Chapter 13
Rebecca held the phone in her hands, studied it for a moment, and hung it back up. There was a phone number scribbled on a piece of paper on the table, but she couldn’t build up the courage to call it. It had taken her most of the morning to even track the number down, and she had so far spent half an hour sitting next to the phone, debating with herself about whether or not she could call it.
Finally, she took a deep breath, picked up the phone, and dialed the number. She cautiously held the phone to her ear and heard it ring on the other end.
Two rings and then a click. A woman’s voice said, “Hello?”
Rebecca paused for a second. “Um, hello,” she said. “I’m looking for Darlene and David Coen?”
“This is Darlene.”
“Okay. Um, my name is Rebecca Chambers. I don’t know if you’ve heard of me.”
“No, I’m afraid I haven’t.”
“Well, I met your son, Billy.”
“Oh.” Billy’s mother paused, her voice dropping. “Well, you know he’s not here, then. We haven’t heard from him in a long time. I can give you a phone number where you might be able to contact him.” There was a coldness in her voice that Rebecca could feel through the phone line.
“Actually,” Rebecca said uncertainly, “I was wondering if you might be able to give him a message from me.”
“He’s in jail,” Billy’s mother said emotionlessly. “We haven’t heard from him.”
Billy had told Rebecca that he planned to contact his parents once he escaped. That was two days ago, so if Billy made it out of the woods, then he surely would have been able to talk to his parents by now, even if he had not made it all the way to Colorado. And even if he never escaped the woods, then surely the military would be looking for him by now. The police would have called his parents to tell them that their son was missing, and to order them to call the authorities if he contacted them. In any case, Billy’s parents would know that Billy was not in jail right now. So Darlene Coen was lying.
If they didn’t know where Billy was, then they had no reason to lie to Rebecca. But the cold, unfriendly tone in the woman’s voice told her something else. They were not taking any chances. For all they knew, Rebecca was an undercover agent trying to figure out if Billy’s parents were helping him. They had no reason to trust her.
Rebecca could not help but believe that Billy’s parents knew where he was. Darlene’s quick statement that they had not heard from him sounded to her like an excuse. Darlene was denying anything before Rebecca had even suggested otherwise.
“I know you haven’t,” Rebecca said. “But if you do hear from him, can you send him a message for me?”
“What did you say your name was again?”
“Rebecca Chambers.”
Billy’s mother paused again. Rebecca wondered if perhaps she was covering the receiver with her hand so she could talk to someone else in the room with her. After a few moments, she said, “Okay. What’s your message?”
Rebecca took a deep breath. “Um, can you tell him that I want to see him again? I quit my job and I’m moving away. I’d like to ... make a new start somewhere. I’m sure he knows why. Can you just tell him that I’d like to see him again?”
“Yes, I suppose I can do that. I’ll tell him next time I see him. But that probably won’t be for a very long time.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
“Yes. Goodbye.”
The phone clicked off before Rebecca could say goodbye, and she listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before slowly hanging the phone up.
She had no way to know if they had any intention of giving Billy her message, or if they were even able to. She doubted that Billy could have made it all the way to his parents’ house in Colorado by now, but he surely could have made his way to a pay phone and called them. Rebecca believed that he had done just that. The fact that Billy’s mother even listened to her message made Rebecca believe that she was at least able to relay it to Billy.
She wondered what he would say if he got the message. Part of the reason he chose not to stay with her before was that he was a wanted fugitive and she was a police officer. But after the events at the lab, Rebecca couldn’t be a cop anymore, at least not in Raccoon City. And with nothing keeping her there, she planned on leaving as soon as possible.
She wanted to see Billy again, although she couldn’t really explain why. Or maybe she just couldn’t accept the reasons why she shouldn’t. The only thing she shared with him was a memory of a traumatic event, and she was smart enough to know that those types of situations were not something to base a relationship on. Her feelings for him were the result of a terrifying experience, not a normal, natural attraction.
Maybe he would just ignore the message. He left her once before, and maybe he thought it best that they stay away from each other. Maybe he thought she wasn’t really prepared to give up her entire life just yet.
She was, though. Sitting on the floor next to the couch in Rebecca’s small apartment were half a dozen packed bags containing only the most important of her possessions. Everything else in the apartment would be abandoned here when she left. Furniture, dishes, clothing, books and video tapes, everything she didn’t need. She was going to leave it all behind when she left, she just didn’t know exactly where she was going yet. Her parents’ house first, then maybe somewhere else, anywhere else. Maybe she would go and see Billy, wherever he was.
She wandered around her apartment for a little while, lost in her own thoughts. Chris was already gone, and Jill said that she would probably leave town as well. Brad was unsure, but Rebecca had a feeling that he would see the wisdom in getting out. There was nothing left for any of them here, only bad memories and growing suspicions. None of them could return to the police station, that was certain.
What was going to happen to Raccoon City? If Chris was right, the virus that had devastated the lab and killed all those people was going to make it to the city. What was going to happen then? Rebecca had already experienced what a small crowd of hungry zombies was like, but she could not even imagine an entire city infected with the disease. Hundreds of thousands of people all infected? That was too much to even consider. But Chris believed it was bound to happen, and probably sooner than later.
Rebecca felt like a coward for leaving town, but she knew that staying behind would not solve anything. No one would believe her. Trying to warn anyone would probably get her committed in a mental hospital. If she had any close friends in town, she would try to warn them, but Rebecca hadn’t lived in Raccoon City long enough to really meet anyone. Her only friends were her fellow police officers. The only thing she could really do was get out of town before the disease struck.
The phone rang. Rebecca walked over to it, expecting it to be her parents. She picked it up and said, “Hello?”
“Is this Rebecca?” asked a deep male voice.
“Yes.”
“This is David Coen. My wife gave me your number. I’m calling from a pay phone.”
“Oh,” Rebecca breathed.
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“You’ll have to ask Billy.”
“I already did. He told me to call you.”
Rebecca swallowed nervously. “Where is he?” she asked.
“Right now he’s in Virginia. His sister lives there. He showed up on her doorstep yesterday morning and she called us. We’re trying to find a way to get him out of the country.”
“Have the police contacted you?”
“Of course they have.”
“Did ... did Billy tell you what happened?”
Billy’s father sighed, and his voice softened. “No, not all of it. Do you know? Maybe you can tell me just how he managed to escape. All he said about it was that something very bad happened in the mountains, and we might be hearing about it on the news. Just what does he mean?”
“I
don’t know if I can tell you either,” Rebecca admitted. “But Billy’s right about it being on the news. I think it will be all over the news in a week or two.”
“Did ...” David Coen’s voice caught and Rebecca could sense the worry and frustration he must have been feeling. “Did he hurt anyone to escape?”
“No,” Rebecca said. “Nothing like that. He only escaped by accident.”
“Okay, I just ... I know he had nothing to do with that thing in Africa, anyone could see that. But he was being sent to jail for life. I was afraid that maybe he ... he was desperate and .. maybe he had to kill someone to escape ...”
“He didn’t kill anyone,” Rebecca promised. Of course, even that was only partially true. “In fact, he saved my life. More than once.”
“Did you help him escape?”
“Sort of. Let’s just say that we helped each other.”
David sighed again and cleared his throat. “Okay. I guess one of these days I’ll hear the whole story from him. When he’s ready to tell us.”
“Would it be possible for me to come and see him?” Rebecca asked.
“I don’t know. He won’t be staying in the United States much longer. The sooner we get him to Mexico, the better.”
“Is that where he’s going?”
“He wants to go to Costa Rica. Right now, I’m just worried about getting him out of the United States.”
Strangely, the thought of traveling all the way to Costa Rica sounded wonderful to Rebecca. She expected to be frightened or worried, but instead she was almost excited about the prospect of going there with Billy. As a trained nurse, she could certainly make a living there. Of course, that all hinged on Billy letting her come along.
“If I can help you, I will,” Rebecca said. “And if Billy wants me to, I’ll even go to Costa Rica with him. You can tell him that. I have nothing keeping me where I am now.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, very.”
David paused for a moment. “Maybe we can work something out. We were worried about smuggling him into Mexico. It would be too suspicious if anyone in our family drove there so soon after his escape. But if you drove him there ...”
Rebecca could not stop herself from smiling. She almost had trouble containing her happiness. “That sounds like a great idea. I would love to.”