Unearthly Snowbound

by Waggoner, Robert C.

  Chuck said he was sort of familiar with it, but he was sure there were others more knowledgeable than him.

  “Well, Chuck I think we are carrying a dirty bomb and headed straight into New York not knowing what the hell to do about it. Even there what experts can we call in to help disarm this bomb?”

  “I know”, Chuck said, “We will probably have to do the job ourselves and my knowledge is limited to trains.”

  “That might be the key to it,” Greg said with a glimmer of hope in his voice.

  Meanwhile the train moved down the mountain at a faster rate than at any time before. Greg guessed maybe twenty miles an hour. I wonder what city or town would be best for the refueling. Speaking his thoughts Greg asked the conductor, “Where do you think the best station is to put some fuel in this train is?”

  The conductor thought a minute and says, “Probably are best bet is in Albany.”

  Greg said in a quiet voice, “That is where we should find some place for the passengers and then run the empty train into Grand Central Station. If we run into trouble in Albany we can off the passengers in Grand Central and place them in the underground spaces that make up a large portion of the area.”

  At one time Amtrak used Penn Station, but since the remodeling or restoration of Grand Central, Amtrak used it instead mostly because tourists could greet New York in traditional surroundings.

  In the White House situation room, Tex sat in his office with the colonel. He filled the colonel in on his visit to the president’s office and voiced his concern that the president was looking at him with a wary eye. He and the colonel were tight having served together for years and the colonel was his aide. The colonel told him he had some interesting news for the general and the general sat up knowing his aide would not be giving him scuttle butt only facts. The colonel told him of a prisoner being held in security going through a truth serum interrogation procedure now.

  “First report was he told the truth when he said he was here to kill the president. They’re digging for more information now, but maybe we could use this guy for some propose of our own,” he told the general with a smirk on his face.

  The general smiled and leaned back in his chair thinking how they might use this guy to their advantage. Clearly the country needed to be under military rule during this time of crisis and he was the best and most qualified one to run the country.

  The general was thinking he could turn this guy loose in a uniform with the proper papers and stationed him at the train station, and when the president arrived, he could do a job on her. He looked at the colonel and asked him what or how he would suggest using this guy for our goal.

  The colonel said, “I was thinking general we cut this guy loose and plant him at the station.”

  Tex nodded his head and asked the colonel, “Can we count on the marines for support in our plan to take over the government?”

  “Yes, I think so,” replied the colonel.

  “You must make sure colonel. We have only a few hours to set this up. You’d best get on your horse and see what you can put together. I will leave this in your hands, so don’t let me down or we both will be busting rocks at Leavenworth prison.”

  * * *

  Greg’s wife and kids were surviving keeping warm by the fireplace. She had talked seriously to the kids and they understood what was happening. She told them truthfully that things were serious and life would never be the same again for them. That their father would return, she had no doubt about that and the kids believed her. She estimated they could hold out here for a couple weeks with not much problem. She had tried to go outside to find some wood for the fire, but no matter how many clothes she put on she couldn’t stay out for more than a few minutes. Once out the door, the wind was blowing so hard she had trouble standing up. Her tears blurred her vision so bad she couldn’t see from the blinding snow that now drifted to the rooftop on one side of the house. Not a person or car was moving and it looked like if one could see through the storm, a dead community and a dead city for that matter.

  * * *

  Greg was sitting with Adell thinking about his family and how alone they must feel. He felt a little guilty, but realized his wife was stronger than most believed. He’d learned that women when the chips were down could put forth the effort needed to handle any situation. Most men underestimated their wives and he never underestimated a woman. He was proud the United States had voted in a female president. After more than two hundred years of macho men who had literally destroyed the land and air, the question now was could man survive this crisis without becoming extinct. Good question he thought as Adell asked him a question.

  “Greg, are we going to make it to Albany?”

  “For sure and we will take care of all the passengers the best we can. I have no idea what to expect when we get to the station, but we must be prepared to take care of ourselves in case there is no help available.”

  Greg excused himself and walked back to the conductor’s car. He looked at each passenger as he went from car to car. Each car looked the same: all were alive, but suffering from frostbite. Moving to the back car he ran into Bubba coming forward. He said he was going to check on the Arab dude and come back. Greg told him all was well as the bounty hunters were keeping an eye on him. Bubba followed Greg back to the conductor’s car and when they settled on Greg asked, “When can we expect to reach Albany?”

  The conductor answered, “At our present rate, I would estimate Albany in two hours.”

  Greg tried to look out the window but the ice was so thick on the inside he couldn’t see nothing but white outside.

  Chuck said, “I will take a look and try to see where we are,” He buttoned up his coat and put the snowmobile helmet on. In a few minutes he came back in shaking the snow off his clothes and taking off the helmet.

  “You might not believe this but we are closer than we thought to Albany; maybe about one hour out, I would guess.”

  Greg said to all of them, “Well let’s inform the passengers of our plan to stop in Albany and Chuck and Bubba will try and find some fuel for our journey to New York City.”

  * * *

  Hilary was in her bedroom packing up for the westbound trip when her secretary knocked on her door. Hilary said to come in and stopped her packing when her secretary with a scared looks on her face, announcing that there was a marine sergeant wanting to talk to the president alone. Hilary thought that a little strange, but said she would be out in a minute. She threw a few more things on the bed for her maid to pack and went out of the drawing room where a marine stood at attention.

  She said, “At ease soldier and sit down and tell me what is so important it is for my ears only.”

  He sat down and took a breath and told her a story.

  Hilary was shocked but said nothing as the marine told her the story of the assassin they found trying to enter the White House disguised as a soldier. He was present when the doctor injected the guy with a truth serum and found out he was intending to kill you. “We found a handgun on him and when all the facts were said to the security captain, he told us to keep the news quiet and he would report the finding to the colonel.”

  Meanwhile, he went on to say the captain returned and said the colonel told him to be ready for the military to take over the government when the train left for Colorado. He said the General of the Chiefs would assume command of all the military and the government. To a man we swore to the captain we would follow orders. “Madam President, you are our commander and chief and I follow your orders. I’m here to report to my superior and now I await your orders.”

  Hilary told him to remain here for awhile and left to make an in - house phone call to Melvin. Ten minutes went by and Melvin, Robert and Ron walked into the room. She briefed the group and silence and shock were evident on their faces when she finished. Melvin spoke first, “Well I guess we expected it and now that it is on the surface, what should we do about it?”

  Robert said, “I for one say we take
a bunch of our agents and arrest the guy right now.”

  Ron said, “I’m in favor of what Robert's suggestion.”

  Hilary thought a moment and said to them all, “How about this idea. We need to arrest all who are about to commit treason and the best place to do that might be at the train station.”

  The marine said, “But Madam President, they intend to release the guy and have him assassinate you while you board the train.”

  Hilary laughed a little and told them she had a plan and for the next half hour, she laid out the plan to trap the assassin and the general’s staff too.

  Chapter 11

  Train 3369 pulled into the Albany train station just after two pm Christmas day. Undercover next to the debarking area the train came to a halt. Greg, Bubba and Chuck with the conductor stepped out onto the platform. The wind was still blowing gale force and snow had drifted up against the doors to the inside of the station. Bubba moved around the group and dropped to his knees and started frantically moving the snow away from a door. Not a soul was around. Eerily empty and the inside of the station was dark without a light showing anywhere. The wind whistled through the empty station making ghost sounds. Greg had walked through the passenger cars telling them to wait when they stopped to let them find some help before the passengers got off the train. Greg knew full well that most had bad feet from the frostbite and would need some assistance off the train.

  Bubba meanwhile had one door clear of the snow and had to kick it open from the ice around the door made it stuck to the wall. Greg and company walked into a cavern of silence. Greg said to them, “Spread out and search for any signs of life around here.”

  Their feet echoed off the floor as each made for a different part of the station. The conductor said, “Maybe there are some folks down under the main floor in the basement area. I will go down there and see what, if anything or anyone is around.”

  Greg tried his cell phone out on the platform to no avail. He put it back into his pocket and wondered where they would put a thousand people hungry, tired and most inflicted with frost bite.

  He quickly went back inside as the conductor came running up the stairs calling his name. “Come quick Greg, I found people living down under the first floor. It is amazing but the place is livable and they have room for more! Most are stranded from the blizzard and have nowhere to go,” he said, as he panted from running up the stairs

  Greg hurried down to see what the situation looked like and a plan formulated in his head. His eyes missed nothing going down to the basement area of the station. It was still cold as all get out, but stretched across the large opening some enterprising folks had built a wall of a mixed bag of material to keep the heat in. Greg parted a blanket and walked into a room full of people doing what most would think being stranded for some days now with nothing to do but survive. Greg was impressed and knew someone must have taken charge and directed some plan to prepare for a long time being here without much assistance coming.

  Greg noticed a tall gray haired man coming his way walking with authority. He was near sixty, lean and eyes the color of a smoky gray winter day. He had what appeared a week's worth of gray whiskers around a tight thin lipped smile on his face. He ignored the conductor and stuck his hand out to Greg. He obviously knew who was in charge as he looked at Greg’s intense eyes and intelligent demeanor.

  The man in a calm voice with authority said, “Welcome to Albany sir, we don’t have much, but you are welcome to our little sanctuary.”

  Greg smiled and shook the man’s hand and replied, “Thank you and my name is Greg Hoffman. I’m with the CIA and we came from Chicago headed to New York City. However, we have about one thousand passengers who are frost bitten and tired. If you can accommodate them we would appreciate it. The train is out of fuel and we are being towed by a snow plow train. There's a lot of frozen food aboard the train but we were unable to thaw it out to eat it.”

  The man told him his name was Pete Goodwin, “And I’m sort of the head man around here. Someone had to organize the place and I was elected because no one wanted the job. I’m retired military with the rank of colonel and since my retirement, I’ve been bored to death and this opportunity to do some good with my training is reward enough. We will find the room for your people and we have a lot of young guys willing to help out. Please wait a minute and I will make an announcement and we can proceed with removing your people down here.”

  As he walked away, Greg thought how lucky they were to find such a warm welcome without the hostility of so many people moving in on their space.

  Pete stood on a chair and the room turned quiet as he raised his hand for silence. He said, “Folks a train has arrived from Chicago with a lot of frozen hands and feet. They are in need of our assistance and we need to help them move down here so we can tend to their ailments.”

  He went on to tell some guys to find all the wheelchairs in the station and to some other guys and women to make a space available to accommodate the worst of them. To others he said to follow the conductor to the food storage car and transport the supplies, including blankets and pillows and anything else that isn’t nailed down to their storage room. In addition, a crew of dismantlers should take out the chairs and any other things we might need.

  * * *

  Back on the rails again, Greg had misjudged the time to New York. It was over one hundred and fifty miles and he forgot to take in the rate of travel at about thirty miles an hour. Four hours would be more like it.

  “What a Christmas,” he said to Chuck.

  “I'll never forget it, that’s for sure.”

  Even though the engineer could see nothing in front of him, he pushed his luck and ran straight for New York City. “I hope there aren’t any trains stalled on the tracks, ’ he said to his fireman.

  The fireman said to him, “Remember we have the warning system working and nothing but green is showing on the screen.”

  “Well, let’s bump her up to forty five,” he said with conviction in his voice.

  Greg felt the increase in speed and settled back for a long ride.

  * * *

  Hilary was talking to the head of her secret service about her plan to foil the assassination attempt. It was close to six pm and time to go. Hilary was dressed in a snow suit of blue with a biker’s helmet in her hand. She laughed at herself in the mirror and turned around to look at her traveling companions. Her Chief was in red and her secretary was in pale yellow.

  “Quite a sight we must make,” she said with fake laughter turning serious again with thoughts of monumental problems facing the nation. She walked out the door and they took the elevator down to the situation room. The general was waiting for them and all of his staff were dressed in white snow suits and carrying weapons. Hilary was taken a little aback, but put on a commanding face and said, “General. Let’s go if you are ready.”

  He replied with more authority than necessary, ‘Madam President, we are at your disposal and have vehicles ready for transport to the train station.”

  She followed him out into the blizzard conditions and struggled through the snow to a four wheel drive SUV capable of carrying nine people. Behind and in front of the SUV were six wheel drive military trucks loaded with soldiers. The general climbed into the nearest truck to the president’s car and when all was ready, they left for the train station.

  It was slow going and took about three hours to go from Washington D.C to New York City. The drifting snow on Interstate 296 left one lane fairly open as the convoy moved towards New York City. Even in a heavy truck the wind buffed the heavy suburban SUV. The convoy moved at a steady thirty miles an hour with their lights on. The four-wheel drive clubs had gone ahead of them to break the trail so to speak. Hilary silently thanked them for their help. They had club members stretched from New York City to Washington D.C. hooked up with CB radios. Constant chatter soon put Hilary to sleep. She wasn’t the only that nodded off, all except the driver and his partner were sleeping when they arr
ived at the train station.

  Blacky sitting in-between the driver and the colonel couldn’t help but smile at his good luck. He thought he was the luckiest guy around. As soon as he knocked off the president he would head to Florida after he picked up the money in Chicago. From there he would find a ride down to some island and disappear for good. America is finished he thought. Let the stupid people fight over the spoils. Even with the heater on full, the truck was very cold inside. Only a small round place in the windshield showed through the thick ice on the inside of the windshield. You couldn’t see anything ahead of the truck. Swirling snow so thick from the wind and the truck ahead of them made driving rather tough. Each truck and car had a flashing red light on the top front and back to the other vehicles to see each other with. Blacky stared through the windshield at the blinking red light of the truck in front. Soon he was nodding off as was the colonel.

  * * *

  Greg looked at his watch, and it was six pm. He guessed they were more than half way there. Chuck and Bubba were talking to each other and the bounty hunters were leaning against each other sleeping. The conductor played with some papers and was constantly looking out the windows seeing nothing but white through the iced up windows. Greg felt they were getting used to this harsh climate and wondered if man could adapt to this. His limited knowledge of history brought forth only the Eskimos who lived in a climate like this. However it took years for them to adapt and could us sun worshipers live without vegetables and fruit? Good question, he thought.

  Greg asked Chuck, “Do you have any idea where we are?”

  “I think so,” Chuck said, “we are about a little more than an hour from the station. The main line into the station should be clear. There was more than enough time to set the line and switches to lead trains into the main station house. Inside is another story. We must assume that empty trains are sitting in front of the station with no one around to move or tend them. I remember reading somewhere in one of the brochures that the station has a backup power system. If true, I would guess the place is full of people taking shelter from the weather.”