Seeds Of Hunger

Chapter 6: Changes

Chief Ramirez watched as Carter and Casey walked out of the station and pulled the drawer in his desk revealing his Glock 17. He check to make sure it was loaded and replaced his service revolver with the Glock. If things are gonna get as bad as I think they are, I want to be prepared as much as I can. He grabbed the extra magazines in the drawer and put them in the magazine holders on his duty belt. Ramirez locked the drawer and walked out to the communications room. The Captain on duty was taking notes on a notepad as franticly as he could.

"Sir, reports of these things are coming in from all across town! The Mayor says that the National Guard has been mobilized but with the reports of attacks ranging from one part of the town to the other, they don't know where to stage." Chief Ramirez had never seen Captain Sanchez so razzed before. "The Mayor also reports that City Hall has been overrun and that they are on the way here along with a few other survivors. Orders, Sir?"

Ramirez stood a breathe to steady himself before speaking. "Captain tell the Mayor that the streets are unsafe and for him to proceed cautiously. Did he say if anyone was wounded? How many is he bringing over?"

"Unknown, Sir. They are making best possible speed here." Captain Sanchez handed his notebook to the Chief to review it. Ramirez quickly scanned it and saw various reports from the last hour; officers reporting dead and dying, shots being fired, and general mayhem. Ramirez chocked back tears, I'm sorry I failed all of you. Chief Ramirez viewed every officer in his department as if they were his own sons and daughters, even the ones older than himself.

"Thank you Captain. Send word to the Mayor that we are ready for him whenever they arrive." Ramirez walked out of the communications room and went into the main lobby, thinking, What else have I failed in today?

"Chief Ramirez!" Mayor Wilson came in his suit bloody and breathing heavily. "We have several injured in your courtyard. Ramirez walked past Wilson and out into the courtyard. He saw the mayor's personal vehicle along with a school bus filled with children and adults. The bus driver ran out of the bus holding a bleeding child in his hands.

"Officer we have a lot of wounded on board! Can you lend a hand?!" The bus driver walked up the stairs and in his arms was the bleeding body of a young girl, probably seven or eight, a huge bite mark on her arm. The girl's arm was already turning grey and a sickly heat radiated off of her.

"Of course," Ramirez pointed back towards the door, " Go inside take a left, and you'll see the break area for our officers. There's some beds and couches; start putting the wounded on them." Ramirez started running towards the bus and walked up the steps. Inside was something he had not seen since his Army days. Blood, vomit, and other fluids were on the floor, along with various bodies of injured citizens, some crying out for help, some already dead. Ramirez backed off the bus, wavered, and threw up. He spit one last time and ran back inside the station to gather fellow officers.

"All available hands! I need help with the wounded! Grab PPE and let's go!" referring to Personal Protective Gear. Ramirez grabbed some rubber gloves and along with a few other officers started unloading the bus full of dying and dead.

It had been three hours since the bus had arrived and all of the injured had been removed. The dead were left on the bus until it was decided what to do with them. The obvious thing would be to contact the next of kin but with everything going on that was on the back burner. Mayor Wilson was in the lounge area, tending to his wife, Amanda, who had suffered a terrible cut along her shoulder from one of the infected. It was deep and had hardly bleed at all but they were all covered in blood. Ramirez shook his head to clear his thoughts. He hadn't had any decent sleep since this nightmare started.

"CHIEF RAMIREZ!" Mayor Wilson shouted running into his office. Wilson looked pale and he was covered in fresh blood.

"Jesus Mayor what the hell happened? Are you injured?" Ramirez moved towards him to try to balance the man. Its possible he was out of it as much as the Chief was.

"My lovely Amanda! She's gone!" Wilson broke down then crying and shaking, his tears landing on his buttoned up shirt soaking into it along with the blood. Wilson slid down the wall and cried into his hands. "What will I do without her?"

Ramirez bent down and picked him up, steadying him against the wall. "Let's go see her." Wilson and Ramirez walked towards the lounge area, passing sober officers who heard the commotion.

Amanda Wilson was a lovely woman of fifty three with no children of her own but who many considered very motherly to everyone who knew her. Not anymore; her pale still smooth skin was now grey and pieces of her skin was already decomposing. The scratch on her shoulder was oozing deep red blood that dripped off her exposed arm into a small puddle on the floor. Ramirez was deeply sadden by this as he had met and genuinely like Mrs. Wilson as she was a great supporter of the department. Ramirez looked around the room and everyone had fallen silent but no one cried except for Mayor Wilson; just another dead among the dying.

"Let's get a body bag gents. We need to remove her as soon as possible." Ramirez told the officers standing by her body. One of the officers went down the hall and collected a body bag. "When she's in take her to the basement." Referring to the freezer they keep in the basement. That way the decay already evident on her body would slow to zero. Ramirez turned toward Mayor Wilson about to speak when he stepped forward.

"Amanda...?" Mayor Wilson looked pale and Ramirez turned back toward his late wife. Mrs. Wilson was sitting up on the best the blood was pouring out of her arm now. Ramirez swore he saw he blood moved by itself for a moment before Wilson ran up to his wife and hugged her sobbing.

"Amanda my love I thought I had lost you." He sobbed into her shoulder. "Please don't scare me like that again" He turned toward the Chief. "You see? She's fine! She probably just needs her re-" Mrs. Wilson bit into her husbands exposed neck, blood exploding out of the wound. Mayor Wilson's eyes rolled back into his head and collapsed onto his wife who started feeding.

"Holy Jesus!" Ramirez had his Glock out and started to fire rounds into Amanda Wilson, hitting her in the center of the forehead, making her brain explode due to the one hundred and fifteen grain hollow point that entered her skull. The other officers had their pistols out firing at her too. Everyone in the lounge was on the ground as the firing continued.

"CEASE FIRE, CEASE FIRE!" Ramirez called, as his Glock went empty, the slide on the pistol locking back. He switched mags, letting the empty mag clatter on the floor as he slapped in a fresh one. Glock still leveled at Amanda, he grabbed the back of the Mayor's shirt and unceremoniously flung him to the floor. He grimaced when he heard the Mayor's head smack hard against the cement floor but saw that from the bite mark on his neck and from the amount of blood sprayed out on his and his now dead wife that he was as dead as she is. Was, the Chief thought to himself. So it confirms it; this plant they discovered created monsters. Flesh hungry monsters. Ramirez shook his head in denial. No one breathed until the Chief saw their faces. "Its clear. They're dead. Jesus..." He holstered his Glock and turned to the officers in the room. "I want this place locked down tight. No one in or out without my authority. Set up barricades along the north perimeter and the western gate. Anyone who comes in is to be announced and inspected by the appropriate officer. We need the safeguard what survivors we have left. Let's do it."

"CHIEF!" The officers shouted as Ramirez felt a hot, rotten breath on the back of his neck. The officers started shooting.