2. The crawlers might have returned there. Best to just head into town now.
"Let's get going," you say.
Jesse helps you into the passenger seat. The smell of leather seats and molding plastic washes over you, the smell of a new car, and for a moment, you feel a wave of the old world well up inside you, a world where cups fit into cup holders and people drove to work in the morning sipping coffee and fixing their hair. A world where the most you had to worry about was next month's rent, or being late for work, or where you left your keys.
You run your hand over the smooth leather of the armrest, looking at an empty plastic water bottle in the door's cup holder. Your old life, the old world, seems remote and distant now, like an early birthday party remembered through a fog of years. You seem to remember having friends, having them over for a party, having a good time watching a movie on a flatscreen TV that you had saved and saved for. Now your friends were gone, and that TV was just a peice of worthless junk.
Jesse watches you as she gets into the driver's seat. Max had already hopped into the back.
"Strange, isn't it?" she asks, seeming to sense your thoughts.
"Yeah," you say, slowly.
"Do you think we'll ever get back there?"
You shake your head. "I don't know," you say truthfully. The already half empty beer can is heavy in your hands. A cool daze had settled over you.
Jesse looks at you for awhile, and then smiles.
"You know what I miss most?" she says, a glint in her eye.
You turn and smile slightly. "What?"
"Chicken nuggets," she says.
The suddeness and strangeness of the reply makes you chuckle. "Really?"
"Sure," she says. "I loved those little buggers. When I was a girl I'd always beg my mom and dad to take me to McDonalds, or any other place that had nuggets. I loved them."
"Happy meals," you say, the words feeling strange on your lips.
Jesse nods, and after a pause, replies. "Cable T.V."
You smile. "Pancakes and maple syrup."
Jesse starts the vehicle up and backs out of the yard, before swinging the SUV back onto the highway, headed into town. "The weather forecast," she says as the car begins to pick up speed.
"Videogames."
"Football."
"Superbowl Sunday. Chips and soda. Those plates stacked high with carrots and celery and dipping sauce."
"Shopping."
"You're such a girl."
"Hey, I said football."
"Yeah, well, you're a tomboy."
"I don't even like football."
"The internet," you say, switching back to the game.
Jesse laughs. "I don't know if I'll miss that."
"Comic books."
"God, you're such a boy. Comic books and videogames."
"Hey, I said, uh. Pancakes."
"Yeah, well, you're a tomboy."
You both laugh. In the back, you catch Max in the rear view mirror, grinning happily, his head sticking out the window.
The road goes by. A long period of silence falls over you.
"Boyfriends," Jesse says, looking sidelong at you.
"Never had one," you quip.
Jesse smiles, but a bit sadly. "Neither did I."
You glance at her, surprised. "Really? A pretty girl like you?"
Jesse only chuckles. "I wasn't. Not really. Stick thin my whole life. Boys used to tease me."
"They wouldn't now," you observe.
Jesse puts a thumb under her eyepatch and growls. "Yarrrr," she says.
"Ok, you've probably looked better."
"You're such a sweet talker."
"Seriously, though? Never?"
Jesse shrugs. "Never had much use for one, I guess."
"How old are you, anyway?" you ask, the old curiousity rising.
She only smiles. "Old enough for boyfriends, I suppose."
You shake your head, amused, and go back to staring at the passing fields. You're not far from the city now. The first light outside of town is just a few minutes away, you remember.
You pass the large sign announcing that you're entering the city. It's plastered with decals of organizations that exist within the limits. But something is odd about it. You can't put your finger on it, and soon you've passed it.
"What wrong?" Jesse asks, noticing your concern.
"I don't know," you say, glancing back at the sign.
Something is written on the back. You're already speeding away, but you can make it out:
One bright day, in the middle of the night,
two dead boys, got up to fight.
Back to back, they faced each other
Drew their swords, and shot each other.
And under it:
I'll be seeing you, tits.
The words bring a sudden flash of naseau to your stomache.
You turn away, knowing if you asked Jesse wouldn't see them. Max whimpers and licks your neck, sensing your discomfort. You idly pet him, and he curls up on the seat, watching you with worried eyes.
***********************************
The outskirts of town are littered with cars. Most of them sit motionless on the highway, but some are parked in the yellow grass and barren hills. A semi had flipped over across both lanes, forcing Jesse to drive off the highway in the dirt to get around it.
Most of the cars, though, were across the bare highway divider, blocking up the two lane side of the highway leading out of town. That side was nearly choked with cars, bumper to bumper, all piled up like sardines in a can. The sunlight reflected off of gleaming glass and metal, broken windows and shining hubcaps.
Jesse drove slowly on. Ahead, you knew the vet's building where you and Nicole, David and Jacob had stayed was getting close. Back when you were still trying to cope with the sudden strange new world you found yourself in, and had found a weird little surrogate family.
Now you were trying to pick up those small pieces that had gone missing. Jacob was gone, but David and Nicole were still out there. And now you had Max and Jesse.
You open your third beer. You don't want to drink too much, of course, so this will probably be your last for awhile. Strangely, you don't feel much different than before you started drinking. You wonder if that's a good or a bad sign.
The sky is cloudless and desolate. The emptiness of the road, the cars, and the fields begins to permeate you. You wonder if there's anyone at all left alive inside the city.
Other than Nicole and David, of course.
"What's that?" Jesse says suddenly.
You look where she's looking and see a solitary figure moving among the cars on the opposite side of the highway. For a second, you think it might be a survivor, but a second look shows the teltale signs of a Faceless. Even against the sun you can pick out the way it holds itself, the strange bowlegged gait.
"It's just a Faceless," you say.
"I know," Jesse replies, "but look what it's doing."
Jesse slows the SUV to a stop even with it. You watch the Faceless across from you. It seems to be moving back and forth between two empty cars. The person it used to be was male, but the clothes have been almost completely lost and the skin is sallow. You're not sure if it was a white guy or a hispanic, the skin has yellowed so much.
The vines are waving weirdly. Almost... desperately. The thing seems to be searching for something. As it moves back and forth, the weirdness suddenly clicks. It's repeating the same actions over and over again. It moves to one car, bends over a bit as if it was looking into the window, then lurches, turns and walks back to the other. It bumps into the door, once, twice, then spins, walks back to the first car, and repeats. All told it takes it about fifteen seconds to complete a circle. Even the way the vines move as it walks seem the same at any given point in the rotation.
Always before, seeing a Faceless was terrifying, revolting. But this time, you feel a strange sense of pity for it. Before, the Faceless were always threatening, alive, organic. This one is almost robotic.
Jesse cuts the engine. You can hear the thump as the Faceless hits the car twice in a row. It appears to give you no mind.
"What's wrong with it?" Jesse asks quietly.
"I don't know," you say. "Maybe it's broken?"
"Broken?" Jesse repeats.
You shrug.
You watch it in silence for another minute or so. Max whines, not paying any attention to it.
Suddenly you realize something more.
"I can't feel it," you say.
Jesse looks at you.
"You know, that weird aftermemory I get whenever I'm around these things. This one isn't giving me one."
The two of you continue to watch the Faceless stagger between the two cars on the highway, stuck in the middle of the traffic jam like some sort of confused dog. The thumps as it hits the closer car ring out regular in the empty day.
You open your door and step out.
"We don't have any weapons," Jesse observes. "Be careful."
You nod. "I just want to see something."
You slowly cross the empty dirt between the two strips of concrete. The Faceless continues to completely ignore you, repeating that endless trapped walk.
As you grow closer, you can hear a low warbling sound. Like a weird hissing static in the back of your mind. But this isn't the constant hisssssssssss you've heard before. This is intermitent, chaotic. Random.
Suddenly the Faceless stops midway in it's loop, facing away. You freeze.
Slowly, ever so slowly, like the first Faceless you met wearing that blue overcoat, it turns to face you. The hole where the face used to be gapes at you like a lidless black eye. The vines all wave with that strange rippling in the still air.
"Jonathan," Jesse's voice cuts through the stillness behind you.
The Faceless's arms, held locked around the torso like a man in a straightjacket, suddenly jerk, and then slowly come down, until they are being held at the sides like a normal human.
The chest has several rotten holes in it. Moving beneath the yellow skin you can see the worms, sluggish, writhing. One hole goes all the way through the man at the shoulder, but it doesn't look like a gunshot wound. Just... rotted away.
You and the Faceless regard each other, both silent, both motionless.
"Jonathan," Jesse says again, more urgently.
The Faceless's head begins to twist sideways. Bits of hair fall from the head. The hands rise from it's sides and reach for you. The vines go limp and hang like rotten tassles.
But you sense no hostility from this thing. Only... only some sort of desperation. It takes a single step toward you, and you notice that it walks like a man, not with that weird odd bowlegged gait.
Then, mid-second-step, it suddenly twists again, and the arms snap back up to cover the torso. With a strange groan, it resumes it's lockstep routine, once again ignoring you.
You return to Jesse and the SUV as the Faceless bumps into the car behind you.
**********************************************
"They're still human," you say as Jesse slowly drives away.
"That's not possible," Jesse replies.
"Somehow, it is," you say. "I know it. That Fac -- man, he... he was trying to reach me."
"Eat you, you mean," Jesse says.
"No, it was the man," you say confidently.
"How could that be? Look at that hole in his head! There's no damn brain left."
"I don't know," you say. "Maybe part of that man survived with the parasites. Maybe these things don't wholly eradicate you."
"I don't believe it."
"Look at us," you say. "We're both infected."
"Yeah, but neither of us have a hole where our faces should be," Jesse says, looking at you.
"Stop!" you say suddenly. Jesse brakes.
You quickly hop out of the SUV and run to a city cop car parked on the side of the road. The doors are both locked, but you smash open the window with a rock. Unlocking the door you slip inside. A pump shotgun lays across the backseat. You grab it and head back to Jesse.
"There's only one shell left," you say, having counted on your way back.
Jesse frowns. "That cop must have left it in there thinking it was empty."
"Who knows?" you say. "But it's enough."
"Enough for what?"
"Go back."
"Back?"
"To that man. I'm not leaving him like that."
Jesse wordlessly turns the SUV around.
"We could save the shell, you know," she says.
"I doubt one shell is going to be the difference for us," you reply.
Jesse frowns but stays silent.
Soon you've made it back to the Faceless trapped between the cars. You get out of the SUV once again
and walk back over to him. Jesse also gets out, which prompts Max to follow you too.
Both of you regard the Faceless while Max sniffs at a tire a car down the road. "He's so ... rotten," Jesse says, wrinkling her nose. "I've never seen one like that. Messed up, yeah, but not like this. God, he stinks."
You sniff, not having noticed before for some reason. The thing is quite rank. Like a garbage heap, decaying organic matter. Almost sweet, in a way.
You raise the shotgun, checking to make sure the safety is off. The Faceless stops as you do so, this time already facing you. But the arms remain up. It only stands there, the face not pointed directly at you like before.
"I'm sorry," you say. "But you're done suffering now."
You pull the trigger.
The Faceless collapses backward soundlessly. The boom of the shotgun startles some crows in a nearby field who rise up and scatter, cawing.
Jesse stares at the dead man. The worms and vines move more and more sluggishly until they fall still.
You walk around the car between you and bend down to reach into his jeans pocket, feeling the bulge of wallet and keys. Fishing them both out, you discard the keys and open the wallet.
"Brian Morseman," you announce. You hold up a picture of him smiling with a pretty woman in front of a tree. The woman is smiling in that fake photograph kind of way, but Brian's smile seems somehow sad but also real.
Jesse shakes her head.
The both of you head back to the SUV and continue into town.
********************************
1. Stop at the Vet.
2. Skip it.
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Topic: The Ends Act 5: The Return (Read 8334 times)