Death In The Wind

CHAPTER THREE - Taken Away

Getting home right now was suddenly become a terrible problem. The dead and dying were everywhere in the streets. Driving my car was becoming more difficult as the moments passed – the tears were blurring my vision so that all I could make out from the falling black figures and crashing cars were scary silhouettes moving in terrifying ways. Amongst the blur of death going on outside the safeness of my ute, I noticed, however, something familiar that caught my eye.
Something that should have made me feel reassured and fine, but in this situation, made my anxiousness all the more worse.

A police car. The sporadic motion of the blue and red lights atop the white sedan made me slam on the brakes. I was in the middle of the road but my mind was too clouded to even realise.

I was panting, the breaths coming short and edgy. I gripped the steering wheel, my fingers curling around the sides. What the hell do you do in a situation like this? A police car is on the side of the road… so do you get out? Or do you keep driving and assume that they are dead, like everybody else in this entire town?
I didn’t even have time to decide. An outline of a person rose from the vehicle and ran over.

I hastily wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand so that I could see properly. It was a policeman, and he was wearing an oxygen mask. Oh great, this was good, I panicked sarcastically. My heart still pounded in my ears, drumming through my head, as I realised he was carrying another mask. My breathing took on a whole new level of panic. I grabbed my mobile phone and shoved it in my pocket, just as the policemen hurled the door open.

‘Ma’am,’ he said, his voice muffled from the mask. I didn’t have time to answer before he shoved the second mask over my head and positioned it on properly.
‘Come with me,’ he ordered, and grabbed my arm. A bit harsh, for policeman.

‘Wait! My ute!’ yelled, my voice stifled. I tried to breathe properly but I couldn’t control it.

‘You have to leave it, Ma’am,’ he answered shortly, running across the road. All I could hear was the muted thud of either mine or his footsteps across the tarmac and his urgent voice. We reached the police car, and he threw the back door open with incredible force, or maybe he was just panicked. He pushed me inside, and then got into the driver’s seat himself. He slammed the door and reached for his mask. He turned around to face me in the backseat, and then pulled it off and threw it somewhere.

‘Are you alright?’ he puffed, his tone still pressing. He had a short bushy beard, a light orange-brown, and short hair atop his head, the same colour. He was about forty, big, and maybe a little chubby. His forehead was shining with sweat, his neck and jaw also. The policeman interrogation began. ‘Are you having trouble breathing? Like something caught in your throat? Does your chest feel tight at all? Cough?’ he was looking at me intently.

I gathered that the inside of the car was safe, so I threw the mask off also, clearing my throat.

I was stumbling around for words, confused and terrified.

‘N-n-no.’

‘What about you? You still okay?’ he asked, his voice turning soft, and looked next to me. I realised I was not alone in the backseat. A little girl, around seven, with light brown hair, wrapped in a towel and wearing wet swimmers, sat next to me. She was holding a mask as well, in one small tight fist.
She nodded enthusiastically, her face shocked and blank, at the same time. It was unreadable. It didn’t take long before I realised I was staring at her.
I looked at the policeman, panicking.

‘I’m Seth. Seth Jones,’ he said quickly. ‘This is Hayley.’

I stared at the policeman, my face horrified. ‘What… is going on!’

Seth Jones tried to say something but I cut him off, terrified. ‘I need to get home!’ I pleaded, grabbing the back of the driver’s seat.

Before he could answer, I remembered my phone in my pocket. I pulled it out hastily, and dialled the numbers with a shaking hand.

‘Hey hey!’ he yelled, and snatched it off me before I could press call.

‘What are you doing?’ I cried, my heart pounding madly. ‘I have to call my parents!’

‘Your parents are dead!’ he shouted, frowning deeply. His voice was so panicked and urgent, it frightened me.

I couldn’t say anything for a moment, my voice stuck in my throat. ‘They’re… they’re dead?’

His face was blank.

‘You- you can’t say that!’ I barked, angry now. ‘You don’t know they’re dead! You have to take me home!’

‘I can’t do that!’ he snapped. ‘This is not safe. I have to get you somewhere safe!’

‘I don’t give a crap about safe!’ I hollered, ‘I need to get home!’

‘Ma’am, I know this hard to understand, but you can’t go home, alright?’

‘What if they’re not dead!’ I threw at him. ‘What if… what if… you can take them to a hospital!’

‘The hospitals aren’t sealed,’ he said, turning around. ‘The air is infected there, hospitals are a waste of time.’

‘But all these people!’ I protested. ‘You can save them!’

‘I can’t save them, once you’ve got in your system you may as well kick the bucket now. You can’t get it out.’

‘What is it? What do you mean, infected?’

He turned back around, angry. ‘I don’t bloody know what it is!’ he yelled, more angry at himself than me. ‘I’m just as clueless as you are, alright! All I know is you can’t breathe it, yeah?’

‘What about her family?’ I nodded my head towards Hayley.

‘Her family’s safe,’ he said, his voice soft and too thick.

I frowned at him, seeing straight through him.

‘We have to get out of here,’ he grumbled, and turned to face the front, turning the keys in the ignition.

I inhaled the air of the car and tried to fight the tears that came building up behind my eyes. I didn’t know what to think.