The police had found her, passed out in the middle of what remained of the three men. It had taken 3 minutes and 35 seconds for the police to arrive from the moment the calls were coming in. It was rare in a neighborhood like this to have even one call come in, but this time there were three. Of loud screaming, a woman’s scream that had cut through walls and the scream of men.

Screams were common in this part of town and usually you did not even hear them anymore, but this time was different, these screams were from people in extreme fear and pain. So when three calls came in, dispatches were issued, several patrols responded and in 2 minutes and 10 seconds after the first call had come in, they had entered the alley where the screams had originated.

But everything was quiet now. Almost too quiet. You could still hear the cars in the streets, but the further they went into the alleyway, the more it seemed that noises had fled this particular area. Drowned out by the constant rain that was now falling in large quantities from the sky.

Something felt wrong, and the cops, sensitive to the atmosphere, automatically pulled out their guns. It took a bit of time before they found her. As they had already passed the boarded up building, but as they moved away from the building the sounds of the city reemerged, even the rain seemed to lessen.

“We missed something, I can feel it in my gut” said one of the older cops and started heading back. Trying doors and boards until he found the loose one from the abandoned building. He and one of the younger female cops stepped through the boarding, announcing themselves, while flashlights shone in the dark, shining light where their gun was pointing.

They only had to step through the hallway to get into the ‘carnage room’, that was what the press was calling it. And there they found her. 3 minutes and 35 seconds after the first call got in. Record time for a situation like this their press officer had stated later in one of their press conferences. “these were the city’s finest”.

After one look at what they found the young officer ran back into the hallway and she threw up. Even the older cop had to swallow a few times, before he called it in. Stepping through the mess, trying to disturb as little as possible, he got to the young girl laying on the floor, hardly recognizable as she was covered in blood, puke and grime.

Her chest was moving up and down and he checked her pulse. It felt a bit week, but otherwise she looked fine. He got back to dispatch and called for an ambulance and a coroner. As the other 3 bodies laying on the floor were clearly dead. No need to check their pulse. He could recognize dead people. And these were as dead as you could get.

After he was released, he got out of the building and checked in on Sandra. She was new on the job. Eager, but fresh out of the academy. Nothing but a long life on the job prepared you for these kind of scenes and he had seen big strong, tough cops throw up after years on the force.

Hell, he had thrown up once or twice when he was young. In his experience, female cops were usually stronger than the men. He just made sure Sandra was all right and to let her know that he was ok with what happened. And when the ambulance drove off, he signaled DT and they followed with his car.