The Darknet continued, Part 2
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From part one: Kayla has returned a call from her friend, Ryan.
When I go back to my room, I have two voice mails on my phone, one from Janelle and one from Ryan. I check them out, and each is saying, “Call me.”
I decide to call Ryan first.
Hey,” he says, when he answers.
“Did you watch the news?”
Ryan isn’t one to call me to talk about what was on the news. None of my friends are; so I know what news he means.
“About the murder in Tigard?”
“About the zombie attack in Tigard,” he says.
Part 2:
“Don’t you start.”
“Don’t start what?” he says.
“Don’t start calling them zombies. That’s what Shawn calls them. There’s no such thing as zombies.”
“You should listen to Shawn. What do you think they are?” he asks.
“I don’t know. Copycat killings, I guess.”
“They’re happening all over the country. Copycat killings are done by one or two people: not by hundreds.”
“There haven’t been hundreds,” I say. “There’s been some, but not hundreds.”
“I don’t think they’re telling us everything.”
“Don’t you start the it’s a government cover-up crap. I hear that from Shawn.”
“Maybe, you should listen to Shawn. I know he’s only eight, but he’s a smart kid.”
The old light bulb goes off in my head. “Don’t tell me. Do you play it, too?”
“Play what?” he asks.
“That stupid video game, something…evil.”
“Demon Evil?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Do you play it?”
“Yeah, I play it.”
“And there’s some freaking virus turning people into zombies, and you go around killing the zombies, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think it makes any sense that what happens in a video game could happen in real life?” I ask. “I can understand Shawn believing it, but you’re eighteen. You’re too smart to believe that crap.”
“Well, since you know everything, suppose you tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t know, but no freaking virus is turning people into zombies.”
“Okay,” he says, “I don’t know it’s a virus causing it, but something is. People don’t just wake up one day, walk next door, and kill and eat their neighbor; or at least, they didn’t until recently. Now, it’s happening all over. Now, it’s happening in Tigard, even.”
“I know, and that scares the crap out of me,” I say.
“I know where those apartments are,” he says.
“The ones on TV? The ones where it happened?”
“Yeah, I go right by them when I take the bus downtown. I recognized them.”
Ryan doesn’t have a car, so he takes a bus when he can’t get a ride from a friend. I stop by and pick him up to take him to school, so he doesn’t have to ride the bus for that.
“Jeez,” I say. “That’s scary.”
“You want to drive by them tomorrow on the way to school?”
“I don’t want to go anywhere near them.”
“Come on. We don’t have to stop. You can keep the windows up and the doors locked if you want. You said you didn’t think it was a virus causing it, so what are you scared of?”
“If it’s in Tigard, it’s not on the way to school.”
“So, come early. It’s not that far out of our way. It’ll take us maybe fifteen minutes there and fifteen minutes back.”
“I…I don’t know.” I don’t know how to get out of it without looking like a complete coward: “Okay, I’ll come about thirty minutes early, but we’re just driving by. We’re not stopping or anything.”
“Okay, we’ll just drive by. We’ll keep the windows up and the doors locked. See ya." He ends the call.
I don’t call Janelle. I can’t imagine she has anything to say that won’t keep until tomorrow. Her locker is next to mine. I’ll see her before first class; besides, we have that class together. I’m too freaked out over the cannibal attack and that Ryan and I are driving by where it happened to talk to her about trivial school stuff.
to be continued...