by Aaron Guerra
The Beginning
It was August 13th, 2016. It was just a few hours before everything would change for the people that were living the peaceful life Little Bow. A small town that was located in the far west of Texas. It wasn’t as large as the neighboring towns, Travis and Crimson Falls. Nothing exciting ever happened in Little Bow, well that’s what Sarah Parson had believed for a very long time. Sarah had long blond hair that was always tied up in a pony tail. Her eyes were light green that resembled emeralds, just like her mothers. Sarah’s height was around 5’8” when she stood up tall and straight. The female’s smooth skin was always cared for like her hair ever since she was just a young child. Her mother taught her how to be an elegant young lady at a very early age, but through time she slowly grew out of it. She was part of the Little Bow Police Department, a proud deputy that‘s been protecting her town for a few short years now. Over the past couple of days patrolling the streets, Sarah had began to think if what she did really made a difference. At times it was hard enough just to get out of bed, knowing that everything was always the same each day.
She quickly fixed her hair before getting dressed for her long day of hard police work since someone couldn’t come in. They needed her help to patrol the south side of the town. A lot of officers were getting sick, it must’ve been a bug that was spreading throughout Little Bow. For some reason, it didn’t affect Sarah as much as she thought it would when she came in contact with people that had it. She had then locked her door to her house before entering her old 1987 Ford Truck. It was a heap of junk that her father left her a few years ago before he had passed away from cancer in his heart. That was the hardest time in her life since her mother decided to take her own life a few months after his passing. She always carried a necklace with a picture of her parents inside it. Never did she forget to put it on when she would get dressed for work early in the morning.
“It’s going to be a long week, and it’s barely Wednesday,” Sarah said as she sat in the old vehicle. “I don‘t know how Jen and James can do this with so much energy each day.” Sarah started the old beat up truck to back out of her driveway and into the quiet street. The woman was very careful when exiting the neighborhood. Usually around this time in the morning, the little children from the neighborhood would always be rollerblading or playing jump rope near the road.
On her long quiet drive to the Police Department, she ran into a couple that looked lost on the road. Tourists, is what you’d call them but they seemed more out of place than that. Sarah slowly started to pull over to the side to see if they needed help of any kind.
“Are you two lost?” She asked while looking at them up close. Sarah was able to see that they were both from a possible accident of some sort. It was a young man and woman covered in dried blood and torn clothing. The tired looking woman had long black hair that had reached down to her shoulder blades with dark eyes hiding behind her bangs. Random stains of blood was on her clothing, but it was mainly centered near the stomach area. The man didn’t look any different. He had long dark brown hair that was tied in a pony tail like Sarah’s. Their eyes showed lack of sleep and tears that must’ve kept flowing for many hours. “Hey you two! What the hell happened? Were you in an accident near by?” Sarah cautiously got out of her truck, with her pistol already in her hand when confronting the two. She asked once again, “Were you two in a horrible accident? Please, tell me what happened.” The woman with black hair finally snapped out of her trance as she fell to her knees, franticly looking around for something that she was afraid to find.
“W-We’re safe!” She had said while grabbing the man’s hand, pulling him down into her shivering embrace. The officer looked around the area to see that there wasn’t anything near by that could’ve caused them harm.
“Safe from what?!” Sarah said with a confused look on her face. “What’s going on?” She watched as they held each other close with tears coming down their eyes. They ended up kissing for quite a bit, but the officer decided that it was time to break them apart for further questioning. “Now, I want you to tell me what your names are and what you’ve been through. My name is Sarah Parson and I’m with the L.B.P.D.” The man had shook his head as he gathered his thoughts so that he could explain to the officer in front of him what happened.
“My name is Matthew…and this is Marilyn,” he said while holding the girl’s hand. “We were in a car wreck when coming here from Crimson Falls,” Matthew said. Marilyn had nodded quickly while holding Matthew’s hand rather tightly. The man had brought his hand up to wipe some dirt off his face. “You see,” he said before continuing. “We’ve had a hell of a week. A week that doesn‘t even seem like it could be real,” he revealed. Sarah stood up slowly before helping the two up from the hot road.
“I’m going to take you two to the Hospital. Don’t worry, both of you are safe now!” said Sarah as she smiled to them. “You‘re with me now,” she said. The officer placed her gun back into it’s holster that was attached to her belt. “Now hop in the back of the truck. But don‘t let your skin touch the hot surface of the vehicle,” Sarah said as she lowered the tailgate to her truck so that the two could climb up on it. She closed it when they were finally settled in.
It took Sarah less than ten minutes to reach the hospital from where she found the two on the road. The officer was sitting in the waiting room alone with old magazines that were on a small table in front of her. Sarah was going to pick one up to read, but then decided to just sit there when the magazines were stuck together from fresh gum. Twenty minutes had passed by which made Sarah feel a little cranky. The woman continued to wait for the Doctor to return and tell her about the couple’s condition. She never did like the waiting room, or the hospital in general. But that didn’t stop her from coming here every now and then when she’d get injured on the job. The worse she ever experienced was a car collision two years ago during a hot pursuit. Sarah managed to crawl out of her vehicle that was turned upside down with just a broken arm. That was something she never wanted to go through again. Thinking about it made her arm hurt even to this day actually.
“Officer Parson,” a voice had said in a quick manner. Sarah heard her name being called from across the waiting room. The woman had walked over to a Doctor holding a clipboard near the large doors. He seemed rather laidback and not too serious about his work when confronting the officer. Maybe he was getting tired of it, or possibly getting sick like everyone else was in this town. The Doctor had stared at her before bringing up the patients. “About these two you’ve brought in, Marilyn and Matthew,” he said while holding his clipboard. “The blood on their clothes don’t belong to them. They’re covered in bruises and seem to have barely survived on low amount of food for nearly a week. I’m surprised these two made it all the way to our town from wherever they had their accident,” he said. The man was dotting his pen against the board, mumbling to himself as he tried to remember the other thing he was going to say to her. Sarah waved her hand before shaking her head slightly.
The officer had politely asked, “I’m sorry, but you said the blood on them wasn’t theirs? But wouldn’t that mean they were possibly involved in something else? Like if it was the other driver’s blood that somehow got on them?” The man started to chew on the end of his pen, thinking to himself after she said that. The Doctor had looked at her for a brief moment before examining his pen.
“That’s quite possible,” he had said with a curious tone. “They could’ve killed someone for all we know. But they‘re not going to tell us anything juicy at the moment. They‘re totally out of it right now,” he said to her. The Doctor had turned away, patting his clipboard against his chest. “I’ll run some more tests on them for now an
d then let them rest some more. Hopefully by tonight you can come back and ask them some questions of your own, since you‘re a police officer, not me,” said the Doctor. The man coughed into his fist before finishing up his little rant. “I shouldn‘t be the one doing all the damn work around here,” He said as he smiled at the woman before walking through the double doors that he came from.
Sarah let out a deep sigh as she walked out of the hospital and into the humidity. There was suppose to be a wicked storm coming in soon, but the sun blaring down at her didn’t help at all. The woman suddenly looked up when she heard a loud familiar sound that echoed throughout the parking lot. She watched as a helicopter quickly flew past her from high up. It was black and unknown, since the only helicopters in the town were the Paramedic’s Air Support and the Little Bow’s News Chopper.
“I wonder who that was?” said Sarah as she watched it fly off. “Maybe they‘re heading to Travis? I‘m sure that‘s where it‘s headed,” she said to herself. She watched it fly in the direction of Travis. “Looked as if it was coming from Crimson Falls,” she said. The officer had placed her hand on the Truck’s door, but then it happened again. The parking lot was filled with the same sound, but this time it was louder then before. Her head tilted up to see nearly a dozen black helicopters flying past her like the first one did. “Now that’s just suspicious. Why are all those Helicopters heading to Travis?” she asked herself. Sarah had placed her hand to her chin while pondering the origins of the helicopters. “Did something happen over there at Crimson Falls?” she had thought. The officer opened her door and jumped in quickly to start it up. “I better head to the Police Department to see if they know anything about this.” Sarah wondered if Marilyn and Matthew had anything to do with them. But that couldn’t be possible right? They were in a car wreck out in the desert. Yet if that was true, then that meant that there must’ve been someone that didn’t survive. “I need to report this to the Sheriff. We need to see if anyone out there is alive still that needs medical attention!” she said. Sarah quickly drove passed a young woman walking on the side walk when entering a quiet neighborhood. She looked to be about twenty from what she could make out. The woman was slender with dark blond hair coming down near her shoulders. Her frail white skin felt the sheer heat from the sun’s rays coming down on her. “I’m sure she has work to do as well. Heck, maybe she‘s heading to college instead,” said Sarah as she drove off to work. The woman on the sidewalk suddenly had fallen over, causing all of her stuff in her bag to spill out. She kept herself from shedding a tear from frustration when she found the rock that made her trip.
“My boss is going to kill me if I’m late again!” said the girl on the street. “Come on Kim! What have you told yourself?! Watch where you‘re walking!” she said. The young woman had let out another sigh as she put the last of her items back inside her bag. Another sigh escaped her lips before she said in a defeated tone, “Great! C’mon Kim…we’ve got to hurry up before we lose another job!”
Back at the hospital, an older nurse had found the man she was looking for.
“Doctor!,” she had said while nearly out of breath. “One of the patients that arrived earlier has escaped from their room!” The man in white tapped his pen against his clipboard before looking at the nurse in front of him.
He replied to her with a yawn escaping from him, “Well then, go find the patient! Rather, which one was it that left the room that was assigned to them?” The elderly woman had looked down before answering his question. Clearly she was still out of breath from running down the halls from the search.
“It was the woman, Marilyn!” she said while placing a hand against the wall. “Matthew is asleep, but when I checked on the girl, she was gone!” she had said to him. The Doctor bit down on his pen while smiling. He then turned away from her.
“I’m sure she’ll be with the man,” he said with his back turned to her. “Go ahead and check to see if I’m wrong.” The Nurse had rolled her eyes as she left the main hallway. The Doctor looked down at his notes, smiling again. He quietly spoke to himself when he was finally alone. “Marilyn and Matthew…they look as if they’ve literally been through hell,” he said to himself. The man had smiled up towards the ceiling, smiling from the things the two patients had told him. “Officer Parson, will you be able to help these two out?” said the Doctor. “I doubt the Crimson Falls Police Department was of any help.” The man shrugged his shoulders and laughed at the things the woman with the black hair told him. “Monsters huh? Monsters that eat people.” The Doctor entered his office and sat down at his desk. “What kind of monsters were they hallucinating due to their lack of food and water intake?” His eyes drifted to his clipboard and noticed that his pen’s red ink was leaking all over it. “Well shit!”, he said while brushing his fingers against the red stain.
The Head Nurse had entered Matthew’s room, seeing that the woman was laying beside him in the bed.
“Marilyn! You should be resting in your own room down the hall!” said the nurse as she reached over for the young woman. “Come on! Lets go!” The injured girl held onto her lover tightly, as she did not want to let go of him.
Marilyn had a tight grip around him as she pleaded to the nurse, “Please! We haven’t been separated! We haven’t been separated! Let us be! I don‘t want to die!”
The Nurse then grabbed the girl by the waist, trying to pull her off the large bed. The older woman had raised her voice when she replied to the girl.
“NO! WE HAVE RULES IN THIS HOSPITAL!” she said while raising her voice. She had started to pull on the girl a bit harder now. “NOW LET’S GO!”, she had yelled out loud. “I CAN‘T SHOW YOU ANY SPECIAL TREATMENT!”
Matthew had awoken from his sleep as the whimpering sound of his lover echoed in the room. His vision was still blurry, but he turned to the direction where he could hear his love screaming for him. The image of something in white and pink behind Marilyn had made his heart rate increase. The man forced himself up from the bed before planting his fist into the Nurse’s face to knock her back. The older woman fell back onto the floor with blood spilling out of her nose. Marilyn climbed on top of Matthew, holding him close while breaking into tears.
“You-You BROKE MY NOSE!”, said the nurse as she slowly got up from the floor while holding her nose. The woman in uniform darted out of the room, leaving the two by themselves.
“Did she bite you?!”, said the worried man. He had looked all over the girl when his vision began to return. His lover was wearing practically nothing but the cheap garment to cover their front. “DID SHE BITE YOU?!”, he said again with his voice being raised. Marilyn shook her head quickly before holding him closer.
“No!”, she said calmly. “No! I’m fine! I just wanted…to stay with you.” The man kissed her lips with his arms firmly wrapping around her waist.
He told her in confidence, “Nothing will keep us apart.”
Sarah was sitting on a bench in the Armory room that was located in the basement of the Police Department. She was done putting her uniform on with her hair being the last thing to fix.
“There! Now I look the part!”, she said to herself. “Simply perfection!” A smile grew on her face when she saw two of her friends enter the old dark room. James and Jen were just a few of her close friends in the department. James was a reliable man that always had her back during the tough times on the job. Jen would take care of the emotional stress that would cloud Sarah’s path if it was just too much for her to bear on her own. Sarah gave the two a wave before breaking the silence. “Hey guys! Is Bruce in yet?”, she asked while facing her friends. The male officer had walked over to his locker to retrieve a personal item of his. He started to dig through his stuff while answering her.
“Yeah, he just got in,” said James. The man looked back at her with a smile on his face. “He’s in one of his Clint Eastwood Angry Moods again. So if you have anything to ask him, be prepared to be yelled at.”
She smiled at the joke, but
it only made things a little harder for what she had to report.
“Hey Jen?”, she called out to her other friend within the room. “Can you send a patrol car out to…” The woman had perked up while thinking to herself for a moment. “Well, I actually don’t recall where they said their vehicle had got banged up. I ran into two people that were in a car collision earlier.” Sarah was facing Jen as her brain continued to process everything that had happened earlier. “They might‘ve came from Crimson Falls, so it‘s has to be the only road that goes that way.”
The other female officer had sat beside Sarah with a gentle smile on her face.
“Don’t worry!”, Jen said. “I’ll send Billy the Mechanic out there to check, since he lives near one of the only roads that lead out of town.” The officer with the short brown hair had paused for a moment. “Oh wait, you don’t exactly know where this wreck was now do you?” She patted Sarah’s shoulder while laughing to herself. “Don’t worry, I’ll send Billy all over town today since he still owes me for the $72 I lent him a month ago,” she had said while tugging her own blue shirt that she was wearing. “He really needs to get a second job!” Jen playfully snapped her fingers while winking at Sarah and James with a villain‘s chuckle escaping from her soft lips. “That’s my way of punishment!”, she had said before she continued to laugh. The man had closed his locker before he finally stood up behind the women in uniform.
“I’ll leave you two to chat,” he said while putting his cap on. “I have to report something to Ryan and Paul upstairs. If I see the Sheriff, I‘ll tell him you‘re looking for him.” James had placed his hands on their heads like an older brother would before leaving the room.
“So you say you found this couple on the way here?”, Jen had asked when her curiosity side was kicking in. “Were they on drugs or something? Maybe they thought they were in a car crash but were probably just getting high out there?” Sarah listened to her friend’s random theories, but they just didn’t click. Jen was always there to listen and that was one of her best qualities. If you start her on something, she could talk all night if she wanted to. Sarah had looked at the floor before speaking about the people she met earlier.