"The Scavenger Bride"
Chapter 21: Burning Bridge

We helped her walk, we helped her talk, and, eventually, like anyone would after having been born, she grew tired. Curling up at the grassy base of a large alcove of trees, she passed out.

Herbert and I watched her, dumbfounded at what we'd created. "What should we do? We can't just leave her here. And we can't move her, either."

"No, that's true." Herbert's eyes furrowed in thought as he studied our surroundings. He finally gave a sigh. "I'm going to finish my notes for the time being."

I nodded as he walked off for the car and climbed into the driver's seat. Tina didn't move; her chest rose and fell steadily, and, as a matter of fact, she even snored ever so slightly. "Huh," I chuckled. "I'll be damned." But, within moments, a new sound pricked up my ears. I turned my head from side to side, trying to determine where the low rumbling was coming from. It was when Tina gave a slight jerk that I realized it was coming from her. I knelt down and put my ear a mere few inches from her abdomen and, sure enough, there was that sound. It was like she was hungry; it was the sound an empty stomach would make, but there was something wrong with the way it sounded. And it started to get louder. "Herbert?" I barely had the time to turn to him; his eyes met mine from the cabin of the car.

It was then the shit hit the fan.

The howling roar that exploded from the very depths of this woman was upon me, making me jump clean out of my skin. Tina was on her feet in a split second, her face further distorted from how we'd found it earlier. Her eyes were a pale blue and without iris; she screamed a scream more terrible than anything I'd ever heard. Herbert was out of the car and practically on top of me.

"Move! Now!" He dragged me away then, in time for the entire affair to begin again, only ten times worse. Tina literally pushed the nearest tree over with little effort on her part, and that's when she turned on us, crouched in a feral position, ready to pounce. I gaped in horror as the blood began to pour from her mouth. Screaming, I scampered back over the grass as Herbert lost his grip on my arm, falling backwards. She was on top of me, howling, and I must have been struck at least three or so times before Herbert was able to knock her off of me. I lay sprawled out on my back; the stars spun above me so that I couldn't tell which were real and which were from the blows. The sounds of a scuffle were all around me.

"Herbert… Herbert….." I tried desperately to get up to help him, but my head was swimming. I rolled onto my side and managed to prop myself up on one arm. Herbert had her by the throat, and she was flailing wildly. She finally managed to kick him off, and he went flying into the side of the car with a sickening thud. My partner hit the car's side so hard, the force of it lifted the car up on that side. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Herbert, no!"

Her head snapped around to find me again, snarling; I was yards away at that point, half way across the field, and she hunkered down then and came at me. Terror gripped me to the spot and I couldn't get away. I watched, terrified, as my death came to hit me. Something flashed out of the corner of my eye - a motorcycle! Someone on a motorcycle came tearing down the path, oblivious to the pandemonium occurring in our little field. It made its way to the main road, but Tina noticed it, too. The shine that bounced off its painted surface caught her attention, and her course was quickly diverted to go chasing the biker down. I waited and watched as they disappeared into the distance, the sounds of her screams getting farther and farther away. I collapsed again, panting, amazed at how I'd made it through that night. And I chided myself when the tears started to flow, but damn, did my face hurt. Not only that, I was terrified, and Herbert - Herbert!

I leapt up and raced for my partner, who was still passed out and crumpled next to the car. There was a gash in his forehead, and my heart gave a huge pang. "Herbert? Hey, hey, come on, wake up. Herbert! Please, wake up….."

"Uuugghh….."

"Yes! Herbert, can you hear me?"

"Imogen?"

"Oh, thank God….. Is there anything broken?"

"I… I don't think so…." He gave a cry of pain as he tried to push himself up.

I winced. "Oh, honey….. don't move, okay? Your head's banged up pretty good. Hang on." I jumped up, scrambling through the back of the car to pull together an extra set of napkins I'd stashed there from the one night I'd had take out that week, as well as a bottle of water. I collapsed in front of him again; he was breathing hard, leaning his head against the car.

"Ooh, boy. I certainly hope the earth stops spinning soon."

I stared at him. "You did hit your head pretty hard."

"What about you?" He stared back. "Your face….." Herbert reached up to gently touch the side of my face, and, despite his light touch, it hurt. I winced, pulling away. She'd hit me hard, but….. Getting up, I checked my face out in the side mirror of the car. The moon gave me just enough light to see the bruises beginning to form there. "Damn," I swore, sitting back with Herbert. I took his face in my hand, wiping away the blood with one of the napkins and then rinsing his hand with the water. He made a face, but kept still as best he could. "Can you get up?"

"I believe so."

"I wanna move you to the car. You'll be more comfortable there." With my help, Herbert was able to get to his feet and slide into the passenger side of the car. I went around to the driver's seat, grabbing his bag as I went around and throwing it into the back seat. Climbing into the driver's seat, I slammed the door shut, locked up the car, shut out the headlights and pulled Herbert towards me. We laid out on the seats together, breathing hard, still terrified from what had just happened.

There was a long bout of silence before, "Where did she go?"

"She got distracted by a biker and ran off after him. Nearly killed the both of us."

"Mmm. We'll have to find her, you know."

"Yeah, Herbert, I know. I don't want you to worry about that right now, okay? I'll take care of everything. Don't worry."

"Mmm…." Herbert then gave a yawn. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a murmur. "I trust you." With that, he was asleep in my arms. Leaning back into the seat, staring up at the roof of the car, it wasn't long before sleep overtook me, too.

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The bright sun woke me suddenly the next morning, and the second thing I noticed was the singing of the birds outside the car. I could hear a couple of them scuttling around on the metal roof of our car, chirping at each other merrily. Herbert and I were nestled up against each other, beaten and battered and defeated. I felt like hell.

"Hrrrmmph, ugh….." I shielded my eyes from the garish light that made them ache.

"Mmm… Imogen?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"Everything went to shit," I sighed. "We need to go find Tina."

Herbert slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. The blood had stopped flowing, but now it was caked to the side of his face. "She could be anywhere."

"I know." The realization was a weight that sank my heart. "How do you feel?"

"Fairly well, actually. My head's still somewhat sore, but it should be fine." He glanced over at me, and his eyes went wide. "Oh, Imogen….."

"What?"

Herbert moved the rear-view mirror down at an angle that allowed me to see myself, and I gasped when I finally did. The entire upper left quadrant of my face was one giant bruise - blue and purple and vomit green and crimson red and moldy yellow. I closed my eyes and had to look away; the image was making my stomach turn. "Ooh, no….." I moaned. shielding my face from the view. "I can't believe this is happening to us. What did we do wrong?"

"We'll have to determine the answer to that once we find her and run tests. It may be something that was wrong with the formula. My notes….." He glanced around him and fished his journal out of his bag, and he furiously began to write. But moments later, he glanced around him, and then to me. "Which way did she go?"

"Uuh…. that way," I pointed. "Back into town. The biker took the main road."

"Okay. Let's see what we can do. Hit it!"

I pulled out onto the main road, kicking up rocks and dust as I tore out of the little field and made my way back into Innsmouth. It wasn't long before we came upon the accident. "Herbert." I swatted his arm. "Look." I pointed out in front of us, and he glanced up.

There, on the side of the road, was a small fire, and a pile of something in the bushes. "Pull over," Herbert commanded, and I did as I was told. There, engulfed in flames, was the same, shiny motorcycle I'd seen the night before, with the driver pinned down underneath it, obviously dead. And out in front of the bike by about six to ten feet was Tina.

She was sprawled out on her back and practically unidentifiable, her head on backwards and covered in blood. Her limbs were crooked, but the one thing that was the most alarming was the fact that it looked as if something had exploded straight from her ribcage, from the one area I'd sworn I'd heard that unearthly grumbling. She was clearly dead. No human or any other animal could survive anything like that. I felt myself starting to get sick. Turning away, I stumbled back to the car; Herbert stood swearing at what was left of Tina's feet.

"Herbert," I called out to him. "Can we go? Come on, let's just….. let's go home. Please? I wanna go back to my family and get my things and go home. Come on."

In somewhat of a daze, Herbert came back to the passenger's side and was about to get in when he stopped. "Wait."

"What now?"

"I need to gather samples. Damn!" He swore, frowning hard. "How could I have been so stupid? I should have gotten blood samples before we began working, too." Herbert sighed then, beginning to dig through the pockets of his book bag, finally producing a syringe. He went back to Tina, and I followed him, standing over him as he crouched down beside her mangled corpse and drew a large sample of blood from her arm. "That'll have to do," he sighed again, studying the full syringe. Herbert studied the area around us. "We'll have to get this home as soon as possible. I knew I should have packed my microscope."

"Herbert….." He glanced up at me when I said his name. "We're going home today, remember? We can do it then. Don't worry."

"Yes, you're right. No sense in being too hasty. Alright. Now. We need to get rid of her." In moments, we'd hoisted what was left of Tina into the back of our car and were ready to roll again.

"Where are we going to leave her?" I asked my partner.

"We can dump her in the bay on the way home."

Happy with his answer, I started up the car and we silently made our way back into town. We weren't very far outside of Innsmouth when the car began to sputter.

"Oh, fuck, no, man. Come on! You have got to be kidding me." I slammed my fist into the steering wheel as the car spluttered and died. I tried turning the keys over again and again. Next to me, Herbert groaned in annoyance. I threw the keys against the dash. The old clunker had finally met its end.

"Ugh, I've had it! How in the hell are we going to get home now? How are we going to get any work done?"

Herbert climbed out of the car. "Get the supplies. We're not far from your family's house."

"We're walking?!"

"Uh, yes, Imogen," Herbert peered back into the car. "Unless you have another idea."

"What about the body?" I groaned, leaning back into the seat. All of a sudden, I did have another idea. We'd still have to walk those last few miles, but it would at least give us something to laugh about while getting the lead out. "Herbert," called out as I climbed out of the car, going around back to the trunk and pulling it open. "Empty the car, will you? Empty it of everything we desperately need, and leave Tina." I began to dig through our supplies in back. "Where is it, where is… Aha! Yes." Old bottles of ammonia and alcohol that had gone bad were stacked up in one of our crates; we'd kept them there to get rid of at school but had forgotten. Some old sheets of butcher paper were left in back, as well. Hoisting the box and the reams out of the back, I called out for Herbert. He'd already done what I'd told him to; our bags were left out on the side of the road.

"Help me push the car out into the field, behind those trees."

"What?"

"You heard me. C'mon." I set the box down on the side of the road and went around to the trunk, slamming it shut. Herbert gawked at me. "Look, are you gonna leave me to it, then? I realize we both have been through a lot, but I need your help. I mean, look at me." I motioned for my belly.

"Oh, for Christ's sake. Fine." Rolling up his sleeves, he got down with me and helped push the old thing as far out into the field as we could, far enough away from the road to not easily be seen. "What the hell are we doing out here, anyway, Imogen? C'mon, we need to go."

"We will, Herbert, don't worry. You have a lighter?"

"Why?"

"Yes or no."

He sighed, aggravated. "Yes. Why."

"I'm so sick of this fucking car, and I know you are, too. Consider this my apology." I grinned, holding up the paper and the ammonia. "Molotov cocktail funeral pyre."

Herbert mulled it over, and fought a smile. He reached into his pocket and tossed me the lighter. "Let's make this quick, shall we?" He was clearly amused.

It didn't take long; soon, we had a dozen Molotov cocktails ready and at our disposal. After dousing Tina in the remaining ammonia, we went to work.

"Alright, here we go. Let 'em fly!"

Holding the jar away from me slightly as to not ignite my clothes, I took a bit of a running start, launching the glass bottle into the sky. The air rushed past the jars of liquid as the little fires lit the sky like fireflies, even in the morning light. Our first two hit the car with not so much as a tweak, and we sent out seconds, but within moments, boom!, the entire back of the car was engulfed in flames. "Woohoo!" I cheered, and next to me, Herbert laughed. We circled the car like a pack of hunters, letting the jars fly. It was an awful stench, the smells of burning flesh and rubber merging, and I knew we weren't doing shit for the environment. But damn, did it make us feel better. We let off the rest of the cocktails as the fire bled into the sky. Linking my arm through Herbert's, we watched the car get devoured.

"It's you and me, baby," I grinned at Herbert.

"Against the world," he smiled back.

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MUSIC:

The song this chapter is named after is the song that inspired the last scene in this chapter, in which Herbert and Imogen destroy her car after it finally craps out for the last time. "Burning Bridge," by Kate Bush, is such an awesome song - when it starts, you can practically hear the Molotov cocktails go sailing through the air! :D And the last line here "You and me, baby, against the world" is a lyric pulled directly from the song.