The Bomb and the Cage: Doree Anne (11 page)

I just needed to get back and report the news. Once out, I’d slide out, get away from this group. The leader of this group was already showing signs of a
dictator
. Until today I’ve always had respect for Sergeant Williams. I disliked
sex offenders
just as much as anyone else but to have them eaten alive, it was too extreme. I understood his reasoning for it, send a brutal message to those under you and scare them into following you. After all, I would never have done this had it not been for the fear.

I shouldn’t have been smoking those cigarettes
.
It was going to make it a lot harder to run back
. I laughed aloud at the thought. It was going to be a long time before the things left me alone. I grabbed some drinks and food and sat back in front of the television. Watching the pictures of destruction and hoped that I’d wake up back in my prison cell, not in this hell on Earth.

Chapter 24

09/18/2004 1045 Hours

Daniel

I was sitting inside in one of my barbershop chairs drinking my second cup of coffee when there was a large bang, or was it a crash? Either way, a thundering explosion followed it. It was so loud that it shook me right out of the chair. I spilt my coffee on the floor, luckily not a single drop landed on my clothing, just on my hand and wrist. I threw the Styrofoam cup into the wireframe trash bin by the door, shaking my hand dry as I stepped outside. There was smoke billowing from behind the buildings in front of my store. Downtown Main Street practically mirrored itself where the shops begun for five full blocks. The only discrepancy was the large three-story behemoth to the left of my shop.

I heard the bells from the door of the bookstore and looked over to see Phil and Janet the owners come running out with David the town bum behind them.

“Can you believe it Daniel?” Phil said in a frightened tone.

“Believe what? What’s going on around here?”

“We’re being attacked.”

“Attacked by what?”

“Haven’t you turned on the television yet?”

The statement offended me slightly. I didn’t own a television and never planned to buy one. Ten years ago, I owned one for a few weeks. Having a television in your home was like opening a portal into a world where moral guidelines didn’t exist. With each channel change, you never knew what awaited you on the other side.

“No, I don’t own a television.” Every time I made that statement I always received strange looks, even David gave me a strange look. “Well, tell me what’s going on?”

“There was an explosion at Clearwater Correctional Institution this morning. Then a few minutes ago, there were reports of people acting strange. Next thing you know there is chaos all over Clearwater.” 

“Maybe we should go back inside Phil.” Janet said just before grabbing his hand.

“Wait Janet, we need to find out what caused that explosion. Someone could be in trouble.” I agreed with Phil. This was our town.

Sounds of sirens were coming from the library’s end of Main Street.
Three police cruisers were heading in our direction. Before my eyes could focus on the cars to make out who was driving, they pasted us. They must have been going around three times the twenty mile per hour posted speed limit, and they weren’t even going towards where the loud blooming sound, some police.

“Things must be bad that way, if they aren’t stopping here to find out what caused that explosion.” Janet said.

“Well if they aren’t going to check
,
we need to.” 

“I agree Phil.”

I crossed the street with David. When I got to the other side, I looked back to see Phil giving his wife a kiss and whispered something in her ear. She waved at us as Phil jogged across the street, and then went back into the bookstore.

“If anything bad happens, meet back at the bookstore. If we really are being attacked, then it must be an invasion because there’s nothing in this area of Florida that means much of anything to anyone. I have a little stock of
supplies
in the back.” Phil said.

“Supplies, what kind of supplies do you have?” I asked, surprised that Phil had been prepared for anything more than a book shortage. 

“Well, let’s just say I have enough for at least a few days. We can worry about the details later.”

The building across the street was a law firm and even though it was directly in front of my shop, I never talked to the owner. The windows were tinted a dark color and on each of the three doors was a different attorney’s name. None of them got their hair cut by me. We didn’t bother checking in on them because of it being a Saturday. Instead, we continued past to the road behind the building.

When we got around the corner, we saw the cause of the explosion. An ambulance and a large white van had crashed. The ambulance was engulfed in flames in the middle of the road. The van looked like it was pulling onto the road when it was hit. It was severely dented, like it had rolled several times. It laid on its passenger side against a telephone pole that was cracked and, held up by the wires.

“We need to check for survivors!” I yelled, running to the van. I figured there wouldn’t be any survivors in the ambulance because of the fire and the others apparently the others felt the same way too because we all had run to the van.

The van was one of Ms. Carol’s daycare vans. My stomach knotted up at the sight of the colorful lettering. The front windshield was shattered and there weren’t any children inside, just two adults who were covered in blood and were moving around in their seats trying to get out.

“Thank the Lord above. No children and two adults that are still alive! Hold on we’re going to get you out.”

David climbed on top of the van and pulled open the door. He screamed, and fell back, letting the door slam shut.

“There’s no way, no way they’re still alive. But still they move, still they live!” David rolled off the van, landed on his feet, and ran towards us.

“What are you talking about David? Calm down! Let me take a good look” Phil said. He climbed on top, just a little slower than David had. He opened the door and looked in. He didn’t need to say a word about what he saw inside. His face lost all the color and his knees went weak for a moment.

“I don’t believe this. Daniel, come get a look at this, see if you can make any sense out of it.”   

I joined him with such ease that both Phil and David looked surprised. I may have a belly, but I wasn’t going to let it slow me down.

Inside was splattered with blood, more blood than I thought a human body could bleed. Both the driver and passenger had extremely deep chunks missing out of the side of their neck. So deep, that I could see the bone. Yet, even with these injuries, they thrashed around. The driver looked up at me. His eyes were a white gray. His mouth opened widely as he stretched his hand to me. Blood dripped from his mouth. It looked like he had bitten straight through his tongue. He screamed at me. Not a high pitch scream, but a throaty sound as if produced with lungs filled with liquid instead of air. The passenger was more concerned with getting his seatbelt off than paying attention to us. He flung his hands at the release button as if he no longer had function of his fingers.

“What do you think this is?” David said from in front of the van.

“I don’t know. What do we do about them?” I asked.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to get in there with them!” Phil yelled out.

“So we just leave them?” They looked at me as if I was crazy.

There was a click sound. In all the sounds of movement that was coming from the inside of the van it seemed like for a slight moment, a moment just long enough for that seatbelt to be released all noise, but that metal clicking sound, stopped. David crouched down to get a better look in the van. The passenger started to pull his way out of the front window. David stepped back and tripped. Phil let go of the door and it slammed shut. We slid off the van onto our feet as the person crawled out completely. Phil ran to David, picked him up, and pulled him away. I walked up to the man as he stood up about seven feet from me. He stood hunched over. His head cocked in an unnatural angle that couldn’t be possible. I looked into his eyes and saw the same gray eyes as the driver. From this angle I saw a deep bite mark on left side of his neck.

“Hello sir. Are you okay?”
Are you okay? What a dumb question to ask a man that looks dead who is standing in front of you.
The person walked towards me, I didn’t move. Then the walk turned into a run. I backpedaled a few feet before I lost my footing. He grabbed me and we fell to the ground. His mouth opened, blood and saliva dripped onto my face. My hands were on his throat and holding him away. His mouth opened and closed forcefully. I squeezed as hard as I could and still he continued his attack unfazed.

“Help me!” I screamed. David came over and tried to pull the attacker off me. When he tugged there was a sharp pain in my sides where he was grapping me, as if I was being stabbed by a half dozen of dull knifes. Phil ran over with something in his hand and stabbed the attacker in the back, nothing. He stabbed him again in the back, nothing. Phil grabbed its blood soaked hair and with my help pulled it back. He had a knife and rammed the blade into its left eye. He twisted the blade and the attacker went limp. He pushed it off of me.

“Hold still Daniel.” Phil leaned down to check my sides as David dragged the dead attacker towards the van. “Don’t worry Daniel, they aren’t life threatening wounds.” I leaned forward. My sides had seven cuts from where it grabbed me. Thankfully it was just my sides, it could have been my face.

The driver was struggling to get out, there was no way we were going to let him free.
What could cause a person to not only live with fatal wounds but also to act like this
? I was certain had I not held his face back he would have bit me.

“We need to get back to the bookstore in case there are more of these things.” I said.

“I couldn’t agree more with you, Daniel.” Phil said.

The three of us ran back to the bookstore. I was interested in what supplies Phil had. When we got to the store, I told them I needed to get a few things from my shop. Phil told me the doors would be locked, so I’d have to knock to get back in.

I entered my shop. About ten years ago, I had a contractor put a wall up in the back. It made my shop four feet smaller, but at the same time, added a four by sixteen room. I used it as a office. Truth was I trusted God, I did not trust in man however. If our country was to collapse then I needed to have a plan to survive. Yes, I was a God fearing Christian. However, I refused to be a sitting duck if any
stuff
ever hit the fan. So I made myself a survival pack, to greet that
stuff
head on.

Chapter 25

09/18/2004 1045 Hours

Robert

The gas station was dead all morning. Not even the normal group of senior citizens this morning. The shop was called
The Oil Man
and was at the corner of Highway 27 and Main Street. There was a daily special called,
The $13.99 Coffee and Oil
.
It came with a large cup of coffee and an oil change. It really wasn’t anything special, most repair shops had free coffee, and there was nothing special about our coffee. It was a brilliant idea because when you talked about free in an ad, the seniors would ate it up. There was always at least one person waiting when we opened. Until this morning.

“Robert, what do you think happened to the customers today?” Dustin asked.

“Beats me, maybe they all went to
Denny’s
this morning.”

There was the sound of thunder.

“Did you just hear that?”

“Yeah, strange, didn’t think it was supposed to rain today.” I said.

“Well that explains why we were dead today.” It was a known fact here in Florida that senior citizens never drove in the rain unless forced to.

We stepped outside and saw nothing but clear skies. Dustin started to say something but before he could get out the first word, he was interrupted by the sound of sirens. Three police cars were coming down Main Street. The group stopped in front of our shop and one of the cars pulled into our parking lot.

I ran over to the window as it rolled down.

“Ya’ll need to get inside and lock yourselves in! There was some sort of chemical bomb in Clearwater. It’s causing people to become extremely violent.”

“You have to be kidding!”

“I wish I was. If you have family make sure they lock themselves inside until this is over.”

“Will do Officer, thanks for stopping.”

I let Dustin use the phone first as I rolled the garage doors shut by tugging on the metal chain. The metal clanked and scraped as the doors rolled shut. Once down, I made sure they were locked. Back in the office Dustin was done using the phone. I picked it up and called home. It rang three times before remembering my girlfriend Amy worked today. She worked at the Leefield library on the other side of Main Street. I was sure that if the police stopped here they stopped there as well. The library was a strong building and once they went into lockdown, I was sure she would be safe.     

Chapter 26

09/18/2004 1105 Hours

Daniel

My survival pack was two duffle bags. One contained enough Meals Ready to Eat or as they are known, MRE’s to last a week. There was also several socks and a pair of jeans and camouflage hunting shirt.. In the other duffle bag, was a
Glock
22
.40 Caliber semiautomatic pistol with one thousand rounds, and a Bushmaster AR-15
assault rifle with five hundred rounds.

Behind the duffle bags was a backpack that contained ten thousand dollars in fifty dollar bills. There were also four fifteen gallon containers of gasoline. I left the gasoline and took the duffle bags and backpack.

I stopped just before leaving. There was this strange feeling, as if it was the last time I would ever be here. I looked around the room and smiled.