The Onyx Seed - A Story of Survival by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 3

Within the city, Marty normally confined himself to the neighborhood outside his apartment. There weren’t many people he trusted and seeing the immediate area as a safe zone provided him with, at least, the illusion of safety. Maria lived about twelve blocks away in a neighborhood with many children. Most were without jobs and lived only by the small, monthly government checks they received. He was going to an unfamiliar neighborhood and thought it might be best if he were on foot. The gangs were everywhere and if he found himself being pursued; he had a better chance of escape if he didn’t have to worry about his car. The address led Marty to an old tenement building. It looked as if it had been built shortly after World War Two. The only thing remotely attractive about it was its brick facade, and even that had succumbed to the rigors of time.

He walked up three flights of stairs before stopping in front of the door to Maria’s apartment. The hallway was illuminated only by a single window that faced out onto the street. As Marty stepped up to the door, he heard the hardwood floor creek under his feet. The sound left him feeling a bit spooked as the darkened hallway amplified it enough that it could be heard from the first-floor stairway. He tapped lightly on the door, only to be met with cold, empty silence. He knocked again, putting a little more force into the door. A moment went by, but there was no answer. Marty leaned forward, putting an ear to the door, hoping to hear something, quiet steps across the carpeted floor, the cry of a cat or the muted sound of a radio. Yet, the shattering whisper of silence drove him into a feeling of tension he hadn’t experienced since just before the battle of Fallujah. Back then, the tense calm had been broken by the storm of battle. The crackling of gunfire and the screams of dying men. As he stood in front of the door, Marty was forced into a conscious effort to keep the war in the desert, where it belonged. Marty’s curiosity quickly became as strong as his concern for what happened to Maria. But, it wasn’t just about Maria anymore and Marty suspected that something may have happened to her parents as well. Against his better judgment, he placed a hand on the doorknob, giving it a quiet and cautious turn. Alarms sounded in his head as he realized that it refused to offer even the slightest degree of resistance. Whoever had been there last failed to lock the door and in L.A., that kind of forgetfulness often came with a grave price.

As the door cracked open, its hinges released a loud groan, startling Marty into a frozen panic. Upon recovering his senses, he continued to ease the door open. Every ounce of caution he possessed screamed at him to leave as quickly as possible. His mind raced with every scenario that may have forced its way into their relatively quiet lives. But, in spite of not knowing what may lie on the other side of the door, Marty continued to open it. From the doorway, Marty’s initial survey of the apartment quickly led him to the obvious conclusion that everything was still in its place. Had there been a break-in, the apartment would be in a complete state of disarray. The fact that it wasn’t raised Marty’s suspicions to the level of paranoia. He stepped into the apartment as though walking through a minefield. When he found himself standing well beyond the door, he began scanning everything he could see. He turned to his right and was suddenly overcome with something he had not expected.

The living room was strewn with the leftovers of what had obviously been a medical emergency. The floor was covered with syringe wrappers, needle caps, and I.V. tubing boxes. Within that small room, chaos had erupted. But it wasn’t until Marty’s eyes fell on one particular item that he realized the full extent of the crisis that had occurred. Near the lamp that stood next to the television lay the long metal guide of an endotracheal tube. He’d seen enough reality shows to know what it was used for and as he stood among a sea of medical waste paper, he quietly inquired about what he had not expected. “What the fuck happened?”

He turned and closed the front door, leaving it open by barely an inch. Marty walked carefully through the apartment. At this point, he was very aware of the consequences of simply walking into someone else’s home. Not planning on making a search of the apartment, Marty had a strong feeling that things were worse than they appeared. Glancing around the doorframe of the master bedroom, he found that it too had been the scene of a medical emergency. He walked silently to the back of the apartment and peeked into what was obviously Maria’s bedroom. It possessed a feminine touch typical of a young woman in her early twenties. He didn’t enter the room but merely observed its contents from the doorway. Marty was stunned by what he saw, as he stood at the edge of what must have been complete chaos. He realized that Maria and her parents had been rushed from their home after falling victim to something truly catastrophic. As he quickly made his way back to the front door, he noticed something unusual, something that, perhaps, should have been there. There was no blood. Anywhere. In Los Angeles, if someone was taken to a hospital, it was likely they were the victim of violence. So, for three people to be rushed from the same place, without so much as a hint of anything criminal, left Marty with a deep feeling of confusion and fear. As he left the apartment, closing the door behind him, Marty suddenly became aware of the entire scene that had opened in front of him.

“Jesus Christ,” he whispered to himself. There seemed to be no other words to describe his reaction to something that was, clearly, very serious. But what frightened him most was that he was unable to figure out what, exactly, had happened.

Upon entering his apartment, Marty walked straight back toward his room. However, before he could get to the kitchen, Lucas, having heard him enter, walked out into the living room and called to him from behind.

“Marty,” he said. “How’s it going?” As Marty turned around, he tried unsuccessfully to hide the fact that he was still quite shaken by the scene he had witnessed. Lucas hesitated as he tried to read Marty’s expression.

“What is it?” he asked.

Marty took a moment to try to come up with a believable answer, knowing how attracted he was to Maria.

“Uh, nothing,” Marty answered.

Marty didn’t want to give him cause for concern until he could figure out what had happened. He turned away and continued to his room when Lucas interrupted him in mid-stride.

“Vinnie called for you.”

Marty stopped suddenly, now knowing that he had to tell Lucas something.

“He said something about Maria not showing up for work today.”

Another moment went by as he waited for a response. “Marty,” he continued. “What’s going on?” Marty let out a tense sigh, turned around, and described to Lucas what he’d seen in Maria’s apartment. Lucas stood wide-eyed with disbelief. “So, what happened?” he asked.

“I have no idea,” Marty answered.

Turning away again, he began walking back toward his room.

“So, which hospital do you think they’re in?” Lucas asked.

Marty stopped and took a few steps back toward him. “Luke, I don’t know that it’s any of our business,” he replied.

Lucas was more than a little surprised by his answer. Marty clearly wanted to stay out of Maria’s personal affairs.

“Marty,” Lucas said.

His tone reflected the dismay he felt at Marty’s apparent lack of concern.

“Don’t you want to know what happened to her? You’ve worked with her longer than I have!” Marty wasn’t comfortable with things he couldn’t explain, and he wanted to maintain an emotional distance from whatever it was that happened to Maria and her parents. But Lucas was right and Marty realized that there are some things one shouldn’t hide from. Marty brought a hand to his forehead with an expression of concern. He knew this was something serious. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it was. But, knowing how Lucas felt about Maria, he decided that they should look into it, primarily for Lucas peace of mind.

“Alright, Luke,” he started. “Where do you think we should start?”

Lucas gave pause to consider Marty’s question. “Well,” he began. “The only hospital that takes people who don’t have insurance is county, so that might be a good place to look first.”