by Kunego, Chad
“I need help over here!”
Several pairs of eyes looked at him.
“I need help! Now!”
Shaking off their shock, several of the workers scrambled over to him.
“What happened?”
“He got jumped! That’s what happened. Where can I set him down?”
“This way,” one of the workers said, moving away at a rapid pace.
As Samuel followed her, a couple of the others began to follow him.
“Everyone, get back to work. I’ll take it from here.”
Samuel glanced over to see Carl rapidly heading toward him, shooing him on.
“Don’t slow down, keep following Blythe. She’s taking you to what doubles for our infirmary.”
Picking up the pace slightly, Samuel continued following after Blythe.
“Wait right here,” she said, leaving him in a room near the showering area. Reappearing a minute later, she unfolded a cot before motioning him to set Hank down.
“Can you help me get his jacket and shirt off?”
“Yes… We need to be careful though. I think some of his ribs might be broken.”
After a few minutes of getting him partially undressed, checked over, and situated comfortably, Samuel stood up to stretch. Catching Carl’s glance, the other man motioned for Samuel to follow him.
“Is he going to be okay?” he asked Blythe quietly.
Rubbing the back of her neck, she looked up at him.
“It’s still really early to tell, but I think he’s just got a lot of bruises and superficial cuts. I don’t think his ribs are broken, but they may be cracked. My biggest concern is internal bleeding though. I’m going to call one of our EMT volunteers to see if they can swing over quick to give him a once-over, see if he’s serious enough to take to the hospital or not.”
“Thanks for helping him.”
“No, thank you for bringing him here.”
He glanced at Carl again, who was starting to look a little annoyed.
“Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help,” he said softly before turning to follow Carl out.
Carl headed down the hall and turned in to a small office, clicking the light on before motioning for Samuel to sit. Closing the door behind them, he walked around a desk before sitting down, looking at Samuel for a moment before speaking.
“So tell me, what happened? I only heard a bit about him being jumped?”
“Yeah, about six or seven men were attacking him. I stopped them.”
As he started talking, Samuel had a chance to really think about what had happened. One minute, he was fine, the next minute, he was filled with rage at the treatment of his friend. Why he felt he could stop them, in hindsight, was pretty far-fetched. But in the moment, he knew, beyond any doubt, that the men posed no threat to him. Honestly, he didn’t even really remember the fight past the board breaking over his arm, only that there was pressure and movement, and then the stillness that follows a battle.
Stillness that follows a battle…? Where did that thought come from?
“So,” Carl began, “you mean to tell me that you scared away six or seven men? By yourself?”
“No…” he said, steel suddenly appearing in his voice, “I said I stopped them.”
Reflexively lurching back in his seat, Carl’s eyes widened for a moment before regaining his composure.
“What do you mean by stopped, exactly?”
“Well, by now the ambulance should have carted them off to the emergency room to get some bones reset is my guess…”
“You actually fought with them…? And wo—”
“Listen, I’ve really had a rough few days. I saw someone I knew getting hurt, with a real possibility of being killed, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When I saw it happening, something snapped inside. I approached them, told them to leave before they got hurt. They thought it was funny and decided a better idea was to try and jump me instead. They learned their idea was flawed. In my opinion, they got what they deserved. End of story.”
Samuel watched as the other man’s mouth opened and closed silently several times before he spoke again.
“So, just so I understand this correctly and that there’s no misunderstanding, you saw your friend being—”
“Hank.”
“Excuse me, you saw ‘Hank’ being jumped by several men. You told them to leave instead of trying to take them by surprise, got in a fistfight, and won?”
“Pretty much, except they’d picked up boards and pipes and stuff before they tried to attack me. Are we through here? I’ve had a long day already, my friend’s hurt, and I’m starving again. If you don’t mind me asking, when’s dinner?”
“Uh… Dinner’s in a, uh, half hour or, uh, so…”
“Thank you.”
As he stood up and reached for the door, he turned back to Carl.
“Take good care of my friend, please.”
Samuel walked out of the office, leaving Carl with his mouth hanging open.
Chapter 11
Cora was beginning to suspect she got the short end of the stick after visiting her first two shelters. How those shelter workers could stand to be around so many people who either didn’t bathe regularly, had some form of mental illness, were former cons, just fell on hard times, or some combination of the above she’d never be able to figure out. Some of the regulars had surprised her with their intelligence or observational skill, but they were overshadowed by the others that had invisible friends or thought the aliens were going to be coming back any day.
A few even started getting agitated when they found out she was a cop, stating they kept getting hassled by other cops. She couldn’t help but wonder if Frank was having an easier go of it talking to funeral directors. While she considered the likelihood of switching jobs with Frank, her phone rang.
“Yeah? Cora speaking.”
“Cora, it’s Frank. There’s been another alleyway incident.”
“Seriously? How bad?”
“Nine guys. None of them upwardly mobile. Multiple bone fractures. Evidence this time of weapons use, but something isn’t quite right about the whole scene. Unless I’m missing something, only the perps in the alley were using weapons. Their injuries are consistent with unarmed strikes as far as I can tell. None of them were in any condition to answer questions though. If this is still the work of our suspect, then my assessment of his prowess just took another significant jump. A lot of their improvised weapons show evidence of being bent or broken. How that’s even possible is a little worrisome, quite honestly. If our suspect wasn’t using weapons himself, then how was he breaking their weapons? I’ve seen kyokushin stylists break bats over arms and legs on the internet, but not bending steel pipes. It’s not adding up.”
“On my way. I’ll be there in twenty.”
“Make it ten if you can… See ya soon.”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
“So what’s the story this time?”
Frank shook his head, “would you believe an almost carbon copy from the last one…?”
“How so?”
“Some gang-bangers were hassling a homeless guy that was scavenging in their territory. They felt they needed to tune him up for trespassing. Then our guy shows up, some words were exchanged, then this mess was left. Some uniforms are canvassing the area, but I’m gonna guess that there’s no witnesses.”
“You’re probably righ—”
Cora and Frank turned to see an younger officer jogging up.
“Hey, we lucked out this time. Apparently one of the store owners got sick of having their fryer grease stolen, so they set up a security cam that covers a good portion of this area. I reviewed some of the footage, and you’re not going to believe it. Almost looks like they were filming a movie with the moves this one guy has.”
“Let’s go take a look then,” Frank said as he started walking in the direction the other officer came from.
“Gotcha one better.
The owner burned us a copy,” she said, waving a disc at them.
“Good job.”
Frank turned toward Cora.
“Should we stop for some popcorn to go with this movie?”
Chapter 12
“Oh. My. God!”
Cora paused the fight footage. She cast a sideways glance at Frank before she hit play again. He sat there with his mouth hanging open.
“How is that even possible?”
Frank’s mouth twitched. He looked over at Cora and worked his mouth, but nothing came out. He gestured at the screen and cleared his throat.
“That’s impossible…”
Cora rewound the scene, then played it again in slow motion. Although the footage was a little grainy since it wasn’t a great security cam, she knew it was Samuel when he blocked the 2x4. When he swung his arm up, she could see the flash of light reflect off the metal jewelry he wore on his left arm. Where he’d learned to fight was unknown, but there was no denying he was an extremely well trained, and an incredibly tough fighter. After blocking the 2x4, you could tell that Samuel had said something to his shocked attacker. Then he’d dropped down while throwing simultaneous palm strikes at his opponent’s legs, snapping both femurs at the same time. From there, it took him slightly over a minute to incapacitate the remaining eight men with similar results: broken improvised weapons and multiple broken bones.
“Did you see how that piece of pipe bent around his arm? How come his arm didn’t break? Or move for that matter. Every time he blocked something, it was like they were hitting a wall.”
“That’s what scares me. One thing’s clear though. He definitely has the capabilities and skills needed to have killed all those people at the warehouse, but we still can’t confirm he’s our guy.”
Frank paused for a minute.
“What?”
Frank stared at the screen, lost in thought before he responded.
“I just had a very disturbing thought. If Samuel isn’t our guy, it’d mean there’s someone else out there capable of this level of destruction who took our boy out…”
“Shit… That’s not a very comforting thought, but the bigger question is, why did we actually find him there? He didn’t have any visible injuries. Hell, they only suspected head trauma due to being unconscious for nearly a day after they brought him to the hospital. Granted, he looks tough enough to have taken a hell of a beating… But no injuries? I don’t think anyone can be that good…”
Cora trailed off as she stared at the screen. She hit the rewind button and played the video again.
“Frank, did you see that?”
“See what?”
She rewound the video again, slowing it down even more. She let it play again before she paused it.
“That.”
Frank squinted at the screen, staring at it for a minute before turning back to Cora.
“What am I looking at? I don’t see anything other than him dislocating that other guy’s shoulder like it was dry kindling.”
“Exactly!”
“Huh…? I don’t follow you.”
Cora rewound it again and played the fight back, frame-by-frame.
“Right there…”
“Cora, I still don’t see what you’re trying to show me.”
“Look at how Samuel’s positioned the guy…” Cora said, pointing at the screen.
“That guy’s neck is laid out like a Thanksgiving turkey. If you watch our guy’s hand, it’s obvious he was going in for a kill-shot. It’s only at the last minute right here,” Cora pointed to the screen again, “that he redirected the strike to dislocate that guy’s shoulder. He had him dead to rights and changed his mind, mid-strike. A strike, I might add, that was going too fast for either of us to follow at normal speed.”
“Yeah! You’re right. He did change the angle of his strike. Rewind the fight again.”
Cora rewound the fight again, playing it back frame-by-frame again. After going through it again several times, they both sat back in their chairs.
“He gave up a killing shot every time for a crippling shot instead. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a very vicious fighter, but it’s obvious from this footage that our guy doesn’t kill indiscriminately.”
“That’s what it’s lookin’ like, but that doesn’t rule him out for the warehouse slaughter. Maybe he had a good reason, in his own mind, to turn them into greasy smears.”
“I don’t know… Something doesn’t feel ri—”
“How about we ask him if he had a reason, after we catch him? All I know is that he was found in the middle of a slaughterhouse, and since he escaped from the hospital, he’s been the cause of at least twelve people going to the ER, including the other three from yesterday. The longer he’s out there, the higher the body count’s getting. At this rate, he’s going to have the hospital full by the end of the week.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” she sighed, ”since it’s going to be several hours until we can interview those guys, let’s say we get back to checking out the funeral homes and shelters. Feel like swapping for awhile.”
“Nope.”
Cora though she caught a slight smile on Frank’s face when he said it.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Cora sat in her car, staring at a city map she’d just picked up at a nearby gas station. She put a dot where the hospital was. Then she put dots at the location of both fights. She put a dot where the warehouse was, but could tell it was well outside the radius of where the rest of the dots were.
“Where are you hiding…?”
So far, the dots covered an area roughly around five miles square. It was a lot of area to cover by herself, but she would guarantee Samuel would be found holed up somewhere in that area. The big question was, what was he doing. He wasn’t acting like a fugitive. Most fugitives wouldn’t be leaving a trail of bodies everywhere they went. They would have made a bee-line out of town. Instead, he was leaving behind a mess wherever he went.
“I wonder…”
Cora pulled out her smartphone and opened a searchbar.
>can someone loose their memory and still be able to fight?<
Cora spend a few minutes refining and reviewing her results.
So it’s possible to lose your memory, but still keep your reflexive skills. This whole time, we’ve been thinking that he was faking his memory loss, but what if he wasn’t faking it. What if really can’t remember who he is…? If I was in that situation, what would I do?
Cora started at the map, trying to get into Samuel’s head. As her eyes trailed across the page, they came to a stop.
Of course, the library. He knows that he was found at a warehouse and bodies were involved, so there’s a chance he might try and look it up. If that’s the case, maybe he might go to the warehouse, hoping something might jog his memory. At least that’s what I think I’d do in his situation.
Cora put her car in gear and headed out toward the library, following her hunch.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Cora pulled up to the front of the library and parked. Glancing up the steps, she couldn’t ever remember being at this library before. Then again, she hadn’t been in a library since she was in high school, so that didn’t mean much.
I wonder how much longer this place can keep going, with things like the Internet and online bookstores allowing such easy access to information. Not really much reason to go to one anymore.
She got out of her car and headed up the steps. As she climbed, she examined the metal statues at the top of the stairs. Whoever had made them did an amazing job. They appeared almost lifelike. The muscles of the centurions almost looked like they were getting ready to flex at any moment, hurling the spear they were holding at some perceived threat. The chain leading down from his other hand to the seated lion looked just as real. She had to resist the temptation to see if the fur cast into the iron was as smooth as it looked.
Cora shook her head as she smiled.
Yeah, sure. The ‘fur�
�� on that iron statue is really going to be all soft and fluffy. It’s really been a long, weird week so far…
Cora opened the door and headed in. For some reason, the hair on the back of her neck stood up, almost like a cold draft had blown across the skin. She shivered slightly, then adjusted the collar on her jacket before heading over to the counter.
As she approached the desk, she looked around for someone to help her, but it wasn’t until she was at the desk that she noticed someone squatting down behind the counter sorting something.
“Excuse me.”
The lady behind the counter jumped in surprise, rapidly standing up as she adjusted her glasses.
“I’m sorry. How may I be of assistance?” the librarian asked, smoothing out the front of her white blouse.
“Yes, I was wondering if you could help me… Ms Renault?” she asked, glancing down at the other woman’s name tag as she flashed her badge.
“I was wondering if you’ve seen someone here within the past day or two…”
Cora noticed a slight tightening around the the other woman’s eyes as she asked her question, filing the information away for later.
“I would be glad to be of assistance, Officer—”
“Detective.”
“Excuse me, detective… As I was getting ready to say, I would be glad to be of assistance, but a lot of people come in and out of here all day, so I’m not sure I’d be of much help.”
Cora glanced around the library, noticing security cameras located strategically around the room.
“I couldn’t help but notice you have a bunch of cameras around the place… I don’t suppose I’d be able to take a look a—”
“No!”
Cora’s eyes opened slightly wider in a questioning look at the other woman’s interruption.
“Excuse me again, Detective. What I meant to say is that those cameras are just there for show. They’re not actually functional. The board thought it might help deter possible theft if our patrons thought they were being recorded… not that we have a lot of theft here to start with I might add. It also helps us get a slight discount on our insurance rates as well, I believe.”