Purification

Chapter 10
The Flood

Chapter Description: The tainted water spreads through the suburbs, affecting many. Meanwhile Scott does damage control.

This chapter starts with a couple brief scenes of the transformation. Don’t worry, there’s more coming in the future too. Sorry again for the delay but writing and posting is more difficult without having my own computer.

X

The mind-altering agent so recently introduced to the water supply was already rushing through the pipes beneath the streets of West Auckland. The adulterated water snaked its way into a thousand homes and businesses, just waiting for someone to turn on the tap, waiting to claim more victims. The police were doing their best to warn the citizenry of the danger, but notifying an entire city’s population in a matter of minutes was too much to ask.

The first place the tainted water struck was at the very edge of the city, where the suburban sprawl of Auckland met the foothills of the Waitakeres. There amidst farmers roadside stands and rows of new houses stood Lynnfield College. The school’s First XV rugby team had just finished a tiring practice on a warm autumn afternoon. The 16 and 17 year old boys were covered in dirt and sweat so they headed off the pitch to have a shower before changing into street clothes.

As the boys rushed into the changing room, only the team captain, Jeremy, stayed behind to talk to the coach about improving their scrum. After a brief discussion Jeremy hurried into the changing room himself. He found the room empty, all the guys having headed into the shower already. Jeremy quickly stripped down, discarding his dirty, sticky uniform and throwing a towel around his waist. As soon as he walked into the showers, he knew something was seriously wrong.

The room was lined by two rows of private shower stalls, privacy protected by light shower curtains. But today half the curtains were open and his team-mates were standing around the open middle of the room, all completely naked in full view of each other. Their towels laid discarded on the floor. And they were behaving very strangely. Tom, a massive muscular boy, was kneeling on the floor right before him, raising his big bare bum in the air as he splashed at a puddle of water. Louis and John were seated on their bottoms on the cold wet floor, playing what appeared to be a primitive form of patty-cake, giggling cheerfully.

One of the closed curtains slid open and Harold, a big Samoan boy, toddled unsteadily out. He had a dazed look on his face, like he’d just been tackled by an All Black. His head wobbled back and forth and his feet seemed unsteady. Most disturbing was the massive erection he was sporting. No sooner had he exited the shower stall, though, than his erection began to soften and bob. At the same time he began to actually smile. But it wasn’t the kind of smile he got after winning a match or seeing a funny movie. It reminded Jeremy more of the smile his little 4-year old cousin got when he was given some lollies.

Jeremy proceeded slowly into the shower room. He thought this had to be some kind of weird joke the guys were playing on him. “Okay guys, you got me!” he yelled, forcing a laugh.

But if it was an act, they weren’t breaking character. Several of the vacant-eyed young men gaped silently at him, but made no verbal response. Harold, whose penis was now dangly flaccid between his bare thighs, dropped to a squatting position. Jeremy watched in horror as the teen began to poop on the floor. Harold appeared oblivious to his defilement of the shower room. He just gazed innocently up at the ceiling and pushed more poopie out.

“Oh Jesus!” Jeremy gasped, trying not to vomit. This was the most disgusting and frightening scene he’d ever witnessed.

It was then that he noticed the strange odour. The steam-filled room had a distinctly chemical smell, like a chlorine filled pool would. Jeremy sniffed the air, trying to recognise the odd scent. He was rewarded with a strong sense of elation. All his fears just drifted away. Then he was overwhelmed by the pleasure tingling over all his nerves. His skin seemed to have become super-sensitive. He could actually feel the steam caressing his body like a blanket of pure pleasure. It was so arousing. He could feel his penis growing stiff as a board under the towel. Jeremy couldn’t help but moan in release, letting the towel drop to the floor. He gazed down at his stiff member and didn’t care that he was exposing himself to his whole team. He didn’t care about anything at all.

Jeremy was lost in the moment. All he wanted was to feel more pleasure. Then the lovely feelings on his skin seemed to move upward and into his head. They concentrated in his brain, lighting it up with ecstasy. Jeremy didn’t even notice his penis going limp, nor the trickle of pee-pee that began to dribble out of it, wetting his feet. He was lost in the high. Section after section of his brain went dark, only releasing more free radicals, more endorphins, adding to the sense of euphoria. It was all over very quickly after that. When the pleasure abated and Jeremy was left with a vastly simplified brain, he didn’t feel anger or sorrow. He simply felt the need to make poopie. So, without a second thought he squatted down into a comfortable and natural position and chewed on his fingers whilst he pushed.

**

The tainted water worked its way deeper into West Auckland by the second. A kilometre down the road from Lynnfield College it reached the Troys’ house. A typically middle class tile-roofed house inhabited by a young family.

Jessica Troy had had a long day at work followed by a stop at the gym. But there was no rest for the weary. She’d had to rush straight over to the kindy to pick up her son, then head home to make him his afternoon tea. Finally he’d gone outside to play and she had some time to herself. At least she could think while she did the dishes. Turning on the hot water tap she loaded the dirty plates into the sink and grabbed the soap. As she went to start scrubbing she looked out the kitchen window and gasped. Dropping the plates and turning off the tap she headed out the sliding door to the backyard.

“Justin Troy! You get your butt in here right now!” she called.

The 3-year old just shook his head and ignored her, continuing to stand proudly nude atop the red and green plastic play place in the middle of the lawn.

Jessica frowned deeply at the tot and shook her head as she stalked out into the yard. “Get down from there this instant! You are coming inside now,” she told him angrily.

The little boy pouted and began to tear up. “Bu’ I wanna pway!” he screeched.

Grabbing his hand tightly she led him off the play place and back through the yard. She looked left and right to see if anyone had seen her incorrigible jaybird. The two neighbour boys were playing the yard next door but hadn’t seemed to notice. The ten and twelve year old were stripped to their shorts themselves babbling loudly as they played some kind of odd game of tag. Jessica didn’t pay them much attention, nor to the abandoned glasses of water they’d left on their deck.

She led her little boy into the house and plopped him on the living room floor. “Justin, what happened to your clothes?” she demanded.

The pouting boy didn’t reply.

“Haven’t I told you that is a no-no! Mummy doesn’t want you playing like that. You know you have to keep your undies on. Don’t you want everyone to know you wear big boy pants?”

“Uh-huh,” Justin agreed.

“Well then why did you take them off?”

The boy shrugged. “Feew bettah,” he offered.

Jessica groaned and shook her head again. How could little kids be so silly about things like this? Jessica got the boy a new pair of undies and set him down to watch some Sesame Street. “Okay, you stay right here young man or there will be no lollies after tea tonight. You understand?”

Justin nodded seriously. He wanted the lollies.

“Okay then,” Jessica stated, heading to the bathroom to finally have a nice calming shower.

The warm water was a relief to her. After a long and stressful day there was nothing like a shower. Well, accept for a bath of course. But there wasn’t time for that today. Her husband, Rich, would be home soon enough and then she’d have to make tea. At least she had these ten minutes all to herself. This was the time she could admire her thin and athletic 27-year old body, letting the water soak her long brown hair. Time she could think about all the travelling she wanted to do when Justin was a little older. But today she wasn’t thinking about those things. Instead, she was thinking about the water. Or rather, the way it felt on her skin.

The water felt unusually good today. It seemed to dance across her skin, lighting up pleasure centres as it did. She couldn’t help but giggle at the sensations. It was so nice she found herself doing something very silly. She stood directly under the shower-head and opened her mouth. The pleasure water poured down her throat, tickling all the way down. Her giggling only stopped when the pleasure erupted into her brain.

Justin had grown bored with the Sesame Street show and was playing with his toy trains when he heard the bathroom door open. He thought it was funny that the water was still running. Mummy had forgotten to turn it off for some reason. He heard footsteps coming down the hallway, but they weren’t mummy’s. She was quiet. These sounded like someone pounding their feet. Justin looked up from his toys curiously as the footsteps grew near. To his surprise it was mummy that walked in after all. But she looked really different.

Jessica was standing there buck naked and sopping wet. Beads of water trickled down her legs onto the carpet. Her hair was wet and tangled, strands partially covering her eyes. She paused a moment upon seeing Justin, chewing on her thumb while gazing at him curiously. Then a silly grin spread across her face and she toddled across the room to him, her feet pounding on the floor as she took unsteady steps. She dropped to her knees before him, her unrestrained boobies swinging about.

“C’n I pway?” she asked.

Justin was confused by this display. He noticed his mummy’s eyes were big and glassy. She looked more like his playmates at kindy that a grown-up. “Mummy, why you all wet?”

Jessica giggled. “Don’ wanna pway mummy silly. I wanna pway wid da choo-choos,” she insisted.

“But you’re mummy,” Justin repeated.

Jessica shook her head vigorously. “Nuh-uh. I’m Jethie!”

Justin was very confused by all this. But then his mummy was asking to play with him and that didn’t happen very often. So he decided to take advantage of the situation. “Okay, you can pway,” he told her, offering one of the trains he least liked.

Jessie smiled and snatched the train, pushing it around and making noises for it. It wasn’t long though before she grew bored of playing trains. Glancing out the back she noticed the toys in the yard. Jessie’s face lit up. “Ooh! I wanna pway on dat!” she yelled, pointing at the little play place.

“Um, okay,” Justin agreed.

Jessie got to her feet and started to head for the sliding door.

“Wait mummy!” Justin called.

Jessie stopped and turned around, pouting. “Told ya, I don’ wanna pway mummy stupid!”

“But you can’t go out like dat. You nakie!”

Jessie looked herself over and pouted. “I wanna!”

Justin was more confused than ever now. His mummy was the one who always got so cross when he went outside without his big boy pants. But maybe it was okay for her since she was a grown-up. There were so many things grown-ups were allowed to do that little boys couldn’t. Maybe this was one of those things.

“Um, okay,” he agreed, following his naked mummy out into the yard, even more confused by the way grown-ups acted.

On the upside the mother and son had a lovely afternoon after that, filled with innocent play and imagination. Fun that only ended when Rich arrived home to find a kitchen stained with chocolate from a half-eaten cake abandoned on the floor and two naked toddlers, one somewhat oversized, playing on the floor with their hands and faces smeared with the sticky brown evidence. Poor Rich had heard the warnings on the radio but he’d been too late. A stronger man might have resolved to care for both ?children’. But Rich wasn’t that kind of man. Instead he went to the bathroom, where the shower was still running, and a few minutes later there was a third naked toddler creeping around the kitchen floor. His anguish was gone, his responsibilities removed, washed away by the water. Ritchie rubbed his now bare feet in what was left of the chocolate cake and then jammed his toes in his smiling mouth, slurping off the chocolaty goodness.

**

Van Meter’s plan played itself out on a grand scale all across the western suburbs of the city. The water spared no victims. Primary school kids and pensioners alike were reduced to babbling, drooling babies or toddling little kids. Warnings broadcast on every radio station and TV station warned many, while others were alerted by police screaming from loudspeakers mounted on cars and vans driving up and down streets. But too many didn’t get the warning.

As this nightmare unfolded Detective Scott Newcomb was still determined to save as many people as possible. He threw the hand-cuffed deranged chemist into the back of the chief’s cruiser and got in himself. Scott felt bad about leaving the chief behind but the man simply didn’t want to get in the car and unlike a real toddler throwing a tantrum Scott couldn’t just lift the chief in. Time was too precious, so Scott had no choice but to hand-cuff the chief to the visitor sign post to prevent him crawling out into the road and getting run over.

“There’s no need to hurry detective. By the time we reach the city it will be far too late,” Van Meter smirked from the back seat.

Scott turned the ignition and threw the car in gear. “I know that,” Scott told his prisoner, flooring the accelerator and peeling out onto the road in the direction away from the city.

“What are you doing?” Van Meter snapped, sounding uncertain for the first time.

“You’re right, we’d never make it to the city in time. But if I can get to the highest point of this road, right at the top of the ranges, I might get a cell phone signal there,” Scott explained.

Van Meter’s eye’s widened. He clearly hadn’t anticipated this possibility. “You won’t make it detective. God won’t allow it.”

“I can try,” Scott quipped wryly.

Travelling at a 120KPH on a road where 80 was usually suicide, Scott reached the summit of the road in just ten minutes. Leaving Van Meter in the car Scott dashed up a small footpath to the scenic overview. The panorama was stunning but Scott only had eyes for the little screen of his cell phone. “C’mon, just give me one bar! Just one!” he yelled at the phone.

He could almost hear Van Meter chuckling at him back in the car. But then just as he was losing hope it happened. The phone beeped and showed a weak signal. Scott dialled dispatch immediately. The phone rang once then connected.

“Dispatch, this is Daniels.”

“Daniels, it’s Newcomb. I have the suspect in custody and we have an officer down at the Waitakere Dam. It’s Chief Palmer. He got the chief,” Scott choked out.

“Alright, I’m sending out an ambulance and another car to your location right now. Just hold tight.”

“There’s more Daniels. I need to talk with that Metrowater guy. What was his name? Shit!” Scott cursed, trying to recall. “Mitchell, that was it! Can you get me Brian Mitchell?”

“Yeah, I have his number here. I’ve been keeping him updated too. Let me connect you.”

Scott waited as the phone clicked then began to ring again. “Mitchell here,” a voice answered at last.

“Mitchell, this is Detective Newcomb. I’ve got Van Meter in custody but he already dumped the chemical in the water supply.”

“Shit! We’ve had reports of cases popping up in West Auckland but we couldn’t be sure where it was coming from. What was your location?” Mitchell asked.

“The Waitak Dam.”

“Are you certain he dumped the stuff there?” Mitchell demanded.

“Yes, I’m sure. Is there anything you can do?”

“We can shut down the water from that source and prevent what is in the system now from spreading outside West Auckland. It will really screw up the sewage systems and probably knock out the whole city’s water, but it can be done. Unfortunately it’s too late to save any location the tainted water has already reached.”

“Well do it now damn it! Before it spreads any further!” Scott urged.

“Consider it done mate,” Mitchell stated before hanging up.

Scott breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like they might have caught this thing just in time. A small part of city might have been affected but at least they’d saved the vast majority of it. Scott ambled back down the path to the cruiser and gave Van Meter a knowing smile. “We stopped your little mass experiment mate. You won’t be doing any more illegal drug trials in this city,” Scott gloated.

“You think you’ve stopped it?” the prisoner demanded.

“Not think Van Meter. Know. I’ve just had a chat to the top water guy and it’s done. You might have got some more victims on the edges of the city but you certainly haven’t wiped us off the map.”

To Scott’s surprise this news didn’t cause Van Meter to erupt into rage. The man seemed contemplative in fact. “If it was not God’s will for the city to be cleansed at this moment then I must respect that. I have done my duty.”

“Well, that’s a good attitude to have mate. I hope you can keep it through the trial,” Scott chuckled.

But Van Meter wasn’t done. He gave Scott a strange smile, one that made the chemist look truly ugly. “You think that it is over for you and I detective?”

“No, it will be over when I watch the judge sentence you to life in prison.”

“No judge will pass sentence on me,” Van Meter sneered. “No judge on Earth that is.”

“Right,” Scott replied derisively.

“It isn’t over yet for you detective. It will never be over for you. More than most in this city you have failed. It was your job to protect this city from immorality and vice but it remained rife with it. It was your job to protect good Christian families but you could not. It was your job to stop the illegal immigrant filth from Samoa and Tonga and Fiji that poison this city, but you didn’t even look for them.”

“I’m just one cop mate. I don’t do Border Security’s job for them.”

“But you’re the cop in charge of Otara, the slimiest cess pool of miscegenation and perversion outside of K Road. And it was in that cess pool that my wife tried to help out, that she gave all she had and was repaid with needless violence. My wife died in your district, murdered by a P using fool who needed a fix. And you let him go,” Van Meter seethed.

Scott was taken aback by this news. He hadn’t recognised the name’s other significance until now. The case was over a year old and they’d never been able to solve it. With the case load they got, who could blame them for one case slipping through the cracks? The victim’s husband, that’s who.

“I... I had no idea,” Scott mumbled.

“I failed detective,” Van Meter admitted, sounding contrite for the first time. “It is a man’s highest duty to protect his wife and I failed at that,” he slowly stated, looking down at his feet. Then the angry chemist looked up at Scott and gave him that awful smile one more time. “I failed to save my wife detective, and now so have you.”

Scott’s heart skipped a beat and he looked at Van Meter with horror etched on his face. “We’ve stopped the water. My wife lives...” he began.

“In Pukekohe,” Van Meter finished for him. “I know detective. You think because you stopped the main water supply you’ve saved her. But ask yourself, how long did it take you to get from city centre to that dam? And how long did I have after dropping off your partner? What do you think I did with all that extra time?” Van Meter taunted.

“If you’ve hurt her you son of a bitch...” Scott growled.

“I haven’t touched her detective. She was fine when I left. I wanted you to have a choice detective. I wanted you to choose between this wicked city and your wife. When you learned of the water poisoning you could have rushed home to your wife. If you’d done that you would have no doubt reached her in time. But instead you came here. You put this evil place first. And soon you will pay the price.”

Scott seethed with anger. “I’m going to make sure your stay in prison is a living hell,” he finally managed to tell Van Meter.

“But I told you detective. No man in this world will ever judge me,” he replied.

With that Van Meter extended his tongue, revealing the little white capsule he’d concealed in his mouth all this time. “No!” Scott screamed, jumping out of the car and opening the back door.

Before he could get to him though, Van Meter bit down on the capsule, releasing the contents into his mouth. “Damn it,” Scott muttered as he watched Van Meter’s eyes grow faraway and glassy.

“Bettah hurry,” Van Meter just managed to mumble before his eyes rolled back in ecstasy and an idiotic grin formed on his face.

Knowing that Van Meter was gone, and any hope for a quick antidote with him, Scott leapt back into the driver seat and turned the car back toward Auckland. He just prayed he could get there in time.

To Be Continued...