The guards helped him onto the roof of the steam engine. He did not wait around. He moved from carriage to carriage. Gunshots were ringing out below but he carried on making his way to the middle. Fire was spreading from the back of the train.
A hand grabbed his leg. His instinct was to lash out with his rifle, but that was over his shoulder. He bent down to remove the hand and saw it was an Austrian. It was the young officer from the other train. His English was quite good and he apologised for startling him. He explained that his cousin had not returned and he wanted to know whether he was dead or alive.
The men lay on the roof next each other. There was no real plan. It was more of a case of going down a set of ladders and trying to help those trapped inside.
The door leading into the compartment had been destroyed. Once down the ladders, they lowered their rifles and fixed bayonets.
“Good luck, Englishman.”
“The same to you, my Austrian friend.”
John led the way as he moved inside. It was hard to see and the air was stale. Bodies were strewn over seats and scattered across the floor.
John pointed to his eyes and then to the large figure crouching down in front of them. This rider was biggest they had seen. He reeked. It was a soiled smell of a man who had not washed in a long time. His clothes were a mixture of animal skins sewn together. He had an axe strapped across his back and a large knife. He was also carrying a rifle and revolver.
Both men stood still. To their horror, four more riders came into view further down the carriage. Size was starting to matter.
The young officer smiled and pulled out a grenade. He suggested they take cover behind some spare sandbags. They could hear gunshots and deduced that the saviours were holed up in the middle compartment. The young officer lit the fuse and threw it past the large rider and nearer to the four other attackers further down in the carriage. The explosion was powerful in a confined space and killed the four riders instantly.
John’s ears were ringing when he picked himself up. The young officer was a little groggy as well. The large rider was lying face down, making murmuring sounds. The Austrian picked up his rifle and slammed the bayonet into the man’s head. The body flinched as he did so. He then drew it out and repeated the action. Blood now flowed from the wound.
John thought it was brutal, but if the giant rider was not killed, he would pose a huge risk to their lives. With no time to waste they moved towards the middle compartments. As they went further down the corridors, they could see it had been barricaded up. This was the only reason the riders had not broken through yet.
John and the young officer did not want to get shot by their own side. The Austrian called out in German that they were there to help. Silence followed and then a German voice asked them to step forward. Both men prayed that this was their own soldier, otherwise they would be vulnerable to being shot without knowing a thing about it.
As the door started to be smashed open neither of them moved for their weapons, as such an action could bring danger to this situation. The atmosphere relaxed when the first Austrian soldier came through. He was followed by several nurses. Heidi was not one of them. John’s heart sank. The soldier spoke with the young officer as John went into where they had been holding up. In the far end he could see Austrians firing through another barricade. The giant riders were attacking that side in earnest.
John wanted to know what had happened to her. Time was against them, but he went into a small room to the side of the compartment that was being used as a safe point for the nurses. He looked around for anything that could have belonged to Heidi. Then, as he came out, he heard his voice being called. Heidi had been further down helping a wounded man. She came forward and wrapped herself around him and giving him a massive kiss on the lips.
John looked at her and smiled.
“I’m very proud of you, Heidi.”
She smiled and stroked his cheek.
“You have saved us. I don’t have words for your bravery.”
John pointed out that he was not alone. The young officer bowed his head and moved past them to inform the others that the retreat was now on. John helped to gather the wounded and move them towards the train next to them. The nurses helped carry the men and waited whilst soldiers were fetched to help carry them across.
John made sure Heidi got to the adjacent train. She looked at him with doting eyes.
“John, stay safe.”
He ushered her to join the others, then went back to the young officer who was fighting to hold back the riders.
“Did you find your cousin?”
He nodded.
“Thank you. We need to move, they’re going to come through the roof.”
John could hear clumping and banging from above. He gathered some ammunition from the floor and took up a firing position. The ten remaining Austrian soldiers began to leave the barricade and make their way back slowly. Some were looking at the front whilst others scoured the ceiling.
Swords and axes started to rip through the piled up wood and sandbags. The grunts and shouts were enough to put every man on tenterhooks. The ceiling started to split and come apart as they tried to break through. Small splinters and sections of lacquered roof fell on top of the retreating men.
They did not waste any bullets as they pulled back. The idea was put across that it was better for the riders to break through the roof, rather than them following the retreating men to the end of the train.
The young officer lit a fire in one of the supply rooms. It did not take long to flare up. Bullets were still ripping through the windows and into the panelling around them. The steam engine crews had already left the train and it was now running unmanned. They had attached a thick chain to the back of the armoured car and connected it to the steam engine. This was a short fix to allow the others to cross should the engine start to slow down.
The fire was spreading well. They left explosives in a couple of compartments. It would only be a matter of time before the fire hit the dynamite and blew that part of the train to smithereens.
The opposite train was being evacuated at the same time. The riders were advancing in both rear trains. They had not managed to get a grip on the forward ones and were relying on jumping across to the other two.
Captain Hayward was crouching down with his men and taking pot shots at the giant riders as they came forward. The heat and flames were delaying their advance in some way, but so was the accuracy of the British Engineers. The headshots were taking their toll. With the wolves, flesh-eaters and other ghoulish creatures they had faced recently, it had helped to focus their shooting.
Captain Hayward was the last man down from the opposing train roof. That train was burning sporadically throughout. He ordered his men to leave and join the other train. He got down and steadied himself. The ground was becoming less flat now and was affecting the Northern riders’ battle plan. They could no longer ride by the side of the trains.
As he turned to leave the armoured car and catch up with the others, a grunting sound could be heard behind him. He reached for his revolver and turned around rapidly. A rider was standing in front of him with a grenade launcher. He looked at the captain and smiled, showing some enormous teeth that were as yellow as the sand of Arabia. The gun was pointing at him. The captain did not know how long he had before the rider would pull the trigger. He lowered his revolver to buy thinking time, but this just made the giant laugh.
Something whistled pass his right ear and made a cracking “thud” as it hit its target. The rider had blood spouting from his forehead.
He then fell forward and crashed onto the floor.
The captain wasted no time in leaving the train. He did not get to see who had fired the shot, but reckoned it had come from the other side.
Northern riders were now firing at them from both rear steam engines. The large chain had been released on both sides. The Austrians and British were cramped in both forward trains. The armoured cars at the back
had the Gatling guns directed at the steam engines behind them.
Rather than wasting bullets, it was left to the soldiers to maintain a level of covering fire. The decision was to hold them off for as long as it took for the two rear trains to separated.
The general stayed with the men. He had his helmet on and revolver drawn. He wanted to get at the enemy, but was well aware of their size and power. Grenades were being thrown over but it was hard to get them to land on the trains behind, as they kept on rolling off. The British were mixed in with the other Austrians on left hand-forward train. The Northern riders were no longer able to keep up; their animals had tired as the terrain became uneven.
The riders made a burst to get on both end carriages, but Austrians and British had established a good line of defence. Sandbags were stacked high and the men waited for the surge from the enemy. When it came, the volley fire was fantastic. It was a small victory for the defenders. The riders were being struck left, right and centre. Those that remained on the rear trains had to try and disable the two forward ones, if their reinforcements were to have any chance of helping them out.
Their attack was strong, but they could not withstand the casualties sustained and slowly they began to fall back. Even their large size was not enough to overpower their enemy in this instance.
The gaps between the trains were now widening. It would not be possible to jump between the two now. There was a sigh of relief as the rear trains slowly disappeared from sight.
The loss of the rear trains was significant to space, but not to food supplies. They still had the horses and plenty of ammunition. The general remarked to his officers that he believed the Austro–Hungarian armies would be massing around the capital city.
The wounded were treated and helped to water. It was a good time to have a breather.
Major Richmond found Captain Hayward and shook his hand.
“I’m glad that out of all the officers I had with me, you were one of them.”
The captain smiled and thanked him.
They then joined other British Engineers on the roof of a carriage. The air was now clear and fresh. No bullets whizzed by; there just calm. They took the time to survey the hills and forests for movement. The land could not possibly sustain a horse attack. Even if the horses were extra fast, they needed flat ground to maintain their top speed.
They used their binoculars to follow the smoke from the two rear trains. A screeching, twisted metal sound followed. The noise of the steam engines and carriages blowing up behind them was powerful. It sent tremors along the railway tracks. The soldiers and nurses on the armoured carriages stood and watched the smoke rise in the distance. They were glad to see the riders had broken off their attack. Many of them had not seen action before and this was their first baptism of fire. A silence fell across the compartments. Records of the dead were taken. The casualties had not been too high, but this was war, and bullets were claiming their victims.
The wounded were moved to the infirmary compartments. They had doctors and nurses waiting to care for them.
Notes were thrown across from General Haas’s train to Major Richmond’s, reporting on injuries and casualties. Likewise, news was carried out from the major’s side. It was important to see what supplies were left and what the state morale was. Two of the machine guns were now jammed and frantic work was being carried out to repair them.
The general put in his last note that Vienna would soon be in sight. He fully expected to be greeted by some sort of guard block along the railway line so ordered the trains to ease off a little. They continued to update each other for a while.
The trains climbed a short hill and made their way up a narrow pass. Von Bloch had said that once over this hill they would, “feast their eyes on beautiful Vienna”. It would be used as a staging point to turn the tide of this war.
What their eyes fell upon, however, was destruction on a grand scale. The city was a good twenty to thirty miles away, but fires were burning brightly. The houses and farms in the surrounding area were also burning. The tide of war had changed as the general said, but it had turned against them.
The general’s legs gave way and he would have collapsed had it not been for Colonel Kiesl. The horror on everyone’s faces summed up the Austro–Hungarian plight. Their capital was now being overrun by this all-consuming enemy.
The trains slowly came to a grinding halt. Scouts were sent from the front and rear to check the surrounding woods. Some Austrians started to climb down from the carriages, almost falling to the ground.
Soldiers lay down their rifles on the ground and sat on the grass next to the track or even on the railway lines. The air was one of abandonment. All hope had drained out of them.
The British Engineers tried to appease their Austrian counterparts. They pointed out, in the little German they knew, that their armies maybe massing elsewhere.
The truth was summed up by the look in Captain Hayward’s eyes as he left his compartment. He walked down the steps from an armoured car and made his way over to the general’s train. There, sitting nearby, was the general. He had found himself an old fallen tree and was using it as his bench. The captain was not sure of his age – he originally thought around early fifties – but as the afternoon sun fell upon his face, he looked older. The life had drained out of his skin; he no longer had character in his expression.
His shirt was untucked and his hair ruffled, as if he had gone over a plan several times by rubbing his head.
He went and sat next to the general. They did not say anything at first, just sat there thinking.
“My country is finished.” the General sighed.
Captain Charles Hayward looked him in the eye.
“General, I do fear the worst for your country. This force is larger than we could have ever imagined. The fighting that has taken place here was not the same army that attacked us.”
“I planned to raise an army and come back to destroy this evil. They have no right to be here. If this is going to be judgement day then I want to go down fighting.”
He buried his face in his hands.
“You should come with us to England, or at least Prussia or France.”
The general shrugged his shoulders. His look was blank and unresponsive.
“Charles, can you come here, please?” Major Richmond called out.
He was standing by one of the steam engines with his binoculars out, looking into the distance.
The captain arrived at the engine and proceeded to climb up carefully.
“Is everything alright, Harry?”
“Not really, old boy. The smoke in the distance has died down a little, but what concerns me is the dust cloud movement. It reminds me of when we were near Unghvar.”
The captain took out his binoculars. His eyes hurriedly surveyed the landscape for movement. When they fell on the cloud, his heart dropped.
“My God, I do believe they’re coming.”
Chapter 17
“Your Highness, Vienna has nearly fallen.”
A tall, dark-haired man came forward on his horse. He had a scar across his throat.
“I am happy with our progress so far,” gloated Nazar.
He scratched his beard and licked his lips.
“I want all their souls, all of them.”
Half his face scowled at that thought. His eyes rolled from side to side.
“Tonight the Austro–Hungarian Empire is no more. They have a new king. His name, Nazar, will be whispered from their lips.”
His subordinate was a short bald man. He was a Priest, but lacked the rank to control the whole army. There was a collection of younger priests on horseback watching a spectacle unfold from a small hill. They were laughing and pointing together. Down from the hill was a makeshift arena. It was crudely put together, but was doing the job for now.
Inside was a large creature – a cross between a bear and a Siberian tiger. This animal was big. It had razor-sharp claws and teeth that could snap throug
h bone. It was causing a commotion whilst having to fight five Austrian men who had been put in the arena with it.
These men had been given sticks to use as weapons, but they were no match for this beast. It looked at them for a moment or two, judging what sort of danger they represented, and then it attacked. The animal lashed out at two men, knocking them over before biting and clawing their bodies. Their screams carried across the valley.
One man ran to climb out of the arena, but was pushed back down by some drone soldiers. By that time the creature had killed the remaining men, leaving this lone man to face certain death.
Whilst this scene was unfolding, Nazar had ridden over to the makeshift arena. He had dismounted and climbed the wooden stockade and was watching the drama unfold. As the beast began to come in for the kill, a shout from Nazar was enough to have the creature brought back. Five drone soldiers bearing long poles with spikes went in. The animal soon backed down.
The priests spoke about this new breed and called them razor-tooths. They then watched their high priest enter the arena and go over to the man, who was on his knees crying. He asked the man to stand up and then led him out of the arena.
“Has he spared the man’s life?” one Priest whispered to his colleague.
The man was still shaking from the experience. The high priest said nothing, except to draw his sword and then bring it down hard on the man’s left leg, cutting it clean off from the kneecap.
“You should have fought like a man, not run like a child.”
The man writhed around in agony as blood poured from his wound.
“Feed him to the flesh-eaters.”
He was dragged off, leaving his lower leg on the floor. Nazar cleaned his sword and got back on his horse.
The young priests were silent. None of them wanted to catch his eye as he rode off.
Chapter 18
Decisions were being made on where to go. The trains were being unloaded and supplies transferred to carts. They would be short of wagons, so it would be a case of finding what they could along the way.
Europe Has Fallen Page 16
