#224
A FIRST SHOT FIRED
PART SIX
The days of simple and ordered are over.
Someone is playing with reality like an NRA members infant
in daddies closet.
Warning, this ant no middle grade shit here.
And no shame either.
Two years ago Sergeant Luke was helping out with a stakeout
of a hotel that was suspected of being the home base of a major organized drug
operation, filled with meth labs.
Sergeant Luke had the idea to stake the place out and get
evidence. This was because they needed ATF help with this. Going in without big
time backup, against probably well-armed bad guys, might prove really
disastrous with that many meth labs, all positional bombs ready to go off.
With budget cut any rules about single officer stakeouts has
been waved but Sergeant Luke has been filling in on nights when they don’t have
the staff for two officers. His men appreciate it a lot.
Tonight he’s working with a detective, a fresh transfer from
New Orleans, one Detective Winecaster. Detective Winecaster was a good hire for
Sergeant Luke. A highly decorated detective. He’s young. He is looking to make
a difference but isn’t naïve, has experience but hasn’t become jaded yet.
The stakeout was going as most stakeouts go. A lot of
picture taking. A lot of coffee and snacks. A lot of almost falling asleep and
looking up other jobs online.
That was until the screams.
Luke and Winecaster exited their unmarked car as more
screams were heard coming from different sides of the hotel.
Winecaster looked to his superior asking what the move is.
‘I’ll call you in. One scream seems to be coming from the
office, cafeteria area. I’ll take that one. You check out the other side. Be
very careful. Unless you directly see someone’s life in danger you don’t do
anything until help arrives,’ Sergeant Luke told him.
‘Understood,’ Detective Winecaster
Winecaster ran off towards the side of the hotel to head
around back, gun pulled; while Luke went in the direction of the offices cafeteria.
That would be the last time Sergeant Luke would see
Detective Winecaster. He pulled his sidearm and entered the offices. It was
dark so he pulled out his standard issue flashlight and started searching. He
did that hand under hand thing with his gun and flashlight that you see in all
the American crime shows.
Another scream let Luke know it was coming from the
cafeteria which was to the side once he entered the office area.
The cafeteria was dark. He couldn’t see anything and didn’t
really have the time to think about what could be going on when…
He has been in the middle of firefights and tossed out a few
windows by really big guys hyped up on drugs. He has seen bullets that seemed
to have minds of their own. But this one set of moments would change how he
looks at the world in several ways.
First his flashlight went out. Then his gun was knocked from
his hands but before he could make some kind of police statement about how
anyone here was under arrest or something he was thrown by someone or something
across the dining room area of the cafeteria.
Sergeant Luke landed on an old table that shattered into
splinters with the impact.
He got to his feet trying to see anyone within the darkness,
any movement at all using the little light that was in the room.
Then a scream again sounded out, followed by a voice, ‘These
prisoners of our lives must be feed into the fires. I am that fire. They have
awakened me.’
‘I’m B.P.D. No one likes what’s going on here. We only knew
about it because of concerned citizens but vigilantism is not the way,’
Sergeant Luke shouted.
‘You will change your mind.’
‘And what makes you think that?’ Sergeant Luke asked.
‘Because I’m going to help change it.’
The next thing Luke remembered was waking up in an ambulance
on its way to a nearby hospital. He read in reports filled that he was found in
a ditch across the road from the hotel and that he must have gotten there by being
thrown high by the massive explosion from a gas leak from the cafeteria that
set the hotel ablaze and ignited all of the meth rooms.
The explosion shook houses, burst out windows for miles, and
set the woods behind the hotel ablaze.
They never found any remains of Detective Winecaster.
The Sergeant never told anyone about the voice he heard. He
thought it was probably a delusion brought on by the leaking gas.
He was wrong.
‘You know you get pissed when I don’t pay attention.
Sergeant? Are you listening to me Sergeant?’ Chris
‘Yea, sorry, got distracted thinking about a case. Today was
the anniversary of it,’ Sergeant Luke said, his thoughts returning to the here
and now.
Chris and Sergeant Luke were sitting in a bar downing beer
and hot wings.
‘Is it anything you wan…’ Chris was asking.
‘Nope.’ Sergeant Luke shut down this inquiry.
‘Ok.’ Chris
‘Repeat the question from before, I got distracted,’
Sergeant Luke
‘So what about Pulpy? If I go around doing this he’s liable
to think I’m a Beyond Human and next thing you know I disappear up some
backside of some secret prison.’ Chris said a little worried.
Sergeant Luke could tell Chris was a little nervous about
the subject. Chris normally didn’t eat or drink more than you should but right
now he was going on normal American and overfeeding himself the pitcher of beer
and bottomless hot wings.
‘That’s why you’ll be masked to protect your real identity.
If we have to we will change your total look if the heat gets too hot and the
way you do things, make people think there is more than one person running
around,’ Sergeant Luke
‘Speaking of masks?’ Chris said gaining a small smile.
‘Still working on that. I promise it will be practical and
useful,’ Sergeant Luke swore.
‘Cool,’ Chris
‘We are also going to use the fact that Montana is one of
the states fighting against the federal government to impose its own state Beyond
Human laws. For the time being they have him staying out of Montana as a
political stance,’ Sergeant Luke
‘I’ve come up with a
name.’ Chris told his mentor.
‘And? What do you have in mind?’ Sergeant Luke asked.
‘Alcalde, it means…’ Chris
‘Sheriff, lawyer, and magistrate. Good fit to create a
localized symbol. I like it,’ Sergeant Luke said, ‘Now, we need to order more
wings. You ate all the first batch.’
BREAKING NEWS:
Children’s museum who won’t give family discounts to gay families threatens
kids delivering petitions with trespassing charges…
BREAKING NEWS: English
economist says situation in Republic Of Ireland may bring down world economy
because of human smuggling issues…
BREAKING NEWS: In
Washington a thrift store that raises money for lawyers trying to track down and
find Beyond Humans for their families after they have been arrested was burned
down by a group of men seen driving off in a “Fast and the Furious” car…
Check out all other
Tin Universe releases at the below places:
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Also can be found in
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The sale of this book without its cover….well, is, sort of,
impossible since it really doesn’t have a cover but let us go through the legal
spray out anyways. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be
aware that it was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Hands up
to you who have books like this in your collection? Now that I put my hand down
we can continue with the credits and copyright and legal and stuff that people
just don’t ever pay attention to unless it is pumping their own horn.
An Original Publication of System* Publishing,
a Tin Universe book published by System*Publishing, a
division of System*Productions, Melbourne, Florida. This book is a
work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events
or locales or persons, living or dead or living dead, is entirely and very much
so in the coincidental.
Smashwords Edition Copyright © 2015, Brian
C. Williams, System*Productions. Tin Universe Daily, and
all related titles, characters, and elements are trademarks of System*Productions.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form whatsoever. While unauthorized reproduction is sometimes
needed, please remember us writers types are for the most part a poor lot just
in search of a ways to tell our stories and enough money to add to our Doctor
Who collections….well, at least that fits me. For more information on Tin Universe Daily, the artists who
contributed to this book, and Tin Universe contact System*Productions at
hangofwednesday@gmail.com
Written by Brian C. Williams
Edited by Brian
C. Williams
Any Additional
Photography by Stainless Photography
Cover Digital Work by 74
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