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"Go on, you first," Mercy told Inspector Galeano, who nodded at her and ht behind you!" she said And there, at the edge of the engine, Mercy Lynch eyed the ledge between herself and thethe handrails on either side of four stubby stairs that led into the engine’s pilot cha feet of the Mexican inspector cli over the side

Behind her, so screamed

It didn’t sound like a woman, or a od-​awful close

Mercy turned around and saw--right behind her, nearly on her heels, in the spot between the aht--a er

She saw his face and it reminded her of other faces The wheezers in the Robertson Hospital The dyingfor the very thing that was killing them The bodies in the sealed-​up caskets that had been in the rearmost compartment of the train only hours before

This face was the saes of everyin its skull like raisins It sat atop a body with flesh that was beginning to slough off, wearing clothes that were onlybuttons, patches, pockets, and other pieces that could be snagged and removed

But this face

This face was snarling, and approaching her

The corpse-​man reached for the handrails, just as Mercy had done While it grabbed, its nawed at the air in the space between theh she’d spent her adulthood saving livesand although she’d never, not even accidentally, killed a uns and she fired at the wrinkled space between the corpse-​man’s eyes

He was so close that when his skull exploded, bits of his brain and face splattered across everything, including Mercy’s cloak and dress Pieces of hi and plopping down between the tracks

The rolling noise of grunts and screa her down like a tangible pressure But she shook it off, and she turned and she cli his hand down to her, calling, "Here! Climb up!"

She scrambled and seized his hand, and let him help her up over the side, where Lieutenant Hobbes and the conductor were frantically throwing levers, pressing buttons, and shouting directions to theto affix the sno to the front of the train

But the sas upon them, as if that first corpse Mercy had shot doas only the scout, and the rest were right on its heels She cli to in shooting, trying to clear a big enough patch that they could work those last latches, bolts, and pulleys and get the trainits way to full power once hastly whi, and leaving now

Lieutenant Hobbes leaped to the fore outward He fired, providing cover for the men below

Mercy positioned herself on the east side, and Galeano climbed up to stand with his feet planted apart atop the conductor’s shed He flexed his wrists, checked his bullets, picked his targets below, and with an anguished shout, opened fire on his undead countrymen

The nurse followed suit

She fired off one shot, then two Ai their skulls away fros to splay and sprawl and collapse to the ground She refused to look past the circle where five ht there, in that circle, the undead were sweeping down on the workers in ones and twos But beyond that circle, appallingly close, they were co in fives and tens In dozens In hundreds

But she had only two hands, and only soacross her back, freeing up her ar and so One head Two heads A puff of snow like dust, right in the place where a corpse had only just been running She missed another one, and couldn’t recall how many shots she’d fired

Below her, the fivetheir time between self-​defense and the task at hand, and the task at hand was losing ground Above her, Inspector Galeano was still shouting, still shooting; and beside her, Lieutenant Hobbes was reloading

Mercy’s right gun ran out of bullets She whipped her satchel front and center, dug around hastily, and filled both wheels of both guns with quivering fingers gone numb from cold and recoil and fear

Lieutenant Hobbes said, "Mrs Lynch!"