Schizogenesis [chapter 30]

Silent and stiff, Blender sat in the front seat of the black Caddy, a towel wrapped around his hand. Hadley followed the deputy’s car in which the sheriff also rode. Jackson sat behind Hadley with Stevens in back of Blender. No one spoke as the wind rocked the big car side to side. Rain at times overwhelmed the wipers.

On the other side of a barbed wire fence that ran alongside the blacktop, a mesquite tree had caught fire, a victim of a chance lightning strike.

The car ahead slowed and Hadley tapped the brakes. They crossed a cattle guard and headed up a rocky path as water rushed past them. The Caddy’s tires spun then found traction, and the car surged forward.

At the hilltop, the deputy’s car stopped and the sheriff got out. Blender, Jackson, and Stevens bailed out to follow.

Blender caught up with the sheriff who wore a yellow rain slicker. Blender’s suit was soaked and plastered to him like a second skin, black on white.

“Where are they?”

The sheriff pointed ahead.

“There’s an old barn back there.”

Before they made it that far, Blender noticed the sheriff examining the ground. He looked down and saw multiple sets of tire tracks in the road.