by Maxey, Phil
She looked away from him and to the same group that he was observing. Anna was moving from one hybrid to another, offering them water or blood. She admired the doctor for keeping a good grip on her humanity, despite her own homicidal tendencies.
Marina looked down at Flint who looked up at her. She had spent enough time by now with the dog to know what the dog expression was for ‘I need to use the restroom.’ And on cue, his tail started sweeping across the floor.
She frowned then smiled. “Okay—” He sprang to his feet and trotted to the door, jumping up against the wood and pushing it open. “Well if you can do that, why do you even need me to go with you?” she questioned into the space he had left behind.
She stood, her legs feeling two times heavier than they did at night, and walked out into the gloomy daylight.
Despite the slight tingling the watery sun was causing to her skin, she was glad to be out of the cathedral-like space. If she had ever wondered what sixty-five hybrids smelt like being cooped up in the same space, she now knew the answer. She was certain the Scourge-infected smelt worse than humans. Maybe it was their higher metabolism, or maybe they just forgot to wash. She lifted her arm and sniffed herself, then tried to remember the last time she had taken a shower.
Flint’s bark shook her back to her surroundings.
She looked towards where the sound came from. In front of her was a large parking lot with a few trucks and cars. Beyond that was the road, but Flint’s bark came from even further, somewhere behind a high wire fence which bordered a wrecking yard.
“What the hell are you getting into now, dog,” she said to herself.
She walked across the cement lot, then jogged across the road and through the pulled back gates of the yard. A wide muddy track traveled deeper in, surrounded by cars and other vehicles all slowly being degraded by time.
“Ah, there you are!”
Flint was jumping up at a secure-looking door to a small shack which, even from her distance of a few hundred yards, she could see had a sign that read. “Bassey’s home.”
She walked across to it being mindful to use her senses to check any of the darker areas around. She wasn’t going to get jumped by vamps just because Flint had lost his mind.
“What’s so important about the inside of this place?” she said to Flint who jumped off the door and looked up at her with his tail wagging.
He barked again.
She sighed. “Fine, let's see what’s so special—” She jumped back. Something moved inside. “Hey! I can hear you in there!”
More movement. It was slight, but it was there.
A vamp?
She looked at the steel bar across the door, and the multiple locks. Flint barked again.
“Yes, shush! I’m thinking!”
Flint ignored her request and jumped at the door again.
“Ok, so I’m going to open this door, and we’re going to kill the vamp inside. Got that?”
Flint wagged his tail.
She stepped to the door, and with a bit of effort pulled the steel bar free, then used that to lever the locks from their hinges. All the time she had her foot up against the door stopping it from opening.
Finally, she placed her palm on the handle.
She looked at Flint. “Ready?” His tongue slid about his mouth.
“Good.”
She pulled the handle down and stepped back. Despite the darkness, she spotted the thing immediately. It laid on the ground against the back wall, its eyes glowing green. She went to raise the steel bar but then the smell hit her and she put her hand to her face.
She knew that smell. It smelt like Flint, who she realized had stopped barking and was now producing low whimpering sounds.
In an instant, she understood what she was looking at. It was another dog. One like the canine outside. One that had changed. Except this animal was barely alive. She could only just hear its heartbeat.
She looked down at Flint. “It needs blood.” Closing and securing the door, she turned and started to jog away. “Come on!” she shouted back to Flint. “Let's get some.”
*****
Carla sat in the passenger's seat of a Humvee at the south-most gate of the camp. In the back of it were Keller, Dalton, and Geri. In the driver's seat waiting for the gate to open was Pachmayer, and behind them was a platoon of soldiers in a truck and another turreted Humvee.
“You’re sure this train is where you think it is?” said Carla. “It’s a long way to go if it’s not, and what with the corporation…”
“The intel’s pretty solid. So yeah I’m sure. And if it’s not, well you get to see some of the beauty of the state of Florida.” The gate slid back and Pachmayer pressed down on the gas, driving out along the road which followed the railway tracks. “And the camp can protect itself. If we pull this off and bring the train back. Well, that would be good for all of us.”
“And I guess you know how to drive a train?” said Geri in the back.
“Not me, ma’am, but some of my soldiers. We got some real good engineers.”
His words sounded confident. Carla just wondered if they had figured into the equation getting stuck out there after dark.
Forests, the occasional uncut green and beige field, and simple dwellings flowed by on either side of the narrow two-lane road.
Despite her reservations, she was glad to be outside of the camp’s walls, doing something proactive for once. Since her conscience got the better of her and she sided with Joel and the others, she felt the corporation’s oppressive force pressing down on her. A tsunami that was sweeping from west to east destroying all in its path, which until she arrived at the camp she felt would inevitably catch her as well. The captain was right, the camp was well protected. She had been given a quick tour by the general earlier that day and had seen the tanks lined up along most of the walls, the three helicopter gunships, and the two warehouses full of munitions ranging from small arms to shoulder-mounted missile launchers of various kinds. If the corporation attacked, it wasn’t going to take the place without getting one hell of a bloody nose. She wondered if Copeland was prepared for that. Despite his newly acquired horned face and wings it always felt to her that the older, smaller man was lurking within, just waiting to show himself if pushed hard enough. She pictured him standing on the balcony of his apartment, thousands of vamps below chanting his name. His catlike eyes wide with excitement.
Asshole.
But for the first time, she felt that maybe they had a chance of turning the mountainous waves back. It was a new world, and humans weren’t fighting alone anymore.
After passing through a small town, they took a side road and headed south again. Carla noticed the landscape looked flatter, the trees were small and round rather than tall and sharp.
“Ever been to Florida before?” said Pachmayer to her.
“No.”
“Well, now you have. By my reckoning, we just crossed over the state line.”
The world outside was lush and green. A large sign passed by offering twenty percent off liquor. But only on Fridays.
“You drink much?” he said.
“No.” She briefly smiled. She chastised herself for answering so abruptly. Her life for the last six months had been orders, given and taken. There had been no time for ‘small talk.’ She thought that maybe she had forgotten how to.
Tall trees returned to both sides of the road blocking any view beyond. Pachmayer clicked on his radio. “Telford, you see the tracks still? I can’t see them. Over.”
“Not anymore, but going by the map, they should be just west of us. Over,” said a male voice.
The road widened to four lanes, and stores and motels started to appear.
“Don’t think the station is far now,” said Pachmayer.
“Good. It’s not good to keep a dog cooped up in a car for too long,” said Geri.
Carla and Pachmayer looked at each other and joined Geri in laughing. Keller and Dalton remained silent, both looking out
of their respective side windows.
Storage containers, gas stations with digital displays that were still working, and single-story homes sped by as they turned onto a narrow lane which headed back out of the town. It dipped down under a bridge then curved around and rose. That’s when they all saw it.
“Told you the intel was good,” said Pachmayer.
Up ahead of them off the right side of the road ran rail tracks, and on them sat a diesel-electric locomotive, with a trail of freight cars that faded into the distance.
Carla was surprised how happy she was just on seeing a train but thought there would be more to the ‘station.’ There were only a few single-story structures next to the train surrounded by some cargo containers.
The small convoy pulled off the road and stopped alongside the buildings, one of which had ‘freight office’ stenciled across the window. Only darkness resided within.
Pachmayer spoke into his radio ordering the buildings to be searched before any investigation of the locomotive and train cars.
Dalton, Geri, Keller, and Carla stood outside the Humvee looking at the train and its freight.
“Wonder what’s inside them,” said Geri.
“Kind of strange they just left this train here. We’re pretty far from any mainline stations,” said Keller.
They all watched the soldiers move from car to car, trying to get them open, but each was securely locked.
Dalton walked along the track to the nearest car and took a grip of the steel lock across the bolt. Two soldiers stood back watching in amazement as the bolt started to creak. Geri ran across and joined him and, with a final effort, pulled, snapping the lock from the bolt.
Both of them smelt what escaped from the tiny gap around the car’s door.
Pachmayer and Carla jogged over to them.
“There’s something rotten in there,” said Dalton.
Pachmayer nodded to his two soldiers who were now joined with others, and they pulled the train car’s door back.
A sea of flies filled the air, making everyone but Dalton stumble back. But even he was covering his nose.
With the insects came a stench which seemed to blacken the air just as much as the insects had. They all were now covering their noses, peering into hell.
Decomposing bodies looked back at them from the shadows.
Carla was too shocked to be sick until she heard some of the soldiers throwing up, and then the queasy feeling threatened to overcome her, and she looked away.
Pachmayer stood grim-faced. He waved at the soldiers who were still close by, and they pulled the door closed. He then looked down the track at the fifty cars similar to the one they had just opened.
“Fuck,” said Geri.
“Must have been from the early days of the outbreak. Trains were used to keep the infected bodies away from the population centers. I guess this one never made it to its destination,” said Pachmayer.
“Shouldn’t they have been in bags or something?” said Geri.
“I guess they ran out of them.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Joel sat in the small back office of the warehouse which contained frustrated and angry hybrids. He had been keeping a close eye on them from above. Pacing back and forth, watching for any sign that one of them would suddenly go full psycho and tear into the others. They might be hybrids but they were all still walking blood bags ready to be fed upon.
Now though he needed to get some rest. It was late afternoon, and he had forgotten the last time he had allowed sleep to take him. If he didn’t close his eyes soon, he was going to pass out, or whatever the equivalent would be for a hybrid. He had no idea where Marina was. She disappeared some hours back with Flint and hadn’t been back since.
The door opened and in walked Anna. She looked tired.
She fell heavily on a small chair near the door, dropping an empty blood bag on the carpeted floor.
“How are they all?” said Joel.
“Not happy to be here.” She leaned back and the chair creaked.
“They all had a choice not to take my blood.”
“Not much of a choice, death or a hybrid… but yeah, I know what you mean.”
She untied her hair and let it fall onto her shoulders. She noticed him looking.
He leaned back and began to close his eyes when he felt a gust of wind and her lips were touching his. He went to back away when the door opened again, and he didn’t have too because Anna quickly stood up, correcting her hair.
Marina was standing in the doorway. “Umm… There’s something you should both see.” She turned and walked away along the gantry.
Joel, his mind still confused by what happened, stood and followed Marina outside. Anna stood in the empty room for a moment then did the same.
Soon all three were outside in the parking lot. The clouds were still stubbornly covering the sky, and a watery fall sun made the countryside around them looked monotone and lifeless.
“You found another dog?” said Joel.
Flint was playing with a black and white border collie.
“Not just any… other dog. She’s like Flint, she’s changed.”
Joel and Anna both looked at Marina, then at the dogs.
“How do you know?” asked Anna.
“I found her in a shed in the wrecking yard across the road. Probably been in there months, without any food or water. She was barely alive, but after some animal blood, well you can see the result… oh, and her eyes gave off a green glow in the shadows.”
Joel slid his hand over his chin. “How do we know she’s not… you know, dangerous?”
The collie was chasing Flint across the lot, moving much faster than a border collie should be running. Both dogs came together kicking up a dust plume then surged away again.
“Does she look dangerous?” said Marina.
It took Joel some time to get used to a vampiric dog, which he presumed was a freak of nature, now there was another.
Marina let loose a strong whistle and the collie ran over and jumped up at her. “I’m calling her Shadow.”
“Okay then,” said Joel. He and Anna went to walk back to the warehouse door, then Marina looked across to him.
“Could I talk to you for a moment?”
Anna acknowledged the direct request to only talk to Joel, and continued walking and closed the door behind her.
“What is it?” said Joel. Anna’s kiss jumped back in his mind, which he quickly pushed aside.
Marina took in a deep breath as if carrying a heavy burden. “I… can’t keep hating you. I mean… there’s a part of me which will never forgive you for taking Jess’s father from her. You did that—”
“I…”
“— Let me finish. But what you don’t know is that I had decided to leave him. Going to my sister’s was I guess the first step. Obviously, I never got to take the second step, and it will always be with me, that he died trying to get to me without knowing that I wanted things to end. When I learned what I did… well, there’s no point going back into it. So yeah, I just wanted you to know I don’t hate you… umm, anymore.”
Joel let out a breath and nodded. “Okay.” He looked at Flint and Shadow chasing each other in circles. “So now we got two crazy dogs… you’re not going to find anymore are you?”
Marina smiled. “I’m not making any promises.”
*****
“That’s…” Pachmayer cleared his throat. “Forty-eight cleared…” His words sounded muffled due to the scarf wrapped across the lower half of his face. He backed away from the mound of rotting bodies that laid on the gravel near the track.
Dalton pulled open the forty-ninth train car door, and instantly a creature lunged at him. His surprise didn’t stop him from catching the thing by the throat and held it aloft as it dangled. It was a naked female vamp. Before it had a chance to lift its clawed hands to slash at his arms, he snapped its neck and threw it with the other bodies.
Pachmayer looked up at the big man loo
king for any sign of emotion at what just happened, but on not seeing any he cleared his throat again and started pulling the other human bodies off the car with a group of other soldiers.
As they came close to emptying it, a shudder ran through the tracks, and an accompanying chugging noise bellowed out from the other end of the train. Small plumes of smoke lifted into the air from the locomotive engine half a mile away.
A stifled cheer was heard in the distance.
Pachmayer put his gloved hand on the frame of the car, needing the support. He blew out his cheeks. “One more to go.”
A short while later they were standing looking up at the engine. A woman with dark marks across her face, and an older man, both in uniform looked down at them from the train cabin.
Pachmayer smiled. “Great work, both of you. Did we bring enough fuel?”
“It already had plenty,” said the man. “Bit of a mystery why they abandoned it here, but—” He looked at the dried blood smeared across the small double windows. “Looks like they didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.”
“I wonder what its destination was,” said Carla.
“Last stop is on the coast.” Pachmayer looked up at the two engineers. “We ready to leave?”
“Yup, Captain. Ready when you are,” said the man.
Pachmayer, Geri, Dalton, and Carla moved to the next car along, and jumped up inside, but left the large door open. Even so, the smell still had them standing near the open gap.
They watched as the vehicles they traveled down with, including Keller in the Humvee, drove back the way they came.
“If things go well we should get back before they do,” said Pachmayer.
A jolt made everyone grab the inside wall of the car, and the gravel bank, metal fencing, and gray buildings outside started to move to the right. They all sat near the open door, Geri and Dalton sitting closer to each other than the other two.
As the train picked up speed, Pachmayer leaned back against the inside frame of the door, pulling his helmet off and placing it in his lap. He watched Carla looking at the fields and forests passing by.