The first step in our plan had been done, and now we were on the second step.
We were to drive around Vernon at a regular speed, looking to see if Corky met us at some point in our path, perhaps at a stop sign or at an intersection. The third and final step would be the most difficult one.
To race him and win.
We knew that Corky played dirty, so we knew he would try different tactics to get us to lose control of the car and crash. The idea was to outperform him and not only avoid any attempt on his part to hurt us but also turn the tables on him, making him crash in return. If Corky finally lost cleanly, we hoped his soul would then be released into the afterlife.
We were unsure of this, but we also had no other choice.
This was our grand plan.
We began by going up Miles Avenue, with our first destination being Fruitland, the site of one of the crashes. I took a few deep breaths to avoid panic settling in, and in silence, we began looking around the road as we passed several Huntington Park municipal buildings, houses, and shops. It was still early evening, so I could still see many people walking down the streets.
As we crossed Randolph Street, we passed by Huntington Park High School, where Zack took the chance to flip the bird at the building. I just looked at him as he turned to me and giggled, his smile wide and toothy.
"I always wanted to do that," he said.
I smiled back at him.
"We need to concentrate, dum dum," I said, pointing at his cell phone.
He nodded and turned the screen on, getting inside the application his friends used to avoid the police. It was still the same week the newest accident had occurred, so I was sure there would be several cop cars patrolling the streets.
"There's one close by, but as long as we continue at this pace, we will be fine," He told me and looked up the street, probably trying to search for it.
I nodded and continued driving.
We stopped for a minute or two on East Slauson Avenue, waiting for the light to change, and noticed where the cop car was parked. In the strip mall in front of us, lit by the lights of a pizzeria and a liquor store, stood the cop car, with one lonely officer looking outside, waiting for something, probably food.
We continued going up the street until we reached the beautiful modern building I always loved to stare at every time Mom drove me to school. I stopped for a minute while Zack looked at me in confusion.
"Why did you stop?" He asked me.
I pointed at the building with the round white lines and kaleidoscopic windows, now mostly hidden in shadow, away from the streetlights. Only a single light was on inside the building, making it seem mysterious and alluring.
"I love this building," I said.
"Oh, yeah, I've seen it; it's very pretty. Especially in daylight," Zack said.
I sighed as I stared at it.
"I just wanted to see it...it...might be the last time I can," I said, my voice breaking.
Zack placed his hand on my shoulder and rubbed it delicately.
"It's not going to be the last time. I promise. Now let's move."
I looked back at him and forced myself to smile. If he believed in me, I had to believe in myself. So I just pressed the gas, and we continued driving until we finally reached Fruitland.
The street was deserted. Most of the company's people had gone home. The only things there were the cold modernist buildings, with their cube glass decorations reflecting the yellow shine of the streetlights, and the single bus stop waiting for the next morning's arrivals.
As nobody was coming up behind us, we waited for a while for something to show up. We thought that, as Corky had passed through here, this could be a place he could use to search for more victims. But nothing happened besides seeing a few leaves float past us.
So we looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and continued our drive.
We then crossed this massive piece of industrial land in South Soto. It was a generation station filled with industrial buildings, enormous electrical machinery, and a grid. I noticed for the first time how eerie it looked. I guess nighttime could make any building that looked mundane in the morning appear creepy and menacing.
Maybe its eeriness was some kind of sign, as when we finally arrived at East Vernon Avenue, around East 44th Street, I noticed several sets of lights behind us. At first, I thought nothing of it because, on our route, a few other cars and trucks had joined us for a few moments to turn and drive away later. But the moment we stopped at the intersection, I noticed something was wrong.
Zack was deadly quiet.
I looked at him and saw him staring out the window. I touched his shoulder and shook it slightly to make him react, but he wouldn't move. Suddenly, I felt a tight grip on my leg and became alarmed. That's when my head moved past him, and I managed to see the car next to us.
It was the Thunderbird.
The inside lights were off, but the silhouette driving the car was distinguishable anywhere. It was our boy.
I stared at the details of the young man's dark figure. The shape of his face looked Caucasian, with a refined nose and a strong square jaw. He seemed tall and had broad shoulders and a Pompadour hairstyle. I could even see in the slightly visible shape of his silhouette what appeared to be the details of a jacket, probably from that time. Of course, I couldn't distinguish more because of his spectral form, but I was happy to finally see my enemy.
Then he turned to us.
I could feel the blood running away from my face as he stared at us with his bright, dead eyes. He observed us for a while, probably wondering where he had seen us before, and then he seemed to nod in greeting.
"He knows who we are," Zack whispered, his voice shaking.
I was about to say something in return, but the light turned green again, and Corky hit the gas and turned left towards East Vernon.
"Holy shit, it's time," I thought.
So I began to follow.
When Corky realized we were following him, he pressed the accelerator of his newly fixed car, making me push the one in Dad's car in return. That stretch of East Vernon was mainly a straight line, so even under the few street lights, it wasn't hard to drive straight, so I knew he was playing with us when he started to snake around between the lanes.
He wanted us to play his little sick games, but didn't know I could play them very well. So, as he returned to the correct lane, I told Zack to hang on, and I placed myself right next to him in the opposite lane.
"Tammy," Zack gasped.
"Don't worry," I said and looked at Corky.
He stared back at me, and we locked eyes for a few seconds in clear defiance of each other.
I then returned my gaze to the street and saw bright lights coming in the distance. It was dangerous, but I needed to prove to this jackass that I wasn't playing in the minor leagues. So I waited while Zack kept whining as we got closer and closer to the cars that were starting to blare their horns at us to get out of the way.
Before it was too late and an imminent crash occurred, I changed gears, hitting the gas as much as I could, and drove all the way to the front of the lane, putting myself in front of the dead boy.
I then looked at Zack and smiled, telling him to look back at the Thunderbird to see if he was following us. But before he could do that, the damn Thunderbird pressed the gas and drove right into the opposite lane. We screamed as we noticed the car coming through the lane Corky had taken over. But unlike us, Corky didn't move at all, forcing the poor driver to turn hard and crash into an open gate.
Sparks flew everywhere.
"Holy shit!" Zack shouted.
"He's a psycho!" I yelled.
While distracted by the crash behind us, the Thunderbird placed itself in front of me and let itself slide back a bit, hitting us in the front, startling us. Corky then just pressed the gas and began driving away.
I changed gears again and began driving closely behind him.
This dude was not going to win.
Then, as we neared the next intersection, I realized he had tricked me.
"Oh, shit!" I exclaimed as both cars reached the end of East Vernon, and we came face to face with the elephantine building that was City Hall.
"What?" Zack asked.
"This jackass drove us straight into the police station!" I said, turning left.
Several cars were lining up the street, waiting for the next light to change, but that didn't stop Corky from moving around the innocent drivers on the line. As he crossed the red light, a red pickup abruptly stopped and blasted its horn as Corky drove into Pacific Boulevard.
I followed along, but I knew this was just spelling trouble.
That's when Zack leaned into the side-view mirror, screamed, and turned around. I knew at that moment we were being followed by cops. The blue and red lights were bright and intimidating behind us, but I wasn't going to lose Corky just because the law was behind me.
Screw that.
"These dummies," I said to myself. "They have no idea what they are dealing with."
So, as we continued driving down Pacific Boulevard, I solely focused on Corky, who was right in front of me, driving without a care in the world. He didn't care about cops or anything else. He was dead; the law couldn't touch him anymore. But that didn't mean he wasn't annoyed by them.
Right on East 46th Street, the boy did what I initially thought was the most unexpected move, but then, as I continued following him, I realized it was a tactic to get rid of the cops. The moment he crossed East 46th, he made a big left turn, driving the car almost into a one-eighty turn and into the street.
I imitated his move, causing Zack to scream in surprise.
"Sorry," I told him as he put his hand on his mouth and grabbed the roof handle.
The cops, following behind, turned left. That's when Corky pulled his trick, and instead of driving through the street, he turned right into the train tracks nearby.
It was a risky move to make. I had no idea if there were still trains going around at those hours, but as I wanted to also get rid of the cops, I just went along with his tactic.
The speed of the chase, the uneven terrain, and the darkness of the tracks made the race pretty bumpy and challenging, which caused problems in keeping my grip on the steering wheel. I pressed my hands as tightly as possible, like a snake pressing on its prey.
The Thunderbird was my prey, and I was not going to let go.
We drove all the way to Leonis Boulevard through the train tracks. Then I saw the Thunderbird turn left into Leonis, and I followed. As the lights of the cop car began fading away in the distance, I thought that would be the end of the trick, but then, as we arrived at the next set of train tracks, I saw that Corky wasn't done.
He hit the gas and turned left into the tracks again on Seville Avenue.
"Dammit!" I exclaimed, turning left and driving next to him on the street.
I looked at him from my driver's seat, and he turned to me, smiling widely.
I felt he thought he was doing us a favor, but his favors were sour, as the terrain was starting to kill my father's car. It was a 1960s vehicle; it wasn't made for uneven terrain, and the difficulty that came with night driving. That didn't seem to bother Corky in his own car, so I assume he had done this before, in his previous life.
As the tracks were double this time, we both drove into the back alley of the Atlas Aluminum company, which sank us into the darkness of an empty Industrial Vernon.
The whole way, Zack kept looking behind us, but at some point, as we moved into a one-track lane again close to South Soto, he told me we had lost the cops.
"They are using the streets, not the tracks. It's too dark," I told him. "That's probably what he wants."
We arrived at a long and prominent section of tracks with a lot of space to drive, so I took advantage of it and passed the Thunderbird, slightly hitting its side, which made Corky pretty mad, as he slammed the gas and bumped us from behind. I just wanted to take him off the train tracks by leading the car into the street again.
But then, as we reached East 44th Street, I noticed the cop car appear from the left side. So I cursed under my breath and continued driving into the tracks, now with both the Thunderbird and the cops behind me.
We soon reached another large and wide stretch of train tracks, and Corky and I began to but heads again, now with the cop car behind us, screaming at us to stop through a megaphone. I then started to ponder if this race was something we could win.
"Should we stop?" I asked.
"Are you mad?!" Zack reclaimed. "We are so close!"
I looked at Corky, whose shiny eyes were staring at the road and the police in the rearview mirror.
"Close to what? We are just butting heads!" I shouted.
"I know, but there has to be a moment where we can trick him," Zack said. "Don't give up now!"
"Then when?" I asked, anxiety beginning to creep up on me again.
"I don't know," Zack said, putting his warm hand on my leg, trying to motivate me. "But I don't think there will be another chance if we stop now."
I pressed my lips and nodded. Zack was right. I was dumb to think otherwise. If we stopped, we would totally get arrested, which would end our attempts at stopping Corky. We wouldn't come back from that.
As we crossed Alcoa Avenue, I noticed the lights at the end of the road, showing me there was a new street ahead, but I also saw that the double tracks divided themselves into two single ones, with a one-story building standing in the middle of them.
I began to think about which path to take. Which one was the less dangerous one? What if the Thunderbird took the opposite one? Should I just follow behind?
I quickly looked at Corky to see what he was doing and almost jumped out of my seat as I realized he was looking straight at me.
Then he winked at me.
"What was that wink? What message was he trying to tell me?" I asked myself as we approached the divide.
Then I saw him begin to slow down, getting closer to the cop car. I frowned at his intentions, but I knew it was too late, and I had to make a decision. Before I turned to the right and took the longer curve exit, I saw Corky bump the cop car with the back of his car and hit the gas again, ensuring the cop car would pursue him.
As Zack and I drove through the side of a building, we lost Corky and the cops as they drove through the opposite track. As we came out into South Downey, I slowed down, thinking that the Thunderbird and the cops would take a few seconds to reach us, as the other track was a block behind us.
But I had no idea that was not what Corky had in mind.
The sound was the first thing that came. It was the loud, high-pitched screech of tires.
Then came the devastating crashing sound behind us, forcing me to stop abruptly.
Zack and I then turned around and looked in horror as the cop car was smashed by a semi-truck, which kept going for a few seconds before stopping.
"Oh my god!" I screamed, covering my mouth.
Appalled, I saw the other cars on the road beginning to slow down and stop. But there was one car that just kept going down the street, though, with all the glee and sass.
As the Thunderbird passed by us, I heard Zack yell at me to go, but I was so shocked at the accident that had occurred that he had to shake me before I retook control of my body.
"Tammy, he's escaping!" He screamed at me, his body shaking with adrenaline.
I, also trembling, nodded and turned to start the engine again. But before I did, I looked around to see where we were.
"Are we close to District Boulevard?" I asked myself. "I think we are."
I knew there was something on District Boulevard that I could use against him. Still, my mind couldn't remember what it was as it replayed the image of the crash over and over again.
Before driving away, I turned to Zack and unlocked his seatbelt. He yelled at me in surprise, asking why I had done that.
"They are dead," I told Zack. "Those cops are dead."
Zack nodded and shrugged his shoulders.
"I know," he sighed, breathing heavily.
"Zack, we are next," I told him, extremely nervous.
"I know." He said, grimacing. "But Tammy, we have to do this."
"I have to do this, but you don't need to," I said, looking at him. "So you better get out now!" I then exclaimed.
"I'm not going to get out! What are you talking about? Just drive, woman!" Zack shouted at me.
"Zack," I pleaded to the boy. "Please, get out."
"I'm not leaving you, Tammy!" Zack exclaimed. "I love you!"
"Well, that was unexpected," I thought.
I stared at him in shock, my eyebrows raised and my mouth open. Zack just looked at me, scared and anxious, both afraid of rejection and death.
It took me a minute to process the feelings, but suddenly, amongst the dread and adrenaline, a slight warmth began to blossom.
I smiled a bit.
"Okay," I whispered, beginning to drive away. "Okay, fine."
"Someone said they loved me," I thought momentarily as I began to change gears and accelerate again, trying to reach the Thunderbird driving off in the distance.
At least if I died, someone said they loved me.