Killer Z (4 page)
J
uliet watches Sara drizzle ketchup faces on toasted
buns before applying beef patties. Dawn giggles at Sara’s handiwork and places
more buns into the toaster. The new hires are blonde, giggly, and getting on
her nerves.
“You’re supposed to spot the
ketchup. Smiles are cute, but slow down production,” Juliet says.
“I know, but this is cooler,” Dawn
answers.
“The bosses don’t want us to play
with the food.”
The shift managers are smoking
cigarettes behind the building and left Juliet in charge. Only six employees
work the undermanned shift.
“Ewe, I got my hands sticky from
the patties,” Sara says. The girl bounces away from her work station. “I’ll be
right back.”
“Dawn, can you salt the fries?”
Juliet asks and wraps a sandwich.
“Do I have too?”
“Yes Dawn.”
Ten minutes pass and the orders
lag behind.
“Dawn, why isn’t Sara or the
managers back?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she’s sick. I
heard a lot of people called in with the flu.”
“Take the fries out when the bell
rings. I’ll be right back.”
Juliet scans the lobby but only
finds Rodger, an older gentleman who works mornings. The restaurant is
constructed on the first floor of an old building resulting in a windowless
dining room.
“Rodger, I need you to empty the
trash cans. Have you seen Sara?”
“She went to the bathroom,
something to do with grease on her hands.”
“Where are the managers?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Rodger walks to the overflowing
trash cans as Juliet checks the restrooms. The sinks and toilets in the women’s
restroom are spotless. There’s ample soap, paper towels, and toilet paper, but
no Sara. She gives a firm, loud, warning knock on the men’s restroom
door.
“Sara?”
Juliet opens the door. In the room
are two men in a heated discussion. One holds a plastic bag of white pills and
the other a fistful of crumpled cash. Sara sits in a haze near the sink, her
hair disheveled and eyes drowsy. Her work pants are bunched on the floor.
“Hey,” Juliet yells and thrusts
open the door. “I’m calling the cops!”
Seth shoves the money into his
pocket and angrily fixes her with a ferocious stare. His intensity makes her
step back.
“Seth, man, let’s get out of
here,” the other man says.
“Rodger!” she yells.
Seth roughly grabs Juliet’s arm
and flings her into the bathroom. He shoves her against the urinal and the back
of her head bounces off the tiled wall. Juliet’s vision swims as his angular
face looms above hers. With his left hand he holds a white pill to her lips.
“Ouch, you’re hurting me! Help!”
“Seth, what are you doing? They’re
calling the cops.”
“Shut up Andrew. Baby, I got all
the help you need right here.”
“Seth, this is fucked up, man.”
“Help me!” she yells.
“Thisss isn’t righttt,” Sara says.
The blonde girl can’t focus past the Killer Z forced into her. “Iss that you
Juliettt?”
“Juliet is a pretty name for a
whore,” Seth hisses.
Juliet jerks her head side to side
and seals her lips shut. Seth presses his lower body against hers. She bucks
against him and knees his balls.
Seth collapses to the floor
crying, “Bitch!”
The walls rattle with a deep
vibration and the overhead lights flicker. Andrew trips into a stall. Juliet
rushes to Sara and struggles to help the girl up. She drags Sara into the
hallway and yells for help. The whole world shakes and Sara slips from her grasp.
Burger Baron awards crash to the floor. Juliet smacks her palms against the
walls but falls to her knees.
“Help me!” Juliet cries.
A deafening boom echoes through
the restaurant and everything goes pitch black. She can’t tell if her eyes are
open or closed. She sits up, dizzy and disorientated, and fumbles with her cell
phone. Its little flash light casts a soft light a few feet around her. Broken
ceiling tiles litter the hallway and dust fills the air. A single emergency
light glows from the kitchen and the city’s emergency sirens wail in the
distance.
“Sara?”
“What happened? Where am I?” Sara
croaks from her left.
“I don’t know. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. Oh my God, I was in the
bathroom and those two creeps…”
“We need to get to the lobby. Can
you get up?”
Sara tries but slumps to the floor
weakly and asks, “What’s wrong with me?”
“They drugged you.”
Muffled male voices come
from the bathroom.
“Sara, come on.”
“I want to go home,” Sara cries
but allows Juliet to get her to her feet and fix her clothes.
They slip through a door leading
to the kitchen.
“Dawn?” Juliet asks.
Dawn slumps into a deep fryer.
Juliet stares with huge eyes at Dawn’s unmoving form. A musty sweet odor makes
it hard to breath.
“Oh god….the smell…” Sara’s voice
flattens. “Is she dead?”
“Stop looking.”
“But she’s dead. What do we do?”
“I don’t know.”
Juliet calls out for the
supervisors and hears someone in the hallway. Light from a flashlight blinds
her. She fears it’s the men in the bathroom and looks for a weapon.
“Leave us alone!” Sara shouts.
“Is everyone alright?” a man asks.
The light beam shifts revealing a
tall older man dressed in an army jacket, a scruffy t-shirt, and blue jeans.
One sleeve of his old army jacket is pinned up at the elbow. Rodger rushes to
the girls.
“Are you gals alright?” Rodger
asks. “Harry, this is Juliet and Sara.”
“My phone says a tsunami is
coming!” Sara shrieks.
A commotion starts in the lobby as
others read the same message. Juliet looks at her phone.
…Alert DC Alert DC… A Tsunami
Threat has been issued for the entire East Coast…This is not a drill… Follow
Evacuation Procedures…More information to follow. Alert DC Alert DC…
“Do you have a first aid kit?”
Harry asks.
Juliet looks at him blankly.
“We need a first aid kit for the
wounded.”
Juliet points to a red and white
box fixed to the wall above Sara.
“Two men in the bathroom attacked
Sara.”
Juliet is uncertain if they will
believe her.
“You’re safe now. Point them out
and stick close to us,” Harry says.
Rodger asks, “Are you alright,
Sara?”
“I remember getting hit on the
head,” Sara says with a slur. “They forced me to take something.”
They follow Harry and Rodger into
the lobby. Juliet helps Sara to an intact chair. The floor under her feet is
slightly tilted. The large room is full of turned over tables and spilled
garbage bins. Broken ceiling tiles, glass, and chunks of brick wall cover
everything. A large support beam blocks the front door. Many cough and are
crying.
“Is anyone badly hurt?” Juliet
asks.
“Some are dead. We need to tend to
the wounded. Believe it or not I was a medic in the Korean War. The first thing
we have to do is sort the injured from the uninjured. What other resources do
we have? Is there another exit?” Harry asks.
“What do you mean by resources?”
Juliet asks.
“Maybe water? Or a second first
aid kit?”
Juliet nods and says, “Rodger, see
if you can get into the storage room for bottled water and I can get the second
med kit in the manager’s office.”
Juliet catches a whiff of rotten
eggs coming from the kitchen.
“Do you smell that?” Rodger asks.
Harry blurts, “The gas!”
The vet rushes past her. Juliet
knows she should follow but can’t bring herself to face Dawn’s body again.
“Found it!” Harry yells and
returns to the dining room.
Harry gives Juliet a sympathetic
pat on the shoulder and says, “I checked the bathrooms and didn’t find the men
you were talking about.”
“You believe me, right?” Juliet
asks.
“Yeah, I reckon they are up to no
good. We will keep an eye out for them.”
Rodger returns with a box of
napkins and a case of water.
“Good job,” Harry tells Rodger.
“Give everyone one bottle.”
“Can someone go to the manager’s
office with me?” Juliet asks.
“I will,” Harry says.
“What if we run into those men?
They aren’t missing a hand, no offense.”
“They won’t mess with you with me
around.”
Juliet approaches the office and
hears Seth’s voice. “Is the safe locked?”
The vet shoves open the door and
shouts, “What are you doing in here?”
“Who the hell are you?” Seth
barks.
“That’s them, Harry.”
“We were just having a little fun,”
Seth sneers.
“You raped Sara and deserve to
die!” Juliet rages.
“Andrew, take care of the old
man.”
“You fucked with the wrong guys,
you old fart,” Andrew yells and charges Harry.
Harry dodges the sloppy attack and
strikes Andrew’s elbow beneath the joint. The bone snaps with a crack.
“You want a turn?” Harry looks at
Seth.
“This isn’t over,” Seth sneers,
making no move to help his comrade as he inches towards the door. “You better
watch your back.”
Andrew follows cradling his broken
arm.
“Are you alright?” Harry’s
weathered face is full of concern.
“Yeah,” Juliet mutters and adjusts
her clothing to breathe easier.
“They won’t be a problem now that
they know we’re watching.”
The employee lockers have fallen
to the floor. Harry searches the manager’s desk as she fishes out her backpack.
“Harry, turn around. I need to
change.”
Harry locates the second emergency
kit and dutifully turns his back as Juliet changes her work shirt for a
t-shirt.
“Ok, I’m dressed. You’re a good
fighter.”
“Thanks. We need to sort the
wounded into three groups - burns, cuts, and breaks,” Harry instructs Juliet as
they return to the lobby.
They approach a group of huddled
college students. The boys are consoling the girls. Harry fixes his eye on a
sturdy looking young man.
“What’s your name, son?”
“Jack,” the boy responds. His
solid, medium frame is covered with dust.
“Ok, Jack. My name is Harry. Can
you help clear the front door?”
“Sure,” Jack says.
As Harry organizes first aid and
dig out efforts Seth and Andrew watch warily from the shadows.
L
arry grips the metal banister as the earth heaves.
The street fills with sooty smoke as men and woman pour out of the surrounding
buildings. Granite and rock cut into his palms as he loses his grip and lands
on the ground. He had been waiting for Alberto who had gone into the Capitol Building visitor center to use the restroom. Pixel strains her leash and the
leather to dig into his cut up hands.
A grey polished wall of granite
falls in chunks onto a group of security officers, followed by a large
deafening
boom.
The walls supporting the first level of the
building sag into the earth. Fleeing tourists and city workers run out of the
visitor center but stop as they realize outside is no better. The cast iron
dome
screeches
as its weight shifts left to right. Alberto
emerges from the entrance and makes eye contact with Larry. A fierce
determination is in his partner’s eyes.
“Hell no,” Larry mutters, knowing
what that look means.
Alberto drags Larry to his feet.
“Alberto, we need to get out of
here.”
“No Larry, we need to help
everyone inside. This is why we’re cops!”
People stumble in a daze. Security
guards and personnel try helping the injured. A child holding a broken arm
cries for his mother. Ten feet away legs and feet can be seen sticking out of
the rubble from a collapsed wall. A water main in the fountain shoots upwards
and sends the statue of a man riding a horse into the air.
“The east plaza is under water!” a
guard shouts.
“It’s flooding in there,” Larry
says. “We need to go!”
“Larry...”
“The damn visitor center is
underground, you moron. And the dome might fall on us.”
“What about duty, Larry?”
“Screw duty. Let’s sit tight and
wait until things calm down.”
“But we are here to protect and
serve!”
“We can do our duty without
worrying about a fucking dome collapsing on our heads, or water flooding the
tunnels!”
“You’re a coward! Let me have
Pixel!”
Larry’s bleeding hand tightens on
the leash. Alberto gives him a condemning glare and disappears into the
trembling building.
An injured office worker stumbles
up to Larry and pleads, “Please help me.”
“Leave me alone,” Larry mumbles,
backing away.
The cop fumbles for his cell phone
but it doesn’t work. He tosses it to the ground and yells, “Fuck technology.”
Pixel leaps towards the entrance
and he loses grip of the leash.
“Shit. Come back Pixel!”
Against his better judgment he
follows the dog inside. Security officers are directing everyone out of the
building. Voices are lost within chaos. Screams and shrieks put him on edge and
he breaks into a cold sweat. Statues and artifacts representing the original
artisans are broken. A bronze robust head of George Washington pins a
struggling Senator to the floor. Pixel darts into a side corridor leading to
the Emancipation Hall.
On the opposite side of the thirty
foot high, skylight lit hall security personnel hold an armed position at both
the House and Senate entrances. A tourist in a loud flowery shirt waves his
arms and screams at one of the guards. He tries shoving the guard aside. The
guard shoves him back, draws his weapon, and fires with a
pop
.
The tourist crumples to the floor.
Larry looks away and down into the
hall below. Alberto is helping the injured on the lower floor. Above, the
skylights moan and metal twists under pressure from the quake.
Larry bellows and points, “The
skylights!”
No one can hear him in the chaos.
He can do nothing as the faltering frames release thousands of shards of glass
on those below.
“Pixel, where are you?”
The sound of barking from the gift
shop cuts through the noise.
“Damn dog, why won’t you listen?”
Larry rushes to the shop. Inside
the devastated store Pixel tugs on the sleeve of a young man who is pinned
underneath a fallen display cabinet. Pictures and mugs litter the floor. Larry
heaves the cabinet away.
“Are you ok?” Larry asks an Asian
kid.
The teen blinks at him and then
erupts into gibberish. Aftershocks shake ceiling dust and chunks of tile down
on them. Larry pulls the boy to his feet.
“Kid, do you speak English?”
The boy shakes his head no.
“Of all the dumb shit…” Larry says
and grabs the boy’s arm.
They escape the shaking shop and
he pulls the boy and Pixel into the tunnel leading to the Library of Congress.