Everywhere people were scrambling to get back on their respective freight cars. When they finally reached the last car they were shocked to see a lot more people on it. Many of them were absolutely filthy with coal dust. Those folks had opted for the wide open flatcar rather than the confining filth of the coal tenders.
Liam had a panicked thought they would'nt even fit on the crowded car anymore, but was relieved to see Jones by the ladder making space for them to climb aboard.
He gave them a friendly greeting.
“Smoking on the left, non on the right. We have beverages in the front and VIP room in the back. Welcome to the High Rollers Club.”
Victoria and Liam both laughed.
“And where is the women's powder room?”
“I'm sorry ma'am but you just walked out of the restroom.”
She responded with a horrified “ugg” but Liam found no humor in it. Not because it wasn't funny—he smiled to the big guy to show his appreciation—but because it was true. Nothing was ever going to be the same again. Even the most basic things such as plumbing were going to be hard to find unless civilization was keeping hold somewhere else.
Right now the High Rollers Club was the best they had.
Liam was ready to let it roll until the end.
4
They had parked there long enough by the looks of the crowd assembling behind them. The answer to an earlier thought of Liam's was that yes, the plague victims were going to follow the train regardless if they could see it or not. It seemed impossible, but zombies were “impossible” a week ago too. Who knew what they were capable of? Then again, maybe they just kept walking in the direction they were already pointed? Hard to say, but the bottom line was that it was time to go.
The train started moving very slowly again. Now that he knew the engineer wasn't a professional, he understood why the train wasn't cruising at break-neck speeds. With the crowd packed tightly on the flatcar, it was probably a good thing they weren't going too fast.
Liam and Victoria squeezed through the crowd and made their way to where Grandma was still sitting next to the tires. They sat down next to her and told her all about what they saw up on the bridge. She took it in with her usual calm demeanor, which agitated Liam.
“Grandma why aren't you more concerned about him?”
“Ah Liam, when you get to be my age it takes a lot to concern yourself with every detail of what's going on. It doesn't really matter who he is to me, as long as this train keeps moving south and gets you and Victoria out of harm's way. That is where we'll find your house, your parents, and hopefully some breathing room from those poor souls behind us. You two should stay away from him though. He sounds like he has some deadly friends.”
Liam couldn't disagree. He immediately felt himself drifting off as the car began rattling along but it wasn't sixty seconds before Liam heard lots of gunfire from up in the front. Then he heard the screams of the people around him who were standing near the edges—they could see what was up ahead. Almost as one, the people recoiled inward so they could escape the edges. Several tried to wedge themselves under the big trailer into the space where the trio was sitting. This forced Liam and Victoria to move Grandma almost directly underneath the axle of the big trailer. The pair then moved through the crowd so they could see what all the fuss was about.
Oh crap.
The train was entering some kind of quarry complex. Limestone by the looks of it. On their left, next to the river, were huge elevators and machines which dumped the rock onto barges and trucks. On the right was a maze of roadways where oversized dump trucks—had they been operating—would be hauling rocks from the deep tunnels of this pit mine.
He did see hundreds of normal cars and trucks winding their way along the rock path around and down into the big hole in the ground, below a point where Liam could see them. It seemed like a suicidal effort to drive a car into a hole in the earth with everything else going on. Sort of like driving into your own grave.
Up ahead, surrounding most of the edge of the quarry were thousands of zombies. Liam noted this facility was literally next door to the bridge they were just on, and the mystery of the big blockade with no people was now solved. They had escaped en masse to this place—hoping for what?
“Why would they drive down into a quarry? Couldn't they see the zombies were following them in?”
Liam could only imagine what drove them on. When zombies are crawling all over your car and the interstate is permanently closed, maybe the quarry looked like somewhere they could hole up and defend themselves. He thought of explaining his line of thinking to Victoria, but he didn't have any time. The train continued ahead, running over some of the wandering zombies. People in the forward cars were firing guns at the infected orienting on the train. Many of them, at least on the topmost level, were willing to turn away from their quarry inside the quarry and focus on the much closer blood factories rolling by on the train.
As they moved forward Liam got a better impression of what was going on inside the pit. The cars were driving in a spiral road which descended until it reached the bottom. He still couldn't see the bottom, but he could guess people were down there trying to hold off the zombies who were following the spiral behind them. The jam actually went back toward the highway. It seemed everyone mistook this for a road to safety. Once inside the gravity well of the pit, they had no choice but to continue down because the rim was already awash in zombies and there was no backing up. How far could they drive into the rocky tunnels?
The second level loop around the mine had a side ramp which allowed some people to escape on foot back to ground level before they got too far down the hole. Liam saw people using that ramp, running out both directions around the rim of the mine. Some were coming toward the train. Others were heading into the woods or back toward the highway. A daunting task with so many infected around.
Those who were running toward the train were the largest group. And they were heading into an area thick with zombies waiting on the edge. Some members of their group were using their weapons to try to clear a path. Liam judged there was no way those people could get through so many undead without help from this side to push them out of the way.
The engineer gave a long blast on the air horn. The train slowed down to an even slower crawl, but not a full stop.
“What the hell? Is she going to try to save those people?” Victoria wondered.
“It sure looks like it. But who is going to save us?”
As they watched, the right side of the train was engulfed front to back by plague victims, each trying to gain purchase on a car. Liam took the opportunity to look behind them as well—and wasn't surprised to see a large group of zombies coming from the direction of the train tracks behind them.
They only had a few minutes before zombies would be surrounding them from almost every angle.
From where he sat, Liam knew there was essentially nothing he could do to change the outcome of this battle against so many attackers.
That didn't mean he wasn't going to try.
5
Liam looked at his options.
Why am I the only one making plans?
He could try to organize some kind of rescue mission with police and gang members forging out into the crowd of zombies to try to meet up with the incoming group of people—but he was pretty sure that would fail based on the sheer size of the rising horde. And they'd waste a lot of ammo; he knew ammo was running low for most of the police.
He looked over his shoulder to the river-side of the complex. He saw several of the big dump trucks sitting there, beckoning him. His first thought upon seeing them came from one of his zombie books. He couldn't remember the name, but in it huge dump trucks were used by evil men to deposit large buckets of zombies on the good guys. He doubted that could happen here in real life. No evil men were lurking by these trucks.
“Victoria. I think if we get into one of those dump trucks we can use it to push through the thickest part of
this crowd of zombies and help those people cross over to the train.”
She looked at where the trucks were parked, how fast the train was crawling along, and the status of the people in the group moving in their direction. The results of her analysis were—
“It's going to be close.”
“Good enough for me.”
There were almost no zombies on the river side yet, though the massive crowd behind them was uncomfortably close. Once they caught up to the train, all sides would be consumed. He knew the whole operation would be tight.
He felt stupid saying it, but he yelled to Jones and Victoria just as he went down the short ladder.
“COVER ME!”
Jones said something he couldn't hear, but Victoria yelled “GO FOR IT!” as if he were part of a sporting event.
As he was running across the fifty yards of open ground he dodged around a couple of walkers who happened to be in his way. He had his pistol, but speed was more important than killing any one or two random z's.
In a few short seconds he was at the truck.
It was massive, but he was glad to see it wasn't the truly enormous dump truck you see on National Geographic specials. It was just a normal dump truck that you might see on the highway, but it was still huge to him.
He had no trouble scaling the side, but was stymied at the door. It was locked. He hadn't even considered what he'd do once he got into the cab. Now he wasn't even going to make it in the cab!
But he was there, so he took out his pistol and readied it to shoot out the glass. At the last second he realized he was about to do something stupid. He engaged the safety, and then used the gun as a hammer to break the window. In seconds he was inside the truck. Once in the driver's seat he was pleased to find a lone key in the ignition. He figured these trucks never left the premises and thus never needed their keys removed. If someone got in at night they could joy ride around the quarry, but the big gates in the front kept anyone from leaving.
He turned the key and was pleased to hear the big rig start to turn over, then stop. He steadied himself as he looked out the window, ready to try again.
This is going to be a piece of cake!
The train was moving ever so slowly down the track from his right to his left. The engine was just coming in line with the southernmost part of the open pit, and was presently closest to the people trying to get out of the mine. The back of the train was just starting to get enveloped by those infected already lurking at the mine, while the group of trailing zombies were still a couple hundred yards behind, but closing quickly.
He thought it was now or never.
He turned the key again, ready to go for real—
—and was disappointed the truck wouldn't start. He was further disappointed to realize it was a stick shift.
Are you kidding me?
He looked down at the extra pedal on the floor. Purpose unknown. Liam had never learned to drive a stick. His parents had two cars with automatic transmissions.
He wondered if he could figure it out, and guessed he could on a normal day with plenty of time. When zombies were pushing in from multiple directions and people's lives depended on the results—he decided not to risk it.
He kicked open the door, scampered down the side, and began running back toward the train. He felt like a total idiot returning like this, but what choice did he have? He turned to his right to see the zombies uncomfortably close now. He dodged the few that he avoided just minutes earlier. He would only have time to return to the truck one more time before the larger group was upon him. It all depended on finding someone who could drive a stick when he reached the train.
Fortunately he had a large fan base watching him, including Victoria and Jones—both had moved to the absolute edge of the train car to watch him.
When he ran up he was nearly out of breath, but his request was clear.
“Can anyone drive a stick?”
Liam was looking at Victoria—it just seemed like that was how it would go—but he was surprised when Jones jumped down.
“Let's go Liam.”
He gave Victoria a smile, then turned around with his big friend and started running.
The man was big indeed, but fit for his size. After all, he was a police officer. But even with their combined speed, they made it to the truck just ahead of the lead scouts for the zombies in the rear. Jones had to push one of them over in order to give himself room to climb.
Once inside they started it up and Jones had it moving in no time.
“Look kid, I got this. When we get up to the train I'm going to pull up next to the rear car and then you're going to jump back on.”
“I can help you!”
“No doubt. But those people are going to need all the firepower they can get on the train. You have to hold off that group coming in from the rear, and coordinate with the rest of my unit to clear as many of the zombies as possible between the survivors and the train. Wow, I can see the whole thing now that I'm in this seat.”
Liam shared his perspective. It was obvious what he needed to do. It involved running over a lot of sick, bloody, ruined people to save the healthy ones beyond.
He wanted to stay with Jones because he felt it was his idea to use the truck, but he quashed his ego and acquiesced to his request to return to the train.
As they were driving back over the ground they'd just run, Jones pulled out his radio.
“This is Jones. I need you guys to coordinate some shooters to help clear a path for those people—and kill any zombies I miss when I drive through. Good luck. Out.”
“Good luck kid. Get ready to jump.”
There was no time for more talk. Jones expertly maneuvered the truck alongside the flatcar and Liam was able to step out of the cab while holding the door, then jump the couple feet of gap back over to the crowded platform. Many hands helped rein him in.
Jones slowed so the train would pass him on his right, then he turned to cross the tracks and accelerated along the right side of the train. It was all physics from that point.
The train was about half way off the property of the pit mine. The engineer actually stopped the train as the dump truck kicked the plan into high gear. With the train stopped it was clear to those on foot they had to get over there as fast as possible. The engine was sounding the horn over and over for extra emphasis, drawing them all in.
Jones also laid into his horn as he started crushing zombies in his way. The dump bed was empty, but the vehicle was so massive it had no problem handling the ever greater number of infected it was pushing aside—and under. And it was making a path as promised.
The big dump truck started turning along the outermost ring of the spiral around the top of the mine. It was moving almost directly away from the rail line and directly toward the mass of people pushing for the salvation of the train.
Liam couldn't see exactly what was happening with the truck once it started moving away, but the bloody trail of downed zombies behind it told him enough. He had his own problems.
Victoria made a keen observation that made Liam feel he didn't have his brain on today.
“We should have gotten several of those dump trucks working and we could have really cleaned up this mess!”
It was way too late for that now.
Liam and Victoria moved as best they could through all the people huddled in the middle of their car. Grandma was safely ensconced under the truck's axle, so they didn't have to worry about her. That was the only good news.
So many zombies.
Liam knew that with all the zombies converging on the back of the train, they would have to shoot to stay alive, but he also knew shooting would lead to the dead stacking up under foot—which was how they almost made it onto the car the last time.
What they really needed was for the train to start moving again. That would have to wait until the people were rescued. In the meantime everyone was in danger.
And so they waited and watched the wave arrive.
> Then the shooting began.
6
As Liam suspected, there were a lot of new guns on the back of the train. Many of the people who came out of the coal cars had weapons, and they were anxious to get in the action. So as soon as the zombies shambled up to the back of the train they started plugging away at them. Before he could shout any warnings, it became impossibly noisy.
Liam and Victoria tried to use their weapons from where they were standing, but they were dismayed to realize there were too many people standing in front of them to even take a good shot. Those people were leaning back from the edge as they recoiled from the plague-driven zombies washing up to their feet. It was mere moments before the first people were pulled off the car and into the sea of hands. That incited panic in the remaining train passengers as they pushed, pulled, punched, and clawed their way into the middle of the train car. Some folks were tossing strangers off the train—they'd gone mad.
What was once going to be a heroic defense of the rear car, turned swiftly into a debacle of major proportions. Liam grabbed Victoria's hand and pulled her back on top of him as he fell beneath the tractor-trailer near Grandma. She was packed in like a sardine in her section, though Liam wondered if she was being hurt by all the struggling people.
The most effective shooters were at the rear. They had the most room and because they grouped together in anticipation of the trailing zombies—they had plenty of time to prepare. They also did the most damage.
In under a minute they had created enough carnage to stack the dead directly behind them...
Therefore it wasn't long before there was such a pile that more zombies were using their fallen comrades as a biological ramp up to crawl up to the survivors. Soon hands were grabbing at legs even with all the shooters back there. One shooter fell, then another. Then more.
Within minutes Liam could see through the mass of people that the zombies were up on the flatcar, tearing through the rear contingent and moving forward. He looked at Victoria and saw the fear in her emerald eyes.
Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Since the Sirens Page 24