Transformation Page 25

  They spoke in whispers. It was the first chance they had to hold a real conversation. But even so, Sal felt he knew the kid as they’d been working together all day to travel safely. Not to mention the kid kept watch over him the entire time he was in a drug induced slumber. He seemed like a good kid and smart too. He wondered what he was doing with those crazies.

  “I’m Sal.”

  “Eddie.”

  Not much of a talker, Sal thought. “I’m on my way to see my people.”

  “At the airport?”

  “Yeah. You’re welcome to join us. I’m not extending that offer to your friends of course. So if you happen to speak with them . . . “

  Eddie snapped, “They’re not my friends.”

  He was speaking a little too loud for Sal’s comfort. Sal motioned for him to hold it down.

  “Sorry, I know they’re crazy and . . . “ Sal started.

  “They’re crazy alright,” Eddie’s volume jumped a little but he took it back down.

  “Obviously.”

  “No. I mean really crazy. As in fresh out of the loony bin.”

  That explains a lot. Sal thought. “What about you and your dad. Where’d you come from?”

  “We lived nearby. Me and my dad made it to the mall weeks ago. It was nice at first with the original group, but then they all arrived. We can’t find my mom, but dad’s been looking.”

  “So why were you out with those kids?”

  Eddie looked up at Sal. “I wanted to go with my dad, but he wouldn’t let me. Said I’d be safer at the mall.”

  “But you wouldn’t be?”

  “Um, no. There’s more crazies back at the mall. The older folks don’t get it. They don’t see what’s happening. My dad doesn’t even believe me.”

  “About what?”

  “The murders. They are killing people they don’t think are worthy because the food and stuff is running low. They’re sneaky about it. Using drugs and stuff.”

  “OK.” What Sal heard was disturbing but he didn’t doubt any of it.

  “You see the original group, the normal people, that was there when me and my dad showed up are great people. But they are also kind of dumb because when all these weirdoes showed up seeking shelter, they just let them into the mall. All the normal people think of the mall as one big community, but it’s not. The nuts like Cullen and Dawn all live in another part of the place. The adults think it’s just kids being kids, wanting their privacy, but it’s them plotting and planning. Real crazy stuff too.”

  “And you can just come and go?” Sal was looking for holes in Eddie’s story. Even though he liked the kid, he was cautious to the point of paranoia and wanted to be sure he understood what was really going on. Eddie was young so maybe some of this was an exaggeration or blanks being filled in.

  “Sort of. They think of me as a dumb kid and don’t notice me half the time. And the other half the time, I’m usually hiding and spying on them.”

  “And the crazy stuff?”

  “You heard some of it. The new world, new human race with them as the leaders. To become one of them, you have to kill someone. So far there’s twelve in the club.”

  “Twelve murders?” Sal looked shocked.

  Eddie smirked. He was sitting cross-legged and staring at his feet most of the time.

  “No. More. A lot more. Some of the deaths may be natural, but a lot aren’t. There were almost two hundred normal people at the mall before the crazies arrived. Now there’s less than a hundred. But even among the normal people there are a few really bad ones. They hang around with the crazy crew a lot too.”

  “Wow.”

  Eddie looked up at Sal.

  “You think I’m making things up too. My dad refused to believe me. He wouldn’t even let me prove it to him.”

  “No, I believe you. You seem to know who the good and bad guys are. Maybe soon we can go back and help the good ones.”

  “Sure.” Eddie was back to looking at his feet. He ate a few crackers with peanut butter on them. He folded the remaining ones in their wrapper and stuffed them in a pocket. He opened a bag of chips.

  “If you like those, we can grab more before we leave.”

  Eddie shrugged.

  “So the people hunting me down, are any of them the good folks?”

  “No, the hunters are all the crazies. But yeah, a lot of the good people have been worked up and see you and your people as the enemy. When we left, they asked us to get you and the woman and bring you back so they could have a trial. But I know the crazies won’t bring you back. They want to deal with the two of you in their own way.”

  “Deal with us how?”

  “I don’t know. The normal people want some sort of trial. They think you all are murderers. My dad kind of saw through the panic and thought he could help calm things down before more people died if he met your people first and explained things. I have no idea what the crazies have planned.”

  “So you and your dad knew we were being held at the mall? Who was holding us, the good people?”

  “Yeah. It was all the normal people talked about. Some wanted to let you go, even invite you in, while others wanted to kill you. When the crazies found out and got a look at the lady they were ready to steal her and kill you. You escaped a day before they were going to do it.”

  Sal wasn’t worried. Eddie’s dad was probably a good man and he would see how good his people were once he talked to them. But the thought of what they would have done to him, might be doing to Wendy now was upsetting.

  “So why did you leave the safety of the mall with those crazy bastards?”

  “Because Dawn and those kids are normal compared to the others, the ones back at the mall. Plus I heard that George went with him. George is one of the bad ones. I was worried about my dad.”

  “So who are they? The bad ones? Where did they all come from?”

  “Well, the older folks call them the kids because of their age, but they call themselves the Agnews.”

  “Agnews?” That one word sent shivers down the spine of most Californians. To Sal it had a deeper impact. He wasn’t sure he heard it correctly.

  Eddie took Sal’s silence as ignorance.

  “As in Agnews Mental Institution.”

  “Yeah. My wife is—was—a nurse and had to go there once. I don’t think she slept for a week after. I’ve only been once, as a child. I had an aunt . . . “ Sal let the thought trail off. “I grew up with the stories.”

  Agnews was a mental institution in San Jose built in the late 1800’s that managed to keep its doors open until the last day of civilization. It had a notorious reputation for the horrible treatment and abuse of its patients. From what Sal remembered seeing with his own eyes and hearing from his wife, it was as bad as it was reported to be.

  “They all escaped with Cullen’s help. I think he was a nurse maybe. He hated being called that, but I think that’s what he was.”

  “Yeah, he’s scary.”

  “No, he’s a pain in the ass. George is scary, and Sherman is terrifying. He’s from Agnews too, He was an orderly or something. He was always talking about the stuff they did to the patients.” Eddie chuckled. “You know George had fake hair, a rug . . . “

  “A toupee?” Sal offered.

  “Yeah, a toupee.” Eddie sat up straight, smiling. Sal had to shush him a little.

  “Yeah sorry,” he whispered. “Well Cullen was always joking about ripping it off his head. He imitated George, acted it out . . . Cullen could be funny sometimes.”

  Eddie mimed as if her were ripping something away. He held it up and looked at it like a dead rat. He shook it. “I think it’s still alive.”

  Sal smiled politely.

  “Guess you had to be there. Anyway, your friend beat him to it. She ripped it off his head. George went crying to Sherm, and he sent us to find you guys and bring you back.”

  “Really?” Sal was surprised. He and Wendy didn’t have time to talk during the escape.

  “
Yeah. He was bleeding bad. He had to get special bandages or something. Apparently she ripped half the skin off his head.”

  Sal laughed and had to suppress it to stay quiet.

  “Now that I can picture knowing Wendy. Oh my god she’s…” His face fell flat. He remembered that she may be in danger.

  “Why isn’t George chasing after us himself?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Sal figured it was probably to head them off. He could already be in the structure when he got there. He thought about the group of crazy kids heading towards the structure and the fact that Wendy was still out there and heading in the same direction. What if she met up with any one of those crazy bastards on her own. He couldn’t sit still any longer.

  “Let’s go. We both need to get there as soon as we can.”

  Without a word, Eddie was up and ready.

  “Who’s this Sherm you mentioned. He was the orderly at Agnews?”

  “Yeah. Big and weird. I only saw him once. He lives near the mall. I don’t know where but not too far away. I hate going outside or even close to the doors, so I haven’t followed them when they go see Sherm.”

  Sal nodded. “OK. We’re not too far away. Maybe we can find a vehicle or something.”

  “Oh and we were just one of the teams sent out to find you guys.”

  Sal stopped short. “There’s another team hunting us?”

  “No. There’s two more teams hunting you.”

  34.

  The three men carrying Donna went by their last names Gordy, Boswell, and Chambers. They barely remembered their first names, it’d been so long since they heard them.

  At Agnews, everyone was a number. If you were referred to by your last name that could only mean two things; you stood out for some special reason amongst all the other patients or you were not on the books. Standing out among the population was almost always a bad thing but being off the books was most certainly a terrible thing. It meant you lived in hell, out of sight of any visitors and most of the staff. The neglect, abuse, and torture both physical and mental heaped upon the poor souls of Agnews that weren’t part of the official system was inhuman at best.

  In the cases of these three men, they had all been off book. If it wasn’t for Sherm, they’d have died a long slow death in their cages.

  These men still wore the official uniform of Agnews. Upon check-in new patients went through the same routine. Their heads were shaved, they were stripped, and then they were hosed down. Next they were deloused, and then issued a set of blue and white striped pajamas. After that, the system swallowed them. They were sent to different wards and wings for various reasons, none of them based on patient wellbeing. Attractive females were sent to one ward despite their ailments. Catatonic and the more gesticulate patients were separated for the comfort of the staff. And then some had their records destroyed. These individuals went into the dark places behind unmarked doors.

  While all the other former residents shed their outfits as soon as they were able, these three still wore them. They’d been wearing the same clothes for months and they were filthy-dirty, stained, and torn. Each man had new hair growth on their heads and faces. But most notably were the countless scars that peppered their bodies. There was scarring from surgical cuts, jagged wounds, burns, and punctures. Their craniums showed a great deal of trauma in the form of dents, scars, and lumps from horrific experimentation.

  But Donna saw none of it. Even if she didn’t have the coarse cloth over her face it would have been difficult to discern much detail as it was so dark. And she was terrified.

  She estimated that at least three people were carrying her. She was being abducted. Again? She thought in disbelief. Her arms were over her head, and one person held her by the wrists and another had her ankles. She fought when the third man pulled her shirt and bra up exposing her breasts. He started to squeeze them very hard. The person carrying her feet spoke in a sharp whisper.

  “Stop it. Stop it. I’ll fucking kill you.” It was a gruff voice that sounded as if it were being forced through damaged vocal chords.

  The hands went away, her breasts remained exposed. She relaxed for a few moments, planning an all or nothing fight for freedom, when suddenly she felt what had to be a face pressed on her crotch. She heard a loud long sniffing sound. She recoiled, the man holding her feet released them. The one holding her arms let one of them go but held the other tight.

  “That’s it.” There was no more whispering, just normal speaking voices now.

  “I’m sorry.” Another voice wailed. A high-pitched man’s voice with an edge of panic to it.

  She heard the impact of flesh on flesh.

  “Please no, stop. You know I can’t help it.”

  There was another fleshy impact. A yelp.

  Their volume was growing. Her other wrist was let go as her captor chuckled, seemingly distracted by the beating.

  “I warned you.” The sound of a hard impact, a kick maybe?

  Another yelp. Then crying and begging.

  “Stop making noise. I’ll beat you until you are silent.”

  Donna pulled the coarse cloth from her face. She was sitting behind three shadowy, hulking figures, two of which were beating the third.

  She sprang to her feet and ran. She ran hard and fast. There was no way those portly bastards could catch her now. She had covered a significant distance very quickly. She turned to run up the ramp, and as she looked back it seemed as if the men were still focused on the beating. She stepped behind a pillar and watched their shadowy silhouettes, barely visible. She heard them talking, the one man was crying. Suddenly, she was missed.

  “Where’d she go? Fuck!” Gruff voice yelled.

  One shadow pushed the other to the ground.

  She had trouble making out who was who, but they cursed and fussed and blamed each other. Blows were exchanged. While they were distracted once again, Donna sprinted to the nearest stairwell and up to the fourth level. She ran to the sofas.

  Donna woke Lisa first. Even in her panic she remembered that Lisa needed more time to get to safety. She put her hand over Lisa’s mouth and shook her awake. She went to Ana and did the same. She found Wendy nearby.

  “Where’s Jeff?” She hissed. “We have to find him.”

  “What’s wrong?” Wendy tensed, ready to respond to whatever threat had Donna this worked up.

  “Where is Jeff?” She asked again, but no one knew.

  Donna forgot her shirt had been ripped open. The buttons were gone. She’d already, and unconsciously, pulled her bra back down. She tied her shirt closed using the tails as she explained the situation. Almost abducted, got away, three of them.

  “Ana, take Lisa to the roof hideout and keep an eye out. These guys are noisy and stupid, but still be careful. Remember we talked about this kind of thing. Remember the plan?”

  Ana whispered yes and walked with Lisa quickly up the ramp.

  Donna wished they’d practiced the plan, and in the dark, like Dale wanted them to. They should have listened to him. Ron might be here right now with her if they had.

  “Wendy, I think you and I can handle these guys. There’s only three of them and they seem really stupid.”

  “OK. Well, I’ve dealt with my share of stupid.”

  “Have you ever killed someone?” Donna asked.

  Wendy didn’t answer.

  Donna worried the men might not let themselves be taken prisoner and force her and Wendy into shooting them. She’d never even fired a gun. That’s another thing Dale wanted everyone to do that they all blew off. He wanted to teach everyone how to handle a weapon safely and how to load and fire them.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Wendy held up a gun she produced from somewhere. “You know where the other weapons are, you should go get one just to have it.”

  Donna ran to a nondescript footlocker under a table in the kitchen and opened it. She pulled out a large black gun. She wasn’t sure if it was loaded. She was terrified at the thought o
f even pulling the trigger.

  Wendy held her small revolver high in her right hand. She looked as if she’d handled a gun before. It was a Beretta Pico, a small handgun, light, but deadly—especially in the hands of someone who isn’t afraid to use it.

  “Where were they, last you saw?”

  “Second level. Close to the back.”

  The two women walked as quietly as possible down the nearest stairwell. It was pitch black and silent. They used the handrails so they wouldn’t fall. The musty smell in the stairwell made the darkness feel thick and dangerous.

  Donna was behind Wendy and when she paused, she felt Donna’s gun tap the back of her head. She ducked to the side. Donna almost fell over her.

  “Donna. Honey.” Whispered Wendy.

  “What?” Donna whispered back into the darkness.

  They cringed at their voices as they echoed in the empty concrete stairwell.

  “You need to make sure your finger is off the trigger when you are walking around, and point the gun at the ground, please.”

  “OK. Thanks.”

  They crept on.

  §

  The second the three abductors noticed the woman missing, they sprinted (what most people would call a slow jog) to the nearest stairwell.

  “All the way to the top,” one of them screamed.

  When they hit the darkened stairwell, it was all whispers.

  “Go. Go,” was whispered by all quietly and repeatedly. They had to rest every floor or so because they’d been sedentary for so long while at Agnews. Their inactivity, horrible living conditions, and high calorie diet had them all sweating and gasping for air. They came out onto the roof, a big open air space that made one of the three men happy. He put his hands out and spun around twice. He lost his balance and fell. He got a good kick for it too.

  “I think I see someone. There.” One figure pointed to the other end of the roof. They saw two shapes moving towards them, but then they stepped behind a little building.

  “Charge men!” One of the figures shouted. “At them!”