Blaire Gavin is the pilot of one of the fighting airships D-17 that make up the core of the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. It is a job that suits him well. Before piloting a blimp advertising the Fujifilm.
"It stretching to the horizon, sedans, trucks, buses, trailers, anything that might lead. I saw tractors, a cement mixer. Seriously, I even saw a plate with a huge sign above, a notice of a "Gentlemen's Club." A lot of people were sitting on it. People were mounted on anything they could, on rooftops, in the baggage compartments. It reminded me of old photographs of trains in India, with all those people hanging from them like monkeys.
was a lot of garbage on the side of the road, suitcases, boxes, and even pieces of expensive furniture. There was a grand piano lying there, seriously, shattered as if they had launched from the back of a truck. There were also many abandoned vehicles. Some had been swept off the road, others had been robbed, some were burned. I saw many people going to walk across fields or along the road. Some were knocking on car windows, offering all sorts of things. Some women were offered to drivers, no doubt trying to get something in return, perhaps gasoline. Surely they were not trying to take them away, because walking is moving faster than cars. No sense, but ... [shudders].
A little further back, to thirty miles, traffic was moving a little better. You'd think people would be more peaceful. But no. Everyone was making signs with lights, crashing into cars that were in front, and leaving them to fight. I saw some people lying on the side of the road, moved very little or nothing at all. The people running past him, carrying things, carrying children, or just running, all in the same direction as cars. A few miles further back I saw the reason.
creatures moved like a swarm between cars. The drivers of the outer lanes trying to pass out of the way, leaving stuck in the mud, trapping the inside lanes. People could not open the doors to escape. The cars were too close to each other. I saw these things by reaching through the open windows, lifting people or getting them. Many drivers were caught without output, with the doors still closed, I assume, with key. The windows were up, made of tempered safety glass. The dead could not enter, but could not get out alive. I saw some people panic, trying to shoot through the windshield, destroying the only protection they had left. Stupid. Perhaps a few have been able to resist hours there, and even have had a chance to escape. But maybe they saw it was impossible, and that was the quickest way out. Cattle had a cage towed by a truck that was stuck in one of the inside lanes. Was shaking violently from side to the other. The horses were still carrying inside.
The swarm moved forward by between cars, breaking through literally bite through the ranks still, with all those poor devils who tried to escape. That's what impressed me most, because they went anywhere. They were on Interstate 80, a piece of road between Lincoln and North Platte. Both sites were completely infested, and all the people that were in the middle. What they thought they were doing? Who had organized this exodus? "In fact, someone had arranged? Do people saw a line of cars and left without asking? I tried to imagine what it would have been, to be stuck there with cars ahead and behind, with children crying, dogs barking, knowing what was coming just a few miles back, and waiting, praying for someone in the car knew where to go forward .
Ever heard of that experiment was an American journalist in Moscow in the 70s? Simply stood in front of a building, no one in particular, only a door either. Pretty soon, someone stood lining up behind him, then a partner, and at least thought about it, its tail would turn the corner. Nobody asked what it was for that row. Simply assumed it was for something worthwhile. I do not know if that story is true. Maybe it's an urban legend or myth of the cold war. Who knows? "
World War Z by Max Brooks
