“I yelled at them. They got really angry with me. I saw them look at each other.”
Ralph paused for a moment. “I didn’t know it, but they were going to kill me...” Ralph shook his head in disbelief.
“Then we suddenly had several calls at the same time, so we dropped it and got to work.”
Romy had taken a few steps forward. Ralph continued. He frowned as he recalled the events.
“We got in our cars and responded to the most urgent call. A code 217 – that’s a murder attempt – at the Quick Gas station. That’s where we saw our first zombie.”
He looked up at Romy as he said this. Her eyes opened wide with shock.
“We took that thing down. With force. But the damn thing would just keep on struggling. We finally managed to drag and push the thing into the back of my cruiser.” He shook his head. “How in the hell did we not know that it was a zombie!”
Just then a second one showed up. It came at Ruiz hard. He didn’t hesitate. He pulled his service revolver and emptied nearly a full mag into the thing, but it still took him down! Between Bob and me, we were able to pull the thing off him, and Bob shot the thing in the head. But Ruiz was hurt. We put him in Bob’s cruiser and drove down to the clinic.”
Ralph shook his head slightly, a wry grin on his face. “I had a fucking zombie in the back of my cruiser the whole time. It smashed its face to shit trying to get at me.”
He swallowed and continued. Romy was at the front of the cell now. Her hands holding on to the bars.
“We called ahead, and Doc Fraser was going to meet us at the clinic.” We came in sirens blaring. That was a mistake... We never did see Doc Fraser when we got to the clinic. We waited there, while Alex was slowly bleeding out. And all of the sudden there were more zombies coming at us. Several of them. We shot them to shit. We knew to aim for the heads at that point.”
Ralph frowned as he recalled the next events. “Bob though... Bob was losing his shit. There was a woman running across the street. I think it was Lindy Olson. Bob shot her. And he shot at some kid too but missed. He kept shooting at anything that moved. Then Alex died. He stopped shooting then.”
“Bob decided that we should hole up back here.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Romy. I was so scared. I was just going to go along with it.”
“I helped him drag Alex’s body out of his cruiser. But then he got this crazy look in his eyes. And before I knew it, he drew his gun on me. He said that I had bad timing and saw some things I shouldn’t have. And then he pulled the trigger! He was going to fucking shoot me in cold blood! But he didn’t realize that he had wasted all his shots and his sidearm clicked empty.”
“So, I shot him, instead. I shot him in the gut.”
Ralph ran his hand over his face. His expression grim.
“I watched him die. I got up and stood over him, and that’s when he confessed to me. Alex and Bob were doing all kinds of bad shit. That girl that went missing a few months back... What the fuck!” Ralph punched the ground.
He looked up at Romy. “I’m sorry Romy. Those guys were animals.”
His eyes grew hard. “Now they’re dead.”
“Let me out of here.” Romy said.
Ralph nodded. He got to his feet and approached the cell door. Inserted the key, turned it, and pulled the cell door open.
“Where are my guns?”
“Here, follow me” They walked into the main office, and Ralph produced another key. He opened a drawer and produced Romy’s guns and mags. Romy quickly checked the guns and inserted the mags. Ralph watched her do this wordlessly.
She looked up at him, and her anger faded slightly.
I guess he’s not the bad guy. She realized that she had one of her guns up, so lowered it.
“Thanks.” Ralph acknowledged with a nod, as he saw her lower her weapon.
Ralph was just about to say something else, when there was some commotion outside. A pickup truck had pulled up and several people were coming up to the building.
Romy drew her weapon, as did Ralph. An elderly man opened the door and took a step inside. His eyes grew wide when he saw the guns aimed at him.
He immediately raised his hands in surrender. “Whoa! Take it easy fellers!” He exclaimed. An elderly lady had stepped up behind him. Romy and Ralph lowered their weapons, when they recognized that these were normal, living people.
“Sorry Mr. Randolph!” Ralph quickly apologised. He noted the lady behind the old man. “Mrs. Randolph. Please. Come in.”
A third person followed the elderly couple into the sheriff’s office.
“Mrs.van der Laar.” Ralph acknowledged the third person, as she closed the door behind her and locked it. She was a solid looking woman in her early fifties. She was carrying a shotgun.
Romy knew all these people due to her job at the bank. She knew that Mrs. van der Laar ran a farm just out of town. The Randolphs used to be farmers too but sold their land and lived on a small acreage.
“All hell is breaking loose out there, Ralph! Where’s Bob?” Mr. Randolph asked.
“The sheriff is dead.” Ralph answered. “As is Deputy Ruiz.”
The way he said it and the look on his face made it clear that he didn’t want to discuss the matter further.
Just then something hit the window. Mrs. Randolph shrieked in shock. They all turned to see a zombie beating on the window. This was the first up-close look at a zombie for some of them. The distorted face made it clear to all that this was no ordinary person.
Mrs.
