The Great Wreck

by Stewart, Jack

  The girl continued, “I was sitting in the room looking out the widow wondering how much longer I could hold when I heard the sound of a car and saw you filling up. I knew I had to take a chance and make a break for it.”

  “How did you eat?” Greer said when the girl wound down.

  “I’d sneak out and get down to the kitchen, grab as much canned stuff as I could, then get back up to the room. There must have been water tanks up on the roof since there was still water running in the bathroom,” she replied.

  “Well, welcome,” I said and held out my hand, “I’m Casey. This is Tony” I said pointing towards Tony, “That’s Nicky there, Greer, and you are sitting on Dreysi.”

  She took my hand shyly and gave it a quick pump, “Nice to meet you all. I’m Shane,” she said. As she did I could see the huge, black stain of blood down the front of her pants. Was it fresh? It looked like it was a deep black and dried but against her blue jeans and covered in grim, I couldn’t be sure.

  Everyone shook Shane’s hand then Dreysi began telling her our story of getting out of the city before things had completely fallen apart, about the cabin, about the dead on the mountain. As they talked I looked at the gas gauge; quarter of a tank; that’s all we had gotten form the gas station. Shit. I climbed out of the truck and looked around for any possible signs of trouble. Seeing nothing but empty highway in front and behind us, I walked to the back of the truck and took each of the big, red gas cans and unhooked them from the tailgate. I then opened up the gas tank, took of the cap and poured each of the canisters into the old girl’s tank.

  During this, Tony had climbed out as well and stood next to me, “How much do you think we have, Old Hoss?”

  “Three quarters of a tank. Tops.”

  “Enough to get us to Albuquerque?”

  “Barely. But not enough to get us up to the tram station.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Yeah. Double fuck. And that means we have to get more gas somewhere.”

  “Damn it. I was hoping we could swing by the houses, cram our folks in, and just keep going.”

  “Nope. We’ll make it to Nicky’s place tonight, probably late depending on the roads. Maybe we can siphon gas from some of the cars there, enough to get us to the tram station anyway.”

  As Tony and I talked, the girls all clambered out of the car. I opened up the tailgate and pulled down the jump seat, “Now you guys don’t have to sit on top of each other,” I said.

  Shane looked at Dreysi and replied, “I don’t mind.”

  Dreysi smiled back at her while Tony and I rolled our eyes at each other. Well, at least now Dreysi had someone, I thought as I put the gas cans back on the tailgate and said, “All right then, load up.”

  Dreysi and Shane climbed in the back and sat on the jump seat while Nicky and Greer climbed in the back seat and Tony and I got into the front. I turned the truck on and watched the gas gauge needle climb up to just below the three quarter mark, “A little less than three quarters. It will have to do,” I said and put the truck in gear.

  I took it easy keeping the truck at fifty. The road was clear of cars but I knew as we got closer to the city we’d run into more pileups and traffic jams. The road rolled by as first Tony, then Greer and Nicky fell asleep. In the back, I could see Dreysi and Shane cuddled up against each other. I was thankful for the few moments of peace and quiet as nothing but the sound of the tires on the road and wind rushing by the truck filled the air.

  * * *

  In the back, Dreysi marveled at the turn of events. Shane had curled up alongside her on the jump seat and had pulled Dreysi’s arm around her as Casey got them headed east again. Shane’s body was so warm up against her but Dreysi could feel Shane shaking. Dreysi whispered calming words to her until Shane’s body relaxed and she fell asleep, her head resting on Dreysi’s chest.

  Shane hardly moved as Dreysi watched the road slip by wondering what they would find in Albuquerque. Where her parents and little sister OK? Maybe they had been able to seal up the house and keep the infected, the dead, out. They’d find them there, safe and sound, they’d somehow squeeze them into the truck, then head up to Sandia. They’d all be safe up there on the mountain, far above the dead below.

  Dreysi felt Shane shift a bit then place her hand on Dreysi’s leg. Dreysi felt her pulse quicken as Shane’s hand ran along her inner thigh. She heard Shane moan just a bit and Dreysi moved her free hand along Shane’s cheek which was no longer hot but cool to the touch. She trailed her fingers down the side of Shane’s face, along her neck, and down to the collar of her shirt.

  Shane’s hand had continued to move up until she reached between Dreysi’s legs. Dreysi felt a burst of heat in her abdomen and felt herself getting wet as Shane began to rub her, then felt Shane reach up and tug at the top of her pants, grunting slightly as she did. Dreysi quickly reached down and undid the top button or her pants, then quickly unzipped them. Shane ran her hand up under Dreysi’s shirt and ran her fingers along Dreysi’s belly, scratching at her skin, lightly pawing at the top of Dreysi’s panties.

  Inexperienced, Dreysi thought as she used her left arm to pull Shane over her. Shane’s hair had come out of its ponytail and covered her face as she straddled Dreysi and began to frantically move her hands up and down Dreysi’s body, grunting short, little animal grunts as she did.

  Dreysi felt the heat pouring into her lower abdomen and felt her panties getting wetter as her pulse increased and she began to unbutton Shane’s shirt. She quickly worked her way down to the bottom then pushed the shirt aside revealing Shane’s flat, white belly. Dreysi didn’t stop as Shane nipped at her neck with tiny bites and grunts but quickly unsnapped Shane’s bra and pulled it down reveling her small, round breasts, Dreysi hoped the others were asleep and Casey too preoccupied with driving to know what was happening in the back seat as she undid the button of Shane’s pants. She was about to get laid! Finally!

  As Dreysi pulled down Shane’s zipper, she could see the edge of her white panties and what looked like the tip of a bandage. Looking closely at the bandage she could see that blood had soaked though, “Are you OK, sweetie? Are you hurt?” she said as she unzipped Shane’s pants completely and pulled down the top of her panties.

  Dreysi felt her heart stop and her blood run cold as she peeled the bandage back and revealed the wound, “Shane?” she whispered as she looked at the large chuck of missing flesh and the clear teeth marks that surrounded the wound. Dreysi could see all the way down to the top of Shane’s startlingly white hip bone. Around the wound the flesh was a deep necrotic blue and green with the infection radiating out across Shane’s abdomen, “Sweetie?” she whispered as he mouth dried up and her throat closed and looked up pushing Shane’s hair out of the young girl’s face.

  Shane looked down at Dreysi, seemingly confused through her now cloudy and opaque green eyes. Dreysi sucked in a huge breath preparing to scream but Shane beat her to it letting out a scream of such hatred and rage before plunging her teeth deep into Dreysi’s throat

  * * *

  I could see Dreysi and Shane moving around in the rear view mirror and hoped they were quiet about whatever they were doing back there. I watched the road for anything unexpected thinking that I’d hate to round a bend in the highway and crash into an abandoned car or truck or run into a military checkpoint and have them blast us into bits before we could stop.

  Then Shane screamed so loud and so long, a scream filled with rage and hatred that I screamed with her. I hit the brakes sending the truck into a spin as the others came instantly awake and began screaming too. In the rear view mirror I could see Shane’s head jackhammering violently up and down as huge gouts and sprays of blood splashed the windows, the roof, and the seats around her as Dreysi’s head whipped back and forth.

  The trucks finally skidded to a halt and Tony burst out of the passenger’s side almost as soon as it had stopped. I jumped out of my side and we ran to the back of the truck. I jerked open the tailgate as Tony s
tepped around the side and pointed his gun inside.

  I wish I hadn’t see what was happening in there. I wish we had just smashed into some burnt out truck killing us all then and there instead of having to witness the atrocity taking place. I could see Shane straddling Dreysi on the jump seat, her head still pistoning up and down as sheets of blood ran down the sides of the seat. I could see Shane’s arms tearing at Dreysi, frantically digging into her chest. I could hear that endless scream of rage as Greer and Nicky jumped from the car and ran to the back.

  “Casey!” Tony screamed and broke the paralysis. I reached in and grabbed what had been Shane by her left foot and dragged her off of Dreysi and onto the road. Shane twisted around at me and screamed again launching and bending up at me, trying to get her hands on me but I kept moving back denying her leverage, dragging her away from the truck. I looked back and could see Dreysi’s body. Her throat had been completely tore out and her chest cavity split open.

  God these things must be strong, I thought as Tony stepped up behind Shane and put two bullets in her head. I quickly dropped the dead girls foot and ran back towards the truck where, Nicky, having run around the side, was standing looking at the remains of her sister.

  Nicky let out such a terrible scream of agony and grief that went on and on, slowly rising in pitch until it filled the whole world. I wrapped my arms around her waist, hauled her off of her feet, and carried her away from the scene of carnage, “Greer! Help me!” I called back as Tony walked to the back of the truck.

  Greer ran to me and wrapped her arms around Nicky as Nicky cried out and tried to claw her way back to her dead sister’s body, “No! No! Dreysi, no! Come back! Come baaaaaaaaack!” she screamed as I tried to hold her, but she was so strong, so driven by grief and rage that she was breaking free from my grip. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Greer move, heard a thump, then felt Nicky go limp in my arms.

  Greer stood behind Nicky, holding a flashlight in her hand, “You hit her?”

  “I had to, she was freaking out and I didn’t think she’d want to see what is going to happen next,” Greer said in a strange, toneless and hollow voice.

  “What do you mean?” I said as I turned and looked at the wreckage of Dreysi’s body in the back of the truck, saw Tony standing near the open tailgate, and understood what was about to happen.

  Tony stood looking at Dreysi’s face, watching, waiting. Yeah, she’d been a crazy fucking bitch, she’d been nothing but grief the since they had left the city, but she had been human and had a family that loved her and no one, no living being deserved to die like that. He saw her hand twitch and knew the time was close. Then I saw her head snap back and forth, watched her now opaque eyes snap open as she reared up and looked around, newly animated. She spotted Tony and screamed, then lunged out the back of the truck with great clumps of flesh and gore dropping from her chest as she scrambled out of the back. Tony waited until she had cleared the back of the truck and stood up on the highway, then put two bullets into her head dropping her to the ground.

  “I didn’t think Nicky could handle that,” Greer said laying Nicky on the ground at her feet, “We need to bury them,” she said as she walked to the rack on top of the truck and pulled one of the army surplus spades down that I kept there. I followed her and took the other. We dug two shallow graves off the side of the highway and Tony helped us pull the bodies of the two girls into them. Tony and I quickly covered them back up while Greer tried to muck out the back of the truck as best she could, careful not to get any of the blood or viscera in her eyes, mouth, or open wounds. There wasn’t much she could do and as we lay Nicky out on the back seat, the copper smell of blood nearly choked us.

  Greer closed the door and got in the other side as Tony and I got into the front, “Let’s go,” she said and we went. We drove with the widows down and soon I could no longer smell the blood amazed at how quickly we could get used to something so foul so quickly.

  We drove and as we approached the city, the wrecks became more and more frequent until we arrived at a military checkpoint so clogged with cars, burned out wrecks, abandoned military vehicles, and bodies that there was absolutely no way we could get around it while staying on the paved road.

  “Plastic Jesus Christ, “ Tony whispered as we neared the outskirts of the city. Ahead of us, at the very checkpoint we had passed through going west three months ago was the world’s largest fucking pile up I’d ever seen. Apparently as the shit spiraled out of control, the entire city of Albuquerque, or at least, those still left inside, decided to head west, head west in a hurry, and damn the checkpoint. Cars, trucks, buses, jeeps, everything and anything that could move had piled up, around, and over the military checkpoint creating a wall of metal and dead that stretched out to either side of the highway. “What happened here?” Tony asked to no one, exhaustion and stress making his voice crack.

  “Everyone tried to get out, saw what was coming in from the west, and tried to get back in,” I said as I shifted into four wheel drive and pulled off the highway. We slowly made out way around the colossal wreck and onto the frontage road until the cars thinned out again. We made our way around the edges of the city hoping to avoid the dead as the sun was going down.

  In the back seat, Nicky sat up and rubbed the back of her head. I had hoped she would stay out the entire night or at least suffer temporary amnesia, but I could see in her eyes that she remembered everything as she looked around the outside of the truck and said, “How close are we Casey?”

  “Couple miles. The roads on this side of town have been pretty clear so we’ll hit your place in just a few minutes.” Nicky nodded and leaned heavily against the window watching the empty houses go by. The streets were so calm and quiet, free of wrecks and the dead, that it almost seemed as though this side of town hadn’t been hit by the infection.

  “They all got out early,” Tony said looking around at the neat streets and tidy homes.

  “What?” I replied.

  “They all got out within the first few weeks of the outbreak. When things started to get out of control. The rich just picked up and moved to a place they thought was safe. Up in the mountains, up north, somewhere, anywhere. Anywhere but here,” he continued, “The rest of the city will be like Grants, but worse. This is temporary, an anomaly. The dead will eventually overrun this area. We saw them when we picked up Nicky and Dreysi, remember? Eventually, the dead will fill up this place too.”

  I nodded and pulled around a corner and came to a stop in front of Nicky’s parent’s house. I wish things had turned out better after what Nicky had just been through, wished we had found her family safe and alive, boarded up inside their house but it wasn’t to be and as we came to a stop in front of Nicky’s parent’s huge home, we could all see that that no one was going to be alive inside.

  The double doors in front were wide open with the left side of the door hanging from its top hinge as though something had pulled it free and the two side windows were smashed out as well. We all sat there peering into the deep gloom within the house, each of us imagining what must have happened. I turned to Nicky and began to tell her how sorry I was but she had already opened the door and stepped out of the truck.

  “Nicky!” I said as I jumped out and stood between her and the house. Greer and Tony got out of the truck as well, but both were looking behind me, “No one’s alive in there!”

  Nicky just looked past me into the house and said, “I know,” and reached back into the truck and grabbed a pistol. Behind me I could hear something moving. I heard the scrap of the door being pushed open, the dragging sound of feet, and slowly turned to see what had come out to greet us.

  What was left of Nicky’s little sister stood in the doorway of the home looking around her, trying to identify the source of sound the thing had heard. Devi had been a smaller carbon copy of Nicky; jet black hair, wide set green eyes, small, upturned nose and a heart shaped face. Now she was a ruin, badly eaten away and in an advanced state of decay. Most of t
he right side of her face, neck, shoulder, and chest had been stripped of flesh, her stomach had been torn out, and most of her left forearm torn off. Her cloths hung in strips and was covered in her own dried out blood and gore. Her remaining faded eye looked around for us, but I guess she must have been too far gone to see us as we stood frozen to the ground.

  Devi weaved back and forth for a moment or two more, then shuffled back inside the house leaving the door a little further open. Just inside the entranceway, I could see the vague outlines of two more bodies that must have been Nicky’s parents. They were either too badly eaten to come back or lacked enough bone and muscle to move around.

  Nicky cocked the pistol in her hand and gently pushed past me. I didn’t stop her as she walked into the house. I motioned for the others to get back in the truck. Tony and Greer climbed in as I moved towards the front door on the house ready to run in if Nicky needed me. I stood there in the eerie silence of the neighborhood as it stretched out. I started moving towards to front door, heart racing, seeing in my mind’s eye more dead inside than just Nicky’s family surrounding Nicky and…then heard the first shot ring out, startlingly loud and harsh in the quiet air followed by a few seconds of silence and two more shots in quick succession.

  I stopped before the stairs of the front door. I caught a glimpse of Nicky moving around inside, then disappear down a side hall. I waited for a few minutes then moved towards the door again.

  Nicky stepped out in front of me before I could get inside and pushed the door closed behind her. I let out my breath and wrapped my arms around her, “I’m so sorry.” I noticed she had changed and now wore a long sleeve, flannel shirt.

  She wrapped her arms around me, “I’m so sorry, Casey, I didn’t mean for it to happen…”

  “Shhh, shhh. You don’t need to apologize to me,” I said feeling her shake against me.

  “I just couldn’t leave them in there like that. I had to… I had to put them down.”