Free Demise of the Living by Iain McKinnon Page A

lights pulsating eagerly, but
the siren mute.
    “ It’s okay. We’ll stop
and ask the policeman,” Stephen said to the rear of the car as he
slowed down.
    “ Ask
what— directions ? Why the world’s
fucked up?” Gary snapped.
    “You’re not helping,” Liz said
from the rear seats with her children.
    Stephen stopped the car and
opened the door. With an arm over the roof and one foot still in
the car, Stephen called across to the man.
    “Officer.”
    The policeman didn’t react.
    “Excuse me, officer.” Stephen
said, a bit louder.
    The officer’s shoulders
twitched.
    Gary unwound his window and
called out, “Hey, wake up!”
    Slowly the officer started to
turn.
    He looked through Gary, his
face like stone.
    Stephen tried again.
“Officer, we’re trying to get to the hospital, but there was a
crashed bus blocking—”
    “ Hospital?! Ha!” the
policeman snorted.
    “Excuse me?”
    “ You don’t want to go
there,” the policeman grunted.
    Liz said, “Officer, my
husband’s been murdered and my little boy’s been attacked. He needs
medical attention.”
    The policeman slowly
shook his head. He said dryly, “It’s a big day for that sort of
thing.”
    “Come on, buddy, help us out
here. I’m cut up all to hell,” Gary said, pointing at the
conspicuous plasters smattered across his face.
    “ I’m not your buddy and
for your information it’s all gone to hell.”
    “What is going on?” Stephen
asked.
    “ Fuck if I know,” the
policeman said, shaking his head. “My advice is get the hell out of
Dodge.”
    “The radio said we should stay
indoors,” Stephen said.
    “Yeah, well, I’ve heard a lot
over the radio since starting my shift yesterday. That makes as
much sense as any of it.”
    “What’s that noise?” Melissa
asked from the back of the car.
    “What noise, honey?” Liz
asked.
    “ I hear it, too,” Stephen
said. He cast around for a moment before pointing and shouting,
“Look up there!”
     
    The policeman turned in
the direction Stephen pointed.
    Even from within the car the
noise could be heard building to a roar.
    “What is it, ma?” Melissa
asked.
    “I don’t know. I can’t see,”
Liz said. She craned her neck to peer out of the back window of the
car.
    Melissa unclipped her seatbelt
and threw open the car door before Liz could react.
    “ Get back in here!” she
called after her daughter.
    Melissa just stood, one hand on
the car door, staring off in the direction of the whining.
    Liz shuffled over the back seat
and came up behind her daughter. Everyone except Grant was out of
the car now, looking to the southern horizon.
    The whining noise deepened and
Liz spotted movement low in the sky. Three darts, black and sleek,
slipped across the azure-backed horizon. They tilted slightly,
showing a flash of wing as they turned. They swept in low, almost
touching the taller buildings. Suddenly all three aircraft changed
their angle and climbed back into the clouds.
    “What are they doing?” Liz
asked.
    As she spoke, there came
a wave of dust with sparkle-like flashes trailing in its wake. Then
an explosion billowed up along the line the planes had flown, a
rolling plume of flame and smoke erupting into the sky.
    “What the fuck?” Stephen
said.
    “Why is there no noise?” Liz
asked.
    “Who just bombed us?” Gary
asked.
    The billowing fire started to
subside when the thunder hit them. A gust of wind carried with it
the cacophony of destruction.
    “Where is that?” Stephen said
absently.
    “ About three miles away,”
the police officer said.
    “Who were they and what were
they attacking?” Gary asked.
    “They were ours, and my guess
is the hospital.” The policeman took off his hat and tossed it onto
the passenger seat.
    “Why would they bomb a
hospital?” Liz said, hysteria at the edge of her voice.
    “Surgical strike,” the
policeman said.
    “You’re being funny now, aren’t
you?” Gary said.
    “Nope,” the policeman replied.
“They’re trying to