Headless by Scott Cole

Author:Scott Cole [Cole, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grindhouse Press
Published: 2024-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

THE THREE OF THEM SAT in the car for close to another hour, windows up despite the heat, watching the sky get somehow even darker, listening to the sounds of raindrops and wormfall. The moon seemed to be obscured by clouds, but the stars above continued to twinkle in that strange way.

Carter was particularly quiet for a while, sitting in the passenger seat of his own car, until finally he had composed his thoughts.

“What if, like . . . what if those worm things are why this is all happening?”

Linzy and Joanna just stared at him in the darkness, listening to the tapping on the roof and windows of the car, waiting for him to continue.

“I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what these things are, or where they came from. Seems like they’re just raining down from the clouds, right? But, what if they’re infecting people somehow? Like a parasite. Or some kind of sickness. Maybe they make people’s brains swell or something. And then their heads go splat.”

“This is some science-fiction shit,” Joanna said, incredulous to all the day’s events.

“I know it is. But how else do you explain people’s heads exploding?”

“Sure, that’s one thing,” Linzy said. “But even if you have that part figured out—and I’m not saying you do—then how do you explain people continuing to walk around without their heads?”

The conversation didn’t go much farther. They didn’t have any answers. Just questions.

Soon, the rain subsided, and the stars regained their full brightness, solid in the way most people were used to seeing them.

They decided to move. They didn’t know where they were going, but it was doing them no good to simply sit in the middle of nowhere. They would need to find gas somewhere, and they would need food again before too long. Maybe if they could get closer to another city they’d find a pocket of more reliable phone service and, along with it, some news.

Linzy started the car and began driving. She opened the windows partway so they didn’t need to run the air.

Thirty minutes later, as the gas gauge was falling deep into Empty territory, Linzy spotted some signs. She held out hope they could make it to where they pointed. She willed the car to continue moving. Thankfully, they made it.

Crownview probably fell into the category of small town rather than small city, but it was good enough for them, as long as there was a gas station and somewhere they could get something to eat.

There were plenty of options as they rolled down what seemed to be the main street in town—a McDonald’s, a Pizza Hut, Happy Dragon Chinese, the Crownview Diner. Being as late as it was, however, everything was closed. There weren’t many lights on beyond a few streetlamps glowing yellow and traffic lights bathing their intersections in green and red, with occasional splashes of amber.

“Hey, I’ve got a signal!” Joanna exclaimed. Linzy jerked the wheel, startled. The glow from the screen illuminated Joanna’s face in the rearview mirror.

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