The interrogation room was getting crowded and because of the one way mirror it looked like there was two of everyone.

Sergeant Pearce was frantic. “Jesus Christ, Dennis! How did she get out?”

Officer Dennis was holding the side of his neck. The front of his uniform was completely covered in blood. “She went crazy. She just,” he paused. He looked like he was going to throw up. “She attacked me.”

Kenji was leaning heavily against the door with his shoulder. He had his ear up to the door, listening. The wounded soldier was lying down in the corner. He looked like he was in bad shape. It looked like he had several bullet wounds to his chest and stomach.

Sergeant Pearce was still trying to catch his breath. “What do you mean she attacked you? How did she get free?”

“I don’t know! It was like she ripped her hands out of the cuffs.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I swear to you, I’m being serious. Then she lunged at me. I hit her with the baton but she didn’t even seem to notice. She didn’t even put her hands up to protect herself. She just kept coming. I made a run for it. I made it back to the front office and that’s when I saw Lieutenant Smith struggling with that other guy we’d brought in. The Lieutenant must have tripped at some point. The suspect was on top of him before I could get there.”

Kenji looked at Officer Dennis. “Whose blood are you covered in?”

Dennis looked at his shirt. It was only then he realized it was completely red. “I’m not sure.” He looked himself over, checking his arms. His hands were trembling. “I think it’s hers. She was bleeding from the mouth and nose. It was messed up.”

“This is crazy!” yelled Sergeant Pearce. “I shot her right in the chest and she didn’t even flinch!”

“It’s gotta be a psychotic episode, right?” Kim offered. “Like, a drug induced psychotic episode. Addicts that get messed up on meth and crack, they go completely mad, they don’t feel pain, they just go crazy. That’s the only explanation, right?”

From the corner, Jack asked, “Who the hell shot this guy?”

“Friendly fire from the Lieutenant,” Kenji said. “When that woman attacked, the Lieutenant tried to get some shots off. He was caught in the cross fire.”

“Is he going to make it?”

There was no reply.

It was a weird feeling being in the same room as a soldier that was in all probability, bleeding to death from multiple gunshot wounds. We usually only heard about this kind of thing on the news. But here it was, happening right here, right in front of us.

At this point I was still crouched behind the table. Jack was crouching next to me, and Maria was holding onto Jack. She had completely stopped crying. “Jack, we need to call your parents and get the hell out of here,” she whispered.

“So what happened to the Lieutenant?” Sergeant Pearce asked as he struggled to get to his feet. Kim moved over to help the big man stand up.

“I tried to help,” Dennis said. “I tried to stop them. But that guy was already on top of him. And once the woman saw the Lieutenant on the ground she stopped chasing me and…” he trailed off. “They were too fast!” His voice was breaking.

“Jesus Christ!” Sergeant Pearce swore again, his voice getting louder. “So Lieutenant Smith could be bleeding to death for all we know.”

“We have to go out there,” Kim said.

Kenji shook his head. “That’s not a good idea.”

“Excuse me?” Sergeant Pearce asked. “Why the hell not?”

“It’s too dangerous. We’re going to need help.”

“I think the four of us can handle two drugged out psychos,” Kim said.

Sergeant Pearce pulled a hanky out of his pocket and wiped his forehead. He was leaning up against the large mirror, breathing heavily. He looked like he was going to have a heart attack. “So what you’re saying is, you think we should just sit tight and wait for back up while your Lieutenant bleeds to death out there?”

Before Kenji could answer Pearce, a loud animalistic moan reverberated through the tiny room. Someone started banging on the other side of the one way mirror. For a fleeting split second I thought maybe it was the Lieutenant banging on the mirror for help. But I guess everyone sort of knew it wasn’t the Lieutenant. I guess everyone already knew who or what it was.

“Pearce!” Kim shouted. “Get away from the mirror!”

It was too late.

The crazy lady smashed through the glass, cutting her arms and her face to shreds. But she didn’t seem to care. She was hysterical and frothing red saliva. Her mouth and chin were covered in blood. She grabbed the big Sergeant around his neck and pulled him up and over into the adjacent room. There’s no way one little alcoholic lady should’ve been able to lift a man that size off his feet.

Sergeant Pearce screamed and then made a gurgling noise.

The weird thing is, I remember it now as if it happened in slow motion. But it all happened so damn fast. Too fast to sit down and think things through in a clear and logical manner. It happened and we reacted.

Before we could help the Sergeant there was a thump on the door. Kenji still had his full weight against it. But it wouldn’t take long for whoever or whatever was on the other side to bust in.

“Rebecca!” Kenji yelled. “I need you to unclip two grenades from him,” he said, referring to the wounded soldier.

“What? Are you crazy?”

“Just do it!”

I knelt down over the soldier and unclipped two grenades from his vest. “Now what?”

“Pull the pins and throw them into the next room.”

I did what he said, like I was a robot on auto pilot and he was punching in commands. I’d never thrown a grenade. I didn’t know you had to pull a pin. But there I was, doing exactly what he said.

I threw the grenades into the room where the crazy lady and the Sergeant were. Kenji told me to hit the deck and take cover. Then he opened the door and planted a thrust kick, smack bang in the middle of the chest of whoever was trying to break in through the door. He then opened fire with his rifle, slammed the door shut and dived for the floor, covering me and Officer Dennis.

“Everyone get down!” Kenji yelled.

We all flattened ourselves against the floor.

Kenji grabbed Kim and threw her to the ground as well. Above all the chaos I could hear him counting down the seconds of the grenade fuse.

At five seconds I curled up into a ball and made myself as small as possible. I thought if I squeezed myself into a tight enough ball, I would be able to teleport out of there.

Three seconds.

I didn’t teleport.

Two seconds.

Jack was curled up next to me, covering his head. Maria was underneath Jack, curled up into an even smaller ball.

No seconds.

Two simultaneous explosions rocked the police station. The noise sent me momentarily deaf. My world turned to dust and debris and a high pitched ringing.