Down the Road: The Fall of Austin by Bowie Ibarra Page B

roads.”
    He slowly pushed open the door and was hit in
the face with a funk that was clearly not just the foul odor of
excrement. The lights were off. The illumination from the hallway
revealed the light switch by the door. Knight flicked the switch
upwards. It clicked into place.
    No lights.
    Two more flicks proved the lights were not
working.
    Knight clicked on the light secured to his
weapon. He realized that he could have just taken the ladies to the
men’s room. But if a Viral was in here, he needed to neutralize it
anyway so it wouldn’t surprise them later.
    “ Those things take shits?” he asked
himself, watching the white beam of light from the flashlight cut
through the darkness like an angelic sword. The head of the beam
hit the floor, revealing footprints splattered in blood. Something strange in the neighborhood, he thought, as Ray
Parker, Jr. sang the old ‘80s hit in his head. The light followed
the trail past the stalls and sinks toward the wall, focusing on a
body.
    Knight gasped. The body had been torn to
pieces. An entire leg was exposed to the bone. The crotch and all
subsequent female genitalia had been ripped from the body, exposing
the hipbone. Internal organs of the region had been gnawed upon,
and the belly was torn open.
    A movement to the left of the mutilated
corpse caused Knight to adjust the light to focus on the body right
next to it. Sitting against the wall, a female Viral opened its
eyes and immediately covered them with her hands. She had long
black hair and massive breasts hiding behind an ivory blouse and
gray business dress suit. She was missing one shoe, revealing
manicured toes.
    The discovery was bizarre. The only
hypothesis Knight could figure was that the Viral had caught the
woman in the restroom and was feasting on her body as the lights
went out. Enclosed in darkness, the Viral could not enjoy the feast
entirely or find its way out. So it sat and rested.
    But that was all blind speculation.
    The creature was rising despite the bright
light shining in her pale dead face. Knight couldn’t help but
marvel at her voluptuous body, and fancied her a hottie in her
previous life. It was too bad she was a Viral now, with only one
solution to her crisis.
    Knight provided two as a sort of verification
of the only answer.
    The first bullet punched out her top front
teeth, splitting her palette and severing the top of her spine. The
second bullet put her out of her twitching misery, busting her left
eye and digging through enough brain to end her days as a
Viral.
    (A hot Viral.)
    She fell face first into the bloody and torn
crotch of her victim, landing with an audible splat.
    Knight slowly backed out of the restroom.
    “What happened?” one of the senators
asked.
    “You ladies are going to have to use the
men’s room.”
     

CHAPTER TEN
     
    5:00 AM
    State Capitol Rotunda
     
    The morning had been quiet apart from the
gunshots fired in the ladies room earlier by Spc. Knight.
    Specialists Rodriguez, Garrison, and Goodson
were wandering around near the entrance to the capitol building,
taking in the historical monuments close by.
    Garrison looked curiously at words on the
marble tile floor. “Check out these words,” he said. “Sabine Pass,
Palo Alto, Coleto, Bex-ar.”
    “ Bexar ,” Goodson corrected.
“Pronounced Bay-har . It’s Spanish.”
    “Stupid ass Spanish can’t spell for shit,”
Garrison said callously.
    “Watch your mouth, Garrison,” Rodriguez
grunted.
    “What’s that set on the floor near you say?”
Garrison asked Goodson, trying to change the subject quickly.
    Goodson was looking at another set of words
coupled with torches and winding ribbon that looked eerily like
snakes.
    “San Jacinto, Goliad, Alamo, Gonzales. Shit,
I know those names. They were pretty much the most significant
battles in the Texas war of independence.” Goodson swelled with
pride.
    “Garrison, what’s on that side?” Rodriguez
asked.
    “Galveston, Palmito, Velasco, Anahuac.