by G. B. Hope
She had hold of Ivanovic’s handgun. She was aiming, going to shoot. Her finger was squeezing the trigger. The sound of gunfire came suddenly, shocking everyone once more, and then Allison crumpled, shot dead, on top of the groaning Ivanovic.
Everyone looked to their side. There stood Sabrina, with the National Guardsman’s weapon in her hands. Liam recovered himself, slowly took the machine-gun from her, and guided her to the rear of the wagon.
Once everyone who was going was aboard, Danielle giddied up the horses and turned them to walk away from the houses. Michael, alongside his girlfriend, watched the faces of the people left to clean up the mess. Soon they were moving through the trees, down past Ziegler’s guard hut and off along the road. The four people in the back could see Michael and Danielle through the arched opening, and they all talked. They talked of what was ahead, not what was behind, of the Maria, of their options for the future. Mr Manning had Zahira; Liam had Sabrina; Michael had Danielle.
Their collective horror at the morning’s events had calmed somewhat, the further away they got. They were still chatting to each other, quite happier, when they had to pause briefly at the flashing warning signs of a train level-crossing. It was only a minor delay. Mr Manning took the chance to explain the route back to the Maria. The topic of England was raised and not discounted out of hand by the Mannings. Everyone watched the train, an Amtrak passenger train, rattle through, assaulting their eardrums. Then the barriers lifted and they continued on their way. A few yards to the other side of the tracks, the wagon came to a stop. After a few seconds, Michael ran back one side and Danielle the other, and the faces of the four people in the back appeared through the flap, looking out behind them; it had dawned on them, virtually all at the same time, that they had just witnessed electric warning lights at the crossing and an actual passenger train passing through.