Tranq zombies (eBook)

Berlin 2028

Jacqueline Padberg, Klaus-Bernd Padberg (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
227 Seiten
tredition (Verlag)
9783384264626 (ISBN)

Infos

Berlin 2028: The drug hotspot Leopoldplatz has turned into a zombie land. Stefan, the vet, is sitting on a bench in this park. He is having a great time seeing junkies who can barely stand on their feet like zombies. Their skin is black and sometimes so rotten and eaten away that you can see the tendons or down to the bones. This is caused by the drug Xylazine, known in the scene as Tranq. How did the drug spread in a district of Berlin to such an extent that Tranq zombies are dying every day in 2028? Who is responsible for the fact that junkies are now walking around the city like zombies? Inspector Bensky investigates the drug milieu. He has to solve three gruesome murders of Tranq zombies and one of a dealer. They were murdered in a bestial manner and found dead in a bunker.

Textauszug

Chapter 1

 

Berlin 2028

Stefan is a vet by profession. On a summer's day, he is once again sitting on a bench on Leopoldplatz and smiling. But instead of soaking up the sun and enjoying the cloudless sky, he is observing the people he is surrounded by. But they are not couples in love strolling past him. Nor are they fathers and mothers pushing buggies or young people playing sport. No, they are Tranq zombies.

This place is a sheer horror. There is garbage everywhere on the ground. Syringes, bandages and needles lie on the sidewalks and in doorways. Bloody and dirty gauze bandages hang out of garbage cans. Used compresses on the floor catch his eye. They are smeared with yellow pus.

But that doesn't bother Stefan. His gaze is fixed on a homeless junkie who is walking past him. The filthy, run-down drug addict is limping through the area, seemingly without a destination. He drags his leg. Stefan stands up and takes a few steps. He stops for a moment and looks to his right. A junkie with sore ankles is hanging over a wall. He wriggles his legs, lies on the concrete wall like a wet sack and has no strength to get up. Stefan's gaze continues to wander. Four junkies are sitting on the ground a few meters in front of him. They are leaning against the wall and are completely out of it. They keep tilting to the left or right as they sit. They have no control over their bodies. One of the addicts even still has a needle in his arm. He doesn't realize it and is in a state of trance from which he won't come out any time soon.

Two addicts lie in the dirt in front of the wall and try to get on all fours before standing up. They don't succeed. They fall over again and again. They give up after a few attempts. Shortly afterwards, they suddenly appear to be asleep. But not much time passes before they try to stand up again. It is in vain. Stefan smiles and thinks.

You could rape the female junkies now or rob them. They wouldn't notice a thing. The women wouldn't even remember being raped. They are also a sitting duck for other drug addicts who are looking for cash or valuables. It's very easy to steal from them now in this state.
 

Stefan observes a junkie emptying the rucksack of another drug addict lying in the sand on the playground. He doesn't intervene.

That's what I say! They're stealing from each other. They've lost all decency. Eat and be eaten! I hope you all die, you zombies!

Stefan goes to the victim lying in the sand to take a closer look. The young man isn't even twenty years old. Sand sticks to his cheeks and lips. There are also grains of sand in his nostrils. How long has he been lying here, Stefan wonders. The vet gently nudges the junkie with his right leg. The young man moves. His jeans are hanging below his buttocks and his underpants are sticking out. The addict stretches out one arm. With the other, he tries convulsively to hold on to the sand. Stefan wonders what kind of trip the junkie is on. He speaks to him quietly.

"Is everything all right with you? Hello, asshole, can you hear me? Can you hear anything at all? ... Haha! What's it like on the other side, have you made it over there yet, you schmock? You look like a zombie."

The junkie raises his head. His eyes are wide open. Then his head falls back into the sand. His skull must feel like a medicine ball to him, Stefan assumes. The hand with which the drug addict has been convulsively trying to hold on to the sand all this time suddenly relaxes. The young man stops moving. He had taken an overdose and has just gone over to the other side. The vet feels for a pulse on his neck. Then he smiles, but doesn't call an ambulance. He has no sympathy for the young man. At that moment, Stefan just thinks: another junkie eliminated thanks to Xylazine!

He grins to himself and goes for a walk. More people come towards him, walking around like zombies. They stagger and can barely stay on their feet. Some of them are contorting themselves so much that you would think they were doing stretching exercises or looking for something on the ground. But if you take a closer look, you can see that these people are at the end of their tether. They have lost control of their mind and their motor skills. They are weak-willed and look terrifying.

 

A new drug called Tranq has spread so quickly on Leopoldplatz in Berlin in 2028 that many junkies are now walking around like zombies. Many of them have open wounds. It looks as if this drug is eating away the tissue from the inside. The sight of these people is horrible.

Stefan comes across a limping young man. He is wearing a dirty bandage around his shin, part of which has come loose. A piece of the bandage drags across the asphalt. This doesn't affect the junkie. A large, deep hole can be seen under the gauze bandage on his shin. The skin in this area looks as if it has rotted. The flesh is dark. His pain must be severe, muses Stefan and is pleased.

A young woman coming towards him has holes in her face. It looks terrible. She must have been a very pretty young woman once, Stefan muses. The consumption of Tranq has already left its mark on her. The girl is no more than eighteen years old and is all at sea. Her beauty has been ruined by taking the drug. She walks hunched over, then suddenly straightens up when Stefan looks her straight in the eye. She stretches her hands in the air, spreads them out and looks up. It looks as if she is looking at someone up in heaven, someone she wants to embrace and welcome. But the person the young woman sees is obviously frightening her. Her face contorts into a frightened grimace. She turns her gaze away from the sky and seems to want to protect her body by wrapping her arms around it. Something seems to be frightening her. She flails aimlessly in the air, trying to keep someone at bay. A moment later, the evil figure that was in her head seems to have disappeared. She walks towards Stefan and stops an arm's length away from him. She makes strange noises. The girl opens her mouth wide and moans a creepy, long "ah" sound. She grunts like a zombie in a movie that doesn't come in peace. The young woman looks at Stefan. Her eyes are empty, red and the bags under her eyes are swollen. She has a terrifying look on her face. The vet wonders whether the girl will jump on his neck at any moment and attack him. Smiling, he imagines the most gruesome scenes in his head that he knows from zombie films. But he knows that the junkie is not consciously aware of him. The young woman can literally see through him. She is trapped in another world from which she cannot find her way out. Stefan only knows that the girl cannot be dangerous to him.

He walks a little further. A mobile medical van is parked near the playground on Leopoldplatz. A number of drug addicts are waiting here to have their wounds treated. They wait disciplined in a small queue in front of the van, hoping for medical help. Their wounds hurt. Stefan can see that in their facial expressions. Two female doctors, who regularly come to this place by van, do their best to treat the junkies and tend to their wounds as best they can. They do this voluntarily and charge nothing for their services. They themselves are at a loss as to how these poor drug addicts can be helped effectively. Getting off drugs is extremely difficult. Withdrawal from Tranq is even more stressful than withdrawal from heroin. The clinics are not equipped to take in Tranq zombies, even if the junkies wanted to. To make matters worse, these addicts look scary and like zombies, and it terrifies many patients in hospitals when they encounter these drug addicts. No one can say exactly how such patients can be treated most effectively in hospitals. These junkies are left to fend for themselves with their addiction. They have no chance of recovery as long as they are dependent on Tranq. They are addicts who are rotting alive because of Tranq.

A young woman is standing in the queue. Stefan takes a closer look at her. She has a deep wound on her arm. Before she enters the mobile medical van, she pulls dead flesh from the wound and throws it on the ground. None of the people waiting are bothered by this. Stefan wrinkles his nose. Most of the people in the queue have nasty wounds that need urgent attention.

As Stefan makes his way home, he passes an elderly man. The effects of Tranq have just worn off a little. He is lying in the dirt, slapping his palms on the ground and talking to himself. He is also laughing out loud. Stefan smiles as he watches him and sits back down on a bench to watch the spectacle. He is amused by the fact that this junkie has lost his mind.

 

Leopoldplatz has once again become one of Berlin's biggest eyesores, and the vet is very amused. He comes here almost every day and enjoys watching the goings-on. It seems as if he takes satisfaction in the fact that the junkies are no longer in control of their own minds. Every time an addict dies of an overdose or is in great pain in the square, Stefan has a smile on his face and a satisfied expression. He also has no problem looking closely at the drug addicts who walk past him. The more disgusting the sight of their wounds is, the happier Stefan looks.

Passers-by give the man sitting on the bench a quick glance. They only think for a moment about how someone can sit so calmly on a park bench in this neighborhood. They make sure they get away quickly. After this thought, they have already forgotten about Stefan.

Why does the vet come to Leopoldplatz every day, sit on the bench and watch these zombies? Isn't he afraid of them? ... No. Stefan has no fear. He even stays seated when one of the sick people can no longer stand on his feet and holds on to the bench so he...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.6.2024
• Übersetzer: Klaus-Bernd Padberg
• Verlagsort: Ahrensburg
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: addiction • Dealer • Drugs • drug scene • Junkies • Killer • Murder • Torture • Tranq • Zombies
• ISBN-13: 9783384264626 / 9783384264626