Rolling Thunder - 03 (17 page)

The change in motion and vibration of the train woke me.  I
had managed to fall asleep in one of the seats, head lolled back and probably
with drool running down my chin.  Rachel was in the seat next to me, legs
curled up under her the way only women can and her head pillowed on my
shoulder.  Dog was on his back, legs splayed wide apart and snoring like an
asthmatic steam engine.  Looking around I saw most other people were also
asleep, Jackson the only person on his feet as he stood at the windows looking
south.  Gently I moved Rachel off my shoulder, had to poke Dog three times to
get him to roll off my feet, then stood up and visited the small toilet at the
front of the car.  I opened the door and closed it almost instantly.  Even
though it was apparently out of order people had been using it.  A lot.

Walking to the back of the car I stepped out onto the
platform and relieved myself into the slipstream of wind created by the train. 
Immediate need taken care of I went back in and stood next to Jackson. 
Glancing at my watch I saw it was just after 0400.  The sun would be up soon,
just in time for us to negotiate Memphis and the Mississippi River crossing. 
It was still pitch black outside and I didn’t know if Jackson was watching for
something or just staring and lost in thought.

“What’s going on?”  I asked, keeping my voice quiet so I
didn’t wake the sleeping people around us.

“We’ve passed the area the herd was transiting and the
outskirts of Memphis are about 30 miles away.  There’s a sharp curve ahead as
we turn into the city and we have to slow to twenty and pretty much maintain
that speed until we’re over the bridge.”  He kept staring out the windows as he
spoke.

“How does Memphis look?  Any reports?”

“The Colonel has a couple of Black Hawks flying recon and
it’s the damndest thing.  There’s pea soup fog and they can’t see anything on
the ground.”

“They using FLIR – Forward Looking Infrared - ?”

“Yep.  And they’ve tried LWIR – Long Wave Infrared - too,
but the fog is really messing with it.  They keep thinking they see movement,
but they reposition and whatever it was is gone.  Don’t know if it’s real or
the fog causing ghosts in the imagery equipment.”  I knew now what he was
watching for.  Fog.  Thick, blinding fog.  Just fucking marvelous.

The train kept slowing and the vibration finally ceased and
we were back to the gentle swaying motion which continued to diminish as we
slowed further.  Eventually we seemed to settle into our new speed and soon I
could feel the motion change as we rolled into the curve Jackson had
mentioned.  Out of the curve we suddenly entered the fog.  One moment blank
windows were staring back at us, the next we both blinked as the thick, white
fog enveloped the train and reflected the light back at us.

“Don’t know about you, Master Sergeant, but I don’t like
this.  Better get everybody up and let’s get some eyes up top.” 

“Yes, sir.”  Jackson immediately turned and woke the
National Guard soldiers, sending them through the car to wake the civilians.  One
of them got sent to the roof of the car while the others headed into other cars
to rouse the occupants.  Wanting to get some fresh air I joined the soldier on
the roof of the car.

The fog was so thick it almost seemed like it had substance
to it, like I could scoop out a handful of it and a hole would remain.  It was chilly
and damp, quickly coating every inch of me with moisture which soaked right
through to my skin and also muted the clacking sound made by the train as it
rolled down the tracks, much like a heavy snowfall quietens the countryside. 
The only good thing was it fully woke me and with the wind of our passage it
helped flush the last of the stench from below out of my sinuses. 

There were occasional gaps in the fog as we proceeded, but
they were small and infrequent.  When we passed through one I could only see
flat terrain covered with thick bladed green grass.  Once I caught sight of two
abandoned vehicles as we crossed a street, but didn’t see them long enough to
identify their make or model.  Seeing those two cars made me think about the
engineer driving the lead locomotive.  He couldn’t see any farther than I could
and if there was a vehicle, or something larger, that had been abandoned on the
tracks we’d plow right into it. 

A check of my watch and it was now after 0500.  We had to be
in Memphis, but the fog was still so thick I couldn’t see a thing to prove it. 
I tried to remember how early the sun had come up in Atlanta, figuring Memphis
couldn’t be that much different.  0530 I thought.  Well, I’d know soon if I had
remembered correctly.  Pacing the roof of the car, I tried to peer through the
fog but still was limited to the occasional break.  I was getting glimpses of
buildings, streets, cars and empty lots.  I wasn’t seeing anything else and
heard nothing other than the train.

The fog around me was lightening and I knew that somewhere
above it the eastern horizon was glowing.  Correcting myself I remembered that
the eastern horizon had been glowing all night.  Jackson joined me, both of us
looking up at the sound of a heavy rotor but unable to see the helicopter in
the fog.

“That’s the Colonel’s Black Hawk.”  He said.  “They’re
trying to see if the track in front of us is still clear, but if there’s not
something that’s glowing red hot they aren’t going to be able to see it in this
shit.”  He waved his hand through the fog in front of him.

“How much farther to the river?”

“We’re still east of the city.  Probably another half an
hour at this speed.”  That meant the bulk of Memphis was still ahead of us. 

We stood there in silence, the dampness seeping into our
clothing then deeper into my joints that weren’t as young as they used to be. 
Life as a SF operator is not easy on the body.  Knees and shoulders seem to be
what goes first, and my left shoulder was reminding me it had been dislocated
twice when I was younger.  Reaching up and rubbing it I froze when the feeling
hit me.  The same little sixth sense, whatever the hell it is, that had warned
me there was an enemy behind a tree when I was south of Murfreesboro was
screaming at me that something was wrong.  Every hair on my body was standing
on end and there was a creeping feeling all up and down the flesh on my back.

I looked around, but the fog was still too thick to see
anything.  The sun was up now, but the fog diffused the light so there were no
shadows and nothing was well lit.  I looked around for the soldier who had been
on the roof when I came up and didn’t see him.  What the hell?  I was standing
in roughly the middle of the car which was close to a hundred feet long.  Maybe
he had moved to an end and I just couldn’t see him.  Raising my rifle I took it
off safe as I looked around.  Jackson noticed and like an experienced operator
didn’t bother to ask what was wrong, just raised his rifle as well.

We stood there, silent and unmoving, for a couple of moments
before I hand signed to Jackson that the soldier was missing and I was going
forward to look for him.  He nodded and followed me, each of us stepping
sideways so we were facing opposite sides of the car as we moved.  It didn’t
take long to reach the front of the car and we hadn’t found the soldier. 
Reversing direction, Jackson led the way to the back.  Again it didn’t take
long to cover the short distance and we didn’t find the missing soldier.  What
the hell?

The day was continuing to brighten as the sun climbed higher
in the sky and a few moments later we came to another break in the fog. 
Jackson and I both cursed at the same time.  Thousands of infected were right
at the edge of the tracks, females leaping for any handhold on the train they
could find.  Then the fog swallowed us back up and we lost sight of our
attackers.

I stepped to the edge of the car looking down on the
platform leading to the door and saw two females looking back up at me.  When
they saw me they both screamed and one of them leapt onto the ladder, covering
half the distance to the roof in one bound.  I already had my rifle pointed
into the gap and I shot her off the ladder, her body slamming into the other
one and both of them tumbling through the opening and under the wheels of the
following car.  I started to step onto the ladder to head below but pulled my
foot back when another female grabbed onto the railing and swung onto the
platform. 

Behind me I could hear Jackson on the radio reporting our
situation to Colonel Crawford.  I shot the new arrival, slapped him on the
shoulder to let him know it was time to go then stepped out and slid down the
ladder to the platform.  The instant my boots hit the metal I stepped out of
the way so Jackson could come down, raising my rifle in the same motion. 
Another female grabbed the railing to my right, using the momentum of the train
to whip herself up and around, but let go and fell away when I raised my foot
and kicked her in the face. 

That kick almost cost me my life as the one right behind her
was able to swing around the rail and grab onto my ankle with a frighteningly
strong grip.  Shoving the rifle into her face I pulled the trigger and she fell
away, nearly dragging me off the narrow platform with her.  Jackson thumped
down next to me and I shouted for him to get the door open as I shot another
female that was hanging on to the train with one hand and reaching for Jackson
with the other.  I snapped the rifle up at a scream from over my head, shooting
a female that was about to leap at me from the roof of the car just behind us. 
Damn it.  They were everywhere.  I fired at another as she scrambled for
footing on the platform, then Jackson grabbed my vest and yanked me backwards
through the open door, slamming it shut as soon as I was clear. 

Everyone in the car was on their feet, frightened
conversations dying out as they turned to look at me.  Ignoring them I looked
around to make sure Rachel and Dog were safe.  They were still where I’d left
them, Rachel now awake and Dog sitting in my seat, looking at me like he was
daring me to make him move.  Turning back to Jackson I asked him if there was
any way to speak directly to the engineer driving the train.  He pulled out his
radio, adjusted the frequency, spoke briefly to the engineer then handed the
unit to me.

“We need to speed up.”  I said.  “At this speed the infected
are able to grab on and climb aboard.”

“I can’t go any faster.”  It was hard to hear the man’s
voice over the roar of machinery in the background, but I was able to
understand what he was saying.  “There’s a ninety coming up that lines us up
for the bridge and I’m already at the max rated speed.  I take that turn too
fast and we go over.” 

“Can’t you speed up then slow back down?”

“This ain’t a fuckin’ car.  It takes miles to speed up and
more miles to slow down.  There’s nothing I can do.  We’re committed and we
can’t go faster.”  I didn’t bother to answer, just ripped the earpiece out and
handed the unit back to Jackson.

“We can’t go faster.  There’s a sharp turn coming to get us
onto the bridge and if he goes faster we roll.”  Rachel had come back and stood
listening.

“Wait a minute,” she said.  “How far to the turn?  And which
way are we turning?”

I didn’t know and looked at Jackson.  He quickly called the
engineer back.  “Twenty minutes and to the right.”  All of us jumped at a loud
thump on the door, infected screams following moments later, then we spun and
raised our weapons when a pistol fired inside the car.  A female had been
crawling in one of the windows that had been blown out earlier when the Apaches
were firing next to the train.  One of the men standing nearby had shot her
before she made it all the way into the car.  Before we could resume our
conversation a window shattered as another infected started battering her way
inside.  She was shot down by one of the National Guard soldiers but not before
reaching through the broken glass and slashing open the face of a child sitting
on his mother’s lap.

“What’s your idea?”  I asked Rachel.

“How many people on the train?”  We both looked at Jackson.

“Not sure, but around 8,000 I think.”

“OK, 8,000 people, and if we say an average body weight of
even just 150 pounds per person that’s,” Rachel paused and looked off into
space while she did the math.  “One point two million pounds.” She finally said
with an excited smile that faded as Jackson and I just stood there looking at
her.

“You Army guys aren’t too imaginative, are you?”  She looked
back and forth at us.  “We’ve got well over a million pounds of ballast.  Get
everyone to move to the inside edge of the curve and we can counter the force
that would tip us over and can speed up.”  Rachel was excited, talking fast and
using her hands to help make her point.

“Will that work?”  Jackson looked at me.

“Hell if I know.  I’m just a dumb grunt, but it makes
sense.  Call the engineer and ask him.”

Jackson had a brief yet intense conversation with the
engineer.  While they were talking another infected broke through a window but
was quickly shot down before she could do any damage to the evacuees.

“He says it should work.  He’s pushing us up by fifteen
miles an hour which will be fast enough to stop these damn things from climbing
on…”

“Great!”  I interrupted.  “We need to spread the word…”

“One more thing.”  It was Jackson’s turn to cut me off.  “He
says if it’s not enough of a counterbalance we will definitely turn over at
that speed.”

“It’s gotta work.”  I said.  “Get on that radio and start
spreading the word.” 

While Jackson started issuing orders to all the military
personnel spread throughout the train I felt the sway and vibration increase as
the engineer bumped our speed.  That was good, stopping any more infected from
boarding the train, but I was worried about how many had already climbed on and
even now were breaking through windows and attacking defenseless people. 

“The Colonel is briefed and wishes us luck,” Jackson said,
turning back to face me.  “What now?”

I didn’t know what now.  The plan was in motion, the curve
was fast approaching and I couldn’t think of another damn thing that needed
doing.  Ideally I would have liked to go outside with Jackson and clear the
infected off the skin of the train, but between our higher speed and the dense
fog I didn’t think that was the wisest thing to do.  They were a threat, but
they were easier to deal with from inside as they tried to come through windows
than they would be from the outside. 

“We make sure everyone is on the right side of the train and
we sit tight.”  I answered, demonstrating by squeezing into half a seat next to
Rachel and Dog.  Two other people were crammed between them and the windows as all
the passengers got shifted as far to the right as possible.  Jackson settled
onto the edge of the seat in front of me.

“Hey, Master Sergeant.  Have you gotten any word about the
bridge or the tracks on the far side of the river?”  Jackson turned in the seat
to look at me and got back on the radio.

“The fog is heaviest at the river.  Thermal’s not seeing
anything on the bridge, but that doesn’t mean a damn thing.  The fog is thick
for another ten miles on west of the river then starts thinning out.  They’re
seeing movement a few miles out, but can’t tell what the tracks are like for
the first few miles west of the bridge.”

Just great.  All this amazing technology that let the US
fight just as effectively at night as in the daytime and it was rendered nearly
useless by something as simple as fog.  I understood that FLIR or thermal
imaging worked by detecting heat sources and the dense fog which was comprised
of billions of fine droplets of water did an excellent job of masking heat signatures,
but you’d think with the trillions of dollars we poured into the military that
someone would have found a solution.  Of course, we’d been wrapped up in a war
in the desert for over a decade and fog wasn’t a big issue where we’d been
fighting.  Shit.