The Arklay Outbreak

Chapter Twenty-Five

“How did you get here?” Rebecca asked. As a sign of trust, she slid her pistol into the holster at her hip, although she left the clasp open so she could draw quickly. Billy Coen, in return, slid the Desert Eagle into his back pocket and crossed his arms.

“The same way you did,” he said. “I crawled out of the truck and found the train tracks. I intended to follow them to the nearest city, but I found this train instead. I should have just kept running.”

“What happened with the truck?”

Billy licked his lips and did not meet Rebecca’s gaze. “I was in the back of the truck. They were taking me to prison. You know that much. I heard one of the guards say something about a man in the road, and the next thing I know they started screaming. The truck went off the road and rolled a couple times. I banged around the back of the truck like a sock in a dryer. When the dust settled, I kicked the door open and crawled out. Both the guards were already dead.”

“Did you see what killed them?”

“No, and I consider myself lucky because of it. I might have joined them.”

Rebecca shook her head. “I don’t understand it. Did they see one of the zombies in the road and just lose control of the truck?”

“When I say they started screaming, I mean they were screaming as if they were being eaten alive,” Billy said softly. “Something got in the truck with them and killed them before we even crashed. I couldn’t see anything because it was too dark.”

“But what could have happened? What could have gotten into the truck as they were driving?”

“Got me,” Billy said, clearing his throat, as if anxious to end the discussion. “But it wasn’t one of these zombies, I can tell you that.”

At the mention of the zombies, Rebecca turned her head to glance back toward the car they had escaped from a few minutes before. She could hear them stumbling around and moaning gently, and it nauseated her. She closed her eyes and tried to force the images from her mind, the hideous images of savagely-mutilated corpses reaching for her with bloody hands. The very thought of undead hands reaching for her made her shiver uncontrollably.

Her eyes popped open when she felt Billy’s hand on her arm. Almost instinctively, she reached for her gun, but Billy raised his hands in defense.

“Relax,” he said, starting to smile, “I was just going to tell you not to worry about them. They can’t get us in here.”

Rebecca took a tense breath and lowered her arm. For just a moment, Billy had almost seemed sincere, like he was actually worried about her. She shook off the feeling and pushed him away.

“We can’t stay here forever, you know,” she said impatiently.

“I guess not,” Billy admitted. He pointed at the car they had come from. “But there’s zombies that way.” He then pointed at the next car down. “And there’s zombies that way as well.”

“And we both have guns.”

“With limited ammo. I have less than one clip left. How many clips do you have?”

“This one, and one more.”

“Not bad, but I don’t think we have enough bullets to stop all of them.”

“What do you suggest, then?” Rebecca asked, getting frustrated.

Billy leaned past her to open the door to the private compartment next to them. The light was on inside to reveal a somewhat cramped room with seats on either side and one large window looking out into the dark wilderness beyond the train tracks. Some of the metal paneling alongside the edge of the window had been peeled back.

“A passenger train like this should really have emergency-release windows,” Billy said. “I thought they were required by law, but this train doesn’t have them.”

“There must be emergency doors in the other cars,” Rebecca said. “I was too busy running for my life to look too closely.”

“I couldn’t break the window, so I tried breaking off the panel, but that didn’t work either. As a last resort, I was going to shoot it open, but I didn’t want to waste bullets.”

“I tried that too,” Rebecca said. “It’s not bulletproof, but it won’t shatter. It’s some kind of safety glass.”

“Shoot it more than once, then,” Billy said, motioning for her to go ahead and try. “Four shots in a square should weaken it enough to break.”

“And you want me to use my bullets, is that it?”

“You have more than I do.”

Rebecca sighed. Unless they wanted to go out and face the zombies again, she really didn’t have much choice. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s do this. I’ll shoot from the hallway. If I fired the gun in here, it would probably deafen me.”

She retreated into the hallway with Billy and stuck her arms into the room. They closed the door as much as possible and she tilted her head away as she pulled the trigger. She checked her aim and fired three more times. The gunshots sounded frighteningly loud, and the zombies in the other car began to moan and bang against the door at the sound.

The window had four clean bullet holes in it, each one surrounded by white cracks in the safety glass. Billy reared back and kicked at the window. They heard a snapping noise, but the window didn’t break. He kicked again and one section finally broke away.

Rebecca sat on one of the seats and stuck her arm through the gap. She felt rain falling on her outstretched arm.

“Careful,” Billy said. “There might be more of them out there. Shine your flashlight out there before we go.”

Rebecca hadn’t even thought of that. Suddenly, the idea filled her with dread. If zombies were outside the train, they could go anywhere. They might follow the train tracks and wander until they hit the city, and then what would happen? How could anyone defend themselves if zombies suddenly invaded Raccoon City?

Belatedly, she realized that her fellow officers were still out there in the wilderness. What if the zombies found them? Out in the middle of the woods, they would have no doors to hide behind or rooms to escape to. And in the thickening darkness, how could anyone even see the zombies coming? Rebecca realized that she had to get off the train, not only to save herself, but to warn the others!

For all she knew, they had already encountered the zombies. They might be calling her on the radio right now to warn her! If only she hadn’t broken her walkie-talkie!

She pulled her arm back inside. “Let’s break this thing open,” she said hurriedly, moving out of the way.

Billy slammed his booted foot into the window twice more, finally breaking away enough of the glass for them to climb through. Rebecca got in front of him and placed her hand on the edge of the broken glass, careful not to cut her hand.

“Me first,” she said. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

Billy stepped back with mock chivalry and said, “After you, madam.”

Suddenly, the room moved and she lost her balance, tumbling into Billy. The two of them fell onto the floor together and quickly pushed away from each other. Rebecca sat up on the floor as Billy got to his feet. They felt the motion of the train, and when Rebecca looked up, she saw trees moving past the window.

“The train started back up,” Rebecca said unnecessarily.

Billy went to the window and braced himself, ready to jump out. “Seems that way. Come on, we have to go now.”

Rebecca stood up and wiped her hair from her face. “Who could have started the train? I thought everyone else on the train was dead.”

“Who cares?” Billy said. “If we’re going to get out, we have to do it now, before –”

The room shook again and he lost his balance, nearly falling down on top of her. He swore loudly and grabbed the edge of the window, staring out as the trees zipped past with increasing speed. Rain came through the window, streaking across the wall.

Rebecca got up and looked out into the darkness. “What are we going to do? We can’t jump out now.”

“Sure, we can,” Billy said, but he didn’t sound confident. By now, the train was moving at a steady clip, maybe thirty or even forty miles an hour.

They felt the pull of inertia and Rebecca let it push her back into a seat. “We’re still picking up speed,” she said. “This is bad.”

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