Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 02 (19 page)

Suppressors popped and the zombie fell, its teeth still firmly wrapped around the mans ankle, the man still screaming in pain.

"Shoot him," Alex commanded Nathan. "Shoot him, Nathan, he's a dead man already." Nathan stared in horror as his team member, David Patel, struggled to free himself from the monsters grip. David pulled at the creature, freeing his ravaged ankle from its jaws and started to pull himself across the open ground towards his rifle. More zombies, drawn by the smell of fresh blood, inched closer to the man. "Shoot him before they get him!" Alex yelled, but Nathan continued to shake his head. Alex swung his carbine around, quickly taking aim at the man and pulled the trigger.

David Patel's head snapped forward as the .45 caliber bullet ripped through the back of his head. A wet cloud of blood and bone hung in the air for just a moment before the body fell limp to the ground. His body, now still, became easy prey for the battered corpses and they descended upon the feast like the animals they were. Nathan vomited on his feet.

"Come on, dammit!" Alex yelled at the man and pulled him by the arm. Nathan hesitated a moment before the reality of where he was and what was happening caught up to him. In a blind panic, the man ran forward towards the nearest train, outdistancing all others that were headed there. He screamed a desperate scream and, reaching one of the closed train cars threw open the door and climbed in. Alex watched in disbelief as the man struggled to close the door behind him, the sight of the zombies standing behind him a nightmare that he would not soon forget.
 

Nathan screamed a terrified, hysteria-filled scream. The man had trapped himself in a panic, and now the undead contained within were eating him alive. His rifle cracked loudly, the shots coming as fast as the man could pull the trigger. The door of the boxcar shuddered and started to open and Nathan's terrified face shown for only a moment before he was pulled back inside. The sight of the man's ravaged, blood covered face made Alex nauseous.
 

"Fuck," Alex said under his breath, unable to comprehend the fear that had caused the man to blindly climb to his death. Alex rushed passed the zombies that were feasting on David's lifeless body and grabbed the man's dropped rifle. One of the zombies turned to face Alex, but a bullet from Alex's carbine shattered the monsters face. He ran for his life.

"Liam. Liam!" Alex yelled. "Get the train going." Alex paused in his run to put down another zombie shuffling towards him. "Liam!" Gunfire had erupted all around the train yard. Shawn's diversion had taken the majority of the walking dead with him, but there were many more that still threatened the group.

Alex looked towards the engine trying to see where his friend had gotten to. Liam and Luke stood back from the train engine, both firing desperately into the opening of the engine. Bodies fell from the open door, one after the other only to be shot a second time for good measure. When their carbines fell silent, each man quickly replaced the spent magazines. Liam looked in Alex's direction, shaking his head that this train would not be the one.

Alex waived his hands and yelled for the others who were in a desperate struggle to clear the train. "No good! Leave it and hit the second." Shoulders dropped as the men suddenly realized that their fight to take this train was now useless. Struggling against their desire to flee, everyone passed the useless train and moved to the next.
 

Alex could hear Donovan screaming and struggled to hear what was happening. "Go around! Go around!" he yelled and punctuated his words with a pop pop of his carbine. Another man screamed out in pain. Looking around Donovan he could see another of the Hill's security force being dragged to the ground, a zombie tearing at his throat. The man's screams ended in a wet gurgling when the zombie shook his head and tore the security guard's throat out. Blood sprayed to the ground and across the side of the train car. Donovan squeezed off three expert shots, two taking the zombie in the head, the third silencing the man's screams by ripping out the back of the security guards' head.

"Don't go under!" Donovan screamed to the others clearing the rail cars. "Go around. Keep your kill zones clear!" The Hill's security force was struggling with the task at hand, never having dealt with the demands of fighting the walking dead in the open. The tactics that they had been trained on were useless. Their movements were sluggish as each of them had to force themselves to target the creatures heads instead of their center mass. Many shots were useless as the bullets passed harmlessly through the creatures' bodies. Another of the security team's men fell victim to the zombies when he failed to remember this vital piece of information.

"Another down," Donovan called back to Alex. "What's our status?" Donovan aimed his carbine and again ended the zombie and wounded man with expert shots.

"Fucked," Alex called back. Donovan looked to Alex with a panicked looked. "Down five. We've got to get on one of the fucking trains. Now. Hayden!" Alex yelled to his brother-in-law. "Get us to a safe place!"

Hayden nodded sharply. He dropped the angle of his carbine and ran headlong towards the next train in the series. Many of the rail cars were closed and Hayden made the quick decision to move on. "No good," he yelled down to Liam and Luke who were beginning to look at the viability of the train engine. Crouching low, Hayden quickly assessed the safety of ducking underneath the rail car. Deciding to take the risk he rolled under the edge of the car, forcing himself up and over the rails to the opposite side.

"No!" Alex yelled to Hayden when he saw what he was doing. Alex could hear the quick pop pop of Hayden's carbine from the other side of the rail car, followed quickly by the crack of his side arm. Alex, realizing that Hayden was in trouble, jumped to the top of the coupling between two cars, grabbing the side of the car and swinging around. At least a dozen zombies were converging on Hayden as he struggle to replace the empty clip in his carbine.
 

Alex pulled the trigger of his carbine three time in quick succession before it clicked empty. Two zombies had crumpled to the ground near Hayden, and Alex slid the Glock 45 from its holster on his thigh. The crack of a pistol rang out before Alex could take raise his own, dropping the three walking corpses closest to Hayden. Hayden, now backed up completely against the rail car, raised his carbine and emptied the fresh clip into the oncoming horde. The crack of Alex's Glock helped to quickly finish the encroaching dead.
 

Only after the last of the attacking horde had fallen did Alex turn to see who the mysterious shooter was. Donovan stood behind Alex, smoke issuing from the end of his Glock 45. He nodded to Alex as if to reassure him that he was there for support, having seen what Alex had. Hayden, shaking visibly, threw his head back in a quick show of appreciation. The emotions of what had nearly happened overcame him, and Hayden turned his head to throw up on the ground behind him. Wiping the back of his hand across his face, Hayden the men off and set about his task of finding a suitable place to take shelter.

The fates shined down on Hayden as he scouted the cars of the train directly in front of him. All of the doors of the train were open, save for two near the front of the group. Three open doors stood directly behind the engine that Luke and Liam were now entering. Just a moment later, the two men looked out the open door and waived to the others that it was secure.

"Let's move, people!" Alex yelled to the others. Behind him he could see Theresa Hill helping Dr. Cahn around the line of cars. Ron Cox came next clutching a terrified Amy in his arms. Martin Howard and Philip Gomez followed behind, true to their orders. Nothing was getting by them. Each man was cold and calculating, a ruthless killer and fierce defender. Every shot that the two men made was counted as a kill, every crack of their rifle or sidearm finished off one of the walking dead. In that instant, Alex thanked the heavens that they were with him.

"Clear," Hayden yelled from behind Alex, drawing his attention back to the present and the task at hand. Hayden and Alex were standing in the open door of a boxcar, the next in line after the engine. Mark Baker, Jenero Croft and Juan Ransom rounded the corner at the head of the line, their rifles barking at targets behind them, clearly not as cool headed as their teammates.
 

Alex rushed to help Theresa with Dr. Cahn. The doctor looked to have aged years in only a few days, and the pain he was feeling was etched into his face. "The stitches ripped," Theresa cried, but never stopped in her push to the open rail car. "I can fix him, but we've got to get inside." The doctor breathed in great gulps of air. He stumbled and the two supporting him struggled to keep him upright.

"Get him inside," Alex said. "Do whatever it takes, but he lives." Theresa looked him in the eyes and Alex could see the fear there. "He lives."

Reaching the open boxcar, Hayden jumped to the ground and helped Alex and Theresa lift the barely conscious man through the door. Amy followed with Theresa close behind. "Martin. Philip. Rona. Your job still stands. Nothing, and I repeat, nothing, gets through those doors." The three men again nodded their acknowledgement, and Alex left them knowing they would not fail. Leaving Donovan to assist Theresa with the doctor, Alex slid the boxcar's door closed behind them.

"We've got to get these cars separated," Alex said to Donovan and Hayden. Looking down the line of cars he spotted Jack Irving and Andre Gamble struggling with the couplings between two of the cars. Rotting and broken fingers strained through openings in the rail car walls as the walking dead trapped inside tried desperately to reach them. "Come on," Alex ordered.
 

Sprinting down the line of cars, Alex yelled, "Leave it." Jack and Andre looked back to the three, confusion clouding their face. At that moment, a zombie, half its body missing, reached for Andre from the other side of the coupled cars. Andre started at the sight, throwing himself back from the creature and into Jack. Jack was pushed into the waiting hands of the trapped zombies.

The man screamed as broken fingernails tore into his flesh. Andre, fear and panic taking hold of him, abandoned the man to the creatures. Bullets danced off the side of the boxcar as Alex, Donovan and Hayden opened fire, trying desperately to thread the space between the walls and give the man a chance to escape. Jack screamed louder as his arm was snapped behind him, forced back at an unnatural angle. Two shots to his brain pan silenced the man's agonized screams.
 

"I didn't do it. I didn't mean to...it was an accident...I didn't..." Andre Gamble muttered incoherently to himself, his eyes glued on the horrific scene before him. Alex grabbed the man by the arm and shook him.

"Come on," Alex yelled at the still babbling man. "Come on, there's nothing you can do now."

"I didn't do it on purpose...it was an accident...an accident..."

Alex shook the man, hard this time, and his eyes finally focused on Alex's. "It was my fault," he mumbled to Alex. Before anyone realized what was happening, Andre had removed his sidearm. The single shot tore a massive hole through the left side of the man's head and he slumped to the ground at Alex's feet.

"Shit!" Alex cursed and bent to retrieve the weapons from the dead man.
 

"Leave them," Donovan yelled and pulled Alex to his feet. "We've got to go." The three men sprinted towards the front of the line. Mark, Jenero, and Juan were pulling themselves into the second rail car behind the engine, having cleared the space.

"Come on," they yelled and held out their hands to the running men.

"Inside," Alex yelled to Hayden and Donovan. "I'm headed to the engine to help." Neither of the two men argued, but rather grasped the outstretched hands of the others and hoisted themselves inside. Alex heard the rail car door slide shut behind him with a satisfying thud.

Alex continued towards the engine and was greeted with one of the most beautiful sites he had seen in his entire life. Thick, black smoke billowed out of the engines exhaust, signaling that the engine had roared to life. Luke stepped out of the door and held a hand out to the sprinting man.

"All aboard," he yelled to Alex in mock humor.

"You know, you're really not funny," Alex sniped at the man.

"Considering the circumstances, I'm fucking hilarious." Both men laughed hard at the bad jokes, glad to be able to release some of the fear and adrenaline they had all just experienced. Climbing aboard the massive engine, Alex could see Liam busy working over the controls.

"You do know how to run this damn thing, don't you?" Alex asked, humor coloring his words.

Liam never looked when he answered. "Now, I never said that I could run it. I only said I thought I could." Liam looked over to his friend and winked. "Now that I am here, I'm not so sure."

Alex patted the carbine hanging from his should in front of him. "You better figure it out, and quick." Liam smiled and reached to push a lever forward. With a satisfying lurch, the engine began to move.

"Found it," he laughed and set about checking the dials and gauges that cover the instrument panel. They were headed out of Austin.

-----

After the adrenaline wore off, tears of happiness and loss mixed together among the men and women aboard the north bound train. Luke mourned the loss of his friend Shawn, great racking sobs shaking his body. Men from the Hill's security team mourned the loss of their comrades, some more than others. A few bragged of their exploits over the last couple of hours, covering their fear with bravado.

Theresa Hill and Donovan could take no part in the tales. The two worked furiously to keep Dr. Cahn alive. A few tense moments passed before the bleeding could be stopped and the wound sutured once more. "I think that will hold," Theresa said, wiping the sweat from her brow with a blood covered hand. "Give him some morphine, Don. Hopefully he'll be able to sleep." Donovan expertly filled the syringe with the liquid, tapping the needle to remove the bubbles and depressing the plunger until a few drops of the precious liquid escaped. Jabbing the needle into the man's arm, Donovan pushed the plunger completely and watched as the doctor finally settled into an uneasy rest.