Cheap Thrills (6 Thrilling reads) (7 page)

Twenty Five

DeShaun is sipping on another hot cup of coffee, this time in his own office. He’s working some files on his computer when a man comes bursting through the door. He’s a tall man, slender build, wearing an officer’s uniform. He salutes DeShaun and stands at attention. All this is making DeShaun feel uneasy, he doesn’t like being saluted, he isn’t in the army after all, but the army people salute all government officials, for it is the government these men and women fight for.

‘What’s the problem?’ DeShaun asks as he sips on his coffee some more

The officer looks at him and shakes his head, trying to excrete some words out of his own mouth.

‘There has been an attack on 48
th
street, Manhattan sir’

‘What sort of an attack? Planes?’

‘No sir, a group of armed men dressed in body armour opened fire and killed two hundred and eighty seven people, including thirty two police officers’

DeShaun gets up from his seat, feeling woozy at the sound of the news he is receiving.

‘You’re kidding me?...What about the combusting people? Why are parts of New York untouched by this virus?’

‘I don’t know sir, but reports are coming in that after the attack, the Manhattan area is now experiencing the same viral symptoms that Brooklyn is experiencing’

‘So these armed men could be linked with this virus?’

‘It looks that way sir, there’s one more thing,’ says the officer

‘What?’

‘The Mayor is missing’

Twenty Six

Ray has been walking through the sewer system now for an hour. He’s walked past the ladder he climbed down yesterday and now finds himself exploring the depths of the sewer.  Its dark and cold down there, a feeling that he has grown accustom to since all this has gone down. He feels as if his life is near its end. A life that maybe he didn’t live to its fullest. He hasn’t always been happy; hell he has never been happy. He was all too consumed with the mundane details of life to enjoy the true great things in it. His work had been his hobby. His money had been his love. He never had a serious relationship. Many women would run for the hills after realising what type of man he is. A man that consumes himself with work ethic and drive. A man who doesn’t really see a women for more than a night’s work, and a lifetime’s burden. He nearly found the right girl back a few years ago, it turned into more than a one night thing but unfortunately his work got in  the way again.

Now he finds himself wondering those same things, is his survival getting in the way of what is really happening? Should he be concentrating on the mysteries of this strange time he is living in? That’s why he brought his laptop down with him in the first place. Maybe it’s time he starts to make something of himself. He gathers that there are many capable people up above that could be doing the same thing he is doing. Wondering what is causing this. He’s sure that there are people who are being assigned jobs in finding out what is happening up there. He can be pretty sure that the government its self is trying to figure out who is behind all this, surly it’s their jobs to find out why people are self-combusting everywhere, and why flashing lights are causing these combustions.

Maybe it’s the government who is behind this. Maybe that’s why he heard gunshots earlier on, maybe the National Guard did show up, but they decided to finish off what they couldn’t finish with the beacons alone. Either way, Ray finds himself lost in more conspiracies. He’s used to thinking the worst, but for the first time in his life he finds himself living in the worst, living in every thinker’s worst nightmare. A world where power has overtaken and technology is obviously at fault. How else can he be safe underground? How else can these beacons not touch him under a hundred feet of concrete? It must be satellites, or a virus that hasn’t made its way underground, but surly if it was a virus then him and the people who were once up top, but now find themselves underground would have spread the viral pathogen around by now.

Ray looks down at his wrist. The once flashing light is not flashing anymore. The flashing had stopped for the time he had been underground, so a virus is out of the question. He’s safe underground, and if this thing was air born, he wouldn’t be safe, considering the amount of open grates and sewage pipes would have let the virus in by now, his wrist would be flashing, and he would have exploded.

The further he walks the more light he can see. It’s evident to him that he can see the maintenance area for the metro from here. It seems that New York’s underground tunnels of sewage and train tracks come quite close to each other. He already knew that anyway, it doesn’t take an historian to know that New York’s underground is just
as congested as New York’s over ground’s skyscrapers and roads.

After a few more minutes of walking he decides to make his way down one of the service hatches towards the metro. He is greeted with some lighting, as the train tracks remain silent with a distant echo of
the wind. The sight of the empty rows of tracks sends a shiver down his spine. He can see the dust in the air, a monument of the trains that not too long ago would rush down these parts at a hundred miles an hour. Some of them going to Brooklyn, others to Manhattan, all them going somewhere, now none of them going anywhere. He carries on walking straight down the tracks; he spots a faint light approaching. It startles him as he feels the tracks below his feet rumble. Could it be that his theory on the trains not running anymore be wrong? He stops dead in the center of the track and kneels down. He puts his dirty hand on the copper track and feels the vibrations. With every second passing he feels the vibrations grow stronger. The light that was once far away is now edging even closer to him, then the sound kicks in, a sound that Ray will never likely forget. It’s the sound of a speeding train accompanied by screams of terror. He quickly jumps off the track and rolls into a dirt ditch. The ditch is dirty with a distinct smell of wet concrete. He looks up and spots scaffolding. He realises where he is. They recently announced they were extending the underground rail network, he must be clamouring for his life in a workman’s pit. He can hear the train approach as he makes his way up to catch a glimpse of it pass by. Within seconds he sees the train pass just above him as he hugs the dirt. What surprises him isn’t the fact that the train is there at all; it’s the fact that the cabins passing him are on fire, each one of them ablaze with a tremendous heat. He can see the windows of the cabin and inside are terrorized faces of men and women screaming in pain. They smack their hands against the window as the train speeds by. The sheer heat of the train makes Ray burst out in a sweat. He can see imprints of blood on the train’s windows. Within seconds of the train reaching him, it had disappeared down the way he came, screeching in terror, on fire, while leaving a thick dense cloud of dust behind.

Tiny sparks ignite in the air as he looks up at where the train had passed. He quickly gets up and climbs out of the ditch. He turns back to see the blazing train race down the tracks. He watches it disappear into the darkness. The screams fade away but the smell of burning metal and seared flesh remain stagnant in the air. Ray turns around and is met with a startling scene. A woman is making her way down the tracks towards him; she is dragging a man with her. Ray rubs his eyes, not sure of what he is seeing. He then realises what he is seeing is real. He rushes over to the struggling woman and helps her with the man. He immediately notices the injured man has been shot, and then realises the man is wearing a police man’s uniform.

‘What happened?’ he asks the tiered looking woman

‘I found him on a stairwell next to the metro entrance on 50th’

‘He’s been shot, it looks bad,’ says Ray out of breath

‘Yeah, I know, I’m an intern’

‘A doctor?’ asks Ray

‘Yeah, well sort of, I’m Donner’

Ray smiles

‘Nice to meet you Donner, I’m Ray’

‘We need to find somewhere safe, the train tracks aren’t the ideal place right now’

‘You’re telling me, I can take you somewhere safe. A place where there are people. It’s in the sewers, there’s five of us’

‘Lead the way,’ Donner says while grasping the policeman’s arm, trying to stabilize him.

Luis Samways

Beacon of Light

Episode Two

One

‘You’ve got to control the bleeding; it’s a clean shot but a shot none the less. Put down pressure like this,’ Donner says to Ray as she shows him how to apply medical aid.

Ray follows her commands but feels overwhelmed at the sight of the police man dying in front of him. He was fine for a few minutes. They had managed to carry him off of the train tracks, but as soon as they got down to the sewers, that’s when the man started going into shock. Donner had told Ray what was happening to him but through all the excitement he can’t quite remember the exact name of this man’s condition, besides from a gunshot to the sternum, which that  much is obvious at least.

‘Hold down tightly Ray, we need him alive,’ she shouts as she continues to try her best to save the man with what little supplies she has on her.

‘You got that bag from where exactly?’ asks Ray, spotting her shoulder bag wrapped tightly around her chest.

She continues to work on the man, bandaging him up.

‘From the hospital I worked in’

Ray nods, feeling as if it was a stupid question. She obviously has medical experience judging on how calm she is around the wounded man she’s treating.

‘Well you’re going to have to make those supplies last you know….God knows when we are going to come across more medicine,’ he says as he pushes down hard on the policeman’s chest.

‘I thought you said there was a group of you down the sewers?’

Ray nods again

‘Yeah there is, but we don’t have any supplies like that. I mean between the group of us we have like ten bottles of water and some minor food supplies, like candy and that. No medicine though, I should have thought of that before’

‘Well, it’s too late now. We will have to make do with what we have,’ Donner says as she relieves pressure on the man’s chest.

She stays there, kneeling. She watches as the policeman on the floor with the gunshot wound struggles for air. After a few seconds his once heaving chest slows down to an idle state.

‘He’s dead. Bullet must have nicked an artery. He bled out. I’m sorry,’ she says as if she is used to that sort of outcome,

Ray looks on at his new companion and feels an overwhelming sense of sadness. He could see how much this woman cared about saving lives. He gets up from his kneeling position overlooking the downed officer and extends his hand. Donner looks up at Ray and smiles a sad but warm smile. She grips his strong hand and gets herself up on her feet. She looks around at their surroundings and quickly refocuses.

‘How far away is the camp?’

Ray laughs

‘It’s no camp…but it isn’t that far, maybe a ten minute walk if we hurry’

‘Good, I want to meet the rest of them,’ she says

‘You will, don’t worry. I’ll get us there’

Donner picks up her bag of supplies and lets Ray lead the way into the dark tunnels of the New York sewer system.

Two

The Black Ops style army commander looks through the viewfinder of his night vision binoculars. He sees a group of armed United States marines patrolling the south bank of their barracks. The night sky glistens with stars and satellites. The US marines seen through the viewfinder don’t look like they are in a war setting, and that is because they are not. They are domestic marines. They patrol their barracks not because of the fear of attack but because they are told to by their drill instructors.

The base the covert army men are surveying is a boot camp for the fifth regiment of the United States Marine Corp. They are not in a warzone; they are situated just south of Arlington, Virginia. The base in question is the Henderson Hall base. It’s been in commission since the Second World War and in its present state, it is used to house the marines of Virginia and to train the future marines of the United States.

The covert army’s orders are simple. Take the base hard, and take it fast. Anything less than that would be unsatisfactory. Mr Conway has assured them that the element of surprise will be in their favour. With the US worrying about people self-combusting in New York and other cities, it gives the covert army and Mr Conway himself, the chance to strike at their true targets; The United States itself.

The army commander draped in black with war paint on his face puts his binoculars down on the dirt mound in front of him. He turns around and whistles quietly. A slight rustling sound is heard in the bushes as he looks on in anticipation. A few seconds pass and a large group of men spanning the whole south bank of the Henderson Hall outpost emerge through the brush. There are at least two hundred and fifty armed men. Each of them has an assault rifle strung around their necks. All of them have the same outfit on. The left shoulder of the army commander dons a patch that reads
“The Covert Militia”

Three

48
th
street is nothing but a graveyard today. After the attack on the street a few hours prior, no one dares walk those streets today. They couldn’t if they wanted to, seeing that the FBI are on task, trying to determine what happened to the people on 48
th
that fateful morning. One of the detectives in question patrolling the area for clues is Jesse Manteo, a New York homicide detective with deep roots towards the Native Americans of yesteryear. He’s a young guy, long hair and bares a certain resemblance to a rock star, even though he lacks the good looks.  He’s sipping his Mocha Latte on the cusp of 48
th
overlooking the destruction left behind by the armed covert army. His partner Ricky Pastori approaches Jesse with a grim look on his face.

‘I have bad news Jesse, all the CCTV has been taken out,’ says Ricky as he too sips on a Starbucks coffee he has in his hand.

‘Well I figured that much at least, I mean how couldn’t they take the CCTV out? They shot the whole place up. I’ll be surprised if there is a single piece of equipment on this street that doesn’t have a bullet hole in it’

‘Why do you think they hit 48
th
street like this?’ asks Ricky

‘I don’t know; I don’t even know who these guys are. Why would anyone hit 48
th
anyway? I mean, it wasn’t a robbery that much is clear. They had the chance to hit some of the most expensive shops in the world and they didn’t steal one thing. It was a slaying, a slaying of the masses,’ Says Jesse

‘The FBI says they think it could be a militia of some sorts’

‘How do they figure that out?’

‘I don’t know, you know how these guys work. They assume something right off the bat. It could be any number of things. Terrorism springs to mind,’ says Ricky

Jesse shakes his head in disagreement.

‘Well, terrorists or not, I’m sure the many people who died on this street today would tell you they were terrified when it happened’

Suddenly a street officer on the scene whistles at the two detectives from across the street. Ricky and Jesse look at each other in curiosity as they approach the beckoning man.

The officer looks flushed of colour, over worked and sweating; he doesn’t say anything, he just points at the ground. A graffiti styled mural has been tattooed on the floor. It reads:
We will find you

Ricky looks at his partner who remains fixated on the message on the floor.

‘What’s up with that?’ Ricky asks as he continues to look at his rattled partner Jesse

‘It doesn’t matter what it means, all that matters is that we find them before they do anything else’