Read Down the Road: The Fall of Austin for Free Online Page B

and turn around
now,” Derek said. “You hear me?”
    They didn’t comply.
    “You need to stop and turn around now,” Derek
said again. “Last time I’m going to tell you.”
    Mike then decided it was best to step out of
the cruiser and give the situation his full attention.
    The vagrants drifted under an overhead night
light on the side of the building, and their sunken faces and
cloudy eyes were revealed.
    Mike shivered to the bone in fear and
recognition. He had seen faces exactly like those only hours
earlier, at the disturbance call at Riverside Apartments. The
mother in particular flashed across his memory. He remembered her
face. Her tears. His tears. Goosebumps rose on his arms.
    Derek recognized the faces as well. They
matched the one the crazed boy had worn. He had had to taze that
crazy bastard multiple times.
    Mike’s lips stuttered, shocked into inaction
as he recalled the moment from earlier that day. Thankfully Derek
was quick to send out a warning to their fellow officers.
    “Guys!” Derek yelled. “Clark! Roland! Stop!
Get back!”
    “What?” Clark asked, perturbed.
    “Just get back and draw your tazers! I’m
thinking this might get ugly!”
    Derek remembered how ineffective his tazer
was earlier that day, but he dared not suggest the men draw their
sidearms—not yet. He knew they would be discharged, probably
several times, and he was not going to be part of another A.P.D.
investigation into the shooting death of a suspect.
    “What are you talking about?” Officer Roland
asked, clueless to Derek’s subtext. He probably hadn’t heard about
the Building H incident.
    In the confusion, Mike and Derek left their
suspects vulnerable, something neither of them would have let
happen otherwise. Lying bound on the ground between the police and
the three approaching cloudy-eyed vagrants, they craned their heads
around so they could see what the commotion was all about.
    Charlie yelled, “Oh, shit!” Helpless on the
ground, he was the first to be attacked. His friend screamed, first
from the fearful shock of watching his pot superstar friend have a
chunk of flesh taken out of his shoulder, then from having a
matching chunk taken out of his. The third vagrant attacked his
exposed lily-white legs.
    “Stop them!” Derek yelled, dashing forward
and tazing one of the vagrants. Officer Clark zapped another. Since
the attackers were still on top of the potheads, the electrical
charge was also sent through the victims like a live-wire chain,
and all five rattled in an electro-shock dance.
    Roland dove and tackled one of the crazed
vagrants, removing him violently from his victim and forcing him to
the ground. He whipped out his pepper spray and squirted a sharp
stream straight to the eyes. The vagrant wasn’t fazed, however, and
grabbed Roland’s arm and bit down.
    Roland screamed and yanked his arm away. He
viciously punched the man three times in the face, breaking a
cheekbone, before twisting the man’s arms behind his back and
cuffing the wrists together with the skill of a seasoned
veteran.
    Mike kicked the other two away from the
potheads so the unfortunate men wouldn’t be electrocuted further.
Charlie and his friend were crying in pain, helpless in their
handcuffs.
    Mike switched on the CB. “864 to dispatch. We
need an ambulance at 1837 South William Cannon and Congress
intersection, behind Quates Liquor. Over.” Static buzzed as he
turned to Derek and Clark and advised, “We don’t want to kill them,
guys! Keep those tazers going on and off at
    intervals! Short bursts!”
    However, Mike knew a single burst alone
should be sufficient to take most anybody down. Nobody he
had heard of had ever been able to take more than two before giving
up.
    Are these wacked-out side effects of some
new street drug? he wondered. Or some sort of human fucking
rabies? Or is this shit just pure insanity?
    Whatever it was, it was definitely
contagious.
    Roland had stood and was inspecting his
wound. Mike