Ring of Fire

by David Agranoff

  She didn’t have time to think about her friend suffering.

  “Back to the control room!” They could barely hear her over the screams coming from Sally’s office. More screams came from the conference room where they had set up the sick staff earlier in the day. Bingham ran and put a chair under the conference room door blocking it.

  Kendra turned toward the front entrance. Beyond the security desk she saw a crowd of ferals were responding to the screams from outside, as if they were calling to each other.

  Martin ran past her to the control room. As she pulled the control room door shut, she heard the sound of machine gun fire and glass breaking.

  “Tell the mayor to speed up.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Do you hear that?” Andrew asked but didn’t wait for the answer. “It’s a chopper?”

  They all tried to look up and around. It sounded close but they were in the center of downtown close to the office. The idea of a helicopter so low seemed like suicide. They came up Broadway and passed under the flashing red light at 5th avenue. Horton Plaza—the vertical five story mall was across a park on the left, and the famous U.S. Grant hotel across the street to the north on the right. Jake leaned forward between the seats to get a good look at the NBC building just across the plaza.

  “What the fuck?” Scott asked.

  A massive gunship helicopter was taking up the entire plaza beside the mall. Andrew cut their lights. They were almost blind but the massive blades were spinning the air clear around the NBC building like a fan. Adam hugged Victoria tight. Jake felt Tiffany grab his arm for comfort. He turned and looked at her. His heart broke again.

  “They’ll kill us,” Austin whispered. A group of soldiers ran into the building smashing the glass door to the outside.

  Andrew quickly turned into the ramp that took them down into the basement parking garage. When they came out of the smoke, Jake felt a moment of relief. They pulled into a parking space. The elevator just took them to the lobby. To go up to the roof they would have to cross the newsroom.

  “Mom, I have a signal.” Tiffany held out her phone. Jake grabbed it. He opened a browser and the emergency broadcast signal took over. He saw video of the mayor speaking with their NBC 7 logo on the bottom of the screen.

  “They’re here to kill the signal.”

  “Maybe we should wait it out?” Scott said as Andrew turned off the SUV.

  Andrew shook his head. “We have to cross the newsroom.”

  Jake undid his seat belt. “I’ll scout it out.”

  Victoria gave him a stern look, the fear and anger was weighing heavily on her. Jake couldn’t lock eyes with her. He had one foot out of the car when he heard a feral scream echo in the garage. A second scream. The ferals were running down the ramp.

  “We go now!” Jake said as he turned and opened the hatch back. He pulled Tiffany out and despite her age and size she jumped into his arms for a moment. Jake wished he could pause on that moment. He set her down and grabbed the duffel bag with water. They ran towards the elevator, the one he took on the way to work every day. It only traveled the three floors of the lobby and garage and it was slow. They couldn’t risk waiting.

  “Stairs!”

  Andrew led the group there. When Jake got to the stairwell door, he turned to see a dozen ferals running across the parking garage. He held the door open as the family piled in. They left the SUV open and he heard the passenger door rip off as the ferals sped past it. He listened to the footsteps as the family went up the stairs. He stuck his face in the small window on the door and watched the ferals arrive.

  “Jake!” Victoria screamed from the top of the stairs.

  He saw the feral faces in the window. Their brains were so destroyed that they couldn’t manage doorknobs. This one just needed a pull. The ferals banged on the door desperate to get in.

  He heard Victoria calling to him, distant, as if miles away. All he had to do was open the door. They would run over him like a wave. It would be over in seconds. No hateful gaze from Victoria, no fear from Tiffany, no slow decline into the abyss of disease. Jake put his hand on the door handle and squeezed it tight. The double doors gave under the weight of the ferals. Jake closed his eyes.

  “Daaaad!”

  Scott came down the stairs with a mop, Jake had no idea where he found it but he slid it through the handle of the door blocking it. His brother pulled at him, but Jake froze on the yellow eyes of the feral on the other side of the glass. It had been a boy a teenage boy. Scott pulled harder.

  “What the fuck are you doing?”

  Jake felt a fresh wave of sorrow. Scott pulled him up the stairs.

  ***

  The control room had gone silent except the voice of the mayor still explaining what was happening.

  “. . . The canyons and green spaces throughout the city within the urban areas are igniting like tinderboxes. Embers carried on the wind have spread to all corners of the county. Indeed the very air has become toxic with a smoke so thick it is impossible to walk outside without breathing assistance.”

  Martin was proud of his boss. A short time ago he was hiding behind his desk. Kendra walked over to a camera set up in the newsroom. Bingham was the only healthy reporter left. He had his hands up and was walking toward the faceless soldiers in gas masks as they made their way weapons high past the cubicles. They had no sound in the newsroom but everyone gasped as the lead soldier grabbed Bingham turned him around and pushed him to his knees.

  They zip-tied his hands and kicked his back to push him to the floor. Kendra was furious and started towards the door. Martin caught her arm.

  “Don’t open that door for anything,” he repeated what she said when they first came into the control room. She gave him a disapproving look. She hated having her own words used against her. They were lining the staff up against the wall. They all understood what would happen when they opened the conference room door.

  Then, on the video, Martin saw him. General Redcrow, the man had been in their office earlier in the day.

  “That’s Redcrow.” Martin pointed at the screen for Kendra. “He is the commander of the whole operation.”

  Martin lifted his phone connected still by FaceTime to Lisa. “Tell him to hurry up, the military occupation, they are here now.”

  Lisa didn’t speak over the mayor. She had a white board she wrote on. He stopped mid-sentence.

  “Uh, I’m sorry. He flipped a paper over. Uh, never mind.” The mayor looked at the camera. He was angry, trying to contain his rage. “I don’t know how long I have now. We are a military town, always have been. I have always supported our men and women.”

  Stop politicking! Martin wanted to scream.

  “They’re right down the hall,” Carly yelled.

  “I understand that our boys are just following orders, but the military have occupied the city of San Diego and surrounding areas. The machine gun fire is endless. The orders are shoot-to-kill. We—”

  Martin jumped at an intense knock on the door.

  “Open up or we are coming in!”

  Kendra and Martin shared a look. Kendra shook her head. Martin closed his eyes for a moment and prayed. He prayed for mercy. They were not sick after all.

  “Five seconds and the door comes down,” said the voice on the other side.

  “Under your desks!” Kendra yelled.

  Martin was under the control board and stunned at how calm Kendra looked. He could hear the mayor still talking.

  “We are told there is no cure. That the disease can spread quicker than the fire. I ask you, and by you I mean anyone who can hear my voice. Are we being executed?”

  “Five . . . Four . . .” The voice on the other side of the door shouted.

  Martin instinctively reached to grab Kendra’s hand. Before he got there—.

  The lights, the console, the AC all died. The darkness returned as the power went out.

  The mayor’s voice kept going on the battery powered devices. The s
ignal still going out to at least the viewers live streaming him. He was in the dark but still speaking.

  “The power just died again. I’m going to keep going.”

  “One!” The voice on the other side said.

  They pounded into the door. The door held. It was a strong door but it would give way soon. In the darkness Martin felt Kendra blindly touch his arm. She slid down his arm to his hand. She gave him a squeeze.

  “We did our best,” she whispered.

  ***

  Scott got to the top of the staircase last. Austin and the families were gathered at the top. Andrew had the door cracked, so he could see out. Scott stepped behind him to get a look.

  “Six grunts and one guy with stars on his—”

  The lights went out. No flicker or warning, the lights just snapped off. Suddenly in the darkness the sound of all the heavy breathing sounded louder. You could hear the faint screams of the ferals below in the parking garage. They continued to bang on the door. Adam began to cry. They were all scared. Scott had not pulled out his phone in a while, without a signal it had been useless. The light of the screen was enough to show their faces. He used an app to turn on a light using the flash.

  The soldiers shouted in the newsroom.

  “Most of them went down the hall to the studio.”

  “The dark might help us.” Jake nodded.

  Scott looked at Jake. “Can you get us to the other stairwell in the dark?”

  Jake nodded. “Everyone keep low and quiet.”

  Austin had the gun out of the holster.

  Scott pulled out his. “You know how to use that?”

  Austin shook her head and laughed. In the low light, he thought she looked amazing. It might have been the fear, making him feel that way.

  “Everyone ready? Andrew whispered. “Make a chain.”

  Scott turned off the light and for a moment the darkness was complete. Andrew cracked the door enough for them to move out. He pushed out of the door. The darkness was cut by a few beams of light attached to the end of rifles. The group crouched down and moved behind desks. Blocked by a row of cubicles as long as they crouched they would not be seen.

  Ferals were gathered outside the glass walls of the building. Scott only caught a glimpse of them. They screamed as much as their smoke filled lungs could muster. He could hear ferals closer. Somewhere inside, behind a door.

  “Bust that fucking door down right now!”

  Scott paused, knowing the voice of the commander. It was General Redcrow! Right here in the station. Scott lifted his head just enough to see the general. Redcrow stood with two soldiers at a door.

  “Kill those fucking things!”

  Scott peered over the edge of the desk and watched in the spotlight of a soldier’s flashlight as The General stepped back. One of the soldiers stepped up to the door and turned the knob. He didn’t have time to lift his weapon. The conference room door burst open like a dam breaking. Ferals poured out of the room, swallowing the first screaming soldier in a pile on. The second fired his rifle but it was too late.

  Scott pushed Andrew to move faster. With the soldiers occupied and the near total darkness Andrew stood up. He pulled the long chain and ran them to the stairwell. Scott watched the general fire his pistol at the ferals, as he backed towards the control room.

  Scott could only see the General’s face in the flash of his gun for mere seconds. He could have sworn the general saw him.

  Andrew opened the stairwell door. Scott felt a moment of relief as he passed the line into the stairwell. Austin closed the door behind her and it was safe for Scott to turn on the light on his phone. Victoria and Jake did the same. They all pointed their lights up. In the middle of the stairwell, the light was not powerful enough to see up the ten floors they needed to climb.

  “Ten floors?” Scott said. On a normal day that would sound daunting, but after all they had been through, as tired and hungry as his body was. It might as well have been Everest. With the power out they had no choice.

  “Ten,” Jake repeated. “But after that we’re clear.”

  Andrew knelt down and let Adam jump on his back. Scott suddenly felt guilty watching Andrew take the first few steps. Scott turned back to Jake who was hanging back from the group. He was avoiding Victoria and Tiffany, not making eye contact or standing near them. Austin walked past them and started up the stairs.

  “We made it,” Scott whispered to his brother. Jake was still haunted. He felt no joy in this moment. He probably never would again. Then Tiffany reached out and grabbed his hand. Scott felt a tear form. It was sweet gesture. Jake cried and hugged his daughter.

  As if a reminder, the ferals screamed in the newsroom and a round of machinegun fire broke up the tender moment. Jake pulled Tiffany up the stairs. Scott kept his eyes behind them as they climbed.

  ***

  The door broke in, sending splinters over their heads. Kendra squeezed Martin’s hand. She looked up and saw the lights scanning the room. The sound of the screaming ferals drowned out the sound of the mayor still coming through the laptop above them on the console.

  “Destroy it all,” a voice called out.

  Kendra pulled Martin down all the way to the floor and the machine gun fire thundered in the room above them. Kendra let go of Martin’s hand and covered her ears. The bullets tore through everything. The screens built into the wall, the computers out on desks, the desks themselves. Pieces of all of it rained down on them.

  Bullets ripped through the control console kicking up pieces of the flooring. Kendra felt debris hitting her and expected to die in that moment. She rolled over just in time to see half a dozen bullets tear through Carly’s back. Her facedown body did a morbid dance under fire.

  Martin screamed as a bullet went straight through his leg. “Redcrow, you fuck!” He dropped his phone on the floor.

  There was a split second of silence then they heard the mayor’s voice faintly across the FaceTime connection.

  “Pray for San Diego, pray for mother earth. . .”

  Kendra rolled over and looked up to see a soldier standing at the console. He wore a gas mask still. She could see his eyes only. It was enough to tell her that he was a young man, and nervous, sweating buckets.

  “Please. . .” Kendra whispered

  The soldier stepped over her and stomped on the phone, silencing the mayor. Martin tried to move back but his leg left a trail of blood as he crawled. An older man with a pistol appeared behind the soldier, he wore no mask but his scars told the story of a man who had endured war of some kind. This was the general Martin had spoken of. Redcrow.

  “Where is the source of the signal?”

  “Fuck you,” Martin tried to spit at them but it just fell on to himself.

  The general gave a signal. Kendra expected to be tortured. She hoped she would not tell. Down the hall a fresh round of gunfire dominated the soundscape. The young soldier stood, the general turned and fired his gun.

  Kendra screamed as a feral came through the air, as if launched across the console. Kendra turned and grabbed Martin. She knew the feral surprised the soldier. He didn’t get a shot off. He screamed as the feral bit into his flesh. Kendra tried to lift Martin, his leg failed and he fell back to the floor.

  She looked back at the feral who ripped a bite full of the soldier’s neck in its teeth. Julia from weather had gone feral. She bit and tore at the flesh of the dying man. Her eyes yellow and wild. The general had disappeared.

  “Go! Get out of here!” Martin yelled.

  Kendra stepped back, as Julia crawled on all fours with the speed of a spider towards Martin. He closed his eyes as Julia reached up for his bloody leg. It was clear now that Carly was the lucky one. Julia bit straight through Martin’s pant leg and he screamed.

  Kendra grabbed a laptop and swung it on Julia’s head. It didn’t faze her or slow her down. Nothing could be done for him, Kendra told herself as she stood to run out the only door. Someone waited in her way. Kendra gasped. Sally.
Her skin gray and decayed. Her eyes bright yellow and red, her lips dripping with blood.

  Kendra fell to her knees and felt her friend’s blood caked hands grabbing her. She felt teeth and fingernails tearing her skin. She only prayed that her heart would give out first.

  ***

  His calves were burning by the third floor. Tiffany had to stop twice. Andrew kept ahead of Victoria’s light, sometimes disappearing into the darkness of the stairwell. He breathed heavy. He stopped on the landing of the fourth floor.

  “Can you walk a little bit, buddy?”

  “A little bit,” Adam replied as his father set him down. They gathered as a group on the fourth floor landing. In the glow from the lights Andrew leaned against the 4 painted into the concrete stairwell. They all relaxed some as the sound of the ferals became distant. The gunfire stopped. Jake had to assume that the small group of soldiers was dead.

  With the only light coming from their phones Jake had not seen Victoria in some time. She signaled to Scott to take Tiffany’s hand. Victoria waited with Jake at the backend.

  She whispered. “When were you going to tell me?”

  “Tonight, before everything went crazy.”

  “You told Andrew first.”

  Jake didn’t make an excuse. He didn’t care. How could he care about any of that after everything he had done? He didn’t care about the cancer, he was still haunted by his little boy.

  “He was suffering.”

  Victoria pointed a finger at him.

  “Don’t! Just don’t!”

  “Vic I—“

  “Fuck!” Scott yelled and Tiffany screamed.

  Jake and Victoria had two flights to catch up and his light saw what they saw. A very large man that had died wearing a tie. He was sprawled out blocking the door. His leg was eaten, picked clean to the bone. This man worked in the sixth floor marketing department.

  Austin and Andrew had already passed and didn’t see the corpse as they were walking into the darkness.