by M. D. Massey
Victoria let out a little whistle. “I guess they think he's a serious threat.”
“Yeah, if they won't let him over, they'll never allow the rest of us.”
For a few tense moments, he didn't know if Hayes was going to back down. Any normal person would immediately back off, but Hayes seemed to stand there for a very long time as he apparently thought about it.
“Is he trying to kill himself?” Liam wondered. Everyone handled the stress of the Z-poc differently. His books reinforced that.
Hayes raised his hands and slowly backed away.
Victoria had been leaning forward as if willing herself to see and hear the action, but now she relaxed. Liam also let out a little extra breath he'd been holding. The tension on the bridge returned to normal. Hayes chatted again to the person in the hazmat get-up, but even from 100 yards away, Liam identified Hayes as crestfallen.
Ten minutes later Hayes started walking back toward the end of the bridge where he and Victoria were holed up.
“Do we stay here or try to get back to the train?” Victoria asked.
Is everything we do life or death now?
He looked at Hayes walking back, head down with a brisk stride. He glanced to the soldiers at the roadblock. They still hadn't moved from their menacing positions. He surveyed the train down below the bridge and judged whether they could make it back without being seen.
“I don't think we can avoid him at this point,” he said. “We might as well force his hand and see what he'll tell us.”
“Sounds good. But let's meet up with him over on the hill so that the train passengers can see us. We don't want to meet him by ourselves. Remember … dark and scary night,” she said, ending in her spooky voice from her earlier tall tale.
“You win Ms. Scary. Just go!”
They got away from the end of the bridge and sat on a rock out in the open, so Hayes wouldn't be surprised. He felt the best approach was to be friendly, even if he didn't feel friendly toward this man who was clearly lying to them about who he was and what he knew.
It wasn't long before Hayes came around the corner. “You dumb kids almost got me killed,” he said without preamble.
Neither he nor Victoria had any response.
“Ah, cat got your tongues?”
He came over and got directly in front of Liam, though he glared back and forth at both of them as he spoke. “I knew you guys followed me, but I thought you'd have better sense than to be seen by the Army up on the bridge. Especially you,” he pointed to Victoria, “since you seem to have the brains in this outfit.”
“Hey!” Liam tried to interject.
Hayes kept talking. “You guys might not have realized this, but while you were out on your nature walk, you were under the watchful eye of snipers. See the drones up there? These people are deadly serious about not letting anyone, and I mean anyone, cross this river.”
“Is that why they threatened to shoot you?” he replied with a bit of attitude.
Hayes looked at him and seemed to rethink his whole approach. He sighed heavily and sat down next to them on the rocks, with the train below partially obscured by the trees on the hillside.
“I can't help but respect you kids. You've done a better job than most in staying alive. But you have to realize this is much bigger than you are. I’ve done deliveries for government-types like those guys on the bridge for a long time. These Army boys are under orders—very stupid orders if you ask me—but orders nonetheless. You can't just go sneaking around under the watchful eye of those people like you're on some kind of high school field trip. They will shoot you, shoot me, shoot your Grandma, shoot the smallest babe on that train—just on the off chance they can stop the disease from crossing this river.”
Victoria jumped in, upset. “First of all,” she said, “I'm not in high school anymore. I doubt Liam will ever go back, either. Second of all, with all the zombies walking around and all the infected people, there is no way to prevent the disease from crossing a simple river. Even a couple of dumb kids know that.”
“You're absolutely right. You share the opinion of most of us roadies at the CDC. But you do not share the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and with the president off doing god-knows-what, the military is pretty much in charge of managing the pieces of the nation that are still answering their phones.”
“But we saw the military killing zombies downtown,” Liam responded. “They helped us escape.”
“Well, it may be true they were killing zombies. That's their job. But I was there. Did you see any evidence they were helping us escape?”
He thought back to the battle. Except for a few volunteers from the Army and Marines, there were no troops on the St. Louis side of the river during the battle. Only the Abrams tank seemed to help them directly, and that was only for a few minutes. Then the Air Force came in and started the shock and awe. The bombs did drop to the north at first, but later they dropped them further south, including right on top of Captain Osborne. Maybe that was just a mistake in the chaos of war?
“So, it was just a coincidence the bombs, artillery, and tank fire helped us escape?” Liam sniped back.
“You always like to argue, don't you? Why do you think I was running so close to the lead guys trying to get out of there?”
Because you're a coward.
Hayes went on. “Those bombs would have killed us just as sure as the sun rises. We're all collateral now to the primary mission—which is to prevent the spread of the plague.”
He reflected on that while Hayes stood back up and brushed himself off.
“Right now, our only avenue of escape is to the south. The Army told me they're patrolling the eastern shore of the river, but they have no presence anymore in the entire state of Missouri. We have to get that train moving and on down the line before the Army changes their mind about letting this unauthorized transport continue out of the hot zone.”
“Hot zone?” Victoria asked.
“Yeah,” Hayes replied, “the middle of each metro area is now a bright red spot on some general’s map. They are letting people escape, for now, but there is going to come a time when they’ll try to close the whole thing down. It is pretty standard protocol in viral outbreaks, or so we’ve been told by our bosses.”
He started down the trail, leaving him and Victoria alone with the news.
“Pretty amazing a truck driver can get a meeting with soldiers up on some random bridge, huh?”
Liam thought about that for a second before replying, “Yeah, whatever he does for the CDC, I’ll be shocked if it involves driving a truck.”
* * *
3
He and Victoria hung back on the way down, giving themselves some distance from Hayes so they could talk. This time, he was in front of her.
“Do you think we can trust him?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“Absolutely not. We know he lied to us about what he does for the CDC. He stopped an escaping train—with a hundred living people on it—so he could talk to his friends on this bridge. At this point, the only thing we know for sure about him is that he has poor taste in clothing.”
That gave him a laugh. He hadn't dwelled on the man's fashion sense but had to agree it was pretty bad.
Liam went on. “He told us to head south because the Army was on the Illinois side and wouldn't let us cross, but what if they ordered him to go south? Maybe the only reason he needs us is to help him complete his mission that way?”
“That doesn't make sense, either,” Victoria answered. “If he was important, the Army could have tossed him a boat or helicopter, and he could get downriver with no problem. Why would they force him back on this train?”
He considered her question for a few moments as they continued downhill. “You're going to think I'm wearing a tinfoil hat for saying this, but what if Hayes is a big shot at the CDC, trying to get out of town. Maybe he got left behind. Maybe his friends needed to talk to him in person, but they weren't willing to risk in
fecting themselves by letting him across the bridge? We don't know anything about the disease, the source of the infection, or how the government is responding to this emergency.”
Victoria seemed to thrive on the conspiracy. “Yes! That's why he told us the Joint Chiefs are in charge. If the president is AWOL, maybe he's dead? Maybe the CDC—and guys like Hayes—are as confused as the rest of us. He just can't tell us he's trapped because that would mean the government wasn't in control!”
This girl was someone after his own heart. He realized his father's penchant for conspiracy theories had a lot to do with that, but he wasn't going to nitpick.
“If you say anything about a 'shadow government,' I'm going to kiss you on the lips!”
Victoria chuckled behind him.
“Well, right now, I'm fairly certain there is a 'dark-shrouded government' out there. Maybe someday we'll discover the other.”
Liam walked in silence as they reached the bottom of the trail. He was unsure of what just transpired between them. Before he could follow up with her, she walked quickly toward the engine at the front.
“I'm going to get some answers from the engineer. At the very least, I want to know where this train is going,” she yelled back.
He ran to catch up, impressed at the forthrightness of his lovely partner.
Hayes climbed into the engine compartment, so they figured they'd follow him up the ladder and into the engineer's area as well. As he walked along the side of the engine, he noted it had a name. Valkyrie. It was stenciled in large black type, which made it obvious on the orange paint of the engine. He rubbed his hand on the letters as he walked by.
Liam's imagination had drawn the man driving the train as a portly dude with a blue and white striped uniform and a funny little hat that said “engineer” on it. He'd spent too much of his youth watching a TV show about toy trains.
He followed Victoria into the compartment and was shocked to see the engineer was a woman. Her hair had a touch of gray—he had a hard time guessing the age of women—and she wore blue jeans with a filthy white t-shirt. She looked more like a mechanic than an engineer, woman or no.
“Who the hell are you two?” she said with a slightly exotic accent. He guessed she was from Eastern Europe if his dad's war movies were accurate.
“Oh, they're friends of mine,” Hayes replied immediately. “They helped me get out of the Arch.”
“I see. Well, pardon me for not talking, but I need to get this train going again, and I don't exactly know what I'm doing.”
“You did great getting us here,” Victoria said. “Thank you sincerely from all of us in the back.”
She let her compliment soak in before continuing.
“We're just wondering where you're going? You know, since we're kind of a captive audience.”
“Listen. I'm getting this train as far away from those things as I'm able. Going south as far as she'll go. But I have one stop to make—besides this stop for your persuasive friend.” She gave a nod to Hayes. “I have to pick up my husband. He's the real engineer. Over the phone, he walked me through some of the basics of getting his engine started, and I was able to get the machine moving, though not very fast. His engine was linked to a mate that has a malfunction, so we all get to watch the light show as we push the wretched thing.”
She turned dials and pushed buttons as she spoke.
“Bottom line is I don't know where I'm going besides picking up my family. From there, the track points south. Now go. I'm getting ready to blow the horn, so people know we're moving again.”
“Thank you, ma'am. I hope you find your family,” Victoria said softly while touching the woman's elbow.
“Yeah, thanks,” Liam added.
The engineer stopped what she was doing. “Thank you.” Liam thought she looked even more tired and worn down than everyone else. She had the stress of saving lots of folks.
And I thought saving Grandma was stressful.
As he walked out the door, he saw something jammed in a nook where the engine crew kept their gear. He wasn't positive what it was, but he kept it in mind for later reference. It might be the answer to someone's prayers ...
One last look at Hayes—he stayed in the engine—and he and Victoria went out and climbed off the Valkyrie. As they did, the engineer—they forgot to get her name—blew two long bursts on the horns to indicate the train was about to start moving.
Liam and Victoria ran together.
Everywhere, people scrambled to get back on their respective freight cars. When he and Victoria finally reached the last car, they were shocked to see a lot more people on it. Many of them were utterly filthy with coal dust. Those citizens smartly opted for the wide-open flatcar rather than the confining filth of the tenders.
The clanging sound of cars grabbing began in the front of the train, signaling departure right as they reached the car with Grandma on it. Liam had a panicked moment that they wouldn't even fit on the crowded car anymore, but Jones stood by the ladder and made space for them to climb aboard.
The police officer gave them a friendly greeting. “Smoking on the left, non- on the right. We have beverages in the front and VIP room in the back. Welcome to the High Rollers Club.”
They both laughed.
“And where's the women's powder room?”
“I'm sorry ma'am, but you just walked out of the restroom,” Jones said with a broad smile while pointing to the trees on the hillside.
She responded with a horrified “ugh,” but Liam found no humor in it. Not because it wasn't funny—he smiled to the big guy to show his appreciation—but because it was true. Nothing was ever going to be the same. Even the most basic things such as plumbing were going to be hard to find unless civilization kept hold somewhere else. St. Louis seemed to be a lost cause.
Right now, the High Rollers Club was the best they had.
Liam stood on the wooden slats of the flat car as it lurched forward. Glad to be moving again. Glad to make it back from his spy mission. But mostly he was glad to have his feet out of the toilet.
* * *
4
They moved with no time to spare. A crowd of zombies approached from the trackway behind them. The answer to an earlier thought of Liam's was that yes, the plague victims were going to follow the train regardless if they could see it or not. It seemed impossible, but zombies themselves were “impossible” a week ago, too. Who knew what they were capable of? Then again, maybe they just kept walking in the direction they were already pointed?
The train reached speed once more. Now that he knew the engineer wasn't a professional, he understood why they weren’t breaking any speed records. With the crowd packed tightly on the flatcar, it was probably a good thing they weren't going too fast. Falling off the final car would be terminal.
He and Victoria snaked through the crowd and made their way to where Grandma sat against the truck tire. They squeezed in next to her and spoke of what they saw up on the bridge. She took it in with her usual calm demeanor, which agitated him.
“Grandma, why aren't you more concerned about him? We think he’s trouble.”
“Ah, Liam, when you get to be my age, it takes a lot to concern yourself with every detail of what's going on. It doesn't matter who he is to me, as long as this train keeps moving south and gets you and Victoria out of harm's way. That's where we'll find your house, your parents, and hopefully some law enforcement to control these sick people. You two should stay away from him, though, if you think he’s dangerous.”
“Well, that’s easy enough. We just avoid the train engine because that’s where he is.”
“Yeah,” Victoria added, “he likes to be closest to escape.”
Victoria laughed, but he wasn’t sure how to take that. If the CDC guy knew more than they did, perhaps being in the front of the train was the smart play.
Unsure of himself, Liam sat back to think. He immediately drifted off as the car rattled along, but it wasn't sixty seconds before lots of gunfire from
up in the front jerked him awake. People who stood near the edges of the car began screaming and almost as one they recoiled from the edges. Several tried to wedge themselves under the big trailer into the space where Grandma sat and forced him and Victoria to move Grandma almost directly underneath the axle of the big trailer.
“We have to see this,” Liam said before he was trapped by everyone. “Let’s go,” he said to Victoria.
“Quick! Go. I’ll be fine.” Grandma would say that if she were falling over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel, but he had to leave her.
The pair managed to get out from under the tractor-trailer.
Oh, crap.
The train entered some kind of quarry complex. On their left, next to the muddy brown river, were huge conveyor belts and machines that dumped the white rock onto barges and trucks. On the right was a maze of roadways where oversized dump trucks—had they been operating—hauled rocks from the deep tunnels of the mine.
Hundreds of parked civilian cars and trucks created a line of traffic along the rock path around and down into the big hole in the ground, to some point below his field of vision. It seemed suicidal to drive a car into a hole in the earth with everything else going on. Sort of like driving into your own grave.
Zombies by the thousands surrounded most of the top edge of the pit quarry. He noted this facility was next door to the bridge they were just on, and the mystery of the big blockade with no people was now solved. The cars had been diverted off the highway, away from the closed bridges, and seemingly directed here.
“Why would they drive down into a quarry?” Victoria asked. “Couldn't they figure out the zombies would follow them in?”
“I think you can read my mind,” he said weakly.
He could only imagine what drove them on. When zombies are crawling all over your car, and the interstate is permanently closed, maybe the quarry looked like somewhere they could hole up—literally—and defend themselves. The train continued ahead, running over some of the wandering zombies. People in the forward cars fired guns at the infected orienting on the train. Many of the zombies, at least on the topmost level, were willing to turn away from their quarry inside the quarry and focus on the much closer blood factories rolling up to them on the train.