Another possibility was that this was done by another person. Possibly it was done by the same person who murdered Gladys. And she was most likely killed to shut her up, so she could never speak the truth about what she saw and heard next door.
One thing was not found in the report. There was no type of explanation or theory provided as to how Gladys was reborn or transformed into the creature that the EMTs and police encountered.
In the days that followed, town health inspectors found the Torrance house to be uninhabitable and a safety hazard for all within a nearby proximity. The odors and contamination emanating from within made it dangerous for anyone around. The structure was condemned and slated for destruction.
The Hail Mary, North Dallas (Present Day) Dave and Duy were floored wit h the news Mack had just revealed. Dave quizzed, “What was that Gladys lady’s last name again?”
“Torrence.”
“Oh, wow, I thought so. There were some off-duty firemen here drinking beers the other night. I overheard one of them talking about the fire at the Torrance house.
“He said the house had already been bulldozed, demolished per a court order. The fire department ordered to go over there to perform a ‘controlled burn’ of the existing structural remains.
“He said trenches had already been dug around the property line borders to prevent the flames from jumping over to the grass or other portions of neighboring lots. The concrete foundation was not visible, nor were the tremendous amount of collected items, garbage and trash the hoarder-woman who had lived there accumulated over the years. All that was visible were the downed walls and roof, broken and battered, lying over the top of the previously described assortment that lie beneath.
“So, they start burning this pile of shit and they abruptly become inundated with smoke and the stench of what the fire guy described as a backyard carcass barbecue. He said there must have been a bunch of animal remains or something like that inside. It smelled like death and feces combined, being cooked over a tremendous open flame for the entire neighborhood to inhale.
“But apparently there were some that did not mind the odor as much, and were attracted to it, like a moth to a flame. Suddenly these creatures started stumbling out of the woods at the rear of the property, staggering about and acting as if they were trying to find the buffet they were smelling. They began to walk right into the fire at first, but I guess they saw the fire dudes and began to go after them.
“A couple of the older, more seasoned, firemen retreated to the cab of their firetruck and radioed the police. But this one young rookie fireman named Donny, fresh out of the fire academy and full of piss and vinegar, grabbed one of those axes. I think he called it a ‘Denver Tool’. He took it off the side of the truck and went after the mis-creations.
“This Donny guy starts thrashing those dead fuckers upside their heads with his axe, splitting some of their skulls in half and completely decapitating others. Luckily, he had his helmet and face shield on, because they said it was like a black bloodbath, zombie blood muck and head and skull fragments rained down upon him and even splattered the windows of the adjacent fire truck.
“Sounds like this Donny kid was a bad-ass. He was young, big and strong. He wiped out about fifteen of those walking corpses before he started to tire. He must have realized his energy was waning as he began to backtrack toward the truck. But then one of those fuckers circled around behind him and was lurking in the shadows between Donny and the rig. The beast grabbed the rook and bit at Donny’s shoulder. Luckily the monster couldn’t bite through the fire coat. But then IT started clawing at Donny’s face shield and helmet, knocking them off Donny’s head.”
“The zombie was just about to bitethe fire rook’s face. Then one of the elder crewmates, Earl, climbed out of the enormous red Pierce fire truck. Earl speared IT between the eyes with the forked end of a 30-inch tri-bar forcible entry tool. The creature dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.”
Dave concluded the story.
“Then that old Earl guy looked at the rookie and said, ‘someday you’ll learn, kid. Nothing you do out here means shit unless you make it back to the station alive at the end of the shift. Now get in the damn truck.’
Dave got up from the booth and walked behind the bar to fetch another round of cold ones for himself, Mack, and Duy. He returned with the ice-cold bottles, returned to his seat across from Mack, and dealt the drinks.
Mack had already depleted a six-pack and began to nurse number seven as he prepared his companions for the somewhat irrational statement he was about to give.
“I don’t think Jake is really dead.”
Duy and Dave looked at each other in amazement and in unison they glanced back at Mack and said,“Whattt?”
“I’m serious, y’all. After I got word that he was dead, I attempted to track down the location of Jake’s body to confirm the report. I kept getting the runaround with everyone I contacted. I began to question the media report in which the Feds announced Jake was slain in his ‘escape attempt.’ I got to thinking -what if Jake’s still alive and this is just another attempt on the government’s part to cover something up?
“Maybe I’m just losing it. After all, I haven’t gotten a full night of sleep since this whole thing started. I guess it couldn’t hurt to tell you guys all that I know. I was hesitant before because I thought maybe someone might think you knowtoo much and shut y’all up. But you need to know the truth.
“You know, I wasn’t there for the Birthday Incident, when it transpired, but Jake called me right after it happened. He told me about the nightmare that had just unfolded. He had to leave to takelittle Carson to a safe place and he asked me to go to Rich and Holly’s place to secure the scene.
“I got there pretty quickly and went inside, but the G Men were already on site. They had the two bodies covered up with tarps, and they were cleaning up blood and other bodily fluids, skin and flesh, off the walls and floors. A video camera had been set up on a bookshelf to record the area where Carson’s highchair had been placed. I grabbed the digital video recorder and found it to still be recording. I tucked the camera under the front of my shirt and walked out the front door with it just as some big asshole Hispanic agent told me they were taking the investigation over and the PD was not needed.
“Later that night I watched the recording” Mack said. “I sat in my seat, stunned by the disturbing scenes that were unfolding before my eyes on the birthday video. I saw what used to be Holly attack Jake, causing him to fall backwards into Carson’s baby dining chair. Jake looked scared to death, but he was obviously not going to leave his nephew alone there with whatever Holly had turned into. I kept replaying the split second repeatedly in which she was on screen. I tried to freeze it, but the image was blurry.
“But from what I could see, it appeared that Holly had somehow morphed into a monster. Her body was covered with rotting or burnt flesh which was hanging off her body. But most disturbing to me was her face. She no longer seemed human. She wore a hungry, emotionless expression and was more like an animal than a person. This image burned into my brain, and I cannot get it out of my mind for the life of me. It still gives me nightmares.
“But now, the thing that bothers me most is that I have no idea if Jake is really dead like they are reporting. It doesn’t make sense to me that the Feds would have plotted an escape from a prison bus in order to kill Jake when he was already scheduled to die by lethal injection on death row. So maybe he is alive somewhere and someone is holding him captive. Or maybe he’s out there on his own, on the run, being hunted like some big game wild animal whose head would be mounted and displayed like a grand trophy above the fireplace mantle of his executioner.
“I keep thinking about poor Amanda, now left all alone with Jake being gone. And little Carson, with his parents out of the picture now, he really needs the love, guidance, and support of his aunt and uncle, cause there ain’t nobody else.”
Mack paused before revealing a sensitiv
e side that he tried to avoid using whenever possible. But by now this transparency was unavoidable. “I don’t have a wife, no family nearby. I have decided to take a leave of absence from the PD in order to get to the bottom of this craziness. Oneway or another I am going to track Jake down. If he’s dead, then I will find his body. If he’s alive, I’m gonna let him know I have the evidence that can get his conviction overturned.
“But the first thing on my agenda is to go set Roscoe free. It’s bulls hit that they are talking about having him destroyed. Hopefully when we get there to release him, he will not treat me like he did the criminals out there on the streets of Dallas. This dog is one mean son of a bitch. But if he remembers me and will go along willingly, he could prove invaluable in my travels and search for Jake. So, if anyone wants in on my mission, y’all are welcome to join.”
“Count me in for all of that!” proclaimed Duy. “I’ll go with you to save Roscoe and for whatever else comes after that. It’s the least I can do for Jake. I still feel like I could have done a better job defending him in court during his murder trial.
“And my law practice can wait. Besides, if things don’t change anytime soon, I may be completely out of a job. It seems as if the more the infection spreads, the less need there will be for legal proceedings.”
“You know, Duy, you really shouldn’t beat yourself up about how that trial went down” Mack sympathized. “I think you guys would have lost no matter what you said or did. They had the deck stacked against you, the whole thing was crooked and fixed. The government needed to make Jake their scapegoat in order to cover up their role in the whole infection thing. They had to get rid of him to shut him up because they know he has the inside scoop on the scandal.”
Mack was grateful to have Duy ’s support and asked, “okay, what skills do you possess besides your legal prowess? Are you into martial arts or have any experience with weapons or anything?”
Duy paused briefly before responding.
“Well, I’m afraid of guns and can’t fight, but I’m kind of into knives. You know, butterflies, switchblades, machetes, hatchets - basically, anything with a blade. When I was a kid, I had a set of throwing knives that I would chuck at a target in our backyard. I’m not too bad at it. Had a blowgun too that I made from bamboo,but I need a little more practice with that.”
Dave said, “I’d be happy to assist you guys on the Roscoe mission. I can’t leave my business for an extended length of time to go searching for Jake, though, as much as I’d love to help with that as well.
“And Mack, I have a talent that might benefit us nicely. I used to be a landlord over some crappy apartment complexes, and over the years I became quite gifted at picking door locks. But why are you asking the kid about weapons training and martial arts and shit like that? Are there guards surrounding the puppy pound or something?”
“Naw, man,” Mack assured. “The pound is out in the middle of nowhere. There’s no one out thereat night. I don’t anticipate any problems at all.”
“Well fuck, then” Dave said. “Let’s go do this thing right now!”
City of Dallas Animal Services Department, South East Dallas TX The animal shelter was located several miles from downtown, in the southern part of the city. The Animal Services Department Building was in a desolate industrial district, neighboring the Southside Water Treatment Plant just to the south and the McCommas Landfill directly to the north.
The building was surrounded by old native elm trees and backed up to the Trinity River, the longest river that flows entirely within the State of Texas. This body of water was given its name in 1690 by Alonso De León, who called the stream the "La Santísima Trinidad," or "the Most Holy Trinity."
There were no single-family dwellings or multifamily apartment units in this tract. The only structures nearby were the manufacturing plants and commercial industrial businesses that were closed at night. No one should be in the area or be alerted if the building’s audible burglary alarm was activated or all the dogs began barking loudly during the rescue.
Dave parked a block away from the facility. The trio were all in dark attire, with Mack and Duy clothed in black T-shirts and BDU tactical style pants while Dave chose a more athletic fashion with his Adidas sweatpants and matching jacket which covered his flabby frame. All three wore matching ski masks over their faces, and they exited Dave’s crew cab F150 pickup truck to begin their short jog toward their target.
Dave carried a small metal box, Duy had a large pair of bolt cutters in hand, and Mack had his Glock .40 holstered at the ready. He also carried a wooden handled sledgehammer just for good measure.
The team arrived unnoticed. Duy, realizing that many burglar alarms depend upon the telephone landlines, promptly utilized his cutting tool to snap the phone cables running up the exterior wall of the building.
Dave approached the glass front door with his locksmith kit in hand. He wasted no time in working the lock and within three minutes he had the door open. A welcome surprise followed as no audible alarm sounded and they made their entrance.
The desperados proceeded through the lobby and encountered two sets of parallel hallways. Each corridor led to a separate ward of seemingly endless aisles of indoor dog kennels. “Which way should we go?” asked Duy. “Should we split up to find Roscoe or stay together?”
“We don’t even know what he looks like,” Dave remarked.
“He’s one bad ass Belgian Malinois who looks like a friggin attack dog” Mack said. “He should still be wearing his brown leather collar with the little K9 police badge attached.”
Mack suggested, “Let’s stay together, you guys, just so we don’t have to track everyone down when we do find Roscoe. Let’s just move quickly.”
Upon selecting a point from which to commence, the soldiers of fortune found countless cages containing the wrong canine. Soon, half of the kenneled mutts broke into a loud barking frenzy as the caged animals howled their disapproval of being woken in the middle of the night.
But the men eventually located their prize.
Roscoe was lying on the cold concrete floor at the rear of his cage, at the opposite end of the cell away from the door and empty food and water bowls. The muscular animal lay on his stomach, motionless and with his eyes closed shut.
“That’s him?” Duyasked. “He looks like death warmed over. Is he even breathing?”
With a solemn look on his face, and in a voice that hardened as he spoke, Mack murmured, “we may be too late.”
Mack grabbed the large pair of bolt cutters from Duy’s grasp and began to work on the padlock, to no avail. Dave offered to try his hand at picking the lock with his locksmith kit, but Mack said, “Hold yer horses. Hand me my sledge back.”
Mack clutched the timber-handled maul and with one powerful, mighty swing he aimed the steel anvil into the inferior locking device, which promptly exploded with shards of aluminum and metal hovering through the air.
This blast echoed through the facility. Now every fleabag in the joint was bellowing. Every dog except for Roscoe, that is. Roscoe opened his eyes and looked up at Mack, who had one foot in the doorway of the pen.
“ Dudebe careful,” urged Dave. “I’m not sure he recognizes you, and he seems out of it. He may bite the shit out of you!”
Mack ignored the pleas and continued to enter the canine coop.“Roscoe, it’s me – Mack. Remember? Come on boy, you know me!”
The malnourished Malinois was weak and startled. He expressed his displeasure with this visitor by displaying a mouthful of incisors and growling ferociously. At this point, the sound of hundreds of animals howling in unison was nearly deafening. Mack knew their time was elapsing quickly and he had to get Roscoe out of the joint soon before the place was raining with security guards or cops or both.
The young police officer pounced upon the struggling canine and used his sizable right hand to cover Roscoe’s snout and mouth. It took all of Mack’s strength to hold the tenacious jaws shut. Mack reached under Rosco
e’s body with his left arm to cradle the seventy-five-pound police dog in his armpit and he began to run toward the exit.
“Come on, let’s get the hell out of here!” Out they ran, back through the roaring kennel and lobby and then out into the humid night. Duy led the charge, followed by a less agile Dave. Last in the procession was Mack, carrying a dazed and delirious police dog who was suffering from severe malnutrition, under his arm. Roscoe was no longer applying pressure and trying to open his mouth to bite, either because he now recognized his savior, or he was just too weak to continue.
The squad reassembled only fifty feet outside of the animal services building door when Mack nearly ran into the backs of the halted teammates ahead of him.
“Oh Fuck!”
Mack now saw what Duy and Dave had already seen. They stood frozen, staring at a slow but steady tidal wave of corrosion creeping all around Dave’s truck parked on the street nearly half a block away. The lurking corpses had apparently been summoned from the woods by the looming sound of barking dogs from within the shelter and were now steadily approaching the men.
“I count at least twenty between us and the truck” Dave advised. “What should we do?”
“What if we went back inside and opened some of the kennels, releasing the dogs to go outside and serve as a distraction for us. Maybe the zombies will settle for canine tonight instead of humans?” reasoned Duy.
Mack wasn’t nearly as fond of that proposition. “But the long er we take, the more of these fuckers will climb out of the woodworks. I say we go for it and try to make it to the truck!”
“I say we fight!” Duy shouted. He removed a black handled machete from his right pant leg pocket of his BDU’s, and a set of three throwing knives from the large cargo pocket on his left leg.
“I don’t even have a weapon guys, I left mine at the house. This was supposed to be easy,” said Dave.
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