Final Dawn: Season 1 (The Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series) (21 page)

Leonard McComb

6:35 AM, April 2, 2038

Although Leonard hadn’t spotted the creature since escaping from Washington, fear and adrenaline drove him onwards into the night. He stopped once, briefly, to refill the Jeep around the Fredericksburg area, but decided against staying there. Stopping during the night made Leonard nervous, since there was no way for him to tell if anything was nearby. The Jeep’s headlights, while bright, weren’t enough for him to feel comfortable trusting his life to.

By morning, Leonard had nearly made it to Richmond. Sitting on the hood of the Jeep outside a gas station in Ruther Glen, he examined a map that he scavenged from the front counter. Food, at least, was still plentiful, and Leonard stocked up on water and nonperishables, going so far as to put a few cardboard boxes filled with chips and vacuum-sealed snacks into the back of the Jeep. Aside from the damage to the trailer hitch receiver, the Jeep was still working well despite the trials he had put it through.

From studying the map, Leonard figured he was about forty miles outside the heart of Richmond. As he got closer to the city, he would run into more suburban areas and – like he experienced in Washington – more damage that would be difficult to traverse. Still, due to the path he was on, it was the best route to take on his trip to South Carolina. Leonard figured that if he could get through to the southern edge of the city, he could link up with the railroad and take that all the way down the coast.
It’s not gonna be easy, but easy left the building a long time ago.

The main issue with traveling at this point was exhaustion. Leonard wasn’t about to pass out from lack of sleep, but he could feel his alertness dropping, and feared that if he kept going he might end up hurting himself along the way. Leonard cast a long gaze back up the highway to the north, as if he could somehow see all the way back to Washington and find out where the creature had gone. He sighed and slid off the hood of the Jeep, climbing back into the driver’s seat.

A couple hours of sleep wouldn’t cure his tiredness, but it would at least get him headed in that direction. As long as nothing happened during that day or night, he figured he could sleep again that evening once he got into Richmond and found a secure spot, then pick up and continue traveling through the city the next day. The important thing would be to try and get through the city in one go, since stopping or slowing down too much could mean attracting the attention of more creatures, if any others were out there.

Leonard pulled the Jeep into the shade next to the gas station and settled down in the seat. He left the engine idling, choosing to risk a bit of noise in exchange for having an immediate getaway should anything go wrong. Within minutes of closing his eyes and leaning his head back, he fell asleep.

Like his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Leonard was one of those rare people who could “set an alarm” in their minds. Before he fell asleep, no matter where he was, he would spend half a minute repeating the time that he wanted to wake up to himself, over and over again. In his entire life, he had never overslept by a single minute when using this method, no matter what time he fell asleep, what time he had to wake up or how tired he was. While this skill wasn’t particularly essential in day to day life, it proved to be invaluable in this situation, since he had no way of setting an alarm to wake him up later in the day. Without a watch, Leonard wasn’t sure what time it was, but he knew it couldn’t have been much past noon, so he told himself that he wanted to wake up at three o’clock that afternoon and his body took over the rest.

Rachel Walsh

11:41 PM, April 3, 2038

Shadows jumped at Rachel from every direction, thrown by the flickering fires of the city as she walked slowly along the damaged train tracks. Without Sam to warn her of unseen dangers, Rachel moved slower than normal, keeping a watchful eye and ear out for anything out of the ordinary. She still hadn’t heard the buzzing again, and was starting to wonder if it was just her imagination when a new sound echoed from up ahead.

The dull clanging of metal upon metal drifted through the night. Rachel tucked further in to a small group of buildings as she moved forward, keeping herself in the shadows and out of sight as much as possible. As she neared the source of the noise, another sound came into focus: buzzing. The low frequency hum of the silver masses coalesced, intermixing with the clanging to form a cacophony that drew her closer, curious as to what they were doing.

Rounding a large bend in the mangled track, Rachel finally came upon the source of the sounds. For a moment she crouched and held still, barely breathing as she took in the sight. Up ahead, several hundred feet along the track, she could see swarms of the silver masses flying around the ground. Large pieces of steel were being shifted into place and secured with ties and railroad spikes. The silver clouds seemed to be doing the moving themselves, swarming around each piece of track to move it into place, working at a steady pace to repair the damaged railroad track. Just beyond them, rolling very slowly down the newly repaired tracks, was the reason for their efforts.

A long line of train cars, at least 200, was heading down the track. In front, pulling them, were two engines buckled together back to back. The main light on the front of the first engine wasn’t on, though the emergency and backup lights on the sides of the engines and cars were. This offered enough illumination for Rachel to make out the train in the darkness. With each new segment of track that was laid, it was put down just in time for the train to slowly roll onto it, inching forward at a slow and precise rate.

Rachel’s mind whirled with the magnitude of what she was seeing. Not only were the silver masses repairing the tracks, but they had – presumably – repaired the train and gotten it operational enough to attach hundreds of cars to it, too.
But what are they hauling?
It was too dark to see the types of cars that were being hauled, and even knowing that wouldn’t guarantee any useful information about their contents.
The only way I’m going to find out what’s going on is to get in there and see for myself.
Rachel swallowed hard at the prospect, but was determined to carry it out.
They won’t hurt me anyway
, she thought.
Well, they shouldn’t….

Rachel looked around at the path up the mangled tracks to where they were being repaired. There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver or hide if she took the direct route and she didn’t feel like tempting fate on purpose. Keeping her eyes trained on the masses for any signs or signals of a behavior change, she backed up to a cross-street that was nearby and jogged east. Once she hit the next road that went parallel to the tracks, she headed north again. In a few minutes she saw the form of the train take shape between the buildings to her left. She ducked into the nearest alley and crouched between the buildings just a few feet from the train cars.

She was just a few cars down from the twin engines and close enough to the masses that she could feel their constant buzzing in her chest. Every few minutes a group of the masses would move to the opposite side of the train, retrieve a tie or piece of track and then move it back up to the main group for installation. They worked with a clockwork precision and the train continued its steady movement forward. Rachel waited until a group retrieved a set of ties and then she moved forward to the train, jogging farther down the line of cars until she was a safe distance from the masses.

Standing next to a car with a large sliding door, Rachel decided to take a chance and see what it contained. She grabbed the large swing bolt and carefully lifted it up, trying to keep the noise down to a minimum. Once the door was unlocked she slowly rolled it open and squeezed in, then rolled it closed behind her. Inside the car, it was dark except for the bits of light leaking in through cracks and crevices in the doors and walls.

Rachel flicked her flashlight on low and covered it with her hand, only allowing the smallest of beams out between her fingers. Even with the thin ray of light, Rachel immediately recognized the contents of the car and gasped as a terrible realization began to grow. Engrossed as she was at her discovery, Rachel failed to notice the door of the train sliding slowly open. Only when she heard a scraping sound behind her did she realize that she was not alone inside the train car.

Nancy Sims

4:15 PM, April 1, 2038

Nancy’s sleep was disturbed by a rhythmic thumping. She cracked her eyelids slowly, wincing in pain at the sunlight that shone through the front windshield of the truck. She was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck that she had been trying to put James in just before Richard attacked them. She turned to her left, startled to see James sitting there, driving down the road with a death grip on the steering wheel.

Nancy groaned as she moved, her head throbbing from a terrible headache. James looked over at her, smiling grimly.

“Hey, you’re awake! I was scared there for a while. Didn’t think you were ever going to wake up. That was one nasty head wound you had.”

“Wh-what happened? How did we get here?” Nancy’s mind was foggy and she struggled to remember what had happened. She glanced down at James’ chest and was startled to see the dried blood that covered his abdomen. “Wait… you got shot. Oh no, you got shot! We have to get you to a hospital!”

James chuckled, coughing feebly as he did so. “Somehow I don’t think a hospital is in my future, Nancy.”

Nancy looked around, confused, then the memory of the last several days came flooding back, reminding her of all that had happened. They were driving through a countryside on a wide, four-lane highway, and James was traveling fast, at least eighty or ninety miles an hour. There weren’t a lot of cars on the highway, but there were enough that he stayed focused on the road, weaving back and forth between lanes as he sped along.

“James, we have to stop and try to bandage you up, please.”

James took one hand off the wheel and raised his shirt, revealing a thick wrap of cloth that was tight around his midsection. “No worries. After I took care of that little bastard I got some painkillers and a blanket. I think the bleeding stopped, at least most of it. It stopped enough that I got us this far.”

“You mean Richard? What did you do to him?”

James laughed, then started coughing. Once his cough was under control, he grinned at Nancy, clearly pleased with myself. “I’ll tell you, that little mental case was one tough cookie. To think I was more afraid of his psycho brother. I tell you, Richard was the worst of the two by far. After he knocked you out he came after me, ripping and tearing, trying to pin me down. Luckily, the little fiend was too distracted to notice this.” James reached one hand under the seat and pulled out a tire iron, the end of which was caked in blood.

“One good smack with this and he went out like a light. Two, and he wasn’t about to get up again.”

Nancy nodded slowly. “Thank you… for everything.”

James waved a hand at her, brushing off the compliment. “Never mind that right now, just listen up and don’t argue. Sorry, but I’m not that great with putting things delicately, so I’ll make it quick. I’m not going to make it much longer. I can feel it. That bullet tore me up pretty good inside. It’s a miracle I’ve made it this far.”

Nancy shook her head and started to speak, but James held up his hand, silencing her.

“No, just listen. It’s going to happen. I’m sorry, but it is. It’s been a pleasure meeting you even under the circumstances, but right now I’ve got to tell you some things that you need to know.”

Nancy shook her head slightly in denial, then slowly nodded in affirmation.

“Okay, first off, we’re about to get into Virginia, I think. Sometime in the next few hours. That’s where I was headed when those assholes picked me up off the highway.” James coughed hard, putting an arm around his chest, then continued. “When I finally got out of that complex and cave network, I still had the radio that Jerry and I took with us. It wasn’t a light piece of equipment, that’s why I ditched it a few miles from the complex. Before I left it, though, I picked up a transmission. I’m not sure, but I think it was military. They used a bunch of weird codes and stuff, like you hear in movies. Anyway, the stuff I heard was talking about Richmond, and how there was some kind of base being set up there that the military was trying to organize. After that, it was just static.”

“Why are you telling me this, James? You’re not going to die, you’re going to make it; you have to make it!”

“Nancy!” James barked at her, then he immediately calmed down, an apologetic look on his face. “I’m sorry. I hope I make it, too. But you need to prepare for what might happen if I don’t. No matter what happens, get yourself to Richmond and try to find that base, if it even exists. Don’t stop for anyone, don’t help anyone, and don’t talk to anyone unless they’re wearing a military uniform.”

Nancy nodded slowly, turning away to look out the window. She wasn’t sure what to say to James to convince him that he would survive. Whether that was because she knew that he wouldn’t make it or because she just didn’t have a response, she wasn’t certain. Despite the fact that she had only known James for a short amount of time, she trusted him implicitly and couldn’t bear to think about letting him go.