by Hamrick, R M
“Reversion?”
“Cured no longer being cured?” she tried.
“Oh, the turn-backs. We don’t got any cured here. No one could afford it.”
“All the cured are susceptible. Her lies and unfair policies are going to kill us. We’re marching on Lysent headquarters to overthrow Greenly. It’s our only chance to use the company resources to develop a permanent cure and distribute it.”
“That’s ambitious. We’re just trying to last the winter,” Moe admitted.
“Us too, but I think this is the only way we do. Would you guys be willing to fight? How about the other townships farther out like you?”
“Well, there is still the rebel network. We’re a big part of it here. Some in other towns too.”
Audra nodded. She had intense feelings of mistrust after Vesna’s membership in this mysterious network hadn’t saved her from being executed. She didn’t know Corette or many of the others who claimed to contribute. But unfortunately, suspicions didn’t supplant Audra’s need for more hands and weapons.
“Greenly refuses to admit her cure doesn’t work. She’s going to sit back while our friends revert and we have outbreaks all over again.”
Moe looked at Kip. He shook his head. “I don’t want my kids running around trying to care for their families. We should be getting rations for our contributions. Cures should have been free a long time ago. If you’re going to fight, we’re in, but you know she has an army now. Some sort of robot soldiers.”
Audra would have laughed at the description, if she hadn’t been the reason Lysent had that army.
“Yes. They’re some sort of hybrid. But, we may have a way to disable them.”
“May?” asked Moe, raising his eyebrows.
“There’s an ‘off command’, but they’ve been under Lysent’s control for months now. Who knows if they’ve managed to reprogram them.”
“So they are robots… What are they like?”
“They’re as coordinated and agile as humans, but must be killed like zoms. Their skulls are hard, so you have to get soft spots, eyeballs, ear canal, temples, even the nose. The back of the neck starting at the base of the skull and coming up through the spinal canal—”
“I know how to kill a zom,” he interrupted.
“Yeah, besides soft access to the brain, you could also bash their heads in if you have enough force,” Audra added, fighting the temptation to demonstrate on Moe’s round one.
Two boys ran from the center of town, rushing Audra and Moe. Both had dark hair like Kip. They took hold of his lead, keeping him at arm’s length.
“Did you bring him back?” asked the taller of the boys.
“Yes, he shouldn’t have been out by himself.”
The shorter one kicked the taller one. “We knew he’d do it with or without us. We shoulda gone.”
“Maybe, but now you’re here and healthy,” responded Audra. “You can take care of him.”
“Until what?” scoffed the taller one. “There’s no cure.”
Audra dug her shoe into the dirt. “I’m trying to fix that.”
The boys shook their heads unconvinced and walked off with their brother.
Audra hoped they wouldn’t kill him. Although, with the pain the infected felt and no cure in sight, what was the best thing to do? She thought of Gordon recounting the wicked flames that wrapped around his bones. Maybe it was more merciful to let the infected die, but Audra couldn’t let go of the possibility of healing and life.
“Let’s go talk,” said Moe. “Over a drink?”
“Talk, yes. I have a few questions about this train…”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
UNO
Back at Osprey Point, Dwyn hugged Audra tightly, his face buried in her hair. She took a moment to rest and enjoy the quiet peace before saying another goodbye.
“Be careful,” she finally said. “We need the network, but I don’t trust them.”
Dwyn was going ahead of their gathered forces to organize Corette and her people. A two-pronged attack.
“They’re against Greenly. What else do you need?” asked Dwyn.
“It’s just, I don’t get it. They’ve spent years benefiting from the system. Why do they want to help us?”
“They’re dealing with the broken antiviral. Same as us,” he reminded her, pulling up her chin with his hand. Audra thought his hand felt warm.
Dwyn gave a little cough.
“It’s OK!” he said. “Just a tickle in my throat.”
Audra nodded, ashamed that she was looking for signs.
Dwyn coughed again.
Audra’s heart sank a little lower.
Their goodbye was interrupted as reinforcements from the motel arrived. Six. Six people. Audra wondered if the six people could even make up in fighting power what they had lost in morale seeing just six return to Osprey Point. Tears were matched with questions and answers. Katie told them Lisa was holding up. She just needed a cure. Bradley was confined to a room without furniture as she kept injuring herself. Gordon down. And so many more friends and family.
* * *
The next morning, when Audra and her group arrived at the gates of Uno, she saw the guards there had doubled. They looked professional, much more than her own, despite their similarities. Both Osprey Point and Uno had zombies to deal with. They had to hunt and gather outside safe boundaries. They all-around had to survive a harder life than Lysent’s more favored counterparts. But Uno looked much more prepared. Perhaps because those at Osprey Point were comebacks, relatively new to the world again. Or perhaps because Audra had mistakenly kept them hidden and safe.
The gates opened and her thirty or so flooded into the township, some for the first time. Audra directed them to a small building up against the platform for the train. The track looked modern and sleek, much unlike the world they lived in, even in the townships.
Moe pulled her to the side. “I thought you’d have more people.”
I thought you’d be skinnier with less rations. “A lot of us have turned.”
“Should’ve brought them too.”
Audra sighed. She never saw eye to eye with the townships. There was no point arguing now.
“We have more waiting at Lysent. Tell me again about the train,” she requested. She was used to hearing Dwyn repeat reports and strategies over and over. It no longer felt right to do differently.
Moe gave her a patronizing look. “Always one guy at the helm. Fifteen unmarked cars. Each with a guard and randomized cargo. I wonder whose fault that is…” he trailed off.
Guards in every car. Audra had prompted that policy when she stole antivirals off the automated and unmanned train.
Hijacking the train would give them transportation and the element of surprise. They’d be able to roll right into Choros, picking up anyone they wanted on the way. They’d arrive at Lysent’s doorstep — together and ready to fight.
Would Lysent roll over or would they battle their own people? Audra knew the Choros residents would side with whoever promised them safety and security at the end. They wouldn’t fight. Instead they’d wait with their heads in the sand.
“When does the train get here?” asked Audra. She already knew, but she was beginning to feel nervous. She wanted to be out of sight when it came barreling into the train station.
“3:30 Lysent time. The cold things are no longer cold. In the summer, the meat goes bad. Greens are withered.”
“And these are the people that are usually here?” Audra motioned to the men on the deck.
“Yes, some of our strongest men help us unload the boxes. Makes for a quicker transport trip. Works well for us, huh?” said Moe.
Audra nodded. She could almost feel the ground vibrate or maybe hear the hum emanating from the tracks. Whatever it was, it set her hairs on end. Audra looked at the clock which hung from an A-frame. It was early — not by much. She squinted down the tracks until it appeared into view. Audra gave Moe a big slap on the arm, unable to reach
his shoulder, before she stepped off of the platform. She’d be back soon enough.
Inside the buildings were teeming with people ready to board the trains. They quieted as the silver bullet of a train swept into the station. It slowed to a stop and with a gentle high-tech bing they could hear nowhere else, all the doors to the cars opened on both sides.
Moe’s front line pulled back. They had expected boxes and guards. Instead the cars were packed to the brim with people. They all wore potato burlap sacks and smelled of sewage.
Half zoms.
Shit.
Two barreled out of their car and were on Moe before Audra could consider a strategy. He was on the ground with a mouth over his neck. The blood squirted at an inconceivable height even with Moe’s most likely high blood pressure. The second repeatedly stabbed him in the stomach, guts coursing. The other half zoms emerged more slowly out of the train, but Uno’s first line had frozen, taken aback by the screaming and crimson of the rotund man.
“Jack, Peter, come now! Half zoms!” Audra shouted into the crowd.
Lysent knew. Someone had betrayed them. The coup could end before it even got started. Audra pulled out her dagger — it seemed small when regarded next to these soldiers. There was no way. She looked for a melee weapon and saw Jack and Peter moving through the crowd. Jack gave her a quick nod and escorted his father toward the station.
“Earl Grey!” Peter shouted as soon as he faced his army.
The soldiers continued forward.
“EARL GREY!” he tried again, squaring his shoulders to air confidence with his command.
Nothing.
Jack tried. Why wasn’t it working?
Peter ran up to a bulky man. He yelled into his face. The man only grabbed him back. Audra felt sick. Jack raced over and ripped his father from his fanged creation.
“I’m so sorry!” Peter yelled out as Jack fireman-carried him away.
Audra had known it was a long shot. The soldiers had been reset somehow. Leave it to Greenly to brainwash the brainwashed. Now they were left with only one option.
Kill.
Audra yelled out directions concerning soft spots as people finally began to rush out with weapons drawn. She ran toward the front cab which had the driver’s compartment but found she couldn’t ignore the half zoms consuming Moe. They pulled at greasy flesh, drawing out the feast. Audra knew others would falter at the sight. She raised her bat and swung down with all her might. It gave a mighty crack before the half zom collapsed over him.
Moe shook with eyes wide, but most of his body was gone. The second zom stood over him and brandished his knife against his smile. Audra didn’t give him a chance. She knocked the smile off with her bat, his face contorting and his jaw dislodging. She raised her bat again.
“Herro?” he called out, much to Audra’s surprise. Was that a hello? He shook his head as if to cast off the stars floating in his vision.
She didn’t have time to decide. She swung. This time higher than his jaw. She knocked him down and swung and swung. He emitted sounds of pain, human pain. He was crying out. And Audra felt herself begin to sob as well.
He was human. He wasn’t human a moment ago, but he was in this moment, this moment of death. Audra had knocked the sense into him only for him to experience being clubbed to death in some unknown place by some unknown woman. An electrifying shiver shook through her. She thought she was going to be sick. But she couldn’t. There was no time. She looked up to see people fighting the half zoms, some successfully, some less than successfully. Blood sprays and screams seemed to meld together on the train’s stage.
Audra pushed toward the cab. There was no way Lysent had planned to give them this train, filled with half zoms or not. She needed to stop the train from returning to Lysent without any of them on board. If that happened all of this — all of this death — would be for nothing. She reached the cab and its closed door, the only closed door. Inside, the conductor messed around with the keys and buttons on the control stand. Audra guessed he was more familiar with herding zoms by horse than driving trains. Otherwise he’d have cleared out already.
Testing the bat against the window did nothing but alert the conductor, bounce back, and threaten to knock her out. Audra had enough sense to not try again. Instead she searched the exterior of the cab. Ahead, people fought on the tracks. Safety protocols wouldn’t allow the train to move with obstructions on the track. Audra had taken advantage of that protocol during her first heist.
There had to be a way to manually open the doors in case of emergency. Underneath, she didn’t see any levers or any eye-catching red or yellow. Getting up, she saw some of the fighting had moved away from the tracks. She didn’t have much time.
On the back of the cab, several panels were inlaid, but Audra couldn’t reach. She stepped onto the connection between the two vehicles. The train jolted and Audra’s body fell into the back of the front car. She put her hands up to regain her balance. The train was trying to make its getaway. It lurched, and then stopped again.
Her hand fell near a bright red lever. While she couldn’t tell what it was, she imagined it wouldn’t help the train go on its way. Audra braced herself with her foot and pulled. It crept down with a deep grinding noise. She heard the beautiful high-tech beep and then a gentle swoosh. She had done it.
When Audra stepped inside, the man hadn’t figured out he wasn’t the one who had opened the doors. He frantically re-pushed the buttons he had just pushed. He looked much larger when Audra stood in the car with him. Maybe she should have called for backup. When he realized Audra had joined him, he searched the console again. This time Audra figured for a weapon.
With the bat in one hand, she pulled her blade from her holster and jettisoned it toward the grizzled man. She followed with her bat, covering half the distance between them. In that time, he yanked her knife from his shoulder with a primal growl. He passed the weapon to the injured arm, a small advantage.
The odds were against her. She was so much smaller. But perhaps she could keep distance or buy time with her bat. He charged at her. Audra tried to picture his round head as a baseball for her bat to meet, but she missed.
Her miss still managed to move her out of his path. He almost went straight out of the train, but he stopped himself with his hands on either side. As he shifted his momentum to bring his head and torso back inside, Audra struck the space between his shoulder blades. He only turned at the waist and wrapped one large hand around her weapon. Audra took the opportunity to wrench his injured shoulder, whipping the bat out of his hand. She pivoted on her heels and smashed it into his back.
This time he dropped to his hands and knees. She swung at his head again, again, again, until the only movement was the splashback from her bat.
A muffled static noise came from the floor of the train. A small overturned radio by the conductor’s seat.
“This is Dunnbreak Township, relaying a message for Lysent Corp. You’re to have departed already. Please clear the track for your return. What is your status, Blake?”
There was no telling what Blake had already told them. In front of the train lay bodies. The train wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Audra stomped on the radio with her boot and climbed out of the car.
Her feet had barely hit the ground when they were ripped out from underneath her.
Claws grabbed her ankles and pulled them underneath the train toward ripped lips and rotting teeth. His ears bled. Her fingernails dug into the concrete but flaked, serving as failed brakes. As her boots got close to the face, she kicked upward. Her foot freed and met his chin. His head smacked the bottom of the train and Audra hoped he saw stars. She used her free foot to stomp his face and his other hand. Prying her other foot away, she quickly backed up, hands and feet scurrying.
He did the same, backing out on the other side. Audra sprinted through the cab to the opposite door. She made short work of him with her recovered bat. Audra took a gasping breath. Her arms shook, making the bat ratt
le in her hands. All this death. She had just wanted to board the damn train.
Her victim’s ears were crusted in old blood. Surveying the train stage, she saw he wasn’t the only one.
They had emerged from the train and attacked with mouth and blade, but they hadn’t been given any defensive measures. The uninfected workers of Jack's surrendered convoy would’ve verified the half-zoms followed Jack’s and Jill's verbal commands. Despite that knowledge, she apparently couldn't figure out how to reprogram the soldiers to follow her.
So instead, she had deafened them.
The fighting was dying down, but the violence hadn’t. All around, weapons whipped through the air, the thunks, and shlunks, and the sound of wet bloody impacts. The train, station floor, and her people splattered in sick garnet.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE TRAIN
Audra avoided glancing at the pools of sticky blood and fragments of flesh that decorated the station floor while she directed the people. Bodies sorted and adrenaline fading, energy levels were plummeting. Audra recognized their need to regroup if she was ever going to convince them to board the train.
She encouraged them to wash up, to change from their blood-soaked clothes, and to eat as much as they could handle. Marcos circulated drinking water. Satomi treated the injured. And Ryder organized barricades to keep the train from being recalled. Jack and Peter were nowhere to be found.
After baths and clothing had been distributed, Uno citizens disappeared into their homes, reappearing with coverings and trinkets to dress their deceased. Even in a place where possessions were so few, they surrounded their lost with respect. Survival had been the only focus for so long, but they had returned to keepsakes and giving. They couldn’t go back. They had to fight for what they had achieved.
Atop one of the covered bodies sat a small wooden elephant. Audra touched its trunk. While they had to push back toward keepsakes, Belinda had never wandered from them. Her days were spent whittling her animals, leaving them here or there for others to find. Audra didn’t allow herself to consider if this was one of hers.
