Chapter 57
The Escape (Part I)
Darcy Renolds
(Current Time)
Vrooom!
The purr of the engine roared to life tearing through the open back roads and highways that marked the long trek back from Pittsburgh to little old Jackson West Virginia.
Silence.
Despite the late hour, the fact that dawn still wouldn’t come up for another two hours at minimum, everyone sat completely still.
From the backseat Darcy saw the mile markers slowly count down from over a hundred, to the remaining few dozen or so miles that still remained.
Looking around, signs of the disastrous concert still could be seen.
Sniff.
And smelled.
The girls had taken to changing into their sweat soaked game worn jerseys rather than deal with letting the crud and viscera dry on their clothes.
Unfortunately, Darcy had no such uniform to change into, and now looking down saw the dried sprays of dark crimson patches all over her clothes.
Wet wipes had been used to get off the majority of the stains, particularly from the clumps that managed to stay on her skin.
Now that their exit was so close, now that she could see the familiar roadways that led to home, to safety, Darcy felt the tension in her shoulders relax. Not only did she find it easier to breathe, well partially easier to breathe, as the smell was still ripe in Misha’s vehicle. Darcy could now feel an odd sort of sadness that things were finally coming to a close.
“You know, I’m almost sad that it is over,” Darcy spoke. Her words shattering the silence and pulling the attention of the two other passengers. Jasmine for her part just turned her head and stared at Darcy like she was a moron. Misha did much the same, though her vision was provided by a subtle use of the rearview mirror.
“Oh, come on. From a story standpoint it was epic.” Darcy continued speaking into the silence.
This time Misha turned her attention away from Darcy and back to the road. This was likely a good thing as Darcy was fairly certain that the reason the engine was so loud was due to her excessively speeding. Though, again Darcy could not blame Misha for the excessive use of speed. Just rather the fact that she was speeding was reason to give the road full attention.
“How?” Jasmine finally asked, her mind clearly in that odd fog that happens at this hour of night. The witching hour, as her mother always called it, the hour when you needed to get home quickly, lest you incur terrible luck.
Hearing that, Darcy finally began going over the events of the weekend in order. “First, you won your game. Congratulations again, it was impressive. That game alone was a one-sided beat down that we can boast about for years to come.”
At that, both Misha and Jasmine nodded in acceptance.
“Then we not only met Hasty, but were chosen to be her helper.”
“Misha was chosen, not us,” Jasmine corrected.
“Right, but we got all the benefits of that. We got the VIP treatment, and even got to be on stage for the concert.” Darcy continued.
“The concert? You are going to call that concert a win?” Jasmine asked.
“Now that we survived, heck yeah.” Darcy stated.
At that, Jasmine opened her mouth and looked like she wanted to protest the idiotic statement, but then finally closed her mouth and seemed to accept it as fact. Well fact now that they had in fact survived, a fact that was proven by the sign that now said they were under twenty miles away from entering their home.
“You know, now that you mention it, it probably will make for an amazing story.” Jasmine stated.
Hearing that Darcy just beamed and said, “thank you.”
Then as if finally finding something to lower Darcy’s good mood, Jasmine commented, “you know you still have dried skin particles in your hair.”
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“What? Eww!” Darcy screamed as she began clawing at her hair, only to find that Jasmine was in fact correct. There was a clump of dried skin clearly stuck to her hair.
***
(Two Hours Ago)
Clump-clop-clump.
Heard the rattling of metal as if heavy weights were jumping onto the roof of the vehicle and trying to get into the car. Hearing the sound, Darcy shot up from her deep slumber and was instantly awake and aware of her surroundings.
“AHH!” Darcy screamed on reflex, though even the act of screaming was odd as she felt more dried blood on her face, holding her muscles together.
“It’s okay!” Misha said, turning around from the front seat and grabbing Darcy firmly around the wrist.
Oddly enough, this strange act seemed to perform the desired effect as Darcy paused long enough for her mind to register that the crazy girl was holding her wrist. Then looking around, she realized the odd clumping sounds from around the vehicle were not monsters climbing to get on the car, again.
Instead, all that was there was the unmistakable sound of a giant car wash working and cleaning off the remainder of the blood stains that had likely had time to begin to dry out on the car.
Another quick glance showed that the time now said it was just after midnight.
12:02
Realizing that they were still safe, and that Misha would not have stopped at just any spot to clean up, Darcy asked. “So we are safe?”
Misha just shrugged.
“As safe as can be, which was why we stopped here to get gas and a car wash.” Jasmine replied.
With that revelation, it was clear that Darcy had passed out, slept through turning the vehicle off and getting gas. Then only been awakened once she heard the loud thumping of the brushes spinning violently on the vehicle.
Phew.
With that Darcy let out an exhausted breath and then found her sleep deprived mind say the first thing that came to her.
Even the sight of Jasmine still using her phone didn’t bother her at this point. For all Darcy wanted to do was go back to sleep, as her mind was very close to being at the edge of shattering. Then her body seemed to awaken as, her mind went away from the horrors that she foresaw and settled on more immediate concerns. This was when a sleep addled Darcy made a huge mistake.
Darcy had wanted to say that she needed to use the bathroom, as her bladder was suddenly awoken by all the sounds of water spraying and washing over the vehicle. Instead, what she actually said was, “I love you.”
Blink.
With Misha still holding her hand, Darcy shook her head, and then exclaimed. “I mean, I’d love you if I could use the restroom.”
At that Misha just nodded, but then held out a half-used packet of wet wipes, “sure but you should probably use this before going in.”
With that, Darcy looked down in horror and seeing the dried blood and skin particles clinging to her clothes and skin, she could only stare at herself in wide eyed horror.
“Yeah, thanks.”
Then as she grabbed the packet of wipes, she began cleaning her body and wondered exactly how much of what was coming back to her was real, and how much was the residual memories of her nightmares.
Vert-vum.
She was about to ask, until she saw the giant brushes slowing batter and beat a thin strip of flesh down the back window of the vehicle. Seeing the particle, Darcy decided that it was best to not ask this question.
“Take your time when you go, as we will go through the wash again.” Misha said, her words taking a moment to fully sink in, but then afterwards Darcy could understand the logic. There had been a lot of blood to clean off and not just one cleansing would likely suffice.
“Okay.”
***
(Four Hours Ago)
VRRRRR!
Despite already being outside the confines of Pittsburgh city limits, the sheer roadway system and series of broken or abandoned vehicles were staggering.
Obstacles littered the roadway. Yet, Misha just turned and drifted her car out and around vehicles, bodies, and the occasional ambulatory image. Though ambulatory for this purpose could also mean a four-legged monster charging forth like a crazed demon hound on crack chasing their vehicle like they were the mailman delivering biscuits.
Darcy didn’t know how close things were, nor what the sudden thumps were that occasionally hit the vehicle and then seemed to bounce off into the distance.
Truthfully, Darcy didn’t want to know, which was why she just closed her eyes, hunkered down and tried to get out of Misha’s sight so she could focus on leaving Pittsburgh as quickly as possible.
Vrr-vrroom.
Finally, the vehicle stopped swerving constantly and instead seemed to pick up the smooth flow that Darcy had become accustomed to while riding with Misha.
Only once she was certain that there were going to be no more incidents did she open her eyes and look around.
That was when she first noticed the streaks of dark red substance on the outside of the vehicle, right where she remembered multiple thumps occurring.
Then she looked down and finally managed to feel the coolness of thick liquids drying on her skin.
Don’t look down, don’t look down. Darcy told herself, not wanting to see the horrors that awaited. Fortunately, even when her eyes and mind betrayed her and looked, she found that it was too dark inside the cabin of the car to see anything.
Flicker.
Of course, that was exactly when Jasmine pulled out her phone and began searching for things to read.
Darcy was about to complain, but then she too found herself reaching into her pocket to pull out her own phone.
37%
Seeing the charge left, Darcy had a terrible realization hit her.
“Shit!” Darcy exclaimed.
At that, Jasmine just turned her head to look at Darcy and see if anything was going wrong. Then seeing that nothing was truly out of place, she asked. “What?”
“I just realized I left my charger back at the hotel.” Darcy said, referring to the hotel that they had checked out, and double checked twice before leaving that morning.
This was a good thing too, as now all of their stuff that they had taken with them was just waiting for them in the truck of the vehicle.
A vehicle that Darcy was still confused as to how Misha seemed to know exactly where it was, despite having been taken over ten miles away from it, due to the limousine ride and everything else that occurred that day, well yesterday.
Glares.
Darcy paused as she suddenly felt uncomfortable as both Misha and Jasmine just stared at her incredulously.
“What, I’m not saying we need to go back, just that I won’t be able to charge my phone.” Darcy exclaimed, then she held up her phone and showed off the low battery number.
“Oh, that’s terrible, you have an iPhone?” Jasmine asked.
With that Darcy could only nod, knowing that Jasmine’s cord that she was easily pulling out of her pack would not fit her phone.
“Yeah,” was all Darcy could say.
Seeing the charger that was clearly the wrong size, Darcy just thought of this as another reason why today was a terrible day.
While the day had started off amazingly well, with being picked out. Well with Misha being picked out, and her getting to be near Hasty and see her idol in person, it had slowly spiraled out of control.
Everything from the odd photoshoot that apparently only Misha and Hasty were in on. Then the odd concert that was cancelled midway through, where they then had to run for their lives. To Misha and Jasmine both fighting their way through the throng of scared concert goers, to the craziest getaway. Darcy was fairly certain that she was now part of the crime, an accomplice? That said, she was not going to turn herself in, not until the people she saw were no longer crazy.
“Oh, look. The CDC officially noted that they closed the concert and all future concerts for the time being.” Jasmine said, holding up the article that clearly showed the last act of the concert. Well it was really still the beginning act of the concert, but it was the last act for that concert as right after that the stage was rushed.
Darkness.
As Darcy tried to recall the memories of what happened, it was almost like there was a dark fog that clouded her mind. She knew what she saw was terrible, but despite it having just happened, her mind either couldn’t process what happened. Or worse, her mind had completely blocked out the trauma of the events that happened.
Then just as she tried to rationalize that what she saw or thinks she saw couldn’t have happened, she would move and feel the coldness of drying slime cling and break apart on her skin, reminding her once more that there had been horrors. Horrors that Misha and Jasmine both had fought their way through. Not only that, but they had both made sure to take her with them.
Finally, after a long moment, Darcy found herself asking. “So, what exactly happened?”