The Birds, They're Back

by Wendy Reakes

  He turned and faced her. “What?”

  She recoiled at the ferocity of his response. Bill’s mind changed from ‘tired and unable to think straight’, to ‘red-alert’.

  “I…I just thought we could get more in. I mean this isn’t normal travel is it? Not the sort of thing we’re used to. We didn’t even buy tickets.”

  The soldier tilted his head as he regarded her, looking as if he was waiting for her to finish.

  "It would mean saving lives…wouldn't it?" By the sound of her voice her confidence was waning. “I mean, aren’t desperate measures called for?”

  Bill remained seated, knowing that if he stood up, he’d tower over the soldier and the soldier would look upon it as a threat. Instead, he kept his feet in a position to get up in a heartbeat, on alert. If the soldier hurt Dolly, he’d kill him as sure as night followed day.

  “Do you have any idea how lucky you are to get on this train?” The soldier spoke as if each word was as important as the last.

  Dolly was leaning back away from his thrusting chin. "Well…I."

  "We weren't going to allow civilians on. The only reason we changed our minds was because we were ordered to fill these open carriages. It's going to be on your own head if anything happens. Our priorities are with our own personnel, not civilians. Understood?”

  Bill could stand it no more. He gave Dolly a look of warning, and he spoke calmly to the soldier. “My wife didn’t mean any offence, sir.”

  “Then, you can tell your wife to shut her mouth.”

  Bill wanted to punch him on the nose as Dolly gasped and obeyed him without further ado.

  Outside, and inside the train, the light was fading to zero visibility. In five minutes, the only light they’d have was from the moon.

  Bill saw another soldier enter the carriage. A sergeant. He was going to make an announcement. “Listen up.” He didn’t shout. He didn’t have to. His commanding voice resounded in all ears. “We have four carriages filled to capacity with civilians, but you’ll have no protection from the army other than corporal Baines. The rest of my team are ordered to focus solely on transporting the cargo in the closed carriages. They have been briefed only to protect the train and each other. Everyone else is expendable. That means you.”

  The people muttered and exchanged wary looks, shocked to learn that their military had been ordered to ignore public safety.

  “We face tough times ahead. Do not make any misguided assumptions. We are not here to protect you. You must watch out for yourselves or risk injury if the birds attack. Keep all windows closed, do not attempt to disembark. Use any means to protect yourselves.”

  "This mode of travel has been tried and tested over the past twenty-four hours, and we can almost guarantee that you will arrive at your destination unharmed. The train will be running at 130mph. Therefore, any bird attacks will be avoided. At all times, apart from the two stops, the train will not slow down to less than 90mph."

  “Please be warned, that this train is bound for Manchester. The two stops at Taunton and Bristol will depend on two things. One, that there are no birds forming an attack. And two, that the stations are still operable. This is for your own safety. At each location we will stop for fifteen minutes, allowing those who want to get off, to disembark and for them to be replaced by anyone waiting to board.”

  A passenger spoke up. “What if it doesn’t stop? What are we supposed to do if the train carries on all the way to Manchester?”

  Bill saw corporal Baines roll his eyes.

  The sergeant continued as if the passenger hadn’t spoken. “Once, again, do not expect any assistance from the army. We have only one mission and that is to arrive at Manchester with our cargo, with zero personnel casualties. The rest is up to you.”

  When the sergeant walked along the aisle, as people tried to engage with him, he ignored them and kept walking toward the next carriage where he would once again brief the passengers of their unprecedented disconnection to British civilians.

  Bill heard Harry say one thing. “That told us.”

  The train started up, slowly running along the track to the end of the covered platform where it increased its speed rapidly.

  Bill looked around the seat and saw Corporal Baines sitting near the door with a rifle over his shoulder.

  Dolly had tears in her eyes.

  “Are you alright, love?”

  She nodded without speaking.

  Gladys chimed in. “Disgraceful way to speak to us.”

  Bill leaned forward. “Mother, it don’t matter none. The only thing that matters is that we get to Bristol in one piece.”

  She scoffed and turned away from him, fixing her staring eyes on the landscape outside.

  When the train moved through Lucy's land, where she and Arthur Reed's dog were lying dead on the floor, Gladys put her palm on the glass and whispered something no one else could hear.

  Chapter 50

  They were nearing Taunton and so far, they'd had no interference from birds or anything else, a blessing since it was the first time all day, that Harry had been able to relax a little. He was sitting directly opposite Bill, watching Corporal Baines on a seat near the door leading to the next carriage. The soldier had nodded off twice, but now he was really out of it. Harry wondered how much sleep any of the military had managed over the past twenty-four hours.

  The tone of them as they dictated their rules to the passengers had shaken Harry. He had never been talked to in such a way before, not even by a New York cop. Even in the States, American citizens got treated with respect by the military, until someone stepped out of line. Only then did they put the full force of their position into play.

  He’d experienced something like it when he was at college. Forcefully, the students had been ushered from their classes to be told that there had been a bomb threat at the school. The students were instructed, without much appreciation to their emotions, to sit down upon the many paths and greens whilst the soldiers searched the classrooms with sniffer dogs.

  A student, Harry hadn’t recognized, stood up and said, “This is bullshit.” He pulled out a gun and stormed around the area looking to shoot someone. The students screamed and kept their heads down whilst the army tactically approached the kid and pinned him to the floor, disarming him.

  Then the speakers around the campus made an announcement. “This is a drill.”

  The students had sighed, some laughed, as the announcer declared it had not been real. Apart from the senior levels, the army didn’t know either, so it was as much a drill for them as it was for everyone else. The kid who pulled the gun was a drama student from another college.

  Now, as Harry contemplated the notion that everything that had happened over the past couple of days was just some sort of stupid drill, he finished with the notion that it was just wishful thinking.

  He turned his gaze to the side to see Melanie with her head resting on his arm. She was asleep, or maybe she just had her eyes closed to the terrors they were facing.

  Outside, the setting sun offered a red glow to the interior of the train. There was no light inside the carriage, which made visibility easier to detect any birds on their tail.

  In the distance as the train speeded along, Harry spotted some military tanks. He kicked Bill under the table as he counted at least a dozen of them, heading north over fields and vegetation, flattening them as if they were nothing.

  Bill leaned forward. "I knew they'd use tanks," he said. "Good protection all around."

  Harry considered something. The birds dominated the skies now. Nothing could go up without serious consequence. He thought about Airforce One. If the birds had attacked the US, that would be grounded too. He wondered what the President was doing right then. Then he had another notion. "Bill," he kicked him under the table again. "What if the birds haven't attacked the States? Maybe it's just here…and Europe."

  “And Asia. I heard it on the news.”

  “But nothing about the States?”
>
  “No, but I haven’t picked up any news since Saturday.”

  “I’ve had a thought.”

  "What?" Bill's eyes were dropping.

  "If everyone, still alive in Britain, gets evacuated to the United States, will they let them in if they're not American citizens? Christ, they'd be refugees. They'd let them in, right?"

  “Well, you’ll be okay. You’ve got an American passport.”

  Harry nodded. “But, buddy, I couldn’t imagine leaving you guys.”

  Bill smiled and nodded. “We only met yesterday.”

  Harry chuckled. “Man, that’s the quickest damn friendship I ever heard of.”

  “Uh, uh,” said Bill shaking his head. “You’ve never had cows.”

  As the train moved along, and after Harry’s comment about friendship, Bill thought back to the stock he’d left at home. He’d had his cows for four years now. When he’d taken up the farm, he’d planned on meat produce, but then he got attached to them and changed to dairy.

  That day, when they left the farm, was a day Bill would never forget.

  The birds had flocked together in the barn when he’d closed the doors on them. Their only means of escape was the hole in the roof they’d made.

  Bill had let his herd into the far field near the holiday cottage. Nothing else could be done since he wasn't going to be there to milk them. He thought his best bet was to leave them out to graze until he came back, hopefully in a couple of days.

  Before they left, as they’d packed up the truck, Bill and Harry went up to the cottage to collect Melanie’s things, her laptop and luggage, as well as Harry’s small overnight bag.

  Inside, Bill couldn’t believe the mess the birds had created when they’d attacked Melanie. They’d even chipped away at the new door he’d made. He wondered if they were the same flock that had taken up residence in the barn.

  When Bill and Harry came out, a noise took over the quiet of the day when they heard the cows stampeding. Harry pulled Bill back inside the cottage, when, from over the brow, hundreds of birds had taken to the air from the barn and chased the galloping herd.

  Bill knew what was going to happen, when he saw them heading for the cliff. His heart broken as he watched the cows fall, one by one, driven over the side by the birds, to land on the rocks and the sea below.

  Some of the herd had turned before they’d got to the cliff, but even now, Bill still didn’t know if they’d survived or not.

  Harry wouldn't let him run towards the sea. Instead, he'd pulled him back and forced him into the truck, making him drive, like a demented person, back to the house to collect the women and children and to get the hell out of there.

  For the rest of his days, Bill would always be haunted by the sound of his cows lowing, as they fell to silence at the bottom of the cliff.

  He was disturbed from his thoughts when Dolly said, “We’re coming into Taunton.”

  They could feel the train slowing down. Everyone who wanted to get off were moving from their seats and grabbing bags. There was anticipation in the air, a glimmer of hope.

  The train went slower as it approached the station and as it got down to 30mph, a trail of birds descended from the sky. They were just a small flock, in normal circumstances the people wouldn’t have minded, but it wasn’t normal anymore to be stalked by birds.

  The people in the carriages began screaming as the crows came in low, flapping their wings and pointing their claws as if they meant to land. They were eyeing the people through the windows of the train on both sides, keeping up with the speed as they desperately surged.

  But, then the train speeded up.

  It raced along the tracks through Taunton station, past the people who wanted desperately to board. Instead, they were left stranded, dumbfounded, as the deadly flock came down upon them.

  Dolly was sobbing as the people in the carriage rushed to get back to their seats. The experience had lasted only seconds, yet it left devastating consequences, curdling the blood of the people who’d escaped certain death. Now they considered themselves blessed. The people on the platform would surely die, but they would live on.

  As the aisle became clogged with passengers, in a panic, Corporal Baines aimed his rifle at the ones left standing, shouting at them to be seated.

  As if a curtain had been drawn, they sat.

  The train went back to a speed of 130mph only a few minutes out of Taunton. Bill reached over and touched Dolly’s shoulder. Her elbows rested on the table as she held her head in her hands. Knowing her as well as he did, Bill knew she would be devastated for the people left behind. He could only imagine her nightmares in the days…months to follow. Maybe they would last forever.

  The children were crying. Bill shook his head at them. Shush, little ones, he thought, willing them to read his mind. He knew while the army was in control, that they should remain as quiet as possible to survive. No heroics, no crying, no reaction whatsoever.

  He squeezed Dolly’s arm and she sat up. She took a big sniff and grabbed her bag from the empty seat next to her. She removed a loaf of sliced bread, a pack of butter, a block of cheddar cheese and a jar of jam. She asked Bill to give her the pen knife he always carried with him.

  She laid the bread on the table and covered seven slices with butter and thin slices of cheese. She handed them to the group and with the bread left over, she spread with butter and jam. She passed half a slice each to Lucy and Toby and then she stood up. She went to each child -twelve others in their carriage- and gave them a half slice each. When she reached the end, as the corporal scowled at her, she handed him two halves of bread and cheese. He took them and offered no thanks, cramming the food into his mouth as she left with no words spoken.

  When she sat down, she leaned her head against the back of the seat.

  Bill leaned over and whispered. “Where’s yours.”

  She turned her face away and then Bill knew. She’d given her share to the soldier.

  He watched Harry feed Melanie the food in small pieces. She chewed it as if her tongue was dragging through the process. Gladys was looking at hers as if she would be sick if she ate it, but she knew she had to force it down, to keep up her strength.

  Bill leaned over the table towards Harry. “What will we do, if the train goes through Bristol?”

  For once, Bill had no plan.

  Harry shook his head. He didn’t have one either.

  Chapter 51

  Ellen rummaged through the house, trying to find anything that would act as a form of communication. In her closet, in a box, she found her old Walkman, still with its batteries inside. While she sat on her bed, she put the headphones over her ears and switched it on. She fiddled about on the radio and finally picked up some sound on a channel she’d never heard of before. Radio Burlington.

  This is a recorded announcement from Burlington, the voice said. If you’re listening, we are broadcasting updates every hour on this channel commencing six pm Sunday. Ellen looked at her watch. It was six o’clock now.

  If there are survivors out there, we recommend that you immediately seek underground shelter in your vicinity. Take food and supplies and stay there until an announcement comes for the all clear. We are communicating with London on an hourly basis, so updates will be announced as they come in.

  The current position is this: The British Isles, Europe and Asia have been overcome with bird attacks where millions of fatalities have been reported worldwide. Steps are being taken by the military to destroy the birds before mankind is wiped out. It is expected that deadly gas will be used to remove the threat, therefore it is imperative you take steps to insulate your underground facilities to prevent exposure. The gas is not lethal to humans, but sickness can occur if exposed to vast quantities.

  So far, there is no information about how the government plan to discharge the gas, but we have been warned that civilians have until midday Monday to find safe underground facilities. The army has recommended that everyone remains inside for forty
-eight hours after extermination or risk sickness from the fallout. Breathing masks will help if you are able to acquire them.

  Please tune in every hour for updates and in the meantime, take all necessary precautions to stay alive. Help each other. God bless you.

  This is a recorded announcement from Burlington. If you’re listening…

  A hand on her shoulder made Ellen jump. She removed the headphones and turned off the radio. It was Molly. She picked her up and sat her on the bed. “How much sleep have you had?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Do you want to get in with me?”

  Her daughter nodded and climbed up the bed. Ellen covered her over and slipped under the duvet fully clothed, taking her child in her arms as if she never wanted to let her go.

  Molly was sleeping within five minutes, but Ellen laid awake looking up at the ceiling thinking about the people she had in her care. Five children plus Tom. That was six. Mark and the professor plus her made nine altogether.

  They had eighteen hours to find a place underground where they could shelter. But where?

  Chapter 52

  As they continued their journey, total darkness fell over the train, until suddenly, the emergency lighting came on. Some people cheered sarcastically, but mostly, everyone remained unmoved by the new turn of events.

  A voice shouted out. “Listen.”

  Harry sat up while the man behind Bill placed a radio up high. He’d found a transmission.

  This is a recorded announcement from Burlington, the voice said. If you’re listening, we are broadcasting updates every hour on this channel commencing six pm Sunday.

  Harry looked at his watch. A Rolex. It was a present from Ellen when they’d celebrated five years in the house in Clifton. She told him it covered his birthday and their anniversary and not to expect anything else. He hadn’t, but he still got a few more gifts on his birthday.

  It was six o’clock now.