Chapter Text
"It's disgusting." I could hear my mom 'whisper' as I looked through the shitty music at the diner we got STUCK AT!
"You're right. It is disgusting." my dad agreed talking a little louder than her. 'Geez way to make me feel better dad..'
"Really. How can she go out in public looking like that?" My mom asked both him and herself.
"I don't know. Why don't we just ask her?" dad answered. 'ooh that'll go so well. Better come up with something now.'
"Howard, Don't. You'll embarrass me." she whined, 'Oh embarrass YOU. Right, forgot that's all she thinks about, herself.'
"Audrey, honey? Your mother was wondering if you got dressed this morning with the specific intention of showing your ass off to the entire world?" Dad's question was so nicely put that I HAD to answer as sweetly
"It's because I woke up hoping to get double teamed by a couple of meth head truckers in some bathroom of a desert shit hole. It's good that we got stuck here." he turned around and I went back to looking through the music.
"I feel satisfied with that answer. I really do." I heard him say, 'So do I dad, so do I' I gave up and sat down at a table far away from them.
"I'm being punished for something, I know it." mom commented, I just ignored it and got out my ipod. Then the guy who was working on our car, the waitress and some black dude came in.
"Who is that?" mom asked pissed as the mechanic went in back and talked to bob, the owner.
"What do you want me to do?" dad asked kinda tired of her behavior too.
"Talk to him! Things should have been ready two hours ago." she snapped back at him. If it mattered that much to her she should just talk to him herself.
"Excuse me, is there any news about when our car might be fixed? You said your boy would have us back on the road two hours ago. The rate we're going, we'll be lucky to make it to Scottsdale by Christmas." dad asked, the beginning was almost nice but in her end he ended up sounding like mom. Bob left towards the garage where they had our car, his expression less than happy. A few minutes later I could see them arguing by the gas pumps, then Bob came back in while the other dude went back to the garage.
"He's about this close to wrapping it up." he said pinching his fingers together and went back to hitting the tv, carrying out a conversation with the cook with a hook for a hand.
"Alright baby. This is gonna be it, right here." Bob hit it one more time and a high pitched ringing echoed throughout the room. The screen read 'THIS IS NOT A TEST'.
"Clear as day." Bob announced proudly.
"What the hell is that?" someone asked
"Well, they're testing something." Bob said stupidly as everyone paid more attention to it
"That doesn't look like a test." Charlie commented, probably doubting his IQ level was above 10 like I was.
"Can I just use the phone?" the black dude asked again handing Bob a twenty. He took it and gave him directions still staring at the tv. The sound was actually staring to sound a little unnerving.
"Excuse me, but if this were an actual emergency, wouldn't they be giving us instructions on what to do?" mom actually had a point that time. I think. The cook, Percy checked his radio, all the stations were the same ringing noise. They went on about how it could be an earthquake and I suggested terrorists.
"Oh god!" mom cried overreacting as usual.
"For crying out loud, there's no use speculating!" Bob shouted calming everyone a little.
"I'll just call my brother up in Needles, he'll probably know something." Just then the black dude walked in.
"I don't think so." he stated, Bob asked him what he meant,
"I was just on the phone, the shit cut off in the middle of my conversation. I want my money back." he told him. I nearly laughed at that, no connection to the outside world and he wants his money back? I guess I would too though. Percy intervened again and we were assured again that the car would be fixed in a few minutes. Yea Right. Not too king after an old lady walked in, she looked like one of those grandmas who kept your secrets and made you cookies. Charlie took her order. She leaned over to my parents,
"Hello, I'm Gladys. Gladys Foster." she introduced herself. Mom as usual tried to make herself look like a loving person,
"Oh, hello Gladys, it's so nice to meet you. I'm Sandra. And this is my husband, Howard." Gladys smiled more
"What a nice looking young couple. What brings you up to these parts?" she wanted to know. 'Hm cars a piece of shit BMW and broke down now this dumb ass mechanic isn't doing his job fast enough.' I answered mentally. Mom seemed to get an idea,
"We're on our way to Scottsdale, but our car broke down and we're stuck here until it's fixed." there was a hint of sourness in her voice.
"What a nuisance." Gladys commented airily
"Gladys, the lines seem to be down around here, the phone and the TV and I was just wondering if you might have heard something on your way up, about what's going on?" she asked, 'So that was her idea. Not bad.'
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, sweetheart. It'll all be over soon." she seemed suddenly a lot less grandma-like with that sentence and I scooted a little uncomfortably in my booth.
"Okay." mom said weirded out. 'Time to ignore her, weird old lady.' I though wishing my ipod wasn't dead. I tried turning it on a few times but no luck.
"What did you just say?" Charlie cried startled,
"I said your fucking baby's gonna burn!" Gladys replied her voice taking on a deeper sound.
"Go to hell, lady." Charlie replied walking away.
"All little babies are gonna burn." ok now she was freaking me out, she seemed so nice before.
"Gladys…" my mom tried only to get interrupted
"Shut up you stupid fucking cunt. All you do is complain, complain, complain!" Gladys's voice at this point could only be classified as demonic yet I had to laugh at how dead on she was about my mom.
"What?" dad said turning towards her further, almost not believing someone would say the truth about his wife.
"What? What?" he repeated dumbly
"Harold, no…" mom 'tried' to get him to calm down. He just stood up and walked over to her
"I don't know who the hell you think you are, but I'd like you to apologize to my…" she overrode him
"You're all going to fucking die!" her eyes turned black and she bit into dad's neck pulling away with a chunk of his bloody flesh and spitting it away. I couldn't believe what was happening in front of me. I was almost too scared to move, until she started climbing to wall onto he ceiling,
"What the fuck, man?" the black guy shouted. I closed my eyes hoping it would all go away.
"Shoot her, Jeep!" Bob yelled as Jeep(the mechanic) now held his gun. His grip was shaky and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly as he prepared to pull the trigger.
"You will never save her." Gladys shouted
"Shoot that bitch!" someone yelled.
"Shoot her!", gunshots rang out but not from Bob's gun. She dropped revealing Kyle with a silver plated WESTERN ARMS 45.
"Somebody help me!" my mom's voice drew my attention over to her and my dad who was slowly bleeding out. Panic rose within me and I rushed over, Kyle right behind me. He knelt down pushing mom's hand on dad's neck, I looked at him incredulously, mom accusingly
"Don't look at me like that. I'm trying to help. Calm down. Keep pressure on his neck. Easy." he ordered. After a moment he removed his scarf bunching it up and pressing it to dad's neck. We moved him to Kyle's truck and everyone but Jeep and Bob piled in. Kyle took off going 80.
"How far is it to the hospital?" he asked barely glancing over his shoulder at us.
"I don't know. 70, maybe 80 miles." Percy responded. He looked doubtful,
"80 miles?" he picked up even more speed. There was something dark down the road getting closer, like a wall of sand.
"What the hell is that?" I asked no one in particular.
"It's clouds, what do you think they are?" Kyle shouted back. We grew closer and I heard something,
"Clouds don't buzz!" flies began streaming in filling up the car, making it hard to breathe. We turned back as soon as Kyle regained control of the car and floored it heading back to the diner. We all ran to get inside incase the flies were following us. Bob stood outside hear what happened. He stopped Percy on his way by asking why we turned back.
"Gonna get my Bible!" was all he said, Bob was confused,
"Somebody's gotta start praying." he reasoned. As soon as I went in I retreated to my corner booth away from everyone and curled up hugging my knees to my chest trying to calm down. They looked over 'Gladys's' body again and wrapped her up in something, dragging her outside. Charlie seemed to see something and ran outside. We looked out the window and saw a LAPD car pulling up. It stopped about 10 feet from Kyle, Bob, and Jeep and someone stepped out, the sun glinted through the window making it hard to see but I saw Bob training his gun on him. 'Idiot's about to shoot a cop. Wow. He may be our only source of information and Bob's about to shoot him, great'. Suddenly the other guy had his gun pressed to Bob's head and everyone tensed. After a while he handed it back and went to the trunk of the car. I figured it was safe since they hadn't shot them. I walked out slowly with mom following me,
"What's happening?" I asked only to have my breath taken away as the stranger brushed passed me.
"Better get back inside." He whispered low and my shoulder tingled where he brushed passed me and I struggled to regain my breath even as I followed him and his suggestion.