The Woke and the Dead – Book Tour and Giveaway

CHAPTER 12

April 5

Kate heard popping sounds and almost simultaneous screams. Bullets crashed through picket signs, crashed through windows, crashed through flesh.

Seconds before, she’d passed a line of gay rights demonstrators marching in front of Governor Gudgel’s new Polk campaign headquarters. When Kate walked into the office, the shooting began.

She dropped to the floor as the storefront picture window shattered and a coffee machine at the back of the room exploded. Somewhere in Kate’s mind, terror mixed with split-second knowledge that the prospect of being shot by a lunatic with an assault weapon had become part of American life. Would this be her final thought?

The shots continued rapidly, pop, pop, pop, one after another. Then stopped.   

Kate stayed glued to the floor, along with the half dozen office workers. She listened. Sounds eerily similar to moans from the theme park’s zombie ride drifted in through the broken window. More than a minute without gunfire passed before she dared to raise up on hands and knees, keeping her head low. A man in the corner held his arm, attempting to staunch the blood that soaked his sleeve. Kate’s first impulse was to crawl over to him, but two other people, crouching low, inched to him with towels to stop the bleeding. After another frozen minute, a siren.

When a chorus of sirens sounded, Kate raised up enough to peer through the splintered window out to the street. A sheriff’s car skidded to a stop. Its doors flew open. Two deputies, one armed with a semi-automatic rifle, jumped out and scanned the surrounding buildings. Across the street more black and whites arrived. Uniformed officers dashed up and down the opposite sidewalk.

An ambulance braked to a stop. EMTs leaped out carrying gear. Kate stood up and took tentative steps to the door, her senses on hair-trigger alert.

She stepped outside, gagged, and turned away. Three of the LGBTQ picketers and a sheriff’s deputy lay on the ground, surrounded by blood.