Dead Air (Book One of The Dead Series) (17 page)

It stepped onto the projection that stretched out before it and made
its way to the end. A light hanging out over the water glowed brightly, beckoning it. Swaying slightly, it got down on its hands and knees as it searched for the food it knew should be close by.

Finally s
eeing its prey close at hand, it reached out to snatch it.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Clearwater, Florida:

Steve Wendell felt like he had barely fallen asleep when his cell phone woke him. He looked at his bedside alarm and saw that it was seven in the morning, then groaned and picked up the annoying device. He had stayed late at the station the night before to sort through the stories coming in from their news service. Now that the story was being fully reported on, it was as if a dam had burst, flooding the wires with tales of savagery and horror. It was finally reported that people infected by the HWNW virus were not only biting their victims but also eating them. An additional item quoted a doctor from the CDC in Atlanta as saying, "We believe that the disease effectively kills the host and re-animates it."

It was as close as anyone would come to the full story of people co
ming back from the dead, but to Steve it was a start. He was painfully aware of how the media wouldn't throw all the details out in one lump for the public to digest, they only fed them bits and pieces to keep them coming back. If they didn't fully report a story, it gave them a chance to revisit it the next day in case the news was slow or cram it in between the latest terrorist attack and hot Hollywood sex scandal if it wasn't.

In this case though,
he didn’t believe anyone in the media would have a lack of anything to report on for a long time.

The stories also caused a glut of phone calls to KLAM. Some
were from people asking if the reports were an early Halloween prank, since the holiday was only two days away, and some calling requests for their favorite heavy metal death songs, in honor of the crisis.

The radio personality working that night,
Slackin' Sammy, wanted to pander to his audience, so with Steve's permission, he cancelled the play list and ran a live call in request show that abounded with music from Ozzy, Blue Oyster Cult, M.O.D, and a host of others who sang about death and destruction.

With Meat doing the occasional break-ins from his live remote at Club Dead End
, it couldn't have worked out better. The club sold "Zombies" for half price at the bar and turned it into a 'Dead Can Dance Night'.

Steve could see the generation gap yawning wide.

On one hand you had the under thirties, people who grew up with the Internet as their primary source of information. They had been seeing stories about the walking dead on the web for days and believed them. Case in point, Jax reference to a "Zombie" party as early as Thursday night. Then you had the over thirties, those who still believed that if it wasn't shown on the six o'clock news, then it never happened. Case in point, KLAM started broadcasting stories about crazed, infected people eating human flesh at around three in the afternoon. The number of people calling in had gone up after that, but at seven-thirty when the local and world news ended, the phone lines were jammed.

Steve fumbled the cell phone open and said, "KLAM Music Radio. We play all the greatest hits."

An unsure voice asked, "Steve?"

Recognizing Heather's voice
, he sat up quickly and left the bedroom so he wouldn't wake Ginny. With the door shut behind him, he said, "Yeah, its Steve, sorry about that Heather. Just playing around."

"No big thing
," she answered with a short laugh. "Just threw me for a second. I almost made a request."

"Your wish is my command. What would you like to hear?''

"How about, I can't wait till this shit is over, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon."

"Sorry,"
he shot back, "we don't play country. How about ‘Freebird’?"

Heather laughed again. "Over played
and over requested."

There was a moment of awkward silence as they both realized that this was the first time they had spoken to each other outside the bowling alley. Their friendly relationship now seemed to
step up a notch, but to what, Steve wasn't sure. He wanted to know why she had called but couldn't find a neutral way to ask.

Act cool and say, "
Whazzz up?"

Put on his Barry White voice and say, "I know why you called, baby."

Take on a professional tone and ask, "What can I help you with?"

None of
these seemed right.

Heather saved him by asking, "Did you make it to the store the other night?"

This gave Steve something to say, so he filled her in as he made coffee. She was pleased that he had been able to stock up on supplies and told him how he was lucky to get them when he did because soon there would be rationing. She also told him that there had been so many disturbances at grocery stores, that the bigger chains now had a full time Deputy on duty.

They talked about the
Governor's announcement to hold off declaring martial law and how it would affect them. Heather was already working double shifts and saw no let up in sight. Steve spoke of having to go into the station today, his day off, and that he was on call 24/7 until the crisis was over.

"So you know more of what's really going on
," Steve finally said. "Is it getting any better?"

Heather was silent for a moment before replying, "
They’ve found a few cases in Tampa and across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Bradenton. We've also had a few unsubstantiated reports in St. Pete and Clearwater. One of the reasons I called was because we had a report from down your way on Indian Rocks Beach. Two women out jogging had a man try to snatch at them as they passed by. Also had a report of possibly the same man going off the end of a dock." Switching to cop speak she continued, "The complainant stated that he witnessed an unsub standing at the end of his dock looking down into the water. Unsub then got down on his hands and knees and started pawing at the water and fell in. By the time complainant reached the end of the dock, unsub was gone without a trace."

Going back to normal speech
, she added, "The guy had one of those lights at the end of his dock that shines down to attract fish. We think some drunk was trying to grab at a snook or something and fell in and drowned. Marine patrol is going to check the area later today. You said you lived down that way, so when I finished my shift I thought I'd call and make sure you're okay."

Not calling professionally to see if I saw something, Steve thought. Calling personally to see
if I’m all right. An interesting development.

"I'm doing fine
," he assured her. "I got in late last night but didn't see anything strange. Unless you count the fact that I didn't see another car on the road the whole way from work except for cop cars."

"Yeah
, I know what you mean. All the law abiding citizens are staying in so that makes it easier to catch the drunks. Even though retail liquor sales are suspended, the bars and bottle clubs are open." She gave a brief laugh. "At closing time, all I need to do is sit by Seminole Boulevard with a badge and a cast net and I can get my limit in no time."

The conversation was winding down and Steve knew he could have gotten away with a simple goodbye
, so he was surprised when he said, "If things get bad, try to get to the radio station. That's where I've got my supplies stashed."

Heather seemed as surprised by the offer as Steve had been giving it
so it took her a few seconds to reply. Hesitantly, she said, "I might just take you up on that. If things keep going the way they've been going around the country, I might have to take you up on it."

Steve explained his plan as she listened carefully. When he was done she made a few
suggestions but then the awkward silence returned. Heather ended it by saying, "I’ve got to get some sleep before I go back out on patrol. I'm glad you're okay."

"Be careful at work." Steve said.

They said their goodbyes and Steve hit ‘End’ on the phone’s keypad.

What the fuck are you doing? He asked himself
. You've got Ginny sleeping in your bed and you're talking on the phone like some junior high school kid getting his first call from a girl he knows at school.

Shaking his head in disgust
, he flipped on the news and settled in to watch but couldn't get his mind off Heather and Ginny. They were so different in so many ways that he found it hard to believe he was attracted to both of them. His mind not registering the television, he compared the two women.

Ginny's complexion was dark, with long, brown hair and hazel eyes, while Heather was light skinned with short reddish blonde hair and gray eyes.

Ginny's outgoing, while Heather seems slightly reserved. Heather calling up to chat seemed quite out of character for her, which made it all the more obvious that she's interested in me, while Ginny will call me on my cell phone eight and nine times a day just to ask what I'm up to even though she's in her own office four doors away.

Heather's
responsible. She's a cop and works a second job to pay her student loans, while Ginny's irresponsible and can never seem to pay her bills even though she makes good money. Sex with Ginny is fantastic. He wondered what sex with Heather would be like. Then he wondered what sex with both of them at the same time would be like.

He
was brought out of his reverie by the sound of gunfire coming from the television. He looked at the screen and saw a reporter crouched down, looking wildly about while he spit out little bits of information. "-on the edge of the Minneapolis quarantine zone atop the 494 overpass where it crosses Interstate 35, where moments ago -."

Gunfire erupted, causing the man to fall flat to the concrete. A credit to his profession, he kept his eyes on the camera, face turned upward to look into the lens. He swallowed hard and continued
, "Where moments ago an armed group of civilians tried to run the blockade set up by police and sheriff’s deputies. We don't know who fired first but its bedlam here."

The name of the reporter, Biff Grant, flashed on the bottom of the screen. Steve noticed it was the same man who had reported from the roof of the Mall of America a few days previously
. He gave a half wave to the television and said enthusiastically, "Looks like you're in the shit now, Biff."

On screen, Biff turned his head to the right
with a quick jerk as if something caught his eye and startled him. Motioning to the cameraman, he said, "Kenny, get a shot of that over there."

The view panned vertically and settled on what looked like a bundle of colored rags splattered with red paint lying on the road. Off to the far left edge of the screen, three people could be seen climb
ing over the guardrail. The camera zoomed out to take in the whole scene.

Biff narrated, "What you're seeing
are people who are trying to break the quarantine perimeter to get into Minneapolis. As I reported yesterday, a tent city sprang up on the southern approach to Richfield on Interstate 35 since the lock down. These are people who live in Minneapolis and Richfield but got caught outside the quarantine zone when the blockade was initiated. Most are people returning from out of town but some were coming back from overnight visits to friends or relatives in surrounding cities and found they couldn't return home."

The scene showed the three refugees who had crossed the guardrail start to run across the freeway toward the other side. They only made it half way before gunfire erupted from off camera
and cut them down.

"Did you see that?" Biff called out in anguish. "They were unarmed. Unarmed and shot down in cold blood."

A series of muffled explosions could be heard. The view changed from what now looked like four bundles of red splattered rags lying in the road to spin in a dizzying panorama as the cameraman turned. The focus went in and out before settling on a view of the Interstate heading into Minneapolis. Figures could be seen in the distance firing at groups of people moving toward them from two directions.

Biff came back on saying, "It seems that the National Guard has engaged people infected with the virus that are inside the safe area. I can hear one of the police radios in the car behind me
saying they're facing multiple attackers. This is madness. No one knows where they came from. We have those on the outside of the zone trying to get in, and on the inside, we have an outbreak of the HWNW virus. It seems that maybe the police need to turn around and point their weapons into the city."

In a lower voice, Biff said to Kenny, "Try and zoom in on that car at the center." He received a muffled reply to which he said harshly, "I know they're about to get overrun. Get it on film damn
it."

The scene lurched forward to focus on an armored
Humvee in a chain store parking lot in the center of a dwindling circle of National Guard troops. One soldier fired a grenade launcher into the mob pressing in on them, his shell landing in the midst of five or six lurching figures.