Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine (59 page)

The pearl blue engine was a style
none of them had seen before, smaller, but somehow more naturally ominous than
a normal freight-hauler and with a longer nose than most modern trains with a
cone low near the tracks that seemed designed for snow removal. The friends had
spent a lot of time smoking weed and watching the rail yards switch, load and
unload over the years and had traveled across the country to visit other rail
yards, so they had seen a lot of engines. None had seen anything like this
before.

“Huh.” Tripper exclaimed, opening Scaggs’
note. It read,
It’s an armored train, dumbass
. He leaned close to her
ear so she could hear him and asked, “Now how’d you know this time? And how am
I a dumbass for not knowing?”

“When we went around the building
cleaning out the dead the other day, you and I were paired-up and the others
were clearing the alley.
You
tripped on something. Don’t you remember
what it was?” she asked incredulously.

“Um…oh yeah. It was a railroad
track, but that thing hadn’t been used in years and went into the back of one
of the warehouses…oh.”

“Right. They went right up to the
back of
this
building, which would place the tracks entering the
building on the other side of that door about a hundred feet away. The tracks
would, and apparently do, lead right up to this turnaround.”

“Ok.” Tripper blurted. “But that
doesn’t automatically mean it’s a train.”

“No, but I had a pretty good chance
at being right. Plus I saw these moveable sections of flooring and figured they
cover rails. This is a wheel house, remember?”

Tripper nodded his surrender and
turned his attention to the incoming train.

Calvin realized this engine was
probably one of those trains specially designed for running through the
mountains in Europe or Asia. He had heard Hephaestus talk about them, but had
never seen one.

“The entire outer shell is a
special titanium alloy for which I alone hold the patent,” Hef explained. “It
is the strongest metal currently in existence and only I know how to make it.”

The others studied the pearly-blue
engine with appreciation, noting the additions of KC Royals, SKC and FCKC emblems
that someone had painted beneath the engineer’s cabin.

“Damn,” Sergeant Doogard blurted,
now highly impressed.

“Where’s the Arrowhead?” Trip
asked, feeling insulted.

“On the caboose,” Hef told him.

The last car had been painted a
deep crimson and there were several different styles of KC Chiefs emblems
painted over it.

“Guess Rufus won’t be shooting that
one with a missile,” Trip noted casually.

“The studio wanted it to be painted
black, but we thought we would do proper honor to the day this began, and to
all of those fans we lost at the parade.”

“There are T-Bones and Mavericks and
some other area teams on the other cars,” Quinn explained. “All four cars are
armored with the same material as the engine. It’s incredible. I’ve never seen
anything like it.”

Hephaestus explained this further,
“I was able to drop the weight by two-thirds by reproducing all of the parts in
my alloy on a 3-D printer.”

“No way!” Joel exclaimed. “You got
that printer built?”

“Yes. It is in the back of the
production room there,” Hef pointed through the large doorway through which the
train had just entered. “It can produce nearly anything we can design. I put
that little test model I showed you in my workshop, over there in the third car
just off the car carrier.”

“Awesome! So we can finally play
with it?”

“It is not a toy,” Hephaestus
insisted with a haughty sniff, but there was a light beaming from the corners
of his beady black eyes.

“Yes, it is. That would totally be
a toy I would play with,” Scaggs jumped in. “I’d print the One Ring in my size,
with the letters in a metal that would really glow if put in a fireplace.”

Hef sighed in exasperation. “It is
only able to utilize one metal at this time, but you could design the recess of
the etched letters into the ring schematic and any metal smith worth his weight
in ore could fill the etching in with the second metal later.”

“Yeah, right, whatever. One Ring.
Dibs,” she wiggled her ring finger at them.

“I’d print miniature metal replicas
of the greatest military vehicles, ships and aircraft with actual moving
parts,” Tripper practically sang.

“I’d love to have the ability to
make any item I need to fix something by uploading a picture and giving it a
little tweak,” Calvin noted.

“Can we not return to
this
vehicle?” Hephaestus seemed close to losing his cool for the first time in a
very long time.

“Sorry. Continue, Hephaestus,”
Calvin waved him on.

“There are two turrets on the roof
of the engine, front and rear, and one on each side. Each of the other cars has
one turret on top. Each turret has ten-thousand rounds of ammo—”

“—you mean nails,” Tripper
corrected.

“In this case, it is ammo,” Hef
continued unfazed.

“Whatever,” Tripper shrugged.

“Each nail turret has
four
barrels, each two feet longer than the Hedgehog’s for more accuracy at longer
range, and each with its own feed belt. And you can shut off the outer barrels for
normal action. I would only use all four for large crowd control.”

“How did you design and build this
so fast?” Captain Batmouche’ asked.

“It was already being built,” Hef explained.
“Nearly complete, actually. It took nine months to redesign this particular
train. It is the only one like it in the entire world.”

“He builds things for movie
studios,” Calvin explained. “He was building this for an apocalypse movie to be
named later, like our Hedgehog over there.”

“Oh, I see. Impressive,” she nodded,
finally impressed by something other than his smooth, tan skin and bright smile.

“Speaking of names…” Tripper put
his finger on his chin.

“I already have a name, thank you,”
Hef told him haughtily.

“I mean for the train.”

“I know what you meant. I already
have one; Twilight Dragon.”

“Nice,” Trip and Scaggs said
simultaneously.

“But if I may continue…” he paused.
Several of the others nodded, so he did.

“Other than the turrets, each car
has ports down below through which you can fire a rifle. The caboose is our toy
hauler and has a turret that can be fired using a remote and monitor because
there was not enough room to fit a full cupola and our oversized vehicles in
there together. It is mounted directly to the top, not set inside the train.”

“But, it’s a train,” Tripper
mumbled in disappointment.

“Yes. It is, Tripper. I thought you
would like to ride a train out of here.”

“But in a train we’re stuck only
going where the tracks go.”

Hephaestus and Calvin laughed
together.

“This is true for a normal train,
yes. But we will have other options. That is one reason we are taking the other
vehicles. We will also take my van. It has one turret, but is not so heavily armored.
It will work as a troop hauler. The civilians should always ride in the armored
vehicles.”

“Absolutely,” Calvin agreed
emphatically.

“But what about these other options
you’re talking about?” Tripper asked.

“They are a surprise,” Hef threw
him a bright ivory smile, offering nothing further.

“I am sure you are all in a hurry
to leave Kansas City for now, so we should finish loading. The sleeper is car
one. It is four people to a cabin, except for my own quarters and that of
Calvin and Athena.”

“What?” Tripper, Joel and Gus
exclaimed together.

“There will be leftover rooms. I
will allow you to decide who sleeps where, but this is why I told you all to
keep your personal things with you. You can stow them in your bunkroom when you
pick it out.”

“Why do you and Calvin get the big
rooms?” Tripper asked with a challenge.

“It is Calvin and Athena. Athena
runs my company and Calvin is the leader of this group. I get one because I designed
and built this vehicle. If you do not like the arrangements, you can always
follow in your own car,” Hef suggested.

“Fair enough,” Tripper conceded
meekly.

“What car is which?” Calvin asked.

“The first is the sleeper. I am
sorry it is so close to the engine, but that is the only way to ensure it is
the best protected car. The second car is the kitchen, dining room, radio room,
storage and meeting room. There is a smaller room in the sleeper just off of
the engine for quick meetings, but most of the time the dining room will serve
for this. The third car is my workshop and parts storage as well as all other
supplies. The fourth, the caboose, is the car carrier.”

“Let’s get to work. Show us what to
do,” Calvin clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

Hef showed them how to open the
doors. Each rail car opened in the rear and on the side in draw-bridge fashion.
The rail cars were nearly four inches wider than standard rail cars. Hef drove
his van into the last car first, then Quinn pulled in the Paddy Wagon and
finally Felicia drove the Hedgehog up the ramp. All three fit within the garage
end to end with space for even the massive Quinn to walk by on the driver’s
side, and most of the others could easily fit on the right.

“Just like my garage,” Tripper
noted casually.

“We can park them all the way to
the right if we find we need more space for people or additional storage,” Hef
notified them, wondering if anyone was still listening. One glance around told
him they probably weren’t.

Saul Rosenthal and Ben Grissom were
deep in ‘discussion’ about who was going to get the left side of their
bunkhouse and just who needed to be closer to the bathroom and why. Athena,
Sarah and their mothers had disappeared into the kitchen car along with Mr.
McClintock to see what they had to work with. Mr. McClintock was quite an
outdoor chef himself and with all of them working together most of the family gatherings
of the past had been more like wedding feasts or banquets rather than pool
parties and the like.

Alex and the Worm were guided to a
room with a DVD player and gaming systems and a divider between their beds so
they could each have their own sub-room. The soldiers were getting acquainted
with the air guns, asking questions of Quinn who had already studied the
blueprints and tested all of the equipment with Hephaestus. The others spent
their time putting away their personal belongings and searching for specific marked
boxes and containers that the two smiths had put away earlier. When their stuff
was stowed, the excited extended family began trickling back to where Hef
watched with a look somewhere between pride and love.

“By the way, that was a nice
reveal, too,” Calvin patted his friend on the shoulder.

“It was to be a big thing for the
movie people,” Hef said in a voice tinged with regret. “I spent fifteen
thousand dollars to get that door and floor to roll away unnoticed.”

“Fifteen thousand?” Calvin asked.

“Well, that is only on the floor,
the exploding wall and the lighting, plus some videos that were going to play
right before all of that. But the rest was not fitting for this gathering. I am
glad I was still able to get some use out of it. I will still get the fifteen
thousand, though,” he grinned. “Insurance.”

“That’s assuming there are any
Insurance companies after this is all over,” Athena informed him astutely.

“Oh, right,” he appeared
momentarily crestfallen, as if recouping the loss of only fifteen thousand meant
that much to him.

“Fifteen thousand?” Tripper spat.
“He just throws fifteen thousand away but when I ask for a loan he wants me to
sign paperwork.”

“That is because I know I can trust
the movie company to pay me back.”

Scaggs and Felicia both doubled
over with laughter. “Not when you’re working for the independents,” Scaggs
informed him, gripping her side.

“I always get paid,” he insisted.
“I have solid contracts. I know because my brilliant Chief Administrator hired
the best contract lawyer in the Midwest to write them up for me.”

“Thank you,” Athena beamed at him.
“Of course, I have it in a contract that he has to say that,” she admitted with
a wink.

“My lawyer tells me to always read
everything,” he lamented. “I did not know that meant on
our
contract as
well.”

“One of life’s hard-learned
lessons,” she smiled nastily.

Eventually they had everything
loaded and they were all chatting animatedly on the train, with Calvin and
Hephaestus going through checklists and Sarah and Athena double-checking the
lists and the checks.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Calvin ultimately announced.

While the parents, Megan, Mo and the children were all still putting their belongings away in their bunk
rooms, the ‘adventure party’ and soldiers gathered in the surprisingly spacious
engine room and the adjoining meeting room at the front of the sleeper car. A
small, eight-inch-wide metal walkway ran around the outer edge of the engine
room at about chest height. The walkway was firmly suspended from the ceiling
by one inch rods bolted to the roof and hangers affixing it to the side walls
of engine. Joel, Scaggs, Gus and Felicia sat up in the turret walkway looking
down on the others, legs dangling between the hangers as they read and re-read
the manual for the turrets and listened to those below excitedly talking about
their impending escape.

Calvin smiled up at his friends,
glad both Joel and Gus had found someone to spend the end of the world with.

“Is everyone accounted for?”
Hephaestus asked him.

“Yes.”

“Is everything on board?”

“Yes.”

“Did we do all we needed to do?”