Final Dawn: Season 2 (The Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series)

by Mike Kraus

  The sound of a distant engine began to drone in her left ear, then the ringing in her right ear was overwhelmed with the sound as well. Rachel opened her eyes in surprise, not having noticed that she had them closed with her head slumped down on her chest. She tried to sit up but failed, then settled for an awkward roll onto her side before trying to push herself to a kneeling position with her weakened arms.

  A plume of dust enveloped Rachel, followed by the sound of an engine dying and a pair of large doors being opened. Footsteps approached her and she raised her hand, struggling to reach the gun that was still strapped to her back. Powerful hands gripped her by the arms and hoisted her up to take her a short distance away before gently laying her down on the ground. A soft piece of material was pushed underneath her head and she felt a cool liquid flow over her face, making her gasp in shock. Rachel’s eyes fluttered open and she saw the concerned expressions of David and Marcus hovering over her, fading in and out of focus as she struggled to maintain consciousness.

  “You look like hell, Rachel; just hold still.” The sound of Marcus’s soothing voice had an instant calming effect on Rachel and she stopped struggling to move. More water was poured on her, this time on her hands and arms. A small trickle came to the corner of her mouth next and she tilted her head, swallowing mouthfuls at a time. When the water stopped, Rachel took several deep breaths, trying to stand up again, but she eventually gave up, slumping back against the backpack under her head.

  “Did you stop the train?” Rachel’s words were slurred and slow, but she managed to croak them out despite the intense pain in her chest.

  David looked at Marcus before answering. “It won’t be arriving at the coast. Marcus did a damned fine job at stopping it.”

  A small smile brushed over Rachel’s face and she felt her body relax even more after hearing that they had successfully stopped the train. A few minutes ticked past with David and Marcus checking Rachel over, making sure that she was as comfortable as possible and searching for any pain medications they had in their supplies. Rachel cracked one eyelid at the sound of a soft whine near her and she reached out, feeling Sam’s soft fur and pulling him in next to her.

  After an hour had gone by and Rachel had received a hefty dose of painkillers, she tried once again to sit up, this time succeeding. The pain in her chest was muted but still noticeable, and she wondered how many ribs she had cracked during her leap from the APC to the train. Leaning up against one of the armored vehicle’s hefty tires, she stroked Sam’s head as she watched David and Marcus explore several of the boxcars on the train, searching for supplies and making sure that there were no surviving creatures. Marcus was the first to notice her sitting up and he waved at her, then called for David to follow him back to the APC. The two men jogged back to her, concern written on their faces as they approached.

  “Rachel, you really shouldn’t be sitting up. Just lie back down, please.”

  “David, I’m fine. The painkillers are working and I don’t feel like sleeping.”

  Marcus and David both sat down next to Rachel, eyeing her intently for any signs that she might need more help. They looked at each other quickly, then Marcus spoke. “Well, if she’s up, we might as well tell her your idea and see what she thinks.”

  “What idea?” Rachel coughed after she spoke, an action that brought pain to her chest but, thankfully, didn’t involve coughing up any blood.

  David was nearly beside himself with excitement and stood up as he spoke, pacing back and forth nervously. “We’ve been looking over the train and from what we can see, it’s still fully operational. So then I started asking myself, if I was the AI and I saw this big armored car start rolling in, what would I do about it?”

  Rachel’s head hurt too much for her to make the connections that David was laying out, so she just stared at him, waiting for him to continue. His eyes darted back and forth and he coughed, uncomfortable with the silence. “Right, anyway, if we show up in the APC we’ll just be signing our own death warrants, especially with Bertha in the back. But if we went in disguised, then we’d have a better chance of getting right up close to the nexus, close enough for Bertha to have the best possible chance at wiping out the swarms.”

  “The train.” Rachel nodded slowly. “You’re right… it’ll work. The AI expects trains to be arriving all the time. It wouldn’t expect an attack to come from one. Even if it eventually notices that there aren’t any creatures left on board, we’ll be so close that we can trigger Bertha and wipe it out in one go.”

  Marcus spoke next, looking at both David and Rachel as he spoke. “David’s certain he can get all of the emergency systems reset in the next few hours, then all we have to do is get Bertha loaded into one of the boxcars and we’ll be set to go. We can ditch the APC and just take the train all the way to the coast. Once we get going, we shouldn’t have to do anything else but sit back and enjoy the ride.”

  Rachel cracked a half smile, pleased by the solution that David and Marcus had found. She was also happy to see that David had apparently become less upset with Marcus, or was at a least choosing to look past his frustrations enough to work together with him. “Nice work, boys.” Rachel gestured to herself limply with one hand, coughing from the small amount of exertion. “Sorry I’m not in any shape to help.”

  Marcus smiled and scooted closer, taking Rachel’s hand and holding it tightly. “We’re just glad you survived. That was a nasty thing you did. I still can’t believe it worked, though.”

  “You and me both.”

  Marcus smiled again and patted Rachel’s hand before he stood up to address David. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

  Leonard McComb | Nancy Sims

  6:55 AM, April 21, 2038

  “Leonard!” Nancy screamed Leonard’s name as she was pulled below deck, hoping beyond hope that Leonard was all right. She kicked and scratched at the men who pulled her along, trying desperately to get back to Leonard, who was quickly brought below and rushed to the surgical room. Kept from running to Leonard’s side, Nancy’s screams echoed down the halls of the Arkhangelsk, sending chills down the backs of every man who heard her.

  Two crewmembers hoisted Leonard up onto a surgical bed, stepping quickly away with looks of disgust and fear on their faces. Never having seen such gruesome injuries before, the men were unsure what to do. A young man in scrubs with a face mask and rubber gloves on ran into the room from the hall, his eyes wide as he saw the damage done to Leonard’s leg. Shouting at the two men standing nearby, he ordered them to take off their heavy jackets, wash their hands and arms and don masks and gloves. One of the two men tried to argue, but the look on the doctor’s face made him close his mouth and obey the doctor’s orders.

  With only a basic medical training, the doctor had never dealt with an amputation scenario before, but time was running out. The cauterization done to Leonard’s leg wasn’t stemming the flow of blood very much, and without immediate action, he would die on the operating table. Working furiously, the doctor began to remove Leonard’s clothing, grimacing at the damage done to his leg. The lower half of Leonard’s leg hung off of the table and the doctor quickly removed it, slicing through the few remaining pieces of tissue that were holding it on. He handed the severed leg to the first crewmember that walked back in, who caught it and held it out in front of himself in horror.

  “Put that down and look in the drawer there. Get me two of the bags, plus one of those, and hurry!” The doctor pointed at a medical stand with a crossbar and two hooks on it, then turned back to Leonard to examine the wound up close. He quickly applied a sterilizing solution to the wound, and began to close off the artery, finishing the job that the explosive had started with its partial cauterization. With the blood flow slowed to a trickle, he picked up a pair of tweezers and began to remove pieces of metal from the wound, adjusting an overhead light as he went along.

  Once the foreign matter was removed from the wound, the doctor grabbed the bags of saline solution from the cr
ewmember who held them out, quickly setting them up and inserting a needle into Leonard’s arm. For all of the pain that he was under, Leonard was still unconscious, a fact that the doctor was grateful for.

  “Get me the bottle over there!” The doctor pointed at a squeeze bottle sitting on a table and the second crewmember rushed over with it, backing away as quickly as the doctor took it. Squeezing gently, the doctor washed the stump of Leonard’s leg, clearing away bits of dirt, debris and clotted blood that remained in the wound. Once he was certain the wound was clear, the doctor motioned for both crewmembers to come to either side of the surgical table.

  “Take his leg there and hold it up. Keep it elevated!” The two men exchanged nervous glances, but their hesitation was no match for the doctor’s authoritative tone. While they held Leonard’s leg above the rest of his body, the doctor got a large bundle of gauze and a small spray bottle from a cabinet. After shaking the bottle a few times, he sprayed the wound with several layers of it, coating every visible surface with the antibiotic solution. Once the solution started to drip down, he began to wrap gauze around Leonard’s wound, winding it tightly in several layers before tying it off. The crewmembers gently lowered Leonard’s leg at the doctor’s order, letting it sit on top of a few pillows that he had stacked at the end of the surgical table.

  Though the wound had been treated to the best of the doctor’s abilities, he still wasn’t finished. The final movements had started to rouse Leonard, who was groaning loudly in pain. The doctor fumbled with a key that was on a chain around his neck, using it to open a small cabinet that contained a stock of opiates. Selecting a modest dose of morphine, he slowly injected it into Leonard’s bloodstream. The effect was nearly immediate and Leonard slumped back, his half-open eyes closing as his body began to relax.

  After attaching a heart rate monitor to Leonard’s chest, the doctor pointed at Leonard and addressed both of the crewmembers sternly. “Watch him and don’t leave his side. Call me if he starts to wake up or if anything happens. I’ll be on the command deck giving Commander Krylov an update.” The two crewmembers nodded and stepped next to Leonard, watching his sleeping form closely as the doctor hurried out of the room, stripping off his mask and gloves as he went.

  Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | David Landry

  8:42 AM, April 21, 2038

  After carrying Rachel into the lead engine compartment on the train and making sure she was as comfortable as possible, Marcus and David worked quickly. Over two hours were spent examining the train, resetting the emergency system and ensuring that everything was ready for them to load Bertha and resume their trip to the south.

  Neither Marcus nor David had any experience with the operation of trains, but they adapted quickly and soon had every system operational, or so they hoped. The next step was to load Bertha into one of the boxcars, a feat that would be no small task given the device’s size and weight. With Rachel needing to stay immobile, Marcus and David would need to stay in the lead locomotive with her, but there was not enough room for Bertha to be in the same location. Six more engines were lined up behind the lead before the row of boxcars started, so there was no choice but to load Bertha up in the first boxcar.

  The group hoped that they wouldn’t have to use Bertha in a hurry, due to the fact that it would take a few minutes to go from the front of the train to the first boxcar. David had volunteered to stay in the boxcar with Bertha but Rachel shot down that idea, insisting that they stay together while the train was going just in case they ran into trouble.

  As for loading Bertha onto the boxcar, Marcus and David finally decided on a method that they hoped would be relatively easy. Marcus pulled the APC around to the first boxcar, backing up as close as possible to the side door before hopping out to look at the situation. The back of the APC was a good foot lower than the floor of the boxcar, and though Marcus could get the back of the vehicle flush with the train car, it would do no good unless they could even out the height difference.

  Marcus slid the boxcar door open a few feet and hopped inside, looking around for any type of materials that they could use to build a ramp from the APC to the boxcar. The area inside the boxcar was packed full of various materials, most of which Marcus didn’t recognize. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw a pile of concrete railroad ties stacked along both sides of the boxcar. Several inches thick and nearly nine feet long, the massive blocks weighed several hundred pounds and were exactly what Marcus was looking for.

  “David, come here!” David jogged up to the side of the boxcar and peeked inside.

  “What’s going on?”

  Marcus motioned for David to come into the boxcar, then pointed at one of the railroad ties. “If we can get one of these on the ground just outside the train, that should get the APC high enough for us to slide Bertha right into the car.”

  David gently kicked the concrete tie that Marcus motioned to and shook his head. “Those things have got to be, what, six or seven hundred pounds?”

  Marcus slapped David on the back, smiling as he moved to the end of the tie. “Come on, we can get this out of here no problem. Just get back here and help me push.”

  David glanced around the boxcar and walked past Marcus to the front wall, plucking a thick steel rod up from off the floor. Gesturing for Marcus to stand aside, David planted the metal rod in a small gap at the base of the tie and threw his weight into the rod. The tie shifted forward as David pushed down, moving several inches toward the door. Marcus raised an eyebrow and watched as David got the tie all the way to the door before turning around and holding out the steel rod.

  “You want to do the rest?”

  Marcus laughed and took the rod, placing it in a gap along the long side of the concrete tie. “Damn, David. Very nice. Very nice indeed.” Mimicking David’s technique, Marcus placed the end of the rod under the concrete tie and pushed down, sending the tie rolling out of the boxcar to land just on the outside of the tracks. Still chuckling to himself, Marcus jumped out of the boxcar and got in the APC while David watched, a small smile on his face.

  Marcus backed the APC up until the rear wheels were touching on the concrete tie, then began to slowly accelerate, watching David in the rearview mirror through the open hatch doors. A shout from Rachel made David turn his head to look out the side door of the boxcar, but he saw nothing. Her shout didn’t sound urgent, so he turned back to Marcus, guiding him to continue backing up. The APC’s knobby wheels slipped briefly on the thick concrete before finally grasping hold, raising the overloaded rear end of the vehicle to a height that was just above the back of the boxcar. The gap between the boxcar and the APC was only six inches, so David shouted for Marcus to stop and turn off the engine.

  Rachel shouted again, too faintly for David or Marcus to hear what she was saying. David leaned his head out of the side of the boxcar again, opening the other side door and shouted back. “We’re almost done! Hang tight for a second!” He went back to the rear of the APC and climbed in, moving to the front of the rear compartment where Marcus was already bracing himself against the dash of the APC.

  “We’ll push on three, okay?”

  David nodded in acknowledgement and put his hands around the end of Bertha, placing his legs against the front of the rear compartment. Marcus counted down and, on the count of three, David pulled while Marcus pushed, the both of them working together to slide the heavy device into the train car. For the first second nothing happened, then Bertha began to move, sliding faster across the floor of the armored vehicle than they had expected. Once the device was halfway out the back of the APC, it tipped down, slowing as it scraped along the rough wood floor of the boxcar.

  “Keep pushing!” Marcus shouted through his and David’s groans as they struggled to finish moving the massive device. With a final heave, the last bit of Bertha went out of the APC, closing the one inch gap to the boxcar with a loud thud. Marcus and David continued pushing, but Bertha was no longer moving thanks to the friction between it
and the rough floor of the boxcar. Thankfully, though, the device had landed just a few inches inside the doorway, just enough so that the side door could be slid shut.

  Marcus and David both plopped into the bench seats of the APC’s rear compartment, breathing heavily from the effort of moving the massive device. “What,” Marcus said, nearly breathless, “you didn’t have some fancy way of moving that, too?” David snorted and shook his head, his smile growing slightly larger in light of Marcus’s remark.

  Rachel’s voice came from the front of the train again, louder this time and more panicked. Alarmed, Marcus and David both clambered into the front seats of the APC, exiting the vehicle and looking down the track toward the locomotives. Rachel’s scream was louder, but it was also being drowned out by a new sound that was rapidly approaching. Rotor wash kicked up a huge dust cloud as a black helicopter descended from the sky, sending debris flying in every direction.