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The solitary figure on the hill watched as the train gathered speed and disappeared into the stor that spilled fro histhe train for the inevitable cleanup crew as soon as the sun had gone down, leadingthe doors, powering the engine; he wanted the leeches to feed, not the virus carriers, and once the Umbrella team boarded, there would be no escape The rain washed over the many as they crept up the hill, beckoned by his voice, by his desires

He received the as well as hea wait, it wouldn&039;t be long, now He would fulfill his dreahtmare, and then the world&039;s

"We need to stop this train, first thing," Rebecca said

Billy nodded "Any suggestions?"

"We split up," she said cal what she&039;d just been through "The car at the front of the train is locked--where we ine"

"So, we shoot the lock," Billy said

Rebecca shook her head "Magnetic card reader We have to find a key card"

"I saw a conductor&039;s office--"

"Locked," Rebecca said "We&039;ll have to dig up one ourselves"

"That could take awhile," Billy said "We should stick together"

"It&039;ll take us twice as long And I&039;d rather get off this thing before it ends up wherever it&039;s going"

As much as he didn&039;t want to wander the train alone, didn&039;t want her to wander it alone, he couldn&039;t argue with the logic

"I&039;ll start at the back, work forward," she said "You take the second floor We&039;ll , aren&039;t you? he thought, but kept it to hiht be the only thing keeping hi somebody&039;s lunch

"And I will shoot you if you try anything funny," she added Billy started to snap back at her, then saw the shine in her eyes She wasn&039;t serious Not entirely

She nodded at his weapon "You need aood," he said "You?"

Another nod, and she started for the door When she reached it, she turned back

"Thanks," she said, uely toward the back of the car "I owe you"

Before he could answer, she was gone Billy stared after her a ness to face the train&039;s dangers on her own Had he been so brave when he was her age?

It&039;s called "denial of ht Yeah, he&039;d thought he&039;d live forever then, too Being sentenced to death s He spent a briefat the ss as he hurriedly checked behind the small bar, beneath the tables There was a locked door at the front of the roolance showed him an empty service cabin with a hole in the roof He didn&039;t linger, figuring their best bet would be searching the bodies of the train workers, anyway

He headed down the stairs, pausing at the botto toward the rear of the train before continuing on Rebecca Cha care of herself; better if he watched his own ass

Back through the double doors, through the first passenger car, still e into the second A quick look toaround and he headed up the stairs, not wanting to look at the body of the man he&039;d killed He&039;d killed before, but it was never soot used to, not if you had a conscience

The smell hit hi shallowly Like sea water and rot When he got to the top, he saw the source and sed back bile

Noe knohere they ca at the top of the stairs, one that turned into a corridor to his iain a few , the corner of the landing to his left ebbed hat appeared to be hundreds of e like a spider&039;s nest--only these sacs were black and wet, shining in the low light of a half-buried wall sconce They swayed slightly as the train rocked back and forth on the track,them appear almost alive At least they were empty He hoped to God he wouldn&039;t run into whatever had laid thes of the glistening uely wondering if the jeep accident had been such a blessing, after all He didn&039;t want to die in anysquad beat the shit out of being devoured by shape-changing leeches

Knock it off, soldier Be where you are

Right He walked the corridor, relaxing slightly once he realized it was empty There were two closed cabin doors, one on each side of the narrow passage, each marked by a nuuessed they were private cabins It was a good guess He pushed open the first door, 102, and found a small bedroom, well-appointed and thankfully free of blood and bodies Unfortunately, there wasn&039;t h he did find a clutter of personal belongings in the tiny closet There were papers, a clutch of photographs, a jewelry box He opened the box, revealing a silver ring, unusual in design; it looked like a single part of one of those interlocking ring sets, notched and warped in a distinct patternAnd since he wasn&039;t jewelry shopping, he put it back, heading out to the next cabin

When he opened the door to 101, he felt a rush of hope There, lying on the floor like a gift, was a shotgun Billy scooped it up and cracked it, his hope turning to a guarded happiness It was a Western, over-under, loaded with telve-gauge shells Further searching turned up another handful of shells, though no key card

Magnetic lock or no, this &039;11 probably open that door, he thought, coht of the heavy weapon as he stuffed the shells into his front pocket He was teht as well finish what he&039;d started There was a door at the end of the hall, presu to the next car&039;s second floor, and it would lead him closer to the front of the train, anyway--the sooner to reunite with the kid He wasn&039;t scared to be on his own, it wasn&039;t that, and it wasn&039;t even concern for Rebecca, though that was there, too--it was too , it was that being alone in combat was the worst way to be

The door was unlocked, and opened into an ee car, an extreht, well stocked, and s the wide, expensively carpeted floor open beneath low-hanging chandeliers Like the last car, no blood or bodies Billy checked the counters behind the bar, then headed for the door at the far end, feeling strangely ill at ease crossing the open space He clutched the heavy shotgun fir crashed onto the roof

The sound was thunderous, huge, the i that a chandelier back by the bar hit the floor, the glass globes shattering The train car rocked on its rails, causing hi to look Where the chandelier had fallen, the roof was actually indented, the thick iant things pierced through, about two meters apart, one after the other

Billy stared, not sure what he was seeing Big, pointed cylindrical, each piercing piece appeared to be bisected, split down the ut knotted That was exactly what they were, like a giant crab&039;s or scorpion&039;s claws, and as he watched, they both opened, revealing thickly serrated edges The huge pincers turned inward and up, began to actually saw through the steel roof, the sound of ripping h He turned and ran the last few meters to the door out, aware that he&039;d broken out in a cold sweat Behind hirabbed the handle, jerked--

--and it was locked Of course

He spun back just in tih the jagged entrance it hadthe only other means of escape