Salinas Chapter 2 (Patreon)

The rooftop was high up, though I don’t know just how many storeys. The wind cut through my prison jumpsuit like a shiv. Must be up pretty high. I walked towards the sun. I assume that’s the East, but at this point, who knows? It was a dense city, full of tall buildings. Big city too. I don’t know how big. To the East, drawing a golden line under the sun, I could just barely make out the ocean. Everything else looked to be buildings as far as my eyes could see. 

The buildings looked smashed up. Something bad had happened here. Maybe it had kept on happening, I don’t know. Didn’t look like it got blown up. I have seen blown up towns and cities, and it don’t look like this. This looked like COVID, or the plague. 

There was a bang behind me. Door must have blown shut. I looked back. There was a wall, concrete painted industrial gray. Looked like the side of the rooftop access, but not the side with the door. I know that, because the wall had no door. Not even a picture of a door. No way back to Folsom and solitary, it seems. 

I sat on the rooftop, just watching the sun rise. I’d lost it. I’m sure I’ve gone crazy. But at least I was free in my own head. I was all alone. No way home. Ruined city all around me. Who knows what caused it, or what lives in it now. Just as solitary as before. But I was free. 

The sun hung over the water like a great big orange. I reached out my hand, pretended to pick it, and took a bite. It was the best thing I ever tasted. I laughed and got to my feet. Everything ached. Didn’t matter. Today marked the third time I went into solitary, and it was a good day.

Says something about my life that I got jumped the second I opened the door to the stairs.

Didn’t see it at first- I was blind from looking at the sun and the stairs were pitch black to begin with. Just felt something whipping towards my face and heard a raspy shriek. Got my hands up in time to not quite eat all of whatever the Hell hit me. Still knocked me back, made me scramble to keep my feet under me. Didn’t quite ring my bell, but I was shook up. 

I shot a straight jab, just trying to get some distance and see what I was dealing with. It connected, but it didn’t feel solid. Finally managed to fix my eyes on whatever it was. Human-ish, with a mouth on it full of needle teeth like a deep sea fish. Rubbery skin in shades of black and gray. No shine on it, even in the sunlight. Matte. Short, thick claws on the end of human looking fingers.

Big, big eyes. Squinting at me. I threw another shot at its head. It got its hands up to block. I kicked its knee to the side while it wasn’t looking. Goddamn prison sneakers didn’t have any kind of toe on ‘em. Still, did enough. It staggered. Hit it again in the same spot. It took a knee. 

Usually I would rush someone on a knee, take ‘em to the ground and work ‘em over. I didn’t like those claws or those teeth. I circled instead, put boot to spine. Didn’t do enough. The creature rolled forward and got on its feet inhumanly fast. It spun around to look at me, then screeched again. It brought a hand up to cover its eyes. 

Sun was at my back. Don’t think it liked the light. Me, I love sunlight. Precious thing. I rushed in and buried my foot straight in its gut. Lost my shoe doing it. Damned solitary taking my damned shoelaces! 

The thing slashed out with its claws. I backed off in a real hurry. It didn’t use both arms. It really didn’t like the light. Seems it hated me even more than the light, ‘cause it wasn’t running off. Most people do. Most fights last a second or two, and usually end with someone running off. 

It whipped its arm around wildly, still moving towards me. I waited until it swung, then grabbed the wrist. I had some reach on the thing, so I yanked the claw towards me and put my foot into its ribs, hard. Felt something break. Heard the thing scream. Cranked the arm around. Looked like it wasn’t exactly like a human arm, but close enough. 

Arm bar. Took it to the ground, face down. Felt some things break when I did. Secret to a good arm bar is leverage. Get that arm locked out, drop down, and feel things go CRACK! Got it’s face on the pavement. No hair to grab, but whatever. Rear mount. Had to keep control of the arms and mind the legs, those claws were everywhere. 

Must have a brain in that skull, though. A few good hammerfists to the back of the head had it moving slow. I kept hitting. Arms got real tired, but I kept at it. It stopped moving. I kept hitting. Eventually I got up and stomped its head open like a pumpkin off an overpass. 

I collapsed on the roof, sucking in cool air. My shoes were yards apart. Lucky none had gone flying over the ledge. Seems my jumpsuit had gotten a tear. Oh damn, the thing scratched me. Bleeding. Not too bad, but still. That would get infected for sure. Hope that thing wasn’t a zombie. Still. Needed to get some ointment for it. Wonder if there is a first aid kit around or something.

Or water. Damn I was thirsty. Food too, now that I come to think about it. And weapons. Army unarmed fighting ain’t anything special. That’s a game for Marines. I want a rifle. One with a scope, but short enough for urban combat.

I want a lot of things. None of ‘em were on this roof. I got to my feet and collected my shoes. Maybe I would start by finding shoelaces.

The stairwell was as dark as the inside of a boot. The scratch was burning. Don’t think it was sickness eating its way in. You can’t feel infection that fast, or at least I hope so. I had been cut before, and this was like that, but maybe worse. Skimmed over my ribs. Must not have kept my distance. 

I reached the first landing when I hesitated, and looked back up. I had propped the door open with that thing’s corpse, just so I would have some light. There was no sign over the door, but there was a spot on the wall where a sign had been, and was ripped out. Some kind of covered wire or conduit or something running up to it. There were spots where light fixtures should have been on the wall too. Smashed or ripped off the wall.

The stairwell got real dark, real fast. It was like staring down into a pit. Pure darkness, and I had a real good guess what lived in it. There was a door off the landing, with something painted on it. Didn’t recognize it, but I’d guess a number. The door opened into the stairwell. I tried it- not locked. Wasn’t barricaded on the other side neither. 

I didn’t have a way to prop open this door. There was a window at the end of the long hall, though. Smashed. Or just fell out with time. Big hole in the wall either way. Not a ton of light to see by. It would have to do. 

Doors on either side, more of those symbols on them. Numbers, then, for sure. I could probably guess what they all meant, with enough time. And paper to make notes. Sure wasn’t going to remember all that. No door knobs, each door had a handle. I didn’t see locks. I looked back at the door to the staircase- looked like a ram bar. If the doors had locks, I would think it was an apartment building. I gently tried the first door on the left.

It was locked.

I checked the door again. No lock. Nothing that even looked like a keyhole. Nothing that looked like a number-pad either, or some place to put a key card or anything like that. I tried the door again. I could hear a clunk where a bolt was hitting the door frame. On the top of the door and maybe the bottom too. 

The only other feature of the door was the peep hole. I checked it, but couldn’t see anything. Literally nothing. Like the hole didn’t even go all the way through or something. I shook my head and moved on to the next door.

Which was also locked. I moved down the hall all the way to the end. All locked. Looked out the window, or I guess, the hole where the window should be. The industrial carpet underneath the window was covered in dirt and gunk. I don’t know what half of it was. Moss? Definitely mold. The view out the window was not exactly scenic. Just more apartment blocks, clad in brick or concrete, looking similar to each other. Not a hint of movement around I noticed. No people. No cars. None of those monster things scurrying around. No nothing. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of white. 

I whipped my head around, ready for some other damned thing to come at me. It was a seagull, gliding on past. This wasn’t a dead city. Just didn’t have any people in it. Made me smile to watch the bird fly past, just gliding on the air as it moved between the buildings. Not a dead city at all. 

I stood at the window and watched the bird fly until it was out of sight. Didn’t stop smiling the whole time. Then I turned and tried all the doors on the other side of the hall.

Felt weird, just walking up and down the hall however I liked. High security, you move on command. Means a C.O. tells you where to go, when to go, and how to go. Your every step is supervised, and you only take if the C.O. says so. Medium security, you can move through specific hallways at specific times. It’s much better, but you sure ain’t moving around however you want. 

I was moving around however I wanted. This time, I was on the outside of the locked doors. It was a little scary at first. I had forgotten how it felt to be this free.

Locked, locked, locked. Fifteen doors on each side. Looked like door number seven on the right was the elevator. Pretty sure it was an elevator, anyhow. It was a different sort of door, no handles, painted a reddish purple when all the other doors were light green. There was another peep hole set above two buttons. Button was about where you would expect an elevator call button, with one over the other. No arrows, but if this wasn’t an elevator, I’d make a hat, then eat it.

I pressed a button, then instantly regretted it. Who knows what might wake up when the elevator starts moving. I got lucky. Absolutely nothing happened. The button didn’t even click.

It was just possible the power was out. I snorted and kept going. I worked my way back to the door to the stairs. Figures the very last door I tried, the one closest to the stairs, was unlocked. It pushed open with a touch, then came to a stop again before it was all the way open. I pushed a little harder. Then a lot harder. Something eventually slid back, letting me open the door all the way.

I looked down. It was a backpack. Some kind of shiny plastic shell on a metal frame. Camping backpack? Something like that. I was a lot more concerned about the body on the ground next to it. Reaching for the machete strapped to the side of it. Which was fair enough, given the hatchet sticking into the side of their neck. Human, or human looking, for a long dead corpse.

Looks like whatever happened here, they knew it was coming and tried to run. Or at least two people knew something bad was coming. And whatever it was, it was bad enough that they weren’t worried about ever coming back. Or that one of them would be missed. I mentally drew a line from the camping backpack, to the hatchet, then the machete and finally to the dead thing on the roof.

At least I have gear. Lucky. Now. How lucky would I have to be to find clothes in here that fit me?