The Great Wreck (21 page)

           
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 yelled 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.