Absolution
Page 23
Ein frowned, but he didn’t protest—he knew Teddy was right.
Teddy stood at the edge of the doorway and looked down at the catwalk ahead. It would be about a five-foot jump and he knew that there was no room for errors. He removed some of his bulky riot armor and helmet to lighten his load. Reluctantly, he placed his rifle on the ground. He took a couple of steps back, and took a running leap across the gap.
He crashed onto the catwalk and went tumbling towards the opening, but he grabbed one of the handrail’s bars just in time. His heart thumped against his ribs.
“Are you okay!?” Ein called out.
“I’m fine!” Teddy slowly got up and extended one hand towards him while gripping the handrail with the other. “Come on—if my old ass can make it then I know that you can!”
Ein took a couple of paces back and then took a running leap, but his jump fell short. He grabbed onto Teddy’s extended arm in a white-knuckled panic while his legs dangled perilously down towards the tracks. He screamed, but it was muted out by the train’s piercing horn.
Teddy grunted and stumbled forward as he was nearly pulled down with him. He threw his whole body backwards and yanked as hard he could. He fell flat on his back.
Ein shot up onto the catwalk and scuttled up against the wall as far away from the edge as he could get.
Teddy groaned and sat back up, rubbing the small of his aching back. “Jesus, kid... Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Ein managed to say. “I can’t say the same about my underwear though…”
Teddy laughed and carefully stood back up. He placed one hand on the handrail and extended the other towards Ein. “At least now you’ll have an excuse for smelling like shit.”
Ein grinned, took his hand, and pulled himself back up. “I guess you haven’t smelled yourself lately!”
Teddy laughed. “How about we worry less about our hygiene and focus on not falling off of this fucking thing?” He started edging across the catwalk and turned the corner. “Keep your back against the wall so that the crosswind doesn’t knock you off.”
They crept along the catwalk that ran the expanse of the locomotive and headed towards the cockpit doors. Telephone poles passed by in blurs and bits of ice felt like steel pellets when they struck skin; Teddy figured that the train had to be going at 120mph at the very least.
Teddy arrived at the cockpit door, reached a hand out, and turned the lever—the door flung open. A middle-aged man dropped the book that he had been reading and bolted up from the engineer's seat.
The engineer, who wore a FEMA police uniform, turned towards Teddy and stared at him with horrified disbelief. “What are you doing in here?!”
Teddy snatched the man’s shirt, pulled him out of the small cockpit, and pushed him over the catwalk’s handrail.
The engineer tumbled off of the locomotive and then disappeared as the train sped onwards.
Teddy and Ein climbed inside the cockpit and slammed the door shut.
“Do you know how to drive this thing?” Ein asked as he stared at the control panel.
Teddy plopped down in the engineer’s seat and leaned his head back against the battered headrest. “Nah, kid, they didn’t teach me that back in Texas… My train experience pretty much starts and stops at all things involving stock carriages.”
Ein sat down cross-legged on the floor next to him. “Then what’s the plan?”
“There isn’t much driving to do… We seem to be going a good, safe speed, and the plow in the front is taking care of the snow on the tracks.” Teddy stared out of the window and thought a moment before continuing. “The way I figure, as long as we don’t come across any goddamn camps, we can ride this thing out east for a little while until we see an interstate or something.”
“Then what?”
“Then I hit this,” Teddy said as he pointed towards a large red button labeled emergency stop. “It seems pretty self-explanatory.”
“No… I meant afterwards.”
Teddy scratched his chin. “To be honest, I didn’t give much thought to it. I guess we can figure that out once we get to that point.”
Ein looked down with a frown. “Do you think we’ll go live in a city?”
“As long as there’s no FEMA, sure.” Teddy closed his eyes and placed his hands on his stomach. “I reckon there are plenty of free cities outside of the government’s control.”
“What about…” Ein’s voice trailed off.
“What about what?” Teddy asked.
“Me,” Ein said. “Do you think the doctor was right? Do you think I’ll just kill all those folks if I mingle with them?”
Teddy opened his eyes and swiveled the chair towards Ein. He stared down at him with a cold, stern expression. “Kid, that doctor was full of shit—you’re not sick.”
“What if—”
“You’re not,” Teddy interrupted. “Look, if the virus was mutating inside of you and shit, don’t you think I’d be sick from whatever new bug you gave me?”
Ein thought a moment before finally nodding. “I guess you have a point.”
“I’ll hear none of that bullshit then,” Teddy said firmly. “I have already lost Jane and Danny—I’m not about to lose someone else.”
“Who are they?” Ein asked.
“Just some people I knew.” Teddy swiveled his chair back around towards the tracks ahead. “Get some sleep… We’ll have a lot of walking to do.”
“Sure,” Ein said. “What about you?”
“I’ll be fine.” Teddy’s stare became distant. As he peered out into the darkness “I don’t do much sleeping these days.”
They sat in silence for several minutes.
“Teddy,” Ein said.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for everything. I owe you my life. You didn’t owe me, some stranger, anything… You didn’t have to do this.”
“No, kid, you don’t understand… I had to do it.” Teddy smiled faintly.
“Why?” Ein asked, perplexed.
“Because I promised you.” Teddy smiled faintly. “I couldn’t keep my promise to them, but, at least with you, I…” His voice trailed off. “Get some sleep, kid. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Okay…” Ein looked up at him and grinned. “You better tell me that long story you kept referring too.”
Teddy laughed quietly. “Yeah, I will… We’ll have nothing but time on our hands soon enough.”
CHAPTER 22
DECEMBER 21st
1:27 PM
The train sat motionless with its emergency brakes engaged some hundred miles north of Jackson, Tennessee. It blocked off a desolate county road where a small Phillips gas station stood surrounded by frosty fields. The traffic blockage didn’t matter since the only vehicle around for miles was a stalled Ford sedan that was parked on the shoulder and was occupied by two frozen corpses, a couple of suitcases, and wads of crusty tissues. There was no snow on the ground, but winter’s chill hung thick in the air and the high-noon sun only brought limited warmth.
Inside the train’s cockpit, a blood-stained pocketknife sat on the console next to a first aid kit that had been rummaged through with its contents spread across the cabin. On the floor, amongst tattered cotton gauze and used antiseptic wipes, lay two RFID trackers that were the size of two grains of rice. Small droplets of crimson led outside the train and disappeared on the asphalt.
Further down the road, hazy in the sun’s quicksilver reflection, two silhouetted figures walked side by side as they headed east towards I-24.
There was a sound echoing across the frozen land that hadn’t been heard for a very long time in those forgotten parts—it was the sound of laughter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark D. Campbell was born and raised in a small subdivision outside Houston, Texas. In 2003 he studied creative writing at the University of Houston before finally entering a career path in the federal criminal justice system in late 2005. Mr. Campbell has always had a certain affinity for the horror
genre and draws inspiration from the likes of Robert McCammon, Richard Matheson, and Stephen King.