I felt the front tires bump against the curb then had to push harder to get the truck up the asphalt of the gas station. I saw the first pump roll by my right, then felt the truck stop as Greer put on the breaks.
“If the pumps don’t work, we’ll have to run back to the house,” Tony said. We all nodded as Greer jumped out of the truck and ran inside the gas station. I stood up and looked around feeling the adrenaline pumping into my body. The dead were so close. We had maybe two or three minutes before the approaching wall of dead reached us. We’d have that much time to get what gas we could and hope it would be enough.
I popped open the tank and put the gas nozzle in watching the dead slowly shuffling down the street while Tony grabbed his rifle and kept watch. I saw Greer wave from inside the gas station. I pushed the regular gas button and watched as the display said “begin fueling.” I let out a huge breath and squeezed the handle. As the gas began to flow, I looked up and knew we had run out of time.
The first of the dead stepped off of the street and into the parking lot of the gas station. Tony and I looked at each other as Greer ran over from the register, “Do we have enough?” She asked looking at the dead walking towards us. Any second one of those things was going to notice us and the gig would be up.
Tony looked at me and I shook my head, “No way we got enough. We need at least a quarter of a tank.”
“I could run. Distract them,” Greer said, “They’d come after me, you’d get enough gas, then pick me up. What do you think?”
“Tony? We’ve got to decide now,” I replied.
“Do it,” he said and gave Greer a quick kiss, “We’ll get to you as fast as we can.”
Greer gave me a hug and started running to the north and east. Nicky flew out of the truck, “What is she doing?”
“Creating a distraction. We need to get a quarter of a tank and those things are getting too close.”
I knew Nicky wanted to yell and scream at us, call us assholes and jerks for sending a little girl to her death and were we out of our minds but the dead were closing in and this seemed like the only way so she just got back into the truck and shut the door.
At the corner of the intersection we had just pushed the truck through Greer began to jump up and down screaming, “Hey mother fuckers! Freeeeeee lunch! Come and get it! Jailbait special all day, every day!” and then started running east along the street as fast as her feet could carry her.
The dead spotted her instantly and began working themselves up to a run chasing after her and moving away from us. I was both relieved and terrified for Greer. The gas pump showed that we had six gallons. A few more and we’d be good to…
“Aiiiiiieeeeeeeghhaaaa!” The scream of one of the aggressive dead split the air to our left, down the west end of the street. I saw Greer quickly look back over her shoulder, her eyes filled with fear, and put on a burst of speed. The dead flowing by us a mere handful of yards away seemed to pick up speed. Tony unshouldered his rifle and looked to the west towards the sound of the scream. As he did, the sprinter came racing down the street headed for Greer.
Tony sighted on it and was getting ready to pull the trigger when Nicky leaned out the window, “Tony! If you shoot that thing the dead are going to come at us! We can run it over after we fill up!”
I could see Tony hesitate but in that moment, the sprinter had joined the masses of dead running after Greer. I looked at the meter; eight gallons. Good god could this thing go any slower? But just then our time ran out. From the north another of those hate filled screams of rage filled the air and another sprinter came running down the street directly towards us. I threw the gas nozzle on the ground and closed the tank as Tony whirled and aimed at the thing as it zeroed in on us and sprinted directly for the truck. Nicky screamed as it launched itself towards Tony who stood calmly and blew its forehead off with three quick shots. The sprinter collapsed to the ground, blackish blood oozing out onto the asphalt. But the gig was up. All the other nearby dead turned towards the sound of the rifle and saw that a meal was close by and began running towards us.
We jumped into the truck locking the doors as the first dead hit the sides and began rocking us back and forth. I turned the ignition and the truck roared to life. I dropped it into reverse and peeled away from the rushing dead and out on the street. I could see the sprinter closing in on Greer as she continued to run down the street. I gunned it and quickly over took the wave of dead. I didn’t hesitate or slow down, I just plowed through them knocking them off to the side as I drove down the middle of the crowd. Thank god that the truck was high off the ground and kept the majority of them from flying up over the hood. But every so often one would manage to get airborne and land on out windshield. The first one rolled quickly off but the second one smashed Tony’s side of the windshield almost caving it in. We all screamed as I jerked the wheel to the right sending it flying off again but up ahead Greer was losing ground.
We surged through the crowd of dead looking for the sprinter, “Where’s the fucking sprinter!?”
“There! There!” Tony screamed, “On the right! My god it’s almost on top of her!”
The sprinter had broken free from the crowds and was now zeroing
“You’ve got to hit it, Casey!” Tony yelled.
“Run it down, Casey! Run it down!” Nicky screamed from behind me.
Ahead of us I could see Greer turn as the sprinter rushed towards her. I could see her eyes widen in terror as her body turned around to face the thing, her arms go up as she prepared to defend herself, her mouth open as she began to scream. I stepped all the way down on the gas breaking free from the crowd of dead, surging though them and bearing down on the sprinter. I saw the thing crouch and prepare to leap just as my front bumper caught it in the small of the back as it leapt.
The thing screamed as it spun up over the hood and roof flying backwards over the truck and into the crowd of oncoming dead. Ahead of me Greer had stumbled to a stop and looked on in frozen fear as the truck with Tony, I and Nicky bore down on her.
“STOP!!” Tony and Nicky yelled as I jammed on the breaks as jerked the wheel to the right skidding to a halt less than a foot in front of Greer.
Nicky threw the door open and screamed, “Get in! Get in!” as the dead behind us slammed into the other side of the truck rocking us up and nearly off our tires. Greer jumped in as the dead swarmed over the roof and around the sides slamming the doors before their reaching hands could get inside.
“Go, go, GO!!!” they all screamed as the dead swarmed around the truck
I hit the gas and spun the wheel around smashing through two abandoned cars noticing one that rolled over was a Smart Car.
Mother fucker.
I yanked the wheel back to the right as a store front loomed up in front of us and for a second it looked like we were going to drive right into it. I turned back to the left knocking a few dead flying as we fishtailed violently back and forth until I could get the truck back on the road. We brooked free from the dead and flew down the nearly clear street as we all caught our breath, the dead receding in the rear view mirror.
Greer flopped her head back on the seat and asked, “Did we get enough gas?”
I looked at the gas gauge, then at Tony. It read just below a quarter of a tank, “I think we got enough.”
“Ok,” Tony said, “We’re going to follow this road…”
“Jesus Christ!” I said as from all the roads on our right thousands of dead spilled out racing north and pouring out on the streets and alleys.
“For god’s sake, Casey don’t stop!” Nicky yelled from behind me as the dead swarmed around us. I plowed through the bodies smashing them to the side as more filled every open space around us.
“What the fuck is happening?!” Greer screamed as I tried to control the truck, to keep from either running off the road or smashing into the many, now hidden, cars and trucks abandoned along the street.
“Stick to the middle Casey and…WATCH OUT!” Tony y
elled pointing to a large garbage truck that had been abandoned in the middle of the street.
We swerved violently around the truck as more dead swarmed up from the south. They were everywhere and more and more poured into the roads and side streets.
“We can’t stay on this road Tony! Which way?!” I yelled knowing that any second we were going to run into something bigger and heavier than the truck or one of these dead were going to come crashing through the windshield and into our laps.
“Up ahead! The freeway! Take the onramp!” Tony shouted pointing to the onramp coming up on my left. The freeway would be a mess. It would be clogged with car wrecks, but it had to be better than being on the side streets with the flood of dead everywhere.
I gunned it smashing through bodies like bowling pins. I drove up onto the sidewalk to avoid a large wreck blocking most of the street rolling into another large crowd of screaming dead praying none flew up on the hood and that we didn’t hit something that the truck couldn’t get over. The truck began to bounce up and down as we ran over the dead bodies, planters, and an amazing array of debris that had been piled up in the streets. I heard the grinding of metal tear along the bottom of the trucks with as we ran over something more solid than bodies. Maybe a curb or maybe a bike. I couldn’t tell as we drove off the road onto the sidewalk and then back again. If this kept up, I was going to lose control of the old girl.
We broke through an opening and I pushed it as hard as I could to get to the ramp before we were swamped again and the next thing we knew, we were up on the highway’s southbound lane heading north.
“OK, slow down, slow down old hoss,” Tony said putting his hand on my arm.
I let out my breath and loosened my death grip on the wheel and let off the gas slowing down and looking at the road ahead. We had gotten up on the wrong side of the freeway so all the cars that were there were point back at us but I could see no major wrecks and only a handful of the dead. They were all moving north as well. Tony had pulled out the map and was looking for our exit, “Exit 234,” he said. We couldn’t see the exit number on our side so Greer and Nicky watched across the highway to the northbound side.
“There! It’s coming up Casey!” Greer said. I weaved in and out of another set of wrecks, then got off the freeway and onto Tramway Drive. At the bottom of the ramps I saw to the left and far behind us the dead were still streaming north and would catch up to us soon. The road to our right looked clear all the way up to the base of Sandia Mountain where the tram station was located. I pulled onto Tramway boulevard and head towards the mountains.
We drove under the freeway and past a huge casino. I saw another gas station but drove by it thinking we had enough fuel to make it and, most likely, the power would be out anyways. A few miles later I found out just how wrong I was.
We drove past the casino, past a few restaurants and then into another wealthy suburb. I could see the streets there were mostly empty but I did spot a few dead standing on balconies or drifting around the dead and dying yards. We reached the entrance to Sandia Park and the low fuel light came on.
“What the fuck?” I said out loud looking at the gas gauge. There was no way we could have run out of fuel that fast.
“What’s the problem?” Tony said looking over at the dashboard.
“We’re out of fuel,” I replied as the truck sputtered and rolled to a stop. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the wave of dead was beginning to pour out of the streets behind us.
“No way, man. I saw the gauge when we were on the freeway. We still had almost a quarter of a tank.”
I hopped out of the truck and bent down, remembering the tearing metal sound of something we ran over after we had picked up Greer, “Oh, fuck,” I said looking underneath the truck. I could see the last dribbles of fuel run out of a torn fuel line, “We’re going to have to make it on foot,” I said. A half mile behind us I could hear sprinters screaming. When they got close enough, they’d see us and it all be over.
“We can make it!” Greer said getting out of the truck. Nicky climbed out behind her. Looking at her in the bright daylight, she looked sick, pale and drawn with deep circles under her eyes. I knew we were all tired but she look sick. Really sick.
“It’s only a quarter of a mile. Maybe a little more, but we can make it,” Greer said grabbing her guns.
Tony did the same, “It’s not like we have a choice. Let’s go!” He and Greer started jogging towards the tram station. I grabbed two pistols and threw the rifle across my back.
“Nicky, are you ready?” I asked. Nicky had just leaned against the truck. She looked up at me with a small, sad smile.
“I’m not going with you, Casey.”
“What do you mean you’re not going with me? It’s just up ahead! We can make it!” I said feeling a chasm of terror open up in my chest.
“I mean, I’m not going to make it and you have to go on now,” she replied. Her hands drifted up to the neck of her shirt as I stepped closer, planning on carrying her to the tram if I had to. She undid the top few button of her shirt as I stepped near her and showed me what she had.
I could see a clear set of bite marks just under her collarbone, a small imprint as though made by a child, “What…? What happened? How did this happen?” I said feeling my world slip apart in front of me.”
“I’m so sorry, Casey. I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Nicky said starting to cry, “I couldn’t let them stay like that, I had to take care of them.” Them. Her parents. Her little sister.
All I could say was, “No….no….no,” in a weak whisper as I wrapped my arms around her and held her close.
“I went inside and Devi was there. She turned around and saw me. She didn’t run at me or anything, just stood there almost like she recognized me. And then she said, ‘Nicky? What happened to me?’ I swear Casey, she said that. And then she was gone. Her eye clouded over and she lunged at me. It happened so fast, I was still reeling from what she had said and before I could shoot her, she had bit me. I pushed her away and put her down but it was too late. I should have shot myself then and there but I couldn’t leave you, not without saying goodbye. I’m so sorry Casey, but now you have to go.”
“No! I won’t leave you! I’ll…I’ll…I’ll,” I stammered.
“There is nothing you can do for me except leave me a gun. I’ll buy you some more time and then, well, I’ll take care of things.”
I reeled in horror. Nicky wanted to use herself as bait and blow off her own head before the things could get at her. All I could do was shake my head and at that moment I seriously considered walking back towards the dead with her. We could end it all together and escape this nightmare for good.
Nicky knew me well enough to know what I was thinking, “No, I’m going to go by myself. You have to go now, Casey. Please, go now.”
I knew she was right and I gave her one last kiss, “I love you, Nicky.”
“I love you Casey,” she said. I turned from her and began running for the tram station. I could see up ahead that Casey and Greer had almost reached the gate. I should have given them the key so that they could have gotten in and got the generator started but I still had it in my pocket.
Behind me Nicky had cocked her gun and had begun walking towards the waves of dead pouring in behind us. I tried not to think about what was happening behind me as I pushed as fast as I could towards the tram station. I tried not to think of Nicky walking towards the wall of dead, the sprinters seeing her and screaming, the wave of dead running towards her as she held the gun to her head…
Bang! I stumbled to a top and turned around. I could see Nicky crumbled on the asphalt, the dead rushing onto her prone body…I turned and ran on. Geer and Tony had reached the gate and were looking back, horror etched on their faces as they saw the dead swarm over Nicky’s body.
I reached them a second later, “What happened?!” Greer cried as I fumbled to get the gate keys out of my pocket.
“She was bit. At her parent�
�s house. She said we had to keep going,” I said the tears spilling down my face making it hard for me to see the lock. I finally gave up and handed the keys to Tony. He took them and unlocked the gate
Behind us, one of the sprinters had finished its eating, looked up and spotted us. It screamed as it bolted to its feet and began running towards us. We slammed the gate closed and Tony locked it. It wouldn’t hold. Not with that many dead running at it. But it would give us enough time to get the tram started and get up the mountain. We ran up the steep driveway. I didn’t think about Nicky, I just focused on running as hard as I could. I would get inside, get the generator started, and maybe, get on the tram with Tony and Greer.
We ran to the door. Tony had the keys out and quickly let us inside then locked the door behind us, “I’ll start the generator,” I said, “Greer, get to the gondola and be ready to move. Tony, hold them off until I get the generator running.”
We ran up the stairs and past the gift shop, then out onto the tram platform. Tony stopped at the door, checked to ensure his rifle was fully loaded then pointed back down the way we had just come while Greer ran to the tram, popped open the door, and sat in front of the control panel. I raced past the two tram gondolas and took the stairs down into the generator room.
I plunged into the semi lit stairwell. The light from the top of the gondola platform gave me just enough light to see by. At the door to the generator room, an emergency flashlight was attached to the wall. I grabbed it and turned it on.
Outside I could hear the dead had reached the gate. The sprinters where screaming as the masses of dead ran into the gate, rocking it back and forth. It wasn’t going to hold long. I opened the door of the generator room and moved quickly to the control panel. I wound up the solenoid battery, primed the diesel fuel pump, and hit the ignition switch. The generator turned over once, then twice and died. In the momentarily silence I heard the gate give way with a metallic screech as the dead poured into the tram station parking lot.
I wound the starter solenoid battery again, primed the diesel pump, at hit the ignition button again. The diesel turned over once, then twice, then coughed to life. The dead had reached the glass doors below. I heard them shatter as the sprinters raced in and headed for the stairs. For just a second, I stood there. I could wait for just a few minutes. Tony would be forced to get in the gondola as the dead poured up the stairs. They would escape up the mountain and the dead would find me here. The pain would be horrendous but it would be over in just a few short minutes. With so many dead, there wouldn’t be anything left of me to come back. Or I could follow Nicky’s footsteps and end it here myself. Tony would hear the gunshot and know what had happened. He and Greer could then leave this awful place behind and make some sort of life up on the mountain.
The Great Wreck Page 15
