by JE Gurley
"Give me the gun if it's not yours," she stretched out her hand.
She was surprised when he lifted the leather thong over his shoulder and gently placed the gun in her open hand. "I ain't no thief," he repeated. "There's work to be done back home. Ain't no Yanks goin' to take our property. I'll see to it…"
"Shut up," she asserted herself. It felt right. It felt…natural. "Where's this train headed? I forgot."
He shrugged. "Ma'am, I don't rightly know. This locomotive is a hospital train, only it wasn't fully loaded when it took off. There's a supply car in the back, and a kitchen. Some wounded Yanks in the hospital car ahead. Course, I ain't 'bout to give my own life for General Pemberton and his crew. I got to get back home."
"Who else is with us? How many?"
"Well, we got the doctor sleepin' a few seats yonder, and we got wounded Yanks up front, the conductor…but I ain't rightly knowin' how many are on this here train, ma'am. It took off before they finished loading it."
"You're a Confederate deserter," she looking him up and down.
"Not exactly. See, I was lookin' for a way out. I mean, I ain't no coward or nothin'. No Yank is goin' to call me no coward, ma'am. I done my own share of fighting on the hill 'fore they got my brother…see he got it right 'tween the eyes and…"
She shook her head and gripped the gun tightly. The weapon felt as if it belonged in her hand; it was comfortable between her fingers, but she felt incomplete. "Is there anything else? Powder and ball? Pre-loaded cylinders?"
He batted his eyelids for a moment before reaching down to his waist and unbuckling a belt from around his gray, dusty Confederate trousers. The belt hung heavily from his hand; the empty holster and a row of pre-loaded cylinders adorned the length of leather along with pouches full of powder and ball. She took it from him and buckled it around her own waist. He produced a second belt, this one complete with another Remington revolver in its holster and more loaded cylinders.
Why would she have two guns? Was she the woman he mentioned—the outlaw? Was she on the run from the law?
"What were you doing with my guns?" she leaned toward him. It was easy to assume power over him. He seemed to shrink further into his seat.
He brushed his hand through his blond hair and sat up. After clearing his throat ceremoniously, he said, "Well, uh… ma'am…"
A familiar, acrid smell rankled her nostrils. Flies buzzed aimlessly around the car. She looked over the seats at the sleeping figure, whose head bounced between shoulders while the train ambled on.
"That's one of the doctors, I reckon," the youth said. "He's been asleep since we got on, same as you."
Through her clenched jaw, she demanded, "How'd we get on this train?"
The tan youth cleared his throat. "The Yanks at the train depot weren't lookin' while I was sneaking around. This train was being loaded up, and I just figured on stowin' aboard so I could hitch a ride back home. A man come to me and he helped me on the train. Said I had to keep my eye on you 'cause you're special to him. I asted him if you was his daughter, but he just laughed, and he had this laugh that was like a pickaxe being scraped across a rock. I woulda done anything to stop him from laughing. He said I just had to wait for you to wake up, ma'am."
"Who was he? What'd he look like?"
He shrugged. "Got these big spectacles. It might've been the light, but I could see this… there were metal pieces on his teeth. I don't even know how the man could talk. He was taller 'n me, wasn't much older, though. Couldn't see much of him 'sides the metal on his teeth. The sun was in my eyes. Ain't more'n a couple hours ago."
"And what about him?" she waved the gun toward the other passenger. "How long has he been sleeping?"
"The whole time. Forgive my manners, ma'am, I got so much on my mind. From here to Vicksburg, all the fields and towns are burning, and there's blood in the dirt. Making new flowers grow, I reckon. You can smell spring and musket powder when you're out in those fields. Sometimes, when the cannon fire is far away, you can hear men screaming on the wind." He shook his head as if shaking himself awake from a recurring dream. "My name's Bill Carter. I'm from Georgia, born and raised."
She understood that she was supposed to reply with her own name. Common courtesy was denied her, however. The man with the metal teeth was somehow connected to her. She could envision that metal-clad jaw moving up and down, the glare of light upon a wide pair of spectacles hiding a pair of maniacal eyes.
The train screeched along, and for a moment, she thought she could hear the lamentations of the wounded from the car ahead of them.
"What'd you say that woman's name was?" she asked. "The outlaw."
"Why, uh, Neasa Bannan. I say agin, you look like her, only I ain't swearin' to it. You seem pretty handy with that hand-cannon you got there. My brother used to be good with one of those. I remember he killed a nigger once in the swamp right behind…"
She quickly placed the barrel of the gun beneath Carter's chin. "Say it again, I dare you."
His eyes darted back and forth over his sun-browned cheeks. "Ma'am?"
That word infuriated her. She didn't know why; she was just as surprised as he was by her smooth, fast movements. The word nigger was common enough, but its mention seemed to stoke an indignant flame to life within her belly. Why did she care so much?
The train shivered momentarily, while the sleeper in front of them swayed. A fly alighted on the back of his neck.
"What else do you know about this train?" she asked and pressed the gun against the bottom of his chin.
"Uh…"
"It's cold, isn't it? Death is just as cold." Bravado seemed to come easily to her.
Men in the hospital car shouted and clamored. She couldn't prevent her eyebrows from furrowing as a thick, green mist floated through the cracks along the door.
She removed the gun from Carter's chin. They both rose to their feet as the mist speedily fogged their car. The shouts from the car in front of them grew louder and more desperate. Something thumped against the floor; a wild, tenacious animal seemed to be scratching against the door.
"Please! Let us out!" she could hear the muffled scream as the green mist rose through her own car.
Flies rapidly dropped out of the air; the tiny insects writhed on the floor with spasmodic wings until they finally died. The sunlight filtering in through the windows was afflicted with a sickly green glow.
The other passenger stood, his figure darkened by the swirling mist. He doubled-over and weakly slipped against the seats. A pair of eyeglasses slipped from his face as a coughing fit forced his hands around his throat. He clawed blindly at the protruding veins until he spat thick gobs of blood against the floor.
Carter glanced over his shoulder. "Supply car behind us. We should…"
"What?" she hissed. "Jump off? Hide? Go ahead and jump off a moving train. I'd like to watch an idiot like you break his damn neck."
The passenger ripped at the flesh along his throat until gashes opened and fresh blood leaked out of the wounds. As the mist curled around the seats, the woman could taste the man's death upon her lips. His struggle stained the air with a warm, metallic taint. She realized that it wasn't the first time she'd tasted blood.
She licked her lips as the mist enveloped her.
Taking a deep breath, she waited as Carter's entire body began to shake. A wet, dark stain appeared around the crotch of his pants.
The passenger suddenly leaped to his feet as if he were nothing more than a puppet controlled by a master with violent tendencies. He threw his head back and roared as the exposed skin on his hands melted away in a mess of gore that plopped onto the carpet and sizzled as if it'd been cooked over an open flame. The loose skin beneath his eyes liquefied and bled over his freshly pressed black suit. Clumps of hair joined scalp that bled from his face. The upright passenger stumbled forward and reached out with blood-red hands while skin and blood continued to rain upon the floor. Chunks of skin and hair slid out of pant legs, and a mouthful of tee
th opened over a rolling tongue, which seemed to search the edges of its mouth for the lips that had disintegrated.
"We're fine," she placed her hands on Carter's shoulders. "The mist isn't doing anything to us. Get your act together."
The rebel youth seemed to wither in her grasp. The passenger continued to walk down the aisle toward them, while beyond, in the hospital car, the frenzied scratching continued.
"Stop where you are!" she ordered, though she knew her words would have little effect. What was it? No man could continue to walk while his skin burned away, revealing wet, and bloody muscle tissue. His clothes sagged as the rest of his body collected into the folds of fabric, and the weight of human waste caused him to stagger..
She held the gun near her hip and cocked the hammer. Carter continued to shake, but both of them were unharmed by the mist. Why wasn't she afraid? Her shirt clung to her body, but besides the heat, she was unscathed. Carter was paralyzed by the bleeding terror that approached them without pause.
Could she kill a man?
Wasn't he already dead?
"Your last warning," she announced.
When the creature continued to lumber forward, she said, "Well, so much for being nice."
She fired two shots into its chest. The creature jerked, and then opened its mouth again to reveal the probing, flicking tongue as a waterfall of blood cascaded over the edge of its jaw.
Her aim had been true. Why was it still standing?
She fired once more into its stomach. The creature paused and looked down at the smoking hole. Her ears rang from the close-quarters gunfire.
It stretched out an open hand. Its fingers were inches away from her face.
Carter screamed and barreled into the shambling horror. The creature nearly lost its balance as the rebel delivered a hard right hook to its face. One gore-stained hand curled thin, skeletal fingers around Carter's throat. With inhuman strength, it lifted him from the floor. Its free hand maliciously dug into his face and tore at those youthful cheekbones. As Carter cried out, the creature arched its fingers and poked its fingernails directly into his eyes. The pressure it applied to his eyes created pools of blood. Carter's shrieks sounded like those of a tearful boy who'd skinned his knee and needed his mother.
The woman fired her fourth round into the back of Carter's head; his agony subsequently ended with his life. "Don't think I do favors very often," she mumbled to herself and raised her gun again.
The creature turned its head; her shot grazed the side of its face. Its grip released Carter and it crumpled to the floor in a lifeless pile of Confederate clothing. Gun smoke collided with the mist and obscured the awful, malignant creature.
One more round.
"You're quite the handsome fella," she backed up against the supply car's door. "Come a little closer so I can get a better look at you."
She had to be close for her final shot. She'd missed once, and the waves of confidence that seemed to accompany a seemingly automatic, natural skill were dispelled. For only a moment, she'd felt invincible. Maybe she really was the outlaw that Carter mentioned. She wasn't afraid, yet, she was convinced the monstrosity before her could be killed.
However, none of this was real, was it? When did people wake up and find themselves on a train without any connection to reality? Who could live without memory—without identity—and find themselves face-to-face with a nightmarish being that twitched and convulsed as it stepped over a dead man's body? As soon as that thing held her within its foul arms, she would awaken. She would know her name, and the strange calm that cloaked her senses and shielded her from the all-encompassing fear would no longer be hers. She would awaken and find herself a normal woman with a normal life. The creature would have been nothing more than a subconscious metaphor for her human experience. Perhaps, her husband was some kind of tenacious alcoholic, or perhaps, he'd gone off to fight the Yankees or the rebels in the cataclysmic war that engulfed the country.
Maybe her husband was dead, and the creature was the war itself, a terrible threat to the entire world, as she understood it.
The gun's grip was slick with sweat from her palm. The mist swirled around the bloody fiend—its black maw opened and its bulging eyes rested hungrily upon her. She took a deep breath. It reached for her. She took another deep breath. Her chest heaved. She had to remember the gun. She had to remember to shoot.
Blood oozed from between its teeth while it heaved; syrupy gore splashed over her face and neck. She was blinded, but there was no time to wipe the blood from her eyes and recover herself; she opened one eye, shoved the gun into its mouth, and pulled the trigger. The top of its skull expanded as shards of bone disconnected from the top of the hellish creature's head. It immediately crumpled and lay at her feet. The barrel of her smoking gun was slick with blood. Immediately, she spat several times to get the taste of blood out of her mouth.
It was dead. Finally. She took another deep breath.
Her hands moved of their own volition; she ejected the empty cylinder and deftly removed a fresh one from her belt while returning the empty. Salty sweat burned her eyes and trickled over her nose.
The train screeched along the tracks and the gunslinger lost her balance and fell forward into one of the seats. She held on as horrified metal protested the train's sudden desire to stop with a loud, ear-shattering scream. Something must have happened to the conductor. She could only guess what it was.
Her suspicion was confirmed as the door to the hospital car blasted open. Fleshless, bleeding, gore-soaked men with bright, white eyes clamored over one another through the cloud of sickly green mist. Mounds of melted flesh had collected along the floor as the blue-jacketed creatures toppled out of the car and piled atop each other.
She could feel her stomach betray her. It growled and churned as burning bile collected in the back of her throat. Pitching forward, she heaved and expelled whatever food she'd eaten before succumbing to the nightmare realm. How vivid was such a nightmare—how powerful was her imagination to conjure such dreadful, impossible creatures? Would her surrender into their lustful hands finally exile her from this sanity-crushing netherworld? She could feel every sensation; she could taste the sour chunks of food that were lodged between her teeth. Strands of hair stuck to her forehead, and she struggled for her balance as the tracks beneath the train complained with a long groan. She spat and steadied herself against a seat with the gun gripped tightly between her cold fingers.
Surrender? No. It wasn't an option. If reality had spiraled into an unnamable hell, then she would resist the demonic creatures with every last ounce of strength. Dream or reality, it made no difference. Though she was unsure about her identity, she was certain that no fiber of her being was willing to give up.
Among that twisted menagerie of greedy hands, were a finite number of creatures. She counted them; five. The Remington in her fist was fully loaded.
The train groaned and crawled to a final stop. The former Union soldiers scrambled over one another to reach the woman who held a gun at her hip. They were in various states of disrepair; some of them already had their arms or legs severed. Those victims of the horrific war's battle-machinery had been homeward bound, their sacrifice earning them a reprieve from the conflict that tore the country in two.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and cocked the hammer back.
End of Sample
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