Recessional: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

heading west along the other side of Highway 41 were also piling up, with some crossing the median and smashing into the fronts of cars in his lane.
    In the same moment that Andy realized he was in danger, he also saw a possible escape route: off to the right of his side there was a moderate berm that sloped gently down. Convinced that he would surely, within the next few moments, crash into the pile ahead and at the same time be struck from behind, he wrenched his steering wheel sharply toward the berm, thinking to drift down the slope. His front wheels did not respond, and he continued moving relentlessly towardthe pileup. Reversing direction for just a moment, he quickly swung the wheel back to the right, and this time, dangerously close to striking the car ahead, his sedan and its heavy trailer eased gently over the side of the road and slid slowly off the shoulder and down the bank, escaping disaster.
    But from his safety spot off the road he now watched the horror occurring on the highway a few yards above him, much worse now than anything he had ever seen on the news. A monstrous double trailer hauled by a massive six-wheel semi—the entire rig must have been eighty feet long—moved ponderously down the far side of the road, lost control and jackknifed into the eastbound cars, smashing some of them flat. His mouth agape, he mumbled: “Jesus! Just where I’d have been,” but as a doctor he felt urgently that he should not be a mere spectator down below but up there in the midst of the carnage, helping to save lives.
    Before he could start crawling up the berm, he was immobilized by what he saw developing to the east where a huge truck hauling two tiers of new cars was approaching at considerable speed. Men who had left their smashed cars ran back along the highway, screaming at the driver: “Slow down! Slow down!” but since he could not see the chaos ahead, he interpreted their frantic signals as those of frightened strangers who did not know how to drive Tennessee highways in bad weather. Instead of slowing down, he accelerated even more in order to maintain control of his gigantic rig. Zorn, seeing him speed up, recalled a term from high school physics: “Christ, the kinetic force of that bastard!” He knew that the total forward thrust of that great monster, its massive gear in back and its full load of new cars, could plow through a stone wall before its force abated, and he screamed “No! No!” as it rammed into the huge trailer whose components now lay on their sides with touring cars crushed beneath them. With a thundering crash the skidding car transport tore through the fallen semi, continued over it and burst into flames, igniting the semi as well. The people trapped in the cars below would be cremated.
    Appalled as he watched from a safe distance of ten yards, the helpless doctor remained immobilized. To rush into that inferno hoping to save lives would result only in the loss of his own. As he climbed up the berm to see what he might still be able to accomplish, he saw a sports car driven by a young woman duplicate his performanceby sliding slowly toward the chaos. Unlike him she found no avenue of escape. Crashing with some force into the three late arrivals that had piled up in the wake of the burning truck, she was obviously infuriated by a mishap for which she shared no blame. Climbing out of her damaged sports car, and confused by the mayhem around her, she stumbled forward between her car and the one ahead with which she had collided. Zorn, aware of her perilous position, screamed “No! Don’t stand there!” She heard his anguished cry and turned to see who had shouted, but remained immobile between the two cars. “Oh, Christ!” Zorn screamed as a powerful Lincoln town car came up behind the sports car at almost full speed and slammed into the rear of the girl’s car, shoving it forward so violently that it crushed the girl’s legs between her car and the car in front.
    When Zorn