Drifters

by Santos, J. A.

  “I told you I would help you this time. After that we go our separate ways, Deal?”

  “Deal,” he said.

  During all my trips in twelve years, I have been to many morgues; to me they all looked the same; stainless steel walls, bed, knives, and drawers. We were lead inside by a woman with blond hair tied in a ponytail and red rim glasses. Her white skin made her look like snow white, if such character actually existed she would be the perfect example of how she would look.

  Her white lab coat flapped sideways as we walked inside. I had the back pack strapped to my back and she kept looking at me if I was a red head weirdo with a head inside the bag. I only smiled at her with every look. Jeremy stayed quiet walking, I was wondering what was going inside that twisted head of his. We stopped in front of red double doors.

  “Who are you again?” she said as she turned around eyeing Jeremy.

  “This is a federal matter, want to check my ID again or should we continue.” Jeremy said. I stayed with my mouth shut.

  She turned around saying nothing else. She pushed the red doors with the palm of both her hands they swayed inwards as the light started flickering inside. Maybe there was a problem with the electrical line. Inside the room as always same stainless steel things nothing grand, I grabbed the back pack and let it rest on the floor near the door.

  “How many?” I asked since I did not see how many body bags came out the hotel.

  “To many, those on the top four rows are the victims of the hotel.” She said. “Who would do something like that? They seem like if an animal had just torn them apart and eaten them?” I saw how she shuddered to the idea of someone eating her.

  “Any other?” Jeremy asked.

  “Yes, this one is a bit of a mystery that is why we had him separated from the others.”

  “Mystery?” I asked.

  “Here come with me?” she said.

  We fallowed her to the next room, where they had the body, but it wasn’t there.

  “I don’t understand, we had him here?” she said in a surprised state, she bends down on the table and looked both ways, another state of surprise came to her as she saw Jeremy take out his gun and looking to each side.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “It is probably happening faster this time.”

  “That can’t be.”

  “Sara it has been years since we found you, it probably mutated by now.” He said still looking at each side when, from my back I saw Max naked scratching the back of his head.

  “Ugh, what a drag, Alex is just a moron.” He said without looking up.

  “Max?” I said and he looked up.

  “O, hi there Miss Sara.”

  “Are you okay”

  “Yea just a little disoriented.”

  “But, but, but, you were dead,” said the woman with the red glasses clearly scared and moving backwards.

  He looked up at her and he smiles, “Yea I know.”

  “Max, I must ask you. What happened in the hotel?”

  “Alex went on a rampage, broke my neck and started his frenzy.”

  “What are you, you know?” Jeremy asked

  “No not really, I know I get this hunger from time to time and all I have is to eat some flesh and that is it.”

  “Is Alex same as you” I asked

  “No he was like you on the side of the road, drifter he called himself.”

  “No, I mean like you with that hunger? You were talking to him like he was your friend.”

  “He is. He’s the one that taught me to control the hunger. He once said that he would one day completely turn and that I would have to take him down.”

  “Completely turn?” I said and thought about me. I have had this all my life and I have never completely turned. I looked at Jeremy and he was about to put a bullet in Max’s head when I stepped in front of him between the gun and Max extending my arms to each side.

  “It was you, you replicated me, and you made them.”

  He said nothing.

  Chapter Six

  “Speak, tell me I am wrong?” I said infuriated by his silence as Max stumbles to the table with a hard metallic clank, the table moves forward an inch. I looked and Max’s awkward neck made me think of all the stabbing the bullets holes and the broken bones. I have never recovered this fast, but I eventually recover faster than most humans. I gave Jeremy and angry look and stormed out the room that was Maxes storage while he was dead.

  I walked back to the morgues main storage and where my bag was; I heard the gargling again and looked back. Jeremy clearly had knowledge I did not and knowing that he made others like me made even more furious than what I was already since I saw him in front of the hotel. I just wanted to leave the town to the fate I knew was coming to them. The sound came louder, a thump then a clink as the locks of the drawers broke and the undead was crawling out of its early grave. I ran to it and shoved my hand up its mouth as it tried to bite it and drove my hand all the way as I did the fawn, straight to its brain and closed my fist to it. The body limbs and I breathe. Jeremy storms inside asking what I was thinking.

  “What am I thinking you tried to accelerate the fucking process? That is what!”

  “What do you even mean?” he asked as he nudges his shoulders upward and confusion in his face.

  “Look at me, really look at me. Why the fuck you think I have a hand up this guy’s mouth.” that’s when I saw him and it was Jane, the passenger of the yellow car, the one with the snorting laughter.

  “Do not let that woman see you.”

  “What would she say, that I violated a corpse by its mouth, get real. He was the first to wake so the other will be close by. We need to take care of this before all of them start spreading it.” I said still my hand on Joan mouth and jerked three times just to let it be free.

  The sound of other clinking and rapping on metallic walls was heard and I looked at Jeremy. He knew that time was closing to deal with what is coming from the first row as the red rim glasses woman said, snow white, were a total of six corpses were coming back. There were six animated corpses rising to a hunger they could never comprehend. If they could they would talk and be like you and me. Yes I am dead as for human standards, I don’t have a heartbeat. Yet I think and I have a more glacial life than most living people I have encountered on my drifts.

  Jeremy runs to the box next to mines and holds it shut as I got my hand off the brain of Jane and my red glove reappeared.

  “You still got it Sara.” Jeremy said as Max and the girl came forward, Max now with a Johnny shirt and covering his nakedness, which I was glad.

  “What is all that sound?” said the woman

  “Stay away!” Jeremy screamed as the first of 6 drawer busted open and the mindless beast tried to wither away from the closed room he had. Max runs and grabs the corpse by the head and rips it off, clotted blood fall to his face and he licks it off.

  “Max, control,” Were the only words that came from me as he laughs and sits and the woman with the red glasses screams at the sight of Max’s action.

  “Well, you are in trouble, let me see, six wakers or more over five now, one revolver with what, six bullets? I wonder how much of a sharp shooter you are.”

  “Max this is no game.”

  “I know, I know just Alex told me it took three days, and it only has been one.”

  “We need to have a chat as soon as we take care of this.” I said as Jeremy took out his gun and with every broken and flying door of the morgues drawer, one by one that got out he took the shot, taking one in the head as they got out from their enclosing.

  “I am that good.” He said glaring at Max.

  #

  Once the bodies were left ‘re-dead’ we talked to the woman and found her name was Jenny she did not had her name tag cause she just had started her shift and it was still in her pocket when we came in. We told her not to say a word of what she just saw, that everyone was still in danger and if there was any other victim we did n
ot heard of. She nodded her head; her eyes still opened wide her face full of fear. I went to a sink next to the red doors and washed away my red glove. Max had already started to dress with a pair of jeans from one of the victims that were clean enough while looking for a shirt inside a bag, my bag.

  “Hey,” I screamed taking my gaze of the mirror in front of me and looking at Max, “that’s mine stay away.”

  “O, sorry Miss Sara, did not want to intrude.” He lifted himself from the crouched position he was closing the bag in front of him. I turned my head forward again looking at the mirror a hot flashed struck my body and I wobbled a little, backwards and left, closing my eyes for a second as Jeremy grabbed me. When I looked up I saw in the mirror that Alex was the one that grabbed me and he was pale blood oozing from his eyes as they were gone he was smiling as I see his teeth were rotten and black some even missing, he put a finger over his mouth like saying don’t say a word. I closed my eyes and looked at the mirror again. He was gone and the image was Jeremy.

  “Sara you okay?” he asked with concern in his voice. I looked back at him twisting my body, meeting his eyes.

  “What have you really done?” I asked and he knew what I meant. He looked down and let go of me I felt better as he started walking away and his evil arms were not touching me. I grabbed a small towel that was hanging on the sink and dried my hand. I looked at Max with a red shirt now. Not red cause it was its color, red from a crimson stream where it was dabbed to its new color.

  “Well this was the cleanest of them all.”

  “Here.” I said as I got near my bag opened it and threw him one of the new shirts Jeremy had bought. I had six so I could spare one.

  He grabbed it in midair as Jeremy returned to speak to the women, Jenny, about what had just happen. I could see her hands flying all around to the mysterious words of don’t say a fucking thing Jeremy was concocting so she would not reveal to anyone what had just occurred here. Jeremy is a great liar and I give him credit for it. I remember once at fifteen, he talking to me about the hunger, how they were trying to find a cure, I wasn’t that naïve then and I was not that naïve now. I know he planned something, but what?

  Chapter Seven

  Outside and after some extra convincing to the woman from the morgue, she took one thousand dollar check from Jeremy, we walked towards a small diner not that we were hungry, but we needed a place so Max can tell us the tale of who Alex really was. The diner was nothing special and it was full; as soon as we enter heads turned around looking at us. A tall man with a black suit, cheap but still, another man with a shirt tight to its body as if it was part of his skin and no shoes, and a red haired woman with freckles on her face and backpack strapped to her back. What a unique group, I thought. There was a booth at the far end and we walked to it as soon as everyone else started moving their heads back to their meals. Inside the booth Jeremy and Max were side by side, I was in front of them with the back pack to the window shading me from the sun that was now hot and high in the sky.

  “Max, Alex’s story, now.” Jeremy said.

  “First let me tell you that he is not bad or evil.”

  “We know.” I said

  “Well two years ago I went hunting with a friend, he’s dead now, when we found Alex walking in the side of the street and he seemed like a quite nice fellow and like you we gave him a ride. We talked all the way about how the hunting trip was going to be fun and we invited Alex to participate since he apparently knew the woods we were going quite well.” He said as a women came with a note pad in one hand and a pencil in the other.

  “Ready to order” she said, Jeremy looked at her and ordered black coffee, Max said he wanted orange juice and I ordered water. As soon as she left to get our drinks Max continued.

  “Everything was going well, we lit a campfire as soon as we got to the woods and sat around it talking, my hunting bow was perched beside a tree and my friend’s gun was loaded and ready. I started to get a fever and told them I was going to rest to start the hunt. Next thing I knew I had killed my friend and Alex was there. He bends down and looked at the corpse of my friend and ripped his head off with its bare hands I was afraid of him as he walked towards me, but he only put a hand on my shoulder and said welcome to the family.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I never knew what he meant by it I am guessing it had to be something with the fact the he and I were alike.”

  “You never asked him where he came or how he knew all of this.”

  “I sure did, he only stated that for now it was ‘me to know and us to find out’, which was what we were here for.” Max said as soon as the girl brought our drinks. I remembered the fawn meal I had in the morning, an exquisite banquet, but that was not all that I remembered. Alex face with angry eyes glaring back at me with killer instincts, yet stable to speak. I looked at Jeremy, elbows to the table, and staring down at it as is staring he can put his troubles away while he burns a hole with his stare.

  “You know him, don’t you?” I said as Jeremy looks up and stares ate me blankly.

  “Stop playing naïve. I know there is something in your agenda you are not telling me.”

  “Sara I can’t…”

  “Shut up. I don’t want to hear your stupid lies now.” I said turning my gaze to Max and he was looking around puffin and inhaling rapidly.

  “Max, max look at me,” I said, “look at me and think of someone you care subside the hunger.”

  “I am not hungry nor am not in a state of confusion like Alex, I am just wondering where he is.”

  “I saw him in the forest some hours ago, before we got to the morgue.”

  “Had he turned?”

  “What is this thing about turning I don’t understand?” I asked looking at Jeremy. His hands now were clasped on to a tight knot. Something had just been told that put him in an unease state.

  “What, tell me know” I said as I was about to slap him again in my mind as I did before.

  “You don’t remember when I found you?” he asked and Max for the first time looked at him with and aw.

  “Fifteen years, stuck in a lab been poked with needles every time, I could remember you and I remember the nurse, I don’t remember you finding me any place just the fucking Lab.”

  “Sara you are the first we found with this and for your question in the morgue I did not do such thing.” He said unclasping his ball of fingers and laying them on the table, “but I have to come clean to you, you deserve at least that.”

  “Why?”

  “Sara, you are my daughter, it doesn’t matter that I found you between two corpses, or that you are who you are. You are my daughter and that is it.”

  “Fuck, now I am your daughter? After all those needles and those scans? After all they did to me? Jeremy you are so full of yourself.” I almost screamed those words to him. I was infuriated, the whole idea of him talking as he was my father was nauseating even. Max was enjoying himself a big smile appeared on his face as if a joke was made and he was holding the laughter for the punch line.

  “Okay,” I said rising my hands and lowering my head. The diner was busy, it was still half way the day and we were just stuck with a undead man, a drifter and an old and weary federal agent named Jeremy, I wanted him dead. “What do we know for now, and you.” I pointed to Jeremy,” better start talking sense to me because right now you are losing, Max doesn’t even know what he is or what he is capable and he is making more sense than you.”

  The diner went silent as someone entered, My back to the door I could not see, but I knew it was someone important because all the hush and low whispers disappear. As Jeremy looked up and his eyes widen I turned my head over my shoulder and a man in black suit, same tie and same black glasses was walking towards us. I looked back at Jeremy.

  NO, he mouthed the words a silent omen of things he had done bad in the past came forwarding like a V.C.R. forwarding a movie and everything went fast.

  The man sits beside me talking ex
clusively to Jeremy about the score of the century, or so he said. He told him how the situation should be held and Jeremy only nodded. A man that had been director of a military lab, proud and straight all the time, now was just whimpering with its tail between his legs like a dog scolded for peeing on the carpet, he was now a laky for a new and more dreadful foe, which name his came as of a surprise.

  We left the diner with Jeremy’s broken pride, my broken hopes, and one new member missing, Max, since he was dragged away. His screams were highly emotive to me since I had screamed that way so many times. There was the time in Florida where Jeremy caught to my little joke and found the place I was staying, then there was the time in Puerto Rico where I stayed hidden in a cave that was like a labyrinth, I really thought that they would never find me there, yet I was posing as a tour guide in a place where there was none.

  Anyway the thing is that Max was taken away, steel cuff in his wrist, those cold metallic things I hated so much, and put in a white van. I knew where they were taking him, another lab now by this old friend I use to have. I was worried, I was supposed to protect them, my kind, yet there was nothing I could do only stick to Jeremy the old withered man that only have some small window in his life, or so he said. This old friend turned to be more ruthless than Jeremy, even him was scared of him and his powers. I just had to ask.

  “Targus is not dead?”

  “No.” he said as I caught him in another lie.

  “You want me to this thing for you, what happened, tell me the truth. I have never seen you like this. It is as if you are another man.”

  “After you escaped, he brought me to the board and I was torn down from the inside out, they just couldn’t trust me so he took over.”

  “All this time, it has been him, not you?” I asked outside the diner as I saw Max inside the white van.

  “Yes. Mariano had this Idea of replicating you, not as I did; he went to great lengths to do it. Remember the time in Puerto Rico when I found you in that cave and I told you I really need to let you know?”