The Great Wreck

by Stewart, Jack

  He slowly turned the ATV around and we silently rolled down the dirt road. On both sides of us I could see the infected moving in the forest. How had the gotten here so quickly? Why didn’t we see them coming up the trail? And more importantly, were they already surrounding their cabin?

  It would be years before we’d figure out what had happened in those first few weeks we were in the cabin, when those of us who survived what happened next made it to Sandia. Like I had seen on the road up to the mountain, some of the people who left town at the first signs of the pandemic had brought infected members of their family with them or were infected themselves thinking they’d take their chances and ride out what they thought was the flu. First a few, then a few hundred, then maybe thousands headed for the hills of Mount Taylor. They died in droves in tents, campers, and trailers all over the face of the mountain. And then they…what? Came back? Reanimated? Rose from the dead? Take your pick. Whatever you called it, they were dead but somehow got back up and started walking and, eventually, feeding.

  Our cabin was located on a part of the mountain far away from the campgrounds, trailheads, and forest roads. It was an area where the rich built massive cabins like Tony’s uncle’s to hide away from the world. Roughing it with every possible modern luxury. Yes, we were far away, but not far enough. Eventually, all those who had died from the infection ate their way through the population of uninfected who had also thought the mountainside was safer than the cities. They were wrong and soon joined the thousands of dead wandering in the forest eating, like Tony had thought, every living thing they found. It was only a matter of time before the waves of dead reached us. Greer and Nicky had spotted the first lone infected man who had crested the ridge via some weird Brownian motion and had drifted down to the cabin. But he was just the first, the vanguard of a wave of dead that had in the months since we had reached the cabin, been working their way across the mountainside. The dead had first swamped the campers at the head of the trail off the forest roads, then moved to each of the cabins along the ridge until they hit the Johnston’s.

  Now they were here and it was our turn.

  Once we had gotten away from the Johnston’s cabin, Tony pressed the ATV as hard as he could without dumping us. The dead seemed not to notice us as we rolled down the trial and finally left them behind. We found the turnoff that lead to the cabin and saw more dead far down the trail towards where our truck was parked. They drifted onto the trail then back into the woods bumping into trees and each other, then disappeared back into the woods again.

  “Christ among us,” I heard Tony hiss, “How long before one of those things spots us?”

  “I’d rather not find out. Keep moving, man,” I said and we pulled onto our trail and Tony gunned the machine. Occasionally, I’d see one of the dead look up and grunt at us but we were flying down the trial and none followed us more than a few steps. That’s what I thought as we blurred by them. What I didn’t know was that the dead had a small capacity for memory, that they had just seen a meal flash buy, and knew the general direction they needed to go to follow it.

  We reached the cabin a short time later and stopped in front of the locked gate. I looked around and could see no dead in the woods but that meant absolutely nothing now knowing they were literally everywhere and would be here soon enough. Maybe a day, maybe a week. One day they’d wake up and the cabin would be surrounded by the dead. Could they get through fence? Probably. Could they get into the cabin? Maybe. But what would happen in six months or a year when the food ran out and the dead were still here. We’d be trapped inside with nowhere to go.

  Tony got off the ATV scanning the woods around us as he unlocked the gates, “What do we tell them?”

  “We tell them what we saw, pack up our shit, and get the fuck off this mountain,” I replied.

  “That’s all well and good, but where do we go, Casey? Back to Albuquerque? Out into the fucking desert? Or maybe you have another mountain in mind?”

  Another mountain, Tony said. I thought of the tram and the fenced off and locked up station at the base of the Sandia mountains. I thought of the resort perched on top of the ridge with its restaurant stocked up with food, the small hotel, the ski patrol stations with medical supplies, and the huge water tanks built a few miles away at the very peak of the mountain, “Sandia,” I said, “We could go up to Sandia.”

  Tony looked at me like I had grown a second head, “What. The fuck. Makes you think,” he said very, very slowly as if to a retarded child or a drunk, or a retarded drunk child, “That Sandia isn’t crawling. With the dead. Too?”

  I had to think about that for a minute before replying, “Sandia is on the edge of Albuquerque, right?”

  “Right,” Tony replied, “Telling me that it was probably overrun with the dead almost right away.”

  “No, no,” I replied, “The west side is too steep. Almost a ten thousand foot vertical face. The dead on the city side couldn’t have gotten up there and I closed down the tram station. And unless the dead know who to operate a generator and the tram controls, it’s unlikely they are able to get up that way.”

  “And the backside of the mountain?”

  “Remember the forest service closed down the camp grounds early because of the dry winter? They didn’t want anyone up there starting camp fires and burning the whole mountain down.”

  “Yeah? And they had so many assholes going up there anyway, they finally had to tear up huge chunks of the road to keep the people out,” Tony said.

  “Yes! And the cops started patrolling…”

  “Along with us,” Tony said before I could finish,

  “Yes! That’s why Dan and I were the last off the mountain. No one was coming up at all anymore so they sent us home. They were either staying inside their homes or getting out of town.”

  “And with the trails blocked off, roads tore up, and those crazy concrete walls installed on the east side, no one, or at least very few, could get up to the top,” Tony finished, “It might work.”

  “Do we have a better option?” I asked.

  “I can’t think of one,” Tony replied. We’d find out later that most of the dead, even though moving around, were still decaying away and at some point their decayed quadriceps in their leg muscles couldn’t lift up their feet more than an inch or two effectively preventing them from climbing steep inclines like steps or a mountain. That wouldn’t stop the newly dead or the Sprinters as we would find out, but that would come much later, “We’d still have to get through the city, thought. It’s going to be complete chaos.”

  “Well, it’s either that or sit up here on the mountain until the infected cut us off completely and we’re stuck here for good.”

  “The dead.”

  “What?”

  “You said ‘the infected.’ They’re dead, Casey.”

  “Yeah, their dead,” I replied and stood there thinking about what that really meant, then said, “We can stop and get Nicky’s folks, and yours, then head up to the tram station. I still have the keys.”

  Tony nodded, “We’ll get packed up and leave in the morning.”

  * * *

  We told the girls what we saw and that went as well as you could expect, “Are you sure they were dead?” Nicky asked as Tony and I finished our story.

  I just nodded as Tony said, “She was eating his fucking guts out and her arm was gone, all the way gone. She couldn’t have been alive. And the others looked dead too, Missing hands, missing faces, stomach’s all ripped apart. No one with those types of injuries could possibly be alive and moving around.” I thought Greer might say something at this point, back us up with her story of the girl at the supermarket, but she just stared out the window ignoring us all.

  “Bullshit! You guys are just fucking with us!” Dreysi said.

  “Oh, yeah, because this is loads of fun,” Tony yelled back, “Are we having fun Casey? Good times for all? Yeah we’re just playing a very elaborate joke and the whole fucking world is in on it except
you Dreysi!”

  “Easy, Tony. We all just freaked out,” I said putting my hand on his shoulder.

  He sat down on the couch with a thump and put his head in his hands, “I know, I know. What a fuck up.”

  “Even if the people weren’t dead, we still need to get off of this mountain,” Nicky said looking around at each of us, “If the infected are all over the mountain, then they’ll find us soon enough. We can go home, check on Mom and Dad, then we’ll all go up to the tram.”

  Even Dreysi agreed with that even if she couldn’t accept that the dead were up and walking around in the forest, “Great,” I said, “Pack up your stuff and we’ll leave in the morning.”

  That night we packed our gear up into our backpacks as Tony brought out a few more rifles and pistols for the girls. Tony laid out the firearms onto the table and began showing Greer and Nicky how to load and unload a clip, aim, fire, clear and jammed bullet and other basic gun safety rules. As they practiced loading and unloading clips from the various guns and rifles, I had a thought and said, “Hey, Tony? Do you have a battery charger here? Like a portable one?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “The Beast’s battery is liable to be dead,” I replied.

  “What Dreysi? No, I just saw her moving around a few minutes ago. Seemed fine to me.”

  I laughed, “The truck, Tony. It’s been sitting there for nearly two months. The battery is likely to be dead.”

  “Right. Good thinking. I’ll get it out of the basement when we’re done here,” he said as Dreysi, hearing her name, came down the steps.

  When Dreysi saw what Tony had laid out on the table, she freaked out, “What the fuck are those for!? What the fuck are those for!? What the fuck are those for!?” she screamed. I nearly dropped the gun I was cleaning she screamed so loud and everyone jumped up to their feet, “I’m not fucking carrying one of those things and neither should either of you assholes! You’ll more like shoot us than anyone else!”

  “Don’t carry one you fucking crazy bitch,” Tony said when Dreysi finally stopped yelling, “It’ll just make it easier for the fucking dead to eat you.”

  “Fuck you, Tony! I don’t need a fucking gun to make me feel like a man or define who I am or make my penis feel any bigger!” Dreysi screamed as she stumbled down the stairs.

  “Well thank god the feminist movement survived all of this,” Greer said and giggled to herself.

  “At last you finally admit that you are a man and have a penis! I’ve always suspected it,” he yelled back.

  “Fuck you!” she said with so much hate and contempt in her voice Tony actually shut his mouth with an audible snap. Dreysi glared at him as she walked up to the table, grabbed a pistol, and pointed it at Tony.

  “Whoa, whoa!” we all said over one another scrambling back away from Dreysi.

  “Put the pistol down, Dreysi,” I finally managed to get out.

  “Fuck you, Casey! And what if I decide you are infected Tony? Should I shoot you? Should I shoot you now and save us all, in case you might get infected in the future?”

  “Put the fucking pistol down, you crazy nut jobber,” Tony said as he backed away with his hands in the air.

  “Now I’m a crazy nut jobber, huh? Then, since I’m crazy, I’ll put a bullet or two in your ball sack? What do you say, huh, buddy? How’s that for crazy?”

  “Yep, that’s pretty fucking crazy, Frigadoris!” he yelled back.

  “You call me that one more time and I swear I will shoot! Your fucking! Dick off!” Dreysi screamed, yelling out each word and gripping the pistol in both of her hands.

  “Guess you don’t mind using a gun after all, eh Fridge?” Tony spat back. Good god I think Tony was actually hoping Dreysi would shoot him. Almost daring her to.

  “Tony! Don’t antagonize her, you dumb ass!” I yelled.

  “Antagonize her?!” he said looking at me as thought I had lost my fucking head, “This bull dike is the one with a gun pointed at my head! She’s antagonizing me!”

  “Dreysi, put the gun down,” Nicky said quietly putting her hands on Dreysi’s arms and pulling them down, “You don’t have to carry a gun if you don’t want to. You can carry a bat or something.”

  “Or the fucking wacko can stay here,” Tony said as Dreysi lowered the pistol.

  Nicky took the gun from Dreysi and set it on the table, “Why don’t you go on upstairs and go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning. Dreysi nodded while looking at the floor then headed upstairs and closed her bedroom door.

  “I’ll be sleeping with my door locked tonight,” Tony said as we packed up the guns and ammunition and Nicky found a bat for Dreysi, “Fucking crazy.”

  I think we all locked our doors that night. Not because we thought Dreysi would go nuts and shoot us all, or at least, shoot Tony, but because we all thought about what might be out there in the woods closing in on the cabin. Locking the door to the bedroom was just another way of putting up something, anything between us and the inconceivable horror drifting around out there. It didn’t matter thought, I don’t think any of us slept that night.

  * * *

  I have never been so glad to see the gray, weak light of the sun creeping into our bedroom. I crawled out of bed and jumped in the shower rinsing off the fear and sweet that clung to me from yesterday’s flight through the woods. I dressed, pulled on my boots and walked over to the nearest window. Looking out the side of the cabin, I could see all along the southern edge of the fence line. I saw something move far back away from the fence. My heart leapt, then I saw the wind moving the braches around. I took in a deep breath and looked again. It was empty. I breathed a sigh of relief at finding that we weren’t already surrounded by the dead. I walked out of the bedroom and quietly closed the door behind me and then went down the hall to the window that looked out the back of the cabin to the west: the same. Nothing moved except the trees and my imagination and no one was to be seen all along the fence line. Satisfied for the moment that the dead had not blocked us in during the night, I headed down stairs to cook what would be the last breakfast for us in the cabin. Soon I was joined by the others as we nibbled on toast and tried to get some food in our stomachs. We all knew that we’d need the energy for what lay ahead but none of us had much of an appetite.

  At some point it became clear that we were just stalling and Greer began to clear the table while Tony started washing the plates and putting them away.

  “Why do that?” Dreysi said watching the two, “Why fucking wash the dishes and put them away? Who’s ever going to come back here again?”

  “Whoa, the crazy has gotten started early today, eh? Hide the guns,” Tony said, “I’m putting them away because in case anyone does ever come back here, it will be neat and tidy, ready for them to live out their lives and enjoy the wonderful wilderness around them.”

  “And you say I’m crazy,” Dreysi said and began moving her gear into the basement.

  Nicky and I helped finish cleaning up, then moved our stuff outside of the front door, then strapped on our guns and rifles as Tony carefully sealed up the cabin closing all the roll down doors, turning off the gas and water, and finally, flipping off the breakers. While Tony sealed up the place, I went to the basement door and slowly opened it up looking again along the fence and gates. Satisfied there was no one out there, I opened the door and stepped out into the yard, then began making my way around the cabin until I had inspected all the fence line along the property that I could see without having to walk too far away from the cabin. I let out a long breath not realizing that I had been holding it as I made my inspection. But something deep down in my brain whispered to me that they were out there I just couldn’t see them.

  I shook off the thought. It really didn’t matter if they were out there and if I could see them or not. What mattered was that we got to the truck and got off this mountain as fast as we could, “Looks all clear,” I said to the others as we stood outside and watched as Tony locked the door and ensured that it was se
cured.

  “Good deal. Let’s get the bikes,” he said when he was done and walked off towards the garage.

  Tony and I walked up the driveway to the garage, unhooked the charging cables from the ATVs, and then hooked up the small trailers. We drove them down and began loading up our gear into the wagons. We had decided that we wouldn’t bring much food or water with us that might slow us down. We’d carry only what we might need for the few days we thought it would take to get to Sandia.

  Once we finished tying down the packs, bottled water, and cases of canned food, Tony climbed on the ATV and Greer took a seat behind him. I got on my ATV and Nicky followed suit. When the four of us had gotten on the bikes, it became clear that we had overlooked something.

  “And where am I supposed to sit?” Dreysi said, close to tears. For a moment I could sympathize with her standing there alone. I had Nicky, Tony had Greer, and as I looked, there wasn’t enough room for her to sit on either bike.

  “You could walk,” Tony suggested.

  “Fuck off Tony,” Nicky said softly as she scrunched up to me as tight as she could and I moved as far forward without breaking my balls on the plastic faring of the bike while still being able to turn the handlebars. Dreysi climbed on the back and fit, just barely, and then we were off with Tony and Greer taking the lead.

  Greer dismounted and opened the gate and let the two bikes pass through, then closed it up, careful to securely lock it just as Tony had with the cabin. Maybe somebody would be able to use this place someday. Maybe some hikers who had managed to survive the dead wandering around the forest would find this place and be able to stay here.

  Greer climbed back on the bike behind Tony and wrapped her arms around his waist, “Hands above the belt, right Tony?” I called out.