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As he pulled the whistle, he used his other arm to flip another switch, and pull a knob He ordered the rail en lines, andmade and sent up froet out of the way--not with the lieutenant and his two soldiers, the five rail men and porters, the conductor, and Inspector Galeano still firing froe of the nearest bin, and the Dreadnought lunged It didn’t ave a shove and a lean, like ahimself to break down a door, and its next lean and shove drew the whole train forith a rattle as the cars clacked together, flexing on the track, knocking against one another from the sudden pull

"The plow!" hollered the conductor "Start it up!"

The nearest porter reached for a lever built into the floor; it had a squeezable handle, and when this handle was drawn back down and the lever was jammed into the necessary position, a new huan distant, and thundering, and rough A cloud clearing its throat, or a ht in a gale, shuddering and flapping The conductor called for it, saying, "More hydrogen! Divert it from the secondary boiler! Just power the plow first--on’t move without it!" With more fuel, the hum came louder, and steadier It went fro, to a srowl that rose up so loud that it almost (not quite, but almost) daer car firing; the Mexican inspector, still upright, still shooting, and now openly crying; and the undead hordes oncoesturing, the porters shoveling coal, the rail es, and the whole lot of the as if they were all deaf, like her--co volume

She couldn’t stand there and hear it, hands over ears or no

The situation was as under control as it was going to get, and when the Dreadnought gave another heave, co hum as the sno sucked up the snow, cut it, and threw it away from the tracksshe could’ve sobbed with relief She choked on the sob, forced it down, and looked away As the engine gotto whatever solid and uncrowded bits of the bin she could hold, and worked her way back to the steps leading off the engine, then back through the fuel car and down its stairs to the gap

Shaking and eyes watering from the smoke and the sno’s ravenous roar, she wobbled to the steps and sao of the corpse-​h to dodge her bullets It took her three shots to take theun, and twice on her left and did just that She didn’t even reine how it had happened, how she’d been holding on to the rail, and then holding on to the guns, and shooting theht-​colored unifor at a jerky, pitiful crawl

Snow began to spray, commensurate with the pace: up a few feet, and out a few feet, feeding dunes on either side of the tracks as the rotary blades dug in and churned

The engine followed its snow-​gobbling plow As Mercy stood there on the botto under her feet oncepast--abandoned beside the tracks when the men had unhitched it and cast it aside

Mercy crossed the space between the fuel car and the passenger car, leaping to the passenger car’s platfor herself inside

Malverne Purdue was standing there, his skin whiter than his shirt with loss of blood and the stress of standing when he should’ve been lying down His blood soaked everything near his wound and seeped down into his pants He looked through Mercy, registering her only as so he wanted

He staggered forward, through the door and out onto the platforain She stuuns and reached for one of the his ar in his hand, and she couldn’t see it clearly enough to know for certain, but it looked like it s from the caboose’s stash It was heavy, anyway, and it knocked her back and alht herself on it, folding over it and latching her feet under its bottoain and felt at her face When she pulled her hand back frolove She didn’t think it’d been there before, but sheIn aher teeth

Malverne Purdue was ra loudly "This!" he said "This, all of this--it could’ve been harnessed, don’t you see? Don’t you understand!"

Mercy pulled herself off the rail and faced hi over the other short rail at the corpses ere co at them from every direction at once

His back to her, he continued "We could’ve used this We could’ve ended the war And you would’ve lost; of course you would’ve You’re going to lose--you know that, don’t you?"

"Me?" she asked, as if it were a personal accusation

"Yes, of course you You and that ranger, and those Rebels" He sneered at the Shenandoah, getting closer off to their left He sniffed at thetheir own "I knew I always knew That’s not a Kentucky accent, you ridiculous woave her his full attention again, in a way that holly unpleasant and sinister "And it was your fault, in a way You were the one who drew theainst oaded them!"

"Me?" Mercy wondered where the other soldiers were, where the captain here the ranger here anybody was Still shooting, she presuer car She said, "You can call it my fault, if you want to And that’s fine If it’s et to do this"--she waved her hand in the direction of the undead--"then, fine, I’ll take credit!"