INFECTION 2.0

~ TWELVE ~

Carson Lockley rubbed at his eyes and yawned. Twenty-four-hour shifts were meant for the younger guys. At this age, the coffee wasn’t helping him to stay awake, only making him piss every half hour. That thought didn’t stop him from getting another cup though. Like it or not, at six he was going to slip off and catch a nap.

“Or maybe quit.” He mumbled to himself as he walked back to his desk.

He scanned through the report on the computer screen, double-checking the spelling of names and the times and details with the notes he had taken. He tried to recall if he had ever fielded so many s*x-related calls in one night before. There were at least half a dozen men in holding cells just down the hall, busted on molestation or r**e charges. Several others, that they could only get for indecent exposure, they decided to cut loose so their attention could be on the more serious offenders. There were even two women being detained on similar charges. An hour or so earlier a couple of the cops were joking about why any man would complain about a woman throwing herself at him.

Everyone trying to get s*x, tonight it seemed. The holding cells for the women adjoined the one the men were in. Just bars that separated the two and at one point in the night one of the girls being detained and one of the guys being detained tried going at it with the bars in between them.

Almost all of them were sick. Epidemic food poisoning, or something, but sheesh since when did s*x and sick become a fetish? Not this old boy, Lockley said to himself, I want s*x in bed and I want to be sick in bed, but not at the same time.

Suddenly there was an explosion of shouting and yelling from down the hall that was different than the usual ruckus of trouble makers and drunks. The detective waited and listened for a minute but the shouting became louder and more intense, mingled with some other sound that had a ring of fear and pain. He was getting up from his desk when someone burst in from the direction of the holding cells.

“One of those guys is going crazy!” the man shouted. “He’s trying to kill the others!”

Lockley’s brow furrowed as he pushed past the uniformed man and went down the hall. In here the yells were almost deafening.

“Let him go, goddamn it! I will shoot your ass! Let him go now!”

“Get me out of here!”

A pain induced scream

“Shoot ‘Him, man, shoot ‘Him!”

And Many other shouts and demands.

Lockley could see a uniformed woman standing with her service pistol drawn and pointed. As of yet, he could not see what she was up against. She was in the holding cell. Other officers were at the open cell door or in the hall. They too had their weapons out.

The voice screaming suddenly choked off with a gurgling sound.

He seen and heard the woman shout, “Turn around and put your hands on the bars.” there was just a moment’s pause then she fired her weapon.