Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Since the Sirens (32 page)

“Thank you ma'am. I hope you find your family.”

The woman stopped what she was doing and told Victoria “thank
you.” Liam thought she looked even more tired and worn down
than everyone else. She had the stress of saving everyone.

And I thought saving Grandma was stressful.

Liam was walking out the door when he saw something sitting in a
nook where it looked like the engine crew kept their gear. He wasn't
positive what he saw, but he kept it in mind for later reference. It
might be the answer to someone's prayers...

One last look at Hayes—he was staying in the engine—and
Liam and Victoria were out and climbing off the Valkyrie. As they
did, the engineer—they forgot to get her name—blew two
long bursts on the horn to indicate the train was about to start
moving.

Everywhere people were scrambling to get back on their respective
freight cars. When they finally reached the last car they were
shocked to see a lot more people on it. Many of them were absolutely
filthy with coal dust. Those folks had opted for the wide open
flatcar rather than the confining filth of the coal tenders.

Liam had a panicked thought they would'nt even fit on the crowded
car anymore, but was relieved to see Jones by the ladder making space
for them to climb aboard.

He gave them a friendly greeting.

“Smoking on the left, non on the right. We have beverages in
the front and VIP room in the back. Welcome to the High Rollers
Club.”

Victoria and Liam both laughed.

“And where is the women's powder room?”

“I'm sorry ma'am but you just walked out of the restroom.”

She responded with a horrified “ugg” but Liam found no
humor in it. Not because it wasn't funny—he smiled to the big
guy to show his appreciation—but because it was true. Nothing
was ever going to be the same again. Even the most basic things such
as plumbing were going to be hard to find unless civilization was
keeping hold somewhere else.

Right now the High Rollers Club was the best they had.

Liam was ready to let it roll until the end.

4

They had parked there long enough by the looks of the crowd
assembling behind them. The answer to an earlier thought of Liam's
was that yes, the plague victims were going to follow the train
regardless if they could see it or not. It seemed impossible, but
zombies were “impossible” a week ago too. Who knew what
they were capable of? Then again, maybe they just kept walking in the
direction they were already pointed? Hard to say, but the bottom line
was that it was time to go.

The train started moving very slowly again. Now that he knew the
engineer wasn't a professional, he understood why the train wasn't
cruising at break-neck speeds. With the crowd packed tightly on the
flatcar, it was probably a good thing they weren't going too fast.

Liam and Victoria squeezed through the crowd and made their way to
where Grandma was still sitting next to the tires. They sat down next
to her and told her all about what they saw up on the bridge. She
took it in with her usual calm demeanor, which agitated Liam.

“Grandma why aren't you more concerned about him?”

“Ah Liam, when you get to be my age it takes a lot to
concern yourself with every detail of what's going on. It doesn't
really matter who he is to me, as long as this train keeps moving
south and gets you and Victoria out of harm's way. That is where
we'll find your house, your parents, and hopefully some breathing
room from those poor souls behind us. You two should stay away from
him though. He sounds like he has some deadly friends.”

Liam couldn't disagree. He immediately felt himself drifting off
as the car began rattling along but it wasn't sixty seconds before
Liam heard lots of gunfire from up in the front. Then he heard the
screams of the people around him who were standing near the
edges—they could see what was up ahead. Almost as one, the
people recoiled inward so they could escape the edges. Several tried
to wedge themselves under the big trailer into the space where the
trio was sitting. This forced Liam and Victoria to move Grandma
almost directly underneath the axle of the big trailer. The pair then
moved through the crowd so they could see what all the fuss was
about.

Oh crap.

The train was entering some kind of quarry complex. Limestone by
the looks of it. On their left, next to the river, were huge
elevators and machines which dumped the rock onto barges and trucks.
On the right was a maze of roadways where oversized dump trucks—had
they been operating—would be hauling rocks from the deep
tunnels of this pit mine.

He did see hundreds of normal cars and trucks winding their way
along the rock path around and down into the big hole in the ground,
below a point where Liam could see them. It seemed like a suicidal
effort to drive a car into a hole in the earth with everything else
going on. Sort of like driving into your own grave.

Up ahead, surrounding most of the edge of the quarry were
thousands of zombies. Liam noted this facility was literally next
door to the bridge they were just on, and the mystery of the big
blockade with no people was now solved. They had escaped en masse to
this place—hoping for what?

“Why would they drive down into a quarry? Couldn't they see
the zombies were following them in?”

Liam could only imagine what drove them on. When zombies are
crawling all over your car and the interstate is permanently closed,
maybe the quarry looked like somewhere they could hole up and defend
themselves. He thought of explaining his line of thinking to
Victoria, but he didn't have any time. The train continued ahead,
running over some of the wandering zombies. People in the forward
cars were firing guns at the infected orienting on the train. Many of
them, at least on the topmost level, were willing to turn away from
their quarry inside the quarry and focus on the much closer blood
factories rolling by on the train.

As they moved forward Liam got a better impression of what was
going on inside the pit. The cars were driving in a spiral road which
descended until it reached the bottom. He still couldn't see the
bottom, but he could guess people were down there trying to hold off
the zombies who were following the spiral behind them. The jam
actually went back toward the highway. It seemed everyone mistook
this for a road to safety. Once inside the gravity well of the pit,
they had no choice but to continue down because the rim was already
awash in zombies and there was no backing up. How far could they
drive into the rocky tunnels?

The second level loop around the mine had a side ramp which
allowed some people to escape on foot back to ground level before
they got too far down the hole. Liam saw people using that ramp,
running out both directions around the rim of the mine. Some were
coming toward the train. Others were heading into the woods or back
toward the highway. A daunting task with so many infected around.

Those who were running toward the train were the largest group.
And they were heading into an area thick with zombies waiting on the
edge. Some members of their group were using their weapons to try to
clear a path. Liam judged there was no way those people could get
through so many undead without help from this side to push them out
of the way.

The engineer gave a long blast on the air horn. The train slowed
down to an even slower crawl, but not a full stop.

“What the hell? Is she going to try to save those people?”
Victoria wondered.

“It sure looks like it. But who is going to save us?”

As they watched, the right side of the train was engulfed front to
back by plague victims, each trying to gain purchase on a car. Liam
took the opportunity to look behind them as well—and wasn't
surprised to see a large group of zombies coming from the direction
of the train tracks behind them.

They only had a few minutes before zombies would be surrounding
them from almost every angle.

From where he sat, Liam knew there was essentially nothing he
could do to change the outcome of this battle against so many
attackers.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to try.

5

Liam looked at his options.

Why am I the only one making plans?

He could try to organize some kind of rescue mission with police
and gang members forging out into the crowd of zombies to try to meet
up with the incoming group of people—but he was pretty sure
that would fail based on the sheer size of the rising horde. And
they'd waste a lot of ammo; he knew ammo was running low for most of
the police.

He looked over his shoulder to the river-side of the complex. He
saw several of the big dump trucks sitting there, beckoning him. His
first thought upon seeing them came from one of his zombie books. He
couldn't remember the name, but in it huge dump trucks were used by
evil men to deposit large buckets of zombies on the good guys. He
doubted that could happen here in real life. No evil men were lurking
by these trucks.

“Victoria. I think if we get into one of those dump trucks
we can use it to push through the thickest part of this crowd of
zombies and help those people cross over to the train.”

She looked at where the trucks were parked, how fast the train was
crawling along, and the status of the people in the group moving in
their direction. The results of her analysis were—

“It's going to be close.”

“Good enough for me.”

There were almost no zombies on the river side yet, though the
massive crowd behind them was uncomfortably close. Once they caught
up to the train, all sides would be consumed. He knew the whole
operation would be tight.

He felt stupid saying it, but he yelled to Jones and Victoria just
as he went down the short ladder.

“COVER ME!”

Jones said something he couldn't hear, but Victoria yelled “GO
FOR IT!” as if he were part of a sporting event.

As he was running across the fifty yards of open ground he dodged
around a couple of walkers who happened to be in his way. He had his
pistol, but speed was more important than killing any one or two
random z's.

In a few short seconds he was at the truck.

It was massive, but he was glad to see it wasn't the truly
enormous dump truck you see on National Geographic specials. It was
just a normal dump truck that you might see on the highway, but it
was still huge to him.

He had no trouble scaling the side, but was stymied at the door.
It was locked. He hadn't even considered what he'd do once he got
into the cab. Now he wasn't even going to make it in the cab!

But he was there, so he took out his pistol and readied it to
shoot out the glass. At the last second he realized he was about to
do something stupid. He engaged the safety, and then used the gun as
a hammer to break the window. In seconds he was inside the truck.
Once in the driver's seat he was pleased to find a lone key in the
ignition. He figured these trucks never left the premises and thus
never needed their keys removed. If someone got in at night they
could joy ride around the quarry, but the big gates in the front kept
anyone from leaving.

He turned the key and was pleased to hear the big rig start to
turn over, then stop. He steadied himself as he looked out the
window, ready to try again.

This is going to be a piece of cake!

The train was moving ever so slowly down the track from his right
to his left. The engine was just coming in line with the southernmost
part of the open pit, and was presently closest to the people trying
to get out of the mine. The back of the train was just starting to
get enveloped by those infected already lurking at the mine, while
the group of trailing zombies were still a couple hundred yards
behind, but closing quickly.

He thought it was now or never.

He turned the key again, ready to go for real—

—and was disappointed the truck wouldn't start. He was
further disappointed to realize it was a stick shift.

Are you kidding me?

He looked down at the extra pedal on the floor. Purpose unknown.
Liam had never learned to drive a stick. His parents had two cars
with automatic transmissions.

He wondered if he could figure it out, and guessed he could on a
normal day with plenty of time. When zombies were pushing in from
multiple directions and people's lives depended on the results—he
decided not to risk it.

He kicked open the door, scampered down the side, and began
running back toward the train. He felt like a total idiot returning
like this, but what choice did he have? He turned to his right to see
the zombies uncomfortably close now. He dodged the few that he
avoided just minutes earlier. He would only have time to return to
the truck one more time before the larger group was upon him. It all
depended on finding someone who could drive a stick when he reached
the train.

Fortunately he had a large fan base watching him, including
Victoria and Jones—both had moved to the absolute edge of the
train car to watch him.

When he ran up he was nearly out of breath, but his request was
clear.

“Can anyone drive a stick?”

Liam was looking at Victoria—it just seemed like that was
how it would go—but he was surprised when Jones jumped down.

“Let's go Liam.”

He gave Victoria a smile, then turned around with his big friend
and started running.

The man was big indeed, but fit for his size. After all, he was a
police officer. But even with their combined speed, they made it to
the truck just ahead of the lead scouts for the zombies in the rear.
Jones had to push one of them over in order to give himself room to
climb.

Once inside they started it up and Jones had it moving in no time.

“Look kid, I got this. When we get up to the train I'm going
to pull up next to the rear car and then you're going to jump back
on.”