Page 3 (1/2)
Billy sat on the floor between ts of seats, working at the handcuffs with a paper clip he&039;d found on the floor One of the cuffs was off, the right one, bashed open when the jeep had gone over, but unless he wanted to be wearing a jangly and rather incriet the other one off
Get it off and get the hell out of here, he thought, pushing at the lock with the thin piece of metal He didn&039;t look up, didn&039;t need to remind himself of his whereabouts; he didn&039;t have to The air was heavy with the scent of blood, it was splattered all over the place, and although the train car he&039;d found was empty of bodies, he had no doubt that the other cars were full of theh who let theuy they&039;d seen in the woods, had to be The guy who&039;d stepped in front of the jeep, sending it crashing out of control Billy had been thrown clear and except for a few bruises, was pretty much unscathed His MP escort, Dickson and Elder, had both been trapped beneath the overturned vehicle They&039;d been alive, though The human roadstop, whoever he as nowhere to be seen
It had been a toughdark, the hot, oily s to decide--run for it, or radio for help? He didn&039;t want to die, didn&039;t deserve to die, unless being trusting and stupid was an offense worthy of death But he couldn&039;t leave them, either, two men pinned under a ton of twisted metal, injured and barely conscious Their choice, to take some unpaved backwoods trail to the base,time before anyone happened upon the hi orders; it wasn&039;t personal, and they didn&039;t deserve to die any more than he did
He&039;d decided to split the difference, radio for help, then run like hellbut then the dogs had cos, three of the for his life, because there was so about them; he knew it even before they&039;d attacked Dickson, ripping his throat out as they pulled hiht he heard a click and tried the handcuff, hissing air through his teeth when theThe paper clip was a lucky find, though there was shit everywhere--papers, bags, coats, personal belongings-- and blood on just about all of it Maybe he&039;d find soh that wouldon the train, and that didn&039;t sound like s lived, holed up here with that crazy asshole who liked to step in front of s, to regroup, try and figure out his next hterhouse Special, he thought, shaking his head Talk about out of the frying pan, into the fire Whatever the hell was going on out in these woods, he didn&039;t want to be a part of it He&039;d get the cuff off, find hirab a wallet or two out of all the blood-splattered luggage--he had no doubt that the owners were long past caring--and hightail it back to civilization Then Canada, or Mexico,the country, but he had to think like a crientle taps of rain against some of the unbroken s The taps becaust of wind through a shattered pane Dandy Apparently, he&039;d be hiking out in a rainstorm
"Whatever," he ainst the seat in front of hiet much worse--
Billy froze, held his breath The outside door to the train was opening He could hear the ain Someone had come aboard
Shit! What if it was the s?
Or what if someone found the jeep?
He felt a sick, heavy knot in his stomach Could be Could be that someone else froht, maybe had already called in when they&039;d seen the crash--and learned that there should&039;ve been a third passenger, a certain deadhunted
He didn&039;tto hear the movements of whoever had co--then he heard a soft tread, one step, then another Moving away from him, toward the front of the car
Billy leaned forward, carefully sliding his dogtags under his collar so they wouldn&039;t jingle, e of the aisle seat So door, thin, short--a girl, or a young reen He could just make out a few letters on the back of the vest, an S, a T, an A--and then he or she was gone
STARS Had they sent out a tea for him? Couldn&039;t be, not so fast--the jeep had crashed o, tops, and the STARS didn&039;t have a military affiliation, they were a PD offshoot, no one would have called thes he saw, obviously some mutant feral pack; the STARS usually dealt with the weird shit that local cops couldn&039;t or wouldn&039;t handle Or one down on the train
Doesn&039;t ure out who you are, this taste of freedo dogs running around in the woods? Not without a weapon, no way There had to be soun; he just had to look It would be a risk, with a STARS on board--but there was only one of them, after all If he had toBilly shook his head He&039;d seen his share of death in Special Forces If it caht, or ran He wouldn&039;t kill, not ever again At least not one of the good guys
Billy crawled to his feet, keeping low, the handcuffs dangling froh the stuff in this car, first, then move away from the STARS interloper, see what he could find No point in having a confrontation if it could be avoided He&039;d just--
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Three shots, from the car ahead A pause, then three, four
Apparently, not all the train cars were ehtened, but he didn&039;t let it slow him down as he picked up the first briefcase he saw and started to dig
The first train car was e very bad had occurred there, no question
A crash? No, there&039;s no structural daebut soout the thickening curtain of rain, and stared at the chaos around her The cabin had been a nice one, all dark wood and expensive carpeting, the light fixtures antique, the wallpaper flocked Now there were newspapers, suitcases, coats, bags open and spilled across the floor--it looked like there&039;d been a crash, and the drips and smears of blood that liberally dappled the cabin&039;s walls and seats backed up the scenario Except where were the passengers?
She stepped further into the train car, aiun up and down the aisle There were a fe lights on, enough to see, but the shadoere deep Nothing moved
The back of the seat to her left was stained with blood She reached out and touched the large splotch, then wiped her hand on her pants, grihts are on, blood&039;s fresh Whatever happened, it happened recently Lieutenant Billy,with hih, it didn&039;t seem likely; the destruction was too widespread, too extree situation
Ora deep breath The killers ain The bodies that had been recovered had been torn apart, mutilated, and the crime scenes had probably looked exactly like this blood-spattered train car She should get off now, radio the captain, call in the rest of the team She started to turn back to the door--and hesitated
I could secure the train first
Ridiculous It would be crazy to stay here by herself, stupid and dangerous No one would expect her to check out aany-one had beenor so, and the train had been evacuated
No, that&039;s stupid There&039;d be cops all over the place, EMTs, helicopters, reporters Whatever happened here, I&039; the scene is the first priority
She couldn&039;t help wondering what the guys s herself They&039;d stop calling her "kiddo," for one thing At the very least, her rookie status would be behind her thaterous, she&039;d call in the teaht She could handle a look-see, no problem A deep breath, and she started for the front of the car, carefully stepping through the scattered luggage When she reached the connecting door, she braced herself and quickly stepped through, opening the second door before she lost her nerve
Oh, no
The first car had been bad, but here, there were people Three, four--five that she could see froed by unknown claws, bodies drenched in dark wetness A feere slumped in seats, as if they&039;d been brutallyThe s, like copper and feces, like rotting fruit on a hot day
The door auto fast, faintly aware that she ay out of her league, she needed to call for help--and then she heard the whispering, and realized that she wasn&039;t alone
She aimed her weapon at the e fro double-time
"Identify yourself!" she said, her voice fir continued, choking and distant, strangely ined a crazed killerto himself after a murder spree
She was about to repeat herself when she saw the source of the whispering, halfway up the aisle on the floor It was a tiny transistor radio, apparently tuned to an AM news station She walked toward it, dazed by a sudden rush of relief; she was alone, after all
She stopped in front of the radio, lowering her semi-automatic There was a body in theseat to her left, and after an initial glance, she avoided looking at it; the man&039;s throat had been slashed, and his eyes had rolled back into his head His gray face and tattered clothes were shining with viscous-looking fluids,him look like a zombie from a bad horrorat herself in spite of the fear that still coursed through her Her "crazed killer" was a wo a news report The reception was bad, the tiny unit hissing static at every other sentence
Okay, so she was an idiot In any case, it was tiet better reception if she stepped back outside, and the movement that came from theseat was so slow and subtle that for aThen the roaned, a deep, low sound of misery, and she understood that it wasn&039;t the rain at all
The corpse had risen fro toward her Histhe rew deeper, , as he stretched his ar blood and sli step back, horrified She&039;d been wrong, he wasn&039;t dead, but he was obviously out of his mind with pain She had to help hiotta get him to lay down, oh, God, what happened here-- Thefor her, his eyesockets filled hite, black drool spilling from his torn mouth--and in spite of what she kneas her duty, to do so, she reflexively took another step back Duty was one thing, her instincts were telling her to run, to get away, that he meant to do her harm
She turned, not sure what to do--and there were twoin the aisle behind her, both as slack-faced and da toward her with the steady, staggering movements of horror movie monsters The man in front wore a uniforaunt, skull-like, and gray Behind hi too ht side of hisher weapon So They were sick, they had to be sick--except she knew better even as the three er Maybe they were sick, but they were also about to attack her She knew it as surely as she knew her own na back to the white-eyed man, he was closer, too close, and if he are that she was pointing a handgun at hin "I&039;ll shoot!"