"So...you're saying that this dude is the cousin to the best friend of your nephew's teacher's grandad's ex wife's choir mistress?"
Zee nodded fiercely,as if not seeing the absurdity of his claim.
Carl gave me a confused look at which I just shrugged.
Whatever the hell Zee wasn't telling us was probably for a reason.
It wasn't my place to judge.
I just hoped that we didn't get into some kind of trouble.
We were now piled up in the SUV.
Cami driving, Carl at the passenger seat while Zee and I took the back.
The drive today was hell!
Apparently, Cami had the 'feeling' of driving today.
Believe me when I tell you,Cami was the worst driver you could ever meet!
We had just barely avoided six deadly crashes, passed countless red lights.
It was pure torture!
I wondered how the cops weren't chasing us already.
For some reason,Cami decided to jam the brakes in the middle of the road,causing all of us to jerk forward with Carl barely hitting his head on the windshield.
"What the hell...."
"Are you crazy..."
"You wanna get us killed..."
We all screamed at her.
It was as if we all wanted turns to cut off her head.
She, however just smirked at us like we were all dumb idiots.
"Guys...we haven't even asked Zee how he knew this guy? For all we know...he must be a serial killer or something!"
A car honked behind us,in pure irritation.
Cami rolled her eyes like it was completely normal to just park randomly in the middle of the road.
"Cami...I think we should get out of the road firstly."
Carl said carefully, not wanting to anger the already pissed off Cami.
She scoffed irritatedly and gave a very pretty middle finger to the truck driver behind us, before parking at the side of the road.
"ROT IN HELL BITCH!!!"
The bitter truck driver screamed from his window.
"TELL THAT TO YOUR WIFE'S BOYFRIEND YOU TOOTHPICK DICKED ASSHOLE!"
There was a long stretch of awkward silence.
"Woah!" Zee breathed,breaking the awkwardness.
"Remind me never to piss her off."
Carl rolled his eyes while I smiled.
We were used to her crazy personality.
I was kinda shocked she didn't run after the truck and throw stones at the driver.
Believe...it has happened before.
Cami had finally begun to calm down.
It was only then that someone had the guts to talk.
"Uh...Zee...yeah...we were asking how you knew this dude."
Zee took a deep breath.
"Ok...so yesterday, after the whole incident with Cami..."
"What incident?"
"Uh..."
"Are you insinuating that I'm a trouble maker?"
Zee took a deep gulp and looked at Carl and I for help.
Of course he got none.
We were way smarter than involving ourselves with the wrath of the mighty Cami Woods.
"Well...what I meant was...the incident I caused."
Cami smiled widely like she was not just about to rip someone's head off.
Jeez...bipolar much. Literally!
With a deep breath,and a gaze fixed at me that spelt 'betrayal!' he continued.
"After the 'stuff' yesterday, I went out to blow off some steam. After a while, I decided to give him a call. Turns out that he was in the area. He met up with me after I explained the situation to him. He agreed to help us out."
"So wait...you gave the key out just like that! What the hell is your problem?! Who knows who or what the damned guy is!!"
I could tell that Zee was getting irritated and really pissed at Cami's constant yelling at him.
Apparently,she didn't like Zee enough. Even though she had taken her meds,she still felt really pissed off at him for some reason.
"I told you...I trust him!"
Cami rolled her eyes.
"Of course...we should just live our lives trusting whoever the hell we want cos 'every one is an angel' right? Or, 'people are not always as bad as they seem' or..."
"That's enough!"
Zee finally flared.
"Ok I know I may have screwed up but we aren't going to get any answers by just sitting around and playing nice."
I nodded in agreement.
"He's right,Cam. By the way,I guess this guy was the reason why Zee asked us to come to River City. He may be our only chance."
"Come on Cami...loosen up a bit. You're making this journey really choking for me."
Cami sighed and rested her head against the steering wheel.
"Fine...y'all knock yourself out. Don't say I didn't warn you that this would be a completely bad idea!"
I turned to Zee squarely.
"You really trust that guy?"
He paused for a bit,as if unsure of what to say.
That moment alone was enough to get me a bit worried and a little more inclined to believing what Cami had said.
"I trust him,ok! He is actually one of the fewest people left in my life that I can actually say I can still lean on."
Carl stretched his arm and patted Zee on his shoulders.
"If you trust him,then we trust him too."
"Yh...Zee we tr..."
"God help you if you say the word 'trust' in this car again! I will kick your sorry asses right out of this car and crush you with it's tires! I'm already as pissed as Santa on Christmas,don't rile me up the more!"
With Cami's threat,it is safe to say that we all shut up like the good kids we were and continued our journey,not daring to complain about the time when we nearly ran under a trailer or when she may have fractured Carl's shoulder with a punch because he was 'breathing too loud.'
***
The gas station we arrived at got me wondering if everywhere in this town was just designed to look like Desperation from Stephen King's book, Desperation.
If I thought that the motel we stayed at was terrible,then this place was times ten of that.
"Zee..."
I drawled.
"Uh...I know we've had this long talk on trust and all but...I...I...uh...just wanted to know if this is actually the place?"
He did not say anything.
Maybe he didn't hear,cos I'm sure my fearful heartbeat was loud enough to hinder his hearing.
"You're not...you're not...g...gonna kill us and stash our bodies in one of these gas tanks right? I...I mean I know Cami has been a pain so just take her. Carl and I have pretty much been on your side!"
Cami's blank stare was enough to shut me up.
"Calm down guys...this is the place."
Carl rolled his eyes.
"Oh...no worries. We are calm. It's just a typical horror movie looking place where we may be killed and buried without any trace of our bodies. No need to be worried at all."
Zee sighed exasperatedly.
"Guys...trust me ok"?
He said before moving in the direction of the gas station.
I swear I heard Cami mutter something about 'trust nonsense'.
The place we had driven to,was surrounded by a dry grassland of golden brown grasses.
It stretched for on and on, not having any sign of civilisation for the next ten miles or so.
The gas station didn't have a roof left. The patches of blue zinc could be seen on the dusty ground.
For some reason, there was a really huge umbrella tree shading the back of the building.
It made the place look more eerie.
We followed silently, literally wadding through the heaps of metal debris and whatever the hell the green looking slime on the floor was.
The whole place smelt like stale urine and weed.
I didn't know if I should have been concerned that this was the place where one of the only trustworthy people in Zee's life stayed.
We passed what may have been the counter or a snack outlet. I couldn't really tell.
Behind it,there was a big green door with crazy graffiti sprayed on it.
Zee heaved a sigh before turning to face us.
"Guys...uh...I have to warn you though. Lightbulb is a bit...uh...unique."
Carl looked like he just saw Zee shit his pants.
I broke out into loud peals of distorted laughter,slapping Cami at her shoulders and gaining a dirty glare from Zee.
"What's funny?"
He asked blankly.
"Wha...wha...your friend's name is Lightbulb?Woah...talk about unique!"
Cami looked bored as she picked her nails.
"Let's just get this over with already."
He nodded slightly and pushed the door open.
If I thought this whole place was crazy,then I was almost wrong.
Almost.