CRANK IT UP!
It’s never been easy
working the squads, and in the aftermath of the GreenMourning operation, it’s
gotten worse. Friends and colleagues died during GreenMourning, and something
essential died with them. So now, everyone’s on edge knowing that the city-wide
quarantine and their own efforts aren’t going to be enough if the Variant
Effect takes hold of the population and spreads like a wildfire the way it did
before.
The extreme psychological stresses
experienced by squads had made those rules flexible, as if in homage to the
days when the Variant Effect had first appeared, when half the force was drunk
most of the time. They called it “cranking” when they used alcohol and drugs in
the misguided belief that anesthetizing their nervous systems made them
resistant to the Variant Effect.
Science had never proven this to be an effective
barrier against infection, while it easily drew a correlation between cranking
and absenteeism, insubordination, injury and accidental death.
However, the authorities knew that working
the squads was dangerous and psychologically damaging with higher mortality
rates than the police services, so members were given leeway for eccentric
behavior.
But there were still limits.
And “Beachboy” has reached those
limits.
