Slow Burn: A Zombie Novel (6 page)

Unbeknownst to Chris, the trooper he was referring to had reached the mangled Ford Taurus just as the firemen freed the trapped occupant. While the paramedics attempted to stabilize the victim, his head snapped forward, locking his jaws onto the medic’s arm. The paramedic screamed as the trapped occupant’s jaw ripped back and forth and tore a mouthful of meat from his arm. The paramedic looked at his bleeding arm in stunned horror as another fireman attempted to immobilize the driver with a chokehold.

“
Goddamn! Are you okay?” the fireman yelled out of breath. “This fucker is strong!”

The driver tore himself free and sank his teeth into the bicep of the fireman who howled in pain while he tried unsuccessfully to free himself from the crazed man. The trooper, standing frozen in his tracks, looked on in shock. The injured driver, who should have been incapacitated from pain if not already dead from his clearly crushed lower body, hungrily tore back into the fireman’s arm while he screamed for help. The trooper pulled his Glock .40 and ordered the driver to stop. The fireman tried to stand up, tripped over a piece of the wreckage, and the crippled driver shot up the fireman’s torso and began to savage his throat. Blood jetted from the fireman’s neck and into the face of the driver. Screams of pain and horror were abruptly cut off, replaced by choking, gurgling sounds as his vocal cords were ripped free.

The trooper snapped out of his daze and finally started to shoot the driver. He was so shaken that he put several rounds into the crazed driver with the rounds impacting on an upwards trajectory from the recoil. The last round hit the nearby fireman square in the forehead. Terror filled the trooper, who thought he had just accidentally killed an innocent man. As his mind tried to comprehend this, he didn’t register that the Hispanic driver was now crawling his way with a blood-crazed look in his eyes. He also failed to notice the other paramedic, who was first bitten and had shortly thereafter gone into convulsions, approaching from his right with a dead look in his eyes. The trooper didn’t realize any of this until teeth ripped into his right arm, and hands ripped at his face.

Chris stomped his way back to the accident scene and had just walked past one of the fire trucks when he heard units getting dispatched over the radio to a very large fight in progress in one of Joliet’s housing projects.

Great!
he thought. It was perfect timing. He’d make the trooper handle this scene and go assist with the fight.

As he passed the engine of the truck, he swore he heard gunshots. Unable to pinpoint where they came from, Chris hurried around the back side of the fire truck. Looking up the dirt embankment, he saw the trooper go down, wrestling with two or three men. Looking closer as he ran towards the fight, Chris made out that two of the combatants were paramedics, and the third appeared to be the injured driver. About fifteen feet from the melee, he saw the trooper stop moving, but the other three continued to assault him.

“
What the fuck is going on here?” Chris snapped, pulling his service pistol from the holster.

All three blood-covered heads snapped up from the trooper’s body simultaneously. In a fleeting instant, Chris could tell the trooper was dead, covered in blood and his intestines hanging exposed above his gun belt. He next eyed up the enemy. With a savage look of hunger in the eyes of all three and blood dripping from their mouths, they gave away their intentions for young officer Jacobs.

The blaring of my cell phone ripped me out of a dream that was just starting to get interesting, as usually happened when they involved a hot MILF. Fumbling for my cell phone, I finally hit the right button.

“
Hello?” I croaked, wiping the sleep from my eyes.

I initially thought I’d overslept for my midnight shift but after checking the time saw only an hour had passed. The reply I received was full of swearing and obscene things that were probably illegal in most countries. Looking at the caller ID, I saw it was Stephen.

“
Calm the fuck down, bro. I can’t understand you,” I replied calmly.

“
Don’t tell me to calm down, jackass!” he shouted. “Thanks for leaving me hanging, with Roy as my only backup. Where the hell are you anyway, Mike?”

“
Roy? Ouch!" I chuckled. "I’m in bed, taking a little nap before work, what’s up?”

“
I’ll tell you what’s up; the city is going up for grabs,” he snarled. “They are calling out all off duty cops they can find to help with the dozens of pending disturbance calls. I know for a fact they have tried you several times. I personally threw you under the bus and told them you were home.”

“
What the hell are you talking about? What’s going on?”

“
Half the shift is injured, and the rest of us are running our dicks off. Just get your ass here now!” Stephen brayed, and then hung up.

I stared at the phone for a few seconds, seeing all the missed calls from the watch commander’s office, then shrugged and swung my feet out of bed. I pulled on my uniform and boots. Grabbing a freshly charged battery for my police radio, I replaced the old one with one from the charger. Walking into the basement, I opened the gun locker and grabbed my duty pistol and patrol rifle in its soft carrying case complete with five extra magazines attached. Putting out a fresh bowl of food for the dog along with clean water, I said goodbye to the huge shepherd and told him he was back on guard duty again until I returned. Walking out to my squad, I turned on the police radio and immediately heard units getting dispatched to fights all over the city. In the distance I heard the blare of emergency sirens.

“
Man, Stephen wasn’t kidding! Wonder what’s in the drinking water this time?”

Finally there was a gap in the radio traffic, and I was able to advise dispatch that I was on duty and available for service. I was assigned sector 2, which had been manned by Officer Sherman, by Janice, an out of breath dispatcher who sounded a bit frantic. I was then immediately sent to a domestic battery that had a runaway thirteen year old involved on the north and mostly Hispanic end of my sector.

"Great! I got out of bed for a runaway who doesn’t like to get disciplined by his parents."

En route to the address listed on my computer, dispatch advised that an ambulance was also on the way for several injured persons.

“
10-4,” I acknowledged.

It sounded like it was brewing up to be a real clusterfuck.

Arriving on scene, I walked up to the solid looking two-story brick home. I could tell that when it was new back in the day, it was a beauty. Now it looked like it had been divided up into a two-flat. Locating the correct entry door, I entered and announced myself. In the family room, I saw the mother and several children ranging from about two to fifteen years of age. Once they saw me, they all began to holler at me what had happened, and of course it was in Spanish. I did not understand a word they said.

“
Okay, okay, I‘m officer Thorsen, but you can call me Mike. I’m here to help," I said. "One at a time please and preferably in English.”

An older kid, who I learned was a neighbor, stepped up and said he spoke English.

“
Outstanding,” I replied. “Can you tell me what went on here, and why everyone’s bleeding?”

I began to take down notes as the neighbor kid related through translation what happened and how they all got injured. It appeared that the father, Javier Garcia, along with the rest of the family, had recently arrived in country from Mexico. Today, Javier had an argument with his oldest son Jose about Jose not listening to his mother Maria, going out all hours of the night, and hanging with the local Latin King gangbangers. At one point Javier, who was still sick from their long trip, began to physically fight with Jose. The fight quickly escalated while the rest of the family watched Javier became enraged and bite Jose’s ear. Jose then ran out the front door. After the rest of the family returned from looking for Jose outside, the oddly enraged Javier began to fight with the rest of his children and his wife as well. Javier was jaundiced and bleeding and had scratched and cut everyone else in the house, with the exception of the youngest, who was also still sick from the journey and in bed. They were all scared, as Javier had never acted this way before. The neighbor kid finished the story by relaying that they were able to lock Javier into a second story bedroom, barricade the door, and call the police.

While I was listening to him relate this story, I heard dispatch send several units to the housing projects in nearby sector 1 for a very large fight in progress. Just then, Joliet paramedics arrived on scene and began to administer first aid to the family. Saying that the bite marks looked infected, they insisted on transporting them all to nearby Silver Cross Hospital. One of the medics asked me how long ago the injuries were sustained.

“
About 20-30 minutes ago,” I replied.

The medic advised that couldn’t be possible as he pointed to the red and black streaks that were starting to fan out from the cuts and scratches.

“
No way the infection coulda spread this fast,” he said with a frown.

When checked, the victims were running fevers and had blood pressures through the roof. I told the paramedics and the family victims that I would meet them at the hospital for domestic battery photos after I placed the father in custody.

I next keyed up my radio. “Joliet, from sector 2, can you send me a unit to assist on an apprehension for domestic battery?”

“
Negative, all units are tied up at this moment, I’ll advise when I have a free car,” Janice from dispatch advised.

“
10-4,” I acknowledged and then released the transmit button. “My day just keeps getting better.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out what I called my beat down gloves. Black leather gloves lined with cut and puncture resistant Kevlar. I didn’t want to have split knuckles and get some of this asshole’s blood all over them. I pulled them on as I turned and headed back into the strangely ominous house as the overloaded ambulance drove off with lights and siren screaming.

* * * * * * * *

Esteban had only arrived in Joliet this week from Mexico, but already he had learned a few things. Despite being set up in a decent house, it was located near low income housing projects, and Esteban figured out right away that it was not a good place for him to be. He stayed clear of them and started his new job soon after his arrival. They had him sorting boxes in a small warehouse located just south of the downtown area of Joliet. It was going well, but Esteban had started to not feel well as of late. After his splitting headache caused him to lose focus and smash his hand pretty good at work yesterday, he was sent home by the foreman, who first helped him stop the bleeding from the large gash.

Today Esteban was delirious with fever, and his head was pounding even harder. His roommate was also sick in bed, and all Esteban could think about was how thirsty he was. Esteban left the house, intending to walk to the nearby corner store but somehow ended up in the housing projects instead. As he walked by helplessly, a small crowed of young black men gathered around him.

"I think he’s sick," one of them jeered.

"Yeah,” another spoke up, “he looks like he might die!"

An older and larger thug then stepped up. "He's not gonna need any money where he’s headed."

"Yeah, yeah! Grab that motherfucker’s wallet," several of the delinquents chanted. “Mexicans always carry plenty of cash!”

As the older gangbanger pushed Esteban to the ground and grabbed for his wallet, Esteban screamed and bit the banger on the arm, tearing away a large chunk of flesh.

"Kill that motherfucker!" the banger screamed. "He just bit the fuck out of me! It's self-defense."

As one of the bangers grabbed a pistol from his waistband, Esteban rose to his feet and attacked a boy, no older than ten, who had wandered up to the crowd. Esteban had the child’s throat torn open in an instant, and a spray of blood soaked the small group. Stunned, the banger with the gun shot Esteban twice in the back. Esteban fell to the ground, down but still moving.

"Fuck him up!" one of them yelled and began to kick at Esteban as he squirmed on the ground. "He bit Reggie!"

Another, blind with rage, sunk a knife deep into Esteban’s gut, trying to avenge his little cousin who was bleeding out next to him. Esteban absorbed the knife without flinching, reached out, grabbed one of the bangers by the foot and pulled him to the ground, kicking and screaming in blind terror. He sank his teeth into the man’s foot before he broke free and ran for home. More gunshots rang out as a few members of the group unexpectedly turned on one another.

“
Where’s my boy?” a terrified woman screamed frantically over the mayhem, searching for her small son, who lay dying in the confusion.

She never found him before dying herself, as the fight escalated into a full blown riot.

* * * * * * * *

Stephen put his squad into park, sank his face into his hands and rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes.

“
What in God’s name is wrong with people today?” he asked, not looking for an actual answer.

Roy, thinking Stephen was talking to him, decided to add his two cents.