Midnight Movie: A Novel (21 page)
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Authors: Tobe Hooper Alan Goldsher
EXCERPTED FROM THE PAPERS OF DR. AARON GILLESPIE,
RISK MANAGEMENT ANALYST FOR THE DEPARTMENT
OF HOMELAND SECURITY
June 18, 2009—Brian is obsessive about American television. CNN is on in our little headquarters 99 percent of the time, and the other 1 percent is split between MSNBC and Fox News. Brian finds CNN the most neutral. I have no feelings one way or the other. Up until recently, it was merely background noise to me.
Over the last week, however, I have been paying close attention, in part because I want to find out if my friends at Homeland Security are as clueless as they usually are, and my answer is an unequivocal yes. The authorities have zero idea as to our identities. Or if they do, they are not talking, which I have found is quite unlike them. When they find a clue, they tend to trumpet at least a hint of it from the mountaintops. After all, Joe Taxpayer must be appeased.
This is all so easy. Enjoyable, even.
The other reason I have been viewing the television so much is that I seem to have started a trend. And I could not be prouder.
In Miami, a twenty-two-year-old white male drove his car into a club called Club Play. The crude explosive device strapped to his front bumper blew up upon impact. Only two people were killed, but there were countless injuries. The footage that CNN ran was gruesome.
In Atlanta, at a club called Masquerade, somebody put a trace amount of sarin in the ventilation system. It was
not enough to cause any fatalities, but several hundred people had to be taken to the hospital.
Here in Chicago, somebody set off a nail gun on the first floor of Water Tower Place. Again, no fatalities, but plenty of injuries.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for any of these incidents, which I find delicious. If you do not know where the violence has originated, it is that much more terrifying. Let us say that Hamas sent out a communiqué that they were responsible for the sarin attack. People in Georgia would be sure to cross the street whenever they came across a Middle Eastern male. But since the attacker (or attackers) has remained silent, the locals must fear everybody. For all they know, it was a white supremacist—which is actually a possibility, as Masquerade is a predominantly black club—or a gang member, or a former club employee hell-bent on revenge for his dismissal. What a way to create terror!
If I were to venture a guess, I would say these are all copycat crimes. There is something in the air, something wonderful and horrible, something magical and frightening, something on the brink of chaos and renewal.
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
THE SPRING OF OUR DISCONTENT
JUNE 18, 2009
BY JESSICA BRANDEIS
People are scared.
People are angry.
People are depressed.
People are sweaty.
People are burning.
People are exploding.
People are broke.
Welcome to the spring of 2009, a spring replete with suicide bombers, burning cities, an inordinate number of missing persons, and a new strain of STD that has doctors baffled. To paraphrase classic British rockers the Zombies, it’s the time of the season of misery.
Dr. Stavros Alexander, a social sciences professor at Columbia University, claims that this outbreak of what he calls “negativity” is far from unprecedented. “If you’ll recall, the New York City of 1977 was an unequivocal mess. You had David Berkowitz’s murder spree; you had a massive blackout that led to massive looting and an almost-riot; there was a rash of arson in both the Bronx and Brooklyn; there was a garbage strike that turned the Manhattan streets into a junkyard, a problem that was particularly galling because there
was a subway strike that forced people to walk more than they ever had before.
“We live in different times now,” Dr. Alexander says, continuing, “so the incidences are more drastic and violent. For instance, the fires in Austin, Texas, are being attributed to incompetent methamphetamine labs, whereas the 1977 Brooklyn and Bronx fires were simply the work of a firebug. You see, nobody was mixing crystal meth in their basement in ’77, nor did we have terrorists who had access to professional-strength bombs and chemical weapons, and the only sexually transmitted diseases that the general public had to deal with were syphilis, herpes, and gonorrhea. Modern times bring us a modern negativity.”
The issue of the missing individuals appears to be most troublesome in the western and southwestern United States. Phoenix police chief Russell Crosbie believes that the issue is being blown out of proportion. “It’s a sad fact of our society that people disappear all the time, and it’s generally nothing sinister. Mostly it’s a person who wants to get away from their life for whatever reason, and they’ll usually turn back up in a day, or a week, or a month. As everybody is aware, the Internet has turned this world into a global village, so if a family member or a loved one goes missing, it’s easier to alert the world. I don’t think more people are disappearing. I think it’s just being more widely reported.”
Dr. Christian Wade, chief of urology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, agrees with Alexander and Crosbie about the public’s misguided take on the spring of 2009. However, he is concerned about the new STD strain. “It’s difficult to study,” Wade says, “because so
few people have acquired it. The primary symptom in both men and women is an oddly colored discharge. If you notice something out of the ordinary, it is recommended that you see your doctor immediately.”
Even though none of these incidents are related, online wags have cited the cause of the country’s woes as “the Game,” a moniker that seems to be edging its way into the mainstream, and in a way, it’s a perfect encapsulation of the weirdness that is the spring of 2009.
THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
June 20, 2009
The Emerging Risk of a Sexually Transmitted Disease Involving Discolored Discharge and Heightened Desire
BY CHANDAHAR ZOONI, PHD, MPH; CORNELIUS REMAR, MD, MPH; MARY GRIFFIN-WATTS, PHD, MPH
Context:
Transmission of sexually transmitted disease that can be passed via genital and oral sexual engagement.
Design:
Cross-sectional survey conducted May 12, 2009, to June 12, 2009.
Setting and Participants:
A total of 20 clients of the Denver Public Health HIV Counseling and Testing Site in Colorado.
Main Outcome Measures:
Self-report of heightened sexual desire, increasing pain in the genital area, and a blue discharge in both men and women.
Results:
Of the 20 clients, 16 were male (80%); all were white (100%), heterosexual (100%), and aged 20 to 50 years (100%). Of those, 16 (80%) had had multiple sexual partners over the 14 days prior to the test. Of those, 10 (50%) had 2–4 such partners; 6 (30%) had 5–10 such partners, and 4 (20%) had 11–20 such partners. All (100%) reported the blue discharge; 18 (90%) reported painful and swollen genitals. All (100%) reported increased, painful sexual desire.
Conclusions:
The strain is completely debilitating, as it renders the sufferer unable to function without repeated sexual encounters through their waking hours. It appears the strain can be passed via either penetration (vaginal, oral, or anal) or physical exposure to either male or female discharge. It is a possibility that it can also be transmitted via saliva, but the testing period did not allow for sufficient time to draw any meaningful conclusions in that venue. Additional testing will be required before a treatment protocol is recommended. As it is vital that this remain contained, it is advised to quarantine any patient who demonstrates a symptom.
Pre-publication Notes:
- Just prior to publication, a female lab technician at the Denver Public Health HIV Counseling and Testing Site in Colorado was exposed to the virus via saliva transmitted by Patient #3 (white, male,
heterosexual, age 32). Symptoms were detected in 52 minutes. The lab technician requested she be quarantined. As of deadline, she has exhibited acute sexual desire and blue discharge. - Just prior to publication, Patient #13 at the Denver Public Health HIV Counseling and Testing Site in Colorado (white, female, heterosexual, age 21) assaulted a male doctor. Both individuals have since expired.
The 9:33 thing stopped. Just like that. And I was fine. Never found out why it started. Never found out why it ended. Never found out what those red things were. Didn’t want to dwell on it too much. So I moved on.
Bad call.
Really
bad call.
Truth be told, all of Austin was in a state of denial. What with all the fires—I think there’d been over fifty of them at this point—the city was a mess, but nobody wanted to talk about it, myself included. Everybody I knew went about their business as if nothing was wrong, as if people hadn’t been burned beyond recognition, as if you could walk down the street without smelling something smoldering.
Sixth Street had some … I guess you could call it
collateral smoke damage
, and a bunch of clubs had to shut their doors. But nobody discussed it. Me, Theo, and our bass player, Jamal, lived for our band, but when we couldn’t gig anymore, we were all like,
Whatever, shit happens, things’ll pick up again soon enough
.
So I reviewed movies. And visited Janine.
I got incompletes in all of my classes. The professors were cool about it. How could they not be? I mean, what’re they going to do, tell the girl who’d been beaten within an inch of her life that since she didn’t turn in her African history term paper because she was in the hospital, she’s getting a big honking F?
I didn’t go out much. I knew Dave was in jail, but the vibe in the city was
off
, so I was perfectly content staying parked on the couch. Naturally, just like in the hospital, I watched a whole lot of tube.
Things were pretty messed up, but I was very, I don’t know, sanguine about the whole thing. Probably because I was whacked out on Vicodin.
Erick also kept my mind occupied. He was on the make, and I was fine with that, because he was being a sweetie about it. He’d sometimes come over with a big bag of groceries and make me dinner, which was fortunate, because I was unbelievably sick of ordering out. He brought over tons of DVDs—the studios sent him everything weeks before they were in stores—and he’d hang out for a double feature. He probably wouldn’t like hearing this, but it felt like he was my father, or my older brother, you know, a family member who was protecting me. And even though on paper it seemed like I had nothing to worry about—I knew that nobody was making meth in my basement, and I didn’t think somebody would suicide-bomb my apartment building—it was still nice to know that somebody had my back.
EXCERPTED FROM THE DIARY OF DAVID CRANFORD,
BARTENDER, THE COVE, AUSTIN, TEXAS
EMERGENCY MEMORANDUM
| TO: | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Austin Field Office Texas Department of Public Safety/Texas Rangers Austin Police Department |
| FROM: | Sergeant Wilmer Arb, Austin Police Department |
| SUBJECT: | Escapee |
June 24, 2009, 4:13
A.M
.
To Whom It May Concern:
Please alert all personnel to be on the lookout for David Cranford (physical description and photograph attached). Cranford escaped from the Austin City Jail at 9:12
P.M
. on June 23, 2009.
On the evening in question, Cranford assaulted his cell mate, La-Marcus Jackson, with his bare hands. When guard Gerard Clovis came to Jackson’s aid at 8:54
P.M
., Cranford assaulted him, then relieved him of his billy club before Clovis could handcuff Cranford. At 9:01, Cranford assaulted and killed Jackson with the billy club, then took Clovis hostage. Personnel could not subdue Cranford, and he exited out the front door. Cranford then dragged Clovis to his personal vehicle and forced him to drive to whereabouts unknown. Cranford threatened to murder Clovis if he was followed, so officers did not immediately pursue.
Pursuit began at 9:21. Clovis’s automobile was found on Interstate 35 a ¼ mile north of exit 246 (Howard Lane). Clovis was deceased; cause of death: fractured skull. Cranford was not in the vicinity.
Cranford is considered armed and dangerous, thus the use of force is acceptable in pursuit.