It Started In The Streets fiction

It started in the streets Part One

The homeless - the invisible ones. They started disappearing and dying: no one cared, really. We all thought it was a great thing that their population seemed to be diminishing. In fact, we encouraged it. We wanted the homeless off the streets; we wanted them all to be saved- helped. Little did we know what was actually happening to them and when we finally found out. It was too late for all of us.

April 23, 2018 The news reports told of a small virus that was mainly affecting those on the streets with no shelter and no means of medication. They couldn’t fight the disease without the help of antibiotics and most succumbed to it. Since those dead were practically unknown they were broadcasting pictures; mostly those with arrest records. If no one knew them they would be buried in the Assumption Cemetery, just a few miles from the main road of town. For now, they were being held in the city’s small morgue at the hospital, down the road from Anabelle Walkers’ home. Her father, their small town’s mortician was awaiting word from the coroner if the bodies would be brought to him.

Anabelle wasn’t concerned with the dead. She had helped her father when she was little. Watching him with the embalming fluids and the makeup. Make them look like they’re sleeping was what he always used to say. Before, the idea that her father touched dead people every day was disturbing to her. Now she knew Benjamin Walkers’ job was what fed and clothed her. It wasn’t something to be afraid of. Death was a normal everyday thing. She got up from the couch and put her breakfast dishes in the sink. Today was going to be a long day, her father would be working till late she was sure and she would be all alone in the house until she started her shift at the hospital. She started working there just 6 months ago and already she had moved up in the ranks of the nurses’ assistants and was on the fast track to starting her nursing degree at the local college.

Benjamin Walkers finally got the call he had been expecting around 2:30 in the afternoon. He would be receiving 12 bodies of the recently deceased homeless in two hours. The medical examiner Bob Markum was glad to get these men and women out of his refrigerators. It was too bad that so many of them went unclaimed, he thought the small tight-knit town would try a little harder to help these poor souls find their families. The only recognition was from the Wilkens’ family, and they didn’t want to pay for funeral costs anyway. Bob hoped to put an end to the questions from the police and local media by telling them all it was a virus. Sure, it was a virus. Something he had never seen before, but why start uproar when it was contained to these dirty street people? No one else had seemed to fall ill. No one reported anything at the hospital. But those bite marks- no he wouldn’t start the media craze. He would let them go, bury whatever the truth was with them, he thought.

Ben arrived at the funeral home with an hour to spare. He needed all of his staff focused on their jobs; the task at hand was going to be rough. 12 bodies was a lot for the small staff at Assumption. Carrey Herald, Rick Topher, and Grace Freed were all sitting in the small staff room watching the TV and playing on their phones. Rick sat on the couch, taking up most of the small sitting area. He turned away from his phone; ignoring the text he just received to watch the small screen. It was another story; the news anchor was getting tired of talking about the latest craze on social media and focused again on the 18 dead homeless in the small town. Rick shook his head. “If they’re sending them here then what else is there to discuss? Those poor bastards don’t have any family. They really need to stop.” Carrey, the intern looked up at him from the pillow on the floor. This was her favorite spot in the room, she hated sitting next to people and no one else wanted to sit on the floor. “They keep bringing them up because of what happened. How bad would it suck if no one claimed you after you died! Wouldn’t you want people to come remember you? Or are you so big and bad that you don’t care?” Her eyes bulging out of her head as she raised her voice. She was so upset about these poor innocent people not getting what they needed. She hated death. If she could save everyone she would. How could Rick the Brick be so insensitive? He looked over at Grace; the old woman was sitting with her knitting completely ignoring the news and the exchange between her coworkers. She had her opinions, but would never voice them even if someone asked her. She didn’t want to go along with her coworker’s drama. Kids.

The yelling match reached Ben’s ears as soon as he walked in the door. Damn, he thought, I was hoping they wouldn’t be worked up yet. He ran down the stairs and threw open the staff door.

“Alright you two, that’s enough yelling!” He exclaimed throwing the door so hard it crashed against the wall. Grace barely looked up from her work, Rick looked sheepishly down at the floor. He knew he had been loud, but was surprised that Ben could hear him so easily. Carrey was practically in tears and decided this would be a good time to excuse herself to the restroom to freshen up. She needed to be stronger if she was going to help work on so many people today. Ben went to fill his coffee cup at the counter and sat at his desk across from the small arm chair that was currently occupied by Grace. She nodded to him with a thoughtful look. He smiled back. Rick cleared his throat as to start an excuse for his yelling. Ben inhaled sharply and looked back at Rick. He would have no sympathy for bad behavior today. They had a lot of work to do.

Anabelle started her slow trek to Cicely’s house. It wasn’t too far away; she just didn’t want to pick up the girl for their shift. Cicely Truman was practically royalty in their small town. Anabelle didn’t know why she didn’t just drive herself. But for some reason Cicely had taken a liking to her, maybe it was because of their first day of work when Cicely didn’t know how to do anything and Anabelle helped her. Anabelle slowed at the stop sign and looked over at the place she really wanted to go: Devon Reynolds was sitting at the front desk of the mechanics shop. She could see him through the large window. He looked up from his computer and locked eyes with Anabelle for a second; she hurriedly looked forward and mashed the gas pedal. She couldn’t believe he had looked at her. Anabelle felt her cheeks get hot as she thought of Devon looking into her eyes. How it would feel to be held by him, to kiss him. She still had a smile on her face when she pulled up in front of Cicely's gated home. The largest and grandest home in the town, no one else had towers or bay windows. And practically no one had two stories, let alone a third! She grabbed her old, beat up phone and sent a short “I’m here” message to Cicely. A few minutes later the gates opened and the stunning girl was running down the front steps of her home. Anabelle pulled into the circular driveway and unlocked her door. Cicely jumped in and leaned over to give the other girl a warm hug. “You look happy today An!” Cicely noticed the large dopey smile plastered all over her face. Anabelle blushed all over again and shook her head. “Just happy to see you, girl.” Anabelle hated being called An, she was named after her mother and loved her name. Cicely rolled her eyes and laughed. They drove out of the gates and turned right towards the center of town.

Ben walked down the ramp to greet the driver of the refrigerated truck about to pull up to the back door of the funeral home. It was the easiest way to transport all of the bodies, even though it wasn’t conventional. He shook hands with the man and showed him where to back up to make it easiest for his crew. Rick was really the only one strong enough to unload all of them. Grace would be organizing all of the instruments needed and Carrey would get all the paperwork. It was up to Ben himself to help move the corpses down the two flights of stairs to the preparation room. It was going to be hard work. He wished that Bob had the wherewithal to send more than one person to help. Luckily, two more cars pulled up behind the large truck and four more strong men jumped out. Ben might not have to do too much moving.

When the work was all done Ben, surveying the sea of corpses surrounding him and his staff , felt a cold chill run down his back. Would they work fast enough to get them all done by tomorrow morning when the news crew would show up? He saw Carrey touch one of the young women on the gurney and worried a little about the poor girl. When you are so young and lose your parents its hard to come to terms with death. Maybe she shouldn’t be down here, he thought, maybe I should send her up to do the paperwork and talk to the diggers. She can take care of everything upstairs.

“Carrey.” He motioned for her to come over to him. “Why don’t you go up to my office and get the paperwork started and sign off on everything from the hospital? We also need to talk to the diggers, Marty and James Cyrus. If you could get a hold of them and get them down here as soon as possible that’d be great. The funeral will be tomorrow for everyone. I want to be ready. Thank you, dear.” He placed his hand on her shoulder in a fatherly way and smiled down at her. He hoped she would feel comforted; instead she was insulted that Ben would think she couldn’t handle it. She took a deep breath and smiled back at him. Then sadly opened the door and walked up the stairs. Bob Markum greeted Anabelle and Cicely as they walked through the back door of the hospital. Bob was in his office faxing the paperwork that needed to be completed to Ben at the funeral home. “Anabelle! How are you m’dear?” He had been here for so long he felt as though he knew everyone. Bob was the oldest person at Welloak Valley Hospital. He had seen two fires, one earthquake and about 350 dead while working. Considering he was the head pathologist in charge of the Hospital Morgue 350 wasn’t that many. 30 years of dead bodies.

Anabelle didn’t like Dr. Markum. She tolerated him, sure, but only for her father. They worked together so often that Dr. Markum was practically her uncle; at least that’s what he always called himself. She always thought he was creepy. Cicely waved in Bob’s direction then pulled Anabelle further down the hall so they wouldn’t be stopped. She looked over her shoulder at the man and smiled. “Sorry, Dr, Markum,” Cicely shouted down the hall. “Don’t want to be late for work, ya know?”

Anabelle smiled at Cicely. She could get away with being rude to the doctor, lucky for Anabelle. They climbed the flight of stairs up to the nurse’s station on the first floor and logged on the computer to clock in for work. Anabelle covered her long dark hair with a bandana and turned to Cicely who was doing the same thing. “Ready?” Anabelle and Cicely grabbed their cleaning supplies and filed down the hall to the first patients room.

Ben was exhausted. Seven hours of working on these corpses and they were almost done. He had sent Grace home 20 minutes ago. Not much else the embalmer could do after every body had been pumped full. Rick was sewing up the last of the strange looking wounds on the nearest body. The elderly man was obviously attacked by something. What, Ben didn’t want to try to find out. He just went about his business. If dear Dr. Markum didn’t want to talk about it, he wouldn’t make a fuss. After all Dr. Markum was the one who got him this job. Don’t ruin it. He looked to Rick with a nod and walked out the door to the stairs. They did as much as they could tonight. They’d start bright and early the next morning. Rick snipped the thread, put the needle and scissors back in his kit and turned to walk away. He caught movement in the corner of his eye. Did that corpse just move? He stopped and stared at the small hand of the young woman. Did she just twitch? Ben called from the next floor up; Rick shook his head and turned towards the door. He had obviously been working too long on these poor people. He was seeing things. He stopped to lock the door behind him and stomped up the small staircase. Ben was waiting by the front door to lock up. Rick smiled at him wearily as he walked out the door and down the steps to the dirt parking lot where his beat up Camaro sat in the closest parking space. The faded Navy sticker adorning his back window made him smile that much more. Five years ago he had been a combat medic in the war. He was born to sew up wounds. No matter how weird they looked. He unlocked his door and turned to see Ben following him towards the parking lot. “6 AM tomorrow, friend.” Ben grimaced at Rick. He knew it was earlier than they usually had to be at work, but if they wanted to get these people looking like they didn’t die then they needed to work from sun up. Especially since that camera crew was going to be there before noon. Ben was worried what they’d try to get out of him. He nodded at Rick. He knew Rick was concerned about the wounds too. What could they do about it Ben’s look seemed to say. Rick shook his head back, got in his car and drove away. Ben started for home as well.

Anabelle was excited for the party after work. She and Cicely started to get ready even before they clocked off. Cicely decided that Anabelle should try her hair up; Cicely was going to wear her naturally curly, blonde hair up as well. They ran down the back hallway, past Dr. Markum’s empty office and out the doors to the parking garage. Everything was so dark. “Ugh. I hate when they don’t turn the lights on in the garage!” Cicely moaned to Anabelle. She turned towards the small blonde girl and looked her over once. “What? Are you afraid of the dark?” Anabelle smiled menacingly at Cicely. The small girl frowned and swiped at her friend. They linked arms and started walking towards the elevator to take them to the top floor where they had parked hours before. The moon was full and bright. Illuminating their way down the sidewalk, but as soon as they entered the basement-like garage they could barely see a few feet ahead of them. Cicely grabbed tighter to Anabelle. Yes, she was afraid of the dark. You never know what could be right in front of you.

They slowly made their way to the elevator, the glowing EXIT sign helping to light up their feet. 20 feet ahead of them stood a figure. Not moving, standing still. Staring. Cicely saw him first and yelped. “Who’s there?” Anabelle called out. The man slowly made his way, limping over to the two girls. When he was finally close enough to see the girls noticed he was wearing a torn dirty shirt and shorts. No shoes. He had one gaping bite mark on his leg.

“Help.” The man said before collapsing in front of the girls. Cicely Screamed.

Ben turned his big Suburban out of the parking lot of the Assumption Funeral Home, he felt as though he and his crew had accomplished quite a bit today. He felt bad for the poor souls, not having any family to claim them. But he knew that quite a few at Assumption Church had planned a good turn out for them, even if they didn’t know any of the deceased. He thought about the bodies on their gurneys all the way home. Why did all of them have those wounds? They looked like bites. He grabbed his phone at a stoplight and sent off a short text to Bob Markum: Almost completely finished with 12. Want to ask about tests done on them. Call me when you get a chance. Almost Home. The light turned green as he pressed the send button. He drove the last few miles home and silently hoped that Bob would call him soon.

“I need help! There’s a man in the parking garage who’s badly injured!” Anabelle ran in through the hospitals emergency entrance and yelled to anyone who would listen. Two nurses noticed her and grabbed a gurney and followed her out to the garage. The Doctor who heard the call also followed behind the nurses and ran to turn the switch on near the parking garage. The place was bathed in orange light as the nurses ran in to find Cicely sitting near the hallway holding her knees, crying. The man was nowhere to be found. “Are you trying to play a joke on us, kid!” the male nurse asked Anabelle angrily. “He-he just got up and-” The female nurse came over to Cicely to make sure she was ok. In the hallway behind them, the light flickered slowly. Crawling towards the girl and the nurse, slowly on his almost bare stomach. He reached the small blond girl and grabbed a hold of her beautiful hair. He pulled himself up slowly about to sink his teeth into her lovely neck.

Ben finally made it home. He slowly got out of his car and walked up the long driveway towards his front door. Strange, he thought Anabelle usually got home before he did, especially on nights that he worked so late. He looked at his phone to see if she had text him about going anywhere. Nope. He unlocked the front door and walked inside. Everything was normal; he walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer door. Pizza. His phone started ringing. He ran back into the front room to grab it. Anabelle.

“DADDY!” Anabelle was crying into the phone. “Cicely got bit!” Ben didn’t understand what she was saying. “What bit her? A Snake? Where are you two?” Ben was sure they were somewhere they shouldn’t be. Foster’s farm. I bet they’re on Foster’s farm and a horse bit her. “Shit. Tell me where you are and I’ll come get you. I’ll call Dr. Markum and he can meet us there. He’ll help.” “NO DAD!” Anabelle never yelled at her father. “ We are at the hospital! In the parking garage. A MAN BIT CECILY.” She screamed so loudly into the phone Ben had to hold it away from his head. He cussed again and pulled it back to his ear. “What the hell do you mean? I’m leaving now. I’ll be there in five minutes. Are you safe?” Ben started walking out the front door. “Yes. There’s Officer Jones here. They restrained him. But the doctor is checking out Cecily. Oh it’s my fault! I should’ve found out how to turn on the lights. I should never have left her alone with him! OH!” Ben got into the suburban and started it. “Stay where you are. I’m coming now.” He hung up the phone quickly and pulled out of the driveway. Speeding the whole way there, he made it in less than five minutes. He quickly and illegally parked in the emergency zone. Jumped out and ran through the double doors. There sat Anabelle, tears in her eyes. She was speaking to a female office that was writing down everything Anabelle said in a white notebook. Anabelle saw her father and jumped up immediately and ran to him. The officer watched the exchange and turned to Ben. “Hi Ben. Everything is ok. Crazy man was in the parking garage, Anabelle ran for help when she saw he was injured. When she got back with the nurses the man was gone, he crawled back over and bit Cicely. Her parents are here. Waiting for her to come out of surgery. They’re going to fix it up just fine.” She turned to Anabelle. “Don’t worry, hon. It’s not your fault.” Ben hugged his daughter and led her back to the chair she had been sitting in. He sat her down and kissed her forehead before turning towards the two other people in the room. Mr. And Mrs. Truman. “Dave, Cass.” Ben greeted each of them with a handshake. “Sorry to meet you under such circumstances, but lovely to see you both, none the less.” Ben always did have a way with words. Cass Truman smiled warmly at the man. She always liked him. Dave Truman pulled himself up to his full 6 feet and puffed out his chest. He knew his wife was fond of the undertaker. And he didn’t like it. He curled his lip a little and rolled his eyes at the exchange between the two. “Yes. Your irresponsible girl left our only daughter alone with a crazy man and he bit her. Truly bad circumstance.” Dave looked up at Ben; even at his full height he wasn’t nearly as tall as the other man. Ben almost looked shocked. He turned to Anabelle to see if she had heard. She still had her hands over her face and was crying. Officer Jones had sat down next to her and was rubbing her arm. “Anabelle was being VERY responsible by trying to get the poor man help! Did you think to ask if Cicely offered to stay with him? She was a nurses’ assistant. You’d think she would want to help the man!” He flared at Dave Truman. “They didn’t know he was a psychopath!” Dave breathed deeply and turned away from Ben. Cass looked at Ben apologetically and went to sit with Anabelle and Officer Jones.

Officer Emmet Lowe sat with his back to the wall watching the disheveled man twitch in his medicated sleep. He wondered who this crazy was… What kind of person is so messed up that he actually bites someone, Emmet thought. The nurse taking the vitals of Crazy glanced over at him. He smiled at her and nodded at the door. Jen shook her head. “Aren’t you supposed to be making sure he doesn’t go anywhere?” She asked her boyfriend angrily. “Not only is he sedated, but handcuffed to the bed. Where the hell is he going?” Emmet countered. Jen considered what he had said for a moment. Then smiled and winked at her boyfriend. She left the door open as she walked out. Emmet smiled and quickly followed behind her. Cicely was finally out of surgery. The doctor told everyone you would barely even be able to see the scar on her shoulder. They also cleaned it out and made sure there were no bacteria. The man didn’t get a good enough grip on her to bite hard enough to break the skin, thankfully. Anabelle said goodbye to her, tearfully as her father escorted her back to his SUV from her hospital bed. Neither one of the girls were going to the party tonight.

Devon Reynolds heard what happened and immediately went to the mortician’s house. He was waiting for two hours before he thought maybe Anabelle wouldn’t be leaving the hospital tonight. If anything happened to her he didn’t know what he’d do. The girl was gorgeous but he didn’t think she even knew who he was. As he was about to start his car back up and pull down the long driveway he saw headlights slowly coming towards him.

Anabelle was asleep in the passenger seat of her father’s Suburban as they bumped over the long dirt driveway she was thrown forward in her seat and woke up with a start. “Who could that be?” Her father saw the pickup truck in his driveway. He stopped and jumped out of his car. “Stay here, Anabelle.” He walked over to the truck and tapped on the window. Devon rolled his passenger window down and waved at Ben. Anabelle recognized Devon’s truck and honked the horn at her father. He waved her over and started to walk towards the house. “Either he comes inside or you have five minutes. Your choice.” She nodded to her father and gave Devon a tilt of the head. He nodded and unbuckled his seat belt to follow her inside the house.

April 24, 2018

Devon awoke with a start. He was on a checked couch, his face smashed against one arm. A foot pressed against his butt made him realize he wasn’t alone. Anabelle Walkers was sleeping as well. Ben had woken up at 530 despite only getting a few hours of sleep. He needed to finish his job at the funeral home and meet Rick at the preplanned time. When he walked past the living room doorway he wasn’t surprised to see Devon was sleeping on the couch. He was surprised, however to see his daughter sleeping there with him. He shook his head, threw a blanket over his daughter, tucked a blanket under her head and walked out the door. For the first time in a very long time he stopped to lock the front door before leaving. You never know, he thought.

Driving through the empty streets of Welloak Valley, Ben started thinking about all the events that happened the day before. At least, he thought, today wouldn’t be any weirder.

Rick Topher pulled his Camaro into the closest parking spot in front of the Assumption Funeral Home. He didn’t sleep very well last night. The mass amounts of bodies he’d worked on yesterday didn’t help his flashbacks. The war was always in his nightmares, especially when he had multiple corpses to prepare at work. His eyes caught the front door before his headlights did. Something wasn’t right. It was open.

Submitted July 25, 2015 at 02:48AM by rachy00face http://ift.tt/1IjwesF fiction