Transformation (14 page)

13.

Rachael was bathed in a bright light. The universe was still, peaceful and totally silent. Her arms were up over her head in a ballet pose—a perfect fifth position, and she was smiling, floating. She felt beautiful.

Cold worms of silver crawled up her body. They tickled her. They were repulsive yet so beautiful. The thin streams of silver traced the curves of her body leaving a slug trail of glistening mucus behind. One of the worms worked its way quickly up her neck and across her chin, over full lips and to the edge of a nostril. At that, the light began to fade. She felt a chill growing in her body, an ache in her head, and her ears began to roar. A sense of dread quickly washed her bliss away. A drop of water ran up a nostril and suddenly she was fully conscious.

Rachael was awake and fighting panic. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there, but it all came back quickly. She was upside down and strapped into the driver’s seat of Ben’s van. Worse still, it was completely dark. She fought her instinct to panic, scream, and fight for freedom. She forced herself to stay still, closing her eyes even though it was pitch black, to assess her situation. Her biggest fear was she was seriously injured and couldn’t yet feel it. She pushed the thought from her mind.

She was soaking wet, freezing cold, and shivering uncontrollably. She heard the patter of rain on metal and water ran down her body and filled her eyes and nose. She tried to wipe her face, but her arms were folded above her head and rested on the roof which was only inches from her. The roof had apparently caved in. She moved her hands to her face with great difficulty. Pulling her forearms through broken glass and assorted rubbish. She felt pain growing in every part of her body. The seatbelt across her lap held her firmly in her seat and her legs were losing all feeling. With each passing second, she became more and more aware of just how dire her situation was.

Desperate to get out of the van she searched for the buckle. She remembered Everet had been with her.

“Ev . . . Everet?” It came out as a hoarse whisper. She tried to talk louder as she reached for her friend. “Everet?” Her hand made contact with the empty passenger seat.

She went back to searching for the buckle and wondering what the best way out of the upside down van would be. The windows were surely not the answer. She felt for the driver’s side window and it was gone, replaced with a clump cold wet grass.

“Everet?” She called a few more times as she continued to try and release the buckle. It was jammed. She tried climbing out of the belt but gave up quickly. She was hanging upside down and bent at the waist. She couldn’t pull her legs out or slide her body down. She struggled for a few more minutes and was having an increasingly difficult time fighting her panic. She was trapped in the van, there was no sign of her friend, and she wasn’t quite sure where she was but she knew there was little to no chance that anyone would stumble upon her. No one living anyway.

Rachael closed her eyes and thought about what could she use to free herself. She tried to picture the van and what was around her. Ben and Willow had the thing full of trash. There was shit everywhere when it was right side up and now all that shit was on the ceiling. She remembered a lot of fast food bags and wrappers, soggy cups, and lots of stale clothes. None of it seemed useful and she was worried she’d get stuck by a hypodermic needle if she started digging around. But she needed to find a blade or something sharp to cut the belt so she began to feel around gingerly, mindful of all the broken glass.

She felt the sun visor, the rearview mirror, a few cans and bottles that had been thrown forward. She felt nothing. She was getting desperate. She thought of the keys and remembered there was no key. Ben had shoved a screwdriver into the lock and broke it and started the van by twisting the screwdriver as if it were a key. She reached for it, found it, and pulled the screwdriver free with a burst of hope.

She briefly tried to use the screwdriver blade to cut the nylon belt but quickly realized it wouldn’t work. She decided to attack the buckle. She carefully slid the screwdriver up the belt until it hit the buckle. She slipped the blade of the screwdriver into the space between the latch and buckle and twisted. Nothing happened. She then put the blade of the screwdriver on the button and pushed until it was under the frame around the button. She twisted and the belt snapped free. She dropped on her head and then to her knees. She stretched out flat on her stomach and let her blood flow into her legs. Now she had to get out of the van.

She felt around for Everet but found an empty seat and more cold wet grass.

In complete darkness, she belly crawled through trash and blankets to the rear of the van. She saw faint light, felt cold rain and wind on her face. She stood and felt her body all over still afraid she would find a broken bone. Her ankle was a bit sore, so she limped a few feet and dropped to her hands and knees in the wet grass. It was almost as dark outside as it was in the van. The rain pattered on her back as she rested for a moment. She called out for Everet again. No reply. She looked around and could see a faintish glow far above her. The van had plunged pretty far down the ravine somewhere off of Highway 1.

She remembered Ben’s shitty old van having a blowout and skidding right off the side of the highway. She vaguely remembered plunging into the darkness of the trees and violently dropping and bucking.

Rachael listened for anything that might be nearby, but the patter of rain drops masked all sound. She looked up, ready to start the long climb up the steep slope. The grass the van landed in was a rarity in the ravines as most of it was covered in a thick blanket of pine needles. When they were wet, they were as slick as ice and within a few feet Rachael was attempting to walk on them up a steep slope. They slid and gave way with every step. She only made it a few feet when she slipped to her hands and knees and slid right back down to where she had begun. She didn’t know what she was going to do. She would never make it out in these circumstances. Had it been daytime she may have considered going down and finding a way out, but there was no way she was going down in that ravine in the dark.

The patter of the rain lessened, and the world fell almost silent. That’s when she heard Everet faintly calling to her from the dreaded darkness below. Rachael knew she had to go help Everet and prepared to slide down into the abyss but before she could the sound of crashing came from above. A dark hulking shape was coming at her from the direction of the highway. It was quickly sliding and jumping down the steep slope.

She panicked and turned to run. She took one step, her foot went out from under her, and she landed on her back. She slid down the slope as if she were on a sheet of ice. Her feet hit the trunk of a tree. She tried to roll away, but a cold hand grabbed her arm in an iron grip.

Rachael fought violently against the lifeless touch. When another hand grabbed her thigh, she fought with everything she had. As she was lifted into the air, she let out an ear shattering scream knowing deep down it would do more harm than good.

14.

“Wendy?” Jeff sat with eyes wide, momentarily in disbelief. He broke into a big smile and watched as she veered from the path of the car and kept running. It took him a second to realize that she looked scared to death, eyes wide like a frightened animal. He hurriedly popped the door open.

“Wendy!”

Wendy looked back, continued to run, but did a double take and came to an abrupt stop. She smiled briefly as she ran into Jeff’s arms and hugged him quickly, but very tightly. Then she was diving into the car before he had a chance to react.

“Hurry. Hurry.” She beckoned him frantically as he slowly walked back to the car. He was still smiling.

“Hurry.” She continued to repeat even as Jeff started moving faster. She looked around constantly.

“Hurry.” She repeated even as he jumped in the car and started driving.

“Get out of here.” She watched to make sure they weren’t followed.

Jeff never saw who or what she was running from.

“It’s great to see you,” Jeff said, eyes on Wendy. “You OK?”

“Yeah. Watch where you are going.”

After a few moments, when she was satisfied they were safe Wendy wrapped her arms around Jeff and hugged him again.

“I am so glad you are here. Did Sal make it back?”

Jeff didn’t speak. He looked at the road with a worried look on his face.

“What is it?” Wendy’s felt her face go white. What horrible thing was Jeff about to tell her. She felt herself tearing up in fearful anticipation.

Jeff looked at Wendy briefly, worry in his eyes. He had no clue how to handle the situation. He’d never had to deliver really bad news to anyone before.

“Ron has been taken, and I am looking for him . . . “ He was avoiding telling her the news about Sal.

“Taken? Who took him?”

“Francis.”

“What? What do you mean Francis took Ron?” Wendy face twisted into a disbelieving smile. She was confused, almost happy. This was not at all what she’d expected to hear.

Jeff kept his eyes on the road as he drove.

“There’s more.” He said.

“More what?” Wendy was getting frustrated with Jeff’s slow cryptic way.

“There was a bomb . . . “ He stopped talking again.

“A bomb?” She prompted after a few moments, her impatience building rapidly.

“A bomb?” She asked again, more emphatically.

“Yes, there was a bomb that exploded and umm . . . Sal was . . . “ Jeff hesitated. He sensed this is when Mary would tell him he should have said something different. What should he say now? He was in a mental place he hated—there was no answer forthcoming to his sharp mind. Wendy had finally grown tired of his pauses.

“Just fucking spit it out!” she barked.

Jeff jumped. “OK. OK. Yesterday a bomb went off at the garage and killed Sal and several others.”

“Yesterday? That’s not possible. I was with Sal just a few hours ago. We got separated during the escape.”

Wendy didn’t react the way Jeff had feared. He never expected her to say Sal wasn’t dead. And she mentioned an escape.

“Escape?” Now Jeff was confused. “Wait. Let me go first then you can tell me what happened to you and Sal. In the meantime, I have to get back to the structure and tell the others about Ron.”

“You can’t. We have to look for Sal.”

“He’ll find his way back to the structure.”

“Or they captured him.”

“Still, we’re close. We need to go back and update everyone so we can get more people searching for Ron and Sal.”

Wendy nodded and slumped back into the car’s seat. She was finally letting down, the trials of the last few days taking their toll. She was falling asleep in under a minute. But Jeff kept talking and she sat up to listen.

Jeff told her all about the explosion, seeing Ron led away, and about the man called Alvin. He turned out to have been one of her captors. She thought she knew who died in the blast. It was another captor who was similar in build and wore boots like Sal’s.

“We were on the run from a small group for a few days. Those two must’ve came straight here. Sal and I were debating whether we should try and talk to them and explain everything because they seemed like nice folks. We decided to keep running, obviously.”

“We only saw the one called Alvin.”

“He was kind of a leader. I don’t know. Maybe he wanted to get to know you guys and decide what to do.”

Jeff shrugged. “We found the body parts we thought were Sal inside the structure. That tells me the guy was let in. It seems maybe revenge was on their minds. That also means the explosion might have been their fault.” Jeff shook his head. “Now that’s what I call instant Karma.”

“Like the song.” Wendy just nodded. She was worried about Sal and feared losing him, especially after what happened between them last night, technically what almost happened.

“What song?” Jeff asked.

Wendy looked at him with a smile, certain he was joking. He wasn’t.

“At least there’s good news. Sal’s not dead.”

Wendy nodded, but she hadn’t seen Sal in some time. She still worried.

“We got separated because he boosted me onto a roof and kept running to draw them away.”

“Them?”

“Yeah. You remember we said we were heading to a mall south of here? Well the mall had a group living in it. I don’t know who or how many. The guards we met took us straight to our cells. They’re probably mostly good folks but like us they are paranoid of strangers. They were debating whether they should let us go or kill us. We finally convinced them to bring us to the structure and observe our group. We knew they would see that we are just good people like they are.”

“So what happened?” Jeff asked.

“Well like most groups of people, they aren’t all saints. One of the men got drunk and came to me one night. He killed the woman watching me when she refused to let him in my cell and then he . . . “

Wendy snorted and started laughing. Jeff looked at her like she was crazy.

“Oh shit, it’s too funny! I . . . “ She was laughing too hard to talk. “Oh shit!”

“You kicked his balls?” Jeff asked.

She shook her head no.

“Did you . . . “

She waved him off. “You’ll never guess. When he was on me, I reached up to pull his hair *snort* I pulled hard and . . . and he was wearing a . . . “

“A toupee?”

She shook her head. “Yeah! It was clipped to his remaining hair. I tore that fucker off.”

Jeff cringed. It set his teeth in edge just to have his hair pulled. He couldn’t imagine the pain.

“I don’t know if he was more upset at the pain or that I took the last of his hair off his head.”

“Wow.” It was all Jeff could say. He was also wondering what kind of asshole wears a toupee during an apocalypse.

Wendy wiped tears from her eyes.

“He ran off howling and left the door open, so I freed Sal and we ran for it. On the way out Sal pushed a woman and she fell and cracked her skull. It didn’t look good. To slow them down, we opened a few doors and let the dead in behind us as we ran.”

“Sal’s alive.” Jeff smiled. “That’s great news.”

“Well, yes he probably is but he’s missing.” She wasn’t so optimistic about the situation. “And Ron is in Danger and old Francis is apparently a bad dude. Mary and Donna are dead. Dale is missing. Not to mention almost all of our supplies have been destroyed. Any more good news?”

The car slowed to a stop and Wendy looked around to see why. Ahead she saw a massive swarm of the dead coming towards them. The dead were still about a quarter mile away. They were still a couple of miles from the structure.

Jeff looked around. Wendy looked behind them. They were on a wide street, strip malls on either side with good visibility. They could see that the dead were surrounding them. A clear path to the structure might not easily be found.

“Can we go around them?”

“It’s not that simple.” Jeff pointed to words “Low Fuel” that glowed a bright orange in the shadow of the dash.

“Been on since I started driving. I can feel the engine chugging.”

“OK.” Wendy said and left the car. She knew they had to get another vehicle as soon as possible, at least before the dead arrived.

They started checking vehicles in the area but the pickings were slim. They were having trouble finding anything they could quickly make use of. The swarm was getting closer. The dead were also starting to trickle in from between the buildings around them.

“We need to start running.” Wendy said as she walked backwards, hoping Jeff would follow her lead.

As they jogged across main intersections, they saw more and more corpses making their way towards them from the sides. They were being boxed in. The sun was almost all the way down.

“We should probably . . . “ Jeff was pointing up.

“Yep, I was just thinking the same thing.” Wendy smiled. “You lead the way.”

They found a very large big box store and made it to the roof. Jeff walked the edges of the roof to make sure things were all secure as Wendy climbed higher up on an air conditioning unit to look around. Jeff came back as she was starting to climb down.

“No, stay up there,” Jeff said as he boosted himself up. It was a large metal fan housing that was at least six feet high and a good twenty by twenty feet wide. It held four large fans and there were grills over them that had enough give as to be almost comfortable to lie on.

“Everything OK?” Wendy asked.

“Sure. I just feel a bit safer up here and these grills are more comfortable than the rocks or boards on the roof.” He knew from experience.

After some creaking and clattering of metal, the two were each laying across their own grill head to head.

“It’s almost like a hammock” Wendy said.

Jeff was deep in thought. He seemed not to hear her, but then responded. “Oh yeah, sorry. A hammock.” He continued. “I’m not sure what to do. I know we need to get back to the garage, but Ron and Sal are still out there. There’s that other group that may show up. And all the death and . . . Things were really good.”

“Guess there’s still assholes out there.” Wendy said. “I’m sure there always will be.” Then she started laughing.

“What?” Jeff asked, a little nervous about the noise she was making.

“Well, speaking of assholes. When I ripped the rug off that asshole’s head, I took half his scalp with it. No shit, half.”

“Jeez.”

“You feeling sorry for the guy?”

“No, myself if I ever piss you off.”

Wendy’s tone got serious. “Hey he didn’t just piss me off, he tried to rape me.”

“Yeah sorry.”

Wendy snorted as she started laughing again. “Then I ripped the fucking rug off his head and half his scalp with it. Damn, I should’ve kept it as a trophy.”

Jeez,
Jeff almost said again. He kept his mouth shut and pulled his cap down tighter on his head.