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Urban Decay

Page 1

by Paxton Matthews




  Urban Decay

  For Mom and Dad

  Chapter 1

  The Alarm clock buzzed and buzzed, waking up Theo from the best night's sleep that he had in a long time. He cursed himself for turning the clock on in the first place. It was Theo's first day off in a long time, and the first day off in his brand new house no less, and he wanted to sleep in for a change. Theo begrudgingly reached over and slapped the clock, turning it off, and sat on the edge of his bed. Theo could tell from the light that was shining through the cracks in his blinds that it was early. Theo got up and out of bed and went into his kitchen to make himself some coffee.

  Theo got his cup of coffee, lit up a cigarette, and plopped down on his recliner in the living room and turned on the television. After channel surfing for a bit and finishing his coffee, Theo sat around with nothing much to do. He decided to go back into his old neighborhood to pay some of his friends a visit. It had been a while since he had seen them, not since the day he moved out.

  Theo put on his worn black jeans, a plain black t-shirt, his favorite pair of gray sneakers, ran a comb through his spiky black hair, threw on his sunglasses, and headed out the front door. As soon as Theo set foot outside, he was greeted by the sounds of lawnmowers running. It seemed that every day his neighbors were outside cutting their lawns.

  "Damn, give it a rest," Theo thought to himself as he got into his car, a small green sedan.

  Rather than take the expressway to get back to the old neighborhood, Theo decided to take the surface streets back into Detroit. It was a nice day out after all and Theo decided to enjoy the drive. Theo turned on the radio for something to listen to, but there was nothing. AM, FM, or satellite, there was only silence.

  "Whatever, probably nothing on anyways."

  When Theo got closer to his old neighborhood, he was caught in a small traffic jam. Theo looked up ahead and he could see some flashing lights from some emergency vehicles.

  "Must've been an accident or something," Theo said.

  As Theo was sitting there in his car, an ambulance came flying past Theo with its sirens and lights blaring. "Damn, how bad of an accident was it?" Theo wondered.

  When traffic finally did get moving once more, Theo looked down the road to his left, trying to see just how bad the accident was. From the glimpse that Theo managed to get, all he could see was a minor fender bender. But, there were two ambulances and what looked to be two cop cars as well on the scene.

  "Weird," Theo muttered.

  Theo reached down into his pocket to grab his cell phone. He was almost at his former home and he wanted to give his good buddy Mike a call to let him know that he was back in town. Then Theo realized that his cell phone was right where he left it; sitting on his kitchen counter, charging.

  Theo smacked his steering wheel out of frustration. "Theo, you jackass." Oh well, it looked like Mike would be getting a surprise.

  Theo arrived at the old neighborhood and parked his car alongside his former home. He was surprised to see that the 'for sale' sign still hung in one of the kitchen windows.

  "Yeah this place was a dump, but I thought it would've been sold by now."

  Even though the house had been his childhood home, Theo hated the place. He didn't like living in a corner house on an intersection, and with traffic going both ways, it made Theo paranoid. Also, Theo wasn't too thrilled when he had to move back in after his second divorce. The home and the neighborhood brought back a lot of bad memories.

  Theo walked up to the corner, crossed the street and made a right, heading towards Mike's home.

  Hopping up on Mike's porch, Theo began to knock on the front door, "Mike, it's me, Theo. Open up!"

  There was no answer, so Theo knocked again. "Hey, Mike!" Once more, there was nothing.

  Theo looked at the street in front of Mike's home. Both Mike and his girlfriend's cars were parked out front, and Mike was usually home on the weekends. Theo sat down on the front step and lit up a smoke and sat there for a few minutes. When Theo looked around, he realized that the neighborhood was quiet, unusual for a weekend.

  "Damn, there isn't even any lawnmowers going," Theo joked to himself.

  Theo snuffed out his smoke and knocked once more. "Mike? Joanie? Ya there?" After waiting for a few seconds, Theo walked off the porch and began heading down the street towards Michigan Avenue. He was going to the local dollar store to see his other good friend Mel. Mel was the owner of the store and he always sold Theo cigarettes fifty cents cheaper. While he walked, Theo couldn't stop thinking about how quiet it was around the old neighborhood. The only thing Theo could hear was the wail of an ambulance siren way off in the distance, and that was about it.

  But when Theo made it to Michigan Avenue, he was pleased to see that it was as vibrant as ever. Traffic was flowing in both directions on the four-lane road, people were going in and out of shops, and as usual, the bars were always crowded. Theo felt at home.

  "Theo! How in the hell are you doing?" Mel asked once he saw Theo walk into his dollar store.

  "Hey Mel," Theo replied. "How's business?"

  "Crappy since you left."

  "Yeah sure."

  "What'll it be Theo? Your usual?"

  "Yeah, just my pack of smokes," Theo said, setting down his five bucks on the counter. Theo looked around the store and saw that it was empty. Maybe Mel was right about business being bad.

  "You know Mel, maybe if you ditched that awful maroon turtle neck, and got a toupee for your bald head, you'd get some more customers.

  "What do you have against turtlenecks?" Mel asked.

  "Mel, it's springtime."

  Mel laughed. "Theo, I'm Middle Eastern, I'm used to the desert and I like it hot. You're one to be talking about people's appearances considering you're wearing your usual black jeans and shirt. Do you ever change your clothes?"

  "Good point. Hey Mel, have you seen Mike or Joanie lately? I stopped by their place to say hello, but they're not home and they usually are on the weekends."

  Mel shook his head. "Nope. They were in here last week I think."

  "Hmm. Weird."

  "So what brings you back into Detroit, 'mister suburbs?' Too boring in your new neighborhood?"

  Theo frowned at Mel, "Yeah. That's how bad it was in my new place. I came here to see your sorry ass."

  "Remind me why I never banned you from my store again?"

  Before Theo could fire back with a witty retort, there was a loud bang coming from the outside of the store. Most likely a car accident. The collision was so violent that it shook the building that Theo and Mel were standing inside.

  Theo ran over to the front doors and saw that it was indeed an accident. A red sedan had veered into the oncoming lane and plowed head-on into a white cargo van. The cargo van appeared to have only minor damage to the hood, but the red sedan looked to be crunched up like a can of soda.

  "Shit. Mel, this is bad, you better call 911," Theo said.

  Mel nodded and reached for the phone near the cash register while Theo ran out of the store to try and assist in any way that he could. The driver of the cargo van stumbled out of his vehicle, a bald burly guy with a long brown beard, he was clutching at his neck and wincing.

  "Hey man, are you okay?" Theo asked the van driver.

  The van driver nodded. "Yeah. I'll be okay. She's not though." Van driver was pointing at the red sedan.

  Theo didn't want to look inside that vehicle and see just how bad it was, but he forced himself to. It was as bad as he imagined; the driver of the sedan, a woman in a dark red pantsuit, her face had smashed into the steering wheel. Theo could see the blood oozing from her nose; the woman's face looked to have been shattered. Theo looked away and assisted the van driver, helping him sit down on the curb.


  Mel emerged from his store and handed a bottle of water to the van driver. "I called 911, an ambulance is on the way."

  Theo noticed that a crowd had started to gather on the other side of the Avenue. "Every damn time, I swear," He scoffed.

  "Yeah, I know. Like they've never seen an accident before," Mel replied.

  Off in the distance, Theo could hear multiple sirens going off in every direction. "Man, what the hell is going on today?"

  "Got that right," The van driver replied. "There's been accidents and stuff all over the place, I was caught in a few traffic jams, and I've got deliveries to make."

  A few blocks down the street to his right, Theo noticed an ambulance was heading towards the three of them with its lights and sirens going off. However, the ambulance sped right past them and continued speeding down Michigan Avenue.

  Theo threw his arms up, "What the hell?!?!"

  "Guess it wasn't our guys," Mel said.

  After a few moments, the ambulance that Mel called arrived and pulled up behind the wrecked sedan. Two paramedics emerged, wheeling a stretcher over to the accident scene.

  Theo ran up to the paramedics and tried to tell them what happened. "Please step aside sir," One of the EMTs told Theo. Theo quickly got out of their way so they could get to work.

  The paramedics managed to pry the driver's side door open from the sedan and pull the woman from her wrecked vehicle. They laid her down on the stretcher, and Theo saw just how bad her face was. Sure enough, it had been shattered. Her face was a mask of dark red blood and her nose was broken in several places. Theo could see her right cheekbone protruding through the flesh. And the woman was unresponsive and not breathing. Theo covered his mouth and looked away, he didn't want to start puking all over himself. Then, there was another car wreck. It was too far down the avenue for them to see exactly what had happened, but it looked like a car had wrapped itself around a telephone pole.

  The noise from the accident seemed to have jostled the woman from the sedan awake. Her eyes opened and she moved her head from side to side. Sedan woman's eyes were a murky, beige color.

  "Ma'am?" One of the EMTs asked her.

  The woman emitted some kind of a shrill growl and then reached up, grabbing the paramedic by his shoulders and bit down into the right side of his throat.

  "Holy shit!" The paramedic screamed out in agony. "Get her off of me!"

  The other EMT and Theo managed to pry the woman away but not She had taken a sizeable chunk out of the paramedic's neck. Blood began pouring out of the wound in the side of his throat. He clutched at his neck and fell down face first in Michigan Avenue near the van driver. The EMT was writhing around in pain, and gasping for air.

  The sedan woman flailed around wildly, trying to wrest herself free from Theo and the other paramedic. The woman kept trying to bite at Theo's fingers. The two men had no choice but to throw her down to the ground.

  "What the fuck is your problem lady?!" Theo shouted at the woman. The woman replied by letting out another one of those shrill yells and charged towards Theo. Thinking on his feet, Theo sidestepped the woman. She tripped on the curb and fell down face first onto the sidewalk, and then struggled to get back to her feet.

  "Is she drunk or high? Or both?" Theo asked the paramedic.

  "Um, guys?" The van driver called out to the others. The paramedic that had been bitten had stopped moving around. He just lay there face down in the road in a puddle of his own blood; dead.

  Theo looked around for the other EMT that had just been standing next to him. He saw that the paramedic had gotten back into the ambulance and prepared to leave the scene.

  "Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Theo yelled at the paramedic.

  The EMT didn't even acknowledge Theo, he just sped away in reverse and then spun the ambulance around, and began flying down the avenue.

  "He just left?" A stunned Mel asked Theo.

  Theo nodded, "Yeah."

  The paramedic didn't get too far down the road, however. A pickup truck came barreling down a nearby side street. To Theo, it looked like there were a few people in the bed of the truck, and a couple more latched onto the sides of the vehicle. They trying to get at the driver. The truck plowed right into the side of the ambulance, forcing the ambulance onto its side and sliding to the other end of the avenue, coming to a stop on the sidewalk. An innocent bystander had just ducked out of the way before he could be crushed by the ambulance.

  "I don't believe this shit!" Mel yelled.

  "Mel, I think we-" Before Theo could finish his statement, there was a loud boom that shook the street. Rising up from the top of the stores on the other side of Michigan Avenue was a bright orange fireball.

  "We have to get off this damn street," The van driver said.

  Before the van driver could get to his feet, the bitten paramedic that had died mere seconds beforehand, shot up and grabbed the van driver's left arm and bit down into the driver's forearm area. The van driver tried to pull away but the EMT had a firm grip and managed to pull the van driver down to the ground. Theo and Mel ran to try and help van driver but they were cut off by sedan woman. She lunged forward and grabbed Theo by his shoulders.

  Theo kept the woman at bay as she tried to lean in to bite at Theo's neck. "Mel, help me out here!"

  Mel grabbed the woman from behind by her waist and tossed her aside. The woman slammed into the wall of Mel's store and then fell onto her back on the sidewalk.

  There was the sound of screeching tires coming from down the avenue. A blue minivan tried to slow down right before it crashed into the front windows of the laundromat a block away from the dollar store.

  "Let's get inside," Theo told Mel.

  "I heard that!" Mel answered. "Enough of this shit."

  The two men tried to get back into the shop when gunfire rang out from down the block. Theo felt the bullets whiz by his head as he dropped down to the ground. Theo looked up and saw a man walking down the sidewalk with some type of a pistol in his right hand, firing at somebody. Theo and Mel didn't know if he was firing at them, or someone near them.

  "Don't shoot!" Theo and Mel both shouted at the gunman. The man continued to head in their direction with his pistol drawn.

  When the gunman was crossing the street, he was quickly surrounded by three more people. Two of them bit down into both sides of the gunman's neck. He was dragged down to the middle of the road and his attackers quickly began tearing into the guy. He kicked and squealed for a few moments before dying right there in the street.

  Mel began to help Theo up from the sidewalk when Sedan woman reached out and grabbed the back of Mel's left leg and bit down into his calf. Mel shrieked out in agony and then fell down to the sidewalk. Sedan woman then jumped onto Mel's back and bit down into his right shoulder. Mel kicked wildly at sedan woman, trying to get her off of him. Theo got to his feet and grabbed Sedan woman by the back of her shirt and threw her off of his friend. She stumbled for a bit and then fell down in Michigan Avenue. She rose to her feet and snarled at Theo, baring her teeth at him. Theo could see bits of bloody flesh in Sedan woman's teeth.

  Theo put his hands out in front of him, "Look, lady, just calm-"

  A speeding semi truck ran over the woman. The vehicle didn't stop, it kept on barreling down Michigan Avenue. Theo stood there, staring at the crumpled heap of flesh and bones that were left behind by Sedan Woman. Sedan Woman's shattered face shot up from the street, she looked right at Theo, reaching for him with a badly mangled right hand. Most of the woman's fingers were bent and broken in a hideous fashion. The woman began to crawl toward Theo very slowly.

  "Theo," Mel managed to spit out from the sidewalk.

  "Shit, Mel," Theo muttered.

  Mel was laying face up on the sidewalk, looking at the sky. "You have to get out of here."

  "Come on, we have to get inside."

  Theo tried to lift Mel up from the sidewalk, but Mel could hardly put any weight on his injured right leg. Mel collapsed back down to
the sidewalk.

  "Shit!" Theo screamed out in frustration.

  Another explosion. This time coming from a few blocks behind the buildings on Theo's side of the avenue caused Theo to fall down to the ground. Theo could feel the heat from the fireball as it rose up from behind Mel's shop. Somewhat dazed, Theo looked at his surroundings. A block away, people were being dragged out of some of the shops and bars and being attacked. Across Michigan Avenue, Theo watched as someone with another pistol fired several rounds into the midsection of a person, and yet that individual didn't even stop, they just kept charging, wrestling the gunman to the ground and ripping at them.

  Theo watched as a black SUV came speeding past the store, swerving in between all four lanes. On the hood of the vehicle, one of the "crazies" as Theo started to call them, had a firm grip on the hood of the truck. Another two were on the roof. The driver did their best to try and shake the lunatics, but they wouldn't budge. The driver lost all control of the SUV and drove up onto the curb, crashing into the corner of the nearby bank. Theo shook the cobwebs loose and got back to his feet.

  All around him sirens blared, alarms sounded, and gunshots rang out. Theo could smell the smoke from the burning buildings nearby. Then, Theo felt something grabbing his right foot. It was Mel. Theo pulled his leg away as his friend tried to reach out and grab him.

  "Mel, are you okay?" Theo asked.

  Mel looked up from the sidewalk, his eyes were that exact same color as the woman from the sedan. He grunted and snarled at Theo as he crawled towards him. Theo took a few steps backward and looked over to his left. The dead paramedic was now tearing apart Van driver's chest, ripping and biting at the man's flesh. Theo knew he had to get out of there. The only thing that flashed in his mind was, "Home."

  Theo knew that area like the back of his hand. He took one last look at Mel crawling towards him, then he turned around and ran down the block, ducking into the alleyway that ran behind all of the buildings that lined Michigan Avenue. Theo stopped behind a nearby dumpster to catch his breath. He could hear all of the chaos going on back at the avenue. Theo peered over the top of the dumpster and saw Mel stumbling to his feet, looking for someone to tear into. Theo ducked back down in case he was spotted and then scurried into the adjoining alleyway. Theo could take that alley almost all the way to his car and then he'd be able to get out of there. Theo began to run.

 

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