"Terra Mortis" - Chapter 2

Terra Mortis

Chapter 2

By Dwayne MacInnes

The rain lightly drumming on the roof woke Brady up. It was hard to tell how late he slept-in this morning due to the overcast skies. His hand fumbled around the top of the nightstand trying to grab his watch and in the process knocking his glasses to the floor. "Damn," mumbled Brady.

Finally grabbing his watch, he pulled it close to his face. 11:36 A.M. the watch proclaimed. It was not quite as late as Brady initially thought. He then strapped the watch to his wrist and then gently began searching the floor with his hands for his wayward glasses. If he accidentally broke them, he would be practically blind. Fortunately, it was not long before his glasses were recovered with nothing worse than some fingerprints on the lenses.

Brady took a long shower and then began scrounging around the pantry looking for something that would appeal to him for breakfast. Instant oatmeal was about as much time he wanted to spend cooking. His father absolutely refused to have a microwave at the cabin. So it'll have to be some old fashioned hot water boiled in the coffee pot on the electric range. As the water was starting to heat up Brady turned on the radio. His father loved the oldies so it was still on K-98.5 home of the 50's and 60's.

"This is news on CNN radio, the fire at the ColTech pharmaceuticals plant in Marysville, Washington has been put out. In yesterday's blaze it has been reported that six firefighters are missing and it is feared that they may be trapped inside the plant. Only one person was retrieved of the nine people reported working at the plant. She was reported as suffering from convulsions probably brought on by some of the chemicals in the plant. This is news on CNN radio."

The CNN music died out as the ads started playing. Brady found some instant cocoa and started adding water to a bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal and a cup of hot chocolate. The CNN music piped back in and the reporter started reporting the news from around the world. After ten minutes of news, the music started playing. It was an old Stones' piece. One thing that Brady shared with his father was a love for classic rock music. They both loved the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Doors.

"Well, I guess something of my father rubbed off on me," Brady thought to himself.

Brady didn't really have ill feelings towards his father. He loved him very much. It was that there were so many regrets. Dr. Herbert West was always at work or on call. It was only two weeks a year that the West family got together and spent the time at the cabin. A time that with increasing frequency was spent with Brady's parents lecturing him and lamenting his seemingly lack of goals and accomplishments. They just didn't understand him. Brady really didn't understand himself.

As the last song died off the announcer started reading the news. "It is 65 degrees here in the downtown area. The rains will continue throughout the day with a 35 percent chance tomorrow. The woman taken to the Marysville hospital yesterday from the ColTech fire has been identified as a local student and a member of the Animal Liberation Army. Her name is being withheld. She is reported to be in critical condition and is in the intensive care unit.

"In other news, a family of five in Marysville has been brutally murdered. Police believe that this is the work of a cult. There doesn't appear to have been a weapon involved and the family members have been partially consumed.

"Now that is sick! We all hope that the person or persons involved are quickly apprehended. If you have any information please call your local police department or call us here at the radio station, K-98.5 your home of the 50's and 60's classic rock."

"Man," thought Brady. "It appears I got of town in time."

After finishing his breakfast, Brady opened up his laptop and plugged the modem into the phone jack. After the annoying electric handshake and the agonizingly slow dial-up connection was complete, Brady accessed his email. About twenty pieces of spam were quickly deleted without a further glance. Another email about his new status or rather lack of it at the University that was also quickly deleted. The last message was from his mother.

"Brady, how are you doing? Your father and I are doing quite well. Maybe you can drop by for dinner sometime this week. I'm sure they can't beat a home cooked meal there on campus. Well, we hope that your summer classes go well. Love, Mom and Dad."

Brady briefly responded saying that he'd be tied up all week with lab and fieldwork. That sounded official enough and should buy him some time before he'd have to make another excuse. He hoped that he could keep them from figuring out his stalling tactics until he could find some way of breaking the news of his failure to his parents without them killing and possibly eating him. "Damn, that wasn't funny," Brady thought.

The announcer's voice broke over the station again. "Hey people! this is not a joke. I've had four people call in claiming that they saw eight people, three of them in firefighter's uniforms leaving the murdered family's house last night. How sick can you be? The tragedy of the fire and this murder isn't something for you people to be joking about. So please get your friends to stop calling in. You are keeping calls with potentially real information from getting into the station. Now, here is Snoopy versus the Red Baron by the Royal Guardsmen."

Brady turned off the radio. It was getting too depressing listening to it. He was already grappling with his own personal depression without having to deal with the sad state of the world adding its own crappy load to it.

Grabbing a book in his backpack Brady started to lose himself in ancient Roman history. For some reason he had always found history particularly fascinating, especially Roman history. Brady knew more about dead Roman emperors than he did about U.S. presidents from the last ten years. Politics never interested Brady. His parents had differing opinions on this one thing. His father tended to be more conservative and his mother more liberal. Brady supposed it was because that his father came from a well off family where as his mother grew up on very little. Brady's mother every once in awhile would comment on how she got her Christmas presents from the Salvation Army or that her parents would skip a meal so that she and auntie Jane could eat.

The fading light outside made Brady aware that he had spent the last six hours reading his history book.

"I guess I should make some dinner. There should be some mac 'n' cheese in the pantry and I brought up some milk along with the other groceries," thought Brady.

As Brady was getting dinner ready he decided to watch a little TV. He grabbed the remote and hit the "On" button with his thumb. Brady stood there staring at the TV from the kitchen/dinning room while he was preparing dinner.

As the screen warmed up the image of a reporter outside a hospital and in front of a police cordon came into view. It was already dark out and the flashing lights and sirens made the scene even more eerie.

"The hospital has been sealed off," huffed the rapidly speaking reporter, "There have been tales of unspeakable horrors from within. The 911 call from the nurse's station claimed that there was a group of naked and half-clad people butchering and eating the patients from within. Two SWAT teams have taken up position around the hospital and another team has gone in to try and subdue these Cult Killers as they are being called."

Suddenly shots were heard coming from within the building. Brady could only stare transfixed to the screen. "What the hell is going on?" asked Brady. The police in the background started sending in more officers as the fire intensified. Flashes from the muzzles of the guns could be seen in the hospital's darkened windows.

T"here appears to be some sort of gun fight going on. From the intensity of it, this matter should be resolved in short order. We all pray that there will be a minimal number of innocents..." Suddenly, a group of people dressed in hospital gowns staggered out of the front automatic doors. Their arms were outstretched, all appeared to have been wounded in some manner by the Cult Killers.

"It looks like we have some patients leaving the hospital now," the reporter continued.

The gunfire in the hospital was more sporadic now as the police outside started opening fire on the patients leaving the building.

"OH MY GOD!!!" screamed the reporter. "The police have open fire on the patients. Don't they know what they are doing?" The reporter turns around and starts running towards the cordon. "Stop firing! You are killing innocent people!"

As the police begin firing into the mob leaving the hospital, it starts to become evident that their bullets are having no effect. Shortly, the patients start grappling with the police closest to them.

"Get back!" yells a police officer. "They're breaking through!" The officer is grabbed by an old man in a gown from the back. The old man's grey hands grab the police officer's hair and pull back the officer's head as the blood stained teeth sinks into the unsuspecting victim's neck.

The camera operator drops the camera as the mob overwhelms the police cordon. Before the camera hits the ground and static fills the screen, the sound of gunfire has all but stopped and the carnage is rapidly spreading.

Brady is unaware of the hissing water boiling over onto the stove instantly turning into steam as it hits the burner. All he could do was stare at the TV.