The Bomb and the Cage: Doree Anne (5 page)

In the main parking lot, we saw evidence that a car bomb was used. The front gate was pushed down, an obvious sign that there had been an explosion from something in front of it. Several cars were flipped and a few had people still inside them. These people were burnt to a crisp. But something was wrong; they were still thrashing around trying to get out. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.

Just ahead, a partially red Scion xB wagon sat leaning slightly on its side against a large sign that read:
Welcome to Clearwater Correctional Institution
. All the windows were blown out and a person was still inside. The person was badly burned but still moved around violently inside.

We approached slowly, because training taught to always scan a scene first for other dangers before beginning medical treatment. The person was screaming a loud dry scream. I stepped forward and saw that even the cloth seats were melted away.

“Bruce, have you ever seen anything like that before?” I felt Linda's touch on my back as she stepped up next to me.

“Never, it’s just not possible.” John walked over to the car door, touched the metal handle, and pulled the door open. The person turned their head in a quick jerking motion. You could hear the dry skin cracking and tearing from the movement. The eyes were burnt away leaving large vacant holes.

“What the hell! There is no way.” John stepped backwards, tripped over his own feet, and landed on his back. The person didn't have a seat belt on; my guess was it burnt away. The person got out of the car and started walking towards John. We were frozen in shock. I had seen a lot in my years as an EMT and seeing a person getting out of a car after being severely burned to a skeleton was something that I had never seen. The person stopped screaming and stood just two steps from the car. John was still on the ground.

Linda took a step back; she was the first to move and when she moved, it set off a quick chain reaction. The person fell on top of John, and pulled John’s gas mask off. John started screaming. The person bit into his neck. He tried to push it off to no avail. I grabbed the back of it and started tugging. I threw in a few punches trying to break the hold the thing had on John. The thing was just so strong. Like it couldn’t feel anything at all, which made sense after everything it had been through. I was left with no choice but to kill this thing in order to save John.

“Linda, give me something to kill it!” John continued to scream. Blood was pooling around his head. There was so much blood I would have thought he was already dead had it not been for him screaming. If I didn’t get this thing off him there wasn’t going to be a chance of saving him.

Linda knelt down over the duffel bag searching it for a weapon.

“On my leg!” I heard John say. I looked down and saw him stretching to pull out his knife that was just out of reach. I grasped the handle, flipped open the knife, and begun stabbing the thing on top of him. Even after eight stabs, it continued to bite and claw at John.

John stopped screaming. I had failed him. He was the first partner I had ever lost and anger filled me. I grabbed this abomination by the neck and pulled back until it was almost on its back. I took the knife and jabbed it quickly in it’s burned out eye socket. I twisted the blade and then pulled it out. I let the thing go and it dropped to the side of John.

I bend over John to get a better look at his injuries. His right eye had been gouged out, the bite marks on his neck went all the way to the bone, and there were also some severe lacerations across his face. I checked his pulse already knowing that he was dead. To no surprise, he didn’t have one. I looked back at Linda and saw that she was already back peddling. When I looked back at John, his good eye had now turned completely gray. He started screaming and thrashing around underneath me. This wasn’t possible.

“We need to get out of here!” I yelled at Linda, without hesitation she started to run to the ambulance, and I was thankful that she had been driving the ambulance this morning. I had been trying to prove a point to John who was very sexist and didn't think women should be allowed to drive the ambulance because it was too large a vehicle for them to operate.

John moved his head around trying to bite me but was unsuccessful. I leaned back to get up and felt something grab me from behind and pick me up. John tried to get back up but I kicked him in the face. His head was thrown violently back, I heard the cracks from the bones in his neck snapping yet he still thrashed around on the ground trying to get up. I was able to break the grasp of the person who was behind me by stepping out to the left and swinging my body in the same direction. The person was another burnt to a crisp skeleton. I turned and started to run towards Linda as several other crispy corpses started to join in the pursuit.

Linda got into the ambulance and I heard the diesel engine start. I got inside and slammed my door just in time as one of those things started to bang on my window. Linda slammed on the gas. She must have thought it was in reverse, unfortunately, it was in drive and before Linda could hit the brakes it was too late, we were in the lake. The ambulance hit the water and begun to sink quickly into the darkness. We would be able to get out and swim to the surface, but what would we find when we got there?

Chapter 10

09/18/2004 0915 Hours

C.O. Carlos Mendez

I was running fast, it’s amazing what adrenalin will do to your body. Even after taking a few puffs from that cigarette, I was still able to run from medical to the control room. I slowed down when I was fifty yards away, not because I was out of breath, but because I heard that terrorists liked to use
two
bombs, the
first
to destroy the target and the
second
to kill the people trying to help the injured.
But why would a terrorist attack a prison
? It had to have been an escape plan, or maybe it was an accident.

I saw Officer Eric Smith running. He had come out from behind the, or what was left of it, staff canteen and joined me at the front of gate four.

There were four gates at the control room.
Gate One
was the gate closest to the outside that allowed the movement of people into the front lobby.
Gate Two
let people from the front lobby into the prison.
Gate Three
and
Four
where large vehicle gates that allowed movement into and out of the prison, gate
Three
was outside and gate
Four
was inside.

“Mendez, did you see what happened?” Smith asked, bent over trying to catch his breath.

“Yeah, a van that was parked in the handicap spot exploded!” Smith looked stunned. “Where is Nurse Janis at?”

“She fell and stayed behind to get the emergency room ready for these people.”

“Go figure, but whatever I don’t think she would have been much help anyways.” Smith was right; it had to have been at least fifteen years since she went to school and working in the prison as a nurse didn’t exactly keep your
life saving skills
the sharpest.

“We need to see if the control room is still in service, if it is I’ll see if Fender can get me a weapon and open gate three.” Smith continued.

“Gate three? Why?”

“So the ambulances and fire rescue can get in. The blast took out half of Bravo
dorm!” I turned and saw that the side facing the control room was ripped apart. Inmates were running out of the dorm and gathering around watching all the chaos. 

Gate two was hanging open and smoke was partially blocking our view of the other gates. We stepped through the broken gate and saw Sergeant Fender standing in the control room, waving at us franticly. He looked to be in shock. The metal door leading into the lobby was ripped off the hinges, and laying seven feet from the doorway.

We stepped into the lobby and saw Officer Johnson, a heavyset female in her mid-thirties, on the ground covered partially by some cinderblocks. She was flailing her arms around trying to move the blocks. I started helping her, but when I looked into her eyes, I saw that they were this unnatural gray.

“What the hell?”

There was the sound of metal banging against concrete. I looked up to see the metal door being forced open that led to visitation. Smith ran to the aid of the visitors that pushed open the door.

“Everyone calm down and stay where you are.” Smith said, but the group kept walking towards him. They started grabbing at him. He stepped backwards, tripped over a cinderblock, and they piled on top of him.

“Help, they’re biting me!” He screamed. One of them, a man was tearing at his stomach ripping his shirt as a woman was biting his face tearing at his cheek. I pulled up on the man, but he was too strong. Blood poured out of where the man was clawing. Smith’s pleads started to blur into mindless s screams.

The man pulled Smith’s insides out and shoved them into his mouth. I kicked the woman tearing at his face. She fell to the ground and I saw that she had removed the flesh from under his left eye all the way past his jaw. I went to kick the man eating what I could now see were his intestines when the woman jumped up and grabbed me. I went around in a circle a few times before finally falling, with me on top. I flipped her onto her back and handcuffed her.

As the second cuff went on another person grabbed me. I slammed my head back. Everything got blurry for a moment but I fought through it. The head butt gave me, enough time to roll off the woman, and kick the second attacker in the face.

I got up and ran to the control room door. It was locked and Fender must not have been able to open it with the power out. There were several people walking around, coming towards me, and they all had those
eyes
.

“Get in the mop closet!” Fender yelled through the Plexiglas, his words sounded miles away. Around the corner before the metal door that led to visitation was the mop closet. It had been propped open with a broom. I ran into it, pulled the broom out, and let the door close. I let out a sigh of relief; they couldn’t get me in here.   

Chapter 11

09/18/2004 0915 Hours

Sgt. John Williams

I had Jacobs stand guard at the stairs in case any officers needed in and to let me know whenever help arrived. Inside, it was starting to get hot. As the sun was beginning to heat up the roof, I knew that without the blower fans it would only speed up and intensify the summer day. I didn’t have a long-term plan, but I didn’t need one. All I had to do was leave them locked on the wing until the power turned back on. If I had to evacuate there was a large caged area in the back; we used the area for recreation and it would hold the entire dorm if need be. The problem was it was impossible to move the inmates there safely without the electric locks working, and there was no way any of us were going to stand down there and unlock the doors with our keys. Even if we could get them in the cage, it would only be a matter of time before the situation would get worse. When you caged people like animals, they always became animals.

I stood in front of the wing facing that darkness. I could see movement of people crowding from behind the inch thick Plexiglas window. There was screaming and yelling from the darkness but I needed to show the group that I was not afraid, that I was in control. Truth was even in all the chaos I was still in control. Without my keys, there was no way they could get out. I could leave them there for all eternity if help never arrived.

“Quite down and listen up!” Some quieted down, but a majority continued to yell. “Quite down or I won’t be back!” I yelled. They started to quiet down until there was silence. “There was an explosion at the front gate. We need everyone to get back in their cells.” There was yelling from the other side. “I’m talking to you like a man and giving a fair request!” The group was silent again. “I will keep you updated on the situation and if this problem continues we will move everyone to the recreation yard until the situation is over. However, if you stay here outside of your cells we will not be giving any updates and you will stay here until this is over. I’m going to go use the restroom then I will be coming down here to personally shut each door. Do I make myself clear?” There were a few that yelled,
Yes Sir
! from the other side, but there wasn’t many. It would have to do. Sometimes you have to take what you can get.

***

It was
game time
. I had my flashlight in one hand and the manual cell door key in the other. Roberts let me into the wing and he would let me out if I made it. There was no way I was going to bring the wing keys in here, and I was sure the inmates knew it too. I didn’t want to go on the wing but in order to prove I was the alpha male I needed to show that I wasn’t afraid, that I was fearless. 

I shined my light around. The wing didn’t consist of very much. The floor was poured concrete that had been smoothed, coated with a clear coat, and buffed to a shine. The walls were cinderblock and painted white. The cell doors were solid metal, except for a small window, and painted tan. There were fifty cells on the bottom and fifty on the top.

There was toilet paper hanging from the top floor and skewed across the wing. Several inmates had also thrown their metal property boxes from their cells to the middle of the wing. A property box is a three by two by one metal box, which was used to store their personal property. Inmates in the unit for disciplinary reasons or awaiting disciplinary action weren’t allowed to have property boxes. The only ones allowed were inmates on
protective custody
. My guess was when the doors opened the inmates decided that they were going to rob the
protective custody inmates
; which explained the lockers in the middle of the wing.

I shined my flashlight down the wing and saw that there were three people lying towards the middle of the wing halfway down just passed the property boxes. Luckily, those were the only people on the wing.