ask them for help to learn more about the Earth's culture.

     In the evening all roommates are sitting around watching Netflix, Rustam pauses the show and says that he has something important to discuss, the other three also said that they also had something important to tell the others. 

    Rustam started slowly, "I don't want you to be afraid or alert but I wanted to tell you a secret and would want to ask for your help. I am from a different planet and was sent to learn about Earth's culture I want your help in me to understand more about Earth"

     Rustam looked around and noticed that Robert, Rishabh, and Rehmat all sat in stunned silence looking at Rustam.

      Rustam said, "Guys, I want to assure you that my mission is a civil one and we don't want to hurt anyone, please say something."

    Rishabh said, "Wow, Rustam okay here goes, I won't say but show" and changes his form to his original form.

      "What you too, exclaimed Robert and Rehmat"

Rehmat began, "Actually!" and changed his form too and Robert also changed his form and finally, Rustam also changed himself to his original form, and now all the roommates were looking at each other and they all started laughing at the strange luck that all of them ended up together. 

      Now that all of them knew the truth they finally discussed their worlds with each other and finally felt at ease with their roommates. They finally decided to work together and share their reports with each other. Finally, Robert, Rishabh, Rustam, and Rehmat knew the truth and started working together.

Remember Me?

        Another day, same dream, someone unknown asking the same question, Remember Me? Of course, her face isn't clear after all that's how the dreams turn out to be. I have to say dreams sure are strange but, don't people say that dreams are based on your experiences and your sub-conscience mind.

       Whatever it might be, it sure strange to see the same dream multiple times, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember more of the dream just the same question from the unknown girl, Remember Me?

       Who was she? I keep on mulling over the question and I lay awake through the night thinking about the dream and finally as the morning crept along I was finally able to fall asleep. Still, the question kept with me, Remember Me?

        Of course, I don't remember I don't have even a little bit of idea who could she be, what can I do? I can't search through the city to try to find the girl, the question is remember me? so is she someone whom I already know but forgot about? There are no answers and all I could do is to wait and dream some more and to watch the same dream, days after days and the girl asking, Remember Me?

Someday

       Rahul had a dream, he wanted to be a writer and to write a best-selling novel, all he was waiting for the idea to strike him.

     Rahul didn't want to write another love story, that was the focus of almost every second book published in India. But it's very difficult to create something new, and almost all the stories are now derivative of original ideas.

     In the meantime, Rahul kept on reading other books to get a better understanding of how a story should continue. And just like that few years passed but Rahul was not near the idea for a book but he had written many short stories and was working on a few ideas.

     Finally, Rahul has started working on his book, the story will be a sci-fi fantasy tale set in the near future and he is positive that someday soon the book would be finished and people will enjoy his writing.

The Chase

           He stopped for a second to take a deep breath, after all, he was running now for some time. He didn't know what or who was behind him, he just sensed and he started running.

He was adept at running after all he was an orphan who naturally drifted to the life of crime and was forever running, from rival gangs, from police, from other enemies. 

He had reasons to be worried about others, for he had finally decided to steal a lot of money from his boss and run away. He hoped that nobody would identify him in the new town but you can never be sure.

The person who is on run believes that everybody is hunting him, and he had no doubt people were chasing him to drag him in front of the Boss. 

He tried relaxing as it looked like that he ran for nothing, he couldn't see anyone chasing him, but he still couldn't afford to relax too much. Now he started to slowly walk to ensure that he didn't draw too much attention. 

He reached the run-down hotel he was hiding in and entered his room and ordered food from the nearby dhaba. He silently ate his dinner and turned off the light and tried to sleep and he drifted to sleep.

                        ------------------------

The hunter watched his prey all through his panicked run and he followed as his prey went towards his hideout. The hunter continued the watch, hunter made sure to intercept the food delivery to mix the sedative to the food. 

The hunter waited for his prey to eat the food and to sleep and then entered the room silently. Hunter smirked a little as he noticed his prey lying in front of him. Hunter searched and found the bag filled with the money. 

Now that the money was recovered, the hunter moved to the next part, he grabbed his knife and slit the throat of his prey. The chase was over.