it. His feet tangled in each other and the brush-cutter pounced. Its whirling blade chewed into Lester's head. It was still working on him when the fire engulfed both it and its victim.
10
Torgeson and Weems saw the body in the road at the same time. They were both breathing canned air now; nausea had come on them quickly with frightening power, but with the masks in place, it disappeared completely. Leandro had been right. The air. Something in the air.
Claudell Weems had ceased asking questions after they'd picked up the police-band squeal from Massachusetts. After that he only sat with his hands in his lap, his eyes moving steadily and cautiously. Further down-tuning had brought them news of police doings in such interesting places as Friday, North Dakota, Arnette, Texas.
Torgeson stopped and the two men got out. Weems paused, then took the riot gun clipped under the dash. Torgeson nodded. Things were starting to come clear. Not sane, but clear. Gabbons and Rhodes had disappeared on their way back from this town. And Monster had been here the day before he committed suicide. What was that Phil Collins song, the one with the spooky drums? I can feel it in the air tonight ...
It was in the air, all right.
Gently, Torgeson turned over the man he believed to be the one who had finally blown the whistle on this craziness.
He had cleaned up a lot of ugly messes on the highway, but he still drew in a harsh gasp and shied his face away.
'Christ, what hit him?' Weems asked. The mask muffled his words, but the tone of dismay came through loud and clear.
Torgeson didn't know. He had seen a man once who'd been hit by a snowplow. That guy had looked a little like this. That was the closest.
The guy was blood from the top of what had been his head all the way down to his waist. His belt buckle had been driven deep into his body.
'Christ, man, I'm sorry,' he murmured, and laid the body down gently. He could go for the wallet, but he wanted nothing more to do with that smashed body. He headed for the car. Weems fell in beside him, riot gun held on a slant against his chest. In the distance, to the west, the smoke was growing thicker by the moment, but here there was only a faint, woodsy tang.
'This is crazy shit,' Weems said through his mask.
'Yes.'
'I have a very bad feeling about being here.'
'Yes.'
'I believe we should vacate this area on the dou
There was a crackling sound from behind them, and for a moment Torgeson thought it must be the fire - it was far away, relatively speaking, but it could be over here, too. Perfectly reasonable! When you were at the Mad Hatter's tea party, anything was. Turning, he realized that the sound was not burning branches but breaking ones.
'Holy shit!' Claudell Weems cried.
Torgeson's jaw dropped.
The Coke machine, stupid but reliable, moved in again. This time it came out of the brush at the side of the road. The glass display front was broken. The sides of the big rectangular box were scratched. And on the metal part of the machine's front, Torgeson saw a horridly suggestive shape driven in so deep it looked almost sculpted.
It looked like half a head.
The Coke machine moved out over the road and just hung there for a moment like a coffin painted in incongruously gay colors. They were gay, at least, until you noticed the blood which had dripped and run and was beginning to dry in maroon splotches.
Torgeson could hear a faint humming, and a clicking sound - Like relays, he thought. Maybe it's been damaged. Maybe, but still
The Coke machine suddenly arrowed straight at them.
'MothaFUCKAH!' Weems shouted - there was dismay and terror in his voice, but a kind of crazed laughter as well.
'Shoot it, shoot it!' Torgeson cried, and leaped to the right.
Weems took a step back and promptly fell over Leandro's body. This was extremely stupid. It was also extremely lucky. The Coke machine missed him by inches. As it banked for another run, Weems sat up and pumped three quick shotgun blasts into it. Metal exploded inward in metal daisy-shapes with black centers. The machine began to buzz. It stopped, jittering back and forth in the air like a man with Huntington's chorea.
Torgeson drew his service pistol and fired four rounds. The Coke machine started for him, but now it seemed lethargic, unable to get up