Almost everyone reacted the same way. They tried to convince Walter that he couldn’t make a difference and that it was easier to just let them go. It was, but that didn’t mean that was what he was going to do. Walter just didn’t have it in him. He’d wanted to be a cop for as long as he could remember. It just wasn’t in his nature to see someone doing something wrong and let it slide.
What he hadn’t expected from the two men though was how they had fought back. Everyone tried to reason with him, but very few actually escalated to violence. Walter was disappointed with himself that he hadn’t fared better, but the attack had taken him by surprise and if it hadn’t been for his Glock coming lose and the second man striking him down with it, he was sure he could have overpowered them both. The fact that he had lost his gun through it all only made matters worse. Walter had ended up arming the very people he was trying to bring down.
With his heart rate finally slowing down and his vision less blurred, Walter looked up and got his bearings. He knew the city like the back of his hand so it didn’t take any time at all to figure out where he was. He turned and headed back to the precinct.
So many of the rank and file had failed to report for duty, the remaining dedicated cops from the various precincts across the city had banded together to set up a few key control centers. In reality, they had little control over anything, but they were still trying to do what was right.
They stepped up patrols around hospitals and large department stores, the two hot beds in the city right now for a lot of the looting. The more serious problem were the gangs. Their ranks had swelled and they acted with purpose and organization. If being a cop had taught Walter one thing, it was that those criminals with time to plan and prepare were far more dangerous than those that simply acted.
“Lieutenant Davies, what happened to you?”
“Jimmy,” Walter greeted the cop standing at the entrance to the 108th precinct. “Got jumped by a couple of looters. The inmates are running the asylum, man.”
“Tell me about it,” Jimmy shook his head as he replied, and opened the door for him. “They’re definitely getting bolder. Knowles was shot earlier this morning. Last I heard, he’d just come out of surgery. Touch and go there for a while. Bullet got him square in the chest.”
“We need to put a stop to this,” Walter declared as he walked inside.
“I agree,” Jimmy answered. “But there’s fewer and fewer of us every day. There’s going to come a point soon where we’re so outnumbered there won’t even be any point in trying.”
Walter stopped and put a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “There’s always a point. As long as we carry the badge and have breath in our bodies, there’s a point. Don’t you go forgetting that, Jimmy.”
“I won’t, sir,” he replied. “You have my word.”
“Good,” Walter smiled. “At ease now, I’ll leave you to keep an eye on the doors.”
Leaving the rookie at the entrance and making his way inside, Walter was pleased that such a young and relatively new member of the force had decided to stick around. It was unsurprising that most of the cops who were still loyal to the badge were in their latter years of service like he was. After devoting so much of their lives to the force, even a disaster like this one couldn’t tear them away. That meant that as Walter walked into the briefing room, he recognized several faces, despite not working closely with more than two of them for the last few years.
“Lieutenant,” Captain Banes greeted him with a nod. “How is it out there?”
“Not good,” Walter replied with a sigh, taking a plastic cup from the stack and holding it underneath the coffee machine as the lights flickered above his head. “We still struggling with the rolling blackouts?”
The captain nodded. “They’re not lasting as long now,” he explained, “but they’re becoming more and more frequent. I’m not sure which is worse: a few long stretches without power or a whole bunch of short bursts. Suppose we’ve just got to make do with what we’ve got while it’s still.” The captain took a sip of his coffee. “Measures are already in place for how we can keep this place safe once we’re shut down for good.”
“Won’t be long now I don’t think,” Walter thought out loud. “I reckon we might need to pool all our resources in one place, even if it does mean we’re spread thinly across the city.”
“Perhaps. Where have you been this morning?”
“Manhattan,” Walter answered, rubbing the back of his head where he’d been hit earlier as he spoke, the lump that his gun had left raised and tender. “Had to deal with a couple of looters, it’s like every man and his dog is wanting for something now. Can’t walk two blocks without seeing someone committing a crime.”
Captain Banes shook his head, well aware of the issue that was plaguing his city. He didn’t like what he was about to say to Walter, but the two of them knew each other and he knew that the Lieutenant would be a good sounding board for his idea before he took it to everyone else. The police captain was starting to think they may have to run a
