Rolling Thunder - 03 (18 page)

The time to reach the curve passed slowly.  If there’s one
thing the Army teaches you it is patience.  Not the kind of patience a kindly
grandparent might have, more like the forced patience you learn from spending
time waiting for something to happen even though you’re primed and ready to
go.  Kind of like the interminable time spent in an Emergency Room waiting area,
or dealing with a delayed flight at the airport.  It’s not fun but it’s been an
integral part of my life.  I’ve frequently had the day dream fantasy of being
filthy rich, not so I could buy whatever bauble caught my eye, but so I could
have enough money to never have to wait again.  This and other ridiculous
thoughts swirled through my head as I sat, waiting for us to reach the curve. 

Rachel was nervous, the pressure of our lives depending on
her idea was getting to her.  She had a firm grip on my arm with both hands and
a worried expression on her face.  I patted her hand and gave her a reassuring
smile.  We either made it or we didn’t and the more you dwelled on it the more
energy you wasted that might be needed if things didn’t go according to plan.  If
you’ve been in combat you learn to accept that fact very quickly or you wind up
bouncing off the walls in a rubber room somewhere while the Army processes your
Section 8 discharge paperwork.  I’ve seen plenty of guys that were beasts in
training turn into puddles of jelly when the bullets started flying and bombs
were going off.  Not their fault.  There’s just some people that aren’t built
for the battlefield.

“The locomotive is just entering the curve.”  Jackson turned
and informed me.  “Our engineer is nervous as hell.  He says there’s thousands
of infected on the tracks, but so far we’re blasting through them without any
issues.”

I nodded and Rachel squeezed my arm tighter.  I could feel a
new vibration start up in the train as more cars entered the curve and I
couldn’t shake the mental image of the entire train slowly rising up onto the
outside set of wheels as it rolled through the curve, then in exaggerated slow
motion we kept tipping until we were beyond the point of no return and crashed
into a sea of waiting infected arms.  Shaking the image out of my head I
focused back on the inside of the car, looking at Jackson’s sweaty face.  The
man was nervous, and after a moment I realized I was too.   

The vibration continued, worsening by the moment until I
thought the train was going to shake itself into pieces.  Then our car entered
the curve.  The change in motion was more sudden and sharper than I expected, a
sudden push to my left as the car was drug through the turn.  Several people
let out gasps and cries of fear as they were jolted out of their seats to
sprawl into the aisle.  Seemingly forever we rocked back and forth through the
curve then I felt the car tip up slightly.  The vibrations changed dramatically
as the wheels along the right side of the car came off the track and for a
moment there was that semi-weightless feeling you get on a plane when it starts
descending, then a hard impact as the wheels crashed back down.  There was a
brief scream of protesting metal then we were rolling again.

A collective sigh of relief and a few muted cheers sounded
throughout the car, but the celebration was cut short as everyone was suddenly
and violently thrown forward.  There was a horrendous screeching of metal
pushed beyond the point of failure quickly followed by a sharp jerk to the left
that snapped necks harder than any roller coaster I’ve ever ridden.  The car
started to tip, slowly gaining momentum, then I could feel the wheels leave the
track and crash to the ground.  All around me people were screaming and crying
out as we seemed to be moving forward but with the car at a forty-five degree
angle to the direction of the tracks.  The sounds of metal being violently
ripped apart and the bass rumble of the steel wheels dragging on the bare earth
grew in intensity for a moment then quickly faded as we came to a full stop.  The
car was tipped up at a dizzying angle with a lean to the left and I had almost
all of the weight of the three people and the dog to my right pushing me out of
my seat and into the aisle. 

Standing up I had to hold on to the seats along the aisle to
maintain my footing on the sloping floor.  I tried to see out the windows, but
the fog was still too thick to allow more than a dozen feet of visibility even
though it was well lit by the sun.  The passengers in the car were eerily
quiet, the only sounds the crying of a few children and the underlying noises
made as the overstressed and overheated metal wheels cooled with a pinging
sound not unlike popcorn in an old time kettle.

“Master Sergeant, how far to the river?”  I grabbed Jackson
and pulled him to his feet.

“About five miles if we follow the tracks.”

“Let the Colonel know we’re going to be on foot.  I’m going
to try and get an idea of just how many infected we’ve got to deal with.  Also
get me a count of military personnel on this train and what the state of their
ammo is.”

While Jackson got on the radio I moved to the left side of
the train and cautiously stuck my head out one of the broken windows.  I was
immediately greeted with the screams of hundreds of females that were visible,
some clearly as they were very close to the train, others looking more like
spirits as they moved through the fog.  Stumbling through the throng of females
were hundreds more males, and between them we looked to be crashed in the
middle of a sea of death.  Rachel had moved to the row of seats next to me and
was also looking out a window, catching her breath when she saw the mess we
were in.

“What the hell are we going to do?”  She asked without
taking her eyes off the milling infected.

“We’re going to get everyone ready then we’re getting off
this train and fighting our way to the river.”  I said.

“Are you nuts?  There’s too many of them.  We won’t make
it.”

“Keep it down!”  I said in a low voice before Rachel got the
civilians in the car interested in our conversation.  “We don’t have a choice. 
There’s no one to come get us, and if we just sit here they’ll keep us trapped
until we die of dehydration.  When the sun burns the fog off it’s going to get
damn hot in these cars and half these people will be dead by this time
tomorrow.  Our odds aren’t much better, if any, out there amongst them, but at
least we’ll have a fighting chance.  We stay here and we have none, and we need
to get moving before more of them pile into the area.”

Rachel didn’t argue further, eventually nodding her head
that she understood my reasoning, but I could tell she didn’t want to go out
there.  Hell, neither did I, but I sure as hell didn’t want to sit on my ass
inside this train to just wait for a slow and certain death.  Would a lot of us
die outside?  Absolutely, but some would escape and that was better odds than
doing nothing.

“Major, there’s 312 military on the train, including us. 
Everyone is well provisioned but we’re too disorganized at the moment to get
you accurate ammo counts.  Each person is armed with a rifle and pistol and
we’ve also got seven SAWs – Squad Automatic Weapons or light machine guns – and
two up-armored Humvees and one Bradley.  Also, the Colonel is overhead with a
flight of five Black Hawks and twelve Apaches ready to provide air support when
we need it, but it’s going to be dicey as hell with the fog for them to be able
to see where to shoot.”

I nodded, wheels turning as I processed the information he’d
just given me.  8,000 people on the train and barely 300 soldiers to protect
them from what I guessed were going to be thousands if not tens of thousands of
infected.  Infected that couldn’t be scared off, beaten back or would even tire
from the fight.  They would just keep coming until every last one of them was
dead, or every last one of us was dead or beyond reach.  And there was also the
five miles to the bridge that we had to cross. 

Covering five miles on foot was nothing for someone in the
military, just another day at work.  The civilians, on the other hand, would be
tired before we’d even gone a mile.  Of course there were the few that stayed
in shape and could keep up or even set the pace, but America had gotten fat. 
We drove everywhere we went, found the parking spot closest to the door, and
consumed more calories for breakfast than millions of people around the world
did in a day.  Most of these people were going to be easy prey for the infected
and I didn’t have any bright ideas about how to protect them.  I kept those
thoughts to myself.

“Get that Bradley and those Humvees moving.  Pair up the
Hummers on the left side of the train to provide fire support and put the
Bradley on the right.  I want him to stop as many infected as he can that are
coming from that direction.  Get all the military personnel to spread the
word.  We move in five minutes.”  I glanced at my stolen watch to note the
time.  “Everyone out and to the left side of the train.  Get the Colonel to put
half that flight of Apaches on the right side with the Bradley to keep the
infected cleared out.  Keep the other half in reserve to support them and the
Black Hawks ready for air support on the left side.”  Jackson had been making
notes on a small spiral pad while I talked.  Giving me a look that said he
hoped I knew what I was doing he nodded and turned away to get back on the
radio and start issuing orders and a request to the Colonel.

I called the National Guard Sergeant over and gave him a
thirty second dump of what was going on and told him to get the civilians on
this car ready to move.  “What about the prisoner?”  He asked when I was
finished.  Shit.  I’d forgotten about Roach.  Part of me wanted to leave him
tied up right where he was and let the infected have him after we left, but it
wasn’t my call to make.

“Cut him loose.”  I said.  “But he does not get a weapon. 
He can take his chances with the infected just like the civilians.”  The
Sergeant nodded and started barking orders to the remaining members of his
squad.

With two minutes left I walked over to where Jackson was
wrapping up a conversation on the Radio.  “Colonel Crawford wishes us luck.” 
He said when I stopped in front of him.  “He asked if we wanted him to pick us
up in the Black Hawk.  In fact, he strongly suggested that we’d be of more
value to the country if he did pick us up rather than staying down here and
becoming some poor infected bastard’s breakfast.”

“What did you say?”

“I told him we appreciated his offer but we were right where
we were needed most.”  I clapped Jackson on the shoulder and gave him a big
grin.  I was really starting to like this guy.

It was only a couple of moments later when I heard the first
rounds fired off outside the train.  I recognized the sound of the Humvee
mounted machine gun and soon the second one joined in.  Then the Bradley cut
lose on the opposite side of the train with its 25 mm chain gun and I could
hear its machine gun start hammering as well.  I glanced at my watch.  One
minute to go.  Involuntarily I looked up, as if I could see through the roof of
the train car, when a helicopter that had to be an Apache came into a hover
right over us and opened up with its chin mounted 30 mm chain gun.  We
certainly had the fire support, but I also knew the air and ground units didn’t
have unlimited ammo and not even the option of falling back to resupply before
rejoining the fight.

Thirty seconds.  I moved to the back door of the car and
Jackson fell in on my left as if we’d been training together for years.  Rachel
moved in behind us and Dog took up station in the middle of the triangle we
formed.  The National Guard had all the civilians on their feet and ready to
follow us out the door.  I hadn’t seen Roach for a bit, but had noted that the
strips of fabric that had been used to tie him up had been cut and he was out
of his seat.  I didn’t like having him somewhere at my back.  I only trusted
him if he was close enough for me to kill him.

Fifteen seconds.  Jackson sent an alert call out over the
radio to prepare to move.  I wanted every car evacuating at the same time, as
many rifles as we could field ready to go simultaneously.  If we weren’t
coordinated it would give the infected an opportunity to fall on those that
moved out early and wipe them out.  I wanted their attention as spread out as
possible.  We were going to hit them hard the second we stepped out and do our
best to keep the civilians in a tight group as we moved.  I glanced over my
shoulder to check on Max who was sitting up with a rifle in his hands,
surrounded by his three sons who were also armed with rifles.  Two large male
civilians stood ready to lift Max down and would stay with him when we hit the
ground, a third man ready to go with Max’s equipment cases.

Five seconds.  The hammering of a machine gun sounded right
outside the car and I was glad that one of the Humvees was in place and ready
to take Max and his equipment on board.  There was also a pregnant woman that
would be joining him.  I tried not to think about what the virus might be doing
to the baby in her womb.  Unfortunately there wasn’t room for Max’s sons in the
Hummer and they were going to have to take their chances as we ran for the
bridge.  Jackson was on the radio counting down to our go time.  When he
reached three I grasped the emergency release in my hand.  On one I pulled it
hard and the door released and slid open.

Three females waited for us on the other side of the door,
screaming in anticipation as soon as the door started opening.  Rachel, Jackson
and I each fired at nearly the same instant and all three of them dropped dead
into the seething mass of bodies that had forced its way into the gap between
the cars.  I stepped through the door before any more could climb up onto the
platform and started picking off targets that were so close I could actually
see the powder burns from my shots on their mottled skin before they fell. 
Jackson was close on my shoulder and between the two of us we quickly cleared
the gap and were able to jump down and start engaging targets that weren’t
close enough to touch.

The fog was a bitch.  To my front the Humvee sat waiting for
its passengers, no more than 15 feet away and it looked almost ethereal in the
mist as the gunner fired the machine gun to keep the area clear.  I was
acquiring and firing on targets as fast as I could, but at 20 feet they were
little more than an amorphous movement, suddenly sharpening into clarity as they
charged and drew closer. 

“Reloading!”  I called out and Rachel stepped to my side to
maintain the rate of fire and keep targets knocked down for the one second it
took me to drop the empty magazine, slap a new one in and release the bolt to
chamber a fresh round.  I turned to cover Jackson’s area while he reloaded,
then it was Rachel’s turn.  We kept this progression up, moving into the open
space between the crashed train car and the Humvee and spreading out to provide
protection for the civilians that were streaming out of the train. 

Max was rolled out the door onto the platform, the two men
leaping to the ground and lifting him and his chair into the air and carrying
him to the waiting Humvee.  There wasn’t time for sensitivity and the driver
popped open the passenger door as they approached, reached out and grabbed Max
by the arms, dragging him out of the chair and into the vehicle.  The chair was
collapsed and tossed into the back, then two of the National Guard soldiers
hustled over with the pregnant woman between them.  I was engaging three
females charging directly at me when several screams sounded way too close, but
I couldn’t look.  Any loss of focus and the three infected would be on me in a
heartbeat.

Firing three quick shots I dropped them and spun just as a
female who had made it onto the hood of the Humvee launched herself directly at
the pregnant woman who was being hurried along with a soldier’s hand under each
arm.  The infected slammed into her chest and ripped her arms out of their
hands, knocking her flat on her back and immediately started tearing into her
throat.  Before I could pivot and bring my rifle up Dog leapt and tore the
infected off the woman’s body, rolling across the rough gravel and coming to a
stop against the front tire of the Hummer.  He quickly dispatched the female,
but I didn’t have time to check on the pregnant woman as more shapes suddenly
appeared in the fog to my front.

We kept up our rate of fire, along with the Hummer, and soon
all the civilians were off the train and milling nervously in a tight group. 
Many of them were armed with varieties of weapons that ran the gamut from
kitchen knives to a turn of the last century double barreled shotgun that was
about five feet long.  The group was pressed up against the car and the ones
that were armed had positioned themselves at the edge to try and provide
protection for the rest.

“Jackson, get everyone moving!”  I shouted to be heard over
the weapons fire, screams of the infected and roar of the hovering Apache which
was still firing short and controlled bursts on the far side of the train. 
Jackson shouted into his radio and as previously agreed Rachel and I went to
the front of our group and he brought up the rear as we got them moving west
along the shattered remains of the train.  Firing from the group ahead of us
was steady and it sounded like the Bradley was in a target rich environment,
firing burst after burst.

Breaking into a slow jog I kept firing at targets as I ran,
Rachel right beside me and doing the same.  I was gratified to see how much her
skills had improved as she was hitting most of her targets while on the move. 
Dog trotted between us, head on a swivel.  The group behind had to spread out
to be able to run and soon we were all moving at a slow but steady pace.  Maybe
four miles an hour.  That meant over an hour just to get to the bridge. 

Running through fog isn’t pleasant when there aren’t swarms
of infected trying to kill you.  Doing it when there are is absolutely
terrifying.  Your senses compress in as the fog blinds you and mutes sounds and
smells, almost like having a layer of gauze wrapped around your head.  I was
frequently being surprised by infected that suddenly appeared in the fog right
in front of me as if by magic.  The fight was so close that I had slung my
rifle in favor of my knife in my left hand and pistol in my right.  We moved
that way for a few minutes, Rachel still using her rifle and keeping up a
fairly steady rate of fire, me stabbing and shooting any infected that were
within visual range.

Screams from the infected were continually sounding from
deeper in the fog than I could see, and the way sound was affected I couldn’t
tell the direction the majority of them were coming from.  It took me a moment
to realize there were screams coming from behind me that were both infected as
well as terrorized people.  Looking back I could only see the first rank of
evacuees closest to me, also turned and looking to their rear as they ran.

“Maintain the pace!”  I shouted to Rachel as I dashed back
toward the screams.  As I moved through the fog I started encountering
infected, both male and female, moving in from our flank.  At least a dozen evacuees
were already dead on the ground and the infected were still pouring in.  I shot
two females and three males as soon as they appeared in the mist, slashed the
throat of a male who was fighting with a teenager and stabbed into the back of
the head of another female who was trying to pull a heavyset man to the
ground.  Jackson ran up from the rear and killed two more females, nodded to me
and headed back.

“Faster!”  I shouted to the group and turned and ran back to
the front, sheathing the knife and doing a quick magazine change before
holstering the pistol and grabbing my rifle.

The two Humvees were driving up and down the edge of the
fleeing evacuees, mowing down infected with their machine guns as they moved
and I matched pace with one as it went past, taking advantage of the fire
support it provided as I ran to catch Rachel.  I was having to watch my footing
so I didn’t trip over a body as well as be alert for infected popping up in the
fog.  Every few yards I was having to step over a dead infected and more
savaged evacuees than I wanted to see.  I was moving too slow, but still faster
than the group of civilians and I shouted at them again to run faster. 

I caught up with Rachel and Dog, Rachel nearly shooting me
when I suddenly appeared out of the fog.  Her hair was wet and plastered to her
head, long strands of it hanging down across her face but she still gave me a
bright smile when she recognized me.  Shooting an infected that was less than
five feet to her left I yelled for her to pick up the pace.  She ran faster and
matched my speed, Dog still able to stay with us at no more than a trot, but
then he had four legs to use and could cover a lot of ground very quickly
without much effort.

At our faster pace it didn’t take long for us to catch up with
the group ahead.  We had been dodging and stepping over bodies of both infected
and evacuees for a few minutes before we caught them, frequently killing males
that we encountered who were following in their wake.  When we first came upon
them Rachel and I both nearly shot the civilians at the back of the group when
they coalesced out of the fog.  We had grown accustomed to seeing and shooting
infected males that were lumbering along and if it hadn’t been for a little
blonde girl holding her father’s hand as they walked we probably would have
fired on them.

“Run!  Move faster!”  I started shouting as we approached
the group from the rear.  Heads turned to look at me and one by one people
broke into a slow jog.  Rachel, Dog and I peeled off to the side and started
running past the group which had apparently suffered a lot of losses as there
weren’t that many people left.  The group we had been leading caught up and
pushed into the back of them, urging them to a faster pace.  We were running
close to the derailed train which offered a degree of protection, especially
with the Bradley and Apaches clearing the far side of infected, but our exposed
flank was under continuous attack and I couldn’t kill infected fast enough to
protect everyone.  Our numbers were dwindling fast.