The Amygdala Syndrome (Book 1): Unstable Read online

  UNSTABLE

  The Amygdala Syndrome

  Jack Hunt

  Direct Response Publishing

  Contents

  Also by Jack Hunt

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  A Plea

  Reading Team

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2018 by Jack Hunt

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  UNSTABLE is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Also by Jack Hunt

  Click here to receive special offers, bonus content, and news about new Jack Hunt’s books. Sign up for the newsletter.

  The Agora Virus series

  Phobia

  Anxiety

  Strain

  The War Buds series

  War Buds 1

  War Buds 2

  War Buds 3

  Camp Zero series

  State of Panic

  State of Shock

  State of Decay

  Renegades series

  The Renegades

  The Renegades Book 2: Aftermath

  The Renegades Book 3: Fortress

  The Renegades Book 4: Colony

  The Renegades Book 5: United

  The Wild Ones Duology

  The Wild Ones Book 1

  The Wild Ones Book 2

  The EMP Survival series

  Days of Panic

  Days of Chaos

  Days of Danger

  Days of Terror

  The Against All Odds Duology

  As We Fall

  As We Break

  The Amygdala Syndrome series

  Unstable

  Mavericks series

  Mavericks: Hunters Moon

  Time Agents series

  Killing Time

  Single Novels

  Blackout

  Defiant

  Darkest Hour

  Final Impact

  The Year Without Summer

  The Last Storm

  For my Family

  Prologue

  The crack of a gun startled them.

  “Not to worry. It’s only the zoo’s emergency response team going through a drill,” Ms. Mendes said. Nick Jackson groaned, shaking his head as a stream of Marfa High School students disembarked from dusty yellow school buses. They’d been stuck on them for the last three hours. Mendes called out names while several assistant teachers prodded them like cattle to line up as if they were kindergarten kids. Any second now he was expecting to hold the hand of the person beside him and get in one straight line. It was so demeaning. He was seventeen years of age, and more than capable of making good decisions. Besides, his father was a cop for God’s sake. Oh, but no, none of that mattered. In their eyes they were adolescent idiots lacking the brain capacity to handle anything before the magical age of twenty. The large crowd of teens talked among themselves in the parking lot as they prepared for a long hot day at the El Paso Zoo. The field trip had been planned for months, and for months he’d begged his mother to let him sit this one out, but she wouldn’t let him. It will do you good. Maybe you can teach them a thing or two. Yeah, as if anyone would listen, he’d replied. Nick wouldn’t have minded but he’d visited the place countless times because his mother had worked there as a zookeeper, well, that was until they moved to Marfa after Will died.

  Everything changed after that fateful night.

  “Hey, you,” a familiar female voice said. Nick turned in time to see a dark-haired beauty jog over to a cluster of girls, a mere spitting distance from him. Almond-shaped face, intense green eyes and a body to die for. Yep, she was the real deal! Callie Madison, now there was a reason to show up. Suddenly the day didn’t seem too bad. She’d been on the second school bus. He’d had his eyes on her for years but never had the nerve to summon anything more than a nod, a smile or a croaky reply. His eyebrow shot up and his pulse sped up just a little as he soaked her in. She was wearing flats, tight jeans and a comfortable green V-neck top that brought out the color in her eyes.

  “Not in a million years, kid!” There was only one person that called him kid, his best friend, Devan Jones. They’d known each other since moving to Marfa. His father, Emerick, ran the local radio station in town, and when he wasn’t sitting behind a video screen playing Fortnite for marathon lengths of time, he was usually helping his father. Emerick Jones, now there was a guy with issues. Anyway, why he insisted on calling him kid was anyone’s guess. He felt his solid arm wrap around his shoulders as they both looked on at the tanned beauty. “Ah, she’s a goddess, isn’t she? Alas, us mortals can only dream of bathing in her river of milk and honey.” Devan was wearing an angry red shirt, khaki pants and Nikes. He raised his aviator glasses up over his trimmed Afro hair.

  Trimmed? Nick thought, beginning to frown.

  “What the heck happened to your hair?” Nick asked. He was so used to seeing him sporting something that resembled a spongy microphone, he could barely recognize him now.

  Devan ran a hand over his head. “Yeah, I’m going for the Shemar Moore look, Criminal Minds style, you know? I figure all the ladies love that guy.”

  “Yeah, right.” Nick chuckled shaking his head. “It might help if you put some deodorant on.” Nick shook off Devan’s arm.

  He pulled a face, then sniffed his own pit. “What? I used Axe.”

  “When? Last month?”

  “Hilarious.”

  Mendes told them to be quiet and follow her. “We have a big day ahead of us. I don’t want anyone straying from the path. You hear me? That means you, Mr. Jones!” she said without looking at Devan.

  He rolled his eyes as they sauntered towards the entrance. “You know, Ms. Mendes, Nick’s mother used to work here, I’m sure he could—”

  Nick batted him in the chest cutting him off. “Shut up, man.”

  “What?” He smirked. “She did.”

  “I’m very aware of that, Mr. Jones. Perhaps Mr. Jackson would like to join me at the front?” Mendes said casting a glance over her shoulder.

  Nick grimaced. “I’ll take a pass, thanks.”

  “That wasn’t a question, Mr. Jones.”

  Devan brought a fist up to his mouth to stop himself from cracking up laughing while patting him on the back with the other hand. Nick elbowed Devan in the ribs and grumbled as he made his way up to the front of the line. As he passed by Callie she glanced at him and smiled. Nick coughed, flashed a smile and quickly jogged on.

  For the next hour Ms. Mendes insisted that he give a rolling commentary on the various animals of America, Asia and Africa. It seeme
d that the tour guide that was meant to take them around had been called away to an incident elsewhere in the zoo, so he ended up wandering around the 35-acre facility answering some of the dumbest questions he’d ever heard. He knew most of the kids were asking them just to be assholes. Nick glared at Devan as they made their way into the area for the lions of Africa. Fortunately Ms. Mendes had taken off to find one of the students who’d got lost along the way so she’d left him in charge of giving the rest of the students the rundown on the great beasts. From behind the glass they watched as two lions prowled under the Texas heat. Every now and again the animals would charge the glass giving everyone a scare.

  “… And so that’s why there are only 30,000 lions left in Africa,” Nick said.

  “That’s real thrilling, Jackson,” Seth Owen said nodding with his arms crossed. “My life feels complete now.” He chuckled, as did a couple of his buddies who fist pumped him. Owen was what Nick referred to as an all-around American kid. On the surface he embodied the clean-cut persona that any family would have been proud of but that was just a sham. In Nick’s eyes he was a privileged jock, the kind of guy who thought women were impressed when he rolled up in his daddy’s Beemer, or when he told them how much he drank on the weekend. Yep, he was a first-class douche bag but he had one thing going for him — his relationship. He had his arm wrapped around Callie’s waist and any chance he got he would lean in and nibble on her neck. What she saw in him was unknown, and why she ever said yes to date that gorilla could only be summed up as one of the world’s greatest mysteries.

  Nick was about to wave them on to the next thrilling animal when Trisha Niles squinted and tapped the glass.

  “Hey, uh, is that guy meant to be in there?”

  Heads turned. Nick was all too familiar with the dress code at the zoo. He remembered the light brown uniform his mother wore, which reminded him of a national park ranger. The guy inside the enclosure wasn’t wearing that. He was wearing a blue T-shirt, jeans, sunglasses, a white baseball hat and had a backpack on. The weight of the situation set in as they watched the odd man clamber over a wall and drop down into the inner sanctuary. The sound of his boots hitting the dirt got the attention of the three lions. Their heads whipped around and the large beasts ambled over to investigate their new guest.

  The guy removed his sunglasses and tossed them to the ground alongside his backpack that he’d already removed. He began waving his arms like angel’s wings and hollering at the top of his voice while walking towards them.

  “Shit,” Nick said looking around for a zookeeper. “Devan, hey, take my backpack,” he said tossing it to him and hurrying out searching for assistance. When he spotted one and told her what was happening, she immediately got on the radio and he heard the woman say, “Yeah, it’s the same guy who tried to get into the alligator enclosure.”

  What? he thought.

  The guy had to have been on drugs or something. No one in their right mind would climb in there unless they had a death wish. The zookeeper headed over to the fenced area and tried to get the attention of the man but he wasn’t listening. Nick heard over the radio that they were sending over a team with a tranquilizer gun for the animals. Within minutes officials were on the scene trying to do their best to communicate with the guy before he got mauled to death. While they tried to coax him out, the rest of the students made their way around and joined Nick. All anyone could do was look on in horror, as the large cats got closer.

  In the distance a wail of sirens cut the tension.

  The fire department had been called in because in the past they’d had someone else do this and they’d had to keep the animals back using water. Whether that was going to work this time was to be seen. The man continued to walk forward in an intimidating manner. He was in his early forties, slightly graying hair, thin and strangely familiar. Any attempt at communicating with him failed.

  “Sir! Please. Come towards me!” an official said beckoning him with a wave.

  Then, in an instant, one of the lions charged at him and bit his arm. The guy screamed and whether it was his cry or the lion not liking the taste, it released him and trotted away. With blood now dripping from his arm and him clutching it in pain, they all expected the guy to turn and get the hell out of there but he didn’t. No. He just stood there as if frozen by fear itself. Again, another attack occurred at lightning speed, this time coming from one of the other lions. This one knocked him to the ground, latched on to his leg and dragged him a few feet before releasing him.

  Officials were yelling, trying to distract the beasts as a fire truck came roaring up and swerved close to the enclosure. Stern-looking individuals hopped out in heavy jackets and yellow hard hats and without even being told what to do, grabbed a hose and began dragging it over. Meanwhile one of the zookeepers was in position with a rifle ready to tranquilize the animals.

  But it was too late.

  A furious attack, this time by two of the lions, occurred with such brutality that even if they could have stopped them, the man would have bled to death. Ms. Mendes had returned by now, drawn back by one of the assistant teachers. She tried to get the students to turn away but they were mesmerized by what was going on. Even as the man squirmed and then staggered to his feet with flesh hanging from his bones, he continued forward, though this time it was as if he was the attacker.

  He let out a loud cry.

  A keeper fired the tranquilizer hitting one of the lions but failed to get the other two. They lunged at the man and within seconds tore him apart, leaving nothing but mutilated flesh inside torn clothing.

  “All right, back to the buses. Let’s go!” Mendes yelled waving her arms furiously.

  Many of the girls wept, traumatized by the event, other kids talked among themselves but most were in shock, unable to say anything. How could something like that happen?

  “This shit happens all the time,” Seth said. “Seriously, there’s videos on YouTube.” He waved his finger around near his head. “The guy was probably jacked up on drugs or suicidal.”

  “Shut the hell up, Seth,” Nick said.

  “I’m just saying.”

  “Yeah, well don’t.”

  He chuckled then sneered. “Got a problem, Jackson?”

  Before things kicked off, one of the teachers intervened. It didn’t take long to get them back on the buses. They left early that day, as did the rest of the park visitors after zoo officials shut down the park. It would take several days before more details would emerge but in the interim, everyone had questions. Who was the man? Why had he climbed into the enclosure? Why had he acted as if he wasn’t scared of them?

  The answer would be terrifying.

  Chapter 1

  Two days later

  His marriage fell apart long before the nation did. The tip of the ballpoint pen hovered a few inches over the bottom of divorce papers as Police Chief Brody Jackson finished reading the legal jargon. Hesitation. Sadness. Disbelief. He shook his head, unable to bring himself to sign it. Twenty-four years of marriage down the drain was a tough pill to swallow. He’d known the stats heading into his career in law enforcement, he just didn’t think he’d become one. It wasn’t meant to end like this. They were meant to grow old together. Images of them from better times replayed in his mind. Where had it all gone so wrong? He could claim ignorance but he knew why, well, at least he’d heard the third marriage counselor’s palatable version once she’d listened to both sides.

  And there were always two sides.

  He hadn’t cheated. He wasn’t a drinker. And he certainly wasn’t a man prone to violent outbursts. He had a reputation in town to uphold and a career that relied on having a good head on his shoulders. Common sense guided him. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t without fault, he was human after all.

  No, Brody was all too willing to admit his shortcomings. His wife? He wasn’t sure. Any mention of her track record was seen as nothing more than an accusation, a means of deflecting from his baggage. But that wasn’
t the case, and he was too damn tired to argue. More often than not he would let it slide, retreat inward and do the one thing that kept his mind occupied — work.

  Maybe that was the problem. It had been for many others.

  The long shifts could be hard.

  Being an officer wasn’t a job, it was a career, a calling some would say.

  He didn’t clock out at five and drive home worry free. His mind was constantly swirling between office politics, unfinished investigations and the unfortunate horrors that tried to torment his mind.

  It was now Friday, the middle of June, and the temperatures were hovering in the high eighties. It was going to be another hot and muggy day and since the air in his truck had given up the ghost and the shop couldn’t fix it for another day, he was left to endure the heat.

  The radio crackled. He heard Linda, the dispatcher, speaking with Officer Matt Niles. Brody reached for his morning cup of joe and contemplated calling Jenna and asking for more time. Maybe he’d overlooked something, perhaps she was being too hasty, and maybe it could all be solved with a long vacation away. Couldn’t it? She didn’t think so. No, in her mind it was too late for that. She’d made that perfectly clear when she took off, took out money from the account and distanced herself. The fire that had once burned so hot between them had died to nothing more than embers and lies, and no amount of talking was going to revive it. Conversations turned to arguments in the blink of an eye. “Communication is key,” the counselor had said. No surprise there, that’s what they’d drilled into them at the academy. After all these years he’d considered himself an expert in talking people down from the ledge but now he was at a loss for words. If talking it out could have resolved it, she wouldn’t be living with her parents. He’d considered moving out so she could return but he was all too familiar with how the courts would label that — they would have said he abandoned his family — and he hadn’t. He’d fought to prevent it falling apart. Hell, for the past six months it had been an exhausting battle.