Kiss My Assimilation

Chapter 8 - Road Trip In a Bentley

A hand appeared between her face and the incoming monstrosity. It was holding a little breath freshener bottle and it sprayed a big jet of the solution directly into the thing's gaping mouth. The scream was deafening at such close range. The weight was immediately lifted from her mid-section and the pain in her spine abated a little. Someone grabbed her by the armpits and lifted her away from the thrashing monster.

"What have you done to me? I'm dissolving! You filthy creatures have killed me!" It screamed.

"Who's calling who filthy creature? Do you own a mirror?" David said, still holding the bottle in his hand and spraying the dying creature. My hero, thought Annie.

She was laid on a big leather couch away from the commotion by Mathew. John was close by, ready. The guys had saved her!

"Where is Peter?" Annie asked Mathew.

"Looking for transportation." John answered, his eyes never leaving the writhing creature.

It was an abominable spectacle to see the demise of this alien parasite. It was like watching someone trying to dance with a Jennifer Lopez costume too loose for its body. The smell was horrible and soon filled the office.

"Who was that?" Asked Mathew.

"This used to be Jennifer Lopez." Annie replied.

"What!? She just introduced us an hour ago. Damn shame. She was very nice." John said.

The creature stopped moving and after checking if it was dead, David came over. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He asked Annie.

"Just my butt and my pride. Could you guys check on M. Caulfield? He was thrown across the room and he landed over there." She pointed to where the sad crumpled figure of Nathan Caulfield lay.

John went to check. He crouched behind the chair and when he came back up; he was shaking his head. "I'm no doctor but with the angle his head is from his body right now, I'm pretty sure he's dead. His eyes were open and all. Brr." He shook in disgust. "Nasty."

"Poor M. Caulfield, I liked him." Annie had an idea. "Could you search his pockets for car keys?"

"No." Came John's flat answer.

"I'll do it." David said, he crouched down and came up with a few items. One of them was a shining set of keys with a Bentley logo on them.

"Sweet." Said Mathew. "I hope it's one of those big turbo jobs that goes a million miles per hour."

"If they're not electronically limited," John said.

"Gearhead alert," David said, laughing.

"Who cares right now? As long as the bloody thing starts and gets us very far from here." Annie said urgently, bringing everyone back to reality.

Peter came in running. "Rented a car!" He announced proudly.

John snatched the keys from his hand and looked at them. "Buick. Nice." He laughed as David threw the Bentley's keys to Peter.

"Where...?" Peter started.

"Long story, we'll tell you in the car on the way there." Annie said. "Could you guys help me? That bitch hurt me."

"On the butt," John said, laughing.

"Case of broken derrière." Mathew pipped in.

"Non-functional buttocks, bummer." David added.

"Argh! You guys are so immature." Annie said. She grimaced in pain as they gently picked her up from the sofa. She took one last look at M. Caulfield's body feeling depressed and scared. Those vile creatures were not here to make friends.

The trip to the parking lot was unnerving to say the least. Everybody looked suspicious. Paranoia was a big part of the range of emotions that they experienced on their way to M. Caulfield's car. They found it using the remote's beeper function. The Bentley's horn was very loud and almost gave them a collective heart attack.

Mathew took the wheel and Peter sat shotgun manning the GPS unit in the dashboard. David helped Annie sit in the back and He and John sat on each side of her.

"Where to?" Peter asked Annie.

"Just a moment." She fished inside her purse and found one of the little bottles. I hope they make these locally, she thought.

They did, it was called the Lake Breeze breath freshener. Who said they don't make stuff in America anymore? Lake Nacimiento. It was a three hour drive North-East. Annie hoped they would be able to convince the Lake Breeze plant manager. Wait, she thought. Why was she going at this backwards? Call the authorities first, then go to the breath freshener plant. She told Peter the address and asked John to call the police. Easy peasy, just dial 999. Oh wait, 911. Right.

The big Bentley made good time of eating all of those miles and they got there around 4am. They stopped at a little diner and went in to eat breakfast.

The unsmiling weathered old bat of a waitress who came to take their order was in her sixties. She didn't recognize the guys. She barely looked up from her order pad. That was a small blessing in itself thought Annie while sipping the worst coffee she had ever drunk. Sweetening it didn't help matters.

Peter was observing her little ritual of taking a sip, grimacing and finally adding more sugar. He laughed and added. "Worst coffee ever. Can't wait to see what they did to my eggs."

John lowered his voice and said. "How do we know we aren't surrounded here as well?"

"If that helps, I saw a small beady eye on Jennifer Lopez's forehead, right between her eyebrows." She sighed. "Such a waste, she was so beautiful."

"That she was." Mathew said. They all sighed.

"So a small eye heh?" Peter said. "Do they all have it?"

"Only when the assimilation of their host is in the advanced stage. The alien parasite told me it was very close to the skin. It wanted to transfer from Jennifer's body to mine." It was warm in the diner, but she shivered nonetheless.

The breakfast plates came and they ate in silence. Until the waitress from the next shift came in. That girl wasn't in her sixties, more like early twenties. She screamed bloody murder when she came in. Dropped everything she tried to serve and was in hysterics until they paid their bill and left. Before leaving, they each gave her an autograph hoping to calm her. That didn't work very well. They tried to ask her where was the police department's office. She babbled something incoherently. The older waitress pushed her aside and gave them directions.

The police department's office was no better. Some of the constables there, male and female, were quite young. Professionals, they were not. Mayhem ensued. Guys called their girlfriends telling them Second Chance was there with them at the station. Girls asked for selfies and autographs. For half an hour, it was a zoo until the Chief of Police came in and ushered them all into his office.

Annie observed everyone to see if they had the telltale eye. They didn't. They might just survive this.