Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode One (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 1) (2 page)

BOOK: Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode One (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 1)
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What the hell...

Three rapid knocks on his passenger door broke him out of his confusion.

 

 

 

Chapter Two

 

 

 

 

 

"Thank god, you're alive," the man said as Tyler opened his door. Blood crusted to his beard and eyebrows from a gash on his forehead that exposed some of his skull. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils dilated as he watched Tyler exit the truck.

"Are you OK?" Tyler asked, trying to get a better look at the cut on his head. It wasn't bleeding anymore, but he was definitely rattled. He needed to get to a hospital soon, otherwise the wound would get infected, and that wasn't a good spot for that.

"I think so." He rubbed his hand along his forehead, rubbing the gash with his palm.

"Easy there, let me clean that up for you." Trever reached into his truck and grabbed the first aid kit behind the driver's side seat. Safety regulations required one to be in any truck in use by his company, even if it was a rental. He'd been with the company for fifteen years and hadn't found a need for his kit. There'd been accidents on his job sites, but never one close enough to his truck for it to come of use. While it still hadn't seen use on a job, he was glad his constant replacement of expired kits had paid off when the first alcohol prep pad he opened was still moist.

The man let out a groan of pain as the pad touched the open wound. Tyler apologized, but knew it was for the best.

After cleaning the cut, he reached back into his truck and grabbed a gauze pad and placed it on his head, then pulled out an unwrapped Ace bandage he kept in the truck just for a case like this.

"You should walk up to the paramedics and get it looked at. Probably going to need stitches," Tyler said as he placed the clasp on the bandage, holding it in place.

"Nobody's up there," he said, rubbing his hand along the bandage.

"There's loads of emergency lights up there. Someone has to be there."

The man shook his head. "I checked there first. Figured Zack went there to get me some help."

"Zack?"

"Oh," the man said sheepishly. "He's a friend from work. He was the one driving the car."

"Is he..."

"I don't know. He's just gone. All I remember was seeing the flashing lights up ahead. He swerved to avoid hitting the stopped cars and took us into the ditch. The last thing I remember is the car flipping end over end."

Tyler's stomach sank just from hearing the story. "I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe another ambulance showed up and took him first."

The man shrugged. "Doubt it. The only blood in the car was mine." When he noticed Tyler's sideways glance, he continued. "We were both buckled in. My side of the car took most of the damage. His window shattered, but otherwise it was in decent shape. I think he just... left."

"And left you in the car with a gash on your head?"

He looked down at his feet. "We were out drinking. Celebrating a big contract we signed yesterday afternoon. He probably took off once the dust settled to avoid getting a ticket."

Tyler mulled it over, but id didn't add up. Getting in an accident and fleeing the scene with the car could get you out of trouble, but leaving the car and your friend behind as evidence wouldn't work no matter how hard you tried. If Zack got out of the car, he had to be out here somewhere. Probably trying to get help. But if he wasn't with the emergency personnel up ahead and they were also gone, Trevor didn't know where they could be.

"Have you seen anyone else out here?" Tyler asked as he remembered the white Mazda parked at his side.

"Just you," he said, then looked up at the man in the Smart Car, arms still waving furiously at the mess in front of him. "And him."

Tyler smiled, offered his hand, and introduced himself.

"Mark," the man said, shaking Tyler's hand. "Mark Zimmerman."

"Well, Mark. You need to see a doctor. If there's nobody up ahead, then I'll take you myself. There's a hospital on the way."

"I don't want to inconvenience you."

"No bother. Get in."

Once the pair buckled up, Trevor threw the truck into reverse and backed out. He felt it was odd being able to back up on the interstate like that, but figured the authorities might have traffic shut down behind them, to keep the road relatively clear for more emergency personnel. Then something Mark said occurred to him.

"What time were you driving through here before you had your accident?"

"Probably close to two in the morning. Wasn't paying attention to the time, but the last bar we were at shut down for the night a little after one." Mark stared out the window. "Place was empty by then anyway."

If Mark's accident happened around two in the morning and the other one was already there, why hadn't they cleaned it up yet? They had well over four hours by now, saying it happened at two. Of course, if there was a fatality they might have kept the road closed down awhile longer to give the police more time to investigate the scene. But if they did that, wouldn't they put a few units back ahead to move traffic another direction?

Then he thought about the line of traffic before the lights. If the accident happened hours ago, and they weren't diverting traffic, wouldn't there have been a longer line? And then, why was he able to back up and turn around without anyone in his way?

Even more odd was the lack of traffic heading in his direction. It almost seemed like he was in a dream, one where the only living occupants were Mark, him, and the crazy guy in the Smart Car.

While he drove, Tyler fiddled with the radio, trying desperately to find a station. Something was going on around here and nobody had bothered to say anything about it and it was freaking him out.

They reached the next overpass, drove up the ramp onto the highway and went down a side road toward the hospital. He decided against taking the service road as he figured it would be jammed up as bad as the highway, either with emergency vehicles or onlookers who stopped hoping to get a glimpse of death.

Much like the highways, the roadways here were clear, but there were signs of life as they occasionally passed people walking down the side of the road.

"Do you think it's odd every person we pass looks like they are searching for something?" Mark asked after the pair passed a sixth person walking along side of the road.

Tyler had noticed the people outside looked lost, but thought nothing of it believing they might have been looking for a dog or cat that got out while they slept. But now that Mark had pointed it out, it seemed odd those were the only people they saw instead of the normal joggers or walkers that were common this time of the morning.

Also weird was the complete lack of school traffic. It was pushing seven o'clock, and they had yet to pass a single school buss. On any other school day he would've passed a few by now. Not only that, but this was well into the morning rush hour and the roads were fairly clear.

They'd passed a few cars heading the other way, but there was nowhere near the amount of traffic that should've been on the streets this time of day. If he didn't know better, he'd swear today was a holiday. At least that way, the lack of people and traffic would make sense.

A few miles down the road that all changed.

"What is that?" Mark asked, pointing to the intersection ahead of them.

A mangled mass of seven wrecked vehicles filled the intersection, blocking the road from all four directions. Around the mess, people gathered to look at the scene, but nobody seemed to be moving in to help. Tyler pulled off into a nearby gas station parking lot and put the truck into park.

"Stay here. I'll make sure everyone is OK." Tyler hoped Mark would listen to him. If someone needed help, Mark was hardly in any condition to give him a hand. He didn't need to be bending over or lifting any more than was necessary until he got medical help. Tyler figured if someone here needed help, he could get someone standing around to give him a hand instead.

Tyler approached the intersection cautiously. Shattered glass and bits of metal and fiberglass littered the street and sidewalk from the numerous impacts. The humming of roughly running engines got louder as he got close. He looked at the onlookers with a hint of curiosity, wondering why not one of them had moved in to at least turn off the cars.

Thick black smoke poured out from under the hood of a mid-sized car that had smashed into the side of an SUV, smashing the front end of the car while pushing the door of the SUV a third of the way inside it. Two of the other cars smashed into this initial mess from the front and back as if none of them had been able to stop. The remaining three vehicles had plowed into the mess from the north and south.

Tyler glanced at the traffic lights, wondering if they were to blame. Yet, from what he could see, the lights were working normally.

He approached a woman who was holding her phone to the mess, either snapping a picture or taking video. The young blond woman lowered her jaw as she circled the scene, like she was trying to get every dent and scratch into her shot.

"Is everyone out?" Tyler asked, walking up to her side as she circled.

"I think so." She took her eyes off the phone long enough to acknowledge Tyler. "I mean, I didn't check, but I figured someone got them out a while ago."

Tyler looked confused. "When did this happen?"

"Sometime last night." She glared at him. "Didn't you hear the news?"

Tyler cracked a smile. "Not a fan."

She shook her head. "Me neither, but I'm glad I turned it on this morning. There have been wrecks like this all over town. Some reports say it's like this all over the United States. So many crashes that emergency services are having trouble keeping up."

"Seems weird. Did something happen in the sky last night to throw everyone off?"

"They aren't saying." She flicked the phone off and put it in her pocket. "But if you ask me, something happened to the people who owned these cars. Why else would they leave them here like this?"

But what?

Tyler left the question unanswered and went back to the car. As he walked he tried to work it over in his head. Twice now he'd come across to major accidents and both of them had been abandoned, saying what Mark told him about the other one was true. While he'd only spent a few weeks in Mobile, he doubted the practice was common. Leaving a highway or a major intersection blocked for a moment longer than necessary was a recipe for disaster. Especially when there are only a few paths to the south.

"What's going on out there?" Mark asked as Tyler got back into the truck.

"When you went to the accident scene on the highway, did you see anyone around?"

"Nobody. I checked the firetrucks, ambulances, and even the police cars and didn't find a soul."

"How about in any of the cars lined up in the traffic jam?"

"Just you and the guy in the car in front of you."

Tyler rubbed his chin as he thought about what he'd just heard. None of it made any sense. In what kind of world would so many people abandon their cars like that without a dangerous threat in the area?

"Tell me about the accident. Was there a tractor trailer involved?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Two of them. One of them jackknifed and was blocking most of the highway. The other one was hauling a chrome tanker though it was on its side."

"Spilling anything?"

Mark shook his head. "I didn't notice anything." He rubbed his head wound. "But I wasn't honestly looking that close."

Tyler understood. If he'd been in an accident and had a gash like that, he wouldn't have been worried about anything other than getting the cut taken care of. Part of him wished he'd taken the time to check out the scene himself, but it was too late for that. Maybe it had something to do with the evacuations on the highway, maybe it didn't. Unless he knew what was in the tanker, it would only be a guess.

"You think whatever happened on the highway happened here?" Mark asked, as Tyler pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, cutting through the surrounding parking lots to get through the mess of cars.

"Maybe. A woman back there told me there have been reports of accidents like this across the US. Maybe they haven't had time to clean some of them up."

He reached the back side of the CVS and turned around the corner, to get back on the road. As he passed a pair of dumpsters in the back, the passenger side window shattered as a brick flew in, hitting Mark on the side of his face.

Mark screamed out in agony as the bones in his cheeks shattered. Blood oozed from his mouth, dripping onto his shirt as he held his face.

Tyler slammed his foot on the gas pedal to get away, barely dodging another brick meant for his window.

A masked man jumped out from in front of the building, holding an aluminum baseball bat. Tyler swerved to his right to avoid crushing the man as he tried to escape the ambush. As he did, the rear passenger tire blew as it rubbed against the curb, sending the truck into a spin.

The last thing Tyler remembered was seeing the telephone pole in his way before something hit him in the head and his world turned dark.

 

 

Chapter Three

 

 

 

 

 

"Mister?"

Tyler felt someone poking something into his shoulder, waking him up. He opened his eyes to see a boy who couldn't be a day over sixteen standing in front of him holding a wooden broom handle. He caught the pole in his hand before the tip could poke into him again.

"I'm awake."

"Amazing," the kid marveled as he held the stick to his side. "I thought those guys killed you."

Tyler ran his hand across his head, noticing the softball sized knot just above his temple. Dried blood covered the knot an flaked off into his hand as it pressed over.

"What happened?"

"You were attacked. There were a group of guys hiding in the back of the pharmacy, waiting for someone to circle around the accident."

"My truck?" Tyler looked around, hoping to see it somewhere close. The blown tire in the middle of the road was the only sign it had been in the area.

BOOK: Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode One (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 1)
11.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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