Transformation Page 2

  “Wait.” Cooper pulled both guns up and out and pointed them at Trevor’s head.

  “Two guns? Really?” Ellen said.

  His sister could roll her eyes and make him feel stupid about winning a Nobel Prize—in the past that is. Now he found it easy to ignore her. She was just scared and tired like everyone else and was falling back on old habits.

  Trevor moaned and rocked from side to side. He lightly put his foot on Trevor’s arm and held him still.

  Trevor stopped moaning and looked up at Cooper and croaked weakly.

  “Cooper?”

  “Trevor, are you OK?”

  “I’m dying of thirst.” He closed his eyes.

  Cooper looked at Ellen with a who’s-stupid-now expression.

  “Well I didn’t know! Look at his eyes. He was fighting like . . . “

  “Like he wanted to eat and breathe?” Cooper said.

  “OK.” Karen walked over to Trevor. “We need to get him somewhere safe so he can recuperate. C’mon Tom get over here and help.”

  Ellen noticed that the previously cowed Karen was now the one barking orders. Tom obeyed and helped the others lift Trevor. Despite noticeable weight loss, Trevor was still a big guy. It took all of them to lift him into the SUV. Ellen also watched as Tom stepped aside and let Hector take his spot so he could jump into the passenger seat. She was left with Karen, Cooper, and Hector to push Trevor into the vehicle. She looked over at Hector who was looking at her and shaking his head with a look of disdain on his face.

  They sat Trevor behind the passenger seat and Cooper took the wheel. Ellen slid into the center of the back seat. Karen was next and finally Hector sat next to the window. He could barely get the door closed. He had to sit sideways. Four adults were crammed in the backseat while Tom, looking out the window, was sprawled in the front passenger seat.

  “Wait!” It was Hector. He jumped from the SUV and picked up the weapons dropped by the three men. “Only the rifle has ammo in it. The two shotguns look like they don’t even work.”

  “That explains why those two ran.” Cooper got out of the SUV. “ I guess we should check on this guy.”

  But Cooper could see the man had already pissed himself. He knelt by him to check for a pulse and gagged. Even in the stiff wind he could smell the man shit himself. He had no pulse. His eyes were half closed. Cooper was sure he was dead.

  “OK, let’s go.”

  “Where to now?” Cooper asked but was already heading down the highway. “I’m going to see what’s available down here. Maybe the grocery’s still ok.”

  A little farther down the highway they saw a dozen or so corpses all hunched over an object on the road. Hector rolled up his window. Tom was oblivious and had his arm half out of the vehicle. Hector debated not telling him anything, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He tapped the back of the passenger seat.

  “You might want to roll up your window.”

  As they drove past they could see that the object was in fact two objects, two bodies. The men that had fled were torn to pieces.

  Everyone looked away and no one said a word.

  Cooper took the SUV down the ramp and into Seaside, a small town just north of Monterey. It was its own town, or city, like many on the peninsula, but they were basically all one with no clear borders between them.

  The wide streets were quiet. The wind blew small drifts of sand across the road from the dunes. The small bit of sand would have previously been blown away by traffic but now it was collecting in odd patches here and there on the streets by the bay and making the world look all the more abandoned. He drove several blocks to the large grocery store and as he went inland, the sand patches thinned out and disappeared.

  As they drove passed the familiar, it was hard not to feel like things were normal, or going to return to normal soon. Cooper had to remind himself things were rapidly going in the other direction. Already there was trash spotting the streets, small sprouts of grass and weeds were starting to become noticeable, and of course there were no people anywhere within eyeshot. He looked down into the deep ravines next to the roads and they were packed with thousands of standing corpses. It looked like the dead had mostly trickled downhill. At the next intersection he slowed and looked up and down the street—deserted, except a few of the dead still meandering about.

  He drove slowly to the front of the grocery. The windows were busted out and trash littered the ground. There were several bodies there too, a sight so common no one gave it a second thought. The wind lifted a few strands of toilet paper in graceful arcs and bits of trash rolled along the ground. Everyone sat blank faced and emotionless. This dismal apocalyptic scene was the new norm.

  Cooper cut the engine to listen. After a moment he heard nothing and saw nothing coming towards them. He popped the door open.

  “Stay here.”

  “What? No, we need to get stuff for Trevor.” Ellen was opening her door as she spoke and Karen followed. Tom didn’t make a move.

  “I’m going to stay and keep an eye on our patient.” He feigned a smile. But he never looked back at Trevor.

  “I’ll catch up.” Hector walked to the edge of the parking lot, looking left and right as he approached the bushes that lined the lot. He was fumbling with his pants as he approached.

  §

  The grocery store was silent and gloomy. It was hot and the smell of rotting food, and god knows what else, hung thickly in the darkness and gagged them. Cooper silently led the way followed by Ellen. Karen was making a racket. Her shoes squeaked as they scuffed the floor. She stepped on and kicked various objects as she walked. Cooper winced at the noise and finally brought them all to a stop so he could listen. They were far enough into the store that no light reached them from the outside. He pulled one of the small flashlights from his pocket and clicked it on. Although he could now see the immediate area in front of him quite well, the rest of the store dropped into total darkness.

  Cooper inched forward. He’d asked Karen to try and be silent and the light helped her with that. He was wondering about Hector and why he hadn’t shown up yet. Was he OK? Did he chicken out? He felt good about the guy despite the gang tattoos. He’d heard that many gang members were only members so they could survive, and wondered if that were the case with Hector. A faint scratching sound caught his ear. He peered into the darkness and strained to make out the origin of the noise. Suddenly the sound of cans crashing to the floor exploded in the silence.

  “That was behind us,” Karen hissed.

  Cooper looked around and saw a figure slowly dragging itself towards them. Eyes glowed in the darkness. He pulled up a gun and walked towards it and stopped stunned—It was Trevor.

  “What the hell? Why are you here?” Cooper whispered, picturing hundreds of corpses streaming across the parking lot towards them. Trevor’s voice was weak and hard to hear.

  “The asshole . . . “ Was all he could get out. He held onto the shelves nearby and steadied himself.

  Cooper raised the light and jumped with fright. The girls screamed. Behind Trevor was a tightly packed crowd of walking corpses as far as the light could illume. The darkness was speckled by hundreds of points of light as the eyes of the dead reflected Cooper’s little light back at him. Something felt sickly about how the light caught their eyes. It was creepy how they all winked in and out as the heads swayed back and forth. Their gasping moans started when the light hit them. Their teeth made a disturbing sound as the dead crashed them together. Cooper was stunned, transfixed by the horror before him.

  “Trevor, turn around.” It was Karen.

  Trevor looked back and then forward. He spoke so faintly he was practically mouthing the words. “Fuck me.” He started to shake and sink to the ground. The dead pushed forward.

  “Trevor!” Ellen yelled. His head shot up and he struggled to right himself. The dead moaned and shuffled at the loud noise.

  “Stay on your feet.” She continued. “Can you walk backwards? I think they are eit
her scared of you, or following you.”

  “No.” He rasped, eyes wide as he shook his head. “Fuck no.”

  Karen was at the rear of the group and let out a loud scream. A corpse had its hands on her and was pulling her backwards. Cooper reacted quickly. He raised a gun, leaned forward and aimed carefully. He took the corpse out with a shot to the head. But there were more behind it, many more.

  “You have to try and lead us out of here.” Cooper said to Trevor.

  “Is Tom alright?” Karen asked, and then quickly added, “and Hector?”

  Trevor just shook his head. Karen began to sob. Cooper had to take action so he stepped up to Trevor and grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around to face away from him. The dead recoiled. Weak with starvation and dehydration Trevor stumbled forward as Cooper pushed him down the aisle. The dead were hissing and backing away. They seemed more confused than angry, if the dead could indeed express emotions. It occurred to Cooper that they always seemed angry. But he’d assumed that was because they were always trying to eat him.

  Trevor was stumbling and then he went limp. Coopers knees gave way a little as he nearly dropped him, but he steadied himself, jumping as Karen screamed again. He spun on his heels and his eyes popped open as he saw the mass of dead coming up on his rear. The ones in front were pushing forward. He whipped out his gun and fired two silenced shots. One corpse collapsed to its knees before falling on its face with a thud. He turned back and the others were almost upon him. He had a split second to try and revive Trevor, or drop him and try to fight the dead in the darkness.

  He held Trevor’s body up with his left arm around his neck, worried he would strangle him, but he dared not let go. He would never be able to stand him back up. He slapped Trevor in the face with his right hand. Nothing happened. The dead were hesitant but they grabbed at Trevor and tried to pull his body away from Cooper.

  Cooper needed to get Trevor awake. He was desperate. He slipped the baton in his right sleeve down into his hand and whipped it open. Mentally apologizing as he whacked Trevor in the crotch. The reaction was immediate. Trevor’s eyes shot open and he bellowed like he’d been . . . like he’d been hit in the nuts with a combat baton. The dead reacted immediately and stumbled backwards. Many fell but quickly rose and shuffled away.

  Cooper was on the move again. He could swear he heard Trevor sobbing. The girls were close behind him. Ellen thought to grab a few things, anything she could, on the way out. She yelled over her shoulder.

  “Karen, grab what you can!”

  The door was a white glow, a painful bright light that blinded them after having been in the dark.

  The first few steps out of the grocery were made blindly. They burst through the door, fueled with the desire to get away from the dead in the dark and suddenly they were faced with a new threat. A wave of moaning hit them as they stood temporarily blinded by the sun. They shielded their eyes and saw something more defeating than zombies in the dark. They were on the edge of an ocean of dead bodies. Tom, Hector, and the SUV were nowhere in sight.

  “The asshole pushed me out and drove off,” Trevor gasped before he collapsed to the tarmac.

  The zombies closed the circle as the three companions stood back to back with Trevor out cold at their feet.

  2.

  The once picturesque glade amongst the massive California Redwoods was now a dismal circle befouled by several weeks of human captivity. Swarming with flies the air was heavy with the stench of body odor, human waste, and putrefaction. It was an orchestrated misery, an attempt to tear down and demoralize, and it was working.

  After Cooper beat Willow and escaped, things had been terrible for everyone. Ben kept the remaining coven members starving and weak, miserable and hopeless, and clueless as to their whereabouts deep in the woods. They’d all driven in at night in the back of Ben’s van. Only he and Willow knew exactly where they were.

  All the coven members lay nude and face down on their robes waiting for something to change—anything! They were close to the breaking point and would do anything for a scrap of food, a sip of water, or even a small act of kindness. Or the more coveted pill from Willow’s bag. The pills knocked them out, numbed them to the pain, and made them more and more dependent on Ben. They were used to the threat of pain and death, it was their new normal. All they could hope for now was to improve their lot by pleasing Ben.

  Ben, a twenty something, dreadlocked criminal, was a druggie, rapist, and murderer. He’d seized control of the coven and imposed cruel restrictions on the remaining members since he was attacked by an intended sacrifice that escaped. Some dude named Cooper.

  The first thing Ben did, after Cooper attacked him and ran away, was to drag the boy injured in the attack into the center of the glade and slit his throat. He grabbed a girl, one of the ugly ones, and did the same. He barked orders and had every coven member strip and lay face down on their robes. One girl refused. He faced her, smiled and pulled a pistol and shot her in the stomach. She fell and sobbed in pain as she slowly bleed to death in front of the others. This seemed to bring all the others into submission. Everyone was quiet save the girl who moaned and weakly begged for help until her last breath rattled from her throat.

  Three bodies lay rotting in the center of the glade, nine nude captives lay in a circle around them. Two members had slipped away and that ate at Ben, making him even more angry than usual. He’d been popping pills and hadn’t slept in days.

  A few days later at the edge of the glade, just outside the ring of trees, two dark figures appeared. They stood silent and unnoticed for quite some time until they stepped closer so that Ben would see them. The glade was swarming with insects and the drone was maddening, even after only a few minutes.

  When Ben finally saw the figures he stopped short. He stood, swaying on his feet as his drugged mind tried to determine if what he saw was a trick of the shadows, his mind, or if he was actually looking at two black robed figures. Like a cartoon character he rubbed his eyes and cocked his head sideways. When one of the figures lifted their head Ben smiled. It was the two escaped coven members.

  At the edge of the glade stood an older bald man with a bottle black goatee and a silver goat’s head medallion around his neck. He looked like the stereotypical satanic priest straight from a B movie. Next to him was a girl in her early twenties, likewise black robed and hooded. She had eyes that were a stunning shade of green that seemed to amplify the light they reflected. They were not only stunning in color but shape too and were set in a face equally as beautiful.

  When Ben saw that his vision of twin reapers was just the two escaped coven members, he smiled and stormed across the glade. As he did, the insects rose up in a great cloud that obscured the sky, creating a foreboding shadow. Their drone increased tenfold. Upturned faces watched Ben as he stepped over the dead with a mix of hope and fear.

  “Ben.” The balding older man, former head of the coven fought the urge to put his hands up to try and calm the young man for that would be a sign of weakness. He held his ground and controlled his face, holding it an impassive mask of apathy, but the young man scared the shit out of him and he regretted ever inviting him and that bitch to join his group. Since their arrival things had been tense, confrontational, and feeling more and more dangerous everyday.

  “Ben, your temper will be your undoing one of these days.”

  “Maybe today.” A female voice spoke, low and sultry. A hand came up from the robes holding a small pistol. Ben didn’t hear her and didn’t see the gun.

  “That a threat, Zamfir?” Ben had closed the distance. “You threatening me with your black magic?” He walked right up to the older man and stood toe-to-toe with him, inches from his face.

  The captives watched, practically holding their breath. The coven members now saw a possible rescue. Hope flickered in their minds as Ben’s hold on them started to loosen. Ben raised his pistol as Zamfir spoke.

  “Yes. My magic is strong.” Zamfir’s voice cracked. He
narrowed his eyes in a look of menace, but in reality it was an attempt to keep them from registering the alarm he felt. “Maybe it’s time you left us Ben. I am here for my coven.” He said but thought, My god please leave and take that bitch with you!

  The female voice spoke louder from beneath the dark hood.

  “Drop the fucking gun Ben.” The pistol raised higher.

  “Rachael.” Ben said with a tone in his voice and look in his eyes that said everything. He lowered his weapon.

  Rachael shuddered. She would’ve left the so-called coven a long time ago if it weren’t for people like Ben. She felt an obligation to stick around and protect Zamfir from the predators.

  “As you wish, Zamfir.” Ben said his name mockingly. “Maybe it is time we part ways. Let’s ask the coven who they choose to follow.” Ben turned and spread his arms wide as he shouted. “Who shall follow me to safety and peace and who will follow the weakling to certain misery and death?”

  No one spoke as their eyes darted from Ben to Zamfir. There was a few long moments of silence that pissed Ben off. The decision should have been immediate. There should be no questions as to who they would follow. He regretted not having more time to break them down. If one went over to Zamfir, then they all might.

  Ben never caught on that the coven wasn’t really a coven. He’d been with them for a few weeks and had yet to see or hear anything dark or satanic. Ben assumed that Zamfir was manipulating and controlling the members as he himself would have. He couldn’t be farther from the truth. The coven was simply a group of homeless kids that were protective of their coven leader. And they always said “coven leader” with tongue-in-cheek when in private especially when Zamfir was around. Publicly, he presented himself as a Satanic cult leader but he was just making things up as he went along and the kids were simply happy to play Satan’s little helpers for the food and shelter he provided.

  The self-named Zamfir, high priest of the darkness, took good care of them all and was only interested in using them to whip up attention and scare the residents of Monterey all in an attempt to stave of loneliness since his mother died a few years earlier. He had no intention of abusing or controlling his members. He was the opposite of a cult leader. But Ben . . . he had the makings of a real Charles Manson or a Jim Jones. He had the three C’s: crazy, charisma, and controlling—make that four C’s. He was cruel too.