Emergent

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The seat was horribly uncomfortable, and the radio was chattering the whole time we

were driving, it was constant police codes and addresses, though I didn’t really pay it much

mind, that is until it said something I understood. “Officer down!”

“s**t!” The cop said not taking his eyes from the road. “That’s the fourth one tonight.”

I looked at his face in the rear view mirror, he was on the edge of panic but didn’t

want to show it. “What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing we can’t handle.” I could hear the uncertainty in his words, but it was

still comforting to hear them, whether or not he believed they were true. I looked out the

side window and tried to determine how long it was going to be till we got to the police

station. We were about half way there.

I tried to ease the situation. “So, a police officer huh?”

His focus was elsewhere. “What?”

“I was just asking, what it’s like to be a cop?” He glanced up at me in the mirror, then

back to the road.

“Yeah, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

I adjusted my position in an incredibly ineffective attempt to get comfortable. “What’s

that supposed to mean?”

“Well…” He was trying to find the right words to answer. “I guess you sign on

thinking about the honor and justice of it. But when reality sets in it’s just another job, and

sometimes a dangerous one at that.”

“I thought a lot of people become cops to try and serve the community?”

“That’s a better reason than why I signed up-” I felt the car slowing down. “Hold on.”

He was looking out the front window in an attempt to make out the figures before him. He

pulled the car over and flicked on the lights. “I’ll be right back.” He opened the door and

stepped outside. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, his words were muffled, but I did

notice him reaching for his gun again. I could only see flickers of what was going on in front

of the car. The lights flashed over a few hunched figures in the dark. I squinted to try and

make out the scene. I couldn’t get a good view of it till the officer pulled out his flashlight

and shined it on the small group of people.

I saw blood, entrails, and body parts strewn across the ground in a mess. Two men and

a woman were devouring what I could only assume was once a person. I saw the officer rear

back in disgust, and that’s when they started to get up. He pulled his gun from its holster and

pointed it at the people coming toward him. He waved it between them as they advanced,

shouting louder as they got closer. He fired at the first one, planting a round right in its

chest. Then a second shot, and a third. I could barely make out his words when he said

“What the f**k?” He started to retreat towards the car never taking his eyes off his

assailants. He aimed again, this time putting one in its head. It fell to the ground by the time

he made it back to the car door. He aimed one more time, but nothing happened. He dropped

the flashlight and tried to mess with his gun. After a few seconds passed he looked up at his

opponents. Instead of firing again he opened the door and got back in the car slamming it

behind him. “Of all the times to fuckin’ stovepipe!”

He threw the car in gear and smashed on the gas pedal hard enough that I could hear it

hit the floorboard. The tires screeched violently as the car lurched forward running into the

two zombies that were in front of the car. The woman smashed into the glass hard enough to

make a thunk noise, while the man went under the tires. I could hear him squish and fumble around under the car. As we picked up speed he dislodged himself from the under carriage,

but the woman was clawing at the window, till we reached the intersection which split off in

a ‘T’ to the left and right. The officer slammed on the breaks sending the woman flying. The

top half of her hit a window, while the bottom smashed into the brick wall that the window

was mounted in. Her legs flipped up after the impact, causing her to tumble inside.

We both sat there waiting for a second, wide eyed, just to make sure she was down.

She stumbled back into the light, with large shards of glass stuck in her body. Several large

gashes disfigured her face. She tripped over the bricks that her legs had hit just a moment

earlier. “Holy crap!” The officer exclaimed. “How the hell is she still moving?” He put the

car in reverse and pulled back enough to turn the car to the right. He put the car back in gear

and took off down the road till he felt we had gotten a safe distance away.

“What the hell was that?” I asked frantically.

“I don’t know! Drugs maybe…? Nah, that doesn’t sound right.” He wiped his

forehead bringing his hand down to cover one eye. “That s**t’s just not right. Someone

hopped up on the right drugs might be able to shake off bullets for a minute or two, but

that’s usually just one guy tweaked out of his mind. I’ve never seen it affect a whole group

of people like that. I guess this explains what’s going o-“ He was cut off by the sound of

shrieking tires when a car clipped the back corner of ours at high speed. It wasn’t a direct

impact. The driver of the other car tried to swerve out of the way, but it still tore the trunk

wide open, spilling various equipment on the ground, and turning the car nearly sideways in

the road. “s**t!” He looked at the other car which had lost control and plowed into a stop

light. The driver looked at us only for a second before he pulled his car back, and sped off

like it never happened. “Are you ok?” the cop asked looking back at me.

I had been thrown to the other side of the car from the impact, but after a second or

two I had assessed myself. “I’m fine.”

He grabbed the radio’s receiver and pulled it to his mouth hesitantly. He hadn’t

pressed the button to talk yet when a voice on the other line came through. “We have

another officer down, I repeat offi-“ It cut to static then quiet.

He put the radio back down and got out of the car. He walked over to where we had

been hit and crouched down to get a better look at the tire. After a few seconds, he got back

in. “I think it’s only cosmetic damage, the car should drive fine.”

“Ok, so what are we doing? Still going to the station right?” He grabbed at the radio

again, but his eyes caught the attention of a few more shadowy figures coming our way out

of the darkness.

“More of ‘em?” He said. We both looked around and could see about six of them

coming toward the car, slowly shambling. He pushed the button to speak over the radio, but

our eyes locked in the rear view mirror. He slowly released the button, hung up the receiver,

and started driving instead. “Nobody wants to say it kid, but this town is going to hell… and

fast.”

I looked out the window as we drove. “We just passed the turn off to the police

station?” I questioned him to gauge whether or not he knew.

“Yeah… I know.”

“So where the hell are we going?” I leaned forward in the seat trying to get his

attention, but his eyes were fixed on the road.

“You heard the radio right? Did you watch the news? Whatever the f**k this is, is

already out of control. We didn’t have enough officers to even maintain the quarantine zone.

But this s**t? It’s too much.”

“So what? We’re just not going back?”

“I’m saying, we’ve already lost control. I don’t know if this is a virus, or some kind of

terrorist attack, or who the f**k cares what it is! It’s spreading too fast for anyone to figure

out what. And I’m not dying for this s**t!”

“You’re just going to cut and run?” It didn’t sit well with me that someone who was

sworn to protect and serve was so willing to abandon the people. But he was quick to call

me out for feeling the same way.

“You want to get out of the car? Be my guest! But, the military is probably going to

roll into Ashville any minute and set up a quarantine around the whole city. If we’re lucky

we can beat ‘em.” There wasn’t a whole lot I could say to that. If things were as bad as he

suspected, then he was right, getting out of town before we got locked in would drastically

increase our chances of survival.

I sat in the back of the car waiting as we kept on rolling to the edge of town. I caught

brief glimpses of terrible things out of the window as we drove. When about three minutes

had passed since the silence between us set in, I looked out the window and noticed the

small coffee shop that I worked at. It was open, with those monsters slowly making their

way down the street to it. “Officer! Stop the car!” I yelled startling the man behind the

wheel, and causing him to cover one ear with his hand and jump in his seat.

He c****d his head back toward me to respond. “s**t don’t yell kid! I’m sitting right

here.” He took his hand from his ear. “My name is John, by the way, John Maxton. No

matter what happens I probably won’t be a cop after this, so just use my name.”

“Sure whatever, turn the car around John. We have to go back.”

“No Mark, I’m not stopping to save every random person in trouble along the way, we

don’t even have the time, or room for more than two or three more people anyway.”

“It’s not some random person, it’s someone I know.” We were silent for a few seconds

before I continued. “It’s my coworker.”

“Listen, I don’t care if it’s your cousin, brother, or even your grandma! We’ve got to

go.” He was checking back in the mirror every couple of seconds to gauge my reaction.

“She’s not just a… I mean.” I was stumbling over my words, trying to figure out what

to say.

“She?” He questioned me with one eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, she’s this girl I work with, and I… um…” I wasn’t sure what to say about her

at the time. It wasn’t like we were dating. In fact, we didn’t really talk all that much. I guess

you could say I had a crush, though when you’re young you always think it’s more than that.

John rolled his eyes, pulled the car over, and turned around to face me directly. “She’s

your girlfriend.”

“No, that’s not really-”

He cut me off. “Oh so you want her to be your girlfriend, but you’re too chicken shit

to ask her.”

He saw right through me, but it hurt my pride to admit that he was right. “No! It’s

more like-”

“What it just hasn’t come up yet? That’s bullshit!” He stared at me waiting for me to

respond. “Nah we don’t got time for this shit.”

“Then let me out of the car.” I was scared shitless to get out of the car, but I could tell,

even though he was trying to run away, there was still kindness in his eyes.

“Ok.” He got out of the car and opened the door for me.

I stepped out and started making my way toward the coffee shop. When I heard him

close the door, and get back in the car I started to panic. All of the sudden I realized that my

gamble, might have just got me killed. After about ten seconds I could hear one barely

audible muffled word come from inside the car. “s**t!” The car swung around. He rolled the

window down to talk to me. “Get in the car.”

“Really?” I was so relieved that he didn’t just up and abandon me.

“Yes really, you stubborn little s**t. But let’s make this quick we have to go!” He was

mad, but his insult came off more like a compliment.

I was elated by the gesture of kindness. “Thank you.” I said opening the back door of

the car and gladly jumping back inside.

He let out a heavy sigh. “So where is she?”

“She’s at that coffee shop about a block back where we came from.”

“Fine.” He started driving. “But she better at least be pretty.”

“It’s what’s inside that counts though, right?” I answered back.

“The outside matters too and everyone knows it!” His answer gave me a bit more

insight into who he was. He viewed things as they were, rather than through rose colored

glasses. It was neither pessimism nor optimism that defined his perspective, merely what he

saw and expected. And this made me realize that his decision to leave town was not out of

panic or fear, he just knew what was coming.

When we had pulled up to the shop I worked at I was bothered by a nagging question

in my head. “What did you mean when you said stovepipe earlier?”

“Huh? Stovepipe?”

“Yeah, when you got back in the car just before you ran those… um… things over,

you said something like ‘of all the times to stovepipe?’”

He grabbed the shotgun mounted in the center console of the car, pumped it to load a

shell into the chamber, and looked back at me with flat eyes. “It means my gun jammed.”