The Killing Bind

Chapter 18: Identities

Robert Lowry was in the car. He was using his industry name other than his real one. He was not going to put his name in the public. Right now, to him and the people around him, he is Robert Lowry. He hasn't moved his car from the town where it was earlier. He had moved it to the front of the fast-food place where he had an eventful conversation with Candy. Eventful but informative. She had said that he comes back through the right of the road from the restaurant and from the left looking from his old house. It was very specific. That road leads to the highway. There was nothing on the way there except for a gas station that looks about to collapse. It has been about to collapse since he was five. There was also a small deli in that road. He was mapping the place in his head. All the turns and stops. Possible destinations.

Nothing.

For the first time in a long time. He had seen nothing important in the specially trained brain of his. He closed his eyes one more time, opened them again. Pulled the dash of the car in the passenger seat and took out a paper map of the town he had picked out on the day he arrived here from a gas station. He looked at where he was. After that he scanned the place on the map that goes to the right. He looked at it for a strong and good ten seconds. He put it away and closed his eyes again. He Started re-mapping everything. He was driving straight; he took a left and continued straight. It was all in his mind. He could see the deli and next to it, the gas station. There was something new this time. He didn't look past the gas station the previous time. There was a compound. He couldn't see anything past that. Right then, he opened his eyes and fixed on a destination.

He kicked the gas pedal of the car and began driving. The car was a Dodge Charger. It does, however, come through with impressive performance from its base V6 engine, which also gets decent gas mileage (19/30 mpg city/highway). Its array of V8 engines is less efficient but astoundingly potent, delivering up to 707 horsepower. The interior is also spacious, and handling receives high marks. Topping all of this off, its infotainment system is easy to use. Even though this was a good-looking ride. He had others. In various parts of the US. This one was at Santa Monica.

Like he did in his mind map. He began to follow the road. He reached the deli and just simply looked past it as he continued driving. He looked at the road ahead and followed the it both physically and mentally. He was almost there. There it was, to the right. An old beat-up gas station. 'was' being the main word. There was nothing there. The place was covered in cobwebs and visible dust. The convenient store attached to the place was still running. But to the eye, it will seem abandoned. He stopped the car three feet away from his desired destination and got out. The road was not hustling with cars, even though there were a few cars zooming past him once every two minutes. All of them to the highway. The place he was now has sand on either side of the road with some of it on the blackish gray road itself probably due to the wind.

He began walking right after he had a thorough look of the place through the sunglasses he wore right before getting out of the car. He walked a little less than three miles right before a car went zooming past him nearly hitting him. He had seen the people in the car. One was a man who looked in his late thirties or early forties. That man was not driving. He was in the passenger seat. The one driving was younger. Much younger. Older than himself, younger than the other man in that car. He couldn't see their clothes or anything else really. He had seen their faces due to his excellent eye that can point to the slightest details in a short amount of time and a good memory. Not a picture-perfect memory, but better than a smart human being.

He hadn't even noticed that he was still staring at the car that zoomed off him. In reality he was not even staring at the car. he was staring at an empty road. The car had gone out his sight. He shook he head and completed the three miles. He couldn't see the land that was in the shape of a square. He was now standing on the sand with both his hands on either hip, licking his dry lips and scanning the place. He suddenly stopped and saw something in the distance. Far distance. He squinted his eyes trying to get a better look. It was still the same, but what he could see was dozens of somethings standing still. It could just be poles, but it interested him. He looked to the left from the right. The convenient store. He looked at it closely. Something clicked in him. He again turned front and looked at the thing he saw in the distance. He followed it slowly back to the convenient store with his eyes. It was in the same straight line. Then again, it could just be poles. He tried to guess possibilities, but all of them ended in 'What if I am wrong's'. So, he began walking to the direction of the convenient store.