"Nope. Can’t do that," Shepherd explained. "We need to push through really fast. Tell your engineer to crank the steam. Seems to me, that’s the best way to get by this thing."
Nina added, "Listen, you’d better radio I.S. HQ for this sector. They’ll need to get some military units over here to clean up that pile of shit. Tell them you’ve got a one-fifty-seven."
The Chief pointed out, "There’s no way military units will get here in time to help us."
Shepherd said, "She knows that. What she means is that you should radio them now, ‘cause we might not be around to radio them later…"
…The steam train chugged across the western Pennsylvania landscape gaining more and more speed as it ran on rails cutting between a collection of soft hills, patches of forest, and then one of the hundreds of ghost towns inside The Empire’s borders.
The mound of pale creature sat on a stretch of road at the edge of the empty village. It spoiled what could have been a Norman Rockwell painting of small town America. Other than the movement of its two yellow eyes and the occasional grinding of its massive, ugly mouth, the thing showed no sign of life.
Five I.S. agents traveled on the train, including their Chief who remained in the security car to monitor the situation while the Conductor searched for soldiers or volunteers to help.
The I.S. agents not watching monitors divided, a pair went to the locomotive to protect the crew and another two took positions in the old-fashioned caboose.
Nina and Shep, carrying assault rifles with grenade launchers, waited at the middle of the train, a train that included the large steam locomotive, its tender, the armored security control car, two mail coaches filled with packages and bags, a dining car, and four old-style passenger cars followed by the caboose that also served as a secondary security station..
With time short, Nina sent a porter to find Denise in the sleeping car and fill her in on the situation. Other attendants moved passengers forward to the enclosed mail cars where the windowless walls and heavy doors provided better protection.
On Shepherd's advice, they planned to race past the creature as quickly as possible. By the time the train reached the danger zone, the locomotive hit top speed. Smoke billowed from the stack, the cars rattled and shook causing gasps of fear among the passengers huddled in the dark mail cars, and the rail lines vibrated to the point of emitting a low hum like a tuning fork.
All of the defenders carried radios. Shep listened to the play-by-play from the I.S. agents in the locomotive: "Closing on it now, no sign of movement. Those friggin’ eyes are looking right at us! Man, that's some ugly shit."
The cars clickity-clacked along the tracks as if the train had gone mad.
"We’re passing…no movement…nothing."
Shep watched from his position alongside Nina in one of the passenger cars. The big blob of sickly pale fat did not move. Its two eyes swirled around in its mass and stayed locked on the passing train.
"Man, I think we’re okay on this," the forward-most agents cheered.
Shepherd and Nina drifted toward the rear of the train as the last coaches passed the disgusting mound of flesh. They both slid open windows better see the hideous creature, allowing the foul smell of the thing to seep inside.
The security detail in the caboose radioed, "Hey, no sign of movement. It’s just looking at us like…wait a second…what the Hell..?"
Nina and Shepherd saw what the men in the caboose saw: the creature’s massive mouth opened and the entire blob of a thing heaved, complete with a bellow that sounded as if it vomited.
In fact, it did.
Things flew out of its mouth. Large insect-like beasts with bodies as large as an automobile and wing spans stretching a good thirty feet from tip to tip.
As they flew out—expelled from the belly of the blob—their undercarriages unfolded revealing rows of legs and two scythe-like appendages.
The swarm—six of them—hovered in the air for a moment then headed toward the escaping train. The quick flap of their membrane wings created a loud whir audible even over the frantic chugging of the steam engine.
"We’ve got incoming!" Shepherd radioed as he followed Nina through the passenger coaches and then finally into the caboose.
One I.S. agent had removed a glass panel from the roof cupola to aim a heavy machine gun at the approaching flock.
The second agent asked nervously, "What are these things? What was that big blob?"
Nina answered the man with an angry tone in her voice; a tone Shep knew did not come from hostile animals but from his ability to deflect her questioning. "These flying things are fetching dinner for the big thing. I’m just saying, you don’t want that to happen."
"What? They’ll carry someone back and feed it to the momma-thing?"
"Not exactly," Nina delighted in the nasty explanation probably as a means of releasing the nastiness she felt toward Shepherd at that moment. "These flying things eat you then go back to 'momma'. Then she eats them. I have to think, that would just suck."
"Don’t worry about it," Shepherd assured. "Just start firing. Look for the soft spot under the neck. Don’t bother with the heads; they’re armor plated."
On cue, the officer in the cupola ripped loose a burst of fully automatic gunfire while shouting, "They’re…coming…in…fast!"
Nina opened the rear door of the caboose and was greeted by a disgusting maw, two eyes on stalks, and the swing of one of the scythe-like appendages.
Forest dived back into the caboose. The bone-blade of the creature crashed through the wooden walls like a knife through butter. Those walls splintered and warped. The rear part of the caboose’s roof collapsed midway down and blocked the rear door.
The impact knocked the machine gun man off balance and he fell out of the cupola. On the way down, his weapon fired wildly. Bullets from the gun killed the second I.S. agent and nearly did the same to Nina as she lay prone on the floor.
"Get out! Get out!" Shepherd ordered as he dragged the machine-gun man to his feet.
Shock overcame the poor guy as he realized he just cut his partner in two.
"Oh shit! I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!"
Shepherd pulled him toward the door even as the man continued to apologize to both pieces of his friend’s corpse.
A heavy thud from above announced the arrival of a second insect while the first one tried to claw through the wood of the half-fallen roof.
Nina scrambled to her feet and fired a three-round burst of bullets through the debris, covering Shepherd as he dragged the babbling gunner out of the caboose, across the metal walkway atop the coupler, and through the doorway of the rearmost passenger coach. As she did, she spied two more insect things flying alongside the train searching for avenues of attack.
With one insect at the rear door trying to push through the debris of the roof it had caused to collapse and a second on the stretch of roof that still stood, a third rammed the side of the caboose.
The entire car rose into the air, the two rear wheels corkscrewed then landed off the tracks. Sparks erupted from those derailed metal wheels rubbing against the rail. The friction sent a vibration across the coupler and into the passenger car. They felt the torque of the wayward caboose pull at the coach threatening a chain reaction that could crash the entire train.
"We’re going to friggin’ derail!" the I.S. agent screamed as a frigid wind whipped through the open doorway of the coach from where the three watched the caboose's death throws.
"Cut it loose! Cut the caboose loose!" Shep ordered the guy.
The man looked to Shep with wide, frightened eyes but after a second of hesitation he found the courage to do the job. He put aside his machine gun and crawled on his belly. Nina and Shep took pot shots at a couple of the giant insects flying alongside the train.
The rear wheels grew red from heat as they dragged and flared against the rails. Twisting metal groaned.
Suddenly the landscape changed. Instead of town and roads, th
e train dove into a densely-populated evergreen forest forcing the flying insects to retreat to the sky or become entangled in branches. The two creatures already on the caboose remained.
The I.S. officer cast aside the metal planks that served as a walkway over the coupler. He then leaned down and yanked hoses and wires.
"Hurry up!" Nina shouted as their two unearthly passengers took notice of the three people standing in the open air between the caboose and the passenger coach.
"Almost there!"
The train rounded a bend at break neck speed. The line of cars—even those still firmly on rails—groaned as g force pulled the entire assembly to the right. The rear of the caboose took to the air. Its motion sent a shiver through the entire train. The physics became unavoidable…the wayward caboose would drag the entire train off the tracks.
Shepherd hoped the crash killed him; he did not want a big bug to eat him alive.
At the last possible second, the agent unleashed the coupler.
The caboose literally flew off the railroad and spun in the air. The two insects clung to the vehicle even as the red car disintegrated in the spin. All of them—the caboose and the two giant insects—exploded into a wall of trees.
The train continued on, one car lighter.
Nina and Shep helped the agent to his feet.
"Well done," Shep patted the shaken man on his back then led the three defenders further inside what was now the last car on the train, one of the four old style coaches. Of course, the entire car had been evacuated.
A radio transmission warned, "Three of them are heading for the roof!"
They heard the creatures land overhead. A moment later one of the massive blade-like appendages smashed through the ceiling all the way down and into the floor.
Seconds later, another scythe pierced the ceiling forcing Nina to dive and roll to avoid its blind strike.
The insects acted like magicians slicing their knife-like appendages through a box in to which the beautiful assistant had been sealed.
"Keep…moving…forward…" Shep implored but it seemed as if another blade from either the roof or the side blocked every step they took…
…The locomotive roared forward out of the forest, across a trestle overlooking a cold stream, and through a rolling field. Ahead of it, on the tracks, landed the fourth flying insect-beast, challenging the engine head on.
From Hivvan saboteurs to human train robbers, this creature would soon learn that while the steam train came from a museum, it did not lack teeth.
A gun pod deployed at the front of the engine just above the cow-catcher compartment storing the Railscout. The weapon spooled to life and released an incinerating fire of plasma, eradicating the insect’s armor plating and destroyed everything except for two fibrous wings that fluttered off in the January wind like oversized leaves…
…The I.S. agent raised his heavy machine gun and fired a torrent of bullets straight up, tearing away an entire section of roof and eating into the belly of a beast. A sickly puss rained down upon him even as his dead target lost grip and fell away from the speeding coach.
That puss smelled like gasoline and it burned. He screamed.
Shep came to his assistance, forcing him forward even as blades from the remaining creatures tried to skewer them.
One of the monsters stuck its head in through the destroyed patch of ceiling. Nina hit it with full-automatic fire right in the face. It retreated for a moment.
"Go! Go! Go!"
The security man—still screaming from burns to his face and shoulders—let Shep lead him out the door and to the open-air ramp leading toward the next coach. He unlatched the door and saw a small crowd of volunteers as well as the Conductor waiting in there.
Shepherd gently pushed the man inside and ordered them to, "Get this fella some help and get forward."
One of the creatures swung its head between cars and tried to engulf Shepherd as he stood above the coupling. Nina tackled Shep out of the bite of the monster and into the next coach. The sight of the two diving in just below alien jaws encouraged the Conductor and the volunteers to accelerate from a walk to a sprint toward the front of the train.
Nina, lying on the floor next to Shep, turned and fired her weapon through the portal they had just crashed through. The insect thing squeezed into the space between the cars, its spindly legs resting on the metal crosswalk as if it might just follow them into the passenger car.
Nina reacted, "Fire in the hole!"
Shepherd did the only thing he had time to do; he rolled under one of the seats.
Nina launched a grenade from the M203 on her M4's barrel and also rolled for cover.
The grenade hit the creature at close range. The explosion pushed it back into the rear-most coach. Chunks of the creature tore off and the wood frame of the passenger car caught fire as the creature went up in flames. The flash-fire threatened to engulf the entire compartment.
The last two of the insects stood on top of that coach jabbing their scythe-claws through the roof hoping to hit prey but actually cutting at their burning comrade.
Nina stood and reloaded her launcher. She then fired a second grenade into the burning coach. The explosion split the train car in two. The rear half derailed and rolled down an embankment. Two of the dying creatures went with it while the third—the last one—took to the air with its wings on fire. It fluttered for a second like a warped firefly and then fell.
"We need help back here," Shepherd radioed from the floor between seats. "Get us a fire extinguisher and someone who can uncouple the last coach."
Nina, still full of anger, turned to face Shepherd with half-a-mind to restart the interrogation right there. She wanted answers.
Then she saw the metal rod through his shoulder.
"Holy shit, Shep," anger evaporated into panic.
The explosion had sent shrapnel every where, including a foot-long steel rod through the seats and into his right shoulder.
The Conductor and two men entered the car and worked quickly to disconnect the burning, dragging coach from the train before the flames could spread.
Nina held Shepherd. A blood stain formed on his shirt and his sharp eyes glazed.
"Oh my God. I need a medic here!"
"It ain’t nothing, Nina. Don’t go fussin'."
Nina took stock of the nasty-looking wound. The rod had not hit any vital organs but the pain was immense, or it would be, once the adrenaline of battle faded.
"Oh, Shep, this is my fault. I shouldn’t have fired the grenade so close."
"Now don’t go sayin' that. You did what you always do, Nina. You won the fight."
He fell unconscious. Nina felt for a pulse and found a strong one. Still, she cradled his head in her lap and forgot about her questions. Suddenly they did not seem so important.
10. Redoubt
Trevor stood at the apartment's only window and from what the other Nina told him, most apartments did not have windows and those that did needed to shut the shudders after dark. That gave Trevor only another few minutes to view the city from the thirteenth floor of what felt like a nearly empty skyscraper hotel.
From his vantage point, he saw a couple of other skyscrapers which were part of the cluster of tall buildings comprising central Thebes; each colored dirty green, each—according to Nina—dormitories.
As he scanned the city, he saw smaller square-shaped and rectangular buildings; he saw fuel cisterns and generator stations, roof top greenhouses and air defense batteries.
Far away from the downtown sector, he saw smoke stacks and factory buildings including a giant structure resembling a sort of industrial cathedral, but a veil of smog hovered over the district obscuring the view.
A few traffic lights worked and he spied a handful of vehicles that reminded him of cargo carriers, transports, and cars from home but the streets remained mainly empty.
It was January in this world, too, yet half the buildings in the city emitted no smoke. That meant half the bui
ldings in the city did not need heat because they were empty.
Overall, he saw a dark, sad city more depressing than the empty cities on his own post-Armageddon Earth. Those cities had died. This city—this 'Thebes'—seemed more a zombie: dead but too stubborn to pass quietly.
The thought made him shiver because he knew there had been a Trevor Stone on this world. A Trevor Stone who—like himself—led humanity’s fight. A Trevor Stone who made some mistake or another; who had failed.
Yes, they brought him here as a prisoner, but he felt pity for these humans. The Nina of this world thought that he could help so she kidnapped him. Could he judge her harshly? Had he not sent waves of his K9 killers to slaughter a village in the name of victory?
The bathroom door opened. Reverend Johnny joined Trevor at the window.
"What is it you spy, my friend?"
"I have spent every day since the world changed fighting so as to never see this."
Johnny nodded his head and quoted softly, "They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again…their country will be known as 'The Land of Wickedness,' and their people will be called 'The People with Whom the LORD Is Forever Angry.' "
The second sunset of their stay in Thebes neared. The two men were kept isolated the entire time, starting first at a vacant military barracks, then an empty dining hall where they found the food as bland as the walls, and now this apartment. Other than the company of a few silent guards, they remained alone except for the occasional question of "how are you guys holding up?" and the promise that "this won’t last much longer," during quick visits from Nina.
As for the dormitory, the furniture felt old, musty, and hard. Trevor found neither communication devices nor any type of radio or television. The dim lighting tended to flicker on and off, meaning power generation posed yet another issue for the people of this Earth.
With his eyes fixed on the darkening city outside, Trevor told Johnny, "I want to apologize. It was my foolishness that led us here."
"You owe me no apology, Trevor. I am wise in many ways but your vision in matters such as these is keener. If we were to speak honestly, then I must admit that you are in tune with forces I can not comprehend. You are a person of destiny, everyone knows this but we fear to speak openly of it."
Beyond Armageddon: Book 03 - Parallels Page 12
