2. Go with her to check out the noise.
You sigh. "Alright, fine. Let's go. But
be careful. We don't know what this is."
"If you're worried it's a trick, I know it could be," Jesse says. "But I'm not about to just leave someone who could need help behind."
"New people are new problems," you say.
Jesse looks at you for a long moment. "Is that really how you feel?"
You throw up your hands. "I don't know. I just want to find Nicole."
Jesse shakes her head. "Your obsession with that girl is weird, Jon."
"Who's obsessed? I'm just trying to save a little girl."
"Whatever. Let's go."
Jesse turns and heads back into the station. You follow, checking the revolver to make sure the safety is off.
You glance into the room with the whiteboard as you pass it. The scrawling writing has a new addition added in huge red text written directly on top of the other writing:
How's your mom? :)You stop and take a few steps into the room, squinting at the tiny text. It seems to just be that strange poem again, written over and over and over in crazy, looping scrawl that sometimes crawls up, or down, or spirals inwards on itself, frequently overlapping other words:
One bright day, in the middle of the night
Two dead boys
Got up to fight
Back to back, they faced each other
Drew their swords, and shot each other
Two deaf policemen
Heard the noise
And they came running
And killed the dead boys.However, some of the neater text toward the top of the board seems to be otherwise.
They come at night when the moon is full. They come at light when the wind is cool. Ten days. Seven days. A river of blood. Chief is dead. Shot him. The worms crawl in they don't crawl out. Am losing my mind. Where is the fucking army? Explosions. Found a nest of them downtown. Crater. Bodies. The worms crawl in. I saw two dead boys laying together arm in arm. Dead. Eyes all rotted out. Then they moved. They moved. Looked right at me. Both of them. Started to get up. Rotted eyes. Legs all torn up. Got up anyway. Worms coming out now. Open mouths, no teeth. In my mind I heard their voices. They said 'come with us come with us join us the blood is warm the blood is sweet.' Shot them. Heard their laughter in my head as the bullets ripped them apart. Laughing. 'You can't kill the dead,' they said. Their bodies laying on the ground, putrid. Kept shooting them until the voices finally stopped, until the laughter finally stopped.
Oh god. I think I am insane. I see my old partner Christian. He's dead. I saw him die. But he's there and he's watching me. He doesn't know I can see him but I can and he's watching me BUT HE WON'T FIND ME I'LL BURY THE DEAD. I'LL BURY THE DEAD SO THEY CAN'T FIND THEM.
I can taste blood in my mouth. Tongue all bitten through. Chewy. Rolling around in my mouth tasting it. I think I will be leaving now. Two dead boys. The sun is so bright. They come at night when the moon is full. Goodbye.The rest of the text devolves into the poem which covers the entire board.
You turn around after finishing reading to see Jesse standing behind you. She is watching you carefully.
"Can you see this?" you ask.
"See what?" she says, stepping forward a bit.
"This... writing," you say, gesturing.
Jesse squints. "Sure. What about it?"
"Er, do you see the big letters?"
"Eh?"
You turn back to the board, but the "How's your mom?" is gone, leaving only the smaller text.
"... nevermind," you say.
"It just looks like the ramblings of a crazy person," Jesse says.
"Yeah," you agree. "Let's go."
You both continue toward the noise, passing through the cubicle room and down a new hallway toward the other end of the station. The front lobby is wrecked from the pickup truck that crashed through the doors. As you continue, the noise gets louder, and you can plainly make out a male voice yelling for help. There are signs of a fight in addition to the wreck; the pickup's front is riddled with bullets, as is the windshield. There are old bloodstains on the tile floor, splatters and cuts of blood adorning the walls. A 9mm pistol lays on the floor, but the barrel is all smashed up.
You pass through an open heavy steel door and step into a hallway with several holding cells off to either side. The noise is coming from one of the cells in the back out of sight.
"Hey! Can anyone hear me! Help! I'm trapped in here!"
You look at Jesse meaningfully, who looks back at you and nods. The two of you proceed down the hall.
You come into view of a locked cell. Standing behind the bars is a tall, skinny man with long ragged brown hair hanging from his head. He looks to be about twenty-five or so. He's dressed in ripped jeans and a yellow polo shirt.
"Hey, hey! Let me out of here!" he says, his face breaking into a grin. "Fucking finally, some other people!"
"Who are you?" you ask, peering around him. There seems to be some supplies in there, a couple of sacks and boxes with food and water. Empty water bottles and food packing trash litters the floor of the cell.
"Gary," the man says, sticking his hand through the bars. "Nice to meetcha. Now could you do me a big favor and get me the hell out of here?"
You ignore the offered hand. "How'd you end up in there?"
"It's a long story," Gary says. "I'd be glad to tell you all about it, but first can you be a pal and let me out of here? The toilet is all backed up and I've been holding it."
You look at Jesse. He seems human enough. No missing eye, and though he looks a bit scraggly, he doesn't show any other visible signs of being infected.
**************************************
1. Look for a way to open the door.
2. Interrogate him further.