The Halt in Progress - Jachin Orallo (rom com books to read .txt) 📗

CHAPTER ONE: LIMITING FACTORS

CHAPTER ONE

LIMITING FACTORS

 

NEIL

Officer Neil sat on a cherry coloured couch with cameras pointed towards him and studio lights flashing before his dark green eyes. His black hair was gelled to the right, he shaved his goatee off two days ago, but you can see his facial hair slowly growing back, his lips were small and chapped, and his face was powdered so that it would not shine on live tv.  The room was frantic. Beside him sat a woman who he has worked with a countless amount of times holding a microphone with the logo CP24 printed on it. One of the Camera men shouted “You ready Cynthia?”

  “Ready.” The woman answered back.

  “We’re on in three, two one”

The Cameras started rolling and the whole room fell in silence. Everyone in the room stared at the couch or a camera pointed towards it

  “1:36, I’m Cynthia Lina. I’m here with Officer Neil, who was at the Dundas Square shooting earlier this morning. Where the suspect was confirmed dead” She turned from the camera to the officer. “Officer Neil what can you tell us?”

   “Earlier today we got a call saying there was a man acting suspicious at Dundas Square. When my partner and I arrived. He pulled out a handgun and shot at us. Not too long after that our backup arrived and we managed to corner the suspect into an alley. But after twenty minutes of keeping him cornered he ended up taking his own life”

   “Do you know the identity of the shooter Officer?”

  “At the moment” Neil answered “ We have not identified the shooter. But we can conclude that he is one of Papa Muerte’s men. The last time we heard about the notorious drug lord was when-”

A muffled scream from outside the building followed by gunshots. Officer Neil got up from the couch and ran outside, his hand by the Glock 19 on his belt. Men and women in his way moved aside letting the officer through the front glass doors. He saw a man in his late 30’s shooting people with a Remington 870 shotgun. His long blonde hair bounced up and down every time he pulled the trigger. Neil quickly took cover behind a red honda accord in front of him.

  “Freeze” Ordered the officer. The man holding the weapon turned, his eyes widening at the sight of the officer pointing a handgun at him.

  “Put your weapon down now!” Neil ordered again.

  “S-S-Sir you d-don’t understand.” the blonde man stuttered.

  “Where’d you get that weapon?”

  “From the police car over there.” He pointed towards Neil’s patrol car parked along the street.

  “That’s mine. Now put it down now!” Neil sounded furious.

  “Sir, I didn’t have a choice. Please, they were chasing me”

  “Who was chasing you?”

 “They were...” he pointed at the dead bodies that laid motionless in front of him “ The zombies” Suddenly, an old and pale asian lady grabbed the blonde man’s ankle and chomped down on it. The blonde man screamed in excruciating pain. He fell to the ground,shaking as if he was having a seizure. White foam rose from his mouth, while the woman bit down on his arm.

  “Miss, freeze and put your hands in the air.” Yelled Neil. Is this the evolved rabies he read about on facebook, cannibals that escaped from a nearby mental institution. The evolved rabies was debunked by scientists in the CDC. They claimed that ‘It is rare for a disease to evolve in such a short period of time and if it was possible there would be an updated rabies shot in a few hours.’ The nearest location that closely resembles a mental institution was 200 kilometers West of where he stood.

The woman stopped biting the man and started heading towards him. Neil walked backwards slowly fearing for his life. His heart beat faster, a rate that only happened once when that thief in Burlington shot his chest and winded him, at that time he thought that he was going to die. The woman sprinted at him with her mouth open. Neil could see her yellow teeth covered in blood and bits and pieces of skin, flesh and bone. He fired a round into her chest but it didn’t do anything but slow her down, it didn’t even wind her. The second round entered her knee. She fell over but continued to crawl towards him, her fingernails digging into the concrete floor as she grew closer. Neil fired the third and final round into the woman’s head. Her body fell to the ground. The officer headed towards the man holding his Remington 870. As Neil headed towards the blonde man, he saw that he had gotten up and started to chase other people-other survivors. Neil headed towards where the blonde man’s body once laid to pick up the shotgun that belonged to him. A red chopper, which was the building’s news helicopter, with the logo CP24 printed on the side hovered above him. That’s when Neil understood and got back inside the building.

ZBORALSKI

Nikolas Zboralski flew his chopper from Dundas Square to CP24 headquarters. He looked down at the streets and saw people acting crazy. Naturally the pilot assumed it was a riot, although he never saw a riot up close before and felt a little uneasy. First the man with the gun at Dundas Square who committed suicide and now this. Zboralski was Chopper 24’s pilot, flying the news helicopter to get an aerial view of the accident. He was slowly descending when he saw one cop pointing a gun at a woman. A gun? At least use pepper spray or a taser before pulling out the most lethal weapon in your arsenal. The police officer shot the woman three times before her crawling body fell to the ground. At this point the pilot was unsure about landing the chopper on the helipad on top of CP24 headquarters. But since the chopper was running out of fuel he had no choice. The pilot slowly descended before landing on the helipad. He let the rotor blades slow down before getting out of the chopper to refuel the tank. Suddenly the. One of his co-workers, Cynthia, came running towards him, followed by the cop that shot the woman, and Mike, the cameraman, he was holding a shotgun and slamming the door.

  “ We have to get out of here Zboralski” said Cynthia to Zboralski.

  “ Why?” asked the pilot

  “ No time to explain” said the officer as he got inside the chopper. Zboralski got inside and put on a helmet. Neil sat in the co-pilot’s seat and also put on a helmet.Cynthia and Mike got inside the back.

  “ So officer what’s the rush” asked Zboralski as the chopper slowly ascended. The door that lead to the helipad flung open once more. As a wave of the rioting people ran towards the ascending chopper. Once they moved away from the building three of the people ran straight off the building trying to chase the chopper. Then the police officer looked at him and said “zombies”

CYNTHIA

The officer walked back inside the building holding a shotgun. He put the gun down and locked the door.

  “ What happened?” asked one of the people

  “ I don’t know how, but, zombies” said the petrified officer. “It’s the same thing like in the movies you get bit you turn and the only way to kill one is to destroy the brain.”

Suddenly the undead started piling up against the glass door. “ Hurry up and barricade the glass doors. They won’t hold for long” ordered. Workers started to move heavy pieces of furniture when suddenly the doors broke. And shattered into millions and millions of pieces. The first zombie got in and grabbed the closest person to the door and bit him . People scattered around the room. Some ran out of the emergency exit and some grabbed a weapon and started fighting the undead. The officer walked up to Cynthia who was backed up into a corner frozen in fear and grabbed her hand and said “ We won’t last long here. Where’s the helipad?” asked the officer

  “ why?” asked Cynthia

  “ I saw Chopper 24 above the building”

  “ Follow me” said she before running up the staircase. The officer followed.

  “Me too” said a voice. Cynthia turned around and saw the cameraman, Mike, jogging towards them holding Officer Neil’s shotgun. “ Then hurry up” said the Officer. The three of them ran up along the staircase. The reporter could hear shotgun blasts behind her but she didn’t turn around to see. Cynthia got up to the helipad where he saw the pilot of Chopper 24 Nikolas Zboralski refueling the chopper. She got to the pilot first and said “ We have to get out of here Zboralski”

MIKE

Mike moved the heavy furniture towards the glass doors just as the officer ordered. He heard the sound of shattered glass. He turned around to see the man beside him get grabbed by a zombie and get bit. He looked at the emergency exit and ran towards it. But as he ran towards the exit he tripped. Mike looked around the floor to see what had tripped him and saw a shotgun. The same shotgun the officer put down when he went to lock the door. He picked it up and scouted the room looking for the officer. He saw the officer running towards Cynthia. Mike ran to them. When he got close to them, he heard them talking. But the screams were too loud. But mike did make out one word: Chopper 24. The officer and Cynthia ran up the stairs.

   “ Me too” yelled Mike.

  “ Then hurry up” said Neil. As they were running up the stairs. A hand grabbed Mike’s left foot. Mike fell down and turned around. He saw the man that was beside when he was moving the furniture, the man that was bit first. The man then chomped down on Mike’s ankle. Mike felt the detail in the man’s teeth. Mike kicked the man’s face with his other leg. The man fell and Mike got up. He pumped the shotgun pointed it towards the man’s head. He pulled the trigger. The man’s head disappeared into oblivion as Mike’s ears rang with pain. He quickly tore off the man’s sleeve and tied a tourniquet on his leg. He ran up the stairs with pain in his left ankle. When he got to the door, the led to the helipad, he pushed it with all his might. There he saw Cynthia, Neil, and Zboralski getting inside the chopper. He quickly slammed the door. And ran towards the chopper. Running slower than usual because of the bite. He climbed inside and panted really loudly.The door that lead to the helipad flung open. As a wave of zombies ran towards the ascending chopper. Once they moved away from the building three of the zombies ran straight off the building trying to chase the chopper. Then he heard Neil say zombies. A reminder of what he will become in a matter of time.

CHOPPER 24

Chopper 24 ascended towards the sky. There were fires, accidents, and death.

  “Officer, where should we head? We only have 20 minutes worth of fuel” asked Zboralski

  “ I don’t know. Just try to find a safe place that we can land” Answered Neil

  “ Sure thing” Neil turned to the back where Cynthia and Mike were sitting

  “ You two ok” the two of them nodded. Mike offered the shotgun to the officer. Neil grabbed it and checked how many shotgun shells remained. It was five, one less than the maximum.

  “ You know how to use this” asked Neil

  “ I just pumped it like in the movies and pulled the trigger” answered