Darren Wearmouth - First Activation

“We observe an area that is a reasonable distance away for a couple of hours,” I answered, “and if there’s no movement, we run down to it, create the signal, come back, and watch what happens from the safety of the roof.”

“Wouldn’t smoke attract killers from miles around?”

“We don’t set anything on fire then,” Jack jumped in eagerly, “we just create a loud enough noise that can be heard in the local area. Let’s go up to the roof now and have a look.”

We dumped our supplies in Bernie’s apartment and went to the elevator that would take us to the top floor. Jack pressed the button and nothing happened. We both looked at Bernie.

“There must be a problem with the power,” he said.

Jack ran back to Bernie’s apartment. “There’s no power in here either, all of the appliances are off.”

I had wondered how long electricity would last if nobody was maintaining the system. We had no communications with the outside world now, and were on our own.

“We’ll have to go out again for some candles and a camping stove,” I said.

“I’ve candles. We can have cold food tonight and pick something up from a sporting goods store tomorrow,” Bernie replied.

We all trudged up the stairs discussing what the possible effects of no electricity would be. I remembered hearing that the Hoover Dam would continue to provide electricity for 100 years without any human contact. That obviously didn’t extend to suburban New York.

Out on the roof, we had a good view of the surrounding area and surveyed the immediate vicinity looking for a potential ambush location.

“Bernie, what’s that space over there with a few cars, between those two large buildings?” Jack said.

“It’s a parking lot for the two stores. That would work, I suppose.”

It was workable for what I had in mind. It was just over half a mile away, and we had a good view of the whole area.

“Let’s watch it for a few hours, and then go over and ramp up the volume in one of the cars,” I said. “I’ll take one of your Celine Dion CDs, Bernie — although that racket might scare people away!”

“That was Linda’s CD.”

“Sorry, Bernie, I didn’t know.”

“Fine, Harry, It’s not like we have anything better to do, there’s still a few hours of light left.”

For the next hour, we watched the parking lot and surrounding area in three arcs, but didn’t see any signs of life.

“Time to get things moving,” I said. “Jack can you stay on the roof and cover us?”

“The chances of hitting the killer are slim from this range, but I can at least give you a warning.”

“Good enough, Bernie and I will scoot down there, get the music turned on, and then run like mad. You okay with that, Bernie?”

He nodded back.

Bernie and I descended the apartment block steps and walked onto the street; I tapped his shoulder and set off towards the pistol on Queens Boulevard. Neither of us said a word as I retrieved the Glock, carried out a make-safe procedure, and checked the magazine. I slid the magazine back into the pistol grip and handed it to Bernie. He nodded and immediately cocked it.

Bernie led the way to the parking lot. Once there, I looked up for the top of our apartment block. Jack was visible and we waved at each other.

“Harry, this one is open and has the keys in the ignition,” Bernie called over from a Honda.

It seemed the owner had jumped out in a rush and was one of the two corpses a few yards away. One had been strangled, judging by the marks on her neck. The attacker was lying face down next to her in a pool of his own blood.

Bernie started the car and the engine roared into life.

“Quick, put this in the CD player and turn it up full blast, we’ll jog back the way we came,” I said.

The engine noise was drowned out by ‘My Heart Will Go On’, by Celine Dion, taking both of us by surprise. It was loud, very loud.

“Come on, Bernie. Let’s get out of here,” I shouted.

As we left the car park, I heard the sound of gunfire in the distance; we both stopped and looked around. Nobody was in sight, but I changed my mind about our pace.

“Run.”

Bernie kept up a strong pace, and eventually, I was struggling to keep up with him. We made it back to the apartment block and crashed through the door.

With the door behind us, I bent double with the exertion and breathed in heavily. Bernie was sweating and leant against the internal wall. I nodded and we slowly climbed the stairs, catching our breath, and back out onto the roof.

I struggled to get my words out to Jack. “Who was it? Where were they? Did you hit them?”

“I didn’t see anyone and didn’t fire that shot. I think it came from a few blocks to the right,” Jack replied.

“So who fired the shot?” Bernie wheezed.

“Who cares as long as they didn’t shoot at us or see us? Hopefully, it was a killer finishing themselves off,” I replied.

Both Bernie and I sat down next to the wall with Jack and looked over at the parking lot. I could hear the music drifting over from the distant Honda. Nothing happened for the next hour, the running engine would prevent draining of the car battery as long as the car had fuel. This could go on all night, although we wouldn’t be able to see anything in the dark.

“Look! Down there to the left of the parking lot by the row of trees. There’s somebody behind the furthest one on the left,” Bernie pointed.

I scanned along the trees and saw a man with his hand out in front of him and close to his face. It appeared he was armed and watching the parking lot. He ducked from one tree into a doorway, and then cautiously entered the parking lot. He checked the bodies lying on the ground, opened the driver’s door, and pointed his weapon inside.

“Don’t turn the music off,” Jack said.

The man didn’t adjust the volume, instead, he crouched behind the car. He had turned our trap into his trap, which was exactly what I wanted. Now there were four of us waiting.

“This is working well so far,” Jack said.

“What do you think, Bernie?” I said, after nodding agreement.

He was looking down to the right, the opposite direction from which the killer had come, and didn’t say anything at first.

“Oh, God…” he replied, “…I think we’ve fucked up.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Behind the blue van, over there.”

I looked down and was horrified to see two people stooped behind a blue van. One male and one female, both carried pistols.

“They might just be having a look and don’t want to get too close, would you?” I said, more out of hope than belief.

“If I received a message to come to Elmhurst, I might see it as a signal,” Jack replied. “Could this be Lea Ash? Maybe they fired the earlier shot.”

The pair moved up behind the next stationary vehicle. They had around six vehicles and forty yards between themselves and the parking lot. There was no mistaking which way they were heading now, as they moved up to the next car.

“Oh shit, how can we warn them? Jack, fire a warning shot,” I said.

“It won’t do any good and we would be risking our own position,” Bernie said.

Shouting a warning or firing a flare would be even worse ideas, they would both bring unwanted attention onto our position. I didn’t have time to run down and head them off, so we had no sensible options.

I looked back out to the road. It was too late anyway. The man and woman were now hiding behind the last car and looking over at the lot. I felt helpless as I watched the scene unfold.

“They have already survived for at least a few days in this madness, and then made it to Elmhurst. They might be alright…” Bernie said.