The Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the End 14

“911, please state your emergency,” there was a little static interrupting the caller’s message, “Can you please repeat that,” More static garbling the voice on the other end. Rose covered her mouthpiece and yelled for one of the officers outside her Rose covered her mouthpiece and yelled for one of the officers outside her office, then asked one more time, “This is the 911 dispatch, I have your location as the high school, can you please repeat what you said?” One of the rookies came into the office and waited, not wanting to interrupt a 911 call. Rose saw him standing in the doorway and spoke into her mouthpiece one more time, “I still can’t understand you; I am going to dispatch a couple of officers to you to give you what assistance you may need.” She turned and looked at the kid, well he was 18, but just the same she saw him as a kid, “Tommy, I need you to go to the high school and see if you can find out what is wrong. You should probably take Scott or Marry you just in case.” Tommy nodded, “Yes Ma’am,” then disappeared from the doorway.

Marry was the first one he saw, “Hey, Marry,” he called across the room, “Are you busy? There is an emergency at the high school.” Marry looked up from her desk, then put her pen in her pocket and grabbed her jacket as she stood up. Tommy was already out the door, ‘Great,’ she thought, ‘now he will get to drive,’ she pulled her jacket on as she walked out into the bright morning sun. She opened the door and slid into the passenger’s seat, and they pulled out onto the road headed west toward the high school. He told her what little he knew about the situation, and they agreed that it was probably nothing and they should be back to the station in an hour or so. The shooting of the previous day was still in the front of their minds though, so they would be just a little more cautious when they got there and found who ever made the call.

They pulled up to the front of the school with the lights flashing, neither of them noticed anything out of the ordinary, as they closed their doors Chuck, the custodian, came running out of the building, pale and covered in sweat. The two officers looked at each other then back at the worried man. “What is the problem, Chuck, Marry asked as the man leaned against the patrol car, trying to catch his breath. “The science lab, the animals,” he managed to get out before turning ang vomiting on the front of the car. The two officers looked at each other and headed toward the school, Marry calling back that they would be back, and he should just wait there. Having just graduated the previous year, Tommy knew where to go, science had been one of his favorite classes after all.

They slowly made their way down the hall, hands on their weapons, when they reached the door Tommy motioned for Marry to stay back. He eased up to the door and eased his head around to look through the narrow window, when he did his whole body tensed, “My God,” he muttered and Marry came around him to look for herself. Her jaw dropped and her stomach began to churn, and she understood why Chuck had got sick. Tommy reached for the mic on his shoulder. “Dispatch, this is officer Bride, can you send Detective Aspin to the high school, we have an unusual situation down here and I think she is going to want to see this.” He let the button go, then he led Marry outside, once the cool breeze hit her face, she sobered up enough to look professional again. The two of them went to interview Chuck while waiting for the detective and her back up arrived.