"I think he just wants to make sure you’re OK. And that you’re not going to sue for spending all night in a holding cell with a maniac."
Kim looked so cool in her police uniform. It was only last year that she finished high school and now here she was looking totally badass. For the brief time that I’d known Kim I’d always admired her. She's super strong and fit. Plus she’s not intimidated by anyone. All of a sudden my mind shows me an 80’s action-movie style montage of Kim working out at a gym, walking her dog, rocking climbing, picking out a ripe avocado in the fresh food section of the grocery store, catching a Frisbee. I forced myself to snap out of it. I think the sleep deprivation was making me a little loopy.
A moment later, an older, extremely over weight man entered the room and sat down next to Kim. He didn’t look anywhere near as good as Kim did in her uniform. The buttons on his shirt were under enormous strain and he had sweat stains under his arms. There was no montage for him playing in my head. If there was it would only have consisted of him sitting on a lazy boy, eating nachos off of his gut, spilling guacamole on the floor, whistling to his dog to come and clean up the mess. He looked at me then, he even raised his eyebrows as if to say, "Well? Where’s my 80’s action-movie style montage?"
I suddenly felt light headed.
"OK kiddies," the Sergeant said. "We're not here to play good cop, bad cop. We just need to get some details on record and then you can go home."
I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew we hadn’t really broken any laws.
"My name is Sergeant Karl Pearce. And you already know this young lady."
Maria started to cry.
"Miss, please calm down," The Sergeant said as he rolled his eyes. "We’re not here to lecture you about the underage drinking or yell at you for breaking curfew or anything like that. Frankly, we’ve got bigger things to deal with right now."
Lecture us, I thought? We were the ones left in the holding cell for like forty-eight hours. I wanted to ask him if that was even legal. But I didn't. I guess I was chicken.
Maria kept on crying. She had her head lowered and her shoulders hunched forward. But to my surprise she was the one who confronted the Sergeant. "Why did you take so long? Why did you leave us in there?" she asked through a mess of tears.
Even then, even despite the little bit of snot running down her nose she still looked beautiful. "We were attacked by that man," she continued. "He could've hurt us, he could've done anything."
"Look, we’re sorry about that. But as you know the National Quarantine has put enormous pressure on our resources. Trust me, with all the looting and riots out there, prison is the safest place to be right now."
This piece of news did not comfort Maria at all. She actually started to cry harder, wailing to the point where she couldn’t breathe properly. "Safe! We could've been killed!"
Jack sat forward in his chair. "Kim, she’s just tired. I think she just wants to go home."
I was surprised that Jack was so calm at this point, especially since he was the one who was actually attacked.
The Sergeant looked at Kim and pinched the bridge of his nose. I guess he hadn’t dealt with too many hysterical teenage girls during his career. Before he had a chance to gain some experience in this field the intercom beeped.
"Sergeant Pearce?"
The big man leant over the intercom and spoke unnecessarily close to the receiver. "Yes, Dennis. What do you need?"
"Sorry to interrupt but Lieutenant Smith of the US Marines is here to talk to you. He said you’ve been expecting him? He's here to collect the soldier we picked up last night."
The Sergeant took his finger off the intercom button. "About bloody time. Bloody yanks. Haven’t even been here a week and they think they run the joint."
He pushed the intercom button back in and composed himself. "Copy that. I’ll be out in a second. Tell him to have a seat."
"Yes, sir. Oh and sir?" The man on the other end lowered his voice to a whisper. "There’s an issue in solitary."
"What do you mean?"
"That lady, the one we picked up drink driving? Well, she’s acting weird."
"She's an alcoholic, Dennis. What do you expect?"
"You better come and have a look."
The Sergeant took his finger back off the intercom button and stood up. "Bloody hell. Can someone please tell me why Dennis can never do anything for himself? What do they even teach you kids at the academy these days?"
Kim nodded her head in agreement. "It’s an outrage, Sir."
Sergeant Pearce straightened his tie as best he could. "Finish up here would you? Make it quick."
"Yes, Sir."
The Sergeant waddled out of the room. It was quite a site watching someone of that size move.
Kim waited until the Sergeant had left before apologizing. "Sorry about that. He’s having a bad day."
"He's having a bad day?" I asked.
"Kim, just get us the hell out of here," Jack said.
"OK, well since Maria's parents are out of town you should probably take her home," Kim said to Jack. "I'll call dad."
"Do you have to?" Jack protested. "Can’t you just take us home?"
"No. We're way too busy."
"Please don't call them," Jack pleaded. "They still think I'm at Maria's. Just let us walk home. They won't even have to know."
"Jack, you're all minors. I'm not allowed to let you to just walk out. I’d lose my job. And besides you do not want to be walking the streets right now. People are looting and rioting everywhere. Grocery stores, pharmacies, liquor stores. It's getting pretty damn crazy out there."
Jack banged his head on the table.
"What are you worried about? Dad won't even care. He'll be happy to know that you guys are OK. You know what he's like. His bark is worse than his bite."
"Yeah maybe with you. We both know you’re his favorite."
"Whatever. I’m still calling him," she said as she picked up the phone. She punched in a few numbers before stopping. "That’s weird." She put the phone on the receiver and picked it back up. "What the hell? There’s no dial tone."
She put the phone back on the receiver and checked her mobile. "The network is down." She then tried her radio but it was full of static. She tried the phone again but it was no good.
"Stay here. I’ll have to use one of the phones in the office," she said as she was looking at the reception bars on her phone, moving it around to see if that would make any difference.
Before she could leave, there was a loud bang that came from somewhere in the building. A bang that sounded oddly like a gunshot.
Kim looked up from her phone.
The angry scowl on Maria’s face morphed into a look of fear. She stopped crying. "What was that?"
"Maybe it was a car back firing?" Jack said. "Like a really old car?"
Another bang. This time it sounded louder and closer. Definitely not a car backfiring.
We all held our breath.
I looked at Kim; her eyes were wide and full of confusion.
"Was that what I think it was?" I said.
"Shh." She held her hand up to keep us quiet. She stood slowly. She unclipped the gun holster on her belt with her other hand.
I gripped the sides of my chair. A police station was the last place you expected to hear gunshots.
She took a few cautious steps towards the one and only door to the room. "Guys, I want you to move to the other side of the table. Stay as low as possible."
We did exactly as she said.
Kim moved closer to the door. She reached for the door handle. Someone screamed in pain from the other side. This was followed by three more gunshots in quick succession. There was another scream of pain and someone else yelled, "Get down!"
Kim jumped a good five meters back from the door and drew her gun.
The door burst open.
Sergeant Pearce fell into the room ass backwards. Officer Dennis ran in after him clutching his baton. He was covered in blood.
They were both out of breath.
A United States soldier followed them in, bringing up the rear. It was Kenji. He had a rifle in one hand and was carrying a wounded soldier on his other arm.
Kenji had the rifle raised and ready as he walked backwards through the door. His movements were calm and methodical. Once he was sure it was safe, he lowered his rifle and lowered the soldier, carefully placing his head on the ground. He then slammed the door shut and put his full weight against it.
The wounded soldier had his eyes closed, but kept repeating over and over, "The Lieutenant is dead, man. He’s dead. Call for back up."
Chapter 9
The interrogation room was getting crowded and because of the one way mirror it looked like there was two of everyone.
Sergeant Pearce was frantic. "Jesus Christ, Dennis! How did she get out?"
Officer Dennis was holding the side of his neck. The front of his uniform was completely covered in blood. "She went crazy. She just," he paused. He looked like he was going to throw up. "She attacked me."
Kenji was leaning heavily against the door with his shoulder. He had his ear up to the door, listening. The wounded soldier was lying down in the corner. He looked like he was in bad shape. It looked like he had several bullet wounds to his chest and stomach.
Sergeant Pearce was still trying to catch his breath. "What do you mean she attacked you? How did she get free?"
"I don’t know! It was like she ripped her hands out of the cuffs."
"You’ve got to be kidding."
"I swear to you I’m being serious. Then she lunged at me. I hit her with the baton but she didn’t even seem to notice. She didn’t even put her hands up to protect herself. She just kept coming. I made a run for it. I made it back to the front office and that’s when I saw Lieutenant Smith struggling with that other guy we’d brought in. The Lieutenant must have tripped at some point. The suspect was on top of him before I could get there."
Kenji looked at Officer Dennis. "Whose blood are you covered in?"
Dennis looked at his shirt. It was only then he realized it was completely red. "I’m not sure." He looked himself over, checking his arms. His hands were trembling. "I think it’s hers. She was bleeding from the mouth and nose. It was messed up."
"This is crazy!" yelled Sergeant Pearce. "I shot her right in the chest and she didn’t even flinch!"
"It’s gotta be a psychotic episode right?" Kim offered. "Like, a drug induced psychotic episode. Addicts that get messed up on meth and crack, they go completely mad, they don’t feel pain, they just go crazy. That’s the only explanation right?"
From the corner, Jack asked, "How come this guy is shot?"
"Friendly fire from the Lieutenant," Kenji said. "When that woman attacked, the Lieutenant tried to get some shots off. He was caught in the cross fire."
"Is he going to make it?’
There was no reply.
It was a weird feeling being in the same room as a soldier that was in all probability, bleeding to death from multiple gunshot wounds. We usually only heard about this kind of thing on the news. But here it was, happening right here, right in front of us.
At this point I was still crouched behind the table. Jack was crouching next to me and Maria was holding onto Jack. She had completely stopped crying. "Jack, we need to call your parents and get the hell out of here," she whispered.
"So what happened to the Lieutenant?" Sergeant Pearce asked as he struggled to get to his feet. Kim moved over to help the big man stand up.
"I tried to help." Dennis said. "I tried to stop them. But that guy was already on top of him. And once the woman saw the Lieutenant on the ground she stopped chasing me and..." he trailed off. "They were too fast!" His voice was breaking.
"Jesus Christ! So Lieutenant Smith could be bleeding to death for all we know."
"We have to go out there," Kim said.
Kenji shook his head. "That’s not a good idea."
"Excuse me?" Sergeant Pearce asked. "Why the hell not?"
"It’s too dangerous. We’re going to need help."
"I think the four of us can handle two drugged out psychos." Kim said.
Sergeant Pearce pulled a hanky out of his pocket and wiped his forehead. He was leaning up against the large mirror, breathing heavily. He looked like he was going to have a heart attack. "So what you’re saying is, you think we should just sit tight and wait for back up while your Lieutenant bleeds to death out there?"
Before Kenji could answer Pearce, a loud animalistic moan reverberated through the tiny room. Someone started banging on the other side of the one way mirror. For a fleeting split second I thought maybe it was the Lieutenant banging on the mirror for help. But I guess everyone sort of knew it wasn’t the Lieutenant. I guess everyone already knew who or what it was.
"Pearce!" Kim shouted. "Get away from the mirror!"
It was too late.
The crazy lady smashed through the glass, cutting her arms and her face to shreds. But she didn’t seem to care. She was hysterical and frothing red saliva. Her mouth and chin were covered in blood. She grabbed the big Sergeant around his neck and pulled him up and over into the adjacent room. There’s no way one little alcoholic lady should’ve been able to lift a man that size off his feet.
