by Trevor Zaple
They were directly outside of the next station (Glencairn, the side said) when they all heard the crunching in the distance. It began noisily, breaking out of the night’s silence like the shattering of a pane of glass. They turned to look, but the distance was lost in the gloom. The moon was beginning to set, and the light that they had seen by was fading rapidly. Mark peered down the tracks, his heart racing, but he could see nothing. What he could hear, that steady, rapid crunching, filled him with enough fear on its own.
“Let’s go,” Emily said, her voice tight. “We still have another station to go through before we’re there”. They followed her, unconsciously picking up the pace. Glencairn was just a whistlestop, as far as rail stations went, and they passed through it without incident or comment. Their steps took on a frantic quality, driven onward by the steadily increasing crunch in the distance, towards the underground.
Mark walked beside Olivia and saw that her face was terrified. She had her arms cradled around Victoria protectively, and her eyes stared off down the line of tracks that led northward. There was nothing to see but trees bowing with snow, and bridges rising above them. He put an arm around her shoulder as they walked, and she nestled into him. They walked in silence; Mark had nothing reassuring to say that would have been true, and Olivia simply wanted warmth and comfort.
Jason glared at them from his position behind them. He could hear the crunching behind them, getting louder in intervals. He felt it fill his head like a sudden shock of loud static, and he found it impossible to think around. He shook his head to clear it, but his action had the opposite effect. He felt like there was a hive of bees trapped in his skull, and he was only capable of brute emotion while it was in there. He sobbed and clawed at his head, hoping to gouge the sound out with his finger, but found that he was unable.
Amber approached him and laid a hand on his shoulder, concerned.
“Hey, kid, are you alright?” she asked, and Jason began flailing at her touch. He slapped at her hand until she removed it, stung.
“Don’t touch me, don’t fucking touch me!” he shouted, blindly enraged. “Keep your talons off of me! You can’t rip me apart, I’m watching you! Watching you!”
Carlos grabbed him roughly by the scruff of the neck and spun him around into the snow.
“Once more, kid,” he said grimly. “Once more and you’ll just be a corpse for them to find. Don’t test me”.
Jason glared up at him and bared his teeth, grinning madly in the last of the moonlight.
“Just try it, badger-man,” he gibbered, “and we’ll see whose guts are laid out for the cannibals when they arrive”.
Carlos stepped away from him, repulsed. He shook his head.
“The fuck is he going on about, badger-man?” he wondered aloud.
“I don’t know,” Amber replied, “but I’m half-convinced we should just leave him behind”.
“We can’t leave him behind,” Emily said sharply. “If we leave him behind, how are we any better than the people in the city?”
None of them had an answer to this, and after a brief interval of seconds they began walking again.
They passed under another bridge and saw a large, snow-covered concrete building in the middle of their path. Jutting out of the building was a tunnel that covered the tracks. The inside of the tunnel was dark, just as black as the underground they had left a few hours before.
“Back underground we go,” Olivia said, sounding disconsolate. Mark hugged her as Emily and Amber retrieved their flashlights.
“You know, I think I was robbed here once,” Emily reminisced dreamily. “I had my iPod stolen”.
“Everyone was robbed here once,” Amber replied sardonically. “At least that’s one thing we don’t have to worry about”.
“True,” Emily replied, and then froze. She stared into the distance behind them and pointed. “We may be in some trouble,” she said, her voice shaking around the edges. It was such a departure from her usual calm that Mark’s tension had already tightened to an uncomfortable level even before he turned to look. When he saw what had shocked her, he felt that he might have finally reached his breaking point.
There were now people visible in the distance, down the tracks. There were a few, and although their features were indistinguishable from far away they were definitely coming towards them at a rapid, almost running pace. Mark hefted his .357, already planning on making a stand and blowing holes in them. He felt a twinge of compassion for them, having walked all that way just to get something to eat. Since he and his friends and family were that ‘something to eat’, however, his compassion was limited to a brief, vague regret.
The others began checking their weapons and readying themselves. As they did so, the stumbling, half-running cannibals drew closer. Behind them, more became visible. Mark aimed his pistol for reference, and then lowered it. Behind that second wave of people, a third was appearing. Then a fourth.
“We should run,” Emily said quietly, and they all gaped at her. Jason did not join in the startled look; he was staring at the oncoming horde of lurching, starving people. The first line of people were close enough to make out hazy details; they seemed heavily emaciated, with jerky motions. Their inadequate clothing was ragged and torn. Jason thought he could hear their teeth gnashing, and then it was all he could hear. Their teeth, masticating on nothing, snapping and slurping drool. He began to laugh wildly.
“RUN!” Emily screamed and this pushed them all into motion. They fled into the darkness of the tunnel ahead, their feet catching on the icy scrim that covered the snow and sending shards of thin ice flying in their wake.
They ran as though Hell itself were at their heels, and it wasn’t enough. Their flashlights bounced around wildly; there was no time to train them forward and carefully suss out their path. There was only time to run flat-out, their footfalls booming inside the darkened brick interior of Lawrence West Station. Behind them, the crunching and churning of the snow grew maddeningly louder.
“Wait!” Jason wailed as he straggled at the end of the group. “Please don’t leave me!”. He saw his defiled Angel slipping away, streaking away into the darkness. He pushed himself, but his hunger and his rusty muscular structure kept him from running fast enough. His Angel was slipping away and the cannibals were catching up behind. He could already feel their rancid breath on his neck, their rotted, broken teeth on his skin. He began to weep again, hating himself. He tried to look back to see where the horde was, but the darkness had consumed everything outside. They had been—what, fifteen minutes behind them? He wasn’t sure. He knew that they would catch up, though, and soon.
All of a sudden a figure bounded out of the darkness ahead. It was the badger, short and evil-looking, his face hidden by the shadows.
“Come on, kid,” the badger grated. “You’re falling behind”. The badger pushed at him and Jason found that he could run faster, after all. There was more stumbling and his legs ached abominably, but there was more speed in him than he had thought. His mind focused on his Angel. He would cure her. He would wipe that donkey’s filthy touch from her skin and make her Pure again. He swore it.
Ahead, Emily and Mark were engaged in a heated argument as they ran.
“I thought you said they wouldn’t follow us!” Mark exclaimed, his breath burning through his chest.
“Obviously I was wrong,” Emily yelled, “I’m sorry that I’m not omniscient!”
“Why the hell would they even follow us this far?”
“I don’t know, Mark. I’m not someone who’s been driven into the darkness and then starved. I don’t know if they are even thinking at all at this point!”
“We need to get off the tracks!”
“Well aware, Mark,” she huffed. “We’ll be at the next station in twenty minutes and it’s the last station, come what may. I may have a plan”
“You may have a plan?”
She turned to face him as they ran and her expression was furious.
�
�It’s more than you have! Now if you shut up you’ll find you have more energy for running”.
Mark shut his mouth but his face was sullen. He paced himself to fall in beside Olivia, who was now sobbing with panic.
“We’re going to die Mark,” she wailed. Mark shook his head.
“Next station we’re leaving the tracks”. He looked to his left and saw a deserted shopping plaza rising out of the snow. Then it struck him.
“The next station is Yorkdale,” he shouted. “Yorkdale Mall! We can get in there and fortify something! Keep them out!”
“I think I might have a similar idea!” Emily’s voice drifted back. “For right now, though, just run as fast as you can!”
They all complied, even Jason, whose legs were becoming dangerously numb. The tracks continued aboveground after they left the station but the night had become as dark as the tunnel. Their flashlights continued to skitter about the snow, bouncing off of the flat white field and casting odd shadows on everything.
Apartment buildings rose from behind the walls that lined the tracks, tall and barren. The tracks seemed to stretch on endlessly, although Mark was sure that they would reach Yorkdale Station soon. They had to. Olivia continued to sob beside him, although she had stopped insisting that they were going to die. Her eyes were wide and her hands clutched at the sling where Victoria continued to sleep. On second glance he realized that her lips were moving soundlessly as she ran, but he could not make out what it was that she was saying. His heart ached and he wanted to hold her, console her, but there was no time. Time, as a scarce, quantifiable item, was definitely running down to nothing.
Out of the gloom, perhaps ten minutes away, a long, glass-walled structure appeared. The tracks appeared to lead into it, although in the blackness Mark could not be sure.
“That’s it!” Emily shouted. “That’s the station! Inside! It’ll lead us into the mall!”
They all threw themselves into it, knowing that it would do no good to save strength for later when there might not even be a later. Their strides extended to the furthest that they could go, and they made it to the glass tunnel’s entrance in half the time that Mark had expected. As the others ran in, he stopped to check behind them. The horde of stumbling, starving cannibals was behind them, close enough now that Mark could see the expressions on their gaunt, staring faces. Not one of them looked human, he realized—their eyes, from what little he could see, looked dead. Their mouths were open, their hands outstretched as they ran. Many ran as though their bones were jelly, their arms flopping at their sides, their legs tumbling and twisting as they caught in the snow. He saw individuals fall and not get up; the rest of the horde would trample over them and they would be lost amongst their lurching feet. He wondered how much energy they could possibly have left, and then realized that it didn’t matter. Emily was right—they likely weren’t even thinking like humans anymore. The fact that they hadn’t eaten each other proved that they were more like a pack of dogs at this point, coursing for the kill. He shivered and followed the rest of them into Yorkdale.
Emily slowed their pace slightly and glanced around carefully with their flashlights. After a moment she seemed to be satisfied with what she saw and motioned for them to gather by the side of the platform.
“They’re not far behind us, but I have an idea,” she said, puffing and panting. Her face was red and tired, and her breath seemed to be coming in little hitching gulps. The rest of them were not much better off. “Amber, do you still have what was left over from the hospital?”
Amber had her hands on her knees and was trying madly to catch her breath. Carlos put a hand on her back to see if she was alright, but she shrugged him off. “The explosives, you mean? There should still be two packs left, I think”.
“Excellent,” Emily replied. “Now let’s help each other out, here. We’re climbing up onto the platform here”.
Emily went first, her arms stuttering slightly as she grabbed the lip of the platform and hauled herself up. One by one she helped the rest up; Mark and Olivia first, followed by Carlos and Amber. Jason hung back until the very end, cowering with fear by the platform’s edge. Emily urged him to come and very nearly gave up on him; at the last minute he darted forward and took her hand. He stiffly hauled himself up and then fell onto the solid, frozen floor, panting and retching. He felt a foot gently nudging him and he rolled over, gritting his teeth and hissing. The idiot donkey-beast backed away from him, and Jason saw with glee that the filthy thing was scared of him.
Soon the coiling black snake in his mind hissed, and Jason’s eyes grew wide with gladness.
“This way,” Emily said, and they followed her quickly. The glass ceiling stretched overhead and the walls of the station curved up and over the track. They hurried down the center of the platform, towards a stairwell that rose upward at the end of it. Amber peered up at the ceiling, although only faint pinpricks of stars could be seen through the oval panes.
“There used to be something on the ceilings, back when I was a kid, that used to flash colored lights when the trains went through. My dad used to sneak me in while he was working, so he could show it to me”.
“What happened?” Carlos asked. Both of them sounded so casual that Mark could have cheerfully strangled them.
“They broke, and the city didn’t want to fix them”
“Oh,” Carlos replied. “Typical”.
Emily led them around a corner and the path led them up to the turnstiles. They shone their flashlights around the area and found it deserted.
“Alright,” Emily said, looking around. “Up here is a covered bridge that leads into the mall. When we go through it, we’re going to put the last two charges on either side of the bridge. As soon as we’re on the other side we’ll wait for that mob to get close and then we’ll blow the thing”.
Mark grinned, and then began to laugh. Carlos joined him but Olivia looked away, her face disappointed.
“That…sounds like a plan,” Amber said, and she began to help Carlos remove the knapsack from his shoulders.
Be ready the snake in Jason’s mind whispered, and he slowly unbuttoned the thin winter coat he’d come through the subway in. Inside, nestled into an interior pocket, was the gun he’d been cowering with the day before, when he’d been pinned under fire and all had seemed lost. As he reached his questing fingers inside and found the cold steel barrel, he knew that the situation had completely reversed itself. All would be won, here under glass and steel.
Amber rummaged through the knapsack, kneeling on the floor. Carlos stood over her, shining the flashlight down as a visual aid. Mark and Olivia were standing apart, by the turnstile. Olivia was unwrapping Victoria and checking her breathing; Mark had his arm around her, whispering softly into her ear. Emily stood with her back to the platform, shining her flashlight down the bridge ahead. Jason slowly removed the gun from his coat and held it at his side. If the moon had been up, it might have glinted off of the metal and alerted someone. It wasn’t up, however, and so Jason’s action remained hidden.
On three his mind-snake hissed languidly. One.
Amber brought out two wadded blankets and laid them carefully on the ground. She unwrapped one while Carlos unwrapped the other. Inside, each blanket held a long, thick package emblazoned with an orange diamond and covered in technical language. Attached to each package was a coiled wire punched into the top and a blasting button.
Two
Carlos closed the knapsack and lugged it back on to his shoulders. He and Amber hefted the explosive packages carefully and made their way very cautiously over the turnstiles. Mark hopped over the fence and helped Olivia over. Emily flashed her light ahead.
“OK, Amber, Carlos, I want you to place the charges against the wall here,” she flashed her light against one side of the covered bridge, “and here”. Walk along the edge of the wall and lead the cabling along with you. Then we’ll wait…”
Three
Jason moved in one fluid motion. He br
ought the gun up, aimed it instantly, and yanked the trigger. He had been aiming for the braying donkey but the shot went wide. His jerking of the trigger caused the gun to kick back and go wild, which caused two things. First, he broke his wrist, feeling it twist and snap with the guns recoil. Second, his wild shot missed Mark entirely and entered Emily’s turned back. She was driven forward with a wet grunt and the round exited her belly in a spraying mess. Blood poured out of her abdomen and she went to her knees, eyes wide with shock. The others turned immediately, shocked and startled by the gun’s loud report. They saw Emily on her knees, bleeding profusely, with her hands clutched over the wound. She seemed to be trying to keep herself whole, using her hands as a makeshift bandage. Blood pooled out between her fingers, and Mark saw, with nauseating clarity, a small blue intestinal loop slip out between the middle and ring finger of her left hand.
Jason dropped the gun the instant after he fired it. It clattered to the station floor loudly, and he stumbled back away from it. His hand hung loosely off of his broken wrist, agony shooting out from it to course through his entire body. He saw the murderous rage that was rising on the faces of the others. He saw the hate and miserable fear that his Angel’s face directed towards him, and his good hand went to his mouth.
“I…” he began, and then he fled into the darkness, his footsteps clattering away.
“FUCK!” Amber screamed. Olivia knelt beside Emily, trying to see if there was anything they could do to patch her up quickly. Behind them, at the entrance to the glass-and-steel tunnel, they heard the stuttering run and frayed shouts of the cannibal horde approaching.
“Go,” Emily breathed, and it sounded as though it were the greatest effort she had ever undertaken. She slowly took one hand off of her wound, and a coil of intestines spilled out. Olivia shrank away from it, but Emily ignored it. She reached into her coat and unholstered her pistol. She handed it over to Olivia, who took it with shaking fingers.
“The rifle…stays with me,” Emily wheezed. “Just…go. I can take care…go”.