Night shift (Part two)
Night shift
Part 2
Sam took another cigarette from the “Lucky Strike” package. He held it between his blooded fingers, waiting for the police to arrive. With his other hand he kept opening and closing the top of the metal Zippo. Click! Clack! When he heard the sirens nearing, he placed the cigarette between his lips and lid it.
***
24 hours earlier
John stretched his back and shoulders feeling relief. He and Sam had been “patrolling” around town for a fortnight now. It was like Hell had broken loose these past few days – gunshots, motorcycle accident, hit and runs, alcohol poisoning, overdose. The list kept going.
Sam had given John more space, leaving him to take the lead and proceed as he thinks is best. Sam helped when John needed his assistance, but other than that he just drove the ambulance. John was thankful for that trust and opportunity to work at his best again. He felt like he was doing something useful once more.
Sure, some of the emergency cases didn’t make it through. There were a few patients John lost in the everlasting embrace of darkness and soon enough he found out he can’t remember their faces.
His mind was so occupied with grim thoughts over the week that he completely forgot about the strange dispatcher call for a non-existing address.
“One black coffee, two sugars” Sam handed him a cup of coffee, the steam still rising, writhing like a ghostly white snake. He took a sip and felt energy fill him.
“Thanks. Gosh, I think I could sleep for a month”
Sam smirked.
“You’ll sleep when you’re dead. Besides you did a good job this week”
“Dispatcher to team 3. There’s been a domestic violence call. The police are already there and have arrested the guy but his wife doesn’t want to go to the hospital. The address is near you. Mind checking it?”
Sam took the radio from the ambulance.
“Dispatch, Sam speaking. No prob., just give us the coordinates”
***
The police were still there when they arrived. A woman with a broken nose was sitting on the stairs in front of the building, a blanket wrapped around her.
Sam walked over to her, while John stayed with the ambulance.
“Ma’am may I take a look?”
“Bastard. Hitting a woman.”
A police officer, name tag Sanchez stood next to John.
“Mhm” mumbled John.
“Hey, we’ll be taking this scum back to jail, so mind taking this? Some medical records your hospital wanted on a patient, former prisoner of ours”
Sanchez handed John a brown file.
“Sure thing”
John got back in the ambulance and flipped open the record while waiting for Sam. His eyes widened.
Inside it was one piece of paper, on it only three words written
“Sanctum needs more”.
John took a snapshot of it on his phone. He then closed the file and left it on the empty seat.
There it was again, the mysterious street, included in an even more mysterious message. Something was going on and the police were involved too.
“Shit”
To be continued…
This entry was posted on 03/08/2012 at 1:43 am and is filed under Flash stories, Short fiction stories with tags fiction, friday flash, mystery. san diego, suspence, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
04/08/2012 at 11:14 am
The mystery deepens, unluckily for John and Sam it seems like they are the only people not in on this conspiracy.
I suspect frantic times ahead for them both.
12/08/2012 at 9:35 pm
You might be right Steve. But still who knows
Thank you for commenting and keeping up with the story!
04/08/2012 at 3:57 pm
Excellent job of cranking up the suspense here! I think John’s in big trouble now.
12/08/2012 at 9:36 pm
Thank you Larry! Glad to hear so.
John will be surprised. Hope you too.
06/08/2012 at 5:13 am
Obviously I missed one part due to travel schedule. Going through these tonight, both are well over the 1,000-limit of traditional flash fiction. This one has easy breaks with the asterisks between scenes, whereas I can see Part 1 being harder to chop up with the conversation as the throughline of the second scene. But have you considered cutting them into smaller portions for serial consumption? I’m sure the #tuesdayserial crowd would give it a shot. The plethora of short paragraphs make more compulsive reading off a screen, and in both entries I found myself getting into what John’s going through. That’s a particular achievement since I am a wretched serial-reader, usually hanging back until a thing is complete and then consuming the full-on digest.
Regardless, this is a promising start, Cindy. You can take it in a lot of directions.
12/08/2012 at 9:42 pm
Thank you for the tips here John, and of course for tracking back the story.
I will get in the role of the “butcher” and chop the story, so it fits the criteria of the flash story (for overstepping it I apologize) and to be more easy to read and follow.
Thank you once more for keeping up with a serial of mine, I know it can be a bit tricky. But I am happy to see you here John : )
And I hope you’ll like what I have in mind for the 3rd chapter.
07/08/2012 at 8:42 am
Like Steve says the mystery deepens. Can’t wait to see if John is making it all up or there is actually is a conspiracy. Nicely done Cindy!
12/08/2012 at 9:42 pm
Thank you Craig!
Oh, you’ll discover the truth pretty soon. John too! Let’s see who’s going to be more shocked!
10/08/2012 at 2:56 pm
Oh he’s really in for it now! You’ve packed a lot into this one, and I’m curious to see what John finds at the crossroads.
12/08/2012 at 9:43 pm
And see you shall
Thank you for commenting Icy and for staying for another part.
20/08/2012 at 1:57 am
The mystery deepens indeed, nice story!
21/08/2012 at 3:16 pm
Thank you Helen, glad I can sustain the mystery