Transformation Page 14

  “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.

  “You know I need you.”

  “What?”

  “Despite appearances, it’s getting harder for me to move. Every time I have to move after being dormant for any length of time I feel a great resistance.”

  “Then why do you stop moving?”

  He turned and looked at her when he spoke. A rarity.

  “Because they want me to.”

  “What’s going to happen to you? To us?”

  Trevor went silent. Ellen was about to leave when he spoke again.

  “I need to talk to Cooper. Soon.”

  §

  Cooper was on the roof with Trevor. Ellen left earlier to get some sleep.

  “So we’ll say our goodbyes and part ways in the morning?” Cooper looked out over the darkness, the chill wind felt raw and relentless, not refreshing as it had always been to him. He stood next to Trevor on the edge of the roof.

  “Yeah. Seems to be the best course of action.”

  “OK. Well, I’ll be back and forth to check on you and Ellen.”

  “Yeah. About that. You leaving. I need you to do something for me, quickly. I’m not sure how long I’ll be . . . here. Be myself.”

  Cooper knew all the chitchat before this was Trevor not getting to the point.

  “What’s that mean?”

  “I survived that infection, but it’s still inside me. I don’t know what it is. It might be alien for all I know. But it has gradually . . . It’s hard to explain but I can feel my body being dissolved, I think. My brain isn’t right. I feel like I am becoming less me and more . . . “

  “Them? The dead?”

  “No. No not them, but . . . I can’t explain it. Whatever has the dead walking around is what is in me. They’re all dead so whatever it is controls them totally. With me it’s more of a . . . It started as a power enhancer at first but it has evolved into a battle and I’m losing. I think this is more than a virus. There seems to be some sort of intelligence behind it.”

  “What does this mean? For you? For us?”

  “For me. I’m dissolving.”

  Trevor raised his hand and Cooper could see where his fingertips had started to taper to sharp points that continued until they turned into fine silvery threads that glistened in the moonlight. There were other threads coming off him and the more Cooper looked at him the more threads he could see glistening in the scant light. A strand brushed his face, then another. Or was it a spider web or the strand from a webworm?

  “Shit,” Cooper hissed as he wiped the strands from his face.

  “I am dissolving. I can feel it.”

  “Is it painful?”

  “No, just scary. But even that, my emotions, are flat. I should be in a full panic right now.”

  “What do you need me to do?” Coop
er asked, still unsure what Trevor was talking about. He was worried that Trevor was asking him to help commit suicide.

  “I’m not sure exactly. I know there are others, humans, non-infected humans, that have the potential to communicate with whatever this is. I‘ve seen them on an island. There are other people out there getting things up and running on an island. They are bringing things online, things that this thing is connected to. I have a connection to these things, to the world around me, I mean the entire world, but I’m not one of them. I can feel or sense things mechanical, even biological, on a minute scale. I can manipulate things sometimes, but mostly I am an observer. I can sense them organizing, learning, growing stronger. They are on the cusp of a big change. It’s like watching a rat explore its environment and discover a simple latch. It fumbles with it until it gets it open, almost by accident at first. But even a rat has the ability to learn from that experience and in the next room there is a more complex latch, but he applies what he’s learned and can open that latch almost as fast as the last one. As the rat progresses, he learns and gains more and more access. He’s not any smarter, he’s still just a rat, but eventually he’s going to get into the control room where he can run across buttons, chew through wires, and generally create serious problems.”

  Cooper was still trying to make sense of what Trevor was saying. He knew he wasn’t talking about a literal rat, but wasn’t sure what he was talking about.

  “I don’t know what you need to do but these things have to be stopped. They are not aware yet that they will be able to…well do whatever they want. Once they evolve to a more complex level, they’ll have the potential to destroy you, all of us.”

  “What things are coming online? You mean computers?” He thought of Jeff and how he was starting to get computers running. He was also talking about accessing satellites. He was sure there were others in the world doing the same stuff.

  “Yeah. That’s almost certainly the best tool to try and control them, maybe the only one.”

  “Then what?” Cooper didn’t know much about computers, other than how to hook them up and turn them on. Jeff was the only person in the world he knew that might be able make sense of all this and then actually be able to do something about it.

  “I’m not sure, but you need to do something. If you don’t . . . “

  “This thing might gain access to nukes? Things like that?”

  “Yeah. I’ve been able to unlock a car by…I want to say using but that’s not accurate. Maybe influencing, yeah influencing them to move a latch or close a circuit. But that’s almost impossible now. As they evolve, they aren’t easily influenced. In fact, the last time or two I tried I sensed an attack coming on, almost as if I am the virus interrupting their normal functioning. I think that’s why they are removing me.”

  Trevor looked at Cooper. His face portrayed a depth of sadness Cooper hadn’t seen before on anyone. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but it looked like more webs were coming off Trevor. When he tried to move, they were all over him. He flailed and swiped at them.

  “OK. So I need to do something. We just don’t know what that something is or how to do it.” But Cooper was already sure that what he needed to do was go find Jeff ASAP.

  “Unfortunately, that is exactly correct. And you need to do it very quickly.” Trevor held up his hand. It had many more strands coming off it. “Very quickly for all our sakes.”

  “But tomorrow you and Ellen are going to the houses south of here? Are you able to do that? Will she be OK?”

  “I can get her there. I haven’t told her any of this, but I can tell she knows what’s happening. She knows I’ll be gone in a matter of days.” Trevor wiped the webs away from his face.

  “I feel selfish. I want every moment I can get with her, but that means she has to watch me melt away.”

  Cooper didn’t like the plan where his sister went off alone with a corpse and a guy infected with something that was dissolving him away. She would be alone at the house in the middle of nowhere.

  “Maybe you should stay here and Ellen should come with me. It’s not fair to her to have to deal with this.”

  “I’ll be OK.” Ellen startled Cooper and Trevor as she came from the dark stairwell and crossed the roof. “I’m not leaving him here like this.”

  “Then I’m staying.” Cooper said.

  “No.” Trevor’s voice was strong. “You have to go and try to do something.” He calmed a bit. “Look, Ellen will be safer with me than with you on the road. I can get her to the houses tomorrow and get her settled before I … before I go. She might only be alone for a day or so depending on how quick you get back.”

  “I’ll be fine for a few days,” Ellen hugged her brother. “Really. You know I can take care of myself.”

  Cooper looked at her sideways with a grin, “You mean like when you tried to pet that rat?” He knew this story upset her.

  The hug ended and she pushed him away. “I was five you jerk.”

  “Still, trying to pet a greasy rat in the backyard…”

  They stopped the banter. It was pleasant but their hearts weren’t in it.

  Trevor hung his head.

  “Let me try and explain everything I saw on that island. I’m not sure it will help, but I think I can actually tell you about where it is and draw a basic map of it. Whatever you end up doing, you need to do it fast.”

  17.

  Donna was not dead.

  She was in a bread truck. She could smell it. She also knew she was very close to the garage. She had been, and still was, blindfolded as she was carried away by the man. Hanging over his shoulder, she could hear that he was walking through tall grass. She could feel it on her face and arms. She knew about where he was taking her based on her knowledge of the area. Her biggest fear was that she wouldn’t be able to escape before the asshole got back.

  Donna had been alone on the second level when the chubby bastard appeared out of nowhere. He wore a black bandanna on his head that was tight and low across his eyebrows, over his ears, and knotted in the back. The top was loose and puffy. Most significantly, he held a gun and was pointing it at her.

  “Scream and my friend Alvin starts killing your people.”

  Donna tried to ask why. He told her to shut up. Not knowing what else to do, she complied. He gagged her first then tied her up and blindfolded her. He carried her across the second level, tied a rope under her arms, and lowered her to the ground.

  When he was straining to lift her off the ground, she fought him but he was strong and her bindings tight. She fell off his shoulder so he kicked her hard in the ribs and knelt next to her to whisper in her ear.

  “Stop fighting me and you’ll be OK.” But he was lying. As soon as he returned to the truck, he was going to start taking pieces of her back to the hostages (or soon to be) at the parking garage in order to control them. He had no idea how many people inhabited the structure. In his experience, controlling a large group of people was easier with a hostage than a gun. He also needed to control Alvin.

  George was sick. Sick in every sense of the word, but when it came to sexual deviance and cruelty, he was off the charts. By parts he didn’t plan to start with a toe or finger, he planned to start with a nipple, then the other one, and if he had to move on it would be to more sensitive parts of her body.

  George had come with the almighty Alvin whose plan was to infiltrate so he could see if these were good folks or not. George was supposed to be his backup, get him out of trouble if he needed help. The emergency escape plan was for George to speed up to the structure in the bread truck so Alvin could jump onto the roof and drop into the skylight. George had different plans. He took the black woman as a hostage so he could subdue the group and trade her for the bitch that tore his hair off. He grimaced at the pain. No matter what meds he put on it or how he covered it, it hurt like hell. It wouldn’t stop bleeding. The pain was getting worse by the minute.

  He was missing a significant chunk of
flesh from his head. The woman had torn a large chunk of his scalp off and several inches of his skull was exposed. The sizable hole continued to rip and widen. As the wound widened, the pain increased. He was sure his injury was never going to heal up. Even if modern medicine was available it would be a long slow painful process to repair the damage. He knew he would have to end it all soon and his only regret was the pain would diminish the enjoyment of his last few hours on earth.

  He grimaced the entire time he built the bomb, blinking back tears of pain. Blood trickled down his forehead, some down the left side of his face, and mingled with his tears. The pain was almost unbearable and drove him forward on his quest for revenge. It fueled his hate and desperation.

  His plans had been tentative since he and Alvin left and they didn’t start to take shape until he was actually on sight. One thing that didn’t change was that he planned to make that scalp ripping bitch watch him torture and kill all of her friends and then have some fun with her before doing the same to her. He wasn’t quite sure in what order he should do things, but he was going to stretch it out and enjoy it as long as possible.

  He was smiling and placing the last bits of the makeshift bomb in place. He planned to use the bomb to bring down the structure over him as a tomb. He wasn’t going to be just another body with a hole in his head laying around on the ground. He was going out in a style befitting his greatness.

  Then Alvin showed up.

  “What are you doing here?” Alvin hissed. He looked around to see if any of the residents of the structure were about.

  “Change of plans, Alvin.” George said as he pulled his gun. “No way that bitch is going to go unpunished.”

  “But these seem to be good people. We need to . . . “

  “We need to do shit.”

  “Leave now. Before someone sees you.” Alvin looked down.

  “What is all this? What are you doing here?” When he looked up again, George wasn’t pointing the gun at him. He had it by his side and he was smiling.

  Alvin heard a female voice coming from behind him.