Tidal Rage by David Evans (best big ereader .TXT) 📗

The year was 1981. The McKenzies had been in the country since 1976. Sebastian was ten years old, and by this time, completely bald.

Geraldine had failed to arrive home after school. Six hours later, the men of the area had been willingly pressed by the police to search streets, common land, and agricultural land; anywhere the child might be.

Several days later, and with Geraldine still missing, the interviews began. The first interviews were held in the school, with the children from Geraldine's class. Shortly afterwards, the known paedophiles, child killers, and drug dealers in the area were targeted. The police then interviewed parents of her classmates, followed by a further week of re-interviews with anyone who may have had a problem with her.

Following initial inquiries, it did not take long for the local constabulary to work out that Geraldine's peers had mixed feelings for her. She was popular amongst her small, close clique of friends. To others, she was an out-and-out bully. The list of interviews with children with possible grudges was a long one.

Sebastian was interviewed twice, along with his parents, as he fell within the group considered to have been bullied.

A month after Geraldine's disappearance, the police were no closer to solving the case or finding the body than they were on day one. She had just disappeared. One of the main problems for the police was the area. Surrounding Southport was arable farmland, so, in essence, there were thousands upon thousands of acres to search.

Hank had decided enough was enough. England was on the slide. He had thought this a safer haven than the USA, but where America went, Great Britain soon followed. Hank applied for the post of senior biochemist in the San Diego operation and was quickly accepted. It was not up for discussion. Kim and Sebastian would have to follow Hank's wishes. At first, Kim was frightened of the move. Sebastian was nonplussed, not at all interested in where he lived. He was pretty sure a different country, a different culture, would not make him any more responsive to people or their feelings.

They arrived at the southernmost city on the west coast of America, San Diego. Hank had taken out a three-year lease on a detached wooden house not far from the city's famous zoo, and the peripheral Balboa Park. The park was full of museums and natural gardens. In no time at all, Hank and Kim settled down very nicely into the area.

Hank had ensured that Sebastian enrolled with a new music teacher and signed up to one of the many self-defence classes springing up all over the city, thanks to the actor and martial artist Bruce Lee.

Sebastian joined a new school, but the same old problems trailed him. It did not matter that the school was full of Hispanics and Mexicans who had immigrated the few miles from the border to San Diego. He was some kid from Vietnam. He was the enemy, Viet Cong; it did not matter to the children that it was a different country, a different culture.

His trichotillomania had been a matter of concern to doctors and psychiatrists over two continents. None could modify the compulsive addiction that had control over Sebastian. As he was entering puberty, he found new tufts of hair to remove and devour. Sebastian would never have pubic or body hair in his life, for as it came through, he plucked it out, and after time, it never grew back.

Sebastian was twelve years old and was walking on the Cabrillo Bridge in Balboa Park near the San Diego Zoo when Hank decided to treat him to a McDonald's meal. This decision from Hank, apart from either a chicken or hamburger, would be his last on this earth.

Ed Huberty, from across the bridge, had decided that this day would change his life forever. He needed to express himself, and for that, he needed to ensure that there would be plenty of people there. Just before taking the bus to the zoo area with a haversack full of weapons, his wife asked him where he was going.

"Going hunting. Humans," was Huberty's chilly retort.

Sebastian had opted for the cheeseburger and French fries, and Hank went with the chicken burger. The first sign of trouble was when the door flung open, and the girl behind the counter seemed to explode in a mist of blood and guts. Huberty had begun his killing spree.

There was only one way out, and that was past Huberty.

"Slide along the floor and get to the toilets and stay there," Hank ordered Sebastian.

Sebastian crept into the bathroom and then locked himself inside the cubicle, sitting with his feet off the floor, hugging them to his chin as he sat on the toilet pan.

Sebastian stayed within the cubicle of the bathroom in McDonald's as the massacre continued. The semi-automatic weapon pumped out its deadly cargo. Once the ammunition was spent, the definite boom of a Winchester pump-action 12-gauge shotgun drowned out the screams.

Sebastian wondered with no fear or alarm if he would die that day. Would this be his last day on earth? If it were, it might well save lives in the future.

Sebastian had the Walkman portable cassette player that Hank had given him for his birthday. He loved the idea of listening to music on the move, in any situation, and as the shots rang out in the McDonald's, he put his headphones on and listened to Gotterdammerung, the fourth opera in the cycle.

The carnage on the other side of the toilet awakened something in him. Sebastian blocked out all the current, horrific events and placed the earphones of the Walkman on. He went back to that day six months prior in England; to that day that would shape the rest of his life, should he survive today.

He had listened to the same