Chomp

Chapter V

'What did you say the complaint was about?' asked Officer McCauley sipping his Sprite.

'You would've known if you hadn't gone to buy your sprite! And now I'm going to waste time telling you what happened!' Acosta roared. It wasn't the first time McCauley had gone to buy food and he missed out on the radio.

'Oh C'mon! We've got a few seconds until we get there!' McCauley said as Acosta drove. They knew they were 'there' because of a small group of people had gathered next to a house. A man waved his arms in the air at them.

The black and white Ford 150 SVT Raptor pulled in front the Gregg's front yard to a woman screaming. Some of the neighbors from the houses around were standing on their porch or looking through their windows.

'I'm not sure, was told it sounded gibberish but the lady first spoke about some guy missing and that something was wrong with her husband,' Officer Acosta replied turning off the ignition.

The screaming continued followed by a shrill 'Nooooo-nooooooo'. The officers exchanged confused looks. Acosta pulled out the radio, held it closed to his mouth, lowered it, looked at the house again as the screams continued, brought it close to his mouth again, 'Dispatch I need backup ASAP'.

***

Her husband's hand didn't move. It lay still on the floor, slightly raised upwards with the lower portion of the arm on the second tread of the staircase. CHOMP-CHOMP-CHOMP! She couldn't hear any words or the screams of her husband anymore. 'PEEETERRRRR! PEETEEERRRRRR!' she continued to scream at the hand. CHOMP! CHOMP! Tears rolled down her cheeks... CHOMP-CHOMP-CHOMP! What was that noise? It sounded like something taking a bite and munching on its food... CHOMP-CHOMP-CHOMP-CHOMP! 'Peter? Is that you? Is this... what those kids do n-nowadays c-called pranks?' she sobbed. No response. The pain in her joints felt intense. CHOMP-CHOMP-CHOMP! SQUEAK-SQUEAK!

Rose bent forward to pull up Peter; she tried tapping his hand first but still got no response. She then grabbed his hand and tugged hard, expecting to pull 165lbs of human body weight but to her surprise that wasn't the case. To her surprise... to her horror she stumbled behind with a lose arm in her hand that had a rat the size of a kitten dangling in the air as it held on to the muscle fibers of the bicep. Eyes locked on Rose. It continued to bite its way up Peter's arm. CHOMP-CHOMP!

'WAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!' she screamed, never had she screamed this way before. But every day we get to learn something new or do something new, even if it means screaming at a decibel that she hadn't achieved before. Blood dripped from the arm forming a small dark pool on the floor. Rose dropped the arm and it landed with a soft thud.

'Ma'am! It's the NPD! Please open the door!' Officer McCauley shouted from outside. He had sensed something was terribly wrong. He thought about breaking the door open but wanted to see if he got any response.

Just as Rose was about to open the door she heard a sound that sounded like the scurrying of hundreds of little feet. The floor rumbled as if Nampa were hit by 3.2 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale. SQUEAK-SQUAK! The mini glass piece of the Boise Capital Building rattled on top of the wooden shoe rack. SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK! The red propane gas cylinder that stood beside the shoe rocked a little but stayed its ground.

'Ma'am! Can you please respond? I can hear you breathing behind the door' McCauley's voice boomed through the door.

Tens of huge rats broke out of the basement. They looked around and let out shrill squeaks as they had entered uncharted territory. One thing was sure about this new place... there seemed to be food here too as they watched Rose standing next to the door, trying to scream but the woman had lost her voice and only raspy sounds escaped her throat.

Rose's fingers fumbled on the door knob but she managed to unlock it after a few attempts. Officer McCauley was already positioned with his gun outside, Acosta, a meter away stood vigilant, one hand resting on his utility belt where the gun was, the other motioning McCauley to wait.

The door swung open as Rose tried to run but was blocked by Officer McCauley at the entrance. 'Ma'am is everything all right?' he said lowering his gun. SQUEEEEEAAAAK! 'What's that sound?'

'Run!' Rose tried to scream, pushing the officer away from the doorstep but to no avail.

McCauley had no clue what was happening, the lady wasn't giving them any clear information. McCauley tried to peek inside the house and his mouth dropped open. He saw tens of fat... humongous rats, gnawing their teeth, making way for the entrance. SQUEAK-SQUEAAAKKK! McCauley pushed Rose behind him 'OH MY GOD! Take her away from here!' he shouted and pointed his gun towards the rodents. Acosta took Rose away from the scene, trying to hurry her to their car. He made her sit and tried asking her what was wrong but Rose continuously sobbed. 'R-rats! RATS! RAAAATSSSSSS!' she finally replied. Acosta thought the woman was crazy and rushed back towards the house to join his partner. Half-way across the lawn, Acosta saw McCauley getting ready to pull the trigger and begin to draw his own gun.

BANG-BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG! The sound of the gunshots traveled across the neighborhood. A baby could be heard crying on one of the houses across the street.

McCauley's eyes fell on the hand that was being pulled between two rats like in a game of tug-of-war. He gagged a few times as more rats rushed out of the basement. Some had almost made it across to the entrance. McCauley stared blankly as the rats approached him. Never had he seen them so big, so menacing. Terror begin to make its way to his head, McCauley blindly shot multiple times at the rats. He was so bewildered by the army of those huge rodents that he didn't see the gas cylinder and shot it.

KA-BOOOOOOOOOM!

The front of the house engulfed in flames, windows shattered, the heat from the house could be felt across the street. McCauley and Acosta were thrown back a few meters from where they were standing. They landed hard on their backs, letting out groans, trying to make sense of what just happened. Rose luckily had the door closed and didn't feel the impact.

Dead bodies of rats had cluttered within a small area in front of the house. Some bodies had been charred. Blood had escaped from their mouths, nostrils or the anus. A handful of rats squeaked loudly and twitched their limbs, gasping for air, gradually dying.

Back up arrived shortly along with an ambulance and a fire truck. One of the neighbors had called the fire truck as soon as she saw a flame shoot up meters into the sky. The Gregg's house front turned black but portions of the house at the back remained intact while the backyard felt like nothing ever happened.

The authorities and neighborhood had gathered next to the house and were alarmed at the site of huge carcasses with huge incisors sticking out.

That night was going to be a field night for the press. Nampa was going to make the national news for the next few weeks as the authorities and forensics were going to try to figure out the deaths as well as the emergence of the cat sized rats. Sightings of these rats were going to be a common theme in the neighborhood and stories were going to be told at night outs, camps and children who wasted their food. 'Do not leave any leftovers' their parents would say 'or the rats would make way into the house at night and not only feast on them but you too!'