Transformation (30 page)

38.

The glow of the computer screen barely lit the dark corner with a dim bluish light. When the screen came to life with activity, the light changed, it flickered and danced. This caught Jeff’s attention. He examined the screens and typed a few commands. He knew there were communications satellites still orbiting earth that he could tap into. Without authorities monitoring the systems, he was free to try a lot of different things without fear of discovery.

“I did it,” he said to himself still in a state of disbelief. He was on the roof in a dark corner, behind his satellite dishes and monitoring the laptop. He couldn’t sleep so he came up to the roof to chill out, as he often did.

He’d been working on the possibility of accessing a satellite for some time. Even before the world went to hell, he’d dabbled in some experiments. He figured the self-sufficient satellites were going to be up there for a while flying around in space.

Since satellites were used for cell phones, satellite phones, and virtually every form of communication, he had a good chance of contacting somebody if there were others trying to do so. He saw evidence that others were already accessing the satellites.

Jeff jogged across the roof ready to yell, when he stopped himself. He’d been fussed at a few times already for being too loud. He walked the rest of the way and was glad he did. As he approached, he saw someone walking across the end of the ramp from the kitchen to the living room. He slowed down. Two more walked past. He could hear them talking clearly. They didn’t seem worried about their volume. Jeff watched them as he slowly started backing up the ramp.

“Hey! Where are the people?”

“Shut up!”

The men yelled back and forth.

At the top of the ramp, Jeff turned to start running and saw Wendy and Donna coming towards him. They put their fingers to their lips to signal him to be quiet. They motioned him over to them. When they were farther across the roof, away from the two men, they stopped to talk.

“Who the hell are they?” Jeff asked.

“We don’t know.” Donna had her arm around Jeff.

Wendy kept watch. She remained very close. Her back touched Donna’s shoulder. She could hear and participate in the conversation.

“They almost got Donna. She got away and warned us.”

“Where’s . . . “ Jeff started.

“Ana and Lisa are safe in the shaft,” Donna said.

“So now what? You two have guns. Let’s make them leave.”

“I’ve never shot a gun before. If they have guns, it’ll be three against one.”

Jeff put his hand out, “In that case let me have it.”

“Gladly.” Donna handed the gun to Jeff.

They heard the men yelling again.

“Hello! Hello! We’ve got your girl.”

They all looked at each other. Then Wendy ran over to the shaft door. She tapped out the pattern they’d all agreed would be the secret knock.

The door opened and it was Lisa, and only Lisa.

“Where’s Ana?” Wendy asked.

“She ran. She pushed the man out so the door could close. I came back out to help but she was running. I don’t know how those three caught her.

The man yelled again. “Hello. Hello. Hello.”

“OK. Lisa get back in. Donna you can get in the shaft too.”

“No.” Was all she said.

The door clicked shut.

They went back to the stairwell and down. They came out and walked to the edge of the kitchen area. They could see two of the men. Ana wasn’t visible but she had to be in the sofa area.

“Maybe we should take those two out,” Jeff said.

But suddenly, from the darkness behind them a loud yell startled them.

“No! No!” The voice wailed with a strong edge of panic.

They turned as one to see a hulking figure coming at them. Wendy snapped her gun up and fired two shots in the center of the shadow.

The darkness was lit with a brilliant flash and then again, each time etching a clear mental picture onto the brains of the observers. These two tragic images were haunting, disturbing, and unexpected.

The man’s expression was one of surprise and shock. But what was most disturbing was the hulking figured apparently had Down’s syndrome. He had the face of a scared child. Despite his massive size, Wendy felt as if she’d just shot an infant. Her throat tightened and she swallowed hard, fighting back tears.

Now they were blind from the muzzle blasts and deaf from the gunshot. They heard one of the remaining men screeching even through the loud ringing in their ears.

Jeff was able to grab Donna by the hand and pull her away towards the stairwell but before he could get her to safety they heard Wendy screaming. Her screams stopped abruptly.

“Fuckers! Fuckers!” A raspy voice bellowed. “Mother Fuckers!”

As Jeff’s eyes cleared, he was able to see a big man holding Wendy with his arm around her neck. He was jerking her back and forth like a ragdoll as he looked about. He seemed to have poor vision as he squinted and held his head cocked back as if he were looking down his nose. Wendy wanted to shoot him, but she could barely see and didn’t want to hit a friendly.

Another man ran up. His loud, high pitched voice hurt Donna’s ears.

“What happened?” he was panicked. “Tell me! Tell me!”

The man holding Wendy answered. “They killed him, they killed Chambers.”

High-Pitched wailed. “No. No. Not Chambers!”

His anguish was sincere. He was heartbroken. He screamed and threw himself across the dead man’s body and wailed.

Just when Jeff and Wendy thought they could get these guys to surrender, they heard people shouting from below. It was an odd sound to be sure after a few weeks of caution and silence.

From below, outside the garage. “We’re here!”

Also from below, a different voice. “Whoop! Whoop!” High pitched and loud. Cut off suddenly.

“We’re coming down! Meet us!” The man holding Wendy yelled.

He began to back up with Wendy as a shield. Wendy was still holding her gun but hesitated to shoot. The man had no weapon and wasn’t trying to hurt her. She was still recovering from the blinding flash and still stunned by the face of the man she’d just shot.

“Get up! For fuck’s sake get up. Leave him, he’s dead.”

But the man lay face down his body racked with sobs. He was totally vulnerable.

The man holding Wendy started to pull her backwards. She did nothing.

“Damn it, Gordo! Get up or I am leaving.”

Boswell, the one with the raspy voice, started walking backwards and away. Gordy, or Gordo, remained draped over the body of his friend Chambers and sobbed.

No one knew what to do.

Jeff raised his gun and pointed it at the back of Gordo’s head.

“Hey, you can lay there but don’t move or I’ll shoot you.”

The man ignored him and sobbed. Suddenly he stood up.

“Whoa! Whoa! Stop or I’ll shoot.” Jeff extended his arms, the gun was level to the man’s head.

But Gordo acted as if Jeff didn’t exist and simply walked away sniffing and moaning softly.

Jeff dropped the gun to his side and started walking behind the man, ready to use the weapon; if he had too.

Donna was following Wendy and her abductor. It was dark and as the man carrying Wendy got farther away, he dropped her and tried to run.

Donna ran to help Wendy but she was already standing.

“You OK?” Donna asked.

“Yeah, let’s hurry.”

Donna and Wendy ran to follow the man and then slowed. He was strolling down the ramp. He never looked back.

“What do you think his deal is?” Wendy asked.

Donna didn’t answer. She was more worried about the people this man was going to meet. They heard weeping coming from behind them. They turned. Wendy raised her gun. The third man walked right past them, rubbing his cheeks and sobbing. The two women looked at each other.

Jeff was right behind him. “What do we do?”

“More guns,” Wendy said.

Jeff ran to the kitchen and Ana was already at the box picking out a gun for herself. Jeff loaded a gun for Donna.

Jeff and Ana met the others on the way down. The men were walking so incredibly slow, they weren’t yet to the second level. The group had to match pace or pass them.

One man could be heard whistling an odd unrecognizable tune.

39.

“Now that’s disturbing,” Rachael was looking over the ocean of corpses.

Cooper just nodded. He was still puzzling over how they might get to the structure. And he was wondering if it would be a wasted effort once he got there. He didn’t know who was there and what the condition of the place might be. But of course he had to check it out. And the big question, why? Why are all these corpses here? What happened to them?

Rachael was standing on the edge of the expressway and smiling. She wasn’t looking at the dead below her, she was looking at the sky above. It was a glorious show of colors. She was so stunningly beautiful. She was breathtaking. She was a beautiful person as well a physical beauty. Cooper had to admit he was very attracted to her, but it hadn’t gotten romantic yet. He’d held that at bay. She was flirty, but made no moves on him or sent him any definite signals.

She looked at him as if she were suddenly conscious of his gaze.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.” He turned away.

“No, it’s cool. I was just . . . “

“Trying to be happy?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to look for the good in the world… in people especially these days.”

Cooper nodded. “Yep.”

She came and stood by him, touching shoulders, she laid her head on his arm.

“This okay?”

“Of course.” He wondered was this romantic or a purely platonic show of comfort and affection.

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way,” Cooper began. “I mean a lot of girls would be offended at this, so I hope you understand.”

She recoiled, looked at him suspiciously.
Is he about to say we should get it on?
Inwardly, she was disappointed at Cooper and herself, mostly she was angry at herself, it was happening again. A guy just couldn’t be her friend.

“I just want to be friends . . . for now. God I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant. Not that I think you would be interested in me or anything. I’m just clearing the air. I really like you a lot. I’ve had a lot of fun with you, all things considered. I guess I don’t want to . . . “

“I think I understand.” She was taken aback. She was thrilled to hear him say that, but her ego was a bit bruised. She’d been so used to hearing how hot she was.
Maybe he was gay
, she thought.

“I’m not gay or anything. You’re really beautiful—gorgeous—I mean . . . forget it.” He turned away, his cheeks felt like they were on fire.

She beamed and hugged him. “That’s the best thing you could have ever said to me.”

He turned back to her. “Really? Because usually . . . “

“Because usually the guy means the girl isn’t hot enough for him.”

“No.” He sounded offended. “Besides you know you’re hot.”

“No it’s not that. I just appreciate someone who can be a friend and put that before anything else. Even this.” She put her hands behind her head and posed.

Cooper closed his eyes and turned away. “You are not going to make this easy on me.”

“We are just friends, right. So I could take my shirt off like this and . . . “

Copper opened his eyes and looked. She was standing there, arms folded and smiling.

“You are cruel.” Cooper turned away.

“You are a dog.”

“I am human and you are cruel.”

“OK, you passed the test. Let’s let it go.” She smiled. It felt good to be herself with a guy and not be guarded all the time.

Cooper remained turned away. “We are going to have to wait a minute.”

Rachael laughed and hugged him from behind. “I am so glad we are friends.”

“I’m not . . . not anymore.” Cooper smiled, red-faced and pulled away from her. “Seriously, we shouldn’t be playing around too much out here.”

He looked towards the structure. He pulled out his scope and searched for a minute.

“Damn it,” he whispered.

“What is it?”

“The sun’s dropping. It’s already too dark to see anything in there.”

“Oh.” Rachael looked around nervously, feeling extra cautious. The sun was dropping quickly and soon they would be in the dark.

“I’m going to have to get in there and see if everyone’s alright. I need to talk to Jeff as soon as possible.”

The sun was setting and the shadows were getting longer as they stood and watched the structure. Within minutes the sun was gone and the world was pitched into darkness.

Rachael hugged herself against the cold evening wind. It whipped her hair in her face and stung her eyes. She and Cooper stood shoulder to shoulder.

“Well now what?” Rachael bumped his shoulder.

Cooper was about to answer when he heard gunshots. He saw the flashes come from the garage.

A few minutes later, he heard more gunshots.

“I need to get over there. I need to check on my friends.” He turned to Rachael. “I’m not sure what you should do.”

“I am sure as heck not staying here alone.” She stated flatly. There was no discussing the point.

When the two turned from the edge of the overpass to leave, they were startled by a ring of tall figures that stood in the dark behind them. They had approached Cooper and Rachael in the dark completely undetected. They stepped forward as one, tightening the semi-circle. What was most alarming, in addition to their stealth, was their appearance. They could barely see the figures but they were roughly seven feet tall. Their bodies looked oddly misshaped. The moonlight shone on skin that looked like melted wax. It was hairless and mottled with dark brown and black splotches. But most notable were their eyes. Their eyes were round and black. There was no shine to them, no highlights or glisten of moisture. Their eyes were black pits, concave holes in their heads. Too deep, dark, and in shadow to clearly see what may be in those black voids, especially at night.

One of the figures leaned forward and placed its face close to Cooper’s. It moved its head back and forth and up and down as if scanning his face. When it withdrew, it stepped back and another leaned forward to scan Rachael’s face in a like manner.

Rachael closed her eyes and turned her head. The creature raised a misshapen arm, a three fingered hand touched her chin and she whimpered. It gently turned her head to look at her face. Her eyes remained closed.

Cooper stood frozen, watching the creatures who seemed curious and not dangerous. When the creature examining Rachael withdrew, they moved on. They moved smoothly and silently. Cooper was sweating. Scared as hell, but also he had a feeling the creatures weren’t a threat—at least not yet. Was this part of what Trevor was talking about? Was he too late?

He turned to Rachael.

Rachael’s eyes were wide. She was scared too. But what she said surprised Cooper.

“We need to follow them.”

“What?” Then lower in volume. “What? Are you crazy?”

Rachael started walking. “I don’t think they are a threat. We need to figure out what they are. What they want. I think they’re aliens.”

Cooper followed her reluctantly. He couldn’t let her go alone, what kind of a man would let that happen? But he also didn’t want to be alone. She was a great source of comfort to him. He suspected he needed her more than she needed him.

“Based on what you told me.” She spoke comfortably and not too low. “This seems to be something your friend was talking about.”

“You’re being kind of loud.” Cooper whispered.

“They already know we are here.” Her tone one of playful scorn, a small smile on her face.