Liam and Victoria were only tangentially aware of that drama. They were trying to get a better feeling for the cause of the stoppage and what the Army might want with a train full of refugees.
Because they were looking forward, they noticed one man drift further outside the orbit of the crowd, and then continue on into the woods. He was apparently going to ascend the escarpment to gain access to the bridge above them.
“Was that your friend Hayes?”
“Let's go find out.”
They walked up to the front of the train, where the passengers were thickest—most of the coal cars were toward the front. Then they noticed a small trail leading to the hillside, and they plunged in. Whoever was going up this hill would be easy to follow on such an obvious pathway. They could even see him well up the path, very near the top.
“That is definitely Hayes.” Liam was sure of it now that he could see the man's clothing. The same suit pants and shirt. He couldn't see it from this direction, but he could visualize his ugly tie.
“Do you think he stopped the train?”
“I don't know, but we need to find out. Maybe he knows how we can get out of the city.”
Victoria echoed his own thoughts as she plowed up the trail ahead of him.
“Truck driver my butt.”
2
As they reached the top of the hillside, level with the decking of the bridge, they moved cautiously so as not to be seen. Liam didn't think Hayes ever turned around to see if anyone was following, but they couldn't make any assumptions.
Hayes had walked about 100 yards onto the northern span of the bridge. This put him about a quarter of the way over the river, and well beyond the ability of Liam and Victoria to hear what he was saying. The span itself was completely empty, so there was no possible way to avoid detection if they tried to pursue him.
“Should we try to get closer? I don't see how we could.”
Liam was also looking at the situation and didn't see any options available to them. He then took in the whole scene, which he hadn't noticed when trying to catch up to Hayes.
They were crouched at the very end of the decking, partially behind the concrete side railing. To their right, a massive barricade was set up with tractor-trailers, concrete road barricades, orange construction barrels, and some shipping containers tossed off to the sides of each lane and median to prevent cars from having any approach to the bridge. Liam couldn't see anything just on the other side of the barricades, but he could see cars were parked on the highway in front of the blockade as far as they could see.
“Odd that there aren't people swarming this bridge. You think the military is shooting people over here?”
Victoria looked around before replying. “Maybe the zombies swarmed through here and chased them all off?”
Liam didn't like either answer. If the people were run off because of the zombies, where'd they go?
One problem at a time.
They both turned their attention back to the man they were following.
Hayes was in front of a line of Army humvees, though even from here Liam could see they were not letting him get very close. A lone person had come out to meet him, and he or she was wearing a yellow biohazard suit.
“It doesn't look like they want to get close to him. Does that mean they think he has the plague? He didn't look sick.”
“If he has it, we all have it. He's been with us for two whole days now.”
Victoria's answer troubled Liam in a myriad of ways. The most tragic was the thought of his friend having the plague. Someone so vibrant and young should never have to suffer from this disease. He thought back to his very first encounter with the Yoga lady. She also typified the young and the vibrant, and it still took her. That event horrified him, but would pale immediately if Victoria got it. Could he kill his new friend?
He wasn't willing to even entertain the notion right now.
He consoled himself by noting he barely felt anything at the thought he himself could have it. Was it selflessness?
They watched as Hayes was discussing something with the roadblock representative. He was very animated in his gestures, and paced back and forth while he spoke. They could hear fragments of what he was saying, even at this distance, because he was often yelling in anger at his opposite.
Liam couldn't make out anything useful.
After about five minutes, Hayes got really agitated.
In the midst of his ranting and gesticulations, he moved around the person with the hazmat suit and made as if he was going to walk up to the roadblock. Immediately the soldiers leveled their rifles at him. He was maybe ten yards from the soldiers, and over 100 yards from Liam and Victoria—and Liam could clearly hear the rounds being loaded into the chambers of several weapons. He could also hear one of the soldiers—a leader of some kind—yelling “STAND DOWN SIR OR WE WILL KILL YOU.”
Victoria did her little whistle, followed by, “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 over.”
For a few tense moments Liam 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 thinking about it. Enough time that Liam could voice the question: “Is he trying to kill himself?”
He started to slowly back away.
Victoria had been leaning forward when it happened, as if willing herself to see and hear what was taking place so far away, but now she leaned back. Liam also let out a little extra breath he had been holding. The action seemed to have died down. Hayes was now talking again to the person in the hazmat get up, though if Liam had to assign a look to his posture from 100 yards away it would be crestfallen. Hayes was getting bad news.
They chatted for a few more minutes until Hayes started walking away, back toward the end of the bridge where Liam and Victoria were crouched.
“Do we stay here or try to get back to the train?”
Liam considered her question.
Is everything we do life or death now?
He looked at Hayes walking back, head down and moving briskly. Then he looked at the soldiers at the roadblock. They still hadn't moved from their menacing positions. Liam 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. We might as well force his hand and see what he'll tell us.”
“Sounds good Liam. But let's meet up with him over on the hill, so the train passengers can see us. We don't want to meet him totally alone.”
“Very good thought!”
The pair moved away from the end of the bridge, and sat out in the open so Hayes would not be surprised. Liam felt the best approach was to be friendly, even if he didn't really feel friendly toward this man who was clearly lying to them about who he was and what he knew.
He was hoping to change that.
It wasn't long before Hayes came around the corner.
He wasn't surprised. At. All.
“You dumb kids almost got me killed.”
Uh oh.
Neither Liam nor Victoria had any response.
“Ah, cat got your tongues?”
He came over and got directly in front of Liam, though he was looking back and forth at both of them as he spoke.
“I knew you guys had followed me but I thought you'd have better sense than to be seen by the Army guys up on the bridge. Especially you,” he was pointing to Victoria, “since you seem to have the brains in this outfit.”
“You guys might have not have realized this, but while you were out on your nature walk you were under the watchful eye of snipers. They probably even had a drone watching you from up above. These boys are deadly serious about not letting anyone, and I mean anyone, cross this river.”
Liam gained his voice first.
“Is that why they threatened to shoot you?”
Hayes looked at Liam, and then seemed to
rethink his whole approach. He sighed heavily and then sat down next to them in 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. That is really the only benchmark that matters anymore. Believe me I know.”
“But you have to realize this is much bigger than you are. I'm not the enemy here. 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 this is some kind of high school outing. 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.”
“First of all, 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 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. They were helping us escape.”
“Well son, it may be true they were killing zombies. That's their job after all. But I was there. Did you see any evidence they were helping us escape?”
Liam 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 rebel 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. But 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?”
“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 are a coward.
“Those bombs would have killed us just as sure as the sun rises. We are all collateral now to the primary mission—which is to prevent the spread of the plague.”
Liam 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 are 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 train continue beyond their watchful eyes.”
He started down the trail, leaving Liam and Victoria by themselves.
“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 it isn't driving a truck.”
Left unsaid was that they knew nothing more about the man. He had talked for five minutes and told them absolutely nothing.
3
Liam and Victoria hung back on the way down, giving themselves some room from Hayes so they could communicate. This time Liam was in front of Victoria.
“Do you think we can trust him?”
“Absolutely not. We know he lied to us about what he does for the CDC. Is he even with the CDC? He stopped an escaping train—with a hundred living people on it—so he could stop and 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 Liam a laugh. He hadn't really dwelled on the man's fashion sense, but he had to agree it was pretty bad.
“He told us to head south because the Army was on the Illinois side and wouldn't let us cross. They clearly wouldn't let him 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. The Army could have tossed him a boat or something and he could get downriver with no problem. Why would they force him back on this train?”
Liam considered her words for a few moments as they continued downhill. Every zombie story he ever read seemed to hint at multiple layers of government conspiracy. He admitted to himself it was probably crazy to even think it, and borderline insane to even speak it, but he couldn't help himself now. He trusted Victoria to tolerate his ramblings.
“You are going to think I'm wearing a tinfoil hat for saying this, but what if those men up there weren't Army or CDC? What if Hayes—or whatever his name is—is with another government organization entirely? A boat would be out of the question because real Army units would shoot at it. Maybe they needed to talk to him in person, but they weren't willing to risk infecting themselves by letting him back across the bridge? We really 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 is why he told us the Joint Chiefs are in charge. If the President is AWOL maybe he is being detained? Maybe other parts of government are at odds with each other about how to best fight this thing.”
Liam was similarly enthused by the line of discussion. 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 approached the bottom of the trail. He was suddenly unsure of what just happened. Was she telling him there was a government conspiracy afoot, or that she had feelings for him?
Before he could follow up with her, she began walking quickly to the engine at the front of the train.
“I'm going to get some answers from the engineer. At the very least I want to know where this train is going.”
Liam ran to catch up. Impressed at the forthrightness of his lovely partner.
They both saw Hayes climb 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 letters, which made it really 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 chap 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.
When he followed Victoria into the compartment he was shocked to see the engineer was actually a woman. Her hair had a touch of gray—Liam had a hard time guessing the age of women—and she was wearing 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?”
Liam expected trouble from Hayes. Could he have them kicked out?
But he actually helped their case.
“Oh they're friends of mine. 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 really know what I'm doing.”
Victoria took the lead in talking to her.
“You did great getting us here. Thank you sincerely from all of us in the back.”
She let her compliment soak into the dirty woman before continuing.
“We are just wondering where you're going? You know, since we are a
kind of a captive audience.”
She tried to make light of the situation.
“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 here stop for your persuasive friend.” She gave a nod to Hayes. “I have to pick up my husband. He's the real engineer. Before the phones went down he said he was stuck in a massive traffic jam to the south. He was trying to get the rest of our family out of the city. I was supposed to get out by crossing the Mississippi downtown—but the Army shut 'em all down. Anyway, when things looked like they were going to keep getting bad he sent me a text message saying I should take his engine and whatever cars were attached to it and meet him at Cliff Cave Park. That is still to the south of us, but not far. He walked me through some of the basics of getting his engine started—I even managed a voice call with him which was really fortunate—and I was able to get the thing moving, though not very fast. His engine was linked to another that had some kind of issue with it, so we all get to watch the light show as we push the blasted thing.”
She was turning dials and pushing 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 if you want to get back there on your freight car I'm getting ready to blow the horn so people know we're going to be moving again.”
“Thank you ma'am. I hope you find your family.”
The woman stopped what she was doing and told Victoria “thank you.” Liam thought she looked even more tired and worn down than everyone else. She had the stress of saving everyone.
And I thought saving Grandma was stressful.
Liam was walking out the door when he saw something sitting in a nook where it looked like the engine crew kept their gear. He wasn't positive what he saw, but he kept it in mind for later reference. It might be the answer to someone's prayers...
One last look at Hayes—he was staying in the engine—and Liam and Victoria were out and climbing off the Valkyrie. As they did, the engineer—they forgot to get her name—blew two long bursts on the horn to indicate the train was about to start moving.
Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Since the Sirens Page 23