There was no answer from the other end of the line. Rudyjumped as the pounding continued.
Chapter 29: Fixed-Gear Only
Dustin hopped on his bike and pedaled to where theexplosion had lit up the night. He struggled to comprehend what he was seeingupon arriving there. A cop car was on fire. It had clearly been the source ofthe explosion, and yet, the occupants, who must have been in the car at thetime of the explosion, were still stumbling around.
Their clothing was burned off of their bodies, and themasses of charred flesh stumbled blindly down the street. Dustin kept waitingto hear sirens, but there was nothing. Sheepishly, Dustin put his feet on thepedals and rode away. There wasn't much he could do, and things in the city hadobviously gone from bad to worse. He could feel panic welling up in his chest.If a cop car could explode and burn for five minutes without the sound ofsirens echoing through the night, then things were definitely out of whack.
Dustin was about a mile from home when he spotted anothersign of something not quite right. A man clad only in pajama pants burst fromthe front door of a house. The shirtless man wasn't what made Dustin slow downand look at the man; it was the blood that covered his face and his mouth.
"Are you alright?" he called to the man from asafe distance.
The man began to approach him, giving no sign that he hadeven heard Dustin's question. Dustin shook his head and began to pedal away. Atthe intersection of the next block, he saw a car accident. The red sports carlooked as if it had T-boned a woman in a silver Camry. The driver of the Camryappeared to be dead, as her forehead had most definitely been caved in on thesteering wheel. Another bloody woman was struggling to get out of the driver'sside seat of the sports car. The male passenger was trying to attack the womanin the driver's seat, but the seatbelt was holding it back.
At that moment, Dustin decided two things. He would helpthe woman in the sports car, but after that, it was time to get the hell out ofDodge. Dustin rode over to the car, and tried to open the driver's door. Itwouldn't budge, so he lifted up his bike and smashed the window with the handlebars. He reached in and pulled the lady out, averting his eyes as her skirtcame up past her thighs as she slid out of the window.
Immediately she grabbed a hold of him, and Dustin had toresist the urge to throw her to the ground out of fear. She clung to him,sobbing, and repeating "He's crazy!" over and over. Dustin lookedover the woman's shoulder and saw that the man in the passenger seat was still strugglingto reach the woman.
He held her at arm's length and looked into her eyes,"We have to get out of here. Things are very bad right now."
She nodded her head in understanding, so he continued,"Can you stand on a bike?" Dustin looked over at his bicycle, as didthe woman he was talking to. It wasn't very impressive, but that's the way thatDustin had always liked it. Hand-crafted from the best parts he could scrounge,his silver glider didn't so much impress as it prevented any would-be thievesfrom taking it. It was a good bike, though it didn't look the part. The silverpegs on the back tires would give the woman plenty of space to stand if shecould keep her balance.
Seeing Dustin's ride, the woman became somewhat hesitant."You mean on that? Why don't we just call the cops?"
Dustin couldn't help the smirk that inched into thecorner of his mouth. "Lady, about a mile back, I saw a cop car burning. Noone was coming to help them. They've got bigger fish to fry tonight. If youwant to wait around for your friend to unbuckle his seatbelt, be my guest, butI'm not going to sit around here and wait with you."
He waited as the words sunk into her head. When her eyescleared, she looked at him, and said, "I think I'll wait for thepolice."
"Suit yourself, but you have to ask yourself onequestion... do you think they'll show up before that guy gets here?"Dustin pointed down the road where the shirtless man in the pajama bottoms hadcome shuffling down the street. The woman screamed and buried her face in hischest. He resisted the urge to laugh at this cliché moment of weakness."C'mon, my apartment's not too far from here."
Dustin walked over to his bike, picked it up off theground and straddled it. The woman looked at him doubtfully, and for the firsttime he noticed how attractive she was, despite the fact that her nose wascrooked and blood was pouring down her face. The shirtless man down the streetgroaned loudly, and that made up her mind for her. She hopped on the back ofthe bike, and stepped on the pegs. Her arms gripped his shoulders tightly tothe point of being painful. Together they took off into the night.
Chapter 30: Molly
Mollystared at the door to her cell. She had never imagined that she would wind uphere, quarantined in the hospital that she had worked at for two years. Sheheld her hand up in front of her, admiring the rough edges between her thumband forefinger. The bleeding had stopped, and what was left was a bite-shapedwound with blackish-reddish edges. For a second, it looked like the overcookedinside of a marionberry pie. The bite didn't concern her as much as the heatthat her body was putting out. The radiating red streaks that were inchingtheir way up her arm from the bite wound were also somewhat concerning.
But,more than that, Molly simply wanted to eat. She banged on the door with hergood arm. She pressed her face to the tiny square window, unbreakable glassreinforced by wire, and yelled, "Can I get some food in here?"
Ashad been the case for the previous hour, there was no answer. She pressed herface to the glass some
