by Bob Howard
If everything else was impressive, the physical plant was incredibly impressive. It hummed with energy, and I knew I that I had to figure it out before I learned to shoot, cook, or stitch wounds. Uncle Titus must have figured that I would be smart enough to come to the conclusion that power was vital because there were labels and instructions everywhere.
The main source of power was actually a landline……or more precisely a power cable that was buried under the island and was even deep enough to go under the ‘moat’. An instruction card on the massive control cabinet explained that it was a high voltage cable that was designed to power a public school. In other words, I wasn’t going to cause any breakers to trip by drawing too much current.
The rest of the room was a series of generators. Each one was described as fuel efficient, and each was capable of providing enough power to run all of the essential systems at the same time. There was also a chart that showed how long the fuel would last if fewer systems were in operation.
That chart made me start thinking again. “Where was the fuel?” I pictured fifty gallon drums of generator fuel stacked to the ceiling, but I didn’t see even one. I wasn’t surprised by the emergency generators because everybody knows power will fail in a major catastrophe, but it was starting to look like Uncle Titus didn’t get around to finishing that little detail. As a matter of fact, “How was I supposed to gas up the boat if I needed to?”
I turned in a circle looking at all of the machinery, instruction cards, switches, levers……switches and levers. I saw that each generator had a main switch, and a big red lever. The levers had tags that said, ‘Fuel’. After a stunned minute of staring at the big fuel line below each lever, I figured it out.
The shelter was sitting on top of buried fuel tanks, and there were so many that it was virtually a big gas station.There must be a pump somewhere out at the dock that can be turned off from this room too. It didn’t take long to find it, and it made perfect sense. Uncle Titus didn’t want someone else to gas up at the pump, and even more importantly, it couldn’t be used to blow up the shelter by igniting the fuel line. The shut off valve also served as a pump to drain the line back to the fuel tank or prime it up to the pump. Uncle Titus was a genius.
The last thing I considered important was listed in the book with the rest of the physical plant, but the equipment was located in each room. The ventilation units were distributed throughout the individual levels so no level was effected by the loss of ventilation on another level.
“What did Uncle Titus do, win the lottery?” I asked myself.
I made my way back up to the food storage area and found a packaged meal to eat. I know Uncle Titus said to eat the frozen food first, but the world hadn’t ended yet.
******
A quick trip up to a mall and a car dealership in Myrtle Beach was all I had in mind. I stopped at the safe in the upper level and made a sizable withdrawal that should cover a Jeep of my own and my entertainment needs.
The trip back in the boat was much faster than the trip out, and I felt like I was on top of the world. I had money, property, and most importantly, independence. I didn’t need my job anymore, and I didn’t have any personal ties to keep me from disappearing down my own private rabbit hole.
As I drove back to civilization, I thought about nothing else. Average job, average height, average weight……hell, I was so average I could disappear anywhere.
Just under six feet, 175 pounds on the nose, and brown hair with average looks didn’t get me a lot of dates, so I didn’t have a girlfriend. I couldn’t invite a girl back to the shelter because any girl in her right mind would think she was being kidnapped by some kind of serial killer by the time we would reach the island. She would probably start asking me to turn the car around long before we reached the island.
As for family, I grew up mostly in the homes of relatives that didn’t want me around to start with. That’s how I got hooked up with Uncle Titus. He paid attention to me, so I listened to him more than the others.
My parents were out of the picture before I was even old enough to remember them. Everyone always said that was a shame, but you don’t really miss what you never had. I learned to spend time by myself and not feel alone, so this rabbit hole was perfect for me. There was a big smile on my face as I passed a sign that said Welcome to Surfside.
******
Traffic was light because it was a weekday, and most of the tourists were trying to find room on the beach a little further up the coast in Myrtle Beach. Strip malls, fast food places, and motels dotted the landscape, and it wasn’t long before I spotted a store that specialized in video games. I didn’t even need to drive all the way to the main shopping areas to get what I needed, so I navigated the turn lanes to get to the other side of the highway and found a parking spot.
When you don’t have to worry about the cost of the games, it doesn’t take long to find what you’re looking for……one of everything. I went down one aisle after the next like a little kid. The guy working behind the register got me a cardboard box and told me if there was something I didn’t see that I wanted to be sure to say so. I smiled and gratefully accepted the box.
I decided not to limit myself to one platform, so I asked him to get the three best consoles and a variety of controllers. He didn’t bat an eye, and he didn’t seem at all surprised by the size of the purchase I was about to make. He didn’t care as long as I had either the cash or a credit card with a high enough limit. Neither of us paid much attention to the police car that screamed past the strip mall with its blue lights on even though it practically slid into the entrance of a fast food place across the highway.
Another customer came in and started looking at the new releases. He glanced our way and got a look of obvious envy on his face when he saw that the guy behind the counter was scanning one game after the next and had long way to go. He was a stereotypical gamer who was seriously trying to reinforce the belief that all gamers wear thick framed glasses, don’t wash their hair, and don’t know how to dress. This guy was destined to live in his mother’s basement forever.
The cashier and I exchanged a few comments with each other about different games, which ones he liked, which ones were going to have a new version soon. He looked past me and stopped scanning. I looked over my shoulder and saw that he was looking at the gamer by the new releases.
For some strange reason, the gamer was still staring in our direction. I almost said something, thinking he was getting a little too far into my business, but I noticed his eyes weren’t on my pile of video games anymore, and his mouth wasn’t set in a permanent look of awe. It was more like a slack mouth……like he didn’t know what look he should have.
He was looking past us and out through the big window on the front of the store. The guy behind the register looked to his left and followed the gaze of the other customer. I saw his expression change, and I looked too.
Across the four lane highway with the wide grass median was the Surfside Police Department car with its blue lights on. The officer was standing outside the car and pointing at the ground with one hand while reaching back with his right hand to his holstered weapon.
He was yelling at someone and continually pointing toward the ground. Gamers are all familiar with the stance the police officer was assuming. It was the one where the gun comes out of the holster. It wasn’t hard to figure out that he was telling someone to get on the ground.
The person who was the subject of his attention was a girl who looked like she might work in the fast food place. She was wearing an apron and a baseball cap. She also looked like she had spilled something all over herself. She was a mess, and I wondered if she hadn’t gotten sick and thrown up. From the mouth down, she needed to clean herself.
She took a step in the direction of the officer, and the ball cap fell off of her head. She didn’t seem to notice or even care. I glanced at the cashier and at the other customer and saw that they were glued to what was happening. None of us were rea
ching for our cell phones to get it all on video. Even though we didn’t know it at the time, it wasn’t going to be a novel scene by the end of the day, because it would be happening everywhere. It wasn’t like we would be able to sell the video to the media.
We couldn’t hear what was happening, but the officer was still shouting and pointing downward as he pulled his weapon free of the holster. Another police cruiser slid into the exit of the fast food place, and the officer quickly drew his own weapon as he jumped out of his car and moved into a position to be ninety degrees from the first officer.
Both were shouting at the girl, but she never acknowledged the presence of the second officer, nor did she seem to be aware of his arrival. She just took a second and then third step toward the first officer. I wasn’t sure, but from our distant vantage point, it looked like she might be hurt, but neither officer was acting like they were dealing with an accident victim.
The gamer by the new releases said, “Whoa man, if this was something like Undead Zombies, I would think someone is just about to score some points.”
It was my turn to get a dumb look on my face. We were watching a real-life stand off happening across the highway. Guns were being pointed, and it looked like someone was about to die, and the basement dweller was talking about which shooter was about to get bonus points.
The guy behind the game shop counter was still frozen in mid scan. I looked outside and saw there were people on both sides of the highway who were watching to see how it was all going to play out. Some of them were holding up their cell phones and jostling each other for better angles.
There was a popping sound, and my head snapped back to the action in the fast food driveway just in time to see the body of the girl jerk backward. The force of the bullet hitting her in the upper left side of her chest caused her to flip over onto her back. She fell out of my view because of the position of the police car, so I moved to where I could see better.
The cashier and the basement dweller squeezed up against the window with me, and I asked, “What’s that on the ground? Is that someone else?”
No one had a chance to answer before we saw the girl roll over onto her stomach and push herself into a sitting position. She was facing toward the second cop now, and he didn’t seem to be trying to talk to her anymore. He was just slowly advancing toward her and taking aim.
“Do you think it has to be a head-shot?” asked he gamer. He was still thinking of this as something you could forget about after the TV gets turned off. I, for one, didn’t want to ever see a head-shot in real life.
A fire engine with sirens blaring and red lights spinning coasted to a stop between us and the drama across the highway. The crowd outside, which had grown significantly, surged left and right to be able to see again.
We reacted too, and went out the front door. I didn’t say anything, but I saw the basement-dweller slip a game case from the stack of games the cashier had already scanned for me. That meant the security device had already been deactivated. He slid it into an oversized pocket, and pushed his way outside with us all bunched together.
Without the plate glass windows between us and the other side of the four lanes and grass median, we could hear the terrified sounds coming from the crowd. We also heard the next pop and the cries of people who couldn't believe they were really seeing a girl who couldn’t have been more than twenty years old getting shot. We had a clear view, and we saw her fly backward for a second time. This time, she didn’t get up, and the gamer said, “Whoa, someone just leveled up!”
I was almost ready to shut him up by mentioning the game he had stolen from my pile when the cashier said, “Hey guys. That does look like someone else laying on the ground.”
“Where?” I had a feeling he meant the dark shape next to the girl’s body, but I was catching on fast that seeing something unreal could make you question the obvious. We were seeing it happen, but we didn’t believe it was really happening. When you got right down to it, we were no better than the basement-dweller acting like it was all a game.
“Right there by the girl. Isn’t that a guy?” He pointed, but it was a useless gesture because we were across the street at least forty or fifty yards from the action.
The two officers were moving slowly toward the girl and whatever it was on the ground. They still had their guns drawn, but they were gradually lowering them as they advanced. They were still ninety degrees from each other, one approaching from the front and the other from the side. I wondered why they were still being so cautious since the first one had obviously put the second shot straight to the forehead.
The game store cashier said, “Am I imagining any of this?”
“I don’t think we’re in each other’s imaginations, man. This is real.” My voice sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away. Nothing seemed real, and everything seemed like it was straight from a movie set or from one of my video games. “On second thought, I hope we are imagining this.”
As if on cue, the dark shape on the ground that the cashier said looked like a body sat up, and both officers raised their guns again. This time they were pointing at the guy on the ground.
At the same time, two emergency medical technicians were moving into position between the two cops. They had a stretcher ready and were obviously thinking the guy on the ground needed their help. When the guy on the ground sat up and the cops raised their guns again, the EMT’s stopped moving.
A collective scream went up from the crowd as the guy on the ground pushed himself to a standing position and started walking toward the open door of the fast food place. Someone from inside had opened the door and stepped outside to get a better look at what was happening. At least we weren’t close. That spectator was practically on top of the girl who had been flipped backward by the bullets.
We could see that the guy who had stepped outside was frantically pushing back at the people who had pushed out behind him. There was a log jam at the door because people behind those in front couldn’t tell what was going on. The guy who had been laying on the ground a minute ago was slowly advancing toward the door.
Realization dawned on the log jam and everyone started pushing back inside, closely followed by the guy who had come out first, and he was pulling hard on the door to get it closed. The door opened outward, so he had a firm grip on the bar across the door. He didn’t need to bother because the guy who had gotten up off of the ground shambled into the door like he didn’t have a clue that the door was even there, let alone that he needed to pull the door outward.
The way the man inside was leaning backward and pulling as hard as he could on the door. I don’t think anyone could have opened it, but shambling guy walked into the glass, bounced off of it, and walked into it again.
By this time the two cops had closed in on the man from behind. They grabbed him as they were trained to do and spun him away from the door. As they guided him to the ground, they pulled his hands behind his back and put handcuffs on his wrists.
We got a good look at the man because he was turned straight toward us as they spun him away from the door. He didn’t look any better than the girl did before she was shot. His face and clothes were covered with something dark, and all I could think of was that looked like blood.
The EMT’s had resumed their slow advance forward, and as soon as the cops had the man cuffed and face down on the ground, they were in position to take over. They got the stretcher in place and moved to his knees and shoulders to fit him onto the stretcher.
The EMT who had tried to get a grip on the shoulders jumped back and was holding his own right hand in his left. He looked surprised, and I could see that he was trying to stop the flow of blood from the big veins just above the wrist.
The second EMT dropped the cuffed man’s knees and went to help his partner, but he never got there because he had to pass too close to the man’s head. Like a rabid dog on a short leash, the man lurched as hard as he could to reach the right leg of the EMT with his teeth. He clamped
firmly onto it just above the ankle.
The EMT went down hard, and we could hear his screams above the sounds of the crowd. His partner went to his knees, still holding his right hand with his left. The whole thing was crazy.
The two cops had backed away to process what had happened, and several more had joined them. They had holstered their guns and were turning and pointing at various things, including the dead girl. They were interrupted by the new screams coming from the EMT’s. When the second EMT went down, the cuffed man kept his mouth gripped to the back of his leg.
The cops dove onto the cuffed man, and it looked like they were trying to pull his mouth open. It looked just like it would look if it had been a big dog trying to hang onto a victim, but it was a man in handcuffs. The EMT was screaming at the top of his lungs.
The struggle to free the EMT suddenly ended when one of the cops barked a command to everyone else. As one, they all cleared out as ordered, and the cop that shouted the order shot the man who was biting the EMT.
The first shot was clean through the middle of the cuffed man’s back, dead center between the shoulders, but he kept his grip, and the EMT kept screaming. The cop hesitated for only a split second and fired a second shot about a foot above the last and straight into the back of the head. The biting man stopped moving, but the EMT was still screaming.
A second pair of EMT’s rushed forward to give aid to their friends, and were quickly joined by several others. The first EMT who had been badly bitten at the wrist had gone quiet. He was on his back while fellow EMTs were getting a temporary dressing onto the wound. Another was getting a bag of something hooked up to the left arm while a third was getting a blood pressure cuff around the upper arm. Several others were doing pretty much the same thing to the second EMT, and our view became blocked by uniforms.