EXTINCTION || CHAPTER 2 || ON THE RUN || FICTION || STORY

CHAPTER 2

ON THE RUN

The hotel employee was moving a key card towards the door lock. Jay started through the peephole, two uniformed London police officers stood beside him. The hotel employee brought the key card towards the door lock.


Jay flipped the privacy lock, preventing the door from opening. “Just a minute, please,” he said. Trying to sound annoyed by their sudden arrival. “I’m not wearing anything.”

“Please hurry, Mr.Patel,” the security guard addressing him by his name confirmed that Jay had booked this room under his name, but why?


Jay looked at the dead man on the floor. His mind searched through options.
Option One: Go out of the window. Jay walked to the tall glass and examined it. It was at least ten stories above the ground. Moreover, it looked like it didn't open. Even if it did there was no means to reach the ground in one, non-splattered piece.

Option Two: make a run for it. Which, he assigned zero chances of success. Every part of his body ached. He couldn’t push past three men, much less beat them on foot.

That left him with Option Three: hiding the body and letting the things play out.
But where? The suit didn’t have many places. Apart from the living room he was standing in there was only one more bedroom.
The living room was well furnished. It had a desk and office chair, a couch, and an entertainment center. There was a heating unit sitting by the windows and floor-to-ceiling drapes. The bedroom held a king-size bed, another window with a heating unit and drapes under it, and a closet. The narrow bathroom opened only from the bedroom.

Jay made his decision and hid the body.


While lifting the dead body his ribs radiated pain that overwhelmed him, nearly gagging him. The man was tall about the height of Jay. He was like only 70 kgs but weighed 140.

As he dragged the body Jay thought how he knew how to use a gun. He flipped the safety, cocked the gun all perfectly. Even though his hands trembled he knew that he had done that before. But what really concerned him was he never really considered explaining the whole situation. It was as if somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he knew that he had something to hide like he was someone who needed to avoid the police. He needed his freedom right now. He needed to find out what had happened to him.

Sweat covered his face. He was panting when they knocked again. He wiped his face, and raced to the door and cracked open the door just slightly. “ Yes?”.
The security guard spoke. “ May we come to Mr. Patel.”

Jay thought for a second. Saying no would cast suspicion on him. So, without a word, he swung the door wider.
A fancy rug covers the patch of blood and no one seems to notice it. It looked just in place.
The three men came in, their eyes scanning the room. One of the officers wandered into the bedroom.
“What is this about?’ Jay asked.
“We had a call. About some disturbance,” the police officer in the living room said. He glanced behind the couch and then behind the entertainment center.
“No luggage?” The other officer asked as he stood in front of an empty closet.
“Sent it down already,” he said quickly, trying to sound as if they were wasting his time. He needed to do something, go on the offensive side to get them out of the room. “ What sort of disturbance? Are you sure that this is the right room?”
“Why are you here Mr.Patel?” Asked the officer in the living room, unshaken by Jay’s earlier questions.
“You know this is going in the online review,” Jay said, focusing on the security guard.
“Yeah, it is,” Jay pressed on it.
“And the title would be: Stay here to experience a police interrogation and crappy WiFi.”
The guard looked at the office’ “ Are we finished here?”
“Yes. We are done here.” The other officer said, emerging from the bedroom.
“Very sorry to have disturbed you please enjoy your stay.”
The three men gathered at the door. The security guard had just grabbed the handle when a sound erupted in the room: skin sliding on glass. The squealing sound ceased, and all three men paused. The gravity had done its work, pulling down Wang We’s dead body toward the floor. Jay had propped the dead man against the window and covered him with drapes. His face rubbed the glass once more before hitting the heating unit and tumbled to the floor with a thud.

Jay lunged forward, the distance to the three men in less than a second. He swung his hand with all the force he could collect. It collided with the rightmost officer’s face. The man’s head flew back and hit the metal door casing. He was instantly knocked out. Jay rolled and pressed his body into the security guard, keeping him from raising his arms. The other officer drew his gun and was raising it, but Jay did a 180 and hit the officer’s forehead with his elbow. The man slammed back against the door, then tumbled to the floor, unconscious, his gun flying. Jay leaped to it, picked it up, and pointed at the security guard.
“Hands where I can see them.”
The guard's hands trembled as he raised them.
“Don’t make a sound. I don’t want to hurt you, but if you yell, I will.”
The man nodded.
“Are there more officers downstairs?”
The man closed his eyes. “Two cars pulled up. But I don’t know if they stayed or not.”
“Don’t lie to me!” Jay said, raising the gun.
“I am telling the truth. Please don’t hurt me.”

“Turn around,” Jay ordered.
Slowly, the security guard turned. Jay raised the butt of the gun and hit the man on the head, sending him to the floor.
He dragged the guard's body inside and shut the door. He knew that he didn’t have much time, more officers would be coming soon to check. He pulled out the magazine from the gun and verified that it had bullets. He checked the pockets of all three men and took the money and extra magazine from the officers.
He once again checked Wang We’s pockets for some clues. He only found some bits of paper and a coupon for some storage locker. He noticed his name written on it. Quickly, he put everything in his pocket. He pulled his shirt out and tucked the gun into his waistband. He took the younger officer’s police ID and the security guard’s radio.

He had to now escape from the hotel and go off the streets of London. He had to decide the stairs or elevators. Front door or back.

He chose the elevator and the front door, to avoid the suspicion of anyone looking at the security camera.
In the hall, he casually marched to the elevator. It arrived a few seconds later, revealing a white-haired woman.
When the door opened to the lobby he stepped aside and allowed the women to exit first.
On the radio, a voice asked “George are you still there in 1774?”
Jay fell behind the women.
“George, Come in.”
Two uniformed officers stood just outside the glass door. Jay completely ignored them and walked normally to avoid suspicion. Jay stepped aside and powerwalked past the women. He swang the glass door and stood outside in the cool air, holding the door for the women.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she passed.
He opened the door to the cab for her, then slid into the next one. The driver asked for the destination. Jay was about to say the station when he thought the police would search the stations and airports first when they would find about the officers in 1774.

“Please just drive. I had a fight with my girlfriend, and i need to get out for a while. I want to see the city.” Jay exhaled when the driver pulled away from the hotel.

As he rode through the city, he looked at al the bits of paper that he had collected from Wang We. Nothing looked like it could show something, but the coupon gained his interest. The coupon had his name, which made him think whether he had booked a locker there. He flipped the coupon, on the back he or perhaps someone else had scribbled something.

WARN HER

9045361280

Warn her. And a phone number. Warn Her of what? Maybe Incarnation Therapeutics or whoever had sent Wang We were after “her” as well. “May I borrow your phone for a bit. I forgot mine in the hotel.” Jay asked the driver. The drive nodded and passed the phone back.
Jay dialed the number. On the third ring, a woman answered. “ Go for Mehak”
“Hi…… it’s Jay Patel.”
She sounded more alert when she spoke again. “Hi.”
He had no idea what to say. “ Are you expecting my call.”
“What is it, Jay?”
“Do we know each other?”
“Please, Jay. This isn’t funny, Jay.” she sounded sad now.
“I just, can you tell me who you are? Where do you work? Please”
“Mehak Rajput. I work at NCDC (National Center for Disease Control). I am an Epidemiologist.”
“Listen to me, Mehak. I think you’re in danger.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I’ll call you back.”
Jay saw two police officers approaching the taxi. He returned the phone and told the driver that he will get off here. He paid the driver, got off, and disappeared in the crowd.

To be Continued...

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