“Otherwise, we’ll soon be passing into a realm I know nothing of. As we know, strong emotions distort and keep me from seeing events in time.” She looked at him directly through her blindfold. “The birth of my child has kept me from this whole chain of events. Do not tell the others, but I can see nothing. It will be up to you and your new friend to discover the best course of action.” She took his hand solemnly, “Honestly, I don’t think any will survive. I see time, like a cord, fray and end.”
“Is this your attempt at encouragement?”
“No. That’s a luxury I can’t afford you. What can I tell you, Connor? Do you want me to tell you everything will be alright? Do you want me to be like Brady and tell you whatever your ears are itching to hear? I have told you as best I know. I truly wish I could give you more, Connor. I really do.”
“Well, I asked you to be straightforward with me. So I have to thank you for that.”
“You should get back to Val. The attack is coming soon.”
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙
As Sara predicted, soon a horrific howling noise shot through the air. Andrea, who positioned herself at the rear of the passenger car, fired a few rounds off behind them.
“Incoming!” Andrea yelled as if her shots hadn’t already alerted everyone.
All scrambled to the nearest windows to see second level zombies crawling on all fours like dogs. Their mutated muscles made them unnaturally strong. The foes bolted through the landscape faster than wind towards the locomotive.
Before any of them were completely prepared, one of the enemies jumped onto the train and broke through one of the windows with his head. The crown of his skull became exposed as the skin around it peeled back as he squeezed his head through the broken glass. Once he wiggled his shoulders and hips through, the fiend jumped on Connor, instantly knocking him down.
Andrea looked down to reload and found two enemies on the back balcony when she looked up again. She quickly fired into one and saw it crumple. Its body became lodged on the railing where it jiggled with the movement of the train car. The second lunged towards her but the impact of the glass saved her. Taking a few minor cuts on her face from flying glass, Andrea was no worse for wear. She readied her gun and fired the remainder of the clip into the second foe. Although mostly crippled, the zombie managed to crawl forward and grab Andrea’s arm. She quickly knocked it off with the butt of her gun and jammed her rifle into its forehead until the fractured skull finally broke.
Sara used her pistols and fired in her usual perfect aim. She stood silently as if meditating in the middle of the car until at the precise moment one reared its head and Sara immediately turned to shoot it directly in the brains.
Val helped get a zombie off Connor and together they killed it. Sara refused to intervene because she could see her efforts would be better used elsewhere. In her mind, she saw the invasion of the zombie as something that could be absorbed by the team without her intervention.
Sara quickly reloaded her pistol and prepared for a main attack towards the rear of the car. In time, she saw the zombie enter the car who would attack Val. But her mind refused it, knowing that if she did not engage this attack to the rear, the company would not survive.
Perfectly predicted in time, Sara saw the events unfold exactly as she prepared. Three shots to the right to kill the first three. Two to the left. And finally the last bullet for the one boring its way through the roof. Like a robot she performed this and then rested her weary body. In her mind, she knew she would be too late to do any good against the one attacking Val. Before she tried, it would already be done.
The zombie, that came in the front window, boasted only one arm. As if the skill of both arms had now been poured into the one, it moved with perfect finesse and agility. In fact, he seemed to lunge across the train floor with faster mobility than the whole ones. With his one strengthened arm, he grasped Val’s head as if it were a basketball and slammed it callously into the ground. The impact left Val stunned and disoriented. Val’s gun fell helplessly out of her hand and danced across the old wooden floor. The pitiless zombie lifted Val’s defenseless head and slammed it again and again into the floorboards until much of the left side of her head dripped with blood.
By the time Connor could rescue his wife from the zombie, a pool of blood collected below her. He lifted her head out of the red pool and saw two broken teeth standing in it like white islands. Connor felt her jaw and thought it might have cracked when the zombie knocked her face against the metal chair fastening. Connor lifted her limp body onto the chair and continued fighting.
Only a few minutes later, the fighting ended. The deafening roar of gunfire gave way to the quiet rushing of wind against the many openings in the passenger car.
“Carlos!” Andrea remembered. She scrambled over the tender and found him alright. Two dead zombies were wedged between the engine and the tender.
“I’m alright,” he saw when he saw her coming to check on him. “Nothing I can’t handle. How are things back there?”
“Val’s down. I don’t know how serious yet. Otherwise we’re as awful as normal.”
“Awesome! Hey tell everybody back there that the snow is getting really thick. If this keeps up, I’m not sure how much longer we can go.”
“I’ll tell them!”
Andrea jumped back down into the passenger car and told everyone her news.
Connor shot a glance to Sara and said to everyone, “Soon we’ll have to continue on foot.”
“In the snow?” Andrea protested.
“There’s no other way. The train won’t go and we can’t stay put.”
“We’ll all freeze to death. We barely have any jackets. That would be suicide.”
“I know it’s terrible.”
“I think I’d rather get eaten by a zombie than freeze to death.”
“We’ll keep a lookout for a town where we could find some clothes.”
“The snow will cover the train tracks. We’ll get hopelessly lost.”
“I have a compass," Connor replied. "I picked one up in New Orleans. I'll give it to Sara.”
“Well what about Val,” Andrea asked. “Is she even alive?”
“Yes, she’s unconscious,” Connor replied. “Probably has a concussion.”
“So you’re going to carry her or leave her?”
“I’ll carry her.”
The team fell to silently watching the train move slower and slower against the snow. The dread of having to walk through the gathering storm hung over them.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙
In the following hour, a proper blizzard descended on them. Furious white snow screamed across the passenger car windows and blanketed the land. The team was immediately reminded of the horrible blindness of the sandstorm. Once again they would have little or no warning of incoming attacks.
With the falling temperatures, Andrea had the idea of crowding into the engine where the fire still roared. Everyone agreed without hesitation.
“Bring the axe,” Connor instructed Andrea. Even just saying the words made Connor think of the ugly task it had ahead of it. Connor swung Val over his shoulder and started the difficult task of climbing the tender in the blinding snow. Andrea helped him up and soon everyone stood in the engine.
“I guess I’ll share my heat with you,” Carlos greeted them. “I was wondering when you guys would wise up to it.”
“Carlos,” Connor said gently setting Val down on the hard metal floor, “your hands got to come off.”
Carlos looked out the window into the blinding snow before he answered. “I was afraid of that. It stings. But we’re all dead in a couple days anyway. Or sooner if we have to wander out in the snow. Why don’t you just spare us all the gruesome task of cutting it off?”
“You’ll live longer if it's cut off,” Connor replied.
“You say that like it’s something I should want. I don’t know what happens after death, but it can’t be worse than this.”
Carlos thought silently for a moment. “Probably don’t have any whisky do we?”
“I’ll be as quick as possible,” Connor said.
Carlos grabbed a fire iron and placed one end in the blaze. “We’ll wait till that is good and red. Then you can cauterize me with it.”
Everyone sat down awkwardly on the small metal floor and waited.
“How much longer will the train move?” Andrea asked.
“I’m sure we’ll get several more miles out of her,” Carlos replied. “I’ve been trying to think of a way we could use the fire to melt the snow. But with the cattle guard on the front and everything, the boiler is far too far away from the snow to melt it. I just don’t think there’s a way.”
The company watched as the snow drifts outside moved by slower and slower. Occasionally Carlos checked the fire iron and finally held it up for Connor to see its bright red color.
Carlos, obviously starting to feel distressed about the whole event, started shaking.
“We really don’t have anything to numb the pain?” Carlos asked.
“We have these,” Andrea said going through the supplies backpack.
Carlos looked to find a few aspirins.
“Nothing on the level with morphine or anything?”
Andrea shook her head.
“This will work,” Connor said pointing to a flat table-like piece of metal jutting out from the side wall. Connor grabbed the axe and looked at Carlos.
Andrea handed Carlos a tree branch they’d collected earlier.
“What is that for?” Carlos asked.
“I don’t know,” Andrea replied. “I just see people in the movies give wood dowels and stuff for people to bite on when something like this happens. I guess it lets you focus on something other than the pain.”
“Ok,” Carlos said nervously, “I’ll give it a try.” He put the branch between his teeth and bit down.
Connor knelt down against one of the walls so the weight of the axe wouldn’t topple him. He glanced quickly to Carlos and then brought the axe into the air. Carlos purposefully looked out the window.
Connor struck cleanly and severed the hand on the first try. The noise of cracking bone disturbed everyone. But it did not last, for Carlos dropped the branch out of his mouth to yell, “FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!”
Carlos fell to the metal floor grasping his arm. Connor grabbed the fire iron as he yelled, “Andrea hold his arm down so I can cauterize it.”
Carlos squirmed against Andrea’s grasp. Carlos, although not a very strong man, overpowered Andrea and threw her against the wall with his one good arm.
Connor handed her the fire iron and wrestled Carlos to the floor. “Now, Andrea!”
Andrea swallowed some vomit and pressed the fire iron against the bleeding flesh. Carlos screamed again in a terrible tone that echoed off the ceiling. Andrea stabbed at the wound again and again until she dropped the iron and moved to the side of the engine to vomit.
Connor stood and tried to examine the wound. Carlos still cried in long drawn out moans. When Carlos finally let Connor see, Connor inspected the wound to find it finished.
Sara kicked the hand out into the snow and checked on Andrea.
When both the women returned, everyone sat down against the metal walls in silence.
All eyes turned to Carlos as he sat clutching his stubbed arm.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙
Finally, the train refused to move even at full steam. It came to rest against the great pile of snow it collected before it.
When the time to step off the train finally arrived, everyone prepared to abandon the train. Everyone bundled up as tightly as they could and grabbed their backpacks and weapons. Connor jumped off first into the snow. To his surprise, he found moving in the snow almost easier than moving with his crutches. Although he moved slower, he had a much easier time navigating one leg through the compacted snow. Since the snow had fallen so heavily, he could push off it with his hands without sinking down too far.
“This isn’t as bad as I thought,” Connor yelled up.
“You’ve still got to take your wife,” Andrea said wondering how Connor could have forgotten.
Connor moved over to the engine and draped her around his shoulders. When he slid back down into the snow, he toppled over and fell face first into it. Everyone immediately knew carrying Val would be too much for him.
“Connor, I’ll carry her,” Andrea kindly offered despite her previous attitude on the matter. “She’s obviously too much for you and your one leg.”
“Thank you,” Connor replied from underneath the snow.
Carlos helped Sara down into the snow and looked back to look up at the locomotive.
“I’m going to miss you Amber,” Carlos told the locomotive.
“Do you always name objects women’s names?” Sara asked.
“It’s sexier.”
“Glad to see losing your hand hasn’t dampened your mood.”
“You’ve got to be positive, you know?”
“That’s very commendable.”
“Can’t believe you fell for that, Sara. I’m killing you all in my mind right now. Zombies. Humans. Those idiots that ran that freaky hotel. Anybody. I just keep killing them over and over in my mind. It’s how I stay sane.”
“Lovely!”
“I’m totally lying. I went through Val’s backpack and took a whole bunch of pills I found in there. I don’t even know what they were. I’m pretty sure I’m high.” He thought to himself for a second. “Or dying.”
Sara just shook her head and started trudging through the snow.
Like an evil spell the snow blew against the company making vision poor and movement difficult. Connor watched helplessly as his team showed obvious signs of fatigue and prolonged exposure to the cold.
Connor asked Sara often to make sure they remained on track. She would grab the compass from around her neck and nod or indicate a new direction.
Several hours into it, Sara surprised everyone by pulling out her weapon and firing off into the mist.
No one needed to ask any questions. They doubled their pace.
Andrea and Carlos took turns carrying Val. Sara struggled to put one foot in front of the other. The snow seemed to hypnotize her and she slipped in and out of time. Figures and faces appeared in the snow. And as she progressed she became less able to distinguish them from reality.
Initially, Sara kept her hands in her armpits to keep them warm, but later she found she lacked the strength. Many hours after letting her hands fall to her side, she discovered signs of frostbite. To her horror, she looked down to see several of her fingers had turned a grayish-yellow color. She thought if she had the strength, she’d just bite them off.
After an unknown amount of time, they stumbled upon several buildings. Connor found the nearest one and broke in the window. He was rewarded with several scrapes and a nasty fall onto a concrete floor. Everyone followed him through the entrance.
The building seemed to be some type of small warehouse. Many boxes lined one end of the concrete floor. The rest of the building remained in shadow and none had the energy to explore it.
Although they knew it to be dangerous, everyone quickly ate and promptly fell asleep. Carlos drifted off first. His medication had worn off hours ago and he resigned himself to silence. Andrea soon joined him and curled up on the floor next to him.
Connor watched Sara from drooping eyes. She remained the most awake. Some time ago she’d looked over into the dim light coming through the window and seen what appeared to be a foot. She watched it carefully without telling any of the others. It seemed to be pointed down with toes touching the floor as if the person was face down on the concrete. Although it did not alarm her, she had to investigate before she’d let herself sleep.
Sara stood slowly and almost toppled over from
her enlarged belly. She placed a weak hand on the wall to steady herself and found the two last fingers on her right hand had turned black. She gave it little thought and pressed on towards the shoe.
As she approached, she flipped on her flashlight and discovered a second shoe likewise face down. Moving the light upwards produced the image of pants and a torso and finally a head. The body seemed badly decomposed and Sara guessed it decayed here away from the elements for years. The man had obviously been shot. A bullet hole in his jacket proved that. Sara couldn’t tell from the rotted face if he had been human or zombie.
Sara let her light drift to his left hand that seemed to be positioned with purpose. There at the dead man’s fingertips she found the writing, “Blessed are th” written in the man’s dried blood. Sara could easily see the trails of blood staining the concrete when the man had brought his finger to the wound and back to make the letters.
The mystery solved, Sara wobbled back to the company and slumped down next to the wall. She looked over to find Connor fast asleep.
By the window, the snow drifted softly onto the window ledge.
Sara smiled and made a soft moan as she positioned herself to where she might be able to sleep. She fought the relentless feeling of pressing time and desperately tried to quiet herself. But the harder she tried to focus in on sleeping, the more it eluded her.
For in her heart, she knew this would be the end of so many things.
Part 6
The Splintering of Sara’s Soul
They couldn’t have known. For slits in the snow most often hold nothing. Its breath kept secret by a mask. Its prying eyes hidden behind snow and lenses. The arms, having not moved in hours, blended so perfectly into the surrounding snowdrifts. None saw it. And even if they had, they would have taken the thing for a chair covered in snow or a lump of earth.
But as the company rested, earth moved. Snow fell to uncover long arms and gloved hands. The figure moved so gracefully and slowly that none of the snow fell off the war-time mask even by the time the figure reached the broken window.
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