A gunshot

Residents heard the smoke alarm first, they should have heard it first but didn't act. Each one of them ignored the fire set in the main hallway and elevators.
"The thing about smoke alarms is they go off without any reason", one of the rescued residents stated while he sat next to the pool. A blanket was wrapped around his shoulders and he shivered for cold. " You know what I mean sir, it's no different from car alarms. You hear them 24/7 and do not even recognize your own if it goes off. All those alarms, dogs barking, horns, brakes, fighting people and gunshots, you get.."
"Gunshots? Did you say gunshots?" The officer who hadn't shown much interest so far looked up from his little notebook and observed the man in front of him. The guy had a lot in common with a weasel although his eyes were extremely blue. It was the brightest blue he had ever seen. It felt as if he could look right through them.
"I am sure these were gunshots," the man hesitated as the officer handed him a flask.
"It's good for you, keeps you warm," the officer mumbled. He made some notes and waited till the weasel whose name turned out to be Butterscotch seemed to relax.
"About those shots.."
"They started about two weeks ago. At first, I felt annoyed. If people live so close you easily get annoyed... It always starts if I am asleep."
"You sleep a lot?"
It took a longer period before weasel Butterscotch answered. It turned out he had difficulties sleeping and his day and night rhythm were nearly identical. Four hours sleeping and four hours among the living. To him, it was scheduled but to an outsider, it was not. The gunshots didn't make sense if they were at times he went to bed only.

Not that people who had reached or surpassed the age of consent couldn't be morons, too but it wasn't that likely. How was it possible that the residents of an entire building ignored the smoke alarm that could be heard six blocks away? What or who made each one of them stay inside and continue their daily life without even sticking their head out of the doorway to check what's going on? People are usually curious and love watching disasters. The first thing they usually do is go over, take photos and publish them online. This time it was different. Those who didn't die were shot or choked by the smoke needed to be rescued and this was the minority. Only five people could be rescued, five out of the 79 residents. No one called 911 in time and although the smoke alarm went off in and outside of the building the security didn't show up or informed. They claimed nothing happened and there was no message sent to their office.
A black smoking building was the result. The few residents still alive lost their homes and might lost their lives too. In thoughts, he sat behind his desk and still in thoughts he automatically picked up the phone as it rang.
The message given surprised him. If the pathologist was right everyone shot was related. So far they had different names but they were family, close family all living in the same building. The question was if those five staying in the hospital were related too.
"Please, check the blood results of each one of them as soon as possible", the doctor said to the laboratory employee, " it's urgent and confidential. Hand them over to me in person and to no one else you hear me? Not to a nurse or assistant or another doctor, just me."
The employee nodded and took the blood samples to his working desk. No names or dates of births were on it just numbers. Numbers couldn't be registered into the system but she didn't care as long as she was paid and the doctor was responsible.

It didn't take long to test and come to the same conclusion as the pathologist. "
According to the tests the blood samples came from people who were related, very closely related. That is the first bloodline."
"Thank you the doctor," said and after she left he made an appointment with an old colleague he knew would be interested in a case of 74 if not 79 siblings living in the same building. A building was set at the fire and where the residents were shot. Next, he called the officer of the police to meet him. This case remembered him of the bleeding toe his colleague wrote about years ago. He had always thought it had been part of the imagination of his friend but it was the only explanation unless the results of the test were wrong, the virus not only infected behaviour but also the blood of every resident and with that the DNA which was good enough to put this life a hold with a gunshot.

A free write story out of the blue. The prompts used are written in bold.

How does it work? Use one prompt and write for a set time. Next, you go look for and use the second prompt and write on (set the timer) and when the timer goes off you go for prompt number three. No thinking ahead. The idea is to let the prompts de you and see which unexpectedly story your mind comes up with.

#kittywu #story #gunshot