by James Harden
They sat Tommy down on the bench where the crazy lady had been sitting. When the police officers let him go, he just drooped over to one side and fell asleep on the freezing cold bench. The only way anyone could’ve slept on such a cold surface is if they were drugged to the eyeballs or unbelievably drunk. And judging by the color of this guys skin and the drool that was coming out of his mouth; I’d say he was one drink away from liver failure.
The police locked the cell and started to walk away. Maria, ran over to the bars, and yelled out. "Hey, what about us? Are you going to let us go?"
There was no reply.
Chapter 6
The waiting was unbearable and uncomfortable. Sleeping was impossible. We were starving and tired and agitated. If the cops were trying to break us down it was definitely working. I was ready to confess to anything and I didn’t really care what. I guess spending a night in a holding cell will do that to a person.
It must have been morning because my belly was growling at me, demanding to be fed. We were calling out for help but no one was answering. Outside we could hear what sounded like helicopters and low flying jets and an endless convoy of trucks. Tommy was still passed out. He was now lying on the floor. Come to think of it, he hadn’t really moved at all during the night.
Now we were really starting to freak out. We started arguing.
"Why haven't they come back for us? What's taking them so long?" Maria asked.
Jack had a worried look on his face. He was biting his bottom lip. "This isn’t even legal. By law they have to let us go within twenty-four hours if they haven’t charged us with anything."
"How do you even know that?" Maria fired back.
"I’ve watched enough episodes of Law and Order to know that if you don’t charge the bad guy with something, even if that bad guy is the big boss man himself, then you have to let them go."
"That’s just on TV! And that’s American TV! How do you know that’s even what happens in real life. Let alone in Australia!"
"We practically have the same legal system."
"Jack, you are starting to get on my nerves."
I’d never seen these two fight. Ever. They were always joking around and even when they were arguing they were always pretend arguing. Maria was starting to lose her cool. She knew this was no time for jokes.
"Well anyways, how long has it been?" I interjected.
Maria checked her watch. "It’s about 10am now, so we’ve been here at least ten or twelve hours. Assuming that we got here after curfew and around midnight. But I’m not really sure when we got here."
"Do you think it has something to do with the quarantine?" Jack said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean, do you think all the cops in town are off trying to help enforce the quarantine."
"No. They wouldn’t send everyone. There’s no way."
"But what if they had no choice? I mean, what if the virus from the immigration centre was worse than anyone thought? What if it got completely out of control and it killed everyone? What if we’re the only ones left? Just the three of us and the drunk guy here."
"Shut up, Jack." Maria and I said in unison.
He was making it all sound so terrifyingly real. I didn’t want to think about it. Because at that moment, it really did feel like we were the only people left alive on Earth.
"Guys, I'm kidding," Jack said in an attempt to calm our nerves. "Look, if that was the case then we’d be dead. The virus would’ve killed us as well."
It didn’t work.
"The curfew and the quarantine are just precautions." he offered. "Everything is going to be fine. And it’s not like we broke any major laws or anything."
"Yeah, you’re right," I agreed trying to sound positive. "And besides, Kim will get us out of here won’t she? She works at this precinct, right?"
"Yeah. But like I said before she’s been out on call. I don’t know when she’s coming back. But don’t worry we won’t even need her help anyway. We’ll be fine."
"I think it’s worth a shot."
"Yeah that’s great and all," Maria said. "But who knows if we’ll ever get a chance to play that card. Who knows if we’ll ever get out of this cell?"
"Now you're just being silly. They're going to come back for us," Jack said.
"How do you know that?"
"I just do."
"How?"
"What do you want us to do, Maria?"
"I don’t know! But we need do something! We can’t just wait here."
Jack started biting his lip again. Even though he was saying we needed to calm down and that everything would be all right and they were totally going to come back for us, I could tell that he wasn't so sure. I could tell that he was starting to think that no one was coming for us, that everyone had been killed, that we were the last survivors on Earth. He didn't want to wait here anymore than Maria did. But that's exactly what we did. It was all we could do.
We must have dozed off in the afternoon. A combination of boredom, hunger, and sleep deprivation was enough to do it. I woke to the sound of Tommy moaning in pain. It was the first sound he had made since he got here. He was doubled over; blood was dripping from his mouth.
I woke Maria and she immediately moved over to the bars and called out for help. I moved over to the opposite corner of the cell, as far away from Tommy as possible. Jack moved slightly closer to him and asked if he was all right. But Tommy didn’t answer. He just kept moaning, louder and louder.
"I don’t know what’s wrong with him," Jack said.
I was still keeping my distance. "Maybe ask him if he wants some water?"
"Hey buddy, do you want some water?" Jack asked.
Tommy raised his head slightly. He was looking at Jack but his eyes weren't focusing. I can't really remember what happened next, if Jack asked him if he was all right or if Jack said anything to provoke him or whatever, but the next thing I knew Tommy had lunged for Jack with both hands and grabbed him by the shirt.
The weird thing was it looked like Tommy was trying to bite Jack. Luckily, Jack has fairly long arms and strong shoulders from years of surfing. He was able to keep Tommy at a safe distance. It was so weird to see someone who had been completely immobile for so long suddenly spring to life in a violent rage. He must have gone insane, which I guess is not that unusual for hardcore alcoholics. I remembered the crazy lady saying something about Tommy biting her before he ran off. I don’t know, maybe it was his thing.
Anyway, the two of them wrestled for what seemed like an eternity and just when it looked like Tommy had the upper hand, Jack pushed him back. Tommy stumbled and lost his footing. He cracked his head against the concrete wall and fell to the ground in a heap. The insides of his head were black, almost solid, but oozing at the same time.
Maria was still yelling for help and I was still crouched in the far corner of the cell. I had my legs tucked up to my chest. I was completely frozen, unable to look away from the massive hole at the back of Tommy’s head.
Chapter 7
Hearing the jingle jangle of keys and the sound of Running footsteps was enough to snap me out of my hypnotic state. I turned my gaze away from Tommy and saw two police officers trying to unlock the cell. Thankfully, one of them was Kim.
"Why were they left here? What the hell is going on," she demanded.
"Kim!" Maria shouted. "Thank God! Get us out of here."
It was a huge relief to see a familiar face. And also to know that there were still people alive.
"Bloody hell, Dennis," Kim said to the other officer. "You left them in the cell?"
"I had no choice. There was an emergency call. And I was the only one here to answer it. What was I supposed to do? I didn’t realize it was going to take so long."
"Where’s the other the other lady?"
"She’s still in solitary confinement. She started skitzing out last night."
"Skitzing out?"
"You know, going crazy. She was violent and sweari
ng, the whole nine yards."
Jack was kneeling down, next to Tommy. He was breathing hard. "He attacked us. I didn’t mean to hurt him."
Kim opened the cell gate and asked us if we were all right. Then she saw the mess that was now Tommy’s head. The color drained from her face and she threw up.
Officer Denis ran his hands through his hair. "Crikey. What the bloody hell happened here?"
Kim leant against the wall. "Why did you even bring them in?" she asked Dennis. "Why didn’t anyone tell me my brother had been arrested?"
"Look, our orders were to enforce the curfew," he answered. "Zero tolerance. Even for minors. Even for your brother. Not that we knew he was your brother."
"Wait a minute. You haven't even processed them yet?"
"No. Not yet. But we didn't know we would be short staffed two hours later! A lot can happen in two hours. Especially with all the crazy stuff that's been going on."
"All right," said Kim as she wiped some vomit from the side of her mouth. "I’ll take these kids out of here and contact their parents."
"It’s OK. I can do it," Dennis said.
"No. You’re going to clean this mess up. And call a paramedic or something."
I don’t think Tommy needed a paramedic. He needed a new head.
"What? Why do I have to clean up?"
"Because you left them here."
"I had no choice!"
"And now you don’t have a choice about this."
"This is so not fair."
"You want me to tell the Sergeant what you did?"
Dennis paused. You could see the cogs in his brain ticking over. "Damn it. OK, you win. Let me get a mop."
"And check on the lady in solitary."
"Hey, one thing at a time."
"Oh and where is the soldier they brought in last night?" Kim asked.
"He’s also in solitary. We contacted the US military. They said they’d be around sometime today to collect him."
They must’ve been talking about Kenji. Looked like he was serious when he said he’d gone AWOL. How he even managed to get away in the first place and stay hidden was amazing in itself. But I guess being on the run catches up with everyone sooner or later.
"Paper work is gonna take forever," Dennis complained.
It’s funny how all they were thinking about was the mess and the paperwork.
Chapter 8
Our brush with death or in Jack’s case his wrestle with death had left us all a little shaken. Kim had taken us to one of the interrogation rooms to get us away from the mess in the holding cell and to make sure we were all right. "Don’t worry," she said. "We’re not going to actually interrogate you."
I think she was trying to make a joke to lighten the mood. Nobody laughed.
The interrogation room was pretty bare. It consisted of a table and some chairs, a phone and one of those massive one way mirrors where people could watch from the next room. Kim sat down on the other side of the table and assured us we would be able to go home soon just as soon as we talked with the Sergeant.
"Why do we need to talk with the Sergeant?" Jack asked. "Can’t we just leave?"
"I think he just wants to make sure you’re OK. And that you’re not going to sue for spending all night in a holding cell with a maniac."
Kim looked so cool in her police uniform. It was only last year that she finished high school and now here she was looking totally badass. For the brief time that I’d known Kim I’d always admired her. She's super strong and fit. Plus she’s not intimidated by anyone. All of a sudden my mind shows me an 80’s action-movie style montage of Kim working out at a gym, walking her dog, rocking climbing, picking out a ripe avocado in the fresh food section of the grocery store, catching a Frisbee. I forced myself to snap out of it. I think the sleep deprivation was making me a little loopy.
A moment later, an older, extremely over weight man entered the room and sat down next to Kim. He didn’t look anywhere near as good as Kim did in her uniform. The buttons on his shirt were under enormous strain and he had sweat stains under his arms. There was no montage for him playing in my head. If there was it would only have consisted of him sitting on a lazy boy, eating nachos off of his gut, spilling guacamole on the floor, whistling to his dog to come and clean up the mess. He looked at me then, he even raised his eyebrows as if to say, "Well? Where’s my 80’s action-movie style montage?"
I suddenly felt light headed.
"OK kiddies," the Sergeant said. "We're not here to play good cop, bad cop. We just need to get some details on record and then you can go home."
I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew we hadn’t really broken any laws.
"My name is Sergeant Karl Pearce. And you already know this young lady."
Maria started to cry.
"Miss, please calm down," The Sergeant said as he rolled his eyes. "We’re not here to lecture you about the underage drinking or yell at you for breaking curfew or anything like that. Frankly, we’ve got bigger things to deal with right now."
Lecture us, I thought? We were the ones left in the holding cell for like forty-eight hours. I wanted to ask him if that was even legal. But I didn't. I guess I was chicken.
Maria kept on crying. She had her head lowered and her shoulders hunched forward. But to my surprise she was the one who confronted the Sergeant. "Why did you take so long? Why did you leave us in there?" she asked through a mess of tears.
Even then, even despite the little bit of snot running down her nose she still looked beautiful. "We were attacked by that man," she continued. "He could've hurt us, he could've done anything."
"Look, we’re sorry about that. But as you know the National Quarantine has put enormous pressure on our resources. Trust me, with all the looting and riots out there, prison is the safest place to be right now."
This piece of news did not comfort Maria at all. She actually started to cry harder, wailing to the point where she couldn’t breathe properly. "Safe! We could've been killed!"
Jack sat forward in his chair. "Kim, she’s just tired. I think she just wants to go home."
I was surprised that Jack was so calm at this point, especially since he was the one who was actually attacked.
The Sergeant looked at Kim and pinched the bridge of his nose. I guess he hadn’t dealt with too many hysterical teenage girls during his career. Before he had a chance to gain some experience in this field the intercom beeped.
"Sergeant Pearce?"
The big man leant over the intercom and spoke unnecessarily close to the receiver. "Yes, Dennis. What do you need?"
"Sorry to interrupt but Lieutenant Smith of the US Marines is here to talk to you. He said you’ve been expecting him? He's here to collect the soldier we picked up last night."
The Sergeant took his finger off the intercom button. "About bloody time. Bloody yanks. Haven’t even been here a week and they think they run the joint."
He pushed the intercom button back in and composed himself. "Copy that. I’ll be out in a second. Tell him to have a seat."
"Yes, sir. Oh and sir?" The man on the other end lowered his voice to a whisper. "There’s an issue in solitary."
"What do you mean?"
"That lady, the one we picked up drink driving? Well, she’s acting weird."
"She's an alcoholic, Dennis. What do you expect?"
"You better come and have a look."
The Sergeant took his finger back off the intercom button and stood up. "Bloody hell. Can someone please tell me why Dennis can never do anything for himself? What do they even teach you kids at the academy these days?"
Kim nodded her head in agreement. "It’s an outrage, Sir."
Sergeant Pearce straightened his tie as best he could. "Finish up here would you? Make it quick."
"Yes, Sir."
The Sergeant waddled out of the room. It was quite a site watching someone of that size move.
Kim waited until the Sergeant had left before apologizing. "Sorry about that. He’s havin
g a bad day."
"He's having a bad day?" I asked.
"Kim, just get us the hell out of here," Jack said.
"OK, well since Maria's parents are out of town you should probably take her home," Kim said to Jack. "I'll call dad."
"Do you have to?" Jack protested. "Can’t you just take us home?"
"No. We're way too busy."
"Please don't call them," Jack pleaded. "They still think I'm at Maria's. Just let us walk home. They won't even have to know."
"Jack, you're all minors. I'm not allowed to let you to just walk out. I’d lose my job. And besides you do not want to be walking the streets right now. People are looting and rioting everywhere. Grocery stores, pharmacies, liquor stores. It's getting pretty damn crazy out there."
Jack banged his head on the table.
"What are you worried about? Dad won't even care. He'll be happy to know that you guys are OK. You know what he's like. His bark is worse than his bite."
"Yeah maybe with you. We both know you’re his favorite."
"Whatever. I’m still calling him," she said as she picked up the phone. She punched in a few numbers before stopping. "That’s weird." She put the phone on the receiver and picked it back up. "What the hell? There’s no dial tone."
She put the phone back on the receiver and checked her mobile. "The network is down." She then tried her radio but it was full of static. She tried the phone again but it was no good.
"Stay here. I’ll have to use one of the phones in the office," she said as she was looking at the reception bars on her phone, moving it around to see if that would make any difference.
Before she could leave, there was a loud bang that came from somewhere in the building. A bang that sounded oddly like a gunshot.
Kim looked up from her phone.
The angry scowl on Maria’s face morphed into a look of fear. She stopped crying. "What was that?"
"Maybe it was a car back firing?" Jack said. "Like a really old car?"