The Arklay Outbreak

Chapter Nineteen

Enrico knelt down in the mud and looked at the crashed truck. It was a military vehicle, at least according to the license plate and the fact that the two dead men in the cab both were wearing Army uniforms. It was a truck for transporting prisoners, and the back doors were broken wide open.

“Jesus,” Enrico whispered. “What happened here?”

“I don’t know,” Rebecca said, holding up a clipboard. “But I found this. It looks like they were transporting a prisoner.”

“Who?”

Rebecca shined her flashlight at the front sheet of paper. It showed a picture from the shoulders up of a young man with an angular, harsh face and a buzz cut. “William Coen,” she said, reading off the paper. “Under military arrest for murder. Court-martialed last month. They were taking him to the Arklay Correctional Facility.”

“That’s on the other side of the hills,” Richard said. “It’s a military prison. I wonder why they were taking the back roads instead of the highway.”

Enrico took the clipboard and read the file, scowling all the way through.

“Do you think this has anything to do with the train?” Richard asked.

“Maybe this guy broke loose and somehow blocked the tracks to stop the train,” Enrico speculated. “After he killed the soldiers here.”

“How did he kill them?” Rebecca asked nervously. “I mean, look at them.”

The two soldiers in the cab of the truck looked as if their faces had been torn by claws or mauled by an animal. Enrico grimaced and set the clipboard back on the ground. He didn’t look directly at the dead men. He took out his walkie-talkie and spoke into it. “Listen everyone, this is Enrico. We’ve got casualties here. They were soldiers transporting a prisoner. I need you all to be on the lookout for a man named William Coen. Six-foot-one, brown hair, a big tattoo on his arm. Consider him armed and dangerous. Do you copy?”

“I hear you,” Ken’s voice said, laced with static. “But me and Forest found some weird stuff out here. There’s blood all over the ground.”

“What?”

“We found blood all over the ground,” Ken repeated, “or at least something that looks like blood. There’s lights in the distance, so we’re gonna check it out. There must be a house or something out here in the woods.”

“Make it quick,” Enrico said. “And be careful. Return to the chopper as soon as you can.” He held the walkie-talkie, letting his arms hang at his sides, and looked from Richard to Rebecca, as if asking their opinion.

“I don’t like this,” Richard said firmly. “We don’t have anything to go on.”

“We haven’t even found the train yet,” Rebecca reminded them. “We can’t look for this criminal and search for the train at the same time.”

“Let’s find the train,” Enrico said. “We’ll worry about Coen later.” He spoke into the walkie-talkie again. “Ken, this is Enrico. Where are you now?”

“Me and Forest are about half a mile straight back from the chopper. There’s a house out here all right, it looks like some kind of mansion. I don’t remember anything like that being out here in the woods. I thought this is all supposed to be national forest.”

“Keep an eye out for our suspect, he might have gone there. The train is probably exactly opposite your current location. We’re going after it now.”

“Okay, be there as soon as we can.”

“See you soon,” Enrico said, and hung the walkie from his belt. “Rich, you’re pretty sure the train tracks run parallel to this road?”

“Pretty sure,” Richard said.

“Then let’s go.”

Enrico, Richard, and Rebecca headed into the forest. They crept through the trees and brush, the whole area completely dark. When the moon appeared from between uncertain rain clouds, it only illuminated the woods a slight amount. Rebecca couldn’t see more than ten feet away, and the flashlight was no help at all. William Coen could have been hiding right next to her and she wouldn’t even see him.

“Here they are,” Richard said suddenly, when they emerged from the trees. Ahead of them were train tracks upon a layer of white gravel. They ran to the left and right into the darkness.

“Which way?” Rebecca asked.

“It must be this way,” Richard said, pointing to the left. He looked back where they had come from and tried to get his bearings. “We can’t be south of the western ridge yet, and the call from the train said they had passed it. So they must be this way.”

“One of us should go the other way, just in case,” Rebecca said. “The caller might have been mistaken.”

Enrico looked to the left and right. Rebecca knew what he was probably thinking, and couldn’t really blame him for it. He might think that she was afraid to go on, and wanted to go the other way because the train probably wasn’t there. Then again, if she went alone and found the train, then the least-experienced member of the team would be the first one there. She either wanted to avoid getting to the train, or she wanted to get to the train first and handle it herself. So either she was being too cowardly or too brave.

In reality, Rebecca believed she was neither. She just felt that it would be better if at least one of them went the other way. It didn’t even have to be her.

Time was ticking by, and they had already wasted too much of it. The passengers on the train might be in danger and the rescue team was taking forever just getting there. Enrico didn’t have time to spare.

“All right,” he finally said. “Richard and I will go this way, you go the other. Whoever finds the train calls the other immediately?”

“Okay,” Rebecca said, and she headed off in the other direction.

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