Breakdown - Author Bell - Part 4

Breakdown - Bell

Official Journal - File #---20. Part 4

     

    Sweat moistened the steering wheel. By nervous tension, my foot pressed onto the gas pedal, forcing the vehicle to lurch foreword more quickly than the legal speed limit. Kathrine seemed cool and collected, though she still had a bit of concern. “Hey, I’m sure they’re all fine” she said trying to comfort my nerves. 

    “Save it until we get there. They’re not okay, I can feel it.” The tires squealed with a sharp turn into the exit off the highway. The park where the two had been investigating was getting close.

    “How can you tell? I mean, it can’t just be a gut feeling. Not mind waves or something weird. I don’t think you actually believe in that stuff, right?”

    “You know, I’ve seen, felt, and heard enough weird stuff to the point where it’d take me more faith to believe that these gut feelings did not mean anything.” A flicker of something appeared in the rearview mirror, but my eyes failed to interpret whatever was. This talk and my nerves were getting to the better of me.
She nodded her head and kept quiet. Whether she agreed with me or not.

     Upon arrival, we noticed two police officers blocking the walking trail. I turned off the car and held the keys in my lap. I sat scanning the area. Besides the yellow tape and the few officers, nothing was out of place. I opened the door and sensed the fresh aroma of wet trees and plants.

    “Certainly seems like the park is going to Hell” a smirk slowly drew across Kathrine’s face.

    “I still have a bad feeling about this. Lets get to the crime scene.” After exiting the vehicle, I also picked up a familiar scent as my mouth began to flood with saliva. I looked around and spotted Murray with his hotdog stand. After handing a small child a hotdog and patting her on the head, he noticed me and smiled. I gave a weak wave back, and Murray replied with a stern look and a nod, acknowledging that I needed to work. “Who’s that?” Kathrine asked. I flashed my badge to the cops guarding the trail, and they moved out of the way for us. 

    “Its just a vendor I know. He’s a good guy. I get a hotdog from him when I’m in a rush.”

    “Ah, I see. Look, there’s Scout.” In the light rain, she was pitching a canopy over a covered body on the ground. Harrow was kneeling, lifting the sheet to examine the body.  She looked up to see us, gave a nod, and put her head down again. The two were obviously fine, and busy. I released a sigh of relief and approached Scout. 

    “Good to see you’re fine.” A glance of curiosity flashed on her face, but she rolled her eyes and propped up the final corner of the canopy. “So, what have you found Scout?” 

    “Eh, nothing exceptional. The victim died of the same chemical compound as the other victims we have been investigating. Two unusual circumstances though. He died approximately 20 meters short of Mrs. Stanton’s fatal spot. My guess is that the victim would have ingested the poison chemical from someplace nearby, or at least the same location before walking here.” Sionne stood and walked over with a small glass in her gloved hand. 

    “If I may add, another interesting hypothesis is the chemical may activate with physical activity. Some people may have ingested the poison and lived if they did not have much activity afterwards.” Offering me a glove, I fitted it and let the latex snap back with a sound “slap”. “The only other clue is this glass that the victim had on him. We found traces of the chemical in the glass, but the fingerprints on it look like the victim’s own.” Taking the small shot glass, I observed its features. The delicate cup had a rectangular shape with rounded edges. It also gave of a slight greenish tint. Turning the glass over, the word “China” protruded from the bottom by millimeters. This glass was cheap, so it probably came from a cheap bar or something. I gave the glass back and scanned the area. It seemed that something bad should have happened by now, due to my gut pounding my organs with warning. I turned my head and scanned the abandoned playground and the flooded picnic area. No one was here, but something just didn’t seem to fit. “What do you think?” Harrow’s question brought me back to the discussion.

    “Uh, did the victim have any connection to the other victims?”

    “From our current knowledge, no. We found the victim’s wallet and traced the name to a Facebook account, but none of the other victims were on his friend list. However, some of my officers are notifying family members and asking about possible relationships as we speak.”

    “Right, good work.” I started to scan again.

    “Jon, what’s going on?” Scout asked.

    “Listen, lets get the body out of here and close up shop. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

    “Are you sure? I just put up the-“ A gurgle interrupted her. I felt my stomach, but the noise came from far behind us.. Turning to my rear, a stumbling figure slowly approached us from the other side of the picnic area.  He made some low gurgling sounds as he limped towards us. His arms held his stomach, and he was staring down. 

    “Hullo! Sir? Are you alright?” Harrow began to approach the figure, but I stopped her. My gut started to rumble. 

    “Stay here.” I told her. She gave an indignant glance, but she closed her eyes and nodded, as if to obey my word. I turned to walk towards the stumbling figure. I stopped in the grass as he kept approaching. He was coughing and audibly aching. “Erm… sir? Can we help you?” As he approached, he fell foreword. I grabbed him and lowered him to the ground. “Sir!” His clear eyes stared into mine, innocent and stricken with fear. But his pupils shrank and his eyes narrowed. The fierce glance forced me to look up, strait into a standing figure across the park. His hands gracefully pulled a small, wired device from the inside of his suit.  His second hand lightly grasped the top of the device, then stiffening as if ready to pull. 

    “Jon! What’s wrong?” Harrow ran up behind me, but the words only echoed in my ears as Igor pulled the device taught. 

    “NO!” I dropped the man and turned to tackle Sionne, but the Earth erupted before I could take another step.

    The rain reaches towards the earth, as if to offer its own life to support the earth.  Yet in the same manner, it suppresses the earth in Deinsport, flooding the world one drop at a time. The plants, the animals, and the people all suffer from its oppression. Where justice, kindness, and mercy would try to conquer, the rain washes away the blood and care, supplementing the city with stern coldness and deprivation of hope. The bodies of the fallen rot away due to the supple downpour. Its unrelenting wake drowns the insects and weighs down the vultures in the air. Temporary retreats of rain further leave a hovering cloud of humidity that carries the stench that pesters the survivors. The clouds, enjoying the suffering of the victims of living and of death, quietly tease their subjects with a gentle pitter patter of rain. Pestering. Mocking. Laughing. The rain reaches towards earth, as if to offer its own life, but it only seeks to cause disdain between men.

    The rain continued to fall. The quiet pitter patter of the drops cleansing leaves and blades of grass quietly blended itself with the humming ring lingering in my ears. Such peace. Such pain as the rain reached out to say “Hush child” as it wiped away the blood. Such peace, however, never lasts long. The slow hum began to recede, and the panicked voices of others began to overcome the gentle downpour.

    “Is he alive?”

    “Clear the area, we need to…”

    “I can’t find them all. Where is…?”

    “C’mon man. Wake up. Sip this.” A cool fluid filled my mouth and entered my body. For what seemed like hours, the fluid crept down my esophagus and into my stomach. The slow crawl of life soon reactivated my nerves. When the tips of my toes regained feeling, I opened my eyes. Murray’s face appeared above me with the darkened, cloudy skies behind him. “Hey man, hey man! You’re not goner! Thank God man!” His thick voice still produced an echo, but I had regained consciousness. He helped me sit up, and I let out a groan. My head and body hurt. As I grabbed my aching head, I felt the hot stream of blood running down the side of my head. Murray grabbed his towel and held it to my head to stop the bleeding. “Hold this here.” I held it to my head, feeling the heart beat in my head. Murray flipped back his cooking gown to reveal several vials wrapped around his waist; most of them contained a green liquid. He poured a green drink and handed it to me. “Here, take this. Drink it; it will help get you back on your feet.” I took the glass and drank. The spicy drink filled me with energy, and I felt my muscles relax. The soreness released as if releasing pressure from a valve. I felt better, and I looked to the glass to examine what I had just ingested. It was a small, square shot glass with rounded off edges. The greenish hue of the liquid sent shivers through my system. “Now, move easy now. Don’t rush around or you’ll-“

    With a swift move, I stood and grabbed Murray by the neck, lifting him off the ground. While holding him, I slowly turned my head to observe my surroundings. The ground had completely exploded. How I survived is a mystery. I noticed that Scout and Kathrine, who had been further away from the blast, come rushing towards me with scrapes and bandages hanging off of them. Scout’s coat was even torn. I returned to Murray with a hard gaze into his cowardly face. “Why did you do this? To these people, and me. Why?! Tell me!” I roared as my fingers forced my nails into his neck.

    

    “Hey, don’t get excited, you’ll kill yourself. The chemical! Put me down, please!”

    

    “You were near the park, and the party. You’ve been picking them off by serving them with a smile. Who do you think you are?”

    

    “Let me go. Now.” His voice gained the one of the one in the warehouse. After a few seconds, I dropped him on the ground. Scout ran up and cuffed him. I grabbed his chin and made him look at me. He had lost his cowardly face and replaced it with stern brows and cold eyes.

    

    “Okay, Mr. Wisp. Why are you doing this? Why poison me and the others?”

    

    “To get your attention, of course.” This seemed like an odd way of getting my attention.

    

    “Explain yourself. Why not send a postcard, I would have enjoyed that much more.”

    

    “Listen, you know from your work that wisps can possess people, right?” I nodded my head. It was true that they sometimes would possess people for fun, but rarely for business. “Murray was a good man, but he had a secret bloodlust. I need to have a little fun occasionally, so I possessed Murray and fused a little of my energy into those drinks to make them, ah, enriched. Once the patrons ran through the park or danced at Stanton’s party, they died.”

    

    “I know how you did it, but why contact me like this?” I nearly crushed him once more with my grip.

    “Look, you and the DDS? You have no idea what’s here. Something big and bad is happening. Bad people want power, and you’re skilled and stupid enough to stop them.” This intrigued me. I loosened my grip and let Mr. Wisp relax. He took a breath and looked up to me again. “They might endanger the city. As a simple wisp, I do damage by the few, but having a city destroyed is no fun for me or my buddies.” 

    

    “Who are these people?” I asked, urgently yet politely.

    

    “The brains behind the bomb had to be that Russian guy you were looking for. Though he mainly works for one guy. He’s a smart, sarcastic fellow. He’s got attitude too. He’s… Shadow or some name like that.”

    

    I thought back to Maria Ander’s letter to us. “Shade?”

    

   “Ah yes. That’s him. After the Russian blew you all up, he swept up your friend and left.”My eyes immediately bolted around the torn park. I couldn't see Harrow. I looked to Scout and Kathrine. They shook their heads.

    "Alright... do you know where they set off to?"

    “I have no idea! Why don’t you drive around town a little and find out for yourself! Haha!” I gave Wisp a good punch to the jaw. In the human shell, I could deal some pain without actually hurting him. I towered over him and picked him back up, holding him to my face.

    "Listen, if you ever screw with me again, I'll have you ripped out of that body and sent into space confined in a small capsule. You can help us in the future, right?" He seemed hesitant at first, but seeing the situation, he nodded his head to the best of his ability. "Good. Now, how long until the chemical you gave me wears off?"

    

    “With all of the adrenaline, you might get pretty sick, but I imagine you’ll live. Just take it easy for the next fifteen minutes and you’ll be fine. I didn’t want to kill you, just help you get-“

    

    “Right.” I dropped him, allowing his body to slump on the torn ground. “Kathrine, get some guns ready. Scout, you’re driving with me. We've got to save Harrow.”

    

    “Do you know where she’s located?” Scout asked.

    

    A huff of air escaped my mouth. “Just get in the car.”