Page 8 (1/2)

"Think we should hang around?" he asked

"I don’t think so I’et us They’ll wanna knohat happened"

"Nah, I don’t think this thing’s gonna be a big deal Probably send us a nice card for getting Franky to the hospital Coo back hoe of the lot as the approaching police car whooshed past us It skidded to a stop next to Franky’s vehicle and two cops spilled out and went inside We silently cut across the lawn and crossed a street with a traffic light blinking yellow We cut through the darkened parking lot of a Chinese restaurant called Panda Buffet, which did not in fact serve panda meat as far as we knew Behind it was one of the city’s s of an old tuberculosis asylued arette and asked, "So what do you think that thing was?"

I didn’t answer I foundlot we passed, studying the shadows, looking forht under the next streetla lot of a tire place with a ten-foot-tall tireby the street The mascot was made of real tires, with mufflers for arms and a chrome wheel for a head Some joker had used white spray paint to draw a penis on the front of it in the anato crawled into his ?"

"How should I know?"

A blur of red and blue zipped by Another cop car, lights flashing Thirty seconds later, another one John said, "Man, these guys really gather around one of their own, don’t they?"

We walked on, hesitant, a sick feeling in s, state cop I guess

"They’re just going there to check up on hiet ho about it on TV"

But he had stopped, saying, "No point, all you’ll get is the news after it gets filtered for the reporters We’ll get better inforo back down there"

"We’d just be in the--"

I stopped at the sound of a distant scream

John said, "You hear that?"

"No"

Another cop car zipped past How many of those did we have in this town?

"Co back the e cao back there, but--and I’m not ashamed to admit this--I also didn’t want to walk back to my place alone, in the dark I raised a hand to touch the spot on my eye where I had been bitten, raw flesh under a Band-Aid I winced as the pain in et etting sorer by the minute I was about to tell John to have fun without unshots, like firecrackers John started jogging back across the tire store parking lot, toward the hospital I let out a breath, then followed

27 Hours Prior to Outbreak

We arrived on the hospital grounds to see that all hell had broken loose Six cop cars were parked haphazardly around the e lot like a dance floor There was an a out of the hospital entrance, their heads down like they were running the trenches in a war zone One lady came out in aqua blue scrubs, one side of her blond hair matted doith blood There was a clump of onlookers on the far side of the lawn that included three or four wheelchairs, maybe fifty yards fro patients there, getting theesturing with his hand, karate chopping the air with each barked command His other hand held a pistol pointed at the sky

POP! POP! POP!POP!POP!

More shots froenetic defect that er, strode dohere it looked like so to set up a perimeter around the chaos So s the sidewalk, a fat black one with glasses and an older guy whose face was all ht past therass Black Cop put out a hand and told us to stop, in a tone that suggested if we didn’t he would Taser us until our blood boiled We backed off, stepping aside as para, holding her head, saying over and over again, "HE WOULDN’T DIE! HE JUST WOULDN’T DIE! THEY SHOT HIM OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND HE--"

John tappedup, blue hite letters on the side I thought it was soon but when the doors opened, a SWAT team spilled out

Holy shit