Joe Zito Copyright Joe Zito 2015 Published at Smashwords
Special report from the newsroom of WROK 106, Tiptonia, Indiana-
Police have begun a statewide manhunt in an effort to find two men that have escaped from a Kentucky state prison last week. Manfred Davis 35 and Cooper Duggan 32 have been targeting upper class neighborhoods by showing up on unsuspecting families doorsteps pretending to be seriously injured in a car accident, and once inside their victims home they proceed to hold them hostage and ransack their home for jewelry, money and other various items of a high value. So far they have struck at least two neighborhoods in Illinois and Kentucky and now authorities are concerned that they are heading towards Indiana now. The most disturbing aspect of this according to Sgt. Owens of the Tiptonia Police Dept. is the execution style murders of the victims. Police in both Illinois and Kentucky have found helpless victims, dead on their living room floor with their hands tied behind their backs and major head wound trauma from a gunshot. Local police are urging homeowners in all classes of neighborhoods to not answer the door if it sounds suspicious or if you feel in danger. They are said to be wearing regular blue jeans and dark t-shirts. Manfred Davis also wears a red bandana around his neck. Above all, these men are considered extremely dangerous and if you are to come in contact with them you are urged to stay away and call 911 immediatley.
Megan Birch was already in her seat well before the bell rang on the last period of the day. She couldn’t wait to get the math final over with and despite a ready-made cheat sheet, well hidden under desk and taped to her knee, she was still nervous as hell about getting caught. She had Conner Evans to thank for the extra help with getting at least half the answers right on the exam. He couldn’t say no to her and she knew he wouldn’t. He just couldn’t resist those big brown eyes of hers and her thick and wavy shoulder length brown hair. Plus she smelled really nice to when she asked him a week before the exam. For Connor it wasn’t easy being a math whiz, especially when everyone from the shoprats to the jocks asked you for help, be it with homework or cheating on a test. He didn’t mind though helping out Megan. Her stomach fluttered as her math teacher Mr. Donner made his way around the room handing out exams. He wanted to make sure each and every one of his students got the test personally delivered to them so he knew for sure they got it and weren’t up to any funny stuff. Megan could feel her underarms birth new sweat as he walked past her. Don’t worry girl, you got this. Just one more week and good riddance Tiptonia High and hello big, wonderful Hollywood, she thought. Megan hated math but loved and excelled highly in drama class. She had great hopes of becoming an actress someday and she wasn’t going to let some lame math exam get in her way. She nibbled at her pencil eraser as Mr. Donner said, “Begin. You have forty five minutes.” Great. Forty five minutes of worrying about equations and useless math garbage keeping her from realizing her dream of becoming an actress and wondering if she’ll ever make it out of Tiptonia and move on to better places. That sweat in her arm pits was almost saturating her t-shirt. Good thing she didn’t forget to wear deodorant. The clock was ticking away and she did her best to look casual as she peeked below her desk to see the answers Connor had provided her with. How can I concentrate on square roots when all I wanna do is play make believe on a stage with other people and read scripts and go over line delivery with my acting coach and have a director tell me I’m the greatest living actress in the world today. C’mon Conner baby don’t