Part 6 (1/2)
”Do you have cats in here?” Bradley asked as he put his ear up to a closed door halfway down the hall. The soft meowing and subtle smell of ammonia was enough to catch his attention.
Deacon looked slightly nervous as he nodded his confirmation. ”We-well, we have to survive. Sometimes it isn't pretty, but we do what we have to.”
”You eat cats?” asked Roger.
”That's pretty much what I just said, yeah,” Deacon responded defensively. ”In this door here we keep the rabbits. I pulled them all from a pet store around the block. I grabbed the food from various other pet stores and markets. The rabbits breed much quicker than the cats do, of course, but we can't survive eating rabbit alone. Once in a while we can get a tomato plant to grow, and there is an orange tree in the neighboring yard.”
”Why can't you eat only rabbits?” Bradley asked.
Slightly taken aback, Deacon responded, ”Because of rabbit starvation.” The three men stared at him with blank expressions. ”You know-rabbit starvation. Protein poisoning, seriously? I thought everyone knew about rabbit starvation.”
”Never heard of it,” Guillermo said. ”Are you being serious or just messing with us?”
”I don't even know what to say right now. How did you guys survive all this time?”
”Well not by eating rabbits and cats,” Bradley responded.
”We would die if we ate nothing but rabbit, so let's end it there. Moving along with the tour.” Deacon turned from the men and walked the rest of the way down the hall. He reached up to the rope that hung from the attic steps and pulled.
Roger was the last one through the attic door, and although he was opposed to eating cats, the smell of the dried meat hanging in the corner made his mouth water. He didn't want to be the first to admit it, but at this point, meat was meat. Roger grabbed several strips of what he a.s.sumed was cat jerky, and sat on a couch cus.h.i.+on at the opposite end of the room.
They shared stories for the next hour. When Deacon started talking, he didn't want to stop. He talked about his career, his survival after the attack, and even told a few dirty jokes. Some of his stories were what he referred to as ”war stories”. These were the stories he told about working as a firefighter and paramedic in Los Angeles. Seeing the dead walk wasn't the worst thing he'd seen.
Chapter 9.
The bell sounded in the firehouse. It was late morning, and the men sitting around the living quarters of Fire Station thirty-four reacted without hesitation. Deacon stood up from the couch, pressed his index finger onto the power b.u.t.ton of the Playstation to turn it off, and moved for the lockers that held their gear.
They had been listening to the news, as well as the commotion over the pager. Their paramedic crew for the s.h.i.+ft had already been sent out on several severe injuries. The police were now out in full force after bringing in every off duty officer in the area, and all that was left on standby was the small group of firefighters.
Timmy, a tall, muscular man with a shaved head, came barging out of the restroom, still b.u.t.toning his jeans. ”What the h.e.l.l is it?” He asked in his deep voice. His large tattooed right arm reached into his locker for his bunker gear. The bio-mechanical tattoo gave the appearance that his arm was controlled by a series of cogwheels, levers, and pistons.
”There is a fire that started in King's Diner up on Cochran Street. The fire caused the gas line to burst sending the blaze into the Cochran apartment complex,” Kathrine said. In her late twenties, Kathrine had worked her way to Captain. She has walnut brown eyes, and her long brown hair was often pulled back into a ponytail. None of the guys doubted her abilities or intelligence.
”Hop in. We don't have all day.” The voice came from the window of the large red engine. Kyle was a few inches under six feet tall. His s.h.a.ggy blonde hair made him look like a surfer. Despite his small frame, Kyle had an amazing amount of strength and stamina. In the few years he had been a paramedic, he had saved the lives of many people much larger than him by carrying them to safety.
The large garage door rose up, allowing the warm sun to pour in. Before pulling the thirty-five thousand pound truck out, Kyle hit the siren. A light outside on the street flashed, alerting traffic that the behemoth was on the move and they needed to clear the way. Luckily, all the news of a series of attacks had most drivers off the streets.
”Is that Barry's rig?” Kyle asked. He pointed down the street as they pa.s.sed through the intersection. Smoke rolled from the front end of the ambulance, except the front end was somewhere in the middle now. The area that used to be the front of the truck was occupied by a car that had been parked on the side of the street.
”Oh G.o.d, was that a body?” Kathrine asked. A brief glimpse of a mangled woman lay on the street in between the two vehicles. The woman's arms waved back and forth. ”Engine twenty-one to dispatch.”
”Go ahead Engine twenty-one, this is dispatch,” The woman's voice came over the radio.
”It looks like we have an ambulance involved in a collision just off the intersection of Mission and Costa Vista. Can you send someone out to check on that please? We are en route to a fire.” Kathrine couldn't see the ambulance anymore.
”We will do what we can engine twenty-one. Unfortunately we have several ambulances that have not reported back in yet. It seems to be getting worse out there, so please be careful, hun.”
”Ten-four,” Kathrine said before throwing the handset against the dash. She didn't lose her temper often, and she was doing everything she could to keep it in check now.
”I'm sure everything is fine,” Kyle said. ”Let's get this fire taken care of, and by the time we are finished with that we will have heard from the others.” Even Kyle was beginning to doubt that, however, as he had to swerve quickly to avoid an accident with a car that had a man hanging from the driver side window trying to enter.
The smoke rose up as the truck sped toward the fire. With two blocks remaining, the flames came into view. People lined the streets, no longer worried about their own safety. For the most part, people seemed to abandon all concern for personal safety when there was a chance to watch a disaster.
Kyle pulled the engine next to a fire hydrant, put the transmission in park, and hit the emergency brake. Tommy jumped out first and grabbed the hydrant wrench. By the time he was ready to go with the water Deacon had the hoses attached. With the ”ready-to-go” signal, Tommy cranked the valve open.
”It is kind of weird that no other trucks are here,” Deacon said to Tommy. ”A blaze like this should have attracted attention from the firehouse on this end of the city.”
”There is some weird s.h.i.+t going on today,” Tommy said as he walked up to take the spray nozzle from Kyle.
Deacon looked around at the crowd as he put on his Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus. It never ceased to amaze him that so many people came out to watch such a horrible scene. Grabbing his axe, he turned back toward the blaze and prepared to enter with Kathrine close behind. With Tommy on the hose and Deacon and Kathrine entering the building, Kyle took command of the operation.
”Radio check,” Deacon said into his radio.
”Copy,” Kathrine responded.
”Copy,” Kyle followed up.
”It was reported that there are at least six people unaccounted for. They're all residents of this end of the complex where the fire first breached,” Kathrine said.
The gla.s.s from the doors crunched and popped under Deacon's boots as he climbed the stairway to the entrance. There was no need to open the door, as the gla.s.s had been broken out in what was probably a hurried attempt to escape. Pa.s.sing through the entryway, the sound of the roaring flames, creaking wood, breaking gla.s.s, and water from the hose merged into a demonic chorus.
”The missing residents are from the second and third floor,” Kathrine said.
”Wouldn't expect it to be any other way. They are never on the first floor,” Deacon responded. ”Any signs of another unit out there?”
”Not yet,” Kyle came across the radio.
”We can't fight this blaze on our own! We would never leave a unit out on their own to fight a fire like this.” Deacon's anger increased.
”Our best bet is to try and keep the area clear ahead of you. Without help we have no choice but to let the rest burn. That's my call,” Kyle said with confidence.
”Good. I want nothing to do with it, mate,” Deacon replied with a hint of humor.
”Through here. I think I hear something,” Kathrine said pointing to the stairwell.
”Yeah, sounds like a woman.” The stairwell was warm as he stepped in ahead of Kathrine. The creaking was amplified in here, yet it wasn't from the concrete stairs. The quiet moans could be heard just through the door that lead out to the second floor. Once again Deacon placed an ungloved hand to the door.
Slowly wrapping his fingers around the doork.n.o.b, he turned it gently. ”It's locked,” he said. ”Stand back.” He lifted his right leg up as high as he could with his bunker gear on and gave the door a hard kick, and then another.
The second kick caused the door to fling open. The hallway was covered in flames. Just to the left of the stairs lay a mangled body. Kathrine crouched down and checked for a response even though she knew there wouldn't be one. The man was missing most of his face.
”Do you think he was trampled?” Deacon asked.
”I don't know. It looks like his face was chewed off,” Kathrine responded.