Please forgive me, you guys. My old computer crashed and I haven't had access to one for months, finally got a new one this week. I'm working on updating everything as soon as possible.
Set circa Storm Front.
[Fifteen Years Earlier]
"Looks like he came through here."
Karrin glanced up from the bloody splatter on the rubberized step of the staircase and saluted. "Roger that, Captain Obvious."
Carmichael rolled his eyes. He nodded toward the door leading out onto the roof of the building. "Ladies first."
Murphy smiled tightly, pressed her back against the lever of the door and shoved it open. She swept the barrel of the shotgun around as she did, dropping to a knee as her partner followed her out, well-worn 1911 and flashlight in hand. The tac light beneath the barrel cast a harsh white glare across the roof, but nothing moved in the shadows, no demonic eyes gleamed back at her.
The city was never truly dark at night, thanks to the constant glow of street lights, but since there were always lights, there were always shadows pooled in corners. Unfortunately, it wasn't just carjackers and rapists hiding in the dark. It was sad enough that the nicest thing she had to deal with in a day was - for example - a potential kidnapping that turned out to be a runaway whose parents were trying to save face.
There was another small stairwell access building at the far end of the roof, between it and them a broad glass skylight with a few panes broken out. Some crates and wooden pallets were stacked head-high (for her) in a haphazard maze around the edges of the roof.
It was quieter this high up, though the flash of the emergency lights below still lit up the alley. There was a labyrinth of old warehouses and shabby apartment buildings for blocks in every direction, the dark water of the lake to the east barely visible. Some of the roofs were close enough that someone (or something) with enough balls to jump could have cleared the gap between buildings.
Her partner held up a hand and took the left side of the roof. He could move fast and quiet for a heavyset guy. Karrin took the right, walking along the inside of the ledge. She hadn't made it far before he called her over to where he stood.
"Murph."
A tall, dark-haired man in jeans and a denim jacket was laying face down in the shadow of a stack of crates. Blood stained the shoulder of his jacket, iridescent black in the city's ambient light. The worry that she had been suppressing since finding the footprint in that nightmarish scene downstairs escaped as a swear and her steps quickened.
"Alive." Carmichael checked his pulse and rolled him over. "Huh."
Murphy leaned down and peered at the man's bloodied face. "Huh."
It wasn't who she had expected, and the feeling of guilty, perturbed relief that accompanied the discovery was a shock to her. She and Harry were friends, kind of; the number of times they had gone out for a beer had finally pulled ahead of the times she had written his name on an arrest form.
That was progress. Maybe.
"That ain't Dresden." It definitely wasn't Harry – this guy wasn't as tall, was quite a bit heavier, broader through the shoulders, and there was a little bit of gray in his hair and in the scruffy beard on his chin. There was a jagged scrape across his temple, though it wasn't deep. Her partner picked up the open duffel bag on the ground next to the man. He drew a shiny Colt semiautomatic with pearl grips from beneath the bag, frowned at it, then dropped the bag next to her. "I kinda noticed by how everything isn't...y'know. On fire."
"You're a hell of a detective, Ron." She knelt to look at the wound on the man's shoulder – small, but bleeding freely. The injured man was starting to regain consciousness. "Looks like he's been shot. Just grazed him. Call for a medic, will you?"
Carmichael took a few paces away and she heard the squelch of static, voices over the radio, a second of silence –
"Karrin..."
Her head snapped up. Ron pointed the flashlight at something few yards from them; a body, laying over some of the wooden pallets. She took a step toward it and stopped, and couldn't seem to force herself to move any closer.
It looked dead – months dead, probably longer. The wind shifted and she could smell it. Abrupt and cold decay, something bottom-of-the-Dumpster rotten. The thing – Karrin didn't have a name for it – was greyish and dried-out in places, too squishy in other places, skin stretched tight across bones of its face, nails cracked and peeling off. Its hair was dirty blonde, stringy and matted to its head. What was once clothing in shades of black and gray hung from it in tattered rags of what had been jeans and a Bulls t-shirt. There was a sharpened piece of wood driven through its chest, up from beneath its ribcage and out between its shoulder blades. A small-caliber revolver lay on the ground next to its hand.
Its white, filmy eyes were open, its mouth and teeth covered in fresh blood.
It was twitching.
"What the hell is that thing?" she asked in a dry-mouthed whisper. She backed away, lay down her shotgun, pulled on a pair of latex gloves and knelt next to the half-conscious man. Her fingers were trembling as she applied pressure to the still-bleeding wound. "Zombie?"
"I don't give a rat's ass what it is." He kept his gun trained on the body. "As long as it stays down. You know I hate to say it, Murph, but maybe you should call him in on this one."
That was a rare moment, if there ever was one. Carmichael really didn't approve of her hiring a self-proclaimed wizard.
"We've got this, Ron. We should probably find something to cover that thing up with before the medics get here. The last thing we need is a panic. Hey, mister. Wake up. What's your name?" Karrin shook the guy gently. "Hey, buddy. Can you tell me your name?"
The man groaned and opened an eye. He sat up slowly and stared over her shoulder. Murphy turned, following his gaze as something slipped out of the darkness at the edge of the roof and drew a raspy, rattling breath.
It lunged before she could pick up her shotgun.
Something hit her, hard, and the world spun.
thanks again, and to be continued...