The Great Wreck (48 page)

The
screaming stopped after a few minutes as the dead sprinter hit a vein or an
artery or Pix just passed out form the pain and all I could hear was the thing
eating. I heard the recording click off and James come back on over the radio.

“I
told you the dead chick had eaten so much of Pix that she didn’t come back.
Well I lied,” he stated bluntly, “Here what really happened. I waited for about
thirty minutes for that weird dead chick to leave and Pix to get up and start
shuffling around. She still looked real good. A bit bloody, most of her neck
was gone and a bit of her stomach, but her tits and ass were just fine. And her
pretty face or course. So I snuck down real quiet like trying to get behind
her, But remember, she was newly dead and real feisty. She sprung on my like a
cat on a fish. On my god she was strong, but I was stronger and I got a pair of
cuffs on her, then pulled out some rope and hog tied that dead bitch up. You
know what I did next? I fucked her. I fucked her cunt ragged, man. Then I
fucked her up the ass just like you always wanted to. And let me tell you what
pussyboy, she fucked way better dead then she ever did alive. Now, I couldn’t
risk a blowjob for obvious reasons so I fucked her up the ass again. I swear I
had the everlasting gob stopper of erections. I went for hours, boy. Hours! And
I swear she loved every fucking second of it.

“What
do you think of that? I fucked your little friend alive, raped her so many
times I lost count, fucked her again, killed her, and raped her again! Party
time! All the while you stood by and did nothing. And let me tell you this; she
liked getting raped by me better than she liked you. After I’d fuck her, we’d
laugh about you and your silly little dick. She hated you boy. Hated you. She
wanted to feed
you
to the dead chick!
Yes! She wanted me to fuck her while we watched the dead chick eat you. Think
about it! That’s what gave me the idea in the first place. La de da! I want you
to keep that little nugget in the forefront of your mind until I find you. Then
we can talk some more. Bye, bye now!”
  

Greer
came back on a minute later as I cried for Pix who was still trapped inside
that god awful warehouse shuffling in circles trapped for all time, “My god
Thomas, I’m so sorry. We’ll get him, I swear we’ll get him.”

James
popped in one last time before going silent, “Doubt it.” He said quite
cheerfully and then he was gone.

An
hour later another Sandia broadcast came on the air, “To those of you who are
receiving this broadcast in the Albuquerque valley area, Sandia Station will be
initiating fire station sirens all across the valley in an attempt to draw the
dead away from our outer fences. Sirens will be turned on in the next ten
minutes and will continue until the threat has abated.”

I
thought that was smart. Use the sirens to lure the dead away from the fences
towards the various fire stations around the valley. The dead would be drawn to
the sound and flock to the stations…oh fuck, I thought as I rolled on my back
and looked at the array of sirens twenty feet about my head. Every fucked dead
stiff within ten miles would be converging on this spot. I had less than ten
minutes.

I
quickly broke down my hiding spot and crammed my gear into my back. I glanced
at my watch: five minutes. I looked over the sides of the fire station. A lot
of dead in all directions but
 
I saw a
relatively clear path that lead to a tall bank a few blocks away. If I could
make it there, I could rush the steps and try to get to the roof. I couldn’t
think of a better plan and then I remembered the claymores. If I could make it
to the stairwell inside bank, I could plant these along the walls as I ran up
and blow up the pursuing dead and destroy the stairs behind me. I had nothing
else and only three minutes to get away from the fire station. No time to go
over the side and carefully climb down, so I unslung my machinegun, kicked in
the rooftop door, and raced down the stairs to the ground floor as fast as I
could.

But
when I kicked open the door I was face to face with so many dead that they
packed the stairwell.
 
Oh, god, the
station was crammed full with dead probably from the times before where Sandia
had turned on the sirens. I nearly chocked as the stench hit my like a warm
cloud of decay.

I
opened up and cut down the dead, then began running over their fallen bodies.
The sound the machine gun made in the enclosed space of the stairwell was
incredible and I knew that the dead all around the fire station were going to
start closing in but I had no choice so I continued making my way down to the
second floor landing, then the first, sliding over the dead in a cloud of rot,
reek, and squishing trying not to fall, knowing that if I fell it was all over.
Above the racket of the machines gun, I heard the siren come on.

Oh,
fuck.

I
pressed the trigger and kept a steady stream of bullets flying until I reached
the ground floor. I burst out of the fire station onto the street and just
started running. I knew the dead were closing in from all sides now and with
them would be more than a few of the Sprinters and sure enough, a small pack of
them rounded the corner and headed right towards me.

I
was surrounded by walkers but the nearest one was still a few feet away, so I
crouched down on one knee and picked off each of the Sprinters as they closed
in on me. I took down the last one as it lunged and landed on me. I quickly
rolled to the side, got to my feet , and ran gain towards the bank’s shattered
glass doors.

I
knew it too would be full of the dead all shuffling towards the stairs to head
down to the fire station but there was nowhere else I could go so into the bank
I went as the small gaps that had been around me closed up into a solid wall of
dead. No running back now, I shouldered my way through the bank doors and burst
towards the stairwell that would take me to the roof.

I
bolted up the stairs and stopped for a split second to stick my first claymore
to the wall and hit the activation button, then raced up to the next floor. I
could hear the dead pouring in after me and hoped I could put enough distance
between me and the claymore before it went off. I had just enough time to plant
another one at the stairwell entrance to the second floor when the first one
went off.

I
thought the whole building was going to collapse. The explosion was so strong
it knocked me to the floor but the building held and I scrambled to my feet and
ran to the third floor, planted another claymore, then raced to the fourth.
There the dead that had been inside the building stood waiting for me. I didn’t
hesitate and opened up on them.

More
dead were rushing in from the lower floors and the next wave hit the second
claymore sending me to my knees and a handful of dead above me tumbling down
the stairs. I got back to my feet, pushed off a few dead trying to take a quick
bite out of me and ran to the fifth floor. With only two more floors to go now,
I set a few claymores down on the wall behind me when the blasts from the lower
level claymores finally took the stairs down for good. I watched the dead from
the lower floors flood into the now stairless stairwell and plummet into the
smoke and flames below. Hooray!

I
watched the stairs above those claymores began collapsing as well. Yay! Take
‘em all down, bitch! My joy at sending the hordes of dead down the smoky ruins
of the stairwell lasted exactly on microsecond as I spotted a potential problem.
The problem of me still standing on the stairs that were now collapsing out
from under me. Socorro all over again!

I
could see what remained of the first floor stairs buckle and begin to pull the
second floor stairs down with them. I turned around and ran. The slow process
accelerated as I ran the last two flights of stairs up to the roof clearing the
door just and the whole of the stairwell collapsed. I lay on the rooftop
panting, listening to the sirens and the dead in the streets below screaming as
they tried to cram into the fire station.

Then
I heard another sound that got me back on my feet and running again: there was
another door to the roof top and a whole truckload of dead were now pounding on
it trying to reach me. A second later the door burst outwards and here they
came. I looked around as I squeezed off a few shots dropping the first few dead
and clogging up the doorway giving me a few more seconds to find a way out. I
spotted a ladder built into the dome of the bank’s roof. I bolted towards it
and scrambled up as the dead poured out the other rooftop access door and
towards me. At the top of the dome there was a large radio tower and a
maintenance platform enclosed by small wall that I scrambled over and lay there
panting listening to see if the dead could climb up the ladder after me.

After
ten minutes, I peeked over the wall and saw the thirty or so dead wandering
around the roof, none of them trying to get up the ladder on the side of the
dome to get me. Some had in fact already had begun moving back towards the door
to get down or had walked off the edge of the building following the sound of
the siren on the fire station down the street.

I
collapsed and lay there until, an hour later, the siren stopped. Sometime after
that I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up, it was late in the day.
I had reached the rooftop in the morning and now the sun was low on the
horizon. The dead were still thick in the streets and I figured I was going to
be here awhile so I began my routine of setting up my camouflage netting and
small camp.

I
knew James was still out there and he was good enough at dodging the dead he
might be able to find me so I pulled out a hacksaw and climbed down to the
rooftop of the bank. I crept over towards the open door and peaked inside. The
first flight was clear but down on the sixth floor the dead were packed into
the stairwell. I crept slowly down to the bottom of the first flight, placed a
claymore at the base of the steps, then crept back up to the rooftop. I placed
another claymore at the foot of the door, then quietly closed the door and
chained it shut. I made my way back to the ladder that ran to my camp and began
sawing each rung off as I made my way up.
 
I wasn’t going to be getting up and down from my perch again. The next
time I was going down would be for good so I saw no need to have a ladder that
James could use to climb up and get to me as I slept.

I
probably should not have worried. The dead had crammed into the streets around
the fire station so James couldn’t have made it to me without being caught. But
James wasn’t human, James was a demon that could slip through the dead and
reach me any old time he wanted. But without the rungs on the side of the dome,
I doubted even James could scale up the steep sides of the dome.

But
fear does not know logic and ignores that cool reason of facts so once I
crawled back under the camouflage netting I began to scan the surroundings
looking for that sole figure sneaking his way towards me. I watched until the
sun fell under the horizon then pulled out my night goggles, switched over to
infrared, and continued watching for his approach until I fell asleep sometime
after midnight.

I
woke when the sun cleared the mountains to the east. I ate a small breakfast
and sipped my water knowing it was all I had until the dead cleared out. I had
maybe three days of water with me, then it was going to be tough going.

At
0800 on the nose, Sandia began broadcasting again but this time without the
normal standard messages. This time it was Greer and the message was for him.
“Thomas, this is Greer. Please don’t respond. We know James is tracking you.
I’m so sorry. We never should have let him go, but he was alive and…well, we’re
sorry and we’ll do everything we can to help bring you in.

Let
him go?

“Listen
carefully. We believe the James is still in the museum safe house. The dead
over there are especially heavy and we don’t think he could have gotten out of
the plane and if he did venture outside he would have surely been caught. We’ve
kept watch on it day and night since his last transmission. We’ve also done
everything we can to jam his radio signal so he can’t hear us or track you but
we don’t know if it is entirely effective so listen carefully because this will
be quick.

“We
see where you are and we cannot reach you. Our helicopter can’t get close
enough to lower you a line. We know you’re running low on water so it’s time
for you to come in Thomas. Do you hear me? You must come in. Our spotters have
seen a large break in the dead heading your direction in about two hours. You
must be ready to go when that break hits. It will be your last chance for the
next week or more.

“Head
north to the Balloon Fiesta park. We’ll be waiting there for you Thomas. Good
luck.”

I
looked to the south hand saw the large area clear of the dead that Greer talked
about. I quickly broke down my camp and packed my gear. I found the Balloon
Fiesta park on a map, then found it with my binoculars. It was less than two
miles away. I could make it in twenty minutes.

So
I waited, scanning the horizon looking for James, waiting for the break. It
came around ten. By then I was already at the door to the stairwell. I had
unlocked the door, deactivated the two claymores and made my way back up to the
roof careful to chain the door closed again.

There
was no way I could make it down the stairs, there were just too many of the
dead clogging each and every level. So I pulled out a rope and looked for a
place to tie off to.

I
found a sturdy metal bar, tied my line to it, then to myself and slipped over
the edge of the building wall. Below me a few stragglers drifted north, so I
quickly slid to the sixth floor window beneath me, then looked around again.
None of the dead had seen me so I slipped down to the fifth floor. Again, no
dead converging on me so I decided to go all the way to the ground.