A Broken World

Three

Atlanta 2010

I sat at my desk filling out the paperwork for the arrest we just made on Troy Kinney, a man who killed three women in the span of a month. He wasn't smart about it either. Left evidence all over the crime scenes. He wasn't hard to find either. "Stone!" I turned my head to see the Lieutenant walking towards my desk. I stood up as he approached. "Lieutenant."

"I need you to go to 345 Chestnut Street. There is a man who killed his wife and apparently ate part of her too before trying to attack the neighbor. Take Peterson with you." I gave him a confused look, not sure I heard him right. "I'm sorry, did you say he ate part of her?" I asked. He nodded his head with a sigh. "Yeah. Neighbor said he heard the wife screaming for help while out on a walk, tried to help only to be attacked himself, bitten actually, before getting away and locking himself in the house, checked the man's wife for a pulse but found none and called 911."

"There seems to be a lot of reports of people attacking others and biting them," I said. "Yeah, I don't know if it's some new drug or what, but we gotta get it off the streets whatever it is." I nodded and pushed my chair in. "Peterson, you're with me!" I called out. Peterson was new, transferred from New York PD, he's supposedly one of the best they had. I'll be the judge of that I guess. He came over to me, a smile on his stupid handsome face.

I grabbed my stuff off my desk and started walking for the door. We headed out the other department and headed for the garage where the cars were parked. "So, am I driving or are you?" I walked up to my car and opened the driver's side door. "You it is," Peterson said and got in. "Do I get to know what we're heading into?" He asked.

"Man killed his wife; are part of her before attacking the neighbor." I looked over at him to see his green eyes staring at me in shock. "Ate part of her?" I nodded my head, "yeah, and bit the neighbor." I started the car and pulled out of the parking garage, onto the busy city streets, and towards the highway. "There's been a lot of that; people attacking people, biting them."

I hummed as a reply, looking up at the light, waiting for it to turn green. "We never had anything like this in New York. Well, I mean we had some fucked up shit, but eating someone…yeah, nope. At least not while I was there." I took a deep breath and started driving again. I was not used to having a partner; I work better alone. So, have you lived in Atlanta your whole life?"

"No." I mumbled, pulling onto the highway. "Where are you from?" He asked. "A small town hours from here," I said. I hate small talk and he keeps asking questions. "Why'd you move to the city?" I shrugged, "because I wanted out. Nobody ever gets out of a small town like mine. Stop asking questions." He mumbled a sorry and the rest of the ride was silent. When we pulled up to the house there were already police and ambulance and the coroner outside the house.

The crime scene wasn't like anything I've seen before. The poor woman was ripped apart, a gaping hole where her stomach should have been, her throat was ripped out as well. Peterson ran out as soon as he saw the scene, I could hear him gagging and heaving outside. The floor under the woman was covered in dried blood. I walked outside and up to the man who had found her.

He sat in the back of an ambulance, getting the bite mark his neighbor had given him cleaned by one of the medics. I asked him to tell me exactly what happened and if he saw which way the suspect went. He told me exactly what I was told at the office and that he wasn't sure where the husband went.

After we got back to the precinct I started writing up the report and going over everything. The chatter of other detectives and officers grew louder and louder until someone yelled to shut everyone up. The tv was on the news, as it always was. A news report, a thin woman with long blonde hair, bright green eyes stood in the street with a scene going on behind her.

Police cars, officers, medics, and ambulances blocked off the street behind her. A man lay on the ground, blood pooled under his body while another man slowly stumbled to his feet. Blood covered his hands all the way up his forearms and covered his face. Officers shouted at him to stand down, their guns pointed at him. The news reporter repaid the events that unfolded behind her. When the man didn't get on his knees with his hand behind his head and just kept coming, an officer fired his gun, hitting him in the shoulder.

That didn't stop the man though, it only jerked him back a couple steps before he kept stumbling towards the line of officers. Another shout for him to stop and get on the ground came before a gunshot rang out and another and another. No matter how many times they shot at him he didn't stop coming until one bullet found itself flying through the man's forehead and out the back of his skull. Only then did the man stop, dropping to the ground.

Screams from the patrons standing around watching the scene screamed and shouted. Until the second man, who was believed to be dead, rose to his feet slowly, shuffling his feet towards a woman standing too close and biting into her throat. Her shrill scream pierced the air while two men tried to pull the attacker away from her. Medics rushed towards her to help.

Then things took a turn for the worst when another man came stumbling out of the alley, attacking the cameraman. The tv screen went blank before the faces of the new reports in the studio filled the screen. Nobody said a thing, too shocked at what happened, and the audio that was still coming through from the field report. Screams filled the studio while someone tried to cut it off. "What the fuck is happening?" I whispered. The department was in complete and total shock and silence. We were in for a hell of a ride.