by Logan Jacobs
“Bad time to run out of bullets,” I murmured as I dug the strange gun I’d found in the cattle car from my belt and pulled the magazine from my pocket.
I reloaded as quickly as I could and then checked along both sides of the train to see who was closest to the front. I had settled on the muscular man with the crab claw when I heard another warning call from the hawk man. The mutants on the side of the carriage froze for a moment, then studied the cars until they spotted me.
The crab mutant clacked his claw, then scuttled along the edge of the cattle car as easily as if he were running across the beach. He made it to the top before I could blink, and then bounded across the rooftops toward me with giant leaps that carried him across the length of a car.
And then he was at the edge of the car where I was still hunched. He made an odd chattering noise and then took another leap toward me. He lifted his claw as he did, and I could see the sharp edges grasping for my neck. I pointed the new gun while the crab man was in the air, and pulled the strange trigger that was little more than a hook.
At first, I thought the gun hadn’t fired. I had felt the bullet move along the barrel, but the sound it made was barely more than a whiff and the gun had only the slightest of kicks compared to the others I’d used. Yet a startled expression came over the crabman’s face, and though his momentum kept him moving forward, he landed well short of me, face down on the cold metal.
“Huh,” was all I could say as I looked at the odd gun.
“Freaking mutants!” I heard one of the coal men cry out.
I glanced down and saw that several more were advancing along the edges of the cars. Someone in the engine had found a bow and a quiver, and the fire man who had yelled at the invaders tried to fire an arrow at the nearest mutant with little luck.
I pulled the trigger the strange, noiseless gun once again, but nothing happened. It took me a moment to realize that I hadn’t even felt the bullet pass through the barrel, and I wondered if the gun had only one bullet. But I knew that wasn’t right because I’d examined the magazine myself. While the sounds of battle raged around me, I tried to remember what Darwin had taught me as I examined the gun. And then I knew what the problem was. Since the odd gun was sealed, there was no way for the casing to eject. After that, it was easy enough to figure out how to pull the back part out and let the old casing fall out.
With the barrel cleared, I was back in the battle and I looked for my next target. I aimed the gun at the nearest mutant and this time I caught just a puff of smoke as the bullet cleared the barrel. The mutant, a woman with the scales of a copperhead, lost her grip and fell away from the train, then tumbled through the snow for several feet before finally falling still.
An arrow zinged by and hit the next mutant in the leg while I cleared the gun again. The mutant howled like a coyote, but held on, even as his companions crawled over him. I heard a rattle from the other side of the train and scooted toward that side while the coal man continued to shoot his arrows toward the one side.
I found another line of mutants on the other side, but luckily I saw Freya and Darwin working their way along the top of the train, both armed with Glocks, and the linemen right behind them, all with heavy hammers in their hands. The hawkman called again, and several of the mutants began to climb toward the top of the cars.
As the mutants slithered and crawled over the edge of the roof, the linemen swung away with the hammers. Freya and Darwin fired several shots as well, mostly at the mutants who were still trying to move forward. Despite the flurry of bullets and hammers, several of the mutants made it to the top of the carriage and started to attack.
I fired at the first mutant to make it out of the mob scene, a woman with long fangs and a ruff of brown fur. The strange gun made its odd sound, which I only noticed because I knew what to listen for, and then the woman dropped to her knees. Blood began to spill from a small hole in her belly and she had enough life left to look down at the hole.
Another mutant made it out of the pack as I removed the previous casing, a man with a flat face and goat-slit eyes. Someone had already managed to land a blow on his head and blood trickled down the side of his head, but he charged toward me without hesitation. I had just enough time to line up the shot and pull the trigger, and then the mutant staggered sideways a few steps before he fell over the side of the car and into the snow below.
I was about to fire on another mutant when I heard the sound of a gun, not from in front of me, where Freya and Darwin were still knee deep in mutants, but from behind me. One of the linemen jumped to attack the mutant I had been about to fire on, so I swiveled around and saw that one of the mutants, a man with bulging biceps and a rhino horn, had made it past us and was squatting on top of the pile of coal. Worse, he had what looked like a rifle in his hands, and despite the arrow in one shoulder, he’d managed to get off a shot.
I couldn’t see the coal man who had been firing the arrows anymore, but there wasn’t time to think about that. The mutant was locked on his next target, and it wasn’t hard to guess who that would be. I lifted my own weapon and fired just a second before the mutant did.
It wasn’t enough to stop the mutant’s shot, but the surprise of being hit just as he was about to fire turned him sideways, and I saw the rifle pop up in his hand. The mutant spun around and spotted me on top of the cargo box. He started to lift the rifle again, but I still had the pistol pointed at him and before he could finish the motion, I fired my own weapon one more time. The sound of the gun was barely audible over the racket, and the rhino man definitely didn’t hear it. He looked surprised when the bullet found its mark, and for a moment, he swayed on top of the coal.
But then several things started to happen, or not happen, as it turned out. The rhino man tumbled to the side as the wheels started to squeal and the train started to slow down. Everyone on top of the cars, whether mutant or passenger struggled to keep their footing, and more than a few bodies tumbled to the ground. I nearly fell off the front edge of the car, and only saved myself by throwing myself into the top of the coal car.
When the train finally ground to a halt, there was a moment of pure quiet. And then the hawk man called again, and one of the mutants howled in reply.
The battle was back on.
Chapter 11
Getting the train going again had to be the priority, I knew that, but first I had to get to the engine. Despite the fact that I was only two cars away and ahead of the mutants, it was a seemingly impossible task. Even as I scrambled over the piles of coal, a large shadow passed overhead and I knew the hawk man had decided to attack.
I glanced up, then immediately had to flatten myself against the scrum of coal as the hawk man swooped past me and tried to lop my head off with a longsword. I felt the blade whistle past my head but as soon as the shadow moved past, I flipped over and spotted the mutant as he pulled up in midair and swooped back toward me.
The mutant saw the gun and tried to pull away as I fired. I saw a neat little hole form in one of the wings, and then blood started to spiral toward the ground. The hawk man struggled in the air for a moment, then made a hard landing on the edge of the coal pile. We regarded each other for a moment, and then I pulled the trigger on the gun. Or tried to. The slide was still locked back and I realized I was out of bullets.
“Aw, crap,” I muttered.
The hawk man looked as surprised as I was, but then he gave me a feral grin and started to pick his way across the coal. As I scrambled to get to my feet, I tried to picture the next weapon I wanted to use. But then I saw the rifle the rhino had used, and lunged toward that.
I managed to snatch the gun as the hawk reached the top of the pile, and I swung it around as the mutant brought the blade down toward my head. As close as we were, it was almost impossible to miss my target, though I did have to tell myself to ignore the glint of the blade in the sunlight.
The mutant’s face disintegrated, and a pulpy mess appeared in its place. Blood and even a few bits of
brain matter showered down, and I had to scoot toward the edge of the pile to avoid the worst of it. The mutant’s body crumpled into the pile of coal, the arm with the longsword still outstretched.
I finally exhaled and glanced at the rifle. It was in surprisingly good condition, which made me think that the weapon had been stored and saved for many years and had probably been lent to the shooter for this task. The name I found etched into the barrel of the gun said ‘THE MARLIN FIREARMS CO. NORTH HAVEN, CT. U.S.A. MODEL 45-- MICRO-GROOVE BARREL -- CAL 45 AUTO.’ I knew that a 45 was going to be much bigger than the 22lr I’d been using, and it also seemed larger than the .308, but the recoil from shooting this Marlin hadn’t been nearly as dramatic as the other rifle.
I spotted the pistol as well, not far from the mutant’s body and quickly reclaimed it. Now in possession of a pistol without bullets and a rifle with what I hoped was considerably more, I scrambled over the two coal cars and dropped onto the engine.
“I’m one of the passengers!” I declared when one of the coal men lifted a shovel and started toward me. “What the hell happened? Why did the train stop?”
“There’s a dead man’s switch,” the man replied after he studied me and decided I was not a mutant. “When the engineer lets go of the control, the train stops.”
I looked around then and spotted the other coal man face down near the bow, and a quick glance at his face was all I needed to see to know that the rhino mutant had found his mark with the first shot. I saw the engineer, then, slouched back against the wall near the controls for the engine. He was still alive, but a thin line of sweat ran across his brow and his breathing sounded shallow. I could see blood high on his chest, and I realized that the rhino probably would have killed the engineer as well if I hadn’t fired first. And if we didn’t get the engineer help soon, he could still die from the bullet.
“Can you get the train running again?” I pressed as I tried to keep my voice calm and steady.
It was hard to ignore the sounds of battle from behind me, though, and I saw the coal man glance nervously toward the sounds before he glanced at the engineer.
“I don’t think I can,” he admitted. “I don’t know much about it. I was just hired to shovel coal whenever the engineer told me to, and that’s all I do.”
“You must have picked up something about how it runs,” I insisted as I moved over to the engineer so I could inspect the wound.
The coal man shrugged and said nothing else as I peeled back the shirt and studied the hole.
“We have to stop the bleeding,” I declared as I pulled an old kerchief out from my pocket. “As soon as we beat back the rest of the mutants, we can use some of the salves and medicines we have to help heal this.”
“There’s a lot of them,” the coal man noted dubiously as he looked over my shoulder again.
“Just keep pressure on the wound,” I said as I grabbed one of his hands and pushed the kerchief into it, then held it against the bullet hole. “I’ll let you know when we’re in the clear.”
When the coal man finally nodded, I moved back to the edge of the coal car and studied the battle. It was a melee, now that the train had stopped, and the passengers, including Freya and Darwin, were having a hard time staying on top of the rail cars. I heard a boom from the far end of the train and realized that Sorcha must have grabbed one of the other larger guns to defend the passenger car.
The guns were turning the tide, but Darwin and Freya had to be running low on ammunition, and not enough of the mutants had turned tail and ran.
I tucked the pistol inside my jacket as I selected a target, then lined up the rifle on a man with scaly skin that kept changing colors. He was swift and agile, and had already dodged several hammer blows and a shot from Freya. He slithered toward the coal cars almost untouched, and I watched as he started down the cargo box head first and without the use of the rungs.
I stayed completely still and waited until I saw a few pieces of coal shift. A moment later, the lizard’s head appeared over the edge of the far coal car, and then the rest of his body started to follow. He oozed over the side and slithered along the pile, then froze when he saw me watching him.
With lightning speed, he suddenly shot forward, and I barely had time to find my target. The rifle crack echoed in the tight confines of the engine, and I heard the engineer moan. But like the Ruger, the Marlin was accurate, even if it didn’t pack the biggest punch.
Despite his speed, I still managed to shoot the mutant in the top of his shoulder as he barreled toward me and before he could even react, I fired the next shot toward his head. That finally stopped the lizard as the scales of his skin lost their color, then disappeared beneath a pool of red. When the lizard man didn’t so much as twitch, I shifted my gaze back toward the battle and picked out another mutant.
Before I could fire, another howl sounded from somewhere near the passenger car, and the few remaining mutants dropped into the snow and started to run away. Some of the linemen started to cheer, but it was a muted effort. There were plenty of mutant bodies around, but several of the train’s passengers were injured as well. I spotted Freya as she turned to help one of the linemen who was curled up on top of the railcar while Darwin leaned over to check the condition of some of the others.
“The engineer’s been injured,” I called out as I scrambled to the top edge of the coal car. “And we need him if we’re going to get this train moving again.”
“Sorcha’s back in the passenger car,” Freya called back. “She still has all the medicines.”
I nodded, then dropped to the ground and ran as fast as I could through the snow to the back of the train. I found Ahmed with a long knife at the front door and Shelton on top of the car with the telescope Sorcha had found in the mall. He stopped watching the mutant retreat long enough to give me a cheery wave, then went back to studying the surrounding trees.
“We need Sorcha,” I panted as I climbed up into the car.
“She’s already gathering what we have,” Ahmed assured me as he stepped out of the way.
I pulled the door open and found Sorcha standing over one of the seats as she pulled out various bottles and small boxes and added them to an already bulging pouch. The security guard was just beyond her, near the rear door, though all I could see of him was his back. The guard jumped when he heard me enter the car, but Barnaby’s welcoming bark and a quick glance over his shoulder convinced him I wasn’t a mutant.
Barnaby stood next to Sorcha, and the canine watched her busy hands as she sorted through our supplies with delight. I could tell the dog was hoping she might find another doggy treat in the pile, but the Irish mage remained focused on her task. She didn’t even look up despite my noisy arrival until the Weimaraner gave a gentle woof, but as soon as Sorcha saw me, she gave me a smile.
“I gather the mutants left,” she said.
“They did,” I agreed. “But I don’t know for how long. We need to get the train moving again, and that means we need to tend to the engineer first.”
“He was injured?” she said in surprise as she closed the pouch and slung it over her shoulder. “I thought he’d be well protected in the engine.”
“One of the mutants had a gun,” I explained as I held up the Marlin.
“Another gun,” Sorcha mused. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one place except in a museum.”
The security guard had turned around when he heard me say the engineer was down, and he stepped closer to us as Sorcha gathered the last of her supplies.
“We can’t go anywhere without the engineer,” the guard declared.
“I’ll do everything I can for him,” Sorcha said quickly as we started to step away.
“Should I come?” the guard asked.
“Stay here,” I suggested. “Help keep watch for more mutants. Unless you know something about medicine?”
The guard shook his head as he eyed the rifle in my hands.
“We’ll have to go on foot if you can�
�t save him,” the guard murmured.
“It won’t come to that,” I insisted even as I thought about the engineer’s shallow breathing.
“We’ll be fine,” Sorcha added in a soothing voice.
The security guard still looked undecided, but he finally gave in to the power of Sorcha’s assurances and stepped back to his station.
“Come on, Barnaby,” I called out to the dog as Sorcha opened the door. “I think you need to get out.”
The dog happily leapt through the door and nearly knocked Ahmed off his feet as we emerged. Barnaby wagged his tail and sniffed the air while I tried to push his butt out of the way so I could close the door.
“Another gun,” Sorcha murmured as she waited for me. “What are the odds?”
“Did you say another gun?” Ahmed asked as I finally managed to close the door and Barnaby started to lick the banker’s hand.
“They’re just falling out of the sky,” I told the banker as Sorcha and I dropped to the ground. Barnaby hesitated, then dropped into a pile of snow as well.
“I’m going to take care of the engineer,” the Irish mage told the banker. “I left some of the medical supplies in the bunk room with Billy so if anyone comes back here before I have a chance to look at them, Billy knows what each one does and can help out.”
“Oh, yes, I’ll tell them where to go,” Ahmed offered, though his eyes were locked on the rifle in my hands. I wasn’t sure if he knew enough about guns to realize that the one I held in my hands wasn’t one of the ones we had pulled out of our gear when this had all started, but to judge by his expression, he seemed to realize that we had indeed acquired a new weapon.
Sorcha nodded, and the three of us started the long trudge back to the engine. Barnaby stayed close this time, apparently sensing the worry we all felt even though the mutants had been beaten back. I watched the Weimaraner as he looked for trouble until we were out of earshot. I glanced back toward the banker then and nudged Sorcha.
“What do you think of our money man?” I asked.