Hearing the jingle jangle of keys and the sound of running footsteps was enough to snap me out of my hypnotic state. I turned my gaze away from Tommy and saw two police officers trying to unlock the cell. Thankfully, one of them was Kim.

“Why were they left here?” she demanded. “What the hell is going on?”

“Kim!” Maria shouted. “Thank god! Get us out of here.”

It was a huge relief to see a familiar face. And also to know that there were still people alive.

“Bloody hell, Dennis,” Kim said to the other officer. “You left them in the cell?”

“I had no choice. There was an emergency call. And I was the only one here to answer it. What was I supposed to do? I didn’t realize it was going to take so long.”

“Where’s the other lady?”

“She’s still in solitary confinement. She started skitzing out last night.”

“Skitzing out?”

“You know, going crazy. She was violent and swearing. The whole nine yards.”

Jack was kneeling down next to Tommy. He was breathing hard. “He attacked us. I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Kim opened the cell gate and asked us if we were all right. Then she saw the mess that was now Tommy’s head. The color drained from her face and she threw up.

Officer Dennis ran his hands through his hair. “Crikey. What the bloody hell happened here?”

Kim leant against the wall. “Why did you even bring them in?” she asked Dennis. “Why didn’t anyone tell me my brother had been arrested?”

“Look, our orders were to enforce the curfew,” he answered. “Zero tolerance. Even for minors. Even for your brother. Not that we knew he was your brother.”

“Wait a minute. You haven’t even processed them yet?”

“No. Not yet. But we didn’t know we would be short staffed two hours later! A lot can happen in two hours. Especially with all the crazy stuff that’s been going on.”

“All right,” Kim said as she wiped some vomit from the side of her mouth. “I’ll take these kids out of here and contact their parents.”

“It’s OK. I can do it,” Dennis said.

“No. You’re going to clean this mess up. And call a paramedic or something.”

I don’t think Tommy needed a paramedic. He needed a new head.

“What? Why do I have to clean up?”

“Because you left them here.”

“I had no choice!”

“And now you don’t have a choice about this.”

“This is so not fair.”

“You want me to tell the Sergeant what you did?”

Dennis paused. You could see the cogs in his brain ticking over. “Damn it. OK, you win. Let me get a mop.”

“And check on the lady in solitary.”

“Hey, one thing at a time.”

“Oh, and where is the soldier they brought in last night?” Kim asked.

“He’s also in solitary. We contacted the US military. They said they’d be around sometime today to collect him.”

They must’ve been talking about Kenji. Looked like he was serious when he said he’d gone AWOL. How he even managed to get away in the first place and stay hidden was amazing in itself. But I guess being on the run catches up with everyone sooner or later.

“Paper work is gonna take forever,” Dennis complained.

It’s funny how all they were thinking about was the mess and the paperwork.