The Dead Circle (8 page)

“Get it. We need to make sure all the doors and windows are locked.”

Chris looks back at her with a quizzical expression.

“Do. It.”

He does. The doors were already locked of course, but Chris locks all of the windows. At Sarah’s insistence, though it makes little sense to Chris, he even locks the windows on the second floor. While he goes up and down the stairs, still holding his hockey stick, Sarah works feverishly on her laptop searching for more information. None of the local news sites have been updated since sometime early yesterday evening. There are a couple of reports of some sort of nude protest taking place downtown, but the stories seem vague and half-written. The national sites are filled with the latest political nonsense and a story about Putin’s latest shirtless photos, but there are no stories about Detroit.

“There’s nothing about it anywhere. It doesn’t make any sense. The only thing that’s weird is that some of the locals have stories about some sort of nude protest.”

Chris pokes his head over the balcony railing. “Nude? Awesome! Let’s see the pictures!”

“Easy cowboy. There aren’t any. It just says stay tuned for more info, but they never followed up.”

Disappointed, Chris continues to check the window locks. “Maybe somebody posted something on Facebook?”

***

Through the night, the circle of exposed bodies has grown immensely. Ten thousand became a hundred thousand, expanding every minute as more and more of the population of Detroit is exposed, transformed, and called by some primitive instinct to join the horde.

The crowd is so large and dense that it’s hard to distinguish individual people. The lot has taken on the appearance of an enormous flesh-colored storm system rotating like a hurricane. And like a hurricane, there is an eye in the center where the ground is still exposed, creating a single perfectly round spot of untouched earth. In this circle of patchy grass and pavement, a single red sneaker sits undisturbed and ignored.

There is a strange order to the human storm. The circle rotates at an almost mathematically consistent pace around a single axis. Its sheer size creates a hypnotic, dizzying motion, as if the entire city was on a turn-table. It looks like the people of Detroit have created a second small planet slowly revolving in opposition to the earth.

The sense of symmetry created by the steady rotation of the perfect circle is shattered by the chaos of the individuals within. Each naked figure’s intermittently spasming limbs constantly hit, shove or trip one another. It looks like a riot, teeming with angry elbows, fists and feet. Yet the fighting is slow-motion and the individuals are not responding to each other. One person hitting another does not cause a retaliation, or a reaction of any kind.

There is no cause and effect—the people are merely taking random actions. Chris would say they look like video game characters controlled by someone who was just mashing random buttons—like a mom trying to play Mortal Combat.

All the unclothed people might appear sexy from afar—so much naked flesh—it’s an unbridled bacchanalia of skin. There are no rules, just a massive collection of people devoid of modesty, boundaries or inhibitions on a scale unrivaled by even the greatest of Roman orgies. But the titillation breaks down on closer inspection. There is no passion or enjoyment on their faces. Just blank, lifeless expressions and empty white eyes. They are merely bodies in motion, moving flesh. It is not sex, it is horror.

And the bodies are already beginning to break down. People, who had been mostly sedentary for their human lives, begin to show their fragility. Feet unaccustomed to walking over anything other than grass or carpeting are being damaged by the unforgiving pavement. Without the protection of shoes, they are becoming raw and beginning to blister. Corns wear down to soft skin and the soft skin bruises and cracks. Then they start to bleed.

Shirley’s body has been walking barefoot for nine hours. The soles of her feet are cut in multiple places and are being slowly eroded by the asphalt, glass, dirt and trash. The toenail of her left big toe was torn back when she stepped on the edge of a curb. Her pinkie toe shattered when it was stomped on by another nameless foot. No longer able to hold its shape, it flops lazily like a deflated balloon every time she takes a step. Shirley would be in excruciating agony if she still felt pain. She should be hobbled and exhausted. But she is still upright.

Many in the horde have not been as lucky. Hundreds of the weaker bodies—the elderly, the children—lost their footing and have been trampled. Endless rows of feet mash the fallen into pieces. The pieces mix with dirt and debris to form slippery patches of a horrible paste.

***

Chris finishes his sweep of the building and pours himself a glass of water from the kitchen sink. Taking the stairs back into the library, he discovers Sarah staring dumbfounded at her computer. All the lights are now on. When she looks up and sees Chris holding the water, her eyes widen and her hands unconsciously grip the side of the table. She speaks slowly and clearly, almost in a monotone.

“Chris. Put down the water.”

“Huh?”

“The glass of water. Put it down and step away from it.”

“What are you talking about? It’s just water.”

“Chris! Fucking listen to me! Put down the goddamned water!” She’s shouting, finally having lost her cool.

Chris slowly and carefully puts down the glass, giving Sarah the ‘you’re losing your mind, but I’m going to calmly and nicely take care of you until you take your meds’ face.

“OK. Water is down. What’s going on?”

“Did you drink any of it?”

“No?”

“Did you touch the water at any point?”

“I don’t think so? Why?”

“Thank God. It might just be a hoax and I’m overreacting. I hope that’s what it is, but I think there’s some sort of contagion in the water. I think that’s what’s going on.”

“What kind of contagion?”

“I don’t know but they say it’s apparently super dangerous.”

“Who’s
they
?”

“People on Facebook.”

Chris releases a relieved breath. “Oh. The great titans of medicine and journalism on Facebook. Well why didn’t you say so?”

Exasperated, but unwilling to be pulled into an argument, Sarah plops her husband down in front of her computer. He reads her Facebook feed:

Doug Cartman: What happened to the TV? Do the stars really dance if I can’t see them?

Becky Dawson: Lions are totally going to win. Tom Brady is so overrated.

Paige Brewer: DON’T TOUCH THE WATER IN DETROIT! Tom’s National Guard unit just got activated. They told him the water is contaminated! We’re being quarantined! Not a joke.

Adam Smith: For real? Are you kidding?

David Spacey: Hoax.

Becky Ulmer: Has anybody been able to reach anyone in the city? Carl’s phone just rings and rings. Does anybody know if there’s an outage or something?

Alan Carrol: I hear there are naked people downtown! Why wasn’t I invited to the party?

Patty Granger: Leave it to you to be the first to know…

Arlene Carrol: I’m pretty sure he has a Google alert for #nude.

Nina Venet: Just heard a rumor that we should avoid the water. #Detroitwaterconaminated #sowhatelseisnew

Ken Wojciechowski: Uh… a tank just rolled down my street. WTF?!

Ken has posted a picture of a large green tank rumbling through a neighborhood. The juxtaposition of the huge piece of military hardware on a quiet suburban street—the sheer size of the tank in relation to the Prius parked in the driveway—reminds Chris of old news footage he’d seen from the riots. He frowns and keeps reading. Under the picture:

Sarah Smith, Linnet Frankel, Bob Wojciechowski and 4 other like this.

Michael Lee: Really? No joke?

Ken Wojciechowski: Yeah, they’re on megaphones saying not to leave our house or use the water. They say it’s dangerous.

Tom Helmut: Probably trying to cover-up the poison they’re putting into the sky with con-trails. #repealobamacare

Michael M. Bulston: My Wicked tour heads to Dallas this week. Gonna get me some BBQ! I think I’m on for Boq for the Wednesday matinee. #stagedoorismyfrontdoor #tourlife #workingactor #grateful #productioncontract

Derek Freeman: I think I just heard gunshots. So much for the suburbs being safer.

Christine Winter: Why the f*ck won’t they let me on the highway? Ugh…

Scott Wolvington: My puppy just pooped on the couch. #adorable

Trig Roland: Look at my hamburger! It is magnificent! Look at it!

Chris looks up from the laptop. “Sarah, it’s just internet rumors. Sure the picture of the tank is weird, but you know how easy it is to Photoshop something like that.”

“Maybe, but this is what I wanted to show you.”

Kelly, Sarah’s old college roommate, has posted a link. The headline reads ‘HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MISSING IN DETROIT. GOVERNMENT COVERS UP MYSTERIOUS OUTBREAK.’

Sarah clinks on the link. A blog appears showing a series of photographs of military hardware blocking highways and bridges into Detroit.

“What is this? Some sort of conspiracy blog?” Chris says with more skeptical bravado than he feels. “More con-trail nonsense?”

“I don’t think so. These pictures don’t look fake. Read.”

GOVWATCH readers, we are picking up numerous reports of an unprecedented outbreak and government cover-up in Detroit, Michigan. GOVWATCH has been flooded with pictures and videos of a huge military crackdown surrounding and apparently quarantining the largest city in Michigan.

According to both eyewitness accounts and our own transcripts of police and military-band radio, we are dealing with a virus or parasite causing bizarre effects on people who come in contact with water, either rain or city water. Reports started to taper off significantly after rain started falling over much of Northern Michigan.

If you examine the photos of the military blockades of the bridges and highways around the city, you’ll note one interesting thing. There are plenty of people backed up attempting to get into the city, but only small pockets of citizens are attempting to exit the city. What happened to everybody in Detroit? Where are they?

And lastly, why haven’t you seen this on CNN, Fox News…or any mass media outlet??? Why are all of the Detroit metropolitan TV stations off the air? Why isn’t this outbreak the biggest news story since 9/11? It’s obvious that the government has decided to keep this from its citizens. Why? To avoid panic? To prevent concerned citizens from trying to get into the city and those within the city from breaking quarantine? To protect financial interests in the domestic and international stock markets? Only time will tell…

(UPDATE: 8:43 PM) As of this evening we have had two reports that the quarantine is being enforced by any means necessary, up to and including the use of lethal force. In case anybody is confused, that means the United States Government is threatening to kill its own citizens. What is going on? GOVWATCH has been attempting to get answers from the ‘authorities’ but we have been ignored.