Inside The Bio – A ZP!S Non-Canon Story
"You always return late, Eugene! How can we even grow our kid if his father loves his job more than his own family?"
"Darling, I said that I'm doing my best to stay with you, but there are lots of investigations to work on lately, just give me some time, I promise."
"No you don't promise anything! You already said this last week, last month, last year, for 6 years! I'm tired of this, I'm asking a divorce!"
"What?! Please, darling, try to understand me, I'm bringing money in here, to help you grow our beautiful boy, and you can't just let me down like this. Please."
"You know that I never judged you for the money, and I never will, but your job is pulling us apart for Christ's sake! You can have millions of dollars in your paycheck, but our family will still fall apart!"
This dialogue always ramms through Eugene Grant's thoughts when he works in Boulder City's Policestation. Every week he gets a new case to solve, either about a junkie robbing old ladies or gangsters drive-bying, it was always the same crap. In and out of the office, day in day out, 24/7. He tried his best to stay close to his family, but his marriage started to fall apart after his promotion to "Detective". But then, on a cold november week, he gets an unfamiliar case. After that the commissar slammed a file full of documents on Eugene's desk, he took and examined the papers, only to find out that he will not be the only "cop" to partecipate in this: he will work with a recruit that just joined his station not more than two weeks ago.
Eugene looks at the last paper specifying who will work with him, and after a very long description about the case, he stumbles upon the recruit's name.
"Marcus K. Lewis. Who's this guy? Ah whatever, I guess I can phone him right now."
Eugene takes his Nokia and diales the recruit's number written in the paper. After a missed call, the recruit finally responds.
"Hello, who's speaking?"
"I'm Eugene Grant, the detective working with you for the… uh…"
Eugene panics and looks for the paper with the case's description, finding it in less than five seconds.
"…The homicide one, with that homeless victim with his face chewed off."
"Ah, yeah! They told me about this, that I had to work with a veteran. Well, where should we arrange a meeting?"
"There's a nice and warm bar just near the town hall. You can't miss it, it's called "Larry's Bar"."
"I've heard of it, I'll be there. What about next monday?"
"Deal. 19 p.m. sharp, I'll pay for the coffee and croissants."
"Alright, thanks!"
Eugene ends the call shorty after Marcus' approval, then releases and instantly suppresses a yawn. Luckily, he was alone in his office, along with an air conditioner to keep him warm, a rusty wooden desk, his badge wrapped around his neck, falling down his torso, a comfortable chair and nothing else but his so-loved investigations to spend his thoughts on. But he's another kind of Eugene when he returns home, especially when he finds a wife that gave up on the hope of his change, a six year old running towards him, hugging his belly and the nice scent of meat coming from the kitchen. Surely, he wouldn't have to argue with his wife this evening. Lucky him. As days carry on slowly, Eugene manages to stay with his family a bit more for Halloween (All Saints Day for non-Americans) and enjoy the weekend with no worries going on his head.
But then, it's monday again. He waves a silent goodbye to the sleeping wife and kid, goes to his office and sits there all day, between a pack of cigarettes and another. After a long boring day he checks the clock, seeing that he needs to go meet Marcus, the not-so-young recruit working with him on the case. He leaves the office, grabs a black jacket and heads for the bar, only to find Marcus sitting on a table near the window, waiting for his "friend". Eugene doesn't recognise Marcus at first, but then does so when he sees the uniform. He sits down and starts talking with him.
"Well, quite nice isn't it?"
"Yup, you were right about that, Eugene"
"Well. Since we have to work on this, let me show you what's the deal"
Eugene takes a yellow file with the case's papers in it, opens it and puts the papers on the table, with some yellow coloured words, underlined information and additional notes written on the bottom. Marcus looks at the papers one by one with interest and attention, then looks in Eugene's way.
"Well, this case ain't something normal. Somebody getting chewed up. Damn these crooks are getting nastier everyday."
"I agree. I've seen few cases getting close to this, but some poor bastard getting chewed up, Jesus Christ…"
"What you think? Drugs?"
"Might be meth. IF the murder was drugged."
"No psycho would act like that, I know for sure."
"Then let's start with drugs. Even if I'd suggest an "accident" path."
"I've seen the body, Eugene. There were obvious bite marks and some of the murder's blood all over the floor. Quite a disturbing scene."
"I've seen bodies in a worse situation."
"Well, we gotta wait 'till we find who's DNA that is. It's not an hard case after all."
"It's probably because it's your first one, hah."
"Fine for me then. Guess I'm lucky."
They aren't alone in that bar, there is a certain punk, his name is Paul, but he has seen more prisons and cops in his life than a corrupt politician that sells drugs. He was an hothead since he was fourteen: smashing windows, hitting his teacher's car and then breaking a janitor's nose after being caught skipping school, he really needed to be put down before becoming a danger to everyone around him. He didn't have a family, nor a girlfriend, nothing. It was just him and his fists, sometimes mugging a poor random guy, sometimes getting chased by cops. He hated the cops, and the cops hated him. If he ended up in a bar, it's because he just left prison after being arrested for trying to beat up a disguised policeman walking back to his station. He needed a place to spend his few dollars on, and he just found it. Larry's Bar. He already got kicked out for starting a brawl with the bartender, but he swore that he wouldn't cause any trouble this time, surprisingly.
After a solid quarter of an hour, the installed television in the bar gets the attention of the two policemen.
"...There have been multiple reports of citizens arguing then biting their vitctims, many were arrested, others ran away. It's believed that a new kind of drug is being sold worldwide recently, with the same psychological effects as an animal infected by Rabies. The police is still investigating the source of the drug. Now, let's move on the weather, then we will display the acclaimed movie: "Night of the Living Dead""
"Huh. Guess this isn't the only case with these details. I've heard of drugs like these, but never seen someone actually eat a person's body. Not even close to that."
"Yeah. Feels very strange."
Eugene calls for a waitress standing nearby their table, asking for two cups of chocolate and croissants. The waitress writes everything down then heads to the bartender. But she isn't a normal waitress, she's actually a student along with another woman, coming from Scandinavia, or places nearby that region. From the sunny city of Corsington, she was moved here to work and learn the ropes of her favourite job. Today, she was replacing the other student, probably because she had to attend a funeral. Noone really knew how she was to be honest. She's very shy.
Then, out of a sudden, something happens outside the bar.
An homeless man looking for food in a trash bin, standing in a shady alleyway. But when he was almost done searching, an unknown creature materializes from the shadows and bites off a large chunk of his head, making him collapse to the floor, along with a pool of blood. The creature then leaves in the shadows, ignoring anyone else in his way.
Eugene and Marcus are just about to leave the bar, but instead he was caught by today's special in the menu, and was still doubtful to order that or not. But he didn't have time to think about it. A person looking quite tired or not sober gets the attention of the bartender, obviously furious for his drinking habit. He gets closer to kick him out of his bar, but his hand gets bit by that man. He shoves him away, making him stumble and hit the wall next to the service exit with his back. Eugene and Marcus dive right into the action, with Marcus contacting the station via his radio. Even if the station responded with incoming reinforcement, Marcus is alerted by the man's charge towards the couple.
He takes his gun from the holster and directly shoots point blank the enraged man charging him and Eugene. He didn't have time to aim, but he still landed two deadly shots, one of which completely penetrated the man's internal organs. Eugene panicked when he heard the shots erupt from Marcus's nine millimeters. But that's not enough to kill the man, that's where the waitress comes in with a pot, smashing the man's face with repeated hits to a point where few drops of blood landed on her face. Marcus checks the bartender's status and notices that he has an high fever. Paul runs outside, while the Bartender is showing signs of the same rage that engulfed the previously killed man. The duo leaves the bar, and Eugene aims carefully for another man standing in front of them, with the obvious intent of killing them both, while Paul is engaged by another man. He doesn't hesitate and takes a trash bin's "head" to smash it against the man walking towards him.
That's the exact moment when things started to really fall apart.