"David Moody - Autumn 1 - Autumn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moody David)

look but I knew that I had to. As I got closer I could see the full extent of the damage to the car. It had
hit the tree at such a bloody speed that the bonnet was almost wrapped right around it.
I opened the driverтАЩs door (it was jammed shut and it took me a while to get it open). The driver
looked about thirty-five years old, and I didnтАЩt need to touch him to know that he was dead. His face
had been slammed hard against the steering wheel, crushing his nose. His dead eyes gazed up at me,
giving me a cold stare which made me feel as if he was blaming me for what had just happened. Blood
was pouring from what was left of his nose and from his mouth which hung wide open. It wasnтАЩt dripping;
for the best part of a minute the thick crimson blood was literally pouring from the body and pooling on
the floor around the dead manтАЩs feet.
I didnтАЩt have a fucking clue what to do. For a few seconds I just stood there like a bloody fool, first
looking up and down the silent road and then staring at the jet of steam which was shooting up from the
battered carтАЩs radiator and into the cold morning air. I felt sick to my stomach, and when the hissing
eventually stopped all I could hear was the drip, drip, drip of blood. It had only been a couple of minutes
since IтАЩd eaten. I looked back at the body again and felt myself lose control of my stomach. I dropped
down to my knees and threw up in the grass at the side of the road.
Once the nausea had passed I dragged myself up onto my feet and walked back to the van. I reached
inside for the phone, realising that although there was nothing I could do for the poor bastard in the car, I
had to do something. In a strange way it was easier knowing that he was dead. I could just tell the police
that IтАЩd been driving along and IтАЩd found the car crashed into the tree. No-one needed to know that IтАЩd
been around when the accident took place.
The bloody phone wasnтАЩt working.
There I was, out in the countryside just outside a major town and I couldnтАЩt get a signal. I shook the
phone, waved it in the air and even banged it against the side of the fucking van but I couldnтАЩt get rid of
the тАШNo ServiceтАЩ message on the display. I wasnтАЩt thinking straight. I tried dialling 999 three or four times
but I couldnтАЩt get anything. It didnтАЩt even ring out. The phone just kept bleeping тАШunobtainableтАЩ in my
ear.
So if no-one needed to know that IтАЩd seen the crash, I found myself thinking, no-one needed to know
that IтАЩd been the one who found it. It sickens me now when I think back and remember that the next
thing I did was climb back into the van with the intention of driving home. I decided that IтАЩd call the
police or someone from there and tell them that IтАЩd seen an abandoned car at the side of the road. I
didnтАЩt even need to tell them about the body. I guess that it must have been the effects of shock. IтАЩm not
usually such a spineless bastard.
I was in a daze, almost a trance. I climbed back into the van, started the engine and began to drive
back towards town. I stared at the crashed car in the rear view mirror until it was out of sight, then I put
my foot down on the accelerator.
There were a couple more bends in the road before it straightened and stretched out for a clear half
mile ahead of me. I caught sight of another car in the near distance, and seeing that car made me give
way to my mounting guilt and change my plans. I decided that IтАЩd stop and tell the driver about what IтАЩd
seen. ThereтАЩs safety in numbers, I thought. IтАЩd get them to come back with me to the crash and weтАЩd
report it to the police together. Everything would be okay.
I was wrong. As I got closer to the car I realised that it had stopped. I slowed down and pulled up
alongside. The driverтАЩs seat was empty. There were three other people in the car and they were all dead
- a mother in the front and her two dead children in the back. Their faces were screwed up with
expressions of agony and panic. Their skin was pale grey and I could see on the body of the child nearest
to me that there was a trickle of blood running from between its lips and down the side of its lifeless face.
I kept the van moving slowly forward and saw that a couple of metres further down the road the body of
the missing driver lay sprawled across the tarmac. I had to drive up onto the grass verge to avoid driving
over him.
I was so fucking scared. I cried like a baby as I drove back towards home.
I canтАЩt be sure, but I must have seen another forty or fifty bodies by the time IтАЩd made it back to