Beacon Of Light: Episode one (The ultimate post apocalyptic sci-fi thriller serial) (9 page)

She grimaces

‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that,’ she says

The woman gestures Frank to follow her, so he does. She walks out of the living room and walks up the stairs. They both make their way into the home’s office. As Frank walks in after the woman, he notices the trashed computer, which he thought was peculiar, seeing that the whole house is in pristine condition, none of the houses contents is damaged aside from the Persian rug. He turns to the woman.

‘What’s up with the broken PC? It’s a bit strange how it’s the only damaged object in the whole house,’ Says Frank

‘As you know, the woman downstairs is Jane Chase. We have a positive ID on her and the 14 other Victims. Her children are included in that list. The only person who did not die here tonight is her husband Connor Chase. He is MIA at the moment. We know he works at MIT, and we also know he came to work yesterday. He was acting normal all day, then all of a sudden he just ups and vanished 30 minutes before his shift ends,’ says the woman

Frank looks puzzled.

‘How do you know all this?’ He asks

‘Because I am his boss,’ the woman declares

‘Oh, I thought you were a CSI,’ Frank laughs

‘MIT works in all fields Mr McKenzie,’ she explains

She points up to the ceiling, Frank’s vision locks onto her hand and follows it until it stops. The woman is pointing at some writing on the ceiling.

It reads: “FOR HELL HAS RISEN HERE TONIGHT. IT SHALL ONCE AGAIN ARISE UNTILL JUSTICE IS MET, AND THE INVADERS ARE EXECUTED”

The message appeared to be written in blood.

‘So much for him only being human Frank,’ the lady says

‘What’s with this guy?’ Asks Frank

‘He thinks he’s Judge, Jury and Executioner to privacy invaders,’ says the woman

‘What do you mean? “
Privacy invaders
”?’ asks frank

‘He has a thing for privacy. Haven’t you noticed the rather large wall outside of his house? When he’s at work, he would always be talking about how it’s socially acceptable to plaster your life online for everyone to see. He always said how one day that would change. I guess this is what he meant,’ explains the woman

Frank laughs

‘Look Miss. Leave the detective work to me. You don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about. This isn’t revenge, why would it be? He murdered his family for Christ’s sake. He clearly loved them; I’ve seen the countless pictures of him and his family all over the house, smiles and all. Maybe, just maybe he killed them because he thought he was saving them, saving them from the invaders,’ says Frank

‘Who are the invaders then?’ she asks

‘You guys. He was protecting himself from you’ Frank says

‘Excuse me?’ she asks defensively

‘Its simple lady, he thinks that any one official and government like
are the enemy. It’s obvious. He smashes his office up. He puts an enormous wall around the house, yet there are no CCTV cameras anywhere. Why? Because he thinks the government are spying on him, that’s why he doesn't have the internet. I saw he had cable downstairs, but noticed no router for the internet. It's Strange seeing that all cable packages usually come with the internet included,’ says Frank

The woman looks confused

‘How the hell did you come up with that? So that’s it? Case solved? The guy is a paranoid psycho! All worked out within a few hours by master detective Frank McKenzie?’ Says the woman sarcastically.

Frank gives his trade mark cock eyed wink and a smile

‘No, I’m just getting started lady,’ He says

Four

By now Connor Chase was tiring. He had been running through the subway system in the middle of the city for over 6 hours now. The modern wonder stretched for over 17 miles underground. It was a maze of darkened passages and old brittle tracks. His steps were echoing loudly as he ran through the western tunnel leading to his planned safe heaven.  Connor was finding it hard to see; as the lighting down the western track was sparse, making sections of the track completely pitch black to the naked eye. He carried on full pace down the tunnel with all the momentum he could muster, suddenly his right foot shifted on the gravel between the tracks and he fell tumbling down the western tunnel faster than he would have liked. He crashed into a platform and came to a stop. He gasped for air in pain. A smoulder of dust surrounded him as he got up. He patted himself clean. His office clothes were now torn, making him look like a victim of a natural disaster. He carried on; he turned and made his way up the platform he crashed into, and stopped dead looking up at the flickering sign above the platform exit.

“SOUTH BOUND MAINTENANCE” The sign read.

He smiles as he makes his way to the exit.

Five

Frank McKenzie walked into the downtown police precinct at around 9.00 am. He just returned from the crime scene that he spent six hours at the night before. There was a certain fear in the air that day. Frank could smell the anxiety a mile away, and the police headquarters stunk of it. The place was abuzz with chaos when Frank walked in. Police officers rushing around, files everywhere, phones going off the hook, and all because of one reason. No, the president was not assassinated, the super bowl was not on, and there wasn’t another 9/11. The reason the police precinct was in chaos was because Connor Chase just made history and became the most prolific serial killer ever in the space of 12 and a half hours. Frank could see the look in every one’s eye in the room. They were scared, not because they thought that they would be hurt, but because they knew that it wasn’t over, far from it as frank would soon find out.

Out of the corner of frank’s vision, he spots the chief of police steam rolling towards him with his arm extended out to shake Frank’s hand. Frank obliges and shakes the man’s hand. The chief lets out a little chuckle as he stops in front of McKenzie.

‘Good to see you lad, been way too long in my estimation,’ says the chief.

‘It’s good to see you Shaw’ Says Frank

Admittedly Frank did not like Shaw. He didn’t know whether it was his lack of Irish charm, or the fact that Shaw had him fired not too long ago

‘It’s good to have you back Frank. I can be the first to admit that it was not in the best of the forces interests in letting you go,’ Shaw confesses to Frank

Frank smiles, he realises that Shaw isn’t walking on egg shells here. He suddenly finds respect for the man, even if he had to dig real deep to find it.

‘You know what Shaw, I appreciate that. Now let’s stop fucking around and concentrate on nailing that bastard!’

Frank and Shaw shake hands again; Frank walks off and up towards the information desk. He waits there for a few minutes, still soaking in the organised chaos that engulfs the police headquarters. The information clerk is nowhere to be seen, so Frank takes it upon himself to go behind the desk and look for a spare case file on Connor Chase that may be lying around the vicinity. He searches the assortment of papers and floppy discs on the desk. None of the labels coincide with anything he is looking for. He sits down at the desk and stares off into space, trying to piece together the incidents of the day. He looks at the officers going about their business, his vision blurs at the sight of the hustle and bustle of the slow paced office. Frank holds his head in pain as another headache makes its presence known. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his pills; he takes a few more to even out the Keel.

His vision starts to return to normal, and the room goes from the slow-motion of before to the reality shaking pace of the now as if someone pressed fast forward on the VCR of his mind. He stands up and shakes himself clear. He is about to make his way out from behind the desk when the CCTV monitor catches his eye. He sits back down and pays close attention to it. A figure is seen walking out of the stairwell to the side exit of the building. Normally this wouldn’t raise much doubt in the mind of Frank, but it seemed as if the figure in the CCTV was hiding his face from view.

Frank goes numb as he realises what was happening. He stands up and is just about to yell out his hunch when a massive explosion is heard from the upstairs, followed by a shattering of glass that fell from the two storey atrium to cascade it’s self all over the first floor of the precinct. The officers hit the ground in reflex at the sound of the explosion, but Frank did not. He stood in shock behind the desk as files that were once on the officers desks were now floating all over the room, filling the atmosphere with smoke and dust from the burning paper. A second explosion went off, this time it was the gas pipes. Frank knew that sound, and he wasn’t standing any more. He hit the ground in anticipation as a huge fireball made its way through the precinct, coming out of the grates and pipes that were interconnected to the surrounding walls. Shrapnel was pinging and clanging off every surface it hit, nearly taking Frank’s eye out when it hit the CCTV monitor above his head destroying it. Shards of plastic and wiring fell onto Frank as he lay on the ground covering himself up from the horrors of the explosion. Finally, the sounds of terror that occupied the building died down and every one slowly got to their feet. Chief Shaw was among the officers trying to recover from the shock of the explosions; he patted himself down to the best of his abilities and made his way to the middle of the room.

‘Is every one okay?’ Shaw asked

The response from the room was timid at best, but Shaw could see that there were no injuries downstairs.

‘Okay I want a full sweep of the building, we need to search for any wounded and find the fuckers that did this. I want three man teams with coms to go from top to bottom, no mistakes gentleman,’ Shaw bellows out to the officers.

Frank gets up from behind the desk and makes his way to Shaw.

‘Sir we have a problem,’ says Frank

Shaw laughs as if the problem isn’t obvious

‘I know detective. We have just been attacked with a bomb by terrorists, I think that qualifies as a big fucking problem,’ Shaw says

‘That’s where your wrong sir, It’s not terrorists that did this,’ Frank pleads

‘What are you saying? Santa clause came in and blew out the fucking chimney?’

‘No sir, I saw who did this and it wasn’t Santa Clause,’

Boston Blood

Out now on kindle!

Thanks for reading, catch you soon for the next episode!

L.S