Chapter Three: The Leech Man
Poor kid, Billy thought as he opened a door and exited the corridor. One of the creatures lumbered around aimlessly, its head tilted up as though staring at the ceiling. The zombie's odor intensified as it drew closer. Once the creature spotted Billy, it stumbled over its feet in its attempt to grab him. A streak of dark, dried blood covered the side of its face.
Billy raised his weapon, positioned the crosshairs over the center of the zombie's skull, and fired. The corpse's head snapped back. Billy waited until the creature fell back and lay motionless before continuing onward.
She's just going to have to take care of herself, he thought. The handcuff dangling from his wrist banged against his forearm. Its only purpose now was to serve as a reminder of his lucky escape. Those poor bastards though, he thought, thinking about those MPs. Billy shook his head.
Not now.
Remember the plan, he told himself, opening the door into the next room. Wait this out until morning, then get on the first flight to Mexico…That was if he survived until morning. He had seen some things in Africa he still had nightmares about, but this…
And that girl is on her own. That look in her eyes—it was one privates under his command used to have—shocked, wide-eyes with a hard, emotionless face. How they tried so hard to be hardened warriors, but at the end of the day, they were just kids.
He stood in the dark train car, turning back to the door he just passed through.
"Damn it," Billy grunted and placed his hand on the handle. "You're a dumbass, Coen."
Billy opened the door and walked back the way he came.
Rebecca sat beside Edward's corpse, trying to collect her thoughts. She leaned her head against the wall, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain. The hall filled with the zombie dog's rancid odor, though Rebecca barely noticed. Could all of this just be a figment of my imagination? Maybe I'll wake up any minute…
Things like this just don't happen, right?
Beep Beep Beep.
Rebecca snatched the walkie talkie off her belt, almost breaking its clip.
"Hello?!" She said. "I mean, this is Rebecca. Over?"
Please, answer. Please, God, answer, she thought. Rebecca clamped her eyes shut, praying that it wasn't a false alarm or the result of her weary psyche.
"Rebecca…can you hear me?" Marini said through a blast of static.
"Yes, Captain! I'm here!" She said.
"Where's-location?"
"A train, I'm on a train. Captain, I need hel—back up. I need back up. There are…things on this train. They…got Edward." She stared at the device, waiting for the reply. Only static came through. Rebecca's heart felt as though it stopped beating. "Enrico! Hello? Do you read?"
"Rebecca, I-hear you," his voice came through the walkie talkie. "We've received detailed info-on Coen for a-in the vehicle. He killed-twenty-three people. It's-confirmed he was institutionalized-guard up, Rebecca!"
Twenty-three people? Institutionalized. Rebecca shivered when she realized that Coen probably would have shot her without blinking an eye. Then why did he let her go? He knew that she was going to arrest him…maybe he thought she wasn't a challenge. Color flushed into her cheeks, and her fist tightened.
"Copy, Captain," she replied. Static came through the speaker. Rebecca waited for several seconds before she clipped the walkie talkie back onto her belt.
I can't give up. I've got a job to do. She thought. Her limbs still shook as she stood, stepped over the dog's boy, and retrieved her gun.
Edward's slumped figure caught her attention as she passed. I should do something, she thought. But what was she to do? Rebecca snapped her eyes away.
"Goodbye, Edward," she said, before following Coen's trail.
Rebecca steeled herself and slid open the door leading to the passenger car. To her surprise, there were no corpses running around. The one in the gray suit she saw early lay in the aisle, blood pouring from its head. Rebecca walked over, using her feet to turn the body over. Blood spewed out of a dime-sized hole in the zombie's forehead. Its white eyes stared up, decaying mouth slack.
Rebecca wanted to bend down and examine the corpse, though she could imagine it lunging up. As much as she was repulsed, something intrigued her about the whole situation—what could have done this? She reached into her pack and withdrew a latex glove. Then, she dipped her gloved finger in the pool of blood beside the corpse's head.
"Coagulated," she muttered, rubbing the sticky substance between her fingers. Definitely dead…at least now it is.
The door in front of her slid open. Rebecca looked up to find Coen in the threshold. She raised her gun, and Coen did as well. He aimed his gun over her shoulder and shot. Rebecca glanced back just in time to watch as a balding zombie in a brown vest fall back, blood pouring from the fresh wound in his left eye.
"You're a pretty bad cop, you know that," Billy said.
Rebecca felt her face flush. She raised, keeping her Beretta trained on him.
"You're under—"
"Arrest," Billy cut her off, not bothering to put up his hands. "I know, I know. But you mind reading my Miranda Rights somewhere we won't get eaten." Billy tilted his head, as though motioning behind her. Rebecca glanced over her shoulder. Three zombies rose from their seats as though waking from a nap. Their heads snapped to and fro until they saw their only living companions, and then they staggered after the two.
"Fine," Rebecca said.
Billy didn't stop walking until they exited the passenger cars. Rebecca's boots clacked against the wooden floor as she closed the door behind her. Much like the rest of the train, the walls and floor were made of dark brown wood. The walls were bare except for a couple of framed paintings depicting grassy landscapes. A red-carpeted stairwell hugged the left wall, and beside it was a metal door, where (from what Billy could see through the door's glass window) a kitchen lay behind.
Billy took a few steps up the stairs, despite the gun Rebecca trained on his back.
"Hold it right there!" She said.
Billy sighed. Damn, I can already tell this is going to get annoying, he thought banister.
"Listen," he said, tucking his own handgun into the back of his jeans. "This is going to be dangerous from here on end. Why don't we cooperate?"
"Cooperate with you?" She sneered. Billy's eyes narrowed. Still, he couldn't blame her, considering his track record.
"If you haven't noticed, little girl," Billy said, and he couldn't help to feel a tiny bit of satisfaction when she winced. "There are some pretty freaked out things on this train, and I for one wanna get out of here. I don't think we have a chance doing it alone."
Rebecca glared but lowered her handgun.
"You expect me to trust you, a wanted felon?" she said. "I don't need your help. I can handle this on my own, and don't call me 'little girl.'"
Billy snickered. From this angle, she looked pretty cute, with her little green shirt and white vest. The police garb seemed like a complete contradiction when compared to her round face and pixie haircut.
"Alright, Mrs. Do-it-herself," he said, reaching out to pat her head. Rebecca swatted it away. "What should I call you, then?"
"The name is Rebecca Chambers, but that's Officer Chambers to you."
"Well then, Rebecca," Billy said, walking back down the stairs. He leaned against the landing's door frame and crossed his arms. "Go play officer upstairs, while I wait here."
He watched as the girl's eyes widened for a moment, but her face hardened and her back straightened. Rebecca walked up a few steps and then stopped.
"If you're gone when I get back," she said. "I swear I'll shoot out your kneecaps when I find you."
Billy had to suppress another laugh, so just grunted in reply. As she continued up, he wondered if this was a good idea.
It took a moment for Rebecca's eyes to adjust when she reached the landing. Small dining tables lined each side of the car. Plates and silverware lay mostly untouched on white table clothes. The only light came from an emergency sign beside the stairwell, and a small fire clinging to a table cloth near the rear of the room. Windows lined the right side, the stormy night raging on just beyond the panes.
Something gasped, and Rebecca trained her weapon.
"Hello?" she said, squinting. A man sat at the table on fire. He wore a green blazer and red necktie, and his head bent down showing only his white, slicked hair. Rebecca approached slowly, lowering her gun.
"Are you alright, sir?"
The man didn't reply. Rebecca's arms shook as she remembered the last time she thought someone was alive.
"Excuse me, sir," she said, reaching slowly toward him. The man's head turned—and fell to the ground. Rebecca yanked her hand back, strings of white slime clinging to her fingers. The decapitated body lost form and fell apart into tons of glistening creatures the size of a baseball.
The creatures converged in the center of the aisle, the mountain their bodies formed shining in the dim light. A squishing sound came from them as the mount bent back and the bottom divided in two. The mass snapped back up.
The mass was once again a man. Rebecca's mouth hung open as she examined the creation. Every little detail seemed correct, except for the greenish tent of the skin and the wet sounds it made when it moved. The leech man threw back an arm and flung it at her. The limb extended twice its length. Rebecca dived out of the hip collided with the edge of a table, and she cried out. Rebecca quickly righted herself and shot two rounds at the creature. Both hit the creature in the chest.
The leech man didn't even recoil. It swung its arm for another strike when—Rebecca remembered Billy's headshots. She raised her weapon, aimed at the creature's head, and fired. The bullet hit with a wet sound, and its head split down the middle. Rebecca grinned, though her elation evaporated when the leech man dissolved. Little bodies darted toward her. She took a few steps back, but they leaped onto her before she could make it to the exit. They clung to Rebecca's waist, climbing with pointed underbellies from her legs to her stomach to her abdomen in a matter of seconds. She screamed as she felt their smooth bodies slither onto her neck.
The room shook with the sudden roar of gunfire.
The force of the bullets forced her down, though she didn't feel them pierce her flesh. Three leeches exploded once the bullets found their mark, making the others fall in a stunned state.
Rebecca felt the strength leave her body and she fell to her knees, breathing heavily.
"You okay?" her savior asked. Rebecca looked up and gave him a thumbs-up.
Three leeches leaped at him from the remains of the creature. Billy darted left, pulling the trigger of his gun almost out of instinct, and the creatures exploded like the others before it. Billy landed on his side but hardly noticed it. The surviving leeches slunk to the rear of the cart, climbed the wall, and exited through a corner of a shattered window.
Rebecca sat for a moment, huffing before she took a few deep breathes and stood. Her mind felt almost numb. Am I in shock? She thought. Maybe she was just beginning to adapt.
A flash of lightning illuminated the room from outside. Billy caught a flash of a figure standing atop a cliff perhaps a mile or two away from the train. The man stood there, arms outstretched. Another strike of lightning blazed across the sky and Billy saw the slick bodies of at least a few dozen leeches crawling up to the figure's feet. The man's long dark hair covered his face, and his tattered white gown whirled around his thin frame.
"Who is that guy?" Billy muttered.
"Maybe he's a survive—"
The train shuttered. Rebecca and Billy's knees buckled at the sudden jar. Lights all around the room flickered on. The train rumbled as it gained momentum.
"Who the hell's driving the train?" Billy said.
"Maybe I should check the first car," Rebecca said.
"Alright, let's go."
"I don't know if it's a good idea—"
"Clue in girl!" Billy said. "We gotta start cooperating with each other, or maybe you like being worm bait!"
Rebecca glared at him for a moment. This did make the second time he had saved her tonight. Still, Enrico's words still echoed through her head. Was Coen just luring her into a false sense of security? He had had every opportunity to kill her (or just let her die, for that matter) if he wanted her dead.
"Alright," she finally said. "But I will shoot you if you try anything funny."
"Fine, fine," Billy said. "Let's get going."
The young man watched as the Ecliptic Express barreled down the track once more. His body ached from the loss of his children. Those monsters. His surviving children coward at his feet.
Eat them, their thoughts cried in a collective demand. Hurt them.
"Alright, my loves," he said.
The man closed his eyes. Children slumbered in their sacks, hidden deep within the train. He could see them all—in their bubbles-hiding in air ducks, and dark corners of rooms and corridors. The young man showed them who dare murder their siblings.
Within the Ecliptic Express, the leeches stirred—fueled by anger and hunger.