51: The Series

5: The Storm Chapter 9

Yuri had been concerned about leaving his job as a police officer in the city to work for a small county sheriff’s department, but he was now glad he had made that choice. He loved being a police officer; it was the only thing he had ever wanted to be. The fact that he had been able to work with his brother made that even better. Now, he was getting to work with his brother and his little sister, Cat. The only thing that made it better was that his other love was all things paranormal. He loved everything about it. He had book upon book about events, creatures, and strange happenings. He was a true believer, so to him, the weirdness that had made others quit made him want the job even more.

Yuri was heading into an area near the national forest. Max had told him that he should never go into the woods by himself for any reason, ever. That made him want to go in and find out what he was talking about, but after what he had seen happen in the department, he knew he needed to heed that warning.

As he drove, he could not help but fall in love with the area. It was beautiful to him. The leaves were off the trees, and the weather was miserable that day. Even with that, he thought about everything he wanted to do when the weather was nicer. His sister had told him that he should come to the area just after she had started at the beginning of the summer, but he had not listened. Now, he wished he had.

He neared the area where the water was reported to be over the road. Stopping at the top of the hill, he could see how fast the water was moving, and it was quickly rising. What looked like it had been a peaceful river had turned into churning rapids. He slowly made his way to the bottom of the hill and stopped the car. He had decided to walk to where he needed to close the road instead of driving.

When he got out of his car, he could hear the full force of the water. It amazed him. He had seen pictures of flash floods and had assisted by blocking flooded streets in the city, but this was the first time he had ever been close to a flood like this. He stopped for a moment to take in the sound. He was surprised by the volume of it. It sounded like a large waterfall. He could even feel it. He watched a tree in the water shoot by him at a speed he never expected. The sheer power of this almost frightened him, and he did not like that feeling.

He walked back to the trunk of the car and pulled out yellow caution tape to tie it across the road to close it. He walked a short distance from his car and tied the tape close to the water first, then to a tree against the rock bluff on the other side. He looked at the water creeping toward where he was standing on the road and saw it had almost no current because of the trees it was moving through near the edge of the road. As he stood there before going back to his car, he heard a strange sound.

The sound was nothing like he had ever heard. It seemed almost quiet and loud at the same time. He looked around to see where it could be coming from but saw nothing. He looked around, thinking it might be something with the storm, but there was nothing but the clouds and rain. He started to move toward his car when he became dizzy, forcing him to stop where he was. As he stood there, it felt like the sound was getting louder. He began moving toward his car again, making it into the driver’s seat this time.

As he sat there, the noise continued to get louder, sounding almost as if it were inside his head, and it became the only thing he could hear. He could still see the flashes of lightning and see the floodwater moving nearby, but he could hear none of it. He looked at the dash of his car and noticed that the clock read 7:12 a.m. He knew he needed to drive back to the department to fill out a report on this sound, yet he could not make his body move to do that. He could only hear the sound.

-

Lindsay and Wren had talked the entire way to check on Yuri. Wren had been asking her one question after another; the problem was she did not have answers to any of them. She wished she did, but she did not. They crested a hill and saw Yuri’s car at the bottom. Water was inching toward the vehicle and almost touching the front tires. The car sat with the lightbar still flashing, and the exhaust showed the engine was running, but Yuri could not be seen anywhere.

“Oh, I do not like this at all,” Lindsay said. “I’m going to park here, and we can walk down.”

“I’ll take the right. You take the left,” Wren said, drawing his gun after they got out of her patrol car.

“Works for me,” Lindsay said, drawing hers.

They walked cautiously to the car. In the pouring rain, all they could hear was the storm and the flooded stream nearby. They saw someone sitting in the driver’s seat as they approached the vehicle. They both hoped it was Yuri and that he was OK. As they reached the back of the car, Wren reached over and checked the trunk to see if it was open. Lindsay could see Yuri in the side mirror, sitting in the driver’s seat. She looked in the car and saw that no one else was in it. She reached for the door handle to open it, but it was locked. Wren tried the passenger side with the same result. Lindsay crouched slightly beside the car and tapped on the window. To her relief, she saw Yuri blink.

“Well?” Wren asked.

“He’s alive, which is good.” She tapped on the window, saying, “Yuri, I need you to unlock the car. Can you do that for me?”

Yuri moved slightly, looking down a little with a perplexed look on his face.

Lindsay tapped on the car window again. “Yuri, can you hear me? I need you to unlock the car.”

“Linz, we need to speed this up,” Wren said, looking down. Lindsay looked down and saw that she was now standing in water. The floodwater was rising fast, and they all needed to get out of there.

“Yuri! Open the door!” she yelled, slapping the window.

Yuri jumped, looked at her, and asked, “Sheriff Gold? Are you really here?”

“Yes, Yuri, unlock the doors now,” Lindsay told him.

She heard the door lock click. She grabbed the door handle, jerked it open, and hit the lock to unlock all of them. Wren opened the passenger door and looked inside.

“Yuri, are you alright?” he asked.

“Did you hear it?” Yuri asked.

Wren told him, “Yuri, the only thing I can hear is the water and the storm. We have got to get you out of here before we lose you and your car.”

“Wren, help me get him into the backseat. You drive his car, and I will follow you in mine. We don’t have time to get much out of him right now. If you have any problems, pull over, and I will be right behind you,” Lindsay told him.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said as he stood up and walked around the back of the car to where Yuri sat in the driver’s seat.

Lindsay looked at Yuri and said, “Yuri, come with me. I need you to stand up and get in the back of the car.”

“Of course, Sheriff, whatever you need,” Yuri replied, slowly getting out of the car.

Wren helped to steady him when he stood. Yuri had a distant look in his eyes, as if he was not focusing on anything. Lindsay and Wren helped him move the few feet it took to open the back door of the patrol car, and he sat down. Wren helped him fasten his seatbelt and closed the door.

Wren asked Lindsay, “What do you think happened? Drugs or weirdness?”

“I would say, without a doubt, it is weirdness. Let’s get out of here while we can. You may have to work your magic on him,” Lindsay told him.

“Get in, and I will drop you off at your car,” Wren said.

They quickly got into the car with Wren driving and turned around. Wren stopped at the top of the hill and let Lindsay out at her car. As soon as she turned around and was following Wren, she called Little Bob on her cell phone.

Little Bob asked as soon as he answered, “Lindsay, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Yuri had blocked the road and got back in his car. That’s where we found him. He was sitting in it, the engine running, all the doors locked, and he was completely out of it. We got him in the backseat of his car, and Wren is driving him back to the department. I am following them,” Lindsay told him.

“Is he OK, though?” Little Bob asked.

“I think so. We will know more when we get him back to the department. Don’t tell Cat or Viktor anything other than he is OK, and we are all headed back to the department now,” Lindsay instructed.

“Got it, boss, we will see you when you get here,” Little Bob said.

Lindsay hung up her phone. She just wanted to get back to the department and take care of Yuri. Lindsay hoped the dash camera in his car could shed some light on what happened to him. She also knew that it might be worthless once again. When Big Bob, Andy, and Annie lost time, their cameras showed only static, beginning almost as soon as they arrived at the club and continuing until just before they left.

When Lindsay pulled up in front of the sheriff's department, Wren was getting out of Yuri’s car as she parked her car beside them. As she got out, she saw Wren open the back door for Yuri. He got out and walked into the building, leaving Wren standing in the rain. Lindsay walked over to him, and all he did was shake his head.

“We will talk inside,” Wren said as they walked to the door.

Wren asked after they were all inside, “Yuri, are you sure you are alright now?”

“Oh yes, sir, I feel fine now,” Yuri answered.

“Bob, I hate to ask you to do this in the rain, but I need you to pull the dash camera from his car so we can review it,” Lindsay told Little Bob, then followed Wren to her office.

Wren was waiting for her when she walked in and closed the door. They both sat down and just looked at each other across the desk.

“Did you do something to him in the car?” Lindsay asked.

“No, I didn’t. After just a couple of minutes in the car, he began to, I don’t know, wake up, might be the right way to put it,” Wren told her. “By the time we got here, it was like nothing had ever happened. He said he remembered a sound in his head and seeing that the clock read 7:12. The next thing he remembered was you at his window. He also thought, at first, he was dead and you were an angel, but you and I both know that isn’t true.”

“True. So, is this another case of missing time? If it is, what do we do about it?” Lindsay asked.

“I don’t know. We tried the dash cameras last time, and that was of no use at all. If Yuri is like the others, he won’t remember anything,” Wren said.

“His camera might be able to help us. It is a different type and older, so we might get lucky. Little Bob is pulling it out of his car now,” Lindsay told him.

Little Bob knocked on her door and opened it. “Got it, and I think I even managed to keep it dry,” he said. He brought the camera around to where Lindsay was sitting. “Now, the question is, do you have the cord that plugs that piece of junk into the computer?”

“I think so. I could have sworn that I saw the right one in here,” Lindsay said, digging in one of her desk drawers. “Ha! Found it.”

She plugged the camera into the computer and hoped they were compatible. Lindsay’s laptop was relatively new, but that camera was not. It had been with the department for longer than she had been. It was also possible that it had been with the department longer than Little Bob and Big Bob. A window popped open on her computer screen, showing it had at least been able to connect to the camera. She began clicking through the different windows until she found the right one.

“Sorry, Bob, but you can’t see whatever is on this thing,” Lindsay told Little Bob as he stood beside her, looking at the computer screen.

“Well, you just spoil all the fun,” Little Bob said, fake pouting as he left her office, closing the door behind him when he did.

“Are you ready to see this babe? It shows that something did record, so you may want to bring your chair,” Lindsay told Wren.

“Of course, I’m ready. I want to know what happened just as much as you do,” Wren said as he moved his chair beside her.

She opened the first file. They watched the video and saw Yuri park his car and get out. He used the caution tape to mark the road closed, and everything seemed to be OK. Then, as they continued to watch, they began to hear something. It was like a whisper or a murmur. They could both see that Yuri could hear it, too. As they watched, they saw him stumble as he made his way back to the car. When he returned to the car, he just sat in the driver’s seat. Lindsay carefully increased the speed of the video, occasionally slowing it to check if the sound was still there. All it showed was Yuri sitting in the car, and the sound continued until a few minutes before Lindsay tapped on his window.

“That is bizarre,” Wren said, leaning back in his chair. “He just sat there the whole time and listened to that sound. I wonder if that is what happened to the evening shift when they lost time.”

“I don’t know. Remember that Annie got sick afterward, and Big Bob and Andy both felt off but were not as sick as she was,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay saved the camera files to her computer and unplugged the camera so that Little Bob could put it back in Yuri’s car. She rolled the cord up and put it in her desk drawer. She eased back in her chair and looked at Wren, who was leaning back in his chair with his fingers laced behind his head. He just looked at her.

“What now?” she asked him.

“There’s nothing to do but watch him and make sure he doesn’t get sick,” Wren answered.

“OK, then I will give this to Little Bob to put back in the car. Don’t worry, I cleared everything off of it,” Lindsay said, picking up the camera. “Hopefully, this won’t happen again to anyone else while the weather is bad.”

“What, it’s OK if this happens when the weather clears?” Wren asked, smiling at her.

“Of course not, but what if he had parked closer to where he blocked the road, or what if he would have been on a low water bridge? I’m almost certain that all of those in this county are underwater right now. This could have been a lot worse. I guess the bright side is he thinks all the weirdness is fun, so maybe it works out in the end,” Lindsay said as she stood up.

Wren stood up and moved his chair back to where it was in front of her desk. He stopped and looked at her.

“What?” she asked as she walked toward him and the door.

“It still amazes me sometimes how calm you are with this.”

“Do I have a choice?” she asked him.

“No, not really,” he answered.

They both walked out of her office. Little Bob met them first.

Little Bob asked Lindsay, “Well?”

“Only a strange sound and Yuri, sitting in his car,” she answered him.

“That’s it. So is this the same thing that happened to the evening shift?” Little Bob asked.

Wren answered, “It looks like it is.”

“I’ll put that back in the car before he leaves,” Little Bob said as he took the camera from Lindsay.

“Leaves? Why hasn’t he gone home?” she asked as she walked toward the front of the building. As she did, she saw Max sitting at one of the desks, drinking a cup of coffee.

“What, you had to try out the new coffee pot?” she asked Max. “Go home, both of you,” Lindsay told Max and Yuri.

“What can I say? I wanted to know if this guy was going to make it,” Max said, nodding his head toward Yuri.

“Yuri, you should be fine,” Wren told him. “If no one has told you the same thing happened to the evening shift not long ago, and they are all fine.”

Max added, “Well, except Big Bob, but he has never been OK. Andy can’t talk to women, but he couldn’t before it happened. Oh, and Annie never stops talking, but she was like that when the Sheriff hired her, so when you think about it, they weren’t OK to start with.”

“What can I say, Max? There is something wrong with all of us, which is why we work so well together,” Lindsay said. “Now, Max and Yuri, you two need to go home and get some sleep before you both come back in tonight at midnight.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Max said, standing up.

“Yuri, give me just a minute to get your camera back in your car.”

“I have my personal car here, so take your time. I will go home and get that car tonight when I come back in,” Yuri told Little Bob.

Just as Lindsay was going to tell them to go home again, the phone rang. She closed her eyes and dropped her head as Cat answered it. Cat began to type and quickly wrote a note, waving it toward where they were standing. Viktor walked over and took it from her. He read the paper and looked at it, confused. He handed it to Lindsay, and she read it.

It read: “Werewolf 75118 Bark Lane.”

Lindsay shook her head and asked no one in particular, “Are you freaking kidding me?”

She handed the note to Wren. He read it and looked at Cat. Cat had hung up the phone by that time and turned toward them.

“Sorry, everyone, I only take the calls. I can’t control what they are,” Cat said.

“Alright, we have to check this one. First, Max and Yuri go home unless you can’t get there because of flooded roads. I will take this one, and Wren, I need you to come with me on this call. Little Bob, stay here and handle things dealing with the storm. Viktor, do you want to come out on this one so you can get a little more experience before you take one on your own?” Lindsay asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Viktor answered.

“Then everyone, grab your rain gear,” Lindsay said before she and Wren walked back into her office to get their raincoats and her hat. As they came back out, Max and Yuri had already left, and Viktor was waiting to follow them in his car.

“Cat, I thought you were going to have a second dispatcher on duty with you?” Lindsay asked as she walked by Cat’s desk.

“He couldn’t get here because his road is flooded on both sides of his house,” she answered.

“Well, there's not much way to fix that one. For now, keep doing what you are doing. As long as you can handle things, don’t worry about having a second person. If you start to get overloaded, call someone in to help,” Lindsay told her.

“Yes, ma’am,” Cat answered with a smile.

Lindsay, Wren, and Viktor walked out of the department and into the pouring rain on the way to their cars. This call was not far from her and Wren’s home, and that made her a little more worried about whether this call was genuine. She got in her car, started the engine, and looked at the clock on the dash. It read just after noon; this was going to be a very long day.