One couple decides they have had enough, "We'll come back for the bags," says the Father, "I have a bad feeling about this. Let's just get going." He begins ushering his wife and kid towards the car. Neither of them protests too much.
"Look I had to try my best! Maybe it will keep it at bay, I dont know, I just had to do something!" Carlotta seems to be losing the hold on herself that she has had so far. "I was just trying to keep us all safe!"
She receeds slightly, holding her head and seeming on the verge of tears again.
"Do you think we should try to chase after Sing? There will probably be nothing left of the building soon. Can you tell if your pictures came out?"
"Chase after Sing how?"
She pauses to think for a moment. "Yeah, I think so. I think I got some good ones."
"We still have the truck. But, then again, if we leave it would be fleeing the scene of a crime."
"If nothing else we can fall back on the fact that we freed those women and we were outside when the cops were shot."
As the firemen begin to get their hoses ready, there is a huge crack of thunder. It seems that the rain has come. Most of the people begin rushing to their cars as the sky turns black and large heavy drops of rain begin to hit the ground.
"Let's get in the truck and decide what to do."
Kenny heads to the parked vehicle and dreads what terror might issue forth from the radio.
"Yeah you're right. Hopefully that will be good enough."
Carlotta follows Kenny back to the truck.
Kenny jumps into the truck and heads for the exit to the parking lot.
The truck engine is, of course off, and thus the radio is not playing. The rain sounds loud on the metal roof of the vehicle but at least inside the small confine of the pickup there is the illusion of security and isolation.
Kenny starts the truck. "I can only think of going to the hospital. Maybe Kathleen or one of the others heard something that could tell us where Sing might have gone. We can probably send a story to Rogers if they have wireless there. And the cops might cut us some slack if they are reminded that we saved those women."
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, but remember about Avery? And what was the talk about the sheriff being involved in a shooting? I think we're going to have to deal with both of those sooner or later...I mean we can't just go back to Rogers and go 'Oops, we lost another one.'"
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, but remember about Avery? And what was the talk about the sheriff being involved in a shooting? I think we're going to have to deal with both of those sooner or later...I mean we can't just go back to Rogers and go 'Oops, we lost another one.'"
"I'm pretty sure that Avery is dead. The sheriff probably killed him. And, anyway, I doubt we could get anywhere near the site with all the cops around."
"Hey, wait a minute. Is it supposed to rain like this in the desert?"
Kenny heads toward the hospital.
Kenny starts the truck.
"Here comes the rain again, falling on my head..."
As the radio turns on and Kenny pulls the truck away from the restaurant, there is a flash of lightning, a hideous crash of thunder and one of the transformers on the power lines blows up with a resounding flash of pyrotechnics.
All the lights in the complex go out.
Kenny starts the truck.
"Here comes the rain again, falling on my head..."
As the radio turns on and Kenny pulls the truck away from the restaurant, there is a flash of lightning, a hideous crash of thunder and one of the transformers on the power lines blows up with a resounding flash of pyrotechnics.
All the lights in the complex go out.
Kenny guns it and heads for the highway.
"Do you believe in coincidences?"
Kenny reaches the highway, noticing that there are a few vehicles following him who have apparently made the same decision.
"I think we still have to make sure of that before we just write him off. We can check with the hospital and the morgue..."
"No, Kenny...I dont think it is. But this place is obviously jacked anyway. Coincidence? I used to...no I think its probably something a lot worse. Some nasty evil plan or some shit."
West
As Kenny pulls out onto the highway going west, his headlights shine only dimly through the heavy downpour of water. A few of the firemen have their headlights trained on the restaurant now in order to be able to see to put out the fire, but it looks as if the rain might make them redundant.
By the time there is a new song on the radio (Duran Duran's 'Rio') the lights of the firemen's trucks are no longer visible through the rain.
Kenny and Carlotta would feel quite isolated from the world if it was not for the fact that there were headlights, dimly seen, behind them - the other's from the hotel.
By the time there is a new song on the radio (Duran Duran's 'Rio')
Does Kenny even know what direction the hospital is in?
By the time there is a new song on the radio (Duran Duran's 'Rio')
Does Kenny even know what direction the hospital is in?
Probably not, though he has a vague memory of there being a hospital in Washington. And he did see the ambulances heading west.
The rain stops after Kenny has traveled westward for about an hour.
They seem to have passed out of the storm and there is a tangible change in the atmosphere in the truck. Both Kenny and Carlotta feel more relaxed, as if they had been under some oppressive weight they were not even totally aware of.
Pulling closer to Washington, at last Kenny sees hospital signs, which he can follow if he wishes.
Carlotta leans back with a sigh, feeling her muscles relax at least a little bit. "Forget the hospital lets go get riotously drunk." She turns to Kenny waiting for his response.
"No, that would be the worst thing we could do after setting the hotel on fire. We should be at the bedside of one of those women we rescued when the cops show up. After we get out of this mess we should go on a month-long bender."
Kenny follows the signs for the hospital.
Carlotta sighs "Okay so you're probably right...we'll wait until after this is all over." "If we're still alive." She adds cynically.
The hospital is easily found and as it is after dark and after hours there is plenty of parking. There is only one police car to be seen in the parking lot. Its not a State police car and looks to be local.
Unless Carlotta has other ideas Kenny proceeds into the hospital, identifies himself to the person at the front desk and asks what room Kathleen is in.
Kenny finds out that one of the girls is in surgery, the other two are undergoing tests but they have been assigned a room with police protection on the third floor. The nurse is helpful, especially when shge finds out that the two helped free the women from their predicament. She makes sure to ask if either of them need admittance.
"We are okay, physically. But we did get blood on our clothes we we get them out of there. Would you be able to lend us some shirts until we can get back to our hotel?"
The receptionist directs them to the hospital gift shop where they can by t-shirts with the hospital logo on it.
The women are not in their room when Kenny and Carlotta find it. They are, as the receptionist said, out having test done. The police are there however and they take the time to ascertain the identity of the reporters. Upon hearing that Kenny and Carlotta are the ones who rescued the women they are much more talkative. They want all the details.
Discussion reveals that the two officers, both local Washington, AZ cops, apparently know nothing of any possible criminal complaints against the reporters. At least they don't mention any. They do let out that they have recieved disquiting reports concerning a shoot-out involving State Troopers near the New Mexico border. It appears the State Trooper dispatch has also lost contact with all firemen and State Troopers at the hotel site.
Kenny grabs a shirt for himself and one for Carlotta if she likes.
Kenny tells the cops everything except for where he got the key from. When the cops tell him about the hotel he realizes that their computers are gone now.
Carlotta takes a shirt. Carlotta asks if they have any more details on the state trooper shoot out.
Carlotta also asks any of the hospital staff that happen to be near about how soon the women will probably be back.
The women return after about an hour. They are all slightly medicated (well one of them is completely out) and don't have much to say but they are happy to see the two reporters.
Not a lot turns up from the visit but nothing bad comes of it either.
The women return after about an hour. They are all slightly medicated (well one of them is completely out) and don't have much to say but they are happy to see the two reporters.
Not a lot turns up from the visit but nothing bad comes of it either.
Kenny suggests taking the monkey to an animal shelter because they probably don't know how to care for it.
With the realization that the books are in the truck with the monkey Kenny suggests going to make sure the chimp does not rip the pages out.
Carlotta gets defensive at the suggestion of taking the monkey to the shelter. "No...he can't be that hard to take care of. 'Sides...I don't want to just leave him. We named him already."
Carlotta asks the police for any information they have about the shooting.
It appears some reporter was being held prisoner by a sheriff and after escaping, alerted certain authorities who descended upon the town and had a shoot out with the sheriff. The reporter is being hailed as a hero though exact details are still fuzzy.
As for the books, they remain unread.
Kenny is shocked to hear that Avery is alive. He probably fails to hide his expression on hearing the news.
Unless there is more information to be had here waits until they are away from the officers and suggests taking stock of what they took from the hotel.
"If nothing else, we can read those weird books while thinking about what to do. Maybe there is something useful in there that could help us figure out what Sing and his family were up to. I mean, besides, murder and cannibalism, of course."
Carlotta gasps upon hearing about Avery. "Do you know where the reporter is now? And do you have any more details about the shooting? What authorities? What did the reporter tell these authorities?"
Carlotta agrees that they should look at the things they took from the hotel. She also suggests going for a drive by at the hotel later to see what is happening there.
As for where to spend the night she suggests just sleeping in the truck.
There is not much more information to be gleaned about the gunfight and its aftermath. Communications with those to the east have been cut off for a while.
As for the books, the first, the journal like book, is written in an asian script. Reading that overnight might be problematic.
The second book, the red leather book Carlotta had stuffed into her bag proves to be almost as indecipherable. Stamped on the cover in golden arabic looking script is the name, "nigerlibrines." The leather cover has swirls stamped along its edge and there is a large black ribbon inserted into the pages. The book appears to be handwritten but the words are in Latin. It will likely be easier to translate than the first book but one will need some time and the means to translate from the latin.
Carlotta examines the books carefully before sighing loudly. "So...Latin dictionaries? Or do you think we could find someone who read it?"
"Our best bet would be to have someone at a local college translate it. I'm sure a latin major would welcome a few bucks to do it."
There is a college nearby - you dropped of some plant samples to have them analyzed. Whether there is a latin teacher there or not is another question.
"Well we don't have much better to do...why don't we go over and check around to see if there is anyone that can translate for us and we can check up on the plants."
It is possible to get a room for the night in Washington if you desire. If you do, nothing will happen in this place through the night, so feel free to make plans for the next day. The Motel in Washington does not allow pets but you can probably sneak the monkey in without too much difficulty as the rooms are all open to the parkinglot and you don't go through any lobby to get to them.
"Let's check into the room and then sneak the monkey inside."
Once this is done Kenny writes out the story to date on whatever paper he can get hold of. He then calls Rogers to let him know the details of what has happened and to inform him that Avery is alive. He asks if Avery has contacted him yet. Then he asks if someone is there who can type up the story as he reads it over the phone. He explains that his computer is probaby inacessible due to the little unpleasantness at the hotel.
"Sounds good. You guys be careful. Now that we have your dictation of some of the facts we can see about some other angles, but see what you can write up yourself. Make it as interesting as possible. Remember facts don't sell papers. A good story sells papers."
One the television, it appears that Avery is quite a local Hero. He is being held in a secure location by the FBI who are debreifing him and it seems entirely possible he might get a book deal out of all of it.
There is strangely no mention of the hotel or of the police or firefighters who were there. The news does mention that the interstate has been temporarily closed in the region of Los Socorros due to a sinkhole that destroyed several hundred yards of road. The National Guard was mobilized during the night and is enforcing the closure.
Kenny is stunned that Avery is alive, he would have bet heavily against such an event. This makes him think of how long it has been since he has played cards or gambled. But he can think of little else.
Carlotta stares wide eyed at Avery on the news for a while. "We need to talk to him, we need to know whatever he knows. I'm sure its related to the Sing thing..."
"A sink hole?...is that a cover up or did something else happen after we left?"
While half listening to the TV, Carlotta begins digging around the room looking for something to feed the monkey.