The Rats, The Cats and The Callahan

by Trigger_Finger

Callahan

The summer day was blisteringly hot, the temperature was 35 degrees Celsius outside and it was very humid. Police sergeant Derreck Callahan wiped the sweat from his forehead, he looked around his small office. The little fan rotated side to side and blew air around the room but didn’t really help with the heat. He grabbed a package of cigarettes and closed the window blinds so the police officers outside his office didn’t see him have a smoke.

He rolled his office chair towards the outside window and opened it wide, warm air blew through the 3rd story window and filled the room, it was a little cooler than the air inside but not by much. Noises from the big city filled the air, although the city had a high reputation and most ponies called it the ‘Big City’ it wasn’t all glamorous like the rumors would have it. Callahan was serving in a bad police district and gunshots could constantly be heard in the distance, along with windows being broken and the screams of random ponies being mugged or possibly raped.

Callahan sat back at his desk and lit his cigarette with a zippo lighter and began to write up his after-action report. ‘HA, after action my ass, all I did was bust a shop lifter’ Callahan chuckled to himself. Cigarette smoke accumulated in the office but was soon drawn out the window.

Callahan rubbed his forehead, the heat was really starting to get to him and he figured he’d probably have a bad headache tomorrow morning. Callahan was a large earth pony stallion with an exceptional muscle mass, easily being the strongest officer in the precinct, he usually use his features to install fear into culprits and make them surrender. He was an average height with white fur and only 29 years old yet he had a brown mane with small streaks of grey on the sides, though he usually kept his mane cut short so it was harder to notice. He wore suspender trousers along with a dress shirt and a tie which was currently undone.

A knock echoed in his office, “it’s open” Callahan replied and another officer opened the door and entered his office shyly. “Uh Sarge?” the officer asked, Callahan looked up from his desktop computer “yeah” he gruffly replied and the officer dropped a stack of papers on his desk and Callahan looked at it with disgust. “Sorry sir, uhh the new requisition forms came in” the officer apologized, “it’s not your fault that you have to give the bad news. Tell the Captain I don’t want any of the new crap” Callahan replied. The officer stood in attention, “sir if you want to keep your current equipment you need to complete part 7” the officer informed him.

Callahan sighed and looked through the paperwork, he found part 7 ‘Request for further use of current equipment’, Callahan groaned as he realized that the paperwork for part 7 was at least 20 pages of random crap. He dropped his head onto his desk with a THUD and groaned again. “Thank you constable, that’ll be all” Callahan groaned and the officer nodded and quickly left, closing the door behind him.

Callahan finished his after-action report and started with the Requisition forms, “Part 7” Callahan said outloud and he took a puff on his cigarette and let it rest on the edge of his lip and he started filling out the form, ‘Name (Last, First) Callahan Derreck…

* * *

Callahan finally finished the requisition forms and he looked to the digital clock on his desk, it read 11:39pm. He let out a tired sigh and shuffled the papers together and looked out the window into the streets below. The sun had set hours ago and now street lights and the moon illuminated the dirty streets of the neighbourhood. He put out his cigarette and closed the window. Even though it was night time the air was still hot and humid, he shut down his computer down, grabbed his dark brown trench coat and hat and slowly made his was out of his tiny office, with a small sway in his pace.

Most of the other officers had gone home, minus a few officers that stayed for night shift or were the emergency officers. “Night Callahan” one of the officers called out, “yeah see you tomorrow” Callahan grumbled and made his way to the Captain’s office.

He opened the door without knocking and Captain Danvers looked up “don’t you ever knock?” he asked, annoyed by his lack of manners. Callahan sighed and dropped the pile of finished paper work on his desk, “reckon you requested to keep your antiques?” Danvers implied as he looked through the work. The captain’s office was air conditioned and gave Callahan goose bumps from the cold air that circulated the room, ‘lucky bastard’ Callahan thought to himself as Danvers sorted through his paperwork.

“Well Callahan I guess that’s all, have a fine night” Danvers said with a smile, “yeah you to” Callahan grumbled and left the office, closing the door behind him. As soon as he left the office the hot air seemed to hit him like a blast furnace, Callahan let out a sigh of discomfort and walked over to the staircase and made his way down to the lobby.

As he passed the receptionist’s desk the female officer called out to Callahan “calling it a night Cal?” she asked flirtatiously. Callahan simply shrugged off her flirtatious attitude towards him “yeah, have a nice night Scarlet” he said bluntly and walked out the front door “you too Cal” she called out as Callahan left into the streets of Brooklyn.

He heard gunshots echo in the city and chuckled knowing that somewhere, probably in this very neighbourhood, some-pony was going to die and the police would simply write it off. “That’s the police for you” he muttered to himself and rounded into a fenced area, which was the police garage.

Callahan walked up to an old rusty 1974 Gran Torino and pulled out a set of keys, at one point the Torino had a beautiful paintjob but years of service and 1million miles later the car’s body wasn’t in the greatest of shape. He opened the door and started the car, it rumbled to life and the engine sounded as if it was brand new, despite the lack of care for the body Callahan had taken care of the motor and the interior of the car. He had leather seats and custom steering column made directly from a Ford dealership in Detroit along with grill bars for police duty and a reinforced rear and front bumper.

The car smelt nice because of the air freshener and Callahan drove it out of the garage. He approached the gate to the garage and the officer looked at Callahan “Callahan when are you going to get rid of that rusty old thing” the officer teased, “never because I know that next day I’ll see you driving it” Callahan laughed. “Alright fine” the officer sighed as he opened the gate bars and looked to Callahan “have a nice night Callahan” the officer said, “yeah you to Bill” and drove his car into the streets.

As he drove he dialed the radio into 95.1fm, it was classic rock and the music filled the car as Callahan sang along to the song…

She says her love for me could never die
That’d change if she ever found out about you and I
Oh but her love is cold
Wouldn’t hurt her if she didn’t know
Cause when it gets too much
I need to feel your touch
I’m gonna run to you…

Callahan continued to sing the lyrics to the song as he drove to his home. Eventually he reached the neighbourhood he lived in and drove his car down an alleyway behind the building he lived in. He turned off the car and locked the doors as he got out and let out a tired stretch as he walked towards the front lobby of the apartment building. There were some young teenagers spray painting graffiti on the side of the building.

“Hey” Callahan called out at the delinquents who looked at him with irritated looks, “hey shut the fuck up you old geezer” one of the punks yelled with a threatening voice. “Hey punks stop vandalizing this building” Callahan ordered, the punks looked at him and laughed. One of the punks pulled out a bat and they closed in on him, Callahan snarled, reached into his trench coat and pulled out a .45 cal. M1911 and pointed it at the group “don’t think for a minute I won’t shoot you” Callahan snarled and cocked the hammer back on the pistol.

“You wouldn’t” one of the punks said with fear in his voice, Callahan shot the ground in front of them and chips of pavement blasted up, “just some punks that got into a gang fight, next shot hits one of you… now get the fuck outta here” Callahan ordered in a gruffly voice. The punks turned and ran with their tails between their legs. Callahan chuckled, he probably couldn’t have brought himself to kill the youths even if they were gang members.

Callahan holstered his handgun and went into the lobby of the building. He pulled out a pair of keys and jingled them as he walked up the staircase of the building until he reached the 4th floor and walked into the hallway and continued down the hallway, the halls of the building were littered with garbage and graffiti. He reached the end of the hallway and the hallway ended with a final door. He fiddled with the key ring and found his house key and opened the door.