Inanimate (47 page)

“
Deputy Lynch!”

Brian yelled this time and waited. His
heart raced, his hands trembled as he tried to hold his gun tight.
No one was answering; it was obvious Lynch was not here anymore.
Terrified, he walked to the last place he saw the deputy. It was
then he spotted the ladders. Logic told him that if Lynch was not
on the roof then he had to have used the ladders to get down
because he had been standing next to the only door. Brian scanned
the area with his gun. He was shaking badly now. He knew Lynch
would not have left him there alone. He had to look. He didn’t want
to but he had to, he had to be sure of what he suspected after he
heard the thud. Carefully, Brian backed up towards the ledge,
reasoning that he had more chance of being attacked from the front
rather than behind. Once his body pressed up against concrete he
stopped, took a breath and turned his head to look for Lynch. Brian
recoiled immediately. Lynch was not hidden; his corpse was right
there on the parking lot tarmac for everyone to see. Brian
swallowed hard and started to move towards the door. Sure, he was
upset about Lynch but right now he had to focus on getting off the
roof in one piece.

“
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts,
happy thoughts.”

Brian’s loud rambling was a desperate
attempt to help him to focus. He moved quickly to the door, paying
little attention to his surroundings. The noise of something moving
down the air vents didn’t even shake him from his focus as he moved
towards the door.

“
Happy thoughts, happy
thoughts, happy thoughts.”

Now he was through the door and moving
down the stairs to the main room.

“
Happy thoughts, happy
thoughts, happy…”

Brian opened the door and what he saw
killed the words in his mouth.

Detective Graham was lying on his stomach,
two small dummies were holding up his head by the ears and Dummy
was repeatedly kicking him in his already brutalized face. One
after another the kicks came, causing no pain to already dead
detective. Brian froze against the wall, choking on his own breath.
They hadn’t seen him, so it would have been dangerous to use his
weapon. He was outnumbered. Quietly, he crab walked along the wall,
trying not to look at the horrific sight in front of him. He was
making good speed when he decided to look back at the three
dummies. He froze once more as one of the smaller dummies was
staring right at him. Strangely though, it was just watching him,
it did not alert the others. Brian put this down to dumb luck and
kept moving. Moving along still he was starting to feel like he
would escape when out of the corner of his eye he saw Jessica
sitting on the floor, drawing on a sheet of paper. In all the
mayhem, Brian had forgotten all about her. Fear gripped hard, he
was so close to escaping. Going to get Jessica would mean moving
back towards the dummies and potential death. Closing his eyes, he
started to move towards the exit again, but after a few feet he
stopped. He couldn’t leave; he couldn’t live with himself if he
left her to die. Cursing his compassionate side he pushed himself
off the wall and grabbed Jessica firmly.

Brian received a reaction he
never expected f
rom saving a child. Jessica screamed out loud, cutting
through the air like a siren. Suddenly the dummies stopped moving,
Graham’s face fell to the floor and Brian’s heart felt like it was
about to stop. The only noise he could hear was an odd chewing
sound coming from a few desks away. Brian turned to see Basket
innocently munching on Kyle’s severed head as if it was a
watermelon. Basket looked genuinely surprised to see Brian standing
in front of him, holding Jessica. Ominously, the Dummies all turned
to face Brian as Basket simply watched the standoff. Another shriek
from Jessica was enough to send Brian running towards the exit with
the little girl in tow. Brian never looked back; if he had he would
have seen that nothing was chasing them. Dummy simply watched them
go, and Basket just sniggered in between bites.

The door to the main room burst open as
Brian forced his way through

“
What the hell’s going
on?”

Brian didn’t answer Jacobs; he ran up to
the others and dropped Jessica on the ground. Anne instinctively
took the little girl into her clutch as Jacobs continued
questioning Brian.

“
Where
are the others?”

Brian’s eyes were too traumatized to
release tears.

“
They’re dead.”

“
What?” MacNamee
asked standing
up.

The words hit Jacobs hard. He had asked
Graham to come along personally and now he was dead. Brian’s words
of explanation could do little for his mood now.

“
The dolls got them
both; they’ve all
found a way in.”

“
We know, Oates told us as
well” chimed MacNamee.

“
But how
could they get in?” Anne asked “I
mean surely we would have heard them.”

A voice from behind
startled them,
proving how easy it was to sneak up on them.

“
We don’t know how they got in,
but Brian’s right, they’re all here.” Oates’ voice
boomed.

“
Damn right he’s right!”
Tony interrupted
“Fucking clown nearly killed me!”

“
No more than you deserve”
mumbled
Anne.

“
Where’s Deputy
Lynch?”

Oates
’ question answered itself in evoking
silence from those who already knew the answer. Just to clarify,
Brian simply shook his head. Oates stood up straight.

“
Dorrian
…”

Oates
spoke to himself quietly.

“
So what now?” Matthew asked
gently.

“
We go after
them
.” Jacobs
answered militantly; still coming to terms with Graham’s
loss.

“
Are you nuts?” Yelled Tony
“We’ll die!”

“
Coward”
mumbled Anne, but this time Tony
heard her.

“
What was that?”

Anne ignored him.

“
I said, what was that
bitch?”

“
You heard me!” Anne
shot
back.

Tony powered angrily towards Anne but
the smaller Murdoch stepped in his path.

“
Where do you think you’re
going? Not man enough to go after some dolls but man enough to hit
a woman?”

Tony
raised his chin, emphasizing the
height difference between them but Murdoch was not intimidated. The
two men stood toe to toe for a long moment before Oates stepped
slipped his truncheon between them.

“
Come on now fellas, this
isn’t helping
anything. Tony’s right…”

Tony smirked.

“…
even if he
is being an asshole!”

Tony’s smirk
turned to a frown but he
wouldn’t dare say anything out of turn to his uncle. Oates turned
to Jacobs.

“
I’m sorry about your friend…”
he
then
turned to Murdoch “…truly I am…” He turned to Jacobs again “…but
there are too many places for those things to jump out at us from,
we’d be extremely vulnerable if we went looking for them. We’re
best letting them come to us.”

“
So they
can pick us off one by one?” Tony
blurted out.

“
We’ll be in a group retard,
how
are they
going to do that?”

Anne’s retort was enough to seal the
decision for the group. Even still, Tony just scowled at
her.

CHAPTER 43

A nice car
pulled up outside a store with a
pulsing green neon sign outside it. This store was always open
late. In a neighborhood largely populated by homeless, only a late
night liquor store and a bottle depot surrounded this small,
stand-alone building. The fact that these businesses were thriving
in such harsh economic times said enough for the neighborhood in
itself. The figure walked in unabashed. He had no need for a
disguise, he was not known around here. The man peered through the
glass display case, watched by a greasy, balding man. With a
cigarette in his mouth the storeowner watched the man with the same
level of suspicion he affords on all his customers.

The selection before him
was limited but that
didn’t matter much, each item would perform the same function.
Choosing one, not the other was a decision motivated more by
curiosity than functionality. The man’s hand waved slowly over the
glass, hovering over the items like a metal detector on a beach.
Fingers halted above one in particular, the man had made his
decision.

“
That one, I’ll
take that one. The
one that’s marked 300”

Smoky
stared back without an ounce of
charm, he had been through this way too many times.

“
I’m going to need to see
some photo I.D.”

Reaching under the desk
he
pulled out
a clipboard with paper attached.

“
You’ll also need to fill out
these
forms
as required by state law.”

The man
could tell Smoky had no interest in
state law by the way he talked; he simply did not want to get
busted.

“
Would an extra 500 make those
forms go away?”

Truth
was Smoky didn’t care what the
intended purchase was for, as long as there was payment, and as
long as he (personally) was not going to get into
trouble.

“
You’re not a cop
are you?”

The man
pulled out a wad of bills and placed
them on the glass counter.

“
Do
a lot of cops buy their own
guns?”

“
No
…” replied Smokey. “I guess they
don’t.”

Smokey unlocked the cabinet and pulled out
the requested item, he wrapped it in a grey cloth and handed it
over to the man. Vacantly, the man looked into the next cabinet at
some bullets.

“
I’ll need some of those
too.
”

CHAPTER 44

Oates’ office serves as a
makeshift safe haven for now. While Oates and Jacobs
st
ood side by
side, outside the door the rest sat inside, waiting patiently for
something to happen. Despite Oates being easily the eldest person
here he was also the most alert. This was his time to put an end to
all this death. He knew that he shared the blame for this mess and
he was not prepared to stand by and let it continue. Tony was an
idiot and a bully, but Oates was the one elected to keep the peace
while upholding the law. Oates was tied to the rule of law, he
didn’t just enforce it, he believed in it. This was why he would
never come to terms with the fact he pissed on his own morals the
day he turned a blind eye to the murder of Andy Williams. This was
also why he was prepared to sacrifice his own life in order to stop
the dolls, making it out alive would just be a bonus.

Jaco
bs was very similar to Oates in a lot
of respects. He also felt bound to the law, even if they both
practiced it in different worlds. While Oates was an elected
official keeping the peace in a relatively peaceful town, Jacobs
was one of many, dealing with cases in a much larger, more
unpredictable area. In his time in the City PD he had worked what
was known as the
“grunge desk,”
tackling cases no one else wanted to deal with. He
was widely respected in the force for his high solve rate on these
cases, cases that many others had left alone. He was also similar
to Oates in the way that he did not mind bending the law a little
if it meant he was able to solve a case. However, Jacobs was
married only to his job, having never taken the time to settle down
with anyone. He normally satisfied his masculine desires with one
of the
“ladies”
who worked the corners downtown. Though this was
technically illegal, Jacobs justified his actions by telling
himself that sleeping with these women allowed him to focus on his
work more and the truth was, he was not the only city cop who done
it.

Jacobs respected those he felt
cared about their work and he would
stepped out of his way to help them. He
could see Oates cared about his town, about the law and, more
importantly about catching the
“bad guys”
, whatever form they may take. Though he still
believed Oates had a small town mentality he had to admit the old
man had an excellent mix of strength, determination and balls;
qualities Jacobs admired in anyone not just fellow lawmen. The two
men stood side-by-side, old and new in front of the open office
door. Jacobs, in his suit, now loose-tied stood with an assault
shotgun, freshly procured from the station’s gun locker. Oates
stood vigilantly with his handgun at the ready, waiting for
something to happen. It was quiet as Jacobs watched him, silently
hoping that he would be as dedicated to the badge when he got to
Oates’ age.

Inside the office, MacNamee
stared at Anne. She had something between her knees that MacNamee
was particularly interested in
. Sitting on the floor beside Jessica she noticed
the handsome doctor’s stare and smirked.