The Bomb and the Cage: Doree Anne (10 page)

I never could grasp the concept of luck. I guess you could say that luck could never grasp me either. I was thirty-eight and I couldn't remember ever getting a break. Sure, I was alive, that I could be thankful for. However, I was also unemployed and I didn't have but three dollars and seventy-two cents in my pocket. I’ve been trying to find a job for a while now, and besides a few day labor jobs here and there, I was unsuccessful.

When I woke up, I felt confused, a lot more than normal. There was something burning, and it made my stomach rumble. I was hungry and I didn't know where my next meal was going to come from once I spent what little money I did have. In a small town people get to know you a little
too
well. I had a drinking problem. It was only a
problem
because it had cost me everything. At night I laid out by the railroad tracks, stare at the stars and wonder if I had ever loved anything in my life besides the drink. It was sad, to live as long as I had and not be sure if an emotion such as
love
had ever been felt. I could remember a girl from my school days. Her name was Alexis and if there were anyone I had ever loved, it would have been her. She would have made a wonderful wife, I was sure of that. She was all kinds of sweet and if it hadn't been for that drunk driver, maybe she would have one day been sweet on me. It was somewhat ironic how loosing something so wonderful had made me embrace what had taken it.

I slept in my normal spot that night in
Leefield
. Near some railroad tracks by a local park that no one ever went too. There was a lake there with a walking track around it. In the far corner near the road, there was a small fenced in section with a jungle gym that was rusted over and looked as if it would fall apart at the next strong wind. This was near the
City Hall
and downtown
Main Street
. There were a few stores there and only one sold food. It was a bookstore called
Good Finds
.
They had a coffee shop that sold some microwavable foods, a dollar for a burger and can of soda. I could never understand why they served food there, but I was grateful since it was close to where I liked to sleep.

I walked through the park and went along
City Hall
.
City Hall
was strangely large for a small town. It was three stories, but I guess you could say it was only two being that it was built into the side of a hill, so half was two and the other, three. It was made with large tan bricks and had thick, smooth pillars on the front and back. This was unlike everything else in town was made of red bricks. Those pillars, I disliked the pillars because once a month people would come to pressure wash them and those pressure washers were very loud.

Today however, it was quiet,
too
quite. Every other weekend, there was a farmers market on
Main Street
where farmers and craftsmen from all over the county would come sell their goods. By the lack of noise, I knew it couldn’t be this weekend. I never shopped at the market because the prices were too high. The selling point for the locals was it was grown or made
locally
, but the prices were higher than the produce that had to be imported and that never made much sense to me.

When you got to the front of
City Hall
, there was a large three-story building to the left, a few small office buildings then the public library. To the right there was the building with three shops in it. It went a Barbershop, music store, followed by
Good Finds
. Both the other stores were closed this morning and I started to wonder if today was a holiday. Daniel, the owner of the barbershop, had probably over slept again, which was normal for him. However, what wasn’t normal was that there wasn’t anyone outside waiting for him. On most Saturdays, there would be a small line of people waiting for Daniel. They never made eye contact with me when I walked by, they were probably afraid I’d beg them for money. I would hear them grumbling about how Daniel needed to take some of their tip money and invest into a better alarm clock. I was glad they weren’t waiting outside for him today, saved me from that awkwardness walk as I passed them.

When I got to the bookstore I tried the door and just as always was between the hours of nine and five, Monday through Saturday it was unlocked. I opened the door, the jingles of the familiar bells attached to the door, and the smell of old books greeted me, that wonderful, warm, smell of books, which I loved. Books meant that you had a place to store them, that you had a home. My father loved books, memories of him spending many nights in his study reading the books he had in his collection, most which were mysteries.

I stepped inside and closed the door so that the bells didn’t bang hard against the glass door. The store was filled with shelves and shelves of books. There was a coffee shop on the left. In the middle, a counter with a cash register. There was no one at the register, which was very unusual. Normally Phil would be sitting at the counter reading one of his
detective books
. There were the sounds of a television in the back of the store. A news reporter was talking about an explosion.

Phil and Janet, the owners of the store, were in the back room sitting on an off-white couch watching the news.

“Hello David.” Phil said. “Go ahead and help yourself to a burger and soda, it's on me today.”

“Are you sure Phil?”

“Yeah I’m sure, you could have stolen from us while we were back here but you didn't. Consider it a reward for being honest.” He smiled at me, but unlike his normal effortless smile, this one looked
forced
.

Phil was an honest man, in his fifty’s. He had worked for the city for twenty years and when he retired and opened up this store.

Phil loved to read. They say you should never open a business involving one of your hobbies. It was good advice because Phil bought more books than he sold. In some areas, particularly the mystery and detective sections, he had run out of space and stacked the books to the ceiling and even took over nearby sections with them. It bothered his wife Janet a little but he let her open the coffee shop so she accepted his passion.

I left them to their television and got out a burger and drink. I took it and walked back to Phil and Janet.

“What's happening on the news?” I asked. Phil looked up at me; Janet continued to stare deeply into the television.

“Some sort of terrorist attack they believe. There was an explosion at the local prison
Clearwater
Correctional Institution
. Complete chaos all over the place out there. Saying it was a chemical bomb. Pull up a chair David. We can watch it together.”

Chapter 23

09/18/2004 1040 Hours

Inmate Robby Victor

My cell door rolled open and I felt my heart sink. I closed my eyes, so tight that I saw white. I opened them, looked at the open cell door and closed them again. I didn’t want to leave my cell. I wanted to roll over, wake up from this nightmare, and go back to being in a regular prison, not one filled with these bloodthirsty corpses or correction officers playing God. I waited a moment longer for the monster to walk into my cell, waiting, to hear my own screams of agony.

“Robby Victor, report to the office!” There it was, Officer Jacob’s angry voice. Sparring must have told them I was a fast runner. I knew the way things worked. First, you get rid of the unmentionables. Then you pick
group leaders
, followed by
recon
. I must have been the recon. If I was going to survive today, I needed to do whatever they wanted, no questions asked. The unit didn’t have a television so I knew before they asked that I’d have to run to the inmate canteen. 

I speed walked up to the control room taking extra-long strides to stretch my legs. Inside the control room was Sergeant Williams, Officer Jacobs, and Joe Sparring, a match made in hell.

“I heard you’re fast, real fast. Sparring has a lot of faith in you.” Williams said, I could tell he was running the show. This was a good thing because Jacobs was as dumb as a box of rocks.

“I’m not the fastest person alive, but I am the fastest person
here
.” I gave him a confident grin and hoped he didn’t think I was cocky, but confident. Everyone smiled.

“Then let’s get down to business. I’m not a bad person.” Williams continued. “Now that all the undesirables have been taken care of.” He smiled. “It’s time we start figuring out what’s going on. The place is a mess outside, that’s why we need you. These monsters, these
Gray Eyes
are spreading.  We need you to run to the inmate canteen and turn on the television there and find out if this is happening everywhere, or just here.”

“
Gray Eyes
? You already named those things?” Williams laughed.

“Yes
Gray Eyes
, it seems to fit perfectly, what with their eyes turning gray when they change.”  Do you agree to help us?”

“Yes.” I nodded my head.

“Good.” Williams held out his hand and I shook it.

I exited the control room following Jacobs through a hatch in the ceiling, then through another door that let outside to a caged area. Outside was chaotic. I could see why they needed someone fast, someone like me. There were more of those things,
Gray Eyes
than I could count. Whatever this was, it was spreading fast.
Bravo Dorm
was collapsed and smoke was pouring out of it. People were walking around it as if waiting for something, or someone.

Jacobs handed me a single key. “This is the inmate canteen key. If you lose this, don’t expect to get another one. We’re counting on you.”

“I’ll be back, soon.” Jacobs didn’t look very convinced.

“If you decide to get rabbit in you.” Jacobs started to say putting his hand on the nap of my neck. “When they find you I will make you wish you were never born.”
Rabbit
was prison slang for escaping. I wasn’t planning on escaping, not yet anyway. I was smarter than that. I was sure law enforcement was already outside the fences. If escaping the prison on a normal day wearing a blue inmate uniform would earn me a bullet in the head. I didn’t want to know what I’d get for escaping today.

“I’m not going anywhere but the canteen and back.” Jacobs let go of my neck and patted me on the back.

“Then, good luck.”

He opened the gate and I took off running. I heard it slam shut behind me as I ran across the recreation yard. The inmate canteen was behind the staff canteen and in front of
Alpha Dorm
. It was maybe half a mile from
The Box
. The two open bay units near the front were both ripped wide open and there were those monsters walking around them.

For a moment everyone looked
normal
. Then as I approached their normal shapes twist into the monsters they were. From a distance, I guess everyone looks the same. I tried to stay away, but it was impossible to avoid them. I ran within a yard of a few and they turned and swatted at me, trying to grab me. One of them, a woman, with red hair in what were once white scrubs, caked in blood and dirt, grabbed my arm. She had a strong grip on me and for a slight moment had almost pulled me to the ground. I spun around. For a moment, I locked eyes with her. Her dead gray eyes only inches from my face. She opened her mouth and lunged her head down to bite me, but she was too late. I broke free and kicked her knee in. She fell and I continued running. This had slowed me down just long enough for three others to catch up with me. However, they were no match for my speed and I out ran them.

I was fast approaching the canteen and there weren’t any of those things near it. I took the key out of my pocket and it slipped from my fingertips, landing in the thick grass. I stopped and turned, breaking the tunnel vision long enough to see that in mere seconds I would be swarmed. A few seconds until they were on top of me, tearing at me, biting me, ripping me apart. I felt the metal from the key on my index finger. I picked it up, my fingers wrap tightly around it. Joy overcame me, then that feeling of joy was torn away from me. I felt the hand grab the back of my shirt. I rolled away and back onto my feet with the key still tightly in my hand.

I ran the last fifteen yards with everything I had. I slammed my body into the door, and unlocked it, I pulled open the door and I went inside. The door slammed shut behind me from the monsters against it.

They banged on the door loudly. I could hear the sounds of scraping fingernails against the wooden door. I leaned against it, afraid that if I moved the door would give way. I was trapped. I prayed that the door would hold. That eventually they would give up trying to get to me. I was sure they would. It was just a matter of time.

I looked around. The building, fourteen by ten, shelves filled every wall. They were stuffed with different bags of potato chips and all kinds of sodas and candies. Under the register were cartons of cheap cigarettes and a television.

I tried to turn on the television with my foot at first, but it was several inches to short. Slowly I took my weight off the door. After each inch I waited, frozen, waiting for the door to cave in, until I was at the television. I turned it on and grabbed a carton of cigarettes. I ripped open the carton with my teeth, pulled out a pack of cigarette, opened a pack, and lit one of the cigarettes as I stared at the screen where a man was talking.

He was giving a report about how Florida was under attack, some sort of
chemical
weapon. The important thing was it wasn’t a national epidemic, yet. But what if it spreads? Something deep inside knew that it would.

This is your life. The world you knew is gone. I’ve met many while in prison that were
institutionalized
. That’s when you’ve been in prison so long that the world no longer makes sense. The world has left you for dead. I never thought it would happen to me, but now it had. I wasted my life. I let money control my actions.
Now what world was I going out too
?