Transformation (18 page)

Sal tried to back off but she came right along with him laughing hysterically the entire time.

“It’s getting big for me. Real big,” She screeched.

Sal grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her away. He was red-faced with anger and embarrassment. He didn’t even try to hide the bulge in his pants.

She took her weapon back from Cullen and walked off as if nothing happened.

“What was that all about?”

Cullen spoke up. “It was a test. She wanted to see—hell I don’t know. All I know is you seemed to have failed.”

“What? How do you know that?”

“Because her clothes are still on.”

Sal nodded and spoke to himself more than anyone nearby. “That’s a good thing.”

But Cullen heard him and chuckled.

“No, it’s not.”

20.

Ben was a lazy son-of-a-bitch. He was lazy by nature and not too bright, but he was street smart and very charming (when he needed to be and only to certain people). He was also blessed with a health and vigor that defied all the abuses heaped upon it. He ate fast food and junk food almost exclusively. Unprocessed food hadn’t passed his lips but a few times in his life. He was sedentary, lacked all hygiene, drank, smoked (both tobacco and weed), did drugs (usually ignorant of what they were, where they came from, and what their effects may be), and had any number of diseases coursing through his veins. Normal people were usually jealous, even incensed, that such a physique and healthy heartiness was given to someone who squandered it so when they had trouble getting out of bed or walking up a flight of stairs. Their only solace was the knowledge that such a lifestyle would catch up with him soon enough.

But so far it had not. Ben lay on the roof until the high wore off and still hadn’t gotten up enough of a motivation to hunt down Everet and Rachael. He wanted easy times and good living right now. He was damp from laying on the roof all night and wanted to get dry. He stripped down and laid all his clothes out across the tiles and the hot sun baked them dry in no time.

He was hungry and knew he could find loads of shit to eat in the hundreds of houses right at his feet. He could get a vehicle too. He was done with all the crap. A warm breeze blew over his naked body, and he wanted nothing more to do with the dead or Everet and Rachael. He looked around from his perch and saw that the dead had moved away. They all seemed to have wandered back downhill. He wanted to head north and find someplace better to land. He dressed and shimmied down the pipe, walked uphill a bit, and circumvented all the lowest points of the city in order to get to the highway. It was elevated and last he saw clear of the dead and living alike. After a brief stop to eat and find the keys to a car, it was north and back to familiar grounds.

He was still popping pills to keep himself going and to keep the pain at bay. The pain was much less than it had been, but better safe than sorry he told himself every time he swallowed a pill or two. He found himself picturing his arrival at the park and what it would be like and realized he had to adjust his expectations. He didn’t even know if the place was still there. And if it was maybe it was filled with the dead or empty as a tomb. He would just have to wait and see. But he couldn’t help but think just how much it would suck if there weren’t at least a few survivors.

A few minutes later and he was on Highway 1, heading North. It was a nice day and Willow would have wanted to sit at the beach and build a fire, smoke some weed, and drink. And she would work the scene. She was always on duty, stealing, begging, conning, lying—whatever it took to get cash. She was a master manipulator, the real trick of it being the ability to choose the mark that would be easiest to manipulate. She would flirt with guys and distract them while Ben stole their shit, sometimes going as far as letting a man take her behind a building or private spot where Ben could show up and give them a proper robbing. They’d tried more complex schemes a time or two but the payoff wasn’t much more than a few hours on the take and the risks were far greater.

Ben began to get mad at Willow. Why’d the dumb bitch have to go and get herself killed. He missed her. She made sure they ate, could beg and steal a fortune in just a few hours, and she was very good at relieving Ben’s tensions. She was eager, energetic, and nasty. Ben got stiff thinking about her and considered rubbing one out real quick. But what little wisdom he had told him to keep on the road. Better safe than sorry.

He drove on wishing he had a joint. He’d already decided to stop for some booze first thing. He got off at the exit that would take him into Seaside, just north of Monterey proper and full of all the shit he desired.

He was driving past the Home Depot, the Embassy Suites was cattycorner to it, and kept right on past the police station. He didn’t notice the people standing around the parking lot entrance to the monolithic hotel but they saw him.

§

Cooper, Ellen, and Rachel were saying their goodbyes in front of the Embassy Suites. Trevor was still inside and came out after them, moving slowly.

Cooper was amazed when Trevor showed up in the room last night. He couldn’t believe he’d gotten out of all those webs. But it must have been a trial as he looked exhausted and gaunt. Cooper got a glance at his fingers and saw that they were blunt and the nails looked smudged at the end. Trevor was awake all night, coming and going.

Cooper had wanted Ellen to come with him and Rachael, but she wanted to stay with Trevor and Trevor wanted to stay in Monterey. Rachael told them about the self-sufficient vacation houses she and Everet found and explained how to get there. They decided that would be the place to go hole up. Ellen promised to bury Everet’s body in the area around the houses. She and Trevor took the SUV and left. Cooper had a strong feeling it would be a long while before he saw her again.

Rachael and Cooper were going to find another vehicle on the way out of town and started walking. They heard the roar of an engine in the distance and got out of the street. They stopped and listened as the engine got louder. They couldn’t tell where it was coming from as the sound bounced everywhere.

Suddenly the roar of the engine exploded in volume as a car turned onto the street they were on, screeching around the corner, rear end fishtailing. It shot towards them but they felt safe concealed behind shrubberies on the side of the Embassy Suites. The car roared passed.

“Holy shit,” Rachael said. She looked terrified.

“That who I think it is?” Cooper asked.

“Yes.”

“You sure? I don’t think he saw us here if it was him.”

“I hope not. What do we do?” Rachael watched Ben’s vehicle disappear down the street.

Cooper wasn’t sure. Chase him down? Catch him or kill him? Just let him go? There seemed to be no good options.

“Should we follow him?” Cooper asked.

“I don’t want to,” Rachael said. “I want to steer clear of him.”

“I don’t know. It feels bad to just let him go free.”

“You want to kill him?”

“No, I can’t do that.” Cooper remembered the men he had killed such a short time ago. He knew he could kill if he was threatened, but having done it already he was actually less likely to want to do it again.

“I guess we let him go,” Rachael said, obviously uncomfortable with the decision. But she wasn’t going to kill him either and didn’t want to be responsible for a prisoner.

Cooper was relieved. He had Trevor’s mission to consider and was conflicted about leaving Ben free in the world.

§

Ben was quick about it. He tapped the plate glass window of a liquor store with his bumper bringing it down, even though the door was wide open. It was looted and empty. He backed the car out and drove down to the next stop.

He came to the giant drugstore but it had too much metal framework to drive through so Ben had to get out and use the door. He walked straight to the liquor aisle even before his eyes adjusted to the dark. The moaning and the shuffling didn’t scare him. He cursed the inconvenience of it. He picked up a dark bottle, it felt thick and heavy enough to do the job and ran down the aisle, swinging down on the first corpse he saw.

He dropped a few with the bottle but there were more coming, a lot more. Ben turned to run but the opposite end of the aisle was already blocked.

What the fuck are they all doing in here?
Ben started climbing the giant shelves. Bottles fell and crashed to the ground. He straddled the top. He looked around and saw at least three potential ways out. But first he was going to get what he came for.

It took a while but Ben shopped by shuffling, crawling, and jumping across the tops of the shelves across the store. He gathered a few supplies, not as much as he wanted too, and tied them up in a sweatshirt he grabbed along the way. Now to leave.

Ben was followed through the store by twenty or so zombies. When he was ready to go, he crawled to the back of the store, leading all the dead with him. He waited until they were all gathered around below him and then he ran in a hunched position to the front of the store. He got ahead of the zombies and jumped down from the shelves and was out the front door and back in his vehicle before they were halfway down the aisle. He was tearing down the road moments later. He took a big pull off one of his new bottles.

Ben was roaring towards the highway, hit the on ramp with wheels screeching, and headed north. He got the Mustang well over a hundred miles an hour. It was a late model V8 and starting to strain at such a high speed. He eased off a little, not wanting to break the engine. He rolled the windows down and slowed a little more. It was a blast on the highway in a world with no cars, no drivers. He swerved around for fun, planning to trash the car when he didn’t need it anymore or found a better one.

§

“So we are agreed?” Cooper asked Rachael as they watched Ben exit the drug store and hop into the Mustang. He tore off, spinning the tires and sending up clouds of black smoke. He was going an incredible speed within seconds. The car jumped as it hit bumps, throwing up sparks from underneath.

“I guess,” Rachael said as she held on. Cooper had to race to keep up. “Just until we know he’s away from the area, ok.”

“I would’ve taken a more appropriate vehicle had I known.” He was straining the little four cylinder and wasn’t close to catching up. He’d chosen a grey Mazda, a small quiet car for stealth reasons.

They decided they had to follow him, see what he was up to even though neither one of them liked the idea.

The engine of the small car was starting to chug and jump at such a high speed and Cooper was worried it was going to explode.

“I don’t know if I can keep this up. I think we lost him anyway.”

He eased off the accelerator and dropped the car to seventy-five. He felt like he was driving twenty.

“So now what?”

“I guess we drive on to the garage, and keep an eye for Ben.”

“So we aren’t going to search the countryside for him?” Rachael smiled.

Cooper looked at her and smiled back. “Nah we’ll just keep our eyes open for him.”

“He’s probably halfway to Marin by now.”

“Yeah.” Cooper fell quiet. He was worried about his sister and after all he’d gone through to find her it felt wrong to leave her.

He debated going back. He questioned his decision to drive all the way back to the garage. He did miss the folks there. But it didn’t seem right not to stay with his sister, or make her come along, but he had to get back to the garage and felt that Ellen was far safer with Trevor than himself and on the road. Now that he could drive the distance, he planned to be back to see his sister in a few days and then return to the garage. He thought it actually sounded fun to go back and forth between the two places. Probably dangerous and impractical too.

“Well, look at that.” Rachael was pointing farther down the road. “Looks like our problem took care of itself.”

As they drew closer, they could see a column of smoke rising from the side of the road. Closer still they could see a car flipped over in the ditch. Flames and smoke belched from the undercarriage and the flames were quickly building in intensity. When Cooper and Rachael passed the wreck Cooper was focused on the road.

But Rachael was focused on the overturned car and in the brief moments as they drove by, she was able to watch as the fuel ran down the undercarriage, tracing it in flame. She watched one of the tires burn, amazed at how much black smoke billowed from it. She watched Ben in the driver’s seat fighting to get free. As the car passed, he paused and looked over. Rachael was holding up her middle finger and smiling. She couldn’t help but see the parallel. She was just hours ago in an overturned vehicle, seemingly in a situation where rescue was an impossibility. Ben was in an overturned vehicle and a rescue drove right past him on a sunny day. Now he was burning to death,
a foreshadowing of the afterlife for him?

“You see anything? Should we stop?” Cooper asked.

“No and no.” Rachael felt a pang of guilt. She was letting a human being burn to death. But she knew Ben and had seen him in action. The world was better off without him in it.

Cooper looked back just as the car whooshed into a ball of flame. The fire escalated and he realized he would have been caught in that fireball had he been there trying to help. It made him feel somewhat better, that and Ben was an evil asshole that tried to kill him.

Farther down the road they heard a whump and saw a larger cloud of black smoke rising in the air.

“Well that’s that.” Rachael said.

§

Ben still had no idea what had happened. He swerved slightly on the road and the fucking car started spinning. Next thing he knew he was upside down and hanging from the seatbelt. He smelled gasoline and burning plastic and panicked. He blindly fought to escape. Above the crackling of the flames, he heard the crunch of tires on glass as a vehicle rolled by. He stopped fighting the strap and looked up. Was someone going to help him escape the wreck? Was he saved?