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Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
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Other Books in the Demontouched World
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Echoes of Tomorrow
Season One
Episode Three
Douglas Wayne
ECHOES OF TOMORROW
SEASON ONE
EPISODE THREE
Douglas Wayne
Copyright © 2015 by Douglas Wayne. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.
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Chapter One
Mobile, Alabama
September 15th, 2013
The man with the gun rushed through the room, stopping outside the window. He scanned the parking lot below, watching the scene unfolding in the parking lot.
Tyler sat back in the bed, eyes fixated on the weapon. Even with the pounding in his head he was thinking about making a move for it. If he could tell the man’s intentions by looking at him, it would put him at ease, but Tyler couldn’t help but to feel intimidated by his presence.
Marcy sat on the floor, body hunched against the wall near the back of Tyler’s bed. Holding her hand over her mouth, she failed to hold in her terrified moans.
“Excuse me,” Tyler said. “Can I help you?”
The man turned and aimed his gun at Tyler. “Yep. You can start by acting like the other three stiffs in your room. If you can’t handle that, I’ll make it nice and easy for you.” He leaned over, noticing Marcy whimpering against the wall. “And tell the bitch to shut up before I shut her up. Whining gives me a headache.”
Tyler felt his blood pressure increase as his limbs started to shake. He’d faced down the barrel of a gun twice now in a few days, which was two times more than he had in his life to this point. It was a habit he wanted to kick to the curb before it went much further. For now, while the gun was aimed at his head, he waited to make his move.
“All right man, easy.” Tyler raised his hands above his head, hoping to prove he wasn’t hiding a gun under his hospital gown.
The man turned back around and went back to peering out the window.
Tyler wasn’t sure what the man was watching, or why he was here with a gun. If he planned on trying to shoot the guardsmen from up here, he was going to be disappointed. Worse yet, if he tried and they found out, the room would be filled with bullets in a matter of moments. That put Tyler in a rough spot. If he made a move against the man, he could end up shot and killed, but staying put in his bed was just as risky. He was also sure that any attempt to leave the room would be met with similar consequences.
That left him one real option.
Tyler leaned over and tapped Marcy on her head. She held her hand over her mouth, desperately trying to hold in her sobs. He nodded his head over to the man at the window, hoping she got the clue. He wanted to take him down and get his gun, but wasn’t sure he could do it alone.
She nodded in agreement, wiped her face, and crawled to the edge of the bed. While she’d shown fear, she was willing to do what it took to get out of her bad situations. This made Tyler feel more at ease, knowing he could count on her if things went wrong on the road. If the rest of the world was even half as screwed up as it was in Mobile, he needed all the help he could get.
Tyler waited until she was at the foot of the bed before sitting up slow and quiet then pulled the blanket off his legs so he was ready to pounce. He held three fingers to the ground where she could see them to let her know when to go. Her head moved down, so he began his count.
After getting to one, Tyler leapt from the bed, crashing into the man. The momentum slammed the man into the window with an audible thud Tyler was sure they’d hear down below. The man moved his arm, trying to move the gun into a position to fire at Tyler, but Marcy grabbed it before he could move it more than a few inches.
“Let me go,” the man said, struggling to hold onto the gun. “The fight is down there. Are you going to let them do this to us?”
Tyler put his forearm against the man’s head and held it against the window. “Do what? Protect the hospital?”
“Is that what you think is happening down there?” The man stopped struggling, allowing Marcy to pull the gun from his hand. “They aren’t here to protect the hospital.”
Marcy clicked the safety off on the gun and held it up to the man’s head. “Why else would they be here? Power is out in the city. This is the only place still holding up.”
“For how long?” he asked. “The backup generators upstairs run on diesel. Even if they stored hundreds of barrels, they’ll last a few days at best. But let’s face reality. The people who have access to the generators might not be around. For all we know they are part of the missing. Even if they weren’t and they decided, against all odds, that their job in maintenance is more important than spending time with their family, there’s only so much they can do to keep the power running.”
Marcy, still holding the gun to the man’s head shifted her gaze to Tyler, who was watching her reaction. “Is it true? Will the power run out?”
“You said the power has been cutting in and out for a few days, right?” Tyler asked her.
“Yeah.”
“Well, most generators hold about a half-day’s supply of fuel in the tank. A place like this can use loads of power, which is why he keeps saying generators. The more power they use, the more fuel they use.” Tyler pressed his arm even harder into the man’s neck. “That still doesn’t explain anything. Why is the National Guard in the parking lot?”
“The world’s gone to shit man. Any place with supplies has already been hit. Supermarkets. Gun stores. Pharmacies.”
Realization coursed through Tyler as the last word left the man’s mouth. They weren’t here to protect the hospital or to keep it running. If they were, it was just an issue of trucking in enough diesel to keep it running between power outages.
No, they were here to protect something other than the people the walls currently protected. They were here to keep the food and drugs from being raided or to keep it in government hands. After what they went through at the pharmacy the other day, the news wasn’t a shock. But even if they were here to protect the hospital’s precious supplies, it didn’t explain why everyone was being kept away.
“Why are the people outside attacking them then?”
“Some want to get inside to see loved ones. Others want to get looked at themselves. But I imagine the vast majority are here for the supplies.”
Tyler relaxed the pressure on the man’s neck. “How about you? What side are you on?”
“I’m on my side,” he spat. “I’ve got a sick wife at home that needs medi
cation and a diabetic son.”
“So you came inside the hospital with a gun to steal medication? Why not talk to a doctor and tell them what’s going on?” Tyler was growing more suspicious about the man the more he let him talk. Other than his theory on why the National Guard was here, his story seemed like a load of crap.
“The doctors aren’t in charge anymore. The ones that didn’t disappear and are still here working answer to the military. If you need anything, you have to go through them.”
“That’s not true,” Marcy said through her gritted teeth.
“When was the last time you left the room?” he asked. “Or tried to leave the hospital?”
“Last night.”
“And when you tried to leave, what did they do?”
Marcy’s skin went pale as she struggled to say the answer. “They…”
“They threatened to shoot and kill you before you made it halfway across the parking lot.” He gave Marcy a knowing look. “I was there, not far behind you. They stopped letting people leave two days ago. Those that got past the barricades haven’t been let back in.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Tyler said. “If they are here for the supplies, why wouldn’t they let anyone who wanted out leave?” The question seemed logical enough. Fewer people around to compete for the resources from the inside meant fewer ways to split it.
“Think about it. What if someone learned where everything was hidden, but found it well protected? If they let people come and go, anyone could come back to the hospital armed and ready to take it over.”
The story made sense to Tyler, even if he didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t want to believe it was possible for the world to go down the toilet so fast. Three days wasn’t a long time in the grand scheme of things and it seemed inconceivable for things to degenerate to this point in twice the time. Yet, as he stared out the window he couldn’t help but to focus his attention on the guardsmen and the people they were confronting down in the parking lot.
But there was one little tidbit of information the man had yet to divulge. Tyler was going to ask him the question and give him a chance to respond, the merit of his answer determining if Tyler let him go or rip the gun from Marcy’s hand to shoot him himself.
“Why are you here? Why the gun?”
The man snickered. “My wife is in ICU. As for the gun, I have a conceal carry permit. It’s in my wallet if you want to check.”
The answer didn’t put Tyler at ease in the slightest. That might have been the reason he was here to begin with, but it was still odd he’d burst into his room and threatened to kill him if he didn’t stay quiet. Tyler knew he wasn’t telling the full truth and needed to push the issue further to pull it out of him.
Tyler, still putting pressure against the man’s neck, reached to Marcy for the gun which she handed over without hesitating. While he wasn’t keen on shooting the man at point blank, he knew she liked the idea even less. Tyler didn’t have any way to know what she’d done in her past, but he’d bet killing someone wasn’t in her profile. Something about her told him she was the type of person willing to do what it takes when she’s backed against the wall, but just as willing to run away if not. He admired her ability, and willingness, to at least set herself up as a threat in the situation, even if she wasn’t prepared to go through with it.
Tyler held the gun to the man’s head, pressing the cold steel against his temple so hard he thought he might push his head through the window. “You want to try this story again? This time, you should skip the bullshit if you catch my drift.”
“Woah man, easy with the gun. It’s loaded,” the man said, cowering against the window.
“No shit.” Tyler pressed the gun against his skin even harder, whitening the skin around the barrel. Tyler figured if he wasn’t willing to talk, he was just as willing to push the gun through his head as he was to pull the trigger. “One more time.”
“OK, man. OK. I’m with those people down below. I came up here to get a better vantage point for what was coming.”
“You can’t believe those people have a chance down there,” Tyler said. “There’s what, seven or eight of you and a few dozen guardsmen?” He didn’t go into how stupid it was to pit something as puny as this handgun against the might of the weaponry provided to the US military.
“There’s a lot more of us than you can see. Just watch. You’ll see.”
Still holding the gun to the man’s head, he turned his attention to the scene below. The guardsman formed a semicircle with the hospital at their back and the people at their front, their guns aimed and ready to fire at the first sign of trouble. The tactic didn’t look to have the effect the guardsmen were looking for as the crowd, now nearly fifty strong, pushed forward forcing the guardsmen back.
Tyler was surprised the guardsmen were allowing themselves to be moved. He knew they might have trouble shooting their own countrymen, but if they didn’t stand up for themselves they’d end up giving up the hospital without a fight.
The man in front of the crowd of civilians lifted a gun and aimed it at the guardsmen, making Tyler squirm. He knew what was about to happen and turned his head to keep from looking at it.
The man, sensing an opportunity, twisted his body, trying to knock the gun from his hand. Desperate to hold onto the gun, Tyler tensed his hand and accidentally pulled the trigger.
The loud report signaling to those below it was no longer time to talk or to threaten.
It was time to fight.
Chapter Two
The rapid popping of automatic gunfire from the parking lot filled what it could of Tyler’s ringing ears. The sound sending waves of pain into his head, bringing the sense of vertigo back with it. His legs threatened to go from underneath him as the man threw himself at Tyler, pushing him against the wall. Sensing the move, Tyler held his head forward to keep it from smacking against the hard concrete walls. The last thing he needed was another concussion, not that the man would let him survive long enough to recover from it.
Marcy jumped into the fray, using every ounce of muscle on her frail frame to pull the man off of Tyler, or at the least keep him away from the gun. The struggle quickly turned from a match of trying to overpower each other to one where the gun was the focal point of the fight. Tyler struggled to bring the gun to bear as his arm was pinned against the wall with the man trying to pull it free. Marcy kept her body against the man’s, trying to make it harder for him to overpower Tyler.
The pressure of Marcy and the man pushing up against Tyler’s chest was near unbearable. Every breath took a monumental effort, while making the next even more taxing. If things kept up the way they were, Tyler knew it was just a matter of time until his body gave in and dropped the gun. He knew if he wanted to survive he had to make his move.
Tyler twisted his body to the right while pulling the gun behind him. The move sent the man into the wall, allowing Tyler to pull the gun free. It also had the side effect of sending Marcy sprawling to the floor which was something he hoped to avoid. He needed every ounce of help if he was going to turn the situation around and regain the edge.
Now off balance, Tyler struggled to pull the gun from his back. Instead he slid against the wall until he was pinned in the corner leaving the gun hand pinned behind him. The man pounced, wrapping his hands around Tyler’s neck as he struggled to stand upright. Tyler tried to pull his arm free, but couldn’t thanks to his awkward position. His lungs burned, screaming for the air being held from them. He knew, to survive he needed to pull himself out of the corner, but couldn’t figure out how.
Behind him he heard the firefight intensify, imagining it being as one sided as the fight that landed him a room here in the first place. Even though the people outnumbered the guardsmen ten to one or better, they weren’t a match for the automatic weaponry. Maybe if they fired the first volleys and killed enough of the guardsmen they might stand a chance, but Tyler suspected it was his gunshot that pushed the skirmish over the edge.
“Back off bitch, you’ll get your turn.” The man removed one of his hands from Tyler’s neck and unleashed a vicious backhand on Marcy, knocking her off of him.
She clutched her face and let out a scream the moment she hit the floor. Her cheeks turned beet red from the blow near instantly, causing her eyes to water, sending trickles of tears down her swelling cheek.
With part of his windpipe cleared, Tyler took in as much air as his lungs would allow, coughing from the effort. Combined with the oxygen returning to his blood, seeing his friend knocked to the floor sent him into a rage. He placed his foot against the concrete wall and used it to push his body away from it.
The move caught the man unaware. He released Tyler’s throat, opting instead of grab onto his shirt to keep on his feet. Marcy curled into a ball as the men approached, protecting her body and head from being trampled. The momentum sent the men into Marcy’s protected form and they tripped over her and they landed on the floor hard.
Tyler landed on top of the attacker, gaining the advantage. He swung at the butt of the gun at the man’s head, opening a gash across his forehead. Blood gushed from the open wound while Tyler reared back for another blow. The man screamed out and used his hands to cover his head as the blow hit home, opening another gash a few inches to the side.
Marcy got on her feet in time to watch the man block a third hit with his hand. His cracking bones causing her stomach to lurch as she imagined the pain he was going through.
Tyler reared back with the gun, preparing another devastating blow on the man’s head. Marcy caught his hand before the hit found its mark and struggled to keep Tyler from pulling his arm away.
Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode Three (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 3) Page 1