Theoccupants of the squad car were still trying to get at him, and Dirty Kurt hadinched closer to the window, although how he planned to hoist himself out of itwas anybody's guess. Mort took a drag from his cigarette, and shoved thePop-Tarts into one of the large pockets on his green military jacket. He poppedthe top of the paint thinner and sprayed it on the interior of the cop car, asif he were just some regular Joe getting ready to have a barbecue, only thistime the charcoal happened to be wriggling humans with a craving for flesh.When he had used up half of the can, he tossed it inside the car, followed byhis cigarette.
Flamesbuilt slowly in the car. It wasn't the dramatic whoosh he was expecting, but itwould get the job done. He had expected screams from Dirty Kurt, as he was thefirst one to light on fire, but he simply wriggled in the back seat, seeminglyunaware that he was being consumed by flames. The smell was awful and when themesh bag that was over Kurt's face melted to his skin, Mort decided that he hadseen enough. He backed away, turned around and limped down the street, awayfrom the fire. He was a mile down the road, munching on the last scrap ofstrawberry Pop-Tarts when he heard the car explode.
Chapter 19: Iceman and Busy Signals
Rudy had made it back to his apartment. It was a straightshot up the street, and when he turned around, he could see the man with thebloody jaw continuing his march. Rudy was glad that the door to his buildinglocked. He gave the guy the finger, sneered at him, and ducked inside.
He began the laborious climb up the three flights ofstairs, his knees creaking at every step... as the steps did at his weight. Hepulled an inhaler from his pocket at the second landing, and took a deep pullthat tasted like shampoo. As he waited to catch his breath, he heard a rattlingdownstairs as if someone were trying to get into the building. The pounding wasinsistent, and Rudy didn't want to stick around to find out what was going on.Besides, it wasn't his job. That's why the building had a security guard. Wherethe hell was the security guard?
He huffed up the last flight of stairs, fished out hiskeys, and unlocked the door to his apartment. Rudy placed his things down onthe table next to the door, and then slammed the door shut, firing the deadbolthome with a quick twist of his pudgy wrist. He could faintly hear the bangingdownstairs, but decided to put it out of his mind. If the guy got into thebuilding, someone would call the cops. That's the way the world works. Thesecurity guard was probably off getting high somewhere. When he finished, hewould see the guy at the door, call, the cops, and the world would be set rightagain.
Rudy waddled into the kitchen and put his spare bottle ofCode Red into the fridge. He then plopped down into his favorite chair in theliving room, which sat right in front of his TV. It was actually the only chairin the living room. Rudy didn't often have guests over. As a matter of fact,Rudy never had guests over.
He opened his bottle of Code Red and took a liberal swig.The liquid fizzed as it went down his throat. He switched his TV on and triedto find something on TV. The search didn't take long. He only had about fivechannels or so. One day, when he was done with college, he would be able tosplurge and get cable, but until then, it was local TV... which meant a wholelot of news and disposable sitcoms that made you want to gouge your own eyesout with a butter knife.
His chair creaked as he leaned forward in it, springspopping from the strain. Every channel was a variation of the same thing.Special news reports populated the five channels, except for the WB. Thatchannel only ever played teen dramas and infomercials. As tempting as it was towatch the skinny guy chop food and repeatedly say, "You're gonna love mynuts," he decided to check out the news reports. After all, he was likeanyone else... he loved a good bit of disaster.
As he flipped through the channels, he settled on Channel8 because they seemed to run the most legit news operation in town. They didn'tspend as much time running human interest shit or scare tactic pieces aboutwhat fruit or vegetable was currently linked to cancer according to a "newstudy"; just news... news and a weather girl with a rack that wouldn'tquit.
A reporter was standing in front of a raging fire.Firemen were in the background, hosing down the flames that were burning out ofcontrol. The scrawl underneath read, "A plague of crime strikes citiesacross the country."
Goddamn, terrorists, he thought to himself. As thereports flooded in, Rudy couldn't tear his eyes away from the screen. It seemedpeople were dying left and right up and down the east coast.
There was a commotion behind the reporter, who was doinga fairly standard job of reporting the fact that there was a fire in anapartment complex. You could see her complete lack of concern shine behind herdead eyes. A flaming shadow emerged from the building, and paramedics andfirefighters rushed to help the victim. How the figure could still be walkingwas anyone's guess. The cameraman zoomed in on the figure, and for a secondRudy thought he had mistaken a horror movie for
