“Draw bar’s bent all to hell!” snapped Elijah.
Ken didn’t understand that, but apparently it meant something to Aaron. He joined Elijah at the bar and both of them pulled on the metal. Nothing happened.
Give up.
Give in.
The growl. Louder. Close enough that individual voices could now be heard: high-pitched, low, trembling, firm. A cacophony of violence, sweeping and inevitable.
Ken thought of the unofficial motto of the United States: E pluribus unum. Out of many one.
He doubted Congress had had a thundering mob of zombies in mind when they pasted the phrase all over the nation’s seals and coins.
“What are you waiting for?” shouted Elijah. He waved to Ken. “Get over here and help us!”
Ken didn’t move. “Where’s my family?”
The big man gaped. “Man, we don’t have time for this!”
“There’s always time for family, pal,” said Ken. Still not budging. “Don’t you ever watch Dr. Phil?” Elijah appeared to be flummoxed by this.
“Tell him!” hollered Aaron.
Elijah screamed, “They’re safe! They’re at the engines, they’re all safe, dammit. Now help!”
Ken stepped forward. Put a hand on the bar. Didn’t pull. Not yet. “If you’re lying to me… I’ll kill you, Elijah.”
It should have been ridiculous. The other man outweighed Ken by easily a hundred pounds – all of it muscle. He looked combat-ready, and was definitely armed.
But the big man stepped back. He nodded mutely, and his gaze dropped away from Ken’s.
Ken put his hand to the lever.
The three men lifted.
The growl was closer.
“Fifteen cars,” he murmured. He tried to convince himself it was a bad guess. That the things could be farther back than that.
He failed.
43
The lever moved an inch, accompanied by an angry screech, then seized up again. Elijah grunted, and Ken saw the veins and sinews come out of the man’s neck so far someone could have played them like harp strings.
Aaron puffed. The only sound he made, but Ken could feel the strain coming off him.
Ken dug deep. Pulled. He saw his family’s faces. Maggie. Lizzy. Hope.
Derek.
The lever popped up. It felt like all resistance had disappeared, like the thing had held itself against them until it completely failed.
Something jerked up below the coupling between the boxcar and the rear locomotive. The joint between the two popped open. Mostly.
“That gonna be enough?” said Aaron. “The Janney ain’t –“
“Gonna have to do!” shouted Elijah. He pointed, and Ken swung around but already knew what he was going to see.
They were here. The horde.
Ten cars away. Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
The lead creatures saw them. Some were whole, not even the bites that had Changed them apparent. Some were hideously torn and mutilated – almost foul in their destruction. A few of them had the scabrous growths on their faces that Ken had seen before: black encrustations that sprung out of the creatures’ cheeks, foreheads, chins.
Eyes.
One of them had a face entirely covered by the growth. There was only a small hole where the mouth should be. But it ran smoothly as the others, and faster than most. It chirped occasionally, a sound Ken thought must be some kind of echolocation. Though it could just as easily be the way the thing farted or some kind of zombie love poem.
“Can we get outta here fast enough?” said Aaron.
“Probably not,” said Elijah. But he began to run.
Aaron followed. Ken brought up the rear.
And the things kept coming.
They would never stop.
44
As with Aaron, a combination of panic and desperate hope drove Ken to higher levels of strength. He passed Aaron; had to concentrate on not passing Elijah. The only reason he didn’t was that the big man knew where Ken’s family was.
The three locomotives loomed to their left. The massive caboose-like engine farthest back. Two windows at the rear, two at the front. Next came the flat unit. Lower than the preceding engine, and the main part of it was also slightly narrower than the rest of the train to allow for the walkways on either side. The front unit – the one that most looked like what people thought of as the locomotive – was an iron monster with a room-sized area in back for the train’s crew.
The whole thing was painted a dull olive green with a few yellow and white markings on the side.