Chapter 11
It was almost ninety degrees outside, but the inside of the truck was comfortably air-conditioned. Despite this, the two passengers in the truck were still sweating, although it was not the heat that made them sweat. Their truck rolled forward, in the middle of a long line of vehicles lined up at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Del Rio, Texas. Waves of heat were visible off the wide expanse of concrete and the dozens of vehicles packed in line, baking under the hot Texas sun.
Rebecca Chambers sat in the passenger seat, her hands in her lap. The radio was on but the volume was low. Country music was the preferred choice of the locals, but Rebecca wasn’t a fan. Still, they felt it was a good idea to play it safe. There was nothing suspicious about either of them, and no reason for the law enforcement officers to pay them any special attention, but in contrast to Rebecca’s outwardly calm and casual exterior, she was scared out of her mind.
“Relax,” Billy Coen said softly, behind the wheel of the truck. His hair, previously a dark, unruly brown, was now dyed black and cut very short. His elaborate tattoo, which spiraled and twisted up his right arm, was now covered in long sleeves. Not that such tattoos were very uncommon, but it brought attention to him, and the last thing Billy wanted was attention.
“Sorry,” Rebecca whispered. “Do I look nervous?”
“You were shaking so bad the whole truck was rocking back and forth.”
“I was not. Don’t be silly.”
Billy gave her a quick grin. “Just try to keep calm. We’re doing fine. Once we’re through the checkpoint, we’ll be home free.”
“If you keep saying that, I might start to believe it,” Rebecca said.
“You’re the one who volunteered to come with me, remember? You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”
“Of course not. I wanted to come with you even if I knew for a fact that we’d get arrested at the border.”
“If you keep saying that, I might start to believe it,” Billy said, imitating Rebecca’s voice.
Rebecca smiled at him and reached out to give his arm a playful squeeze. Another car moved through the checkpoint ahead of them, and Billy took his foot off the brake to let the car coast forward a few feet before stopping again. There were still several cars ahead of them.
In truth, Rebecca didn’t regret her decision at all, even though she suspected that Billy still regretted letting her come along. He refused at first, doing his best to convince her that it was a terrible idea and there was no reason for her to throw her life away by leaving the country with him. He was quite adamant that they should go their separate ways, that she had a good life and a bright future ahead of her, while he was doomed to spend the rest of his life a fugitive. Rebecca admired his insistence that she should go back home and forget about him, but it was not going to be that easy.
Unfortunately for him, Rebecca could be just as stubborn and insistent when she wanted to be. She hadn’t tracked down his parents’ phone number, built up the nerve to call, and then driven all the way to Colorado just to have him tell her to go back home. He could have done that over the phone. He would not admit it at the time, but he wanted her to come, he was just afraid to tell her. If he really wanted her to stay away, then he would have instructed his parents not to let her come see him in the first place. Just the fact that he was willing to see her again was proof enough for her.
She stayed at his parents’ house for two days while they worked out the plans to get Billy safely out of the country. The whole time, Billy kept trying to persuade her to change her mind. And then, on the second night, Rebecca snuck downstairs into the basement where Billy was sleeping, crawled into his bed, and convinced him once and for all that she was going with him.
And now, they were almost to their goal. Billy’s father had some serious connections, and somehow managed to get Billy a complete set of false documents and a new identity, although Rebecca didn’t ask how. According to his new fake driver’s license and equally fake passport, his name was John Lewis. The truck was registered to one of Billy’s old friends, who donated it to the cause. Rebecca didn’t need any false identification, and could just use her own. If the authorities decided to search the truck, they wouldn’t find anything out of the ordinary, just the kind of items a couple would take with them on a vacation to Mexico. Some spare clothes, some food, nothing out of the ordinary.
The only real hitch in the plan was Billy’s false license. They were given promises that it would not bring up any red flags in the police computer system, but they couldn’t exactly test it beforehand to find out. They would discover out soon enough if Billy’s father wasted his money or not. They didn’t have to worry so much about Billy himself, since no one was actually looking for him.
As far as the rest of the world knew, Billy Coen was dead. Billy and Rebecca had been reticent about their shared experience in the Arklay Mountains, despite his parents’ efforts to draw them out. But when details about the events in Raccoon City finally hit the news, Billy’s parents realized why they didn’t want to talk about it.
Rebecca and Billy watched the news reports as intently as everyone else, shocked and horrified to learn that the entire city was destroyed, but at the same time they felt much differently about it. They knew the truth about what happened, they knew the truth about the disease. And as terrible as the official cover story was, the truth was more terrible than that. Neither Billy nor Rebecca felt the need to make things worse by contradicting the story on the news, so they kept silent about it.
In the end, Billy’s parents accepted the story that Billy escaped because the soldiers transporting him were infected with the virus and the transport truck crashed. It didn’t really make much sense, but it was close enough to the truth. His parents also understood why Rebecca was so eager to leave Raccoon City behind, and perhaps why she bonded so strongly with him. When some of the survivor accounts began getting played on the news, his parents reacted with horror, and stopped asking so many questions, because they were afraid of the answers.
“I wonder if Jill and Brad made it out of the city,” she said softly, not for the first time.
Chris left the city before Rebecca did, so she knew he was safe. But she knew nothing about what happened to Jill and Brad, and could only hope that they chose to leave the city before the infection hit.
“They started releasing names of the other survivors yesterday,” Billy said. “If they made it out alive, we’ll find out.”
Rebecca had already told Billy about the other S.T.A.R.S. members, and about their dramatic escape from the labs, even though Rebecca herself had no memory of it, since she’d been unconscious at the time. The two of them lived through their own ordeal inside the disposal facility, which they just barely escaped from, so Billy was shocked and saddened to learn that Rebecca had faced even more dangerous monsters later on.
“I wonder if I’ll ever see them again,” Rebecca mused.
“I’d like to meet them someday,” Billy said. “You’ve told me a lot about them.”
“I’m sure you’d get along great with Chris. You have a lot in common with him, I think.”
“What would we tell them about me?”
Rebecca smiled. “I think we could tell them the truth. They would understand.”
Another car moved through the checkpoint, and Billy took a deep breath as he drove the truck forward toward the checkpoint booth. Rebecca swallowed nervously and then forced herself to look away, casually glancing out the window.
“Here we go,” Billy whispered, putting the truck in park. He rolled down the window and leaned out to speak to the officer in the booth.
“Good morning,” the officer said. “Passport, please.”
Billy handed over their passports and other identification. They also needed other special forms to allow them to drive their truck into central Mexico and other paperwork as well. He smiled genially as he handed over the fake lic
ense.
“Reason for entering Mexico?” the officer asked as he flipped through the papers.
“We’re going on vacation,” Billy said. “We always wanted to see the Mayan ruins and we thought it would be fun to make a road trip out of it. And my girlfriend,” he added, “she wanted to get away, you might say.”
“Hmm,” the officer said, not really listening. Then he stopped suddenly and leaned forward to look at Rebecca through the driver’s side window.
“Ma’am?” he asked, “Is this your current address?”
Rebecca stared right back at him, her face expressionless. “Not anymore,” she said simply, and then turned to look out the window again.
Billy said in a low voice to the officer, “Listen, she’s really uncomfortable talking about it. That’s the other reason we’re going on vacation. She wants to get away for a while, you know?”
“But it says she’s from Raccoon –”
“I know, I know, but it’s hard for her to talk about.”
The officer looked at her compassionately and then nodded, sitting back and completing his check of their paperwork. Billy sighed and rested his head against the headrest. The rest of the checkpoint went quickly, and the officer handed Billy back the paperwork, including his identification.
“I want to apologize, ma’am,” the officer said. “I was just surprised. I’m very sorry. I can’t imagine what you must be going through.”
Rebecca nodded but said nothing, and Billy put the papers in the center console. The officer waved them through, and Billy put the truck back into drive, nodding politely as he drove forward through the border checkpoint and into Mexico.
He let out a long sigh of relief and almost laughed out loud, his heart pounding in his chest. He gazed over at Rebecca, utterly speechless.
“Well, that went better than expected!” Rebecca said with a laugh, and leaned over to plant a kiss on his lips. “We made it!”
“We made it!” Billy repeated.
“He was so shocked to see that I was from Raccoon City that he probably didn’t even bother to look at your passport,” Rebecca said.
“You were fantastic,” Billy said, shaking his head in amazement. “The way you looked at him, he felt like such a jerk he just let us go.”
“Now, aren’t you glad I came along?” Rebecca laughed. She reached up to touch his face, turning it towards hers, and then kissed him more passionately.
“Careful, babe,” he said with a chuckle as they pulled apart. “I’m trying to drive here.”
“Well, maybe you should pull over so we can really celebrate,” Rebecca said with a mischievous smile.
“How about we get a few more miles down the road,” Billy suggested. “We pull over now and it would look super suspicious.”
“Sounds good,” Rebecca said. Then she sighed happily and leaned back in her seat, feeling relaxed and overjoyed. Softly, she added, “I think we’re going to make it, Billy.”
“Yeah,” Billy said. “I think we’re going to make it too. And it’s just the two of us, now. From her on out, it’s just you and me, babe.”
They drove down the broad, flat highway, a wide expanse of rolling desert hills in front of them, and the United States in their rear view mirror. The next few days would take them all the way through Mexico, then into Guatemala, then through Honduras and Nicaragua, to their final destination in Costa Rica. Along the way, they would pick up more detailed and updated identification for Billy to get him through customs in the other countries, and then find somewhere to live where both of them could find work. Once they could apply for citizenship in Costa Rica, they would be able to finally erase Billy’s criminal history, but that would take years to accomplish. But together, they could do it. Together, they could do the impossible.
“Just the two of us,” Rebecca said to herself. She looked over at Billy and smiled warmly. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”