The Collective Protocol (9 page)

TWELVE

This is the worst job ever,
Pam grimaced as the nurse poured alcohol over the ragged tear in her thigh where the crackhead bit her. It was a routine call—well, routine for the past month at least—about a crazy, naked drugged out lunatic running around throwing feces at people. They’d Tasered the man and Andrew had a knee in his back while she knelt beside him to cuff the bastard.

Next thing she knows, he’d taken a chunk out of her leg and Andrew was lying on the grass in some type of paralysis. She fired her weapon at point blank range and hit the perpetrator in the lower back. Pam had to handcuff him to a bench before she could try to determine what was wrong with her partner and render aid. By the time she got to him, he was sitting up shaking his head, but he didn’t have any signs of injury. It was just like his brain stopped functioning for a few seconds.

She teased him about having a tumor that made him space out. Andrew’s father had died the previous spring of pancreatic cancer, but he and Pam’s relationship was good enough that she could tease him about cancer without offending him. She offered to let him take her to the hospital so she could get sewn up and he could have a CT scan.

“You’re going to have a scar here, that’s for sure,” the doctor stated as he walked up. “Please don’t tell me that you moonlight as a dancer, officer, because you’ll be out of a job for a while.”

“No, doc. I just come by this amazing body naturally,” she answered back with a smile. Pam had brought enough perps into the hospital over the years that the two of them had become friends. They’d flirted for a long time without taking it any further than the witty banter stage that they were currently in.

“Pity, I’d pay good money to go to any show that you’re a part of… Of course, that was before this hideous injury.”

“Of course,” she nodded. “So, tell me the truth, what are we lookin’ at here, Daniel? A week? Maybe two?”

His face turned serious, “I’m sorry, Pam, but you’re not going to be in a bikini for a long time. As I’m sure you know a human’s mouth is filled with germs and bacteria. We usually have to go through an aggressive treatment plan for simple little things like teeth marks where the skin is broken. That guy ripped a mouth-sized hunk of skin out of your leg. Once we can get it properly cleaned and disinfected, we’re going to have you come in daily so we can debride the dead and dying layers of skin.”

“Well, I know that you like to see me doc, but every day is a little excessive, don’t you think?” she quipped.

“We have to keep the skin from healing and trapping any of the bacteria underneath the new skin. It’s painful as hell, but you’ll thank me in the long run when you’re not missing your leg.”

“Wait, you’re serious? I thought you were just messing around.”

“No, I’m dead serious, Pam,” Daniel answered. “That man’s mouth likely has more bacteria than the average person’s and that would be a considerable amount. We’re talking two or three weeks of daily treatment and then months to fully heal after that.”

The look on her face must have properly conveyed her feelings. “Look, it’s not all bad,” the doctor said. “You’ll get some paid vacation time from the department and you’ll get to see me four out of every seven days.”

“Gee, thanks,” she replied glumly. “When do we start?”

He picked up her chart and began writing. “We’ll have to start the debridement cycle tomorrow. One of the nurses will schedule your follow-up before you’re released today.”

“I can’t wait,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

*****

Pam hobbled along towards the restroom on the crutches that the orderly gave her. She wasn’t joking with the doctor; she really was in terrific shape. The department offered free Crossfit memberships to all of the officers and she flourished under the brutal workouts. However, the pain in her leg and the crutches made her feel like she was ninety.

Why are the bathrooms always so far away from the waiting area?
she wailed inwardly. She finally made it and pulled out her phone before sitting down on the toilet to examine Andrew’s text message to her. Once he’d dropped her off at the emergency room, he disregarded her advice to talk to a doctor and took the crackhead down to the station, so she needed a ride home from the hospital.

She’d initially sent him a message asking if he could come by the hospital to pick her up and take her home since she didn’t trust driving with an injured right leg. He’d responded back to her in the strangest way. She brought up the conversation and read through it again.

ME: Can you pick me up? No car, can’t drive with bad leg.

ANDY: Sure np. Will be a while tho, IA here.

ME: Why is Internal Affairs there?

ANDY: Remember when I blacked out today?

ME: I’m sitting in the hospital b/c you blacked out.

ANDY: True, sorry. Blackouts happened all over LVPD.

ME: What do you mean?

ANDY: Hundreds of LVPD blacked out at same time.

ANDY: Car crashes, arrests, eating. Seems every officer on duty had problem.

ME: Not me.

ANDY: How’d you get bitten?

ME: You let perp get up.

ANDY: Do you remember it happening?

ME: OMG, I don’t. Did I black out too?

ANDY: No idea, but if you didn’t, you’d be only one.

ANDY: I’m next to speak to investigator, see you soon.

ME: Ok. Thank you.

She thought about it for a moment and then pulled up the internet on her phone’s web browser. A quick search brought up a few paragraphs about the incident, but it was so new that there wasn’t much meat to the story.

Las Vegas—(AP) Yet another strange and tragic occurrence happened in Las Vegas today. Preliminary reports indicate that several on-duty Las Vegas police officers were involved in incidents at the same time. Three police cruisers crashed into separate casinos along the Vegas Strip, killing four and injuring dozens. There are also reports of police officers simply falling asleep as they walked, rode patrol bikes and even in the middle of arrests.

There are reports that many of the city’s police officers also fired their weapons indiscriminately into crowds of bystanders, but those reports have not been confirmed. A spokesman for the Las Vegas Police Department said that the incidents are under investigation.

What was happening?
The internet article stated that it was another strange occurrence. That was an understatement. Vegas had devolved from Sin City into the proverbial Pandora’s Box. Once the lid was taken off, all of the crazies who normally hid in the shadows wanted to come out and have fun.

The poop-throwing crackhead was only the latest in a long list of strange perpetrators and arrests that she’d had since her close call with the intruder at her home. It had gotten so bad on the streets that the department didn’t even care if officers fired shots in the city. As long as the tourists continued to flock to the town and spend money, then the officers were authorized every level of force imaginable to protect them. Maybe the doc was right. A paid vacation sounded better and better.

She finished using the restroom and the lights went out. The hospital went completely black inside for a few seconds and then the emergency generators kicked in. The restroom was filled with a watery half-light that constituted the emergency lighting in the desert hospital.

Pam hiked up her pants and winced when the material rubbed against the bandages on her leg. It would take some getting used to and she may have to buy a few pairs of loose-fitting jeans to make it through the healing months. She finally buckled the pants and settled her duty belt into place on her hips. Then she hobbled her way to the sink to wash her hands.

The door to the bathroom exploded inwards, startling her. A female patient in a gown stood staring dumbly into the restroom and Pam began to laugh at the absurdity of getting startled in the emergency lighting by someone who’d inadvertently pushed the door too hard. The sound never left her lips as the patient screeched at her and dove across the short distance between the door and the sink.

She hit Pam dead center and she crumpled in on herself. The crutches slid wide under the added pressure and the two of them flew backwards. Pam landed hard on her backside and the woman flipped around like someone possessed. In seconds she was straddling the injured police officer and punching down onto the side of her head.

Pam wasn’t ready for the blow and her head snapped backwards, hitting the tile floor behind her hard enough to make her vision swim. The psychopath leaned down close to her face and spit into it. “Hi, Pammie! Remember me?”

The officer’s mind raced,
Who the hell was this woman? No one had called me ‘Pammie’ since I was a kid out in New York. What did she want with me?
“You’re mistaken lady. I’m a cop, get off of me. Now!”

“I know exactly who you are and what you did. Who you
really
are,” she drooled. “I was there.”

Pam tried to struggle, but there was no escaping the woman’s weight and her arms were trapped at her side by her attacker’s legs. “Let’s make this fun, Pammie!” the patient laughed as she produced a scalpel from somewhere. The blood that dripped freely from it made Pam think that she’d just pulled it from her own side, but that was impossible.

“Please, don’t do this!” the officer pleaded and continued to squirm.

“That’s what I used to say every time he came into my bedroom, remember?”

Pam stopped struggling and tried to focus on her attacker. “P… Paige, is that you?”

“You’re a quick one, aren’t you, Pammie?” she said sarcastically and plunged the scalpel into Pam’s breast.

She cried out in pain and screamed for help. Paige pulled the blade free and casually replied, “No one will help you. Poor Pammie. I used to beg for your help, but you always hid to save yourself from him.”

“Please don’t do this, Paige. We were children. I was scared that he’d attack me again.”

“Oh, he didn’t touch you anymore once
I
was around for him to touch.”

Pam’s hand grasped the handle of her pistol and she pulled it out, firing up into the woman as she did so. She must have hit her in the head because blood fountained against the mirror and she slumped over on top of the startled officer.

It took a considerable effort to push the dead weight off of her upper body. She finally managed it and screamed for help.
What the hell is happening?
she asked herself for the hundredth time. She sat up and felt for a pulse in Paige’s neck, but she was dead.

How had Paige found her? They’d been kids together in a foster home in New York. Pam had been there for about a year when the agency awarded the “loving family” a second child. Once Paige arrived, he’d left her alone and focused his attentions on the smaller, less violent newcomer. The only way that they’d been saved was by a federal investigation into the man’s online activities. She’d never seen Paige again until today; and now she’d just killed her former foster sister.

Pam used the sink to pull herself to her feet. She pulled the scalpel from her breast and unbuttoned the top three buttons on her heavy polyester work shirt to expose the injury. The blade had sliced a two-inch long cut and it appeared to go almost an inch deep.
The pain meds they gave me for my leg must still be working
, her mind hypothesized as she stared at the wound with a detached interest.

She bent and recovered the crutches and made her way towards the door. The lights flickered rapidly on and off in the hallway, casting everything in eerie shadows and blossoms of light. Up ahead a doctor stood staring towards the ER and she called out. “Help me! I’ve been stabbed.”

He didn’t react to her calls so she continued hobbling towards him. When she was within a few feet she yelled again, “Hey! Hey, I’ve been stabbed. I need help.”

Finally the doctor seemed to notice that someone was behind him and he turned slowly towards her. “Oh, thank God, Daniel! Help me, please.”

He looked at her strangely like he didn’t recognize her and then the light went off in his head. “Oh, hi Pammie,” he said. “Not feeling well today?”

“What… What did you just call me?” she stammered.

“Your name. Pammie. Oh wait, you don’t go by that anymore, you’re a mature police officer,” his voice took on a gruff tone as he said the last three words.

“Daniel, what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. I feel amazing. Pammie, you really should see the size of this guy. I bet you would have loved it!”

Pam scrambled backwards as quickly as she could to add some distance between her and the strange doctor. She drew her pistol and pointed it dead at the center of her chest. “Stay away from me, Daniel.”

“Now, is that any way to treat your sister,” Daniel asked with his hands on his hips.

“Paige? Is that you?”

“How many other sisters have you had? Of course it’s me!”

“What’s happening? How are you
inside
of Doctor Daniel?”