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MEANWHILE BACK AT THE IT lab (Audi Q7)
(Or, hey, what happened to the Geeks)
After seeing the garage doors being blown and what appeared to be a SWAT team descending on the house, Alex made the executive decision to get the hell out of Dodge. Unfortunately, his co-workers, who were usually snail-like in making decisions had come to the same conclusion. There was a mad scramble to the front seat. Cody made it to the driver’s seat first as Jeremy and Alex had forgotten to unplug their headsets, and both were jerked back when they made their lunge for the front.
“Shotgun!” shouted Jeremy and Alex. After a minor pushing and slap fighting and Alex pushed past Jeremy and clamored over the front seat to sit beside Cody.
Cody, who’d been adjusting the seat and mirrors while Alex and Jeremy had been screaming at each other and yelling at him to get them “the fuck out of here!” started screaming.
Alex and Jeremy immediately went silent, with Alex apologizing to Cody, “Sorry Cody, I didn’t mean to upset you, but I thought we should use the utmost speed in leaving here before we are discovered and possibly shot or arrested.”
Cody had gone silent and was pointing in Alex’s direction. Alex was also going to encourage movement from Cody in the form of starting the engine and hitting the accelerator when he saw something move just outside his window.
Jeremy apparently saw whatever was alongside Alex’s window too because he began screaming, “Lock the doors, lock the doors, get the hell...!”
By the time Alex and Cody found the door locks, which were on the center console, Alex’s door had opened.
“Oh God, it’s the Crypt Keeper!” Cody screamed, turned the key in the ignition and floored it. Unfortunately, he had put the SUV into neutral, so it only made a lovely revving noise.
Alex, who was closest to the creature which that was now mere inches from his face, saw a human-shaped thing with massive wrinkles on a skeleton frame. If a skeleton could have wrinkles, than living proof was breathing down Alex’s neck. Every time the creature took a breath, Alex heard this awful sloshy raspy sound as if the thing’s lungs were filled with wet sand.
“You nerds weren’t leaving, were you?” the thing rasped.
“Go, just go!” Jeremy wailed from the back, bouncing up and down on his seat.
An arm in a shredded sleeve rose, followed by the thunderous crack of a gunshot that reverberated in the confined space of the SUV. The shot traveled past both Alex and Cody and skimmed the trim of the driver’s side open window as it exited.
“Now that I have your attention,” the voice gurgled at the slightly deafened occupants. The gurgle was followed by a snort and phlegmy retching sounds. The thing turned its head and displayed long gray strings of hair coming from a red and pink scalp, which resembled the terrain of an active volcano, with inflamed cracks scattered over a barren landscape. The thing then spat a large black piece of something spongy onto the desert floor. More gurgling and rasping was followed by, a whispery crackle that sounded like, “Pardon me, that wasn’t ladylike, was it?” The creature jerked back and forth and made even weirder hacking noises. It was either having a seizure or laughing.
Jeremy took this opportunity to open his door and vomit into some bear grass shrubs growing next to the SUV. As he leaned out the door a hand that was more bone than skin grabbed him and pulled him out of the SUV where he landed in a heap on the desert floor. Ms. Skeletor made another phlegmy slushy sound and rattled, what sounded like, “Sorry, four is a crowd.” The thing then used Jeremy as a step and climbed into the Audi’s back seat. More croaking and rattling came from the skull, and the thing gurgled, “As soon as you find the appropriate gear, nerd, we can get out of here. I’m not myself, but I’m not stupid. Do as I say and we will all live through this.” It then slammed the car door shut and patted Cody’s shoulder. Cody and Alex look at each other, at Cody’s shoulder where the thing had touched him, and then back at each other.
Cody began chanting, “Get it off, get it off, get it off.” Alex found a rag in the glove compartment and snagged some clumps off Cody’s shoulder. Before he threw the rag out the window, Alex looked at it to double-check what he thought he’d seen on Cody’s shoulder. He wished he hadn’t as the contents of the cloth would haunt his dreams the rest of his days. On the rag were two complete fingernails and a section of skin approximately an inch in length that was now curling up at the ends. The nails and the fragment of skin were charcoal black in color.
“Driver, let’s go, I’m not going to ask again,” came the wet rattling wheeze from the back seat.
After several tries, Cody finally found the correct gear, and the Audi set off into the desert.
After several miles, Alex finally found the courage to speak and managed to squeak, “It is you, isn’t it, Suzanne? What happened back there?
More horrible retching noises originated from the back seat. Alex could feel the foul thing’s breath on his neck when it replied, “Yes, it’s me. Let’s just say, I’m glad they opted for the industrial-sized dryer.”