And We All Fall (Book 1)

by Michael Patrick Jr. Mahoney

  “What?” the chief asked. The chief was sweating profusely at his desk, moaning a little with his head in his hands. He gagged, fighting the urge to vomit.

  “Are you alright, Chief?” Nole asked.

  “Yeah. Little food poisoning, I guess. What do you want?”

  “I can’t reach, Jewell. I’ve been trying for an hour. I keep getting her voicemail.”

  Chief Batton looked up at his sergeant. “So?”

  “I’m worried about her.”

  “She was warned, Nole.”

  “I know, sir. But…”

  “But nothing. She didn’t listen to the warnings. I’m not surprised she’s missing.”

  “I want to ping her phone.”

  “And have the CIA here in two minutes asking us why we did that? With their guns pointed at us?”

  “Fine. I want to go out and look for her then.”

  “I need you here. All hell is about to break loose around here. We got town folk camping outside city hall and the National Guard is going to start setting up a post in our parking lot in two hours.”

  “Come on, Chief. Just give me an hour.”

  “No.”

  “Come on! I’ll be back as soon as I find her.”

  “And if you don’t find her?”

  “I will find her. I have to. Please.”

  Chief Batton looked at the clock on his wall and then wiped the sweat off his forehead with a towel. Nole was like a son to him, and there was that soft spot he has for Jewell. He could see in his sergeant’s eyes that he wouldn’t take no for answer. He took a breath to fight off the nausea. “Fine. You have exactly one hour. Not a minute more. Starting now.”

  “Thanks, Chief!” Sergeant Barnes ran to his desk to grab his gun and his hat.

  “Watch yourself!” Chief Batton yelled as Barnes exited through the front door of the small police station before the chief could get both words out.

  He looked at the wound on his ankle that has been festering since Sunday night. He didn’t know what was under Reverend Rally’s fingernails when he dug them into Chief Batton’s ankle at Charlie Monroe Park, but whatever it was seemed to be eating the chief’s flesh and making him feel like he’d eaten a pound of rancid shellfish.

  “Definitely infected,” he said aloud and drank all of his third bottle of water in the last hour, just before throwing up all over his desk.

  Chapter 36

  Jackson pulled his father’s old white truck into the parking lot of the Virginia motel that was just off the interstate. Jax frowned as he took in its seedy ambience. It was the kind of motel you always pass by unless you’re looking for the proverbial good time or trouble.

  “This one?” Jax asked. “Really?”

  Jackson nodded and stepped out of the truck with his left arm now completely bandaged after a stop at the drugstore, concealing the deterioration that would sicken anyone who saw it.

  At least he paid for it, Jax thought as he grumbled, looking around at the grounds.

  Jackson stared at the sign for the Mosley Motel and tried to remember where he heard the name. Every thought in his mind was jumbled.

  Jax hopped out of the truck with Jumper and walked Jumper around in the small patch of un-mowed grass in front of the motel office while Jackson paid for the room in the office.

  “Phew, that stinks, Jumper. Guess I should pick it up,” Jax said to Jumper, alerted by the smell that wafted by Jax’s nose. The door to the room right next to the office was wide open, almost inviting Jax inside. He walked over to it with Jumper. “Hey! You have any toilet paper I can borrow?” he yelled into the room.

  “Hello?” the woman who came to the door said. “Oh! Hi!” She looked familiar to Jax, and she clearly recognized him. “Sally,” she continued. “Remember? From the Blind Shark!”

  “Oh, yeah,” Jax said, uneasy. “Hi.”

  “Hey. Where’s your dad?” She stepped out of the room and looked around. “What are you all doing here?”

  “We’re on our way back home and are stopping here for the night.” Jax looked as though he smelled something putrid, though there wasn’t a whiff of Jumper’s poop to smell. “Despite my protest.”

  “Oh.” Sally spotted Jackson in the office. She smiled and started to walk to the office.

  “So can I grab some toilet paper from your bathroom?” Jax yelled out to her.

  “Sure,” she said without turning around but raised her arm in the air. “Help yourself.”

  Jax rushed into her room with Jumper following him and headed for the bathroom where he grabbed a few long sheets of the cheapest toilet paper he had ever felt. He walked back outside with Jumper to the pile and gathered it up. “That stinks, Jumper,” he said with that same sour face. He looked at Jumper, who decided to sit down in the grass, and then Jax ran back into Sally’s bathroom to flush it.

  As the water in the bowl swirled, some white powder on the bathroom counter caught the boy’s eye. He looked closer at it for a moment, and then left the bathroom as fast as he could, realizing what it was.

  He walked to the office, where he saw his father and Sally laughing with each other. She put her hand on Jackson’s arm and ran her fingers around his triceps muscle.

  “There you are,” Jackson said to Jax as he and Sally walked out of the office. “Where did you go?” he asked his son who was like a statute staring at the two.

  “Jumper pooped. She said I could use some of her toilet paper to get rid of it.”

  Jackson looked at Sally. “I sure did,” she said. “Which room did the clerk give you?”

  “123,” Jackson said.

  “One. Two. Three. Easy,” she said and winked at Jackson. “Like me.”

  Jackson felt the blood surge in his pants, her innuendo clear to the Marine, husband, and father. “Good to see you again, Sally,” he said, trying hard not to give in. “Take care and goodnight. Let’s get our stuff,” he said to Jax.

  The trio walked back toward the truck and Sally walked uncommitted to her room.

  “Hey,” she said, leaning in the doorway. Jackson and Jax looked back at her. “If you need a nightcap, I have some good beer in the fridge. In my room.” She motioned to her room with a quick turn of her head and a big smile.

  “Good to know,” Jackson said with a smile of his own.

  “Alright. Well, goodnight to you all.” She closed the door.

  Jackson found himself thinking about her in the short, tight jean shorts she was wearing. He already had a peak at what was underneath her pink tank top when he was at the bar yesterday and couldn’t get the image of her breasts out of his mind as he walked past her room with Jumper and Jax following.

  “Let’s go to a different hotel,” Jax insisted anxiously as they entered room 123 a moment later.

  “Why?”

  “I got a bad feeling about this one,” Jax continued as he placed his laptop on the dresser and Jackson tossed Jumper’s dog food and his bag in the corner. “Let’s just drive down the highway another five minutes.”

  “Nonsense. We’ll go right to sleep and head home in the morning. Nothing to worry about.”

  Jax shook his head, but he was too tired to argue any more about it. He yawned and plugged his father’s totally dead cell phone into the wall. He turned on the television as his father went into the bathroom and closed the door. He looked for CNN again, wondering what was new with the story that kept showing up on the television. There was a different one this time, though it was just as interesting.

  Disturbing.

  “Let’s check in now with CNN reporter Bryce Cooper who is standing by live at the gruesome scene in Seacliff, with a representative from their police department. Bryce, what can you tell us?”

  “I’m here with Detective Larry Matthews with the Seacliff Police Department. Detective, what can you tell us about this homicide that has rocked this vacation beach town? What is the status of the investigation at this time?”

  Jax recognized the house behind the report
er and detective. The last time he saw it, his father walked through the front door with blood all over him.

  “Dad!” he yelled. “Come here!”

  Jackson flushed the toilet and walked out of the bathroom. “What is it?”

  “Look.” Jax pointed at the television.

  Jackson stared at the image on the television as the detective spoke.

  “We are working leads and currently trying to ascertain the whereabouts of a person of interest for this crime.”

  “What can you tell us about this person of interest?”

  “His identity is being kept confidential for the time being.”

  “What are you doing to find him or her?”

  “A manhunt is underway at this time.”

  “Is the person of interest believed to be in Maine at this time?”

  “Turn that shit off!” Jackson demanded angrily and turned the television off. “Go to sleep.”

  Every word he spoke had an edge.

  Jackson turned off the lights in the room. “God damn news always stirring everybody up.” It was pitch black except for the street lights filling the small spaces between the blinds.

  “Aren’t we going to try and call mom back when the phone charges enough?” Jax asked in a panic.

  “I’ll call her when it has enough to juice. Now get some sleep.” Jackson picked the phone up off the dresser and went back into the bathroom with it. He looked like a thief slinking around in the night. He shut the door hard and locked it.

  Jax looked over to Jumper who was lying by the front door again, and then stared at the ceiling. He lay there for a few minutes, worried about what was going to happen. The police are looking for us! He fell asleep eventually, but noticed his father open and close the bathroom door a few times and look at him before he did, never saying a word.

  Jax didn’t’ know why.

  He woke just before six o’clock in the morning, expecting to see his father in the bed next to him. It was empty.

  “Dad?” Jax called out in the dark. “Are you in the bathroom?” He stepped out of bed and moved awkwardly towards the bathroom, still groggy.

  The bathroom was dark. He flipped on the lights.

  Empty.

  He flipped on all the lights in the room and paced around. “Dad?” he called out again as he stood in the center of the motel room looking around. The room was small, with few places to hide, so he assumed Jackson was simply not there.

  “Be good,” Jax said to Jumper a couple minutes later after he put some clothes on, grabbed the second room key and quietly opened the door to the room. “Stay,” His dog raised his head and wagged his tail, but was otherwise content to do as he was told.

  Jax stood in the doorway taking in the outside air as and a strange feeling came over him. The world outside didn’t smell, sound or feel the way it did every day of his life before now. He didn’t feel the same either.

  Something was different.

  Headlights flickered a message on the highway as engines roared faintly in the distance. The moon looked lonely to Jax. Sad. A feeling of dread washed over him as he took the next step.

  He walked over to the office, unsure what he might find there. The clerk was still sitting at the desk, and waved to Jax. He waved back.

  He stopped at the front door of Sally’s room. He put his ear up to the door, but couldn’t hear anything. He tried to turn the doorknob, but it was locked, wouldn’t turn at all no matter how hard he jiggled it. There were no lights on inside.

  He thought about knocking, raised his hand to, but didn’t. “Probably sleeping,” he said out loud. “He’s just out for a walk. To get some air,” Jax reassured himself and decided to go back to his room and wait for his dad to return.

  As he started walking back, he eyed their truck in the parking lot, noticing the windows of the old workhorse were foggy. He looked at the other vehicles in the parking lot. None of them had foggy windows, at least, not that foggy.

  As he moved closer, he could see that something was happening. The truck was bouncing up and down a little. He walked up to it to see what was happening inside.

  Shock and a kind of disgust he’d never felt before in his life overwhelmed him as he watched his father and Sally inside the truck.

  Naked.

  She was on her hands and knees on the bench seat facing the driver’s side window. Her eyes closed. Jax could make out her skinny, pale body rocking back and forth as Jackson pushed hard in and out of her from behind with one hand around her neck and the other cupping her small breasts. He leaned forward still inside her to snort cocaine off her back.

  “Oh fuck!” Sally yelled as she opened her eyes and saw the reflection of a blurred Jax staring at them from outside the truck.

  Jax fell back to the ground as he launched himself away from the truck. He struggled to his feet and fell again as his father stepped out of the passenger side of the truck with no clothes on.

  “Get away from me!” Jax yelled as struggled to his feet again with Jackson coming towards him wearing only the bandage on his left arm.

  “Jax! Wait!” Jackson begged as Jax ran towards room 123 while his dad ran after him pleading. “Jax!”

  Jax fumbled with the card key, pushing the door open as soon as the green light flashed. He ran inside and tried to close the door behind him before Jackson arrived, but he was too late.

  Jax tripped and stumbled to the floor as Jumper began to howl. “Get away from me!”

  “Please! Let me explain!” Jackson demanded as he slammed the door closed and struggled to put on a pair of jeans while Jax locked himself in the bathroom.

  He noticed the phone on the bathroom counter. He pressed the power button and waited for it to power on, hoping there was some juice left in it. “Come on! Come on!”

  “What are you doing?” Jackson yelled into the bathroom as he banged on the door. He remembered leaving the phone in there as he zipped up his jeans while he stood by the door, yelling at Jax.

  The phone came on, the battery at one percent.

  “Thanks goodness, Jackson!” Jamie said instantly as she answered her cell phone on the first ring. “Where are you?”

  “Mom!” Jax cried as Jackson crashed into the bathroom door, blowing it off the hinges. “No! Please! Don’t hurt me!”

  “Jax! What’s going on? Where are you?”

  “Mom! It’s dad! He…”

  Ruffling was all Jamie heard after that. “Jax! Jax!”

  Jackson snatched the phone from Jax and shoved it in his pocket just before it died again. “Just listen to me for a damn minute! I can explain!”

  “Explain what! That you cheated on mom with some strange lady and did drugs? Why dad? Why!”

  Jumper paced anxiously in the room, whining, while Jackson continued pleading with his son who cowered in the bathroom. Jumper tried to intervene, but Jackson commanded him to stand down.

  “There’s nothing you can say, dad!”

  “I’ll explain on the way,” Jackson said as he stepped over the door on the floor to exit the bathroom and hurried to gather his stuff, including the locust habitat. The creature inside was still trying to get out. The energy in the room was feverish, unbearably so, for all off them. “Go get in the truck!”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you! I want to talk to mom!” Jax said with his face red and crying as he ran out of the bathroom.

  “Look. I’ll explain everything in the truck. Get your stuff together, Jax. We’re leaving! Now!”

  “No!”

  “Get your shit together now!” Jackson screamed like a maniac. The wild look in his eyes led Jax to comply, feeling as though his life depended on it. Besides, he didn’t know what else to do.

  The old Chevy truck peeled out of the motel parking lot with smoking tires less than three minutes later. Jackson didn’t even think about stopping to pay the motel bill, or say goodbye to Sally. He wished he had never stopped at the Mosley Motel.

  “I’m so sorry, Jax,” J
ackson said as the truck flew up the ramp onto the interstate while the moon disappeared and the sun rose up in the horizon. “Let me explain. Please. So you can understand.”

  “I don’t understand any of this! What has happened to you? I thought you loved mom!”

  “I do! I do love your mom.”

  “Why then? How could you do this to her?”

  “I don’t know.” Jackson seemed genuinely confused to Jax. “I felt so… I just wanted her, no matter what.”

  “You make me sick!”

  Jackson started crying like a child.

  A helpless child.

  The father and son then sobbed together as Jumper whimpered, not yet able to empty his aged bladder after all of this morning’s excitement.

  “I can’t believe you did this to mom,” Jax said while crying. “Doing drugs! What the hell!”

  “Ah!” Jackson screamed out in agony and looked at his elbow. He started to unwrap the bandage.

  “What is it? Your damn elbow again? I told you to go to the hospital! Why didn’t you listen to me!”

  “Ah! My whole body feels on fire!”

  Jackson let go of the steering wheel and peeled the rest of the white bandage off his arm. His entire left arm was a grayish color. His veins were close to the surface of his skin, a marbling pattern extended across his torso. His elbow and the flesh surrounding it looked like rancid meat. The ‘Jamie’ tattoo wasn’t recognizable anymore, erased by diseased flesh that was turning black.

  “Oh, my God! You have to go to the hospital now, dad!”

  “No! No hospital!”

  “But dad!”

  “No! I won’t discuss this anymore! We are going home!”

  Jackson focused on the path ahead as he writhed in pain. He pushed the gas pedal down far as it would go, the speedometer needle had no room to move. They didn’t get far before attracting the attention of the Virginia State Police.

  “No!” Jackson eyed the sirens flashing in the rear view mirror. “No! No! No!”

  He refused to slow down as the police car followed, practically glued to the truck’s back bumper.

  “He’s not going to stop,” Jax said as he turned and eyed the police car through the rear windshield. “You have to pull over!” Jax urged his father. “Come on dad!” Jax said to him as Jackson looked at him. “Stop the truck!”