A Tale of Two Earths

Chapter 5: Darla (Final Draft)

Squinting hard in concentration, Darla idled through the parking lot. Vehicles, with doors wide open, blocked routes. Figures darted about and bodies lay between cars and in the lanes.

Darla gripped the wheel and closed her eyes as the tires rolled over a young woman's legs. The creaking of the car's suspension echoed the unpleasant deed. Opening her eyes, Darla locked onto the strange doctor in the rear-view.

"We can't go there, it's in the middle of nowhere," Nestor said. He craned his neck around the passenger seat to address Vlatko.

They had no reaction to the creaky suspension and that bothered Darla.

"Exactly," Vlatko said, "no people out there. Look around, everyone is crazy."

"But you live on the other side of the county. How many crazies are we going pass getting there?" Nestor replied.

The sedan bounced, rattling the suspension. Darla shuddered.

"But if we..." Vlatko started to speak.

"SHUT UP!"

Blinking in silence, all eyes shifted to Darla. "We are going to Tommy's house," she ordered.

"What?"

Darla glared into the rear view. "I'm driving, it's my car, and I'll decide where we are going," she said. Tension flowed to her hands, tightening it's grip on the wheel, ready to snap at any moment. Nestor's fist collided gently into her shoulder.

"I think that's a great idea," he said.

She couldn't keep from cracking a smile. Calmness was a rare quality for Nestor, and that alone, eased Darla.

"Why Tommy's and not mine?" Vlatko asked.

"Because Tommy's dad knows what's going on," Darla replied.

Lurching violently, Darla drove over a curb and onto a grassy patch.

"Wrong way, Northcorp is in the opposite direction."

The group paused as the doctor voiced his deep, raspy opinion. They cast suspicious eyes at the man with tightly cropped salt and pepper hair. His light dusting of stubble outlined the possibility of a distinguished beard.

"Shut it," Darla ordered, staring into his steely blue eyes. "Screw Northcorp, we're going to Tommy's house. Who is in my back seat?" She grumbled as the sedan eased onto asphalt.

"It's me Myron," the doctor said.

"You look like a 40 year old extra from Grey's Anatomy to me," Nestor remarked. "How so we know you're Myron?"

"It is him," Vlatko said. "He made terrible mother joke, and knows idiot things that only Myron knows."

"Okay," Darla started, "if you are Myron, then how many times have you been laid?"

"Don't be a dick," the doctor fired back. "I'll be banging tons of chicks with this body," he said.

"I don't know if there are any chicks left," Nestor added.

"Do you have a pager?" Vlatko said, poking at Myron's pocket.

"I think I'm dead, or maybe I died," the doctor replied, reaching into his back pocket.

"Clearly, you are not dead," Vlatko said. He squinted at the doctor.

The doctor paused for a moment before speaking again. "It was bad back there guys. They were all over me," he said, shooting Vlatko an angry look. "I saw Tommy, and then..." the doctor sniffled and hung his head.