Transformation (15 page)

15.

Only a day earlier Sal was boosting Wendy up and onto the terracotta tiled roof of a hotel’s covered driveway. He hoped he was making the right move by leaving her.

He made sure she was out of sight before he ran back to the street. Then he jogged slowly until their pursuers came around the corner and spotted him. He cut to the right and ran past the hotel and down the side of a strip mall. When the four men came around the corner, the first thing he’d thought was,
where’s the other two?

He bolted, knowing he would most likely get caught, but he only needed to throw them off Wendy’s trail long enough for her to get away. He wasn’t a fast runner to begin with, and he still struggled with the serious wounds he’d sustained just weeks early. A bullet had torn up his muscles, but didn’t hit any organs or shatter any bones. It was foolish for him to be out on a scavenging run, but he wanted time with Wendy and was going crazy with boredom around the structure. He had to get away from all the drama surrounding Dale and Francis.

He ran, fighting the pain of his wounds. He just needed to get a little bit farther. He ran around the next corner and down the street. He ducked into an alleyway and behind a dumpster. He was done running and sat on the ground. If he got caught now, so be it.

His side started to burn like fire. He touched it and withdrew a hand soaked in blood. He was losing enough blood that he worried about making it back to the structure. He sat quietly for a few minutes before he tried to move on. He pressed his shirt to the wound hoping that would stop the bleeding.

After a few minutes, Sal rolled to his elbows and knees preparing to stand. Moving his torso hurt and made blood leak from his wounds. He steadied himself with his hands against the wall as he got to his feet. As he straightened out he felt blood dripping down his side. He headed for the high ground, the elevated expressway, so he could avoid the dead and make good time back to the garage.

§

Four men watched Sal walk up the ramp and onto the expressway. From a distance they looked like men, but they were three teenagers and one twenty something.

“So now we follow.” Cullen looked at the big guy walking away, saw the blood on his shirt, and knew he wouldn’t get too far too fast.

Cullen was the twenty something, a tall thin guy. He sported a long bushy black beard, but his hair was very short and parted to the side. He seemed to be a douche when people first met him and he was. He was also an asshole and a dickhead, often he was all three at once.

“I don’t know, Cullen. We’re supposed to bring him back to him.” It was Eddie, an Asian kid with a shotgun.

“The woman got away, and we don’t know where his home base is. He really wants the woman.”

“They told us where they were staying.”

“They probably lied. OK, let’s go.”

“But Cullen . . . “

“Hey, I’m in charge. You want to leave then leave, but I’ll shoot you in the back.”

“C’mon man . . . “ Eddie pleaded.

Cullen jabbed a finger in his face. “Shut the fuck up. I don’t care who your daddy is. He’s not here right now to protect you, so you best keep your mouth shut and do as I say.”

Eddie looked at his feet. Cullen turned on the other two kids.

“You got something to say? Egg? Gerald?”

Egg was a hulking young man, ugly as sin and dumb as a stump. He was a functional mute due to a severe cleft pallet. He was called Egg because of his slightly oversized cranium and thin blonde hair that added to the egg effect of his head.

Egg looked at his feet and said nothing.

Gerald, a fat kid with bad skin and thick hair chopped into a bowl, stood silently looking Cullen in the eye.

“OK then. It’s decided. We move on.”

§

Sal walked for what felt like an eternity as each small slow step barely put him closer to his goal. He could feel himself getting hungrier and more exhausted with each step. He managed a few miles, but had several more to go. Darkness would most assuredly fall before he reached home. On top of all that, he was worried about Wendy. He hated leaving her but that was the only way to save her. Now she was alone out there.

He began to pause a minute or two every few minutes to rest. His shirt had become stiff with dried blood but at least the bleeding seemed to have stopped. He was hurting but more confident he could make it back as he drew closer. But now his steps were labored by the thought of leaving the area without Wendy. They’d hole up in a building last night and things were getting romantic but they had to keep moving.

Where were the other two?
Sal thought again. He had an uneasy feeling about that. Maybe they got Wendy and were taking her back to the mall. Maybe she’s trapped in a hiding place. It was excruciating to leave the area without her even though it was the logical thing to do, the planned thing to do. Meet at the garage, they’d said to each other just before he shoved her up and onto the roof.

Sal stopped to rest and as he stood, swaying on his feet, he looked down the road towards home. He was on a stretch of highway that looked endless as it went through an industrial area with no exits in sight. He doubted he would get too far in the condition he was in so he turned and headed back towards the last on/off ramp he passed. He needed to descend into the city and try and find stuff to patch his wounds and get something to eat and drink to give him some energy.

When Sal turned around he saw four figures following him at a distance.

§

“Shit. He’s seen us.” Cullen said and stopped.

“What now?” It was Eddie. Cullen ignored him.

“We run, catch him.”

Cullen arrived first. Sal saw them coming and just waited.

“Where is she?” Cullen kept his gun trained on Sal. This big guy was a bargaining chip for sure, but Cullen wanted the hot bitch. She was by far a much bigger chip.

“Long gone.” Sal said. “Listen, you have this all wrong.”

“Shut up.” Cullen shot back.

Sal thought the kid was odd with his long beard and short hair.
Maybe something religious,
he thought.

“You’re mine now,” Cullen smiled. “Turn around and cross your wrists.”

“We should end it here,” Gerald spoke up. “He killed one of ours.”

“No. We have to bring him back for a trial,” Eddie said.

“And he let all the dead people in—in the mall.” Gerald sputtered.

Cullen raised an eyebrow. “Well if we are all agreed, no one would ever know what happened. We can just claim he got away.”

“You’re talking about murder,” Eddie said.

Gerald scowled at Eddie. “You were there. You saw what happened after—after he let the dead in.” He stepped up and held a pistol to Sal’s forehead. “I’ll do it. I’ll do it Cullen.”

Sal looked into the kid’s eyes and was very disturbed. The kid’s eyes were out of focus. They wavered back and forth slowly and erratically and didn’t seem to hold any emotion behind them. He noticed that the kid had horrible acne, acne that would have turned a person’s stomach before putrefying corpses invading your personal space became a commonplace event.

“Back off. If anyone’s shooting anyone, it’s going to be me,” Cullen snapped. He thought,
what the fuck, this’ll be fun.

Gerald stepped back. Cullen stepped forward. He placed a pistol to Sal’s forehead and pulled the trigger.

The boom was deafening. Sal fell to the rough concrete.

16.

Rachael was lifted to swing in the cold night air. She screamed in terror. She also fought. She wasn’t going to go without a fight. She lashed out with her free hand and foot.

A voice boomed. “Stop. Stop! I won’t hurt you.”

She stopped fighting, stunned at the voice. She was still scared as she was lowered to the ground, but now she was dealing with an intelligent being and not a dead thing trying to eat her. She looked up and in the faint light of the ravine, she saw a young man with a long beard standing above her. He put his hand out to her and she took it. It was cold as ice. She shuddered at the touch.

“Wait here.”

Rachael shook her head and looked up in the darkness. She could see that the young man’s eyes seemed to glow in the dark. She stood still, feeling naked as the strange eyes looked her over. In the silence of those moments, a faint voice came up from the dark ravine.

“Rachael. Rachael. Help me.”

The hulking shadow was on the move. He disappeared into the rainy darkness, down into the ravine. Shortly he came walking back up, Everet over his shoulder and put him down on the ground next to Rachael. Everet was in a bad way. He clearly had gone through the windshield and was in pain. Rachael could barely see him. She could hear his ragged breathing. She leaned close to him.

“Everet?” But there was no reply.

“We need to go.” Trevor squatted and lifted Everet and on his way up, he hooked his free arm around Rachael’s waist and lifted her. He carried her on his hip like an infant.

When they reached the top and stepped from beneath the night shadows of the trees, Rachael could see the young man much clearer. He looked like a normal guy, except for his eyes.

“Who are you?” She asked.

Everet groaned as he lay on the ground.

“My name’s Trevor. We need to go.”

Everet was unconscious. He clearly had compound fractures and had lost a lot of blood. The rain had let up and the sky was clearing, visibility was good and Rachael could see Everet at her feet. She knelt, afraid to touch him. He looked dead to her. She looked back at Trevor.

“You said he would be OK?”

Trevor knelt and placed his hands on Everet. He could feel the breaks in the bone, the ruptured organs, the blood pumping a bit slower every few seconds. He felt every bruise and wound and could sense all the pain receptors firing like mad, sending a storm of signals to a brain shut down out of self-preservation. He took his hands away and stood up.

“I was wrong. He’s dying.”

Rachael started weeping for the loss of her friend. Trevor stood and waited by her for a few minutes. He looked around. He could see that there were still several people scattered about. Some were in need. Some it wasn’t clear to Trevor what they were up to.

Rachael spoke to Everet as she wept. “Everet, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I let you down.”

As Trevor scanned the area, he looked back to the Embassy Suites to make sure Cooper and Ellen were still in place.

“We need to go,” he said.

“I can’t leave him here.”

Trevor picked up Everet’s body by the back of his collar, with one hand. He placed him the rear of the SUV. It occurred to Rachael as she closed the door that she had no clue who this guy was. He took off, speeding in the dark, lights off. She buckled up, hunkered down, and held on tight. She wanted to beg him to turn on the lights, slow down, or even let her drive, but she held her tongue. Clearly this guy wasn’t a normal human.

§

Walking up all the stairs at the Embassy suites was grueling. Rachael was sore and in pain. She had a hard time keeping up with Trevor. She wondered why she was even following him. She wanted to stop, to rest, but refused to let herself. By the time she reached the top floor, she could barely walk.

The moon was out and after the pitch black stairwell, the atrium was a nice change. Trevor led them to a room and knocked on the door.

The curtain pulled aside, a face looked out of the window before the door was opened. Rachael almost wet herself. She almost turned to run away. She decided to stay put as she could barely stand up at this point. It was the guy that beat Ben and Willow to escape.

The door rattled and clicked open. She was face to face with the guy.

“Hey.” Cooper said and offered a little wave. And to Trevor “You OK?”

“Yeah. I’m going back to the roof.” And he walked away.

“Um, OK,” Cooper said.

“Wait Trevor,” Ellen called after him as she ran past Rachael and Cooper. Barely pausing, she offered a smile and a little “hi.”

“Come in, I guess. I’m Cooper.” He offered her his hand and went and sat on the foot of the bed nearest the door. He was a little uncomfortable being alone with a stranger that was just dumped off on him. But mostly because she was beautiful. Her eyes were a bright green, her skin olive and flawless, and her features were those of a vintage pinup girl. Cooper was suddenly aware of his body odor, bad breath, and generally unkempt appearance.

Rachael was confused and nervous to say the least. She stood in the doorway, arms folded, not sure what to say.

“So . . . how did you meet Trevor?”

“Um, he just . . . rescued me.”

“Uh huh. Are you hungry? We have some stuff you can help yourself.”

“OK.” Rachael shifted on her feet. The guy, Cooper, seemed relaxed. She wasn’t ready to let her guard down just yet.

“You don’t know me, do you? I mean… No, there’s no way you do.”

“Should I?”

Rachael debated. Tell Cooper? Was he messing with her? Well, she had her questions so she started talking.

“You were at the . . . in the woods. With Ben and Willow.”

Cooper stiffened, eyes wide, he watched Rachael as he backed quickly to his guns on the dresser.

Yep,
she thought,
this is the first he’s hearing of this.

“No wait.” She held her hands up. “Wait. I escaped too. I have to explain the situation.” She paused and smiled. “Actually, you kind of saved my life.”

Cooper relaxed a bit, but not completely. He doubted he would ever fully relax again for the rest of his life. He sat back down with a gun in his hand.

“OK. I’m listening.”

And Rachael explained everything.

“So this is a coincidence?” Cooper said, skeptical.

“I guess. I mean, we would have never crossed paths if it wasn’t for . . . “ Rachael motioned towards the door unsure of what to say.

“Trevor.”

“Yes. I was in a ravine . . . wrecked my van . . . up the hill.” She pointed. “He showed up and rescued me.” She thought of Everet, but had to keep her emotions at bay.

Cooper knew Trevor was changing, could see in the dark, and who knows what else. He also knew that Rachael could simply have never brought up her association with Ben and Willow. He’d never have known. She seemed to be sincere and her story rang true.

“OK then.” Cooper stood and put his gun back on the dresser. He opened a bottle of water. “So you are with us now? You’re invited.”

“Sure, I guess.” Rachael said, still distracted by her grief for Everet.

“You don’t sound too committed.” Cooper was curious about her response, but then she looked at him and smiled. It was clear to him that her thoughts were somewhere else.

Rachael raised her shoulders and eyebrows and spread her hands in a gesture as if to say
What do you want from me?

“Do you need me to swear an oath? Some kind of pledge?” She teased.

“No. No.” Cooper laughed. “Sorry, no problem.”

She raised her right hand. “I solemnly swear . . . “

“Not necessary,” Cooper said laughing. “Well, at least you seem like fun to have around.” Rachael was a beauty, a real knockout. He tried to keep his mind off her physical beauty, tried to remind himself of Ana. He still thought of Ana, the night they spent on the rooftop. The nights after at the garage. He missed all of the folks at the garage.

It was way too soon, but he was already worrying over the possible situation that would arise if he showed up to visit one girlfriend with another one. He didn’t want to hurt Ana, but he already felt his building attraction to Rachael. Maybe it was just physical on his part, but she was so much fun, smart and quick, and she was so very hot. Cooper knew he was way, way ahead of himself.

“Oh, I’m a ton of fun.” Rachael said. She caught herself doing what she always did that got her in trouble with the opposite sex. She smiled and played and acted flirty—was herself—and almost every guy took it as some open invitation to make a sexual advance on her. Some were more aggressive than others. She had to tone it down, but Cooper didn’t seem to be controlled by his penis. Or maybe he was gay.

Cooper backed off, the mood flattened. “So, we are heading north, to San Jose.”

She winced. “It’s got to be overrun. Why go up there?”

“I’ve already been there and back. There’s a big parking structure by the airport that’s isolated. I have friends there now fixing the place up, gathering supplies.”

“Sounds good.” Rachael nodded. “OK then. I’m in. What else am I going to do?” She was exhausted. “I think I’ll take you up on your offer now.” She rifled through the meager supplies and opened some kind of energy bar and ate it. She drank half a bottle of water.

“Sure. Make yourself at home.” But he still had questions.

“So Ben and Willow . . . “

Rachael flashed a bright smile. “Yeah, you messed them up alright. You nearly killed Willow, and Ben was pretty bad off. I liked you before I even met you.” She smiled but stopped herself.
You’re doing it again!
She reprimanded herself.

Cooper hesitated. He was thinking of the kid he elbowed on the way out.

“And what about . . . there was a kid I hit. When I was leaving.”

Rachael bowed her head, her smile faded.

“Oh man,” Cooper sighed.

“No. No. It wasn’t you. You hurt him, but Ben killed him to scare the rest of us.”

“I still feel responsible. I could see his face before I . . . before I took his lantern. He was just a kid.”

“Yeah. Ricky. He was a sweet kid but don’t feel bad. It was Ben one hundred percent.”

“I even feel a little bad about the skank, Willow.”

“Don’t.” And Rachael was emphatic. “She was a bitch. She was bad news. You think Ben was bad . . . “

“Yeah, she tried to seduce me.”

Rachael just shook her head and plopped on the next bed. “Yeah, those two were bad news, just awful people.”

“And they’re dead?”

“Willow is. We found parts of her everywhere, but Ben got away. He must have been high and sleeping in the back of the van because we saw him getting out of it shortly after we did.”

Cooper remembered the back of their van being empty when he had been held captive in it.

“You didn’t look in the back of the van first?”

“Of course I did,” Rachael said defensively. Then she remembered.

“Oh yeah they emptied the van to use it but after you left they threw all their shit back in, and it was a lot of shit.”

“So he was probably unconscious in the back under all that shit?”

“Had to be. I think he would have attacked us if he was conscious. Anyway, we ditched him in the middle of a crowd of the dead.”

She kicked her shoes off. “I’m going to rest my eyes if you don’t mind.”

“No problem.” Cooper downed a bottle of water and lay on the bed too.

Rachael closed her eyes and fell sound asleep despite her best efforts to stay awake.

Cooper watched her lay on her side. Soon she was softly snoring. He was amazed at her trust. He was soon sound asleep as well.

§

Trevor stood on the edge of the roof with his hands out. Ellen stood nearby for a minute.

“Can we talk?” She stood behind him and several yards back. She didn’t like heights.

“Yes.”

“I need to know what’s going on with you. Are you OK?”

“Never better.”

Ellen thought for a moment. “Do you remember how we met?”

“Yes.”

“How does it make you feel?”

“Feel?”

“Do you remember when your dog died?”

“I had a dog? Yes, a dog. A pet.”

Ellen sighed. She knew Trevor was all but gone. His dog died only a few months earlier and it was upsetting to him until after he survived the infection. Now he barely remembered he owned a dog. She decided she was going to stay with him, and she wasn’t even sure why.

She sat on an AC box and watched him for a while. He didn’t move a muscle. She wondered what was going to happen to him. What he might turn into. He suddenly spoke, startling her.