Messing around with the HV20 sometime in September
#WritingFromIsolationWard
Category: Creative Work
Rooster Sleeping, originally uploaded by Kevin Wardrop.
Rooster posted an image of himself in repose, I couldn’t resist.
You can check out more of my photographs at: Flickr
The gravel stopped crunching and Patrick thought, for a moment, that he was alone on the roof. The flopping monsters that had poured from the door had been dispatched like his former partner and he had pitched the majority into the flaming street below; crossing himself when he could for whatever passed for souls in their grotesque corpses.
Jacks corpse had stood again, stretched and began to lope at Patrick again, his face an obscene smile with mouth agape and askew.
“Jack, shit.” Patrick ran towards his partner and kicked hm in the chest, toppling the bloody thing over the side of the roof and sailing to the street below.
The roof was quiet and empty of danger now, Patrick walked with all due care to the roof door and looked down the staircase for any evidence of more monsters waiting in the dark. Finding none he turned his radio on and called out for the chief.
“Chief, it’s 13. I’m 5 by 5 here.”
“Pat? Good. We’ve just shut the tenants on 25 in the security office, join me in the main stairwell.”
“Got ya Chief. 13 coming in”
Patrick Farrel had never once killed a man in anger; not in the line of duty either. His tour in Iraq had been a relativley short one, with a leg injury getting him an early reprieve from the desert. Security work paid a bit better and couldn’t normally involve much actual fighting. The busiest days for Patrick had been chasing kids out of the stairwell after sneaking in after-hours. He hadn’t known Jack long enough for his death to really hurt, but the fight had left him like the long-termers at the VA, lost in the moment, staring into the distance for the next encounter.
He met the guys from Unit 11 as they trotted towards the main stairwell doors, they were smiling and chatting about the tenants.
“Did you see what they were doing in the one office? I think they were trying to film their own little porno in there or something… hey Pat. What the fuck was going on up top?” Patrick knew the smaller one; Henry “Hank” Jacobs. Young, former cop, fired for some kind of harassment issue.
“Yeah, they were naked, all of them, one dude had a camera and they were in a pile in the middle of the office, like 20 people all getting it on!” The bigger one had just kept on about the discovery in the office. Patrick just walked on to the door and knocked. Chief Pendegrass opened up and held the door for the Security Guards to walk out. He gave Patrick as much space as possible, given the gore that coated his uniform.
“Chief, we got some shit up here like you wouldn’t believe. Fucking Zombies or some shit. I fought about 6 of them, Jack included. I pitched them off of the roof as they came at me, I fucking shot two of them in the chest and they got right up, Jack too.” Patrick found his tongue and wouldn’t let go “Chief, Man. They kept on coming, like they was gonna tear me up like Jack. I hadda kill them.”
Patrick could feel himself losing it. He caught himself and led the walk down to the 24rth and down, sealing the doors as he went. He described the whole fight to the Chief, who remained quiet and offered no judgment or comment. When they had finished the sweep to the ground floor, Patrick had told his story a few times and the guys from Unit 11 had simply gone silent and stopped meeting Patrick’s eyes.
Chief Pendegrass put his hand on PAtrick’s should and led him to the Security offices and offered him a seat and a drink.
“Pat, I believe you. I’ve looked outside, I can hear that stuff out there. Something has happened to Saint Paul and I’m not clear as to what. There were two suns out there today, things have changed in a big way. Find yourself a clean set of clothes and dump that shit you’re wearing in a bag, tie it off and dump it deep in a dumpster or down the chute. Go nowhere alone and keep your radio on from now on.” The Chief stood up to his full height and looked deep in thought.
Patrick got up, went to his locker and stripped off his gore covered clothes, dumping them like requested. He cleaned himself up as best he could in the showers and found a new uniform and some of the tactical gear the other guys had on. When he caught his face in the mirror, he was sure that it was still him looking out, but there was a small strangeness in his eyes, like when he first stepped off of the plane at Rammstein in Germany. He had been through something and come back broken.
The Job of a Security Chief in a private building is thankless, stullifying and for the most part as boring as Mime Church on Saturday. You clock in first thing in the morning, check over the security logs, meet with the building tenants once or twice a week and put a happy if patricial face on the security procedures that inevitably end up annoying or inconveniencing the tenants. If it has been a particularily trying day, you can get free food from one of the cafeterias in the building or sneak a drink from the executive lounges in the name of a security check.
When the call came in that the 25th was overrun, Mike Pendegrass wished that he had strayed into one of the executive lounge instead of tarrying around 23 looking at the security doors.
“Chief Responding, Unit 12, I’ll lock it down, sit tight! Units 1-10, lock down floors 23 down to 19, sweep down floor by floor, Unit 11, you’re with me.”
Two worried looking kids in Security Tactical gear appeared in the main lobby on 23, they had pulled out the private securty quivalent of riot gear from the security office on 23. Mike took a club from one of them and led them out to the central staircase.
“Guys, you know what to do, get up to 25 determine the nature of the threat and seal all exits if that threat could come down on us; now get going1”
“Yes sir!” Like military recruits, the two young men tore up the staircase to the 25th, Chief Pendegrass could hear their boots pound all the way up, then the heavy doors closing behind them.
“Chief, Unit 11 checking in, there are some people milling about out here. My partner is leading them into the secure area, we’ll get them locked into a secure area before going on.”
“You lock down that central staircase before you do anything else boys, I don’t want anything coming down those stairs until one of you boys tosses it ahead of them, you get me?”
“Yes Sir, Unit 11 locking down stairs”
One of the boys had come into the stairwall above Chief Pendegrass and used his security key to initiate a lockdown of the 25th floor. Mike had climbed the stairs behind the two security guards, keeping a safe distance until he was sure that whatever had caught Jack and Patrick wasn’t already spilling into the central staircase.
“Okay, I’ll finish the lockdown. Get in there and secure the people in the security office in the north corner, it has a chute down to 24 if things go south. Barricade them in, tell them to sit tight and wait for the all clear then get back down to this door in a hurry!”
The young guard complied and Chief Michael Pendegrass finished sealing the door, he sat down and leaned against it, calling out to his man on the roof.
“Pat, chief here, pick up on private channel” Mike swapped channels over to a private channel he knew was set aside for unit 12 “Pat, what’s your six?”
“…..ssssssSSSSSS……”
“Pat, come back”
Mike switched over to the public channel, “Unit 12, come back”
“sssssSSSS Unit 12 coming back Chief”
“Pat, switch over to private, you got me?”
“Chief, I’m kinda in the middle of something, I’ll catch you on the flip side if I get through ….sssssSSSSS”
Security Chief Mike Pendegrass, formerly of the Saint Paul Police department smiled a little to himself and thought of the times he had asked people to hold on like that, as if a life or death matter was some sort of chore that one could shrug off. Mike Pedegrass leaned his full weight into the door and listened, listened for the sounds of something going wrong, for screams, for gunshots, for anything. Beyond the murmering that once could always hear in the main stairwell, it was silence. He could hear the odd footstep beyond the door and occasional check-ins as the units swept down from 23, but the rest was silence and peace.
“Unit 12, come back”
“Chief, this is unit 11”
“Unit 11, have you secured the tenants on 25?”
“Yeah Chief, coming back to the main staircase, unit 11 out”
Chief Pendegrass stood up and smoothed out his uniform, he began the unlock sequence on the door and pulled open the heavy steel arm that secured it. He waited for the twin cadenced steps of the guards of unit 11.
And waited.
I’ve been poking away at some older pictures, trying to juice them for more Arty goodness.
Take these two for example, the original (retouched) version is on the Left. I tried to deepen the contrast and enhance the decayed look of it. On the right we have a deeper contrast pulled from a semi-HDR version of the same image, enhanced via multiple processes.
In this second Example; I have retouched an earlier picture in an attempt to give it a bit more punch, which I think I achieved. As opposed to the above examples, I didn’t take any hands-on steps to enhance the image; instead relying upon simple overall color and tone enhancement.
The roof access stairs were impassible; but it was clear to Patrick that staying on the 25th was going to be a bad idea; he had just heard something wet and horrible happen to his partner over the radio and was sure that he didn’t want it to happen to him. He leaped over the bloody pools at the bottom of the stairs and caught himself on the railing of the stairs, slick footing preventing a clean landing. The stairs were gore-laden messes with what appeared to be the remains of dozens of people all over them. Patrick considered heading back down, but screaming and yelps of pain from behind him spurred him through the grotesque and up onto the roof into the inky, smoky night.
“Chief, this is Patrick Farrel, patrol unit 12, My partner was caught in whatever bingo is going down on 25. I’m up on the roof to avoid catching whatever caught him! Chief!?” his radio wasn’t coming back “Unit 12, someone come back?”
“Unit twelve, this is unit 3 on the first, we’re secure down there, what’s your six?”
“Unit 3, the roof lights are out, but there doesn’t appear to be anyone up here. It’s freaking cold up her Rog.”
“Pat, I got ya. Keep your head straight and keep an I eye on the roof”
“10-4 Unit 3. Unit 12 out”
Patrick crunched along the gravel on the roof, and looked over the edge at the city below. The streets were bathed in yellow and red, smoky and dangerous looking. Patrick turned back towards the door to the stairs and walked face first into his partner.
“Holy Damn, Jack. What’s going on, are you alright?”
Jack grabbed hold of Patrick and pushed him towards the edge of the rood, snapping at his face.
“Shit, Jack, what the fuck”
When the light from the fires below lit Jack’s face, Patrick could see that half of it was gone and there was nothing but evil intent in his remaining eye. Jack released Patrick’s shoulder with his right hand and swung a blinding punching into Patrick’s chin, stunning him. Patrick fell to the gravel next to the short wall around the perimeter of the roof. Jack began to pummel his partner, bloodying his face; between blows Patrick pulled his pistol from his belt and tried to level it at his partners knees, but Jack slapped it from his hand and over the side of the roof.
Patrick rolled to his left and escaped the rain of blows; kicking Jack’s right knee out from under him. Jack collapsed towards Patrick who had rolled to his feet and bounced unsteadily way, returning to kick his fallen attacker in the gorey remains of his face. Stomping it.
“Yeah, you like that? Huh? You like some of this?”
Patrick stomped his former partner until he stopped thrashing around and the wheezing bubbling blood stopped pumping from the ragged edge of his mouth.
“Shit..”
“Unit 12, this is Chief. Come back”
Patrick’s radio was one the ground next to the wall.
“Unit 12, Chief, we’ve got a problem up on the roof; Jack just tried to toss me over the side”
“Come back Unit 12, what was that?”
“Chief, Jack just tried to eat my face and kick me over the side of the building. I had to stomp him dead to to get him to lay still”
“Unit 12, do not leave the location.”
“10-4 Chief. Unit 12 on the roof and waiting. If whatever got Jack is up here Chief, I don’t want to meet it. Jack was all fucked up before he got to me, half of his face was gone; like somoeone ripped it off”
“Say again 12?”
“Jack’s face was torn off!”
“Chief on his way”
“Shit”
Patrick sat on the gravel with his back against the wall and stared at the body of his former partner. Patrick had been the best man at Jack’s wedding. He was Jack’s kids’ godfather. Jack’s wife would be devastated. Patrick coughed a bit in regret, but snapped his flashlight out and began to scan the roof for other surprises.
There was a bloody trail leading to him from the door, but there was no other sign of disturbance on the roof. Patrick stood up and walked to the door; from behind the door he could hear heavy, but labored footsteps and called out “Chief?”
There was no response, but a grey arm shot up from the gloom; Patrick pointed his flashlight down into the stairwell and immediately slammed the door shut and sat down against it.
“Chief, lock down the 25th, do not enter 25!”
“Unit 12, repeat?”
“Chief, get the 25th locked down. There are more things like Jack down there, they are all fucked up and dead Chief. We got zombies or some shit like that on 25!”
Weak arms began to pound the door behind him, they wanted out but couldn’t budge the door. Patrick braced himself and then ran for Jacks body, Jack’s pistol was still strapped to his waist. Patrick grabbed the gun and the extra clips stored there and turned to face the monsters pouring from the door.
When the suns finally fell beyond the horizon, Saint Paul was dark except for the emergency lights of the buildings and the lights of cars gridlocked on the streets. In the Feldex Building, Janice McMurray and Frank James stared down into the deepening gloom below the building, trying to ignore the fights and recriminations that were happening behind them in the office.
“It’s looking crazy down there, did you see the crash along there?” Frank rubbed his head against the warm glass and stared down the streets. The dull glow that would normally accompany an evening was an inky blackness punctuated by the twinkling lights of he emergency lights and cars; it was chaos in the streets though. He could see fires and panic below.
Janice stood up and walked out of the offices, past the scuffles in the common area and walked out onto the balcony area looking down into the city. Standing in the winds; she could smell the smoke and fires out in the city, she could hear the honking and crashing and sonic violence of a city in panic. There were sirens and bullhorns bleating all around her; but over it all, there were screams and moans.
In the streets below, in the lights of the cars; Janice could see what looked like a battle; the writhing and scattering bodies of people clashing and flashing into each other in between the cars. There were, what looked like, wolf packs of figures cutting through the cars, hauling people from them and killing them on the roofs of the idling vehicles. She turned away from it and ran back inside to Frank.
“Frank, there are people being killed down there! It’s like the whole city has gone crazy at street level”
The office was in chaos, people had split into factions. Some were gearing up to leave, intending to take the stairs down and leave via the emergency exits and most were trying to convince them to stay. Janice screamed at the top of her lungs: “SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LOOK DOWN AT THE GOD DAMNED STREET; IT’S FUCKING CHAOS DOWN THERE! GET A GRIP AND LOOK DOWN!” She pointed down at the streets as flowers of fire bloomed from below the lines of the windows. It was clear that cars were blowing up in the crowded avenues below.
The Pa chirped loudly and the murmuring, yelling and crying halted in the office.
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THIS IS THE CHIEF OF BUILDING SECURITY! THIS IS AN IMPORTANT NOTICE, PLEASE STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND LISTEN! We are sealing the ground level and first 4 floors of the building. There are a number of events going on outside and in order to ensure your security we are locking the building down. Close and lock all office doors; do not open them until you receive an all clear over the PA system or when a security officer appears in person to lead you out of the building. Under no circumstances is the 25th floor to be visited. There is an ongoing police presence on that floor along with building security personnel. Building residents on the 25th floor are asked to make their presence known via a call to the security desk. We thank you for your patience.”
The PA chirped again and the announcement was repeated, the PA then hissed and went silent.
Jance fell back into her chair next to Frank and tried to get her cell phone to work. Frank watched her; waiting for her to talk again.
“It’s a mess down there Frank, it’s like a war is going on in the street”
“I can see cars blowing up down there, Janice. It’s so dark out but there is so much light down there now from the fires. Do you want to hole up in one of the exec offices with a couch and try to get some sleep?”
“No, I’m going to stay here and watch the street. If one of the buildings around us catches on fire, I want to be ready to go it it gets to us.”
“This building is like a fortress, the fire would have to start inside the building to get us and the way the fire-prevention system is set up, it would be confined to one floor. It’d take one of these buildings collapsing into us to make a real impact. I’m gonna go and try and sleep somewhere.”
Frank got up and wandered into the gloomy areas of the office, over to the executive offices. Janice kicked off her shoes and curled into her chair, staring out into the dark and fire lit streets, unsure what to do.
The office had fallen to silence, with people barricading the doors into the halls and recriminations turning into sorrow and fellow-feeling; former adversaries turning to each other for comfort against an increasingly frightening unknown.
“OH GOD JESUS, FUUUCK SAVE ME CHIEF…SQUARKSSSSsssssss” the PA had burst to life for a moment then hissed into silence again. The effect was electric, with wails and yells going up around the office. No one in the office knew the voice, but the fear and confusion was obvious. “OH GOD, CHIEF! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE ON 25, LOCK DOWN THE FLOOR, LOCK IT D…” a warm wet squelch cut off the last word and the PA went silent again.
Janice ran to the doors and began to help with the barricading; certain now that whatever was going on was so much worse than she had even considered.
