Chapter Two
Max Meridious
The upstairs was the same way we left it. Bob obviously wasn’t too worried about the rack of coats I’d moved. I wondered just how upset he was about the big-ass hole in the ceiling. At least the front door was still closed and locked. That tricky bastard might not have even called the cops, not when he had everything he needed to get rid of a couple bodies in the basement. I had Bob’s keys in hand, but I wanted to get a look outside before we ventured into the unknown. If Bob had actually called the cops, then we needed to know if they were just waiting for us in the parking lot before we tried to make a run for it.
I looked up at the hole in the roof and wondered if I could push Holly up. There was no way I was getting up there without a chair or a ladder. Looking at the hole in the ceiling, I noticed a small black package set in the roof by the hatch. Grabbing the display I moved earlier, I raised the bar up and tapped the package. It made a little popping noise, and a small rope ladder descended to the ground. Bob never did anything halfway.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to go out the door?” Holly questioned as she eyed the rope ladder and all our gear.
“Sure, unless there are a couple cops waiting outside for us. I’d really like to get out of town without killing anybody.” I put my hands on a rung and gave the ladder a sharp yank. It seemed sturdy enough, so I started to climb.
Holly moved to the bottom of the ladder and held it steady for me. “But you would…if you had too?”
Glancing down at Holly’s upturned face, I wondered what she wanted me to say. Guessing what a woman wanted was never exactly my strong suit so I decided on the truth. “Getting you to the lab in Flagstaff under Director Chen’s nose is the most important thing in the world right now.” Before I started shooting I’d give the cops a chance to put down their guns, but police officers didn’t have a habit of listening to orders when they thought they were stopping a robbery.
Long gone were the days when cops actually tried to de-escalate situations. Sure there were a few good ones out there, I’d even been blessed enough to have met a few, but the good ones seemed to be outweighed by the power-hungry buffoons. I had one officer explain it to me like this, “You meet an aggressive cop, just know he’s the kid that got beat up in high school, and now he knows he has the power so he’ll abuse the hell out of it.” It’s hard to argue the point when you see cops shooting crying suspects as they lay on the ground.
Frankly, if I ever have an interaction with the police, I just follow their instructions. They tell me to sit, I sit. Hold your hands up, and I’m reaching for the heavens. The last thing I’m going to get shot over is a speeding ticket. I like being alive too much to take the risk. The police aren’t your friends, and no one trusts the legal system after watching Making a Murderer on Netflix. Rapists go free, officers don’t fingerprint for robberies, and you’ve got about a fifty percent chance of getting away with murder in this country.
Not that I was smart enough to fix the problem, and it wasn’t always fair to heap the actions of some bad apples on the entire department. Still, it kind of felt like officers would get the benefit of the doubt more if they didn’t lie about what happened and close ranks. Then again, maybe the problems had always been there, and we just didn’t know until people started carrying portable video cameras we liked to call phones in their pockets. Was life better when we lived in blissful ignorance? Probably not, but it sure felt that way sometimes. So when it came to living my life, I just tried to stay out of the crosshairs and do my thing. Working for the Hilltop Initiative had given me that chance. I really did love working there. That was until Director Chen left me to die.
It was quiet outside which was odd for the morning in Phoenix. Most people were still creatures of the summer here. That meant you woke up early and got things done before it got hot. By the time people broke that habit, it was already heating up again. I peered over the roof at the mostly empty streets and wondered where everyone was. Something wasn’t right about this.
Holly came up and looked over the other side of the roof into the parking lot. “All clear.” She turned to join me by the street side of the roof and gazed down at the road. “Not a lot of traffic.”
“Tell me about it.” I could see down to the next stoplight in both directions. The lights were green, but only a few cars trundled down the road.
Holly took out a pair of mini-binoculars and looked in both directions. “The intersections are clear.”
I hadn’t even thought about the fact the cops might have blocked traffic, especially if they were planning to storm the place. Holly was sharp and grabbing the binoculars was a great idea. We might need them in the future. I was just about to tell her to go back inside when a cop car came down the road. He pulled into Bob’s but didn’t have his siren on. It might not mean anything, but I motioned for Holly to stay low.
The cop got out and started looking over Bob’s old Bronco. He gave the beater I stole earlier a more aggressive look before lifting his radio to his mouth to call in the plates. This was it, we had to get the hell out of here before backup came. I’m not sure which idiot in Phoenix decided that patrol officers worked alone, but I was happy about it right now. Between the two of us we might be able to subdue him, instead of having to take him out.
The cop scanned the building slowly looking for anything out of place, but didn’t seem to notice anything suspicious. I motioned for Holly to stay down and head back inside, before peering over the edge of the roof again. The cop’s eyes widened as he spotted me. He reached for his gun and started to shout when a man slammed into him from behind. They both fell to the ground and then the screaming started.
Holly bumped my shoulder gently as she looked down on the fight below. Actually, it wasn’t too much of a fight. The officer had been taken by complete surprise as he looked up at me. It hadn’t taken the necrotic more than a few seconds to rip a chunk out of the side of the cop’s throat with his teeth. As the officer tried to crawl away, the necrotic flipped him over onto his back and jammed his fingers into his stomach.
Holly started to move, like she was going to jump off the roof and try and rip the necrotic apart with her bare hands. Reaching out, I grabbed her arm. “It’s too late for him.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the sound of my voice or Holly moving, but the necrotic chose that moment to look up at us. The man’s teeth were still chewing on the bit of the officer’s neck he ripped out as he gazed up at us. His eyes were filled with inky blackness. It was the kind of look you only expected from a serial killer or a demon in Supernatural. He let out a scream as he glared at us, and then pulled his hands free from the man’s belly, tossing a bit of his insides into the street. He reached up and casually snapped the officer’s neck, before screaming another challenge at us.
My arm shot out in a protective barrier in front of Holly, and I started moving us away from the edge of the roof. Holly pulled one of her nine millimeters free, and I grasped at my Desert Eagle as we took another step back. The necrotic ran towards the building, and with a single leap he grasped the top of the roof and started to scramble over the edge. Holly stepped forward before the man made it over and shot him twice in the head.
He fell back to the ground with a thud and didn’t move. The fast ones might have been scary as hell, but at least they didn’t seem to be that bright. A bullet to the head stopped them dead in their tracks just like the slow ones. It must have been easy to forget you weren’t bulletproof when only a headshot would bring you down. I looked over at Holly, and both of us scanned the streets again wondering if anyone heard the shots. “Let’s get back inside.”
“Does Bob have a TV? I get the feeling we might need to check the news before we make a run for it,” Holly asked as she looked back down into the store.
Shit, I hadn’t even thought about turning on the news when we had been in the car. Obviously, this thing was spreading faster than any of us thought was possible. The fast ones had to be to
blame. I mean a bunch of slow-moving necrotics wouldn’t have been able to spread this quickly. Zombies were more like a tidal wave of inevitability, these quick ones were like a mongoose in the hen house.
“I’m sure he has something. Bet he’s not going to be real happy to see us again. That’s if he’s even conscious after that little love tap you gave him.”
“I can just knock him out again,” Holly replied with a casual shrug.
“Only if he makes trouble. Otherwise a third set of eyes might come in handy.”
Holly shrugged. “If you can trust him to get over being trussed up by a couple of thieves in his own store, most men wouldn’t let something like that go. I’d prefer to face the necrotic things without having to keep one eye on my back.”
Climbing onto the ladder, I headed back into the store. Holly was right. How could we trust the man after we disarmed him and left him tied up in his own store? That and I’d been about ready to steal his prized Bronco. Needless to say, I didn’t expect Bob to be my biggest fan right now. If the situation was reversed I know I’d be looking for a little payback, and it’d be easy enough to get in a store full of tools made for killing.
There wasn’t a TV upstairs so we got back in the elevator and headed down. I took a deep breath as the elevator came to a stop. Pulling the curtain aside I braced myself to come face to face with Bob’s shotgun. Instead I found him still on the floor, he hadn’t moved since we left. Scanning the room to find a TV only took a few seconds. Finding the remote was a little remote difficult, but eventually I got it on and tuned to the local news.
I felt Holly’s arm slide around my waist as we watched the images on the screen. It was worse than we thought.
Chapter Three
Martin Maclane
Jesus, why in the hell did I take this fucking job in the first place? Be a star, it’s the morning news for God’s sake, my agent intoned when she pitched me the gig. If I could get her on the phone right now I’d fire that bitch in a second. Since I’d joined Channel Five all I’d done were fluff pieces and coffee interviews. The real news was saved for the big boys on the nightly desk.
When my producer Dan handed me the notes for today I almost spit out my coffee. This was it. I was finally going to be broadcasting a real story. I felt like a rock star for all of thirty seconds, and then I finished reading the notes. I couldn’t believe I was going to have to go on TV and read this crap. It couldn’t be real, and after this my career was going to be over. After this I’d be lucky to cover the disgusting fried foods they sell at the county fair. A life relegated to reporting on animal adoptions and who served the best tacos wasn’t what I had in mind when I took this job.
No one in their right mind would believe this tripe. People attacking people, and the only way to stop them was to beat them over the head until they died. It just seemed so absurd, like one of those damn movies my kids liked. When I questioned the content Dan told me to just do my job. Can you imagine that? The damn producer dictating to me. I made this station in the morning, everyone said so.
In the end there was nothing I could do. Sally finished up my makeup, and I gave her a curt nod before walking on the set. I sat down across from Jessica and looked over the notes again. At least the document they handed me looked like an official release from the mayor’s office. Hopefully, someone had taken the time to verify the release before deciding to go live with the information. I mean, we had enough real news to cover this morning with a helicopter crash, and whatever was going on at St Luke’s hospital, why did they want me to read this fiction?
“Dan, are you sure about this?” I asked as he walked up to the news desk.
Dan rubbed a hand over his bald head, a look of exasperation set firmly on his face. “The release has been confirmed with the mayor’s office, it’s the real deal.”
“The real deal for career suicide,” Jessica added unhelpfully.
I cast her my most withering glare. “Just smile real pretty and nod along, it’s obviously all you’re good for.”
Jessica’s cheeks flared. “Just let me know when Martin shows up, all I can see right now is his ego.”
“I’m surprised you can see anything through all the makeup caked on your face.”
She was about to reply when Dan growled over us both. “Just shut up. The two of you are worse than my high school daughters fighting over the phone.” Dan pointed at me. “You, just read the damn story.” He turned to Jessica. “And you, just sit there until it’s your turn to talk.”
We glared at each other and then back at Dan. He didn’t wilt under our combined gazes. “Cameras are live in ten, don’t screw this up.” Dan backed away and held up his hand counting down. On five the lights grew brighter, and as he held up his last finger he pointed towards me.
“Good morning, Phoenix, or maybe a not such good morning if the reports coming into our station can be believed.” And there it was. I’d done everything I could to try and distance myself from the story while maintaining some sort of professionalism.
Looking into the camera, I put on my sternest no-nonsense expression. I’d been working on it for years. Eat your heart out, Dan Rather. “We have reports coming in from all over the valley, but the biggest concentration of activity seems to be focused in the downtown area. In a moment we’ll be going live to Maria Venezuela who is stationed at St Luke’s Hospital. Right at the heart of all this madness.”
I tried a half-hearted smile, doing my best to let the people know I was skeptical but I was going to read the report in front of me. “Before we go live to Maria, we have some news just in from the mayor’s office. The mayor has ordered a city-wide lockdown this morning, and the National Guard has been dispatched to the city for additional support.”
I turned to look at Jessica, and she nodded along compliantly despite our little spat. I gave her a small smile and turned back to the camera. “The mayor’s office has passed along a set of instructions they’d like everyone to follow.”
Turning, I faced the camera to the right for my solo shot. “All residents are being asked to stay inside. Do not let anyone into your home, especially if they look injured. If someone breaks into your house or tries to attack you, the only way to stop them is with a fatal blow to the head.”
Wow, that just sounded crazy. I mean, I’d read the briefing, but saying it out loud just made it hit home. If I wanted to be an actor I could have taken a part as a newscaster in one of those low budget horror flicks. Instead I was doing the regular news with the same damned script. My cheeks burned slightly, and I felt like an idiot. I tried to keep my eyes neutral as I gazed at Dan behind the counter. Was this his plan to finally get rid of me? If so, I wasn’t going down without a fight.
I kept looking at Dan as I gazed at my lines, he made a twirling motion with his hand to tell me to hurry the hell up. I couldn’t take it anymore, I didn’t like it when the joke was on me. “Are you sure this isn’t some kind of Halloween hoax? I mean, come on Dan, this is War of the Worlds level stuff here.”
“Just read the damn bullet points,” Dan shouted from off-screen.
Dan had never shouted during a live broadcast, so this must be real. People getting attacked, helicopters crashing, hospitals going boom, this was going to be national news by the end of the day. I quickly composed myself, maybe this was my big chance after all.
My producer nodded at me in encouragement, and I blundered on, this time with a little more enthusiasm. “We’ve received a separate confirmation from the governor’s office that this is, in fact, valid information. So if you’re outside, get back inside, stay off the roads, and if you are attacked, avoid being bitten.” My eyes widened just for a moment before I could lock down my facial expression. “And remember Phoenicians, the only way to stop an attacker is with a lethal blow to the head.”
I lifted my hand up to my earpiece pretending like I was getting some new information, but really I was just following the teleprompter. “We are going live to the heart of the action
with our on-site reporter, Maria Venezuela.”
Dan gave the signal as they cut our feed and switched it over to Maria’s. I turned to watch the TV of her live broadcast just like everyone else.
A beautiful Hispanic lady with long black hair looked into the camera. “This is Maria Venezuela reporting live from downtown Phoenix. I’m standing just outside the police tape at what used to be St Luke’s Hospital.”
The camera zoomed in on the flaming crater behind Maria before returning to frame the reporter and the flames in the same shot.
“Initial reports are claiming an underground gas leak is to blame, but the authorities on site don’t seem too convinced. It might be days or weeks before the full story unfolds, but right now law enforcement is keeping a tight lid on all the information coming out of the investigation.”
Gunfire erupted to the left of Maria, and she spun around. Her face was anxious, and she turned to look at the camera giving the cut sign. “Tony, let’s get out of here.”
This was my moment. “Maria, can you tell us what’s happening?”
She looked back at the camera her face lined with fear. Her eyes were wide but the instinct to keep reporting and her ambition to make a desk kept her locked in the spot. “It looks like the police have just opened fire on a bunch of unarmed citizens. I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
The camera panned to her left and showed several officers firing into a crowd of people. Holy shit, were some of them on fire? The officers kept shooting, but the people kept running or stumbling toward them. We all watched in horrified silence as the first officer was dragged to the ground. Was that person trying to eat them? What in the hell was going on?
Rise of the Necrotics (Book 5): Bob's Bargain Basement Page 2
