The nail was forged in 1972. At 3 inches long with a flat head it was meant to be used for asphalt roofing. It was dispensed into a bin with a bunch of similar nails and was eventually used by a roofer in Miami-Dade County in sunny Florida. Here it held down a roof shingle for 15 years before a hurricane ripped it off and deposited it on a nearby highway.

It punctured its first tire the very next day. The tire was on an ambulance, and the ambulance was rushing a man to the hospital. The man was experiencing a heart attack, brought on by years of physical neglect and the additional stress of seeing his home destroyed by a hurricane. The nail entered the tire on the sidewall as the ambulance was leaving the highway using a circular exit. The combination of sidewall damage and additional stress on the tire being on the outside of the turning radius caused a blowout. The blowout caused the ambulance to flip and roll, killing the man and the first responder tending to him.

The nail was flung from the rolling ambulance and ended up on the road next to the highway, where it was driven over by a young couple returning from their honeymoon. They were heading home; the hurricane abruptly ended their stay when their hotel was flooded. The nail entered the tire through the middle of the road contacting surface, shifted just a little and air started to leak out slowly.

The newlyweds owned a newer car, and after a while it indicated a low tire pressure warning on the dashboard. The bride requested that they take the scenic route, so they have at least some memories from this honey-less honeymoon, and the scenic route turned out to be a windy and curvy two-lane highway with deep washouts next to the roadway. The groom stopped at the first spot large enough to accommodate their vehicle to inspect the leaking tire.

The tire was losing air fast, and the spare had to be installed. While the groom unpacked the car to get to the spare wheel and the tools for the task, the bride was taking selfies and updating her Instagram. She never saw the dump truck that squashed her husband against their car and pushed their car off the road into a washed-out culvert filled with muddy water. The car landed upside down in the water, trapping the bride inside the car where she drowned. The groom was dragged for a while then ran over when the dump truck left the road and crashed into a giant oak tree, killing the sleeping driver.

The punctured wheel, the jack and the wheel wrench was the only thing left on the clearing next to the road. It laid there for 3 days before a sheriff’s deputy stopped out of curiosity and discovered the car, dump truck and corpses.

The tire was removed along with the damaged vehicles and ended up at a local salvage yard. Here the nail was removed and the tire fixed and sold as used. The nail was tossed into another bin with other nails. These were nails made for various purposes that all ended up in a tire causing much drama and harm.

The nail blended in amongst its newfound kin, this mindless clan of tire destroyers.

It’s just a question of time before they will be on the road again.