Ken twisted, but he couldn’t gain traction. Stumbling…. Not able to do anything, but he saw Maggie huddled over two still forms. Protecting her girls. She would die like that.
Another form jumped forward. Shoved itself between Ken and the control board as he plunged forward in a half-fall.
Christopher.
The young man didn’t hesitate. He grabbed a bright red lever and yanked it.
The train screamed as the brakes engaged.
The entire train seemed to dip, and what had nearly been a fall converted to headlong flight as Ken lost his footing. Something cracked in front of him.
Maggie screamed. Sally roared, a sound that managed to sound supremely strange to Ken even as he continued flying forward.
He hit Buck, Aaron still on his back. Both of them pounding into Elijah.
Something else hit them. Probably Theresa.
The train kept shrieking. It tilted.
Ken turned with it. Rotating his body. He felt Aaron fly off his back and shoulders, heard the meaty thud of metal on flesh. The cowboy grunted, then made no sound.
The train continued pitching to one side. Ken wondered if Christopher would accomplish what the zombies failed to do and would actually derail the locomotive.
The train shuddered to a stop.
Ken was on the floor. He picked himself up. Looked around. Aaron was up on the control panel, plastered against the side window of the train. Eyes closed, blood streaming down the side of his head.
Christopher was standing beside Ken. Apparently even though he’d lost his carefree attitude, the young man still had the reflexes and balance of a cat. He helped Ken to his feet.
Buck was groaning his way to his feet as well. So was Elijah. The older man made it up first, and kicked Elijah in the thigh. Elijah went to his knees.
Buck’s next move was a knee to the bigger man’s head. Elijah refused to go down.
The next kick closed Elijah’s eyes. He slumped.
Ken looked for his family.
They were on the other side of the cab. They had slid to the front like everyone else, Sally beside them, Maggie still hunched over the children. Her eyes were open, clear. Staring at him.
She smiled. A sickly smile, one that tried to be encouraging but only succeeded in conveying a sense that she could use a break.
Buck felt around the floor and then the control panel. “I can’t find the gun,” he muttered.
Elijah groaned.
Aaron’s eyes flickered.
Ken rushed to his wife. Helped her up, then looked at the others.
“Time to get off,” he said.
60
Ken felt a bit like he was drunk as he ran down the steps at the back of the locomotive. The world was tilted to one side, and his feet kept sliding out from under him.
No one else seemed to be having that problem. Maybe that was just a misperception. Maybe not. Perhaps he was the only one who had been hit this hard by recent events.
Well, they’ve all just been lounging around, tied to the top of a train, after all. Can’t expect them to be tired.
He almost laughed. The only things that kept the laughter back were the realization that it wasn’t at all funny… and his suspicion that if he started, stopping would be impossible.
He shook his head to clear the fog that seemed to have taken up a semi-permanent residence there, then turned to help Maggie down. She had Liz strapped to her chest again, once more dangling from the slightly-too-small carrier that had made the trip with them through the apocalyptic nightmare.
We get through this, Baby Bjorn is getting a serious five-star Amazon review.
The stairs were slick, and Ken worried that Maggie would slip. The rain had turned from huge but scattered splatters into a near torrent. The drops fell fast and thick around them, each visible as a fat bead that attacked the air on its way down.
Ken was already soaked. By the way Maggie joined him on the sand and dirt below the tracks – sand and dirt that were already beginning to sludge as they shifted to mud – so was she.
Behind her, Buck was holding Hope, half over his shoulder, half against his chest. She could have been a sleeping child, cradled against her favorite relative as he carried her to bed. But her arms were not over his shoulders, not around his neck. They hung loose at her sides. Buck joined Ken and Maggie. Looked around with the air of a bodyguard, or a man transporting the last of his most treasured personal items.
Ken didn’t even think about trying to carry take Hope from the big man. For one, he wasn’t sure he should be carrying anyone right now. For another, Ken suspected Buck was about as likely to turn her over as he was to offer one of his testicles to Aaron.
Sally, as always, wended her way between the two people holding the girls. Staying as close to them as possible. Licking at the girls’ feet every so often. She seemed relaxed, which Ken took for a good sign. The zombies activated – or at least exacerbated – her protective instincts, so if she was this relaxed, they had a moment.