Tumultus

by D. W. Ulsterman

  A particularly large seeker ran directly ahead of the others, its inhumanly wide mouth growing wider as it let out a prolonged, terrifying shriek that was immediately joined by the many other seekers who answered its call with equally shrill shrieks of their own. Brando began to whimper, sensing the vast number of the monsters now nearing the slowly moving train.

  Without uttering a word, Cooper Wyse opened the passenger car door and stepped to the small outside platform that hung off the back. Both of his Colt pistols were drawn, and he began to take aim, pause a half second before each shot, and then shoot. Each bullet found a target, eliciting a shrieking cry of pain from one of the creatures. Only a few dropped to the ground though. Others, though hit by one of Cooper’s bullets, continued running toward the train. It took no more than fifteen seconds for the rancher to fire off all six shots in each of his guns. He turned to look beside him as Reese, holding one of the assault rifles he had taken from the Muslim bandits, began firing repeated rounds into the dark mass of seekers.

  In the front of the train, the Russian heard gunfire from behind the locomotive and stuck his head out the side and looked back to see the nightmare mass of creatures running to catch his train. Yakov turned around to look at Bear, who was steadily shoveling yet more coal into the firebox, and uttered a single command to the big man.

  “Shovel faster. Shovel more. Strange things behind us.”

  Bear looked back at the Russian with a mixture of confusion and anger.

  “What?”

  His shouted question was ignored by Yakov, who was focused entirely on getting the train up to speed in a shorter time than he would normally have done.. Hoping enough steam was being produced without causing dangerous levels of pressure to build inside the boiler and valves, the Russian released more water into the system while carefully monitoring the water level just above the firebox. Too much and the increase in the rate of speed would be too slow. Too little and the firebox temperatures quickly become dangerous.

  Determining enough coal was in the firebox, Yakov held up a hand signaling Bear to pause his shoveling. The firebox was closed entirely, causing the water temperatures to spike upward. Normally this process would have taken nearly thirty minutes. Now the Russian was attempting to compress it into no more than ten minutes.

  The train’s valves groaned under the strain, as massive clouds of coal ash belched from the exhaust chimney. The speed indicator currently showed just twelve miles an hour.

  Reese quickly emptied the AK-47’s standard 30-round magazine into the seekers. He was able to see at least three of them collapse onto the ground and not get back up. Hundreds more were still closing in on the train, their collective shrieks close enough to overpower even the noise of the moving train. Reese was about to return to the inside of the passenger car to get another magazine but Mac was already stepping onto the platform with his trusted M16. His skin color remained a pasty white, while his breathing continued to be a series of short, raspy, wheezing noises, but the former Navy SEAL had that look of calm determination Reese had become so familiar with seeing on Mac’s face during an imminent threat.

  “Not bad, Reese. You’re getting better. Let’s see what I can do.”

  Like the AK-47, the M16 used a thirty round magazine. Mac had modified its firing mechanism though to make it capable of shooting even faster than the standard design. Using the platform railing as a brace his arms against, Mac aimed the M16 into the center of the seekers and began firing with such speed, the entire magazine was emptied within a few seconds. Before Reese could utter a response, the seventy five year old had slammed another magazine into the rifle and began firing again. This was repeated a third time, and then a fourth. At least thirty of the creatures were no longer running toward them. Still hundreds remained and the seekers nearest the back of the train were now no more than fifty yards away from where Mac stood on the platform.

  The Russian glanced down at his speed indicator as he heard the unmistakable sound of a fully automatic assault rifle firing from the back of the train. He grunted his approval as he imagined the amount of ammunition that was blasting into the dark mass of monsters trying to catch them. The speed of the train was now eighteen miles an hour, and yet, looking back, the seekers were still gaining ground – though not quite as quickly as before. Yakov was giving Mac and the others just a little more time to try and stop them.

  “More coal.”

  Bear quickly complied with the Russian’s order. He had heard the shrieking noises, recognized those shrieks as the things in the woods that had been chasing them before, and knew there were many more of the monsters, whatever they were, now coming after them.

  Mac had emptied every one of his loaded magazines. Dublin was next, holding one of the simple hunting rifles Cooper had strapped to each of the horses when they first left his ranch on their way into Canada. Like Mac, she used the platform railing to stabilize her arms, took aim, and began firing a slow, steady stream of bullets into the seekers, though the hunting rifle only held six rounds. Dublin’s aim proved exceptional though – four seekers dropped to the ground.

  “We’ve killed at least forty, maybe fifty of them – but there’s so many left. And they just keep coming. We don’t have enough ammo to kill them all.”

  Mac’s tone indicated he was growing concerned, which in turn made Reese and the others even more so. The seekers would be on the train in moments if something wasn’t done to stop them.

  “What about those detonation devices the Russian found on the tracks? The ones the bandits were going to use to stop the train? Didn’t he disarm them and put them in here somewhere?”

  Mac’s eyes widened at Cooper’s comment.

  “Where are they?”

  Cooper Wyse walked to the front of the passenger car and took out a small bag and brought it back to Mac. Inside the bag were two small plastic cylinders, not more than eight inches long. Each had a detonator that had been wired into one of the ends of each cylinder, but the Russian had already removed those.

  “No detonators – how would we get them to work?”

  Mac held one of the cylinders in his hand and turned it over several times, then held it up to his nose to smell it.

  “I’m pretty sure this is some kind of Amatol device. Old school stuff. Like a syrup inside of there. We could drop it onto the tracks behind us and then shoot at it. That should be enough impact force to cause detonation.”

  Reese had picked up the second cylinder.

  “Would throwing it be enough to get it to explode?”

  Mac shook his head.

  “No, this stuff isn’t that volatile. Makes it much safer to transport. Although if it’s been sitting for a while, that theory might not hold up as well. It smells newer though. They used plastic for the casing because it won’t vibrate like a metallic casing. Makes it even safer. Also going to make it tougher to detonate though without the charge.”

  Brando began growling again as one of the seekers ran toward them just twenty feet behind the train, its black eyes staring back at Mac and the others as they looked over the explosive devices. Dublin, holding her handgun, calmly pointed it at the creature and fired two shots into its body. As the monster collapsed and rolled onto the compacted dirt and stone between the train tracks, it was replaced by several more that were just behind the one Dublin shot. The things let out a prolonged and angry shriek, the claws of their hands digging into the dirt and stones between the tracks as they propelled themselves forward with even more determination. Dublin fired several more times until she emptied her gun. For every seeker that fell, it seemed three more were behind it.

  Mac turned back onto the platform at the rear of the passenger car with one of the cylinders in his right hand. Cooper, who had just reloaded both of his Colt pistols, took a position next to Mac, ready to detonate the device once Mac had thrown it.

  “We need to wait until those things are almost on top of us!”

  Cooper said nothing back to Mac, but
simply nodded his agreement. Behind both of them, Brando continued to growl with increasing menace at the growing number of seekers who were closing the gap between them and the back of the train. Nearly thirty of the things were close enough that both Mac and Cooper could note the rows of thin, sharp teeth that were exposed inside of the overly wide, open mouths of the creatures. They could hear the odd clicks and shrieks the things were using to communicate with one another. They could see the sinewy cords of muscle flexing with each bounding motion forward of their arms and legs, and hear as the things’ hands and feet hit the ground and vaulted them forward with considerable speed.

  Looking back over the group of seekers nearest the back of the train, Mac saw a black writhing mass following behind them. There were at least three hundred seekers left chasing them – possibly more.

  “Ok, Coop – I’m gonna drop this thing on a three count. You need to hit it a soon as it touches the ground. Any hesitation and those things will be running over it and you won’t be able to see it. Understand?”

  Again Cooper Wyse spoke no words in response to Mac, but merely nodded his head.

  Mac gave the countdown and dropped the explosive just a few feet behind the moving train. A half second later Cooper fired his pistol.

  Nothing happened.

  His face wincing slightly after realizing he had missed, the rancher had just enough time to get off one more shot before the seeker’s bodies would cover the small plastic cylinder that lay in between the tracks. Closing his left eye and looking down at his target with his open right eye, Cooper Wyse held his breath, focused on keeping his right hand absolutely still, and squeezed the trigger.

  The explosion, just forty feet behind the moving train, created enough force to push both Cooper and Mac back a few steps against the outside wall of the passenger car. Several seekers were thrown into the air, their bodies ripped apart by the power of the detonation. A temporary cloud of dust and dirt was created, making it difficult to determine how many of the seekers were actually killed – or how many remained chasing after the train.

  Mac and the others looked silently behind them, waiting to be able to see how effective the blast had been in stopping the seekers’ pursuit of them. Before the dust cloud fully dissipated, a throng of seekers ran through it, their mouths spread open, teeth exposed, and eyes filled with rage. Whatever emotion the seekers were capable of, fear was apparently not among them.

  Cooper held up two fingers to Mac, indicating it was time to throw the second explosive cylinder. As he did so, one of the seekers managed to lunge forward, its clawed hand gripping the bottom of the platform railing. Both Mac and Cooper found themselves staring into the eyes of the creature as it too hesitated while glaring back at them. The thing emitted a foul stench, like curdled milk that had sat out in the sun for many days.

  Mac took his right foot and slammed it against the creature’s fingers, trying to force it to let go of the railing. The seeker hissed menacingly back at him as it pulled the rest of its hairless, mottled gray body onto the lower portion of the platform, its long-clawed toes curling around the bottom railing.

  Cooper prepared to shoot the thing, but just as he raised his gun to the creature’s head, Brando lunged forward from the passenger car and snapped his jaws shut just inches from the seeker’s face. The thing responded to Brando’s attack by reaching through the railing and grabbing the Doberman’s neck, its claws sinking into the dog’s flesh. Crying out with a sharp yelp that was more anger than pain, Brando lunged forward again, this time closing his jaws over the face of the seeker, one of his long canine teeth sinking deeply into the creature’s right eye. The effect was immediate as the seeker released its grip on Brando’s neck and unleashed a high pitched howling shriek of pain as it fell from the platform, landing on its back against the tracks below, where it was almost instantly buried beneath the mass of other seekers that continued to follow the train.

  Mac dropped the second cylinder behind the now faster moving train and both he and Cooper watched as Cooper’s aim proved true. The explosion again ripped through the dark mass of creatures. The hundreds of seekers that still remained alive paused in their pursuit, stopping alongside the tracks as they stood on their legs and raised their noses into the air, their heads bobbing up and down excitedly. Again their mouths opened wide to emit a collective, loud, piercing shriek.

  The Russian smiled as he heard the second blast go off behind the train, knowing Mac and the others had been smart enough to use the explosives the Muslim bandits had intended to use to stop his train. Now they were being used to kill whatever monsters those things were coming after them. Bear was leaning out the other side of the locomotive, trying to see the damage inflicted on the seekers by the second explosion. Unable to see well enough behind the train, he turned back around to look out in front of them.

  “We got more in front of us.”

  Yakov had already spotted what Bear had just seen. No more than three hundred yards further up on the tracks was yet another mass of seekers running directly toward them with seemingly no concern over hurtling themselves at the quickly approaching train.

  The Russian grinned as his right hand reached down to pull back a small brass lever that was just below the locomotive’s main control panel. He then opened up the steam dome valve which in turn propelled the train forward even faster. They were now travelling at just over thirty miles an hour.

  Bear watched silently as the Russian’s eyes glinted in anticipation of what he had planned for the seekers who thought to slow or stall the train’s movement by attacking it from both the front and the back. The gap between the creatures and the thick plated iron face of the locomotive was less than a hundred yards. Yakov began to loudly and with considerable enthusiasm, shout in his halting English a verse from an old 19th Century Russian folk song titled “Dark Eyes”, his hands slashing up and down to the words as his train hurtled toward the running mass of seekers.

  Oh, not for nothing are you darker than the deep!

  I see mourning for my soul in you!

  I see a triumphant flame in you!

  XXXVI.

  Bear’s eyes grew wide as he watched the long arc of flame shoot out from the Ronson system the Russian had installed at the front of his train. The first seekers to be hit by the stream of hot fire were blown from the track where the outer layer of their bodies literally melted away. The next wave of seekers were pummeled both by fire and the still accelerating train, their bodies slamming into the train’s front and then ground up by the massive churning train wheels underneath.

  The smell of the creatures’ burning flesh was almost unbearable, causing Bear to fight from vomiting. Yakov merely laughed as seeker after seeker slammed into the train, either burned, crushed, or often both.

  “Smells like burning shit, huh? Probably tastes like it too!”

  The flame thrower sent another blast of fire into yet more seekers. Apparently undeterred by how many of them were being killed, they continued to throw themselves at the train, their shrieking howls growing more intense. One of the creatures managed to cling to the front right side of the locomotive, its black eyes glaring back at Bear and the Russian as its body flexed and tensed in preparation of leaping forward into the cab where Yakov and Bear stood looking back at the thing.

  The Russian’s eyes caught movement just to his left. Another seeker was able to grasp onto the outside of the locomotive and was quickly working its way toward him. It took no more than a second for the thing to make a final leap into the cab, its clawed fingers grasping at the front of Yakov’s winter coat. The Russian fell backward into a corner of the cab, losing his footing as the creature fell on top of him, its wide mouth hissing as it attempted to snap its jaws around Yakov’s face.

  Bear grabbed one of the shovels used to feed the firebox and swung it at the seeker’s head, only landing a glancing blow as the thing managed to duck right before being hit. The distraction allowed the Russian the opportunity to lock both
of his hands around the monster’s sinewy throat as he pushed himself back onto his feet. Yakov’s incredibly strong fingers squeezed tightly, his large thumbs pressing deeply just below the seeker’s jaw until he was rewarded with the sound of the thing’s windpipe crunching beneath his thumbs.

  The seeker in Yakov’s grasp made one last desperate attempt to free itself, snapping its jaws just inches from the Russian’s nose. Ignoring the threat, Yakov continued to push his thumbs further into the thing’s throat, snapping more bone and cartilage just before throwing the creature out the side of the cab.

  Bear was about to give the Russian a congratulatory shout of approval but instead found himself catching in midair the leaping seeker that had moments earlier been clinging to the right side of the locomotive. Bear swung the creature’s body down against the thick iron floor of the cab with such force it left a small indentation. The seeker’s head slammed backward, temporarily stunning it as its dark eyes rolled upward into its skull. This allowed Bear the second he needed to lift his booted right foot and send it crashing into the thing’s chest, snapping its ribcage apart and impaling a fractured rib directly into the seeker’s heart, killing it instantly. Sensing the thing was dead, Bear took the same foot he had just crushed the seeker’s chest with and pushed it out of the cab where its body rolled against the tracks and was crushed below the moving train.