The Great Wreck

by Stewart, Jack

  “I know, I know,” I said, “But we need to get moving now before more come.”

  Nicky just nodded as I lead her to the truck. As we climbed in I could see a few figures drifting out of the surrounding houses and into the street around us. Nicky’s shots had attracted attention and it was time for us to go.

  We slowly drove away before any of the dead spotted us and headed towards Tony’s house. We kept to the outskirts of town avoiding the major roads and highways until we reached Tony’s house. Tony’s folks lived in another wealthy part of Albuquerque but much closer to the middle class and poorer parts than Nicky’s parents so as we got closer to his place, the chaos and destruction that had swept the city after we had left became more evident; burnt out buildings, abandoned and wrecked vehicles, parts of bodies, and, of course, the dead were everywhere.

  “We’re going to need to get off the streets, Casey. Turn left here,” Tony said as we stopped again to avoid a large gathering of dead. Running into the dead became more frequent. Some of them were scattered around, others grouping together, and some that were so many, like the ones down the street from us now, that we had to back up and find another way around. This was the fourth time we’d had to take a different route. Since we had left Nicky’s house, we’d come across more and more of these huge groups of the dead massed together forming a solid wall of bodies with no way through.

  The sun was getting lower in the sky behind us and we had to get to Tony’s or find another place to stay. I turned left and cruised down a back alley free of the dead. Tony pointed up ahead to another street and said, “Left, then right.”

  “Are you sure you know where you’re going?” I asked. I had completely lost my bearing.

  I had grown up in Albuquerque but with all the destruction, nothing looked the same but Tony seemed to know what he was doing and just nodded and replied, “Right here. Go up a few more blocks, then turn left again. That should get us there.”

  We passed through poor neighborhood, a large warehouse district, past middle class houses, then finally, back into the rich suburbs, “Here we are,” Tony said pointing to his house. His house was surrounded by a high, cinderblock wall with the driveway blocked by a heavy steel gate. Tony jumped out of the truck and unlocked the gate, swinging it wide to let us drive in.

  We pulled into the driveway and I shut off the engine as Tony closed the gate and locked it back up. The low fuel light had come on some time ago and for the past half hour I kept expecting the engine to sputter and die leaving us stranded in the middle of some burned out neighborhood with the dead wandering around just waiting to bump into us.

  It didn’t matter what we found inside, we were going to have to stay. We had almost no gas and the sun was going down. The only thing worse than running out of gas was running out of gas in complete darkness.

  We stepped out of the truck and looked around. A few dead drifted about down the street and towards the south, I could see a large group of dead blocking off the road. That must have been the group we had detoured around. Christ! There must have been thousands of them. We quickly followed Tony to his front door and while he got out his key, I looked around at the windows. Tony’s parents were rich but they didn’t show it off as much as Nicky’s folks did. The house was a small ranch they had had been built in the fifties with a large yard surrounded by a high cinderblock wall. When the surrounding areas declined and break-ins became a problem, Tony tried to get them to move up to Sana Fe or at least move out to the west side of town, but like Tony, his parents were stubborn. Instead of moving, they had installed bars in the widows as the surrounding neighborhood declined, put a solid gate up at the end of the driveway, and hunkered down.

  Greer locked the gate at the end of the driveway as Tony opened up the door. We all crowded in and I closed and locked the door behind us, “Mom? Dad? Anyone home?” Tony called out as we all nervously fingered our guns. Silence filled the house.

  Tony walked into the kitchen and grabbed a flashlight. He covered the end with his hands and we began searching the house sticking close together. We searched the bedrooms, the bathroom, and the upstairs and found nothing. All the windows were intact and closed, as well as the doors. Tony looked out the back windows into the yard and found it as empty as the house.

  “Tony,” Greer called out form the kitchen when we had finished checking the house, “Look.” She held in her hand a piece of paper that had been pinned to the refrigerator. Tony took the note and read it.

  Dear Tony,

  Things in the city have gotten too bad for us to stay. The people on the television say that the government in going to ban travel soon so we are heading to your Uncle Bill’s cabin up in Taos. We got your message and are so relieved you made it out of town. We don’t think we can make it to Mount Taylor so we decided to head north instead. If you are reading this message, things must have calmed down and we’ll be home soon. We love you and stay safe. Love, Mom and Dad.

  I patted Tony on the shoulder and he set the note down, “They got out, old man. I’m sure they’re safe.” Tony just nodded and sat down at the kitchen table. Greer sat next to him and took his hand while Nicky sat on the couch in the living room and stared out the window. I walked to the front of the house and looked out from between the curtains as the sun slipped below the horizon. There seemed to be more dead in the streets now and a few even bumped up against the gate in front of the house.

  After a while of watching the street, I sat in a chair across from the couch where Nicky had stretched out and had fallen asleep. I was glad that she was out for a while. Tony and Greer had talked at the table in low voices then finally got up together, “We’re going to get some rest in the back bedroom. You guys can take the spare bedroom across the hall from us. There’s probably not any power but I wouldn’t turn on any lights anyway since it might attract attention.”

  “I’m going to stay here with Nicky and keep watch for a while. If she wakes up, we’ll move to the bedroom. And I’ll keep the lights off,” I replied as Tony handed me the flashlight. He and Greer disappeared down the hallway as I turned the chair to watch out the front window. The bars gave me a false sense of security. I was sure if the dead figured out that we were here, they’d find a way to get in, bars or no.

  As the light faded I could see more and more of the dead drift into the streets. They must like the nightlife, I thought. Do they like to boogie, too?

  The events of the day wore me down until I drifted off to sleep in the chair with my rifle cradled in my arms. I must have slept for hours for when I woke up the room was completely black except for light shining in through the curtains coming in from the outside. I sat up straight feeling my pulse pounding. Something must have woken me up but the room was filled with silence. I looked over at the couch where Nicky had woken up as well and was sitting straight up on the edge of the seat. The pale light made her face look indistinct and faded, her eyes lost in shadows, her lips a thin straight line. Then a stream of figures passed between us and the light, “Jesus Christ!” I said and jumped up off the chair and looked out the window. A second later Tony and Greer came down the hall and looked from me to Nicky.

  “Did you guys here that?” Tony said holding Greer’s hand.

  “No, I was dead asleep, but those things are getting mighty rowdy out there,” I said as I watched more of the dead stream by, running towards something to the south of us, “Nicky?”

  Nicky just nodded her head and replied, “I heard it. One of those things screamed nearby.

  Tony moved to the window and peeked out the curtain, “Jesus, there’s a lot of them,” he said, “The streets are packed from one end to the other.”

  Then we all heard the scream that had awoken us, “God, that thing is close,” I said looking out the window. Doesn’t sound right, though.”

  “What do you mean ‘sound right?’ Do those things sound a certain way? Sopranos maybe?” I asked looking over at Tony.

  “No, not like that. Well, you
know. It doesn’t sound so pissed, infuriated like the others we….uh….heard,” he said glancing at Nicky. Nicky wasn’t listening though but was looking out the window, “It sounds like it’s searching.”

  “Do you think it knows were here?” Greer asked as she looked out the small peep hole in the front door.

  “I don’t think so. If it knew we were here. It’d be bearing down on us,” Tony said, “If those things figure out were here, they’ll get into the house bars or no.”

  We all watched out the front windows waiting to see if the dead were going to come swarming over the walls and start tearing off the bars and smashing down the door to the house. As I watched the dead running by the house it occurred to me that with the sun down and the power out, I shouldn’t be able to see anything but instead I could see the whole street lit up for a few blocks. There was light coming from somewhere to the south. I peered out the window down the street and spotted the light source and said, “Tony, look. The lights are on down there.”

  Tony looked down the street to the south of us, “It’s a gas station,” he said, “If the lights are on that means that the pumps might have power to them and we could get gas.”

  Then the thing screamed again, and this time it was filled with all the rage and hatred we had heard before. Down the street we heard a woman scream in terror, then I saw two figures race across the empty parking lot of the gas station followed by a horde of dead coming from the west down the street. The thing nearby screamed again as it spotted the two fleeing people then shot down the street after them passing in front of Tony’s gate followed by hundreds of more of the dead. The two people quickly vanished out of sight but the flood of dead continued to race by the house in pursuit. That went on for nearly fifteen minutes before the stream of dead slowed down, then tapered off until only a few stragglers trotted by. After a full thirty minutes, the street finally emptied out of all but a few drifters that had returned to their wandering around.

  “My god. There are so many of them,” Tony said closing the curtains, “We’ll see how the streets are in the morning then try the gas station and head for the tram,” then he and Greer went back to bed.

  “You want to stay out here? We can go to the spare bedroom,” I asked Nicky.

  “Let’s just stay here,” she said and lay back down on the couch, “I don’t think I’m going to get much sleep tonight anyway.” I agreed and sat back down on the chair. I dosed off and on through the night. When I’d wake up, I’d check on Nicky then look out the window. Sometimes there’d just be a few dead walking up and down the street, other times there’d be a whole parade of them, and sometimes a flood racing in one direction or the other. Sometime around four I heard another one of the Sprinters close by and when I looked out the window, my heart froze. It was standing at the gate, looking into the yard. I froze not wanting even to put the curtain back down for fear of attracting its attention. I couldn’t see its face backlit as it was by the light from the gas station, so it appeared only as a silhouette, a dark shape against a bright background. It weaved its head to the left and right as though trying to pick up our scent. It grabbed the iron bars of the gate and shook it a few times and seemed to be looking for a way over the fence. I held the rifle tightly and got ready to wake the others if it jumped over the fence.

  For a few tense moments it stood there by the gate as I stood by the widow watching it. Then suddenly, its head jerked to the left and it bolted down the street and away. I dropped the curtain and slumped back into the chair. This night was never going to end.

  * * *

  The night did end, however, as the light of dawn filtered into the house. Tony and Greer drifted in both looking like they hadn’t slept much either. Nicky got up off the couch and I stood up from the chair. We walked into the kitchen sat around the small table looking at the map of Albuquerque and eating stale cereal. We were all exhausted, emotionally burnt out, and physically beat to the bone. I looked at Nicky. She looked like hell. Even in the dim light of the kitchen she looked pale and draw, her eyes had dark circles under them like bruises.

  She saw me looking at her and smiled back, squeezing my hand before letting it go, “It’ll be, OK, Nicky. Tonight we’ll be far above all of this,” I said.

  She smiled at me and whispered, “I just want this to be over with.”

  “Soon, soon,” I replied. Nicky smiled weakly and nodded her head. Tony and I traced different routes to the tramway station, all of them bad with each one taking us deeper into the city suburbs. We mapped out the best route we could to get to the tram trying to avoid the areas of highest population density knowing that no matter what way we went, the dead would be there waiting.

  “What do you think, Casey? I’m thinking McMahon to Ellison drive. Ellison to Alameda, Alameda to 2nd street to Roy Avenue. Roy avenue becomes Tramway. We follow tramway up to the station. Yeah?”

  “All roads lead through hell. Seems like the best route,” I said picking at a can of tuna. Like Nicky, I was burnt out and just wanted this to be over.

  “If we leave now, the sun’s going to be in our eyes the entire way, Greer said, “It seems like the dead don’t like the daylight as much either. Might be fewer of them if we wait until noon. Maybe we could get a little sleep.”

  I agreed with Greer. With the sun up I somehow felt better about closing my eyes to sleep. Nicky and I retreated to the back bedroom while Greer and Tony slept on the couch and chair in the living room. Nicky crawled on the bed and fell asleep immediately. I crawled beside her and lay flat staying focused on the idea that tonight, one way or the other, it would be over. I drifted off into a light, dreamless doze opening my eyes what felt like every few minutes, looking at my watch, then dozing off again. It wasn’t the most restful sleep but it was better than what I had gotten last night and soon it was time to go.

  I got up off the bed and pulled my boots on. I shook Nicky who slowly sat up on the edge of the bed and looked at me over her shoulder, “Time to leave?”

  “Yes,” I replied. I kissed her on the top of the head and walked out of the bedroom. In the living room Tony and Greer were just waking up. We all gathered back in the kitchen, drank water out of the few plastic bottles Tony’s folks had in the cabinets, then began checking our weapons. Nicky joined us a few minutes later and sat next to me. I finished loading a pistol and handed it to her. She took it without a word and slipped it into the waistband of her pants. And then it was time to go.

  “Ready?” I asked. Greer, Tony, and Nicky all nodded and we got up and headed for the door. I peered out the front window looking down the driveway and out the front gate, “All clear,” I said as Tony unlocked and opened the front door. We quickly filed out and made our way to the truck. I unlocked the door and got in with Greer and Nicky as Tony jogged to the front gate. I could see him looking up and down the street before unlocking the gate and swinging it open. I started the truck up, put her in reverse, quietly backed out of the driveway. Once out into the street, I could see that up ahead of us were a few dozen dead a block or so away. Behind us, more of the dead drifting randomly in the yards and streets of the houses. Tony quickly closed and locked the gate, then jumped into the truck.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  I put the truck into drive, eased on the gas and…the engine died, “Oh, fuck,” I said turning the key. The truck sputtered once, then twice, and died, “I think we’re out of gas.” A few hundred feet to my left one of the dead drifted out of an ally and started looking around.

  “Fuck! What do we do?” Greer said leaning up into the front seat.

  “Go back into Tony’s house, take the gas cans, get them filled, and bring them back?” I said looking at Greer, then at Tony.

  “I don’t think we have time for that,” Tony replied pointing down the street. The dozens of dead down there were slowly drifting our way.

  “Push the truck,” Nicky said from the back. We all turned and looked at her, “Push the truck to the gas station. It’s only a
block and the dead around here seem pretty far gone to notice us.”

  Tony looked at me and Greer then said, “We’ll have to do it now. We might be able to get the truck to the station before the few drifters notice us but once the crowd gets here, one of them is bound to notice three meat sticks pushing the truck down the street.”

  “Let’s go. Geer, you’ll need to steer while the rest of us push,” Nicky said. We all jumped out of the truck while Greer climbed up into the driver’s seat. Nicky, Tony, and I got behind the old girl and began pushing. Slowly, so slowly the truck began to roll forward. Once again I was reminded of the Smart Car in the parking lot of the mountain and wondered if that guy had the right idea.

  We started picking up a little speed as we pushed the truck down the street. To my right I could see two dead people standing in the yard of a house. One was looking intently at the front door while the other seemed to be staring at the rapidly dying grass. It looked up at us as we rolled by with a confused look on its face. I focused on pushing the truck. If it came after us, I’d deal with it then. We passed by it quickly and when I looked back, it had returned to looking at the grass beneath its feet.

  We passed the first intersection letting me know we had only a few hundred more feet to go. So far so good. As we went through the intersection, I looked down the street towards the west and saw a large horde of dead moving north. I decided not to tell the others when Tony whispered from my left, “Look at that fucking mob!” Nicky turned her head and looked and let out a small sob.

  “Just keep pushing,” I whispered, “We’re almost there.” I caught a glance of the other side of the intersection past Tony’s shoulder and saw more dead. These also seemed to be heading north. I looked around the end of the truck to see what the dead were doing ahead of us. The gas station was only a few yards away now but the dead, maybe a quarter mile away, were moving more quickly in our direction. It was going to be close.