by Angel Ramon
The two hug each other for a minute. Considering they’ve known each other for years, it’s worth it. George leaves the precinct once again feeling a combination of sadness and guilt. When he gets back to Elaine’s car, she drives off immediately towards the Port Authority of New York City.
Chapter 2
After driving from the 104th precinct, Elaine drives towards the Long Island Expressway and takes it going to Manhattan. After a thirty minute ride, she reaches the expressway. She is actually surprised that it took her little time to get there.
Looking at the sky, only blue skies can be seen. The day is unseasonably cool as well which does make the trip more bearable. After getting on the expressway, the path towards the city is rather smooth with the lack of heavy traffic. Driving through the tollbooth, Elaine drives towards the Midtown Tunnel. Just like the expressway, the drive through the tunnel is nice and smooth as well.
When she gets out of the tunnel, she drives to the west side of Manhattan until she gets to the Port Authority. During the drive, George is mostly quiet as he thinks what he plans to do when he gets out there. He does have a cousin that lives in White Plains that he could crash in for a few days until he can find something permanent.
Going up 34th street, Elaine bypasses Times Square and makes a right turn on Eighth Avenue until she reaches the Port Authority. When she reaches the Port Authority on 42nd street and 8th avenue, George gets out of the car and gets his suitcases.
“Well this is it George I guess.” Elaine says.
“I’ll be back honey. Don’t worry about me. Like I said I’ll call you when I’m ready. Watch your back and whatever you do, don’t tell anybody anything. Don’t even tell even Chief Irons. That bastard can’t be trusted.”
“Don’t worry I won’t say nothing, ok. Are you missing anything, honey?” She asks.
What will George do?
1. Respond by saying no. (Passive)
2. Respond by not kissing her in fears of her husband. (Neutral)
3. Go for broke and kiss Elaine. (Aggressive)
You have chosen option #2
“I know what you mean, but I know your husband works out here. He might be watching, so I rather not try anything funny.” George answers.
“That’s true. He works in the building behind me. Oh well, once the divorce is finalized I’ll be a free cougar. Don’t forget about me, my dear lion. Rawr!” Elaine replies.
The two of them hug each other. Elaine tries to sneak a kiss to George’s lips, but he stops her to her disappointment. George grabs his suitcases and walks inside of the bus terminal. Elaine can only watch as her lover leaves her. While she tears up, she quickly wipes them away and walks back to her car.
Inside the bus terminal, George buys a one-way ticket to White Plains and waits in the lobby. While waiting for the bus to arrive, he thinks about what he’ll do when he gets to White Plains. Ideally, he wants to be close to where the mystery woman resides. Then he remembers that he has a cousin that is a few blocks from where she lives.
“I’m sure my cousin will let me stay with her, but eventually I’ll have to find a place. If I’m lucky I’ll strike a place next to the mystery woman. Then again, she did tell me to not go chasing her right away. Could it be that Hybrid is tracking her already? I better approach this carefully. For all I know, it might be a trap.” He thinks in his head.
Despite thinking of possibilities in his head, George knows he’s got little choice in the manner. After thinking things over, an announcement is made over the loudspeaker.
“The bus leaving for White Plains has arrived. Those with tickets, please head to terminal B to board. Thank you.”
After hearing the announcement, he walks through the crowd of people towards terminal B. When he arrives at terminal B, the guard looks over his ticket and lets him board the bus. Inside the bus, George puts his suitcases inside the storage compartments above the seats. Once he sits down, he waits for the bus driver to begin driving.
Once everybody boards the bus, the bus driver begins to drive off. It’s a bittersweet feeling for George. As much as he needed to get out of Cypress Hills, it’s breaking his heart. He’ll have to prepare for a new life and possibly go by a new alias.
After a two hour drive through heavy traffic, the clock hits four-thirty in the afternoon. George finally arrives at the White Plains bus terminal and leaves the bus. The bus terminal is not too far from the center of White Plains where his cousin lives. Instead of grabbing a cab, he saves his money and walks. He makes a stop at a diner and decides to have an early dinner in case his cousin has nothing to eat.
After finishing his early dinner, he walks towards the center of town until he hears someone screaming.
“Help!” A male can be heard.
George hears the screaming from an alley and decides to head in that direction just in case. He has his pistol holstered and ready to pull out. As he walks through the alley, he sees a male robbing and mugging an African American male at knifepoint. George doesn’t want to use his gun fearing there might be witnesses around. George places his suitcases next to some trash cans. Attempting to sneak behind the mugger, the thug turns around spotting him.
“What do you want, old man or are you trying to piss me off?” The thug asks as the victim is able to run away.
“Oh hell no! He got away. You just cost me my payday, you bastard!” The thug shouts.
“Payday? So you’re saying you make your living robbing people. What a shame because you look like a smart young man. Who put you up to this?”
“Who are you supposed to be, wise guy?”
“Just a regular hard working citizen who pays his taxes and lives the honest life, unlike some people…” George is cut off by the thug.
“You know what, you talk too much! You might be old, but it looks like you haven’t learned shit brotha! You’re about to learn a lesson the hard way.”
“Go ahead, rob me. It seems that’s all your parents taught you.” George says before being pushed to the floor.
George pulls out his wallet and hands it to the thug. The thug begins to count the money.
“Twenty, forty, fifty… Fifty lousy bucks! Yo homie, you’re a broke ass. You ain't got no money, you pay with your ass!”
“You got fifty dollars for five minutes’ work. That adds up to $600 an hour. I gotta say that’s a lot of money.”
“What are you, some kind of wiseass?”
“I’m just saying that you could make fifty dollars by helping an old lady out or working for the sanitation department.”
“You know you talk too much! I’m done with your ass!” The thug shouts ready to stab George.
The thug attempts to thrust his knife towards George, but he is able to sidestep the attack. George grabs the thug’s hand that is carrying the knife and twists it. The knife falls on the floor as the thug screams in pain as he kneels on the floor. When the thug gets up, he kicks him down to the floor and pulls out his silencer.
“Wait homie, what do you think you’re gonna do with that?” The thug asks.
“I don’t know, whatever I feel like doing. You should have thought of this possibility before you started your career as a thief. Now I’m the one with the gun.” George says with an evil smile.
“Yo homie, let me go. I can promise myself that I will change.”
What will George do?
1. Let the thug go. (Passive)
2. Shoot the thug in the leg. (Neutral)
3. Kill the thug with a headshot. (Aggressive)
You have chosen option #1
“Kid, I don’t believe you one bit. However, I’ll spare you. Just consider yourself lucky that this vigilante is not in his hometown.”
“Oh… thank you, thank you. I’ll stop and try to find a job, ok?”
“That’s more like it.”
“Ok old man, you can put the gun down.”
“Give me back my wallet fool. I’m not letting you keep my fifty dollars.”
The thug hands George back his fifty dollars.
“Now get out of here and don’t let me catch you robbing somebody else, or else.” George warns the thug.
Once he gets his wallet back and sees the thug running for his life, he heads to the trash cans to pick up his suitcases. Walking out of the alley, he continues on the journey to his cousin’s house.
Walking up North Oakland Ave, George continues to walk simply keeping to himself despite everybody looking at him funny. After walking for five more minutes, he finally makes it to his cousin’s house. He rings the bell and his cousin opens the door.
“George? What a surprise! I wasn’t expecting company. Come on in.” His cousin says in shock.
“I thought I would come to see you, Catherine and catch up.” He replies.
Catherine lives a few blocks from the White Plains town center. She owns a small one family colonial style house that is white with tan moldings. Her lawn is freshly cut and inside it seems to be well organized, unlike his house. Entering the house, George places his suitcases by the front door and heads to the living room.
Catherine had blond hair and is close to six feet in height. Her weight is normal for a woman her height. She is rather soft-spoken in nature and gets emotional easily. She is in her mid-forties but looks like she’s in her thirties. George considers Catherine his favorite cousin despite the distance between them.
“Make yourself at home George. So what brings you out here? Looks like you’ll be here for a few days if I’m correct.” Catherine says.
“I wanted to see how you were doing since your husband died a few months ago in that car accident. How are you taking it?” George asks.
“I’m taking it the best I can. As painful as it was to lose my husband, something was strange about that accident.”
“How so?”
“It was a four car pile up. That part might not be strange, but he was in the middle of the New York State Thruway close to Albany.”
“What was he doing all the way there?”
“He was an art dealer and was selling at an art show that was in the Albany area. Anyway, when the police came to survey the crash, my husband was not in the car. When they went to look for him, they went MIA. Days later the Thruway was closed and I didn’t hear anything about my husband. Then I got a phone call from the police saying they sent in another team to find my husband. I got the worst news possible…”
“He was dead?”
“It was worse than that George. They had found him along with the police officers that were with him with bite marks all over the place. What’s worst, they were all mutilated. At one point, the officers suggested that it was a case of cannibalism. I refused to believe it. However, they found two dead bodies on the road that were struck by the first car in the pileup.” She begins to tear up and becomes breathless.
“You’re ok, breathe… breathe. You don’t have to say no more if you don’t want to.” He says comforting her.
“It’s ok, it’s just hard to say. I owe you an explanation though.” She says while she calms down from her panic attack.
Once she calms down completely, she continues saying, “The bodies that were found hit by the first car had purplish/bluish veins. Very strange colors for veins, not to mention they were sticking out like a sore thumb. Their skin was crispy to the touch as well. I suspect they might be zombies as I believe in the undead, but I can’t be too sure. I do say it might make a great zombie book one day I reckon.”
When he hears the description of the purplish veins, his face turns white realizing that is the same symptoms of the Raven Hawk virus. He quickly believes that Hybrid already has a substation in Upstate New York and they are trying to capture Westchester County. He doesn’t tell his cousin what he knows fearing she might faint or kick him out of the house.
“Are you ok George? You look like you saw a ghost or something.”
“Sorry, just that story is creepy.”
“I understand. I still say my husband never died of a crash, yet that is what is being reported. The officer told me he cannot change the cause of death for an unknown reason. So, here I am living the widowed life. What brings you here?”
“I was wondering if I could stay here for a couple of days. I’ll be looking for a more permanent place, don’t worry. You see, my boss sent me up here for an interview with a Hybrid Corporation supervisor. Hybrid is interested in building a second headquarters here in White Plains.”
“That sounds great, imagine the number of jobs coming to White Plains. Hybrid is supposed to be the company that cures cancer. I do question them though. After all, those poor people died in the hospital due to a bad reaction to the Raven Hawk. At least that is what I heard. I also heard the Raven Hawk was a failure or it might have been vanity.”
“I heard the same thing. Accident or not, I believe Hybrid has a long road to building their reputation back.”
“George, you can stay here as long as you need to, ok? My house is your house.” Catherine replies.
“Aww, that is why you’re my favorite cousin. I am looking for a place though, so I promise to leave when I can. I’m gonna be here for a while, for work of course.” George responds.
“No worries.”
“If you say that, how about making your cousin his favorite, bacon with home fries tomorrow.”
“I should have known you were going to ask that. You got it!” She laughs afterward.
After making himself at home, he gets a phone call on his flip phone. It’s Sean Callahan telling him that the interview will be in two days. The conversation is short and doesn’t last more than a minute. He and Catherine spend the rest of the night catching up on old times before the day is over.
July 14th, 2007
After spending a day with his cousin, he gets up preparing himself for the interview with the supervisor. Putting on his gray suit and tie along with his black dress pants, he hails a cab. The meeting will take place in the White Plains police station where the chief will be in attendance to make sure nothing happens.
Getting into the cab, he thinks about the questions he’ll ask him. For some reason, he can’t get Catherine’s story out of his mind. He can’t help but think that Hybrid is already one step ahead of him. When he arrives at the police station, he is greeted by the supervisor.
“Terry Bonds?” The supervisor asks.
“Yeah, that’s me, a pleasure to meet you.” The two shake hands.
The supervisor is an obese Italian man who is in his lower 50’s. He has a deep voice and seems to be all business. As George walks through the hallway, he is met by the chief who is named Chief John Mustang. The chief doesn’t follow him and simply stays outside of the room guarding it. George and the supervisor both enter the room. The two sit on a table in the conference room and George begins the interview.
“Let me cut to the chase as we get the interview started. Where do you intend to build this second headquarters?” George asks.
“We intend to build it in the White Plains area. Ideally, we want to build it in the town center to maximize the number of jobs we attract. Right now we’re in the middle of finding a spot, so I’m afraid that is all I can tell you.”
“Sounds good. Now, do you know what will be taking place in the facility? What I mean is, are you researching, distributing products, or is this your marketing division?”
“Good question Mr. Bonds. We intend on this being our distribution and marketing center for the east coast. Most of our research is being done in our headquarters in California. We don’t want to expose the residents here to the chemicals we use to make our products.”
“Ok next question. Who will be funding this project and is the city of White Plains paying you in incentives to put this up?”
“We will be paying for the project. It will cost the taxpayers nothing. I’m sure that was your main concern if I’m correct.”
“Yes, but you didn’t answer the second part of the question.”
“Sorry,
as for White Plains, they are providing us space. We’re in constant negotiations with them. Right now, everything is in the early stages.”
“Very well, next question. What are your thoughts about what happened at Woodhull Hospital?” George decides to throw a curveball question.
“I can’t say much since I wasn’t there. All I can say is that I send my condolences to all those who died. I will maintain that there was no foul play on our behalf and if anything does trace back to us it was an accident. We were in a partnership with Woodhull and were trying to distribute our vaccine to the point where people can easily obtain it, especially those with cancer.”
George thinks about the next question to ask.
What will George ask?
1. Ask him the remaining question on his ‘list’. (Passive)
2. Ask him another company related question. (Neutral)
3. Put the pressure by asking about the Raven Hawk virus. (Aggressive)
You have chosen option 3.
“Do you believe that the Raven Hawk ‘vaccine’ is a failure?”
“Sir, I think that question might be a bit touchy and I respectfully decline to answer.”
“Why is that? Is it because it really is a failure or is it because people died in the hospital and the Raven Hawk was unable to save those people.”
“Next question please!” The supervisor becomes irate.
“No problem, moving on…” George says.
He asks the remaining questions on the list Sean gave him and the interview is over. As he shakes his hands, he can tell the supervisor is unhappy. When he leaves the room, he leaves the police station leaving with some answers.
Walking to the diner that is across the street, George decides to quell his bacon obsession and grab a bacon cheeseburger with a side of loaded French fries that comes with cheese and bacon.
As he’s eating, someone taps him in the back. When he turns around, he sees that it’s his childhood friend, Scott. Scott is around the same age as George and they used to go to school together. Despite fighting for females along the way, George grew up with Scott like he was his brother.
