Chapter 26: Long Road Ahead

Even though it only took a few minutes at most to walk it felt like hours to Danny, Jimmy, and Timmy. The conflict back inside the train station played over and over in the black and white-haired teen's mind, and he was certain the same was going on in the boys' minds. He thought back to what Sandy had said to him, the way she had said it. It had him thinking. Was he really protecting Jimmy and Timmy? Or was he putting them in danger?

It wasn't his fault; he was just sixteen, he didn't have any kids or any younger siblings, he only had his parents and older sister.

He was just trying his best to make sure he and everyone in their group. He shook his head, trying to get rid of those thoughts from his mind. As they approached the group, the boys went to tell Tootie their close encounter and SpongeBob exited the cab.

"I found a blowtorch in the station." Danny smiled as he held out the tool. "Should make quick work of the coupling up there."

"Alright, I'll come up there with you to have a look." He smiled widely and quickly ran over and climbed up the ladder up to the overpass. Danny chuckled and was about to join him when all of a sudden, Sandy grabbed his shoulder. Confused, the teen turned to face her and she crossed her arms with a steely glare he had only ever seen on one other woman.

"Look, if this is about what happened in the station; we were trying to get used to being on our own, Jimmy, Timmy, and I." He explained.

"So ya take them into a dark, boarded-up buildin' ta build character?" She scoffed, almost as if in disgust.

"Not exactly."

"I think it's a good idea, figurin' stuff out for herself, for what it's worth." She sighed. "But be smart about it, teach them ta scan tha area for things, ya two should never be lookin' in the same spot, that's a waste; stay tha hell out of places like that buildin' over there." She glared at the said train station. "Especially if ya don't have more than one way ta get out and be more afraid of groups of livin' men than dead folk."

"That, we know." Danny grimaced, thinking back to the farm and the bandits.

"Patrick and I are still alive because we're two, and not six or eight or ten; I don't believe in strength in numbers and ya shouldn't either." She warned, but Danny didn't answer her and climbed up the ladder where SpongeBob was waiting for him.

"Think that'll work?" The teen asked, looking at the tanker.

"Oh Danny, you're cutting metal with fire; how could it not?" He asked with a giggle. Danny rolled his eyes at the man's antics as he set the blowtorch down and turned it on, but it didn't ignite.

"Shit." Danny hissed as he turned it off.

"What's up?"

"The hose has a leak in it." He pointed out and SpongeBob quickly backed away, scared of being burnt.

"Better plug that leak with something." The blonde man said and Danny remembered the tape he had taken from the truck. Immediately he pulled out the yellow tape and used it to cover the leak. Hoping it would hold, Danny turned on the blowtorch again and started to cut the hitch while closing his eyes, praying he wouldn't go up in flames. After a few seconds, the truck started to slide down and SpongeBob quickly pulled Danny backward to safety.

"Whoa, thanks!" Danny smiled in relief as he got back up and looked back at the tanker. It was hanging by a thread, the smallest cut and it would go. He reached over and tried to cut hitch some more but he couldn't reach it now. He looked at the tanker again and considered pulling it, but it was too far off the edge. Just then he was struck with a risky idea and offered the blowtorch to SpongeBob.

"Here, the weak portion of the coupling is out of my reach." He explained.

"You think it'll be within mine?" He asked, pushing the blowtorch away. It was true, even though he was older than Danny he was notably a head shorter than the skinny teen.

"No, but I'm gonna dangle you over that ledge." Danny shrugged. At first, SpongeBob wanted to throw the blowtorch at the teen, but for some reason that he couldn't quite explain, he trusted Danny.; so taking a deep breath, SpongeBob leaned over the edge and used the blowtorch as Danny held onto his arm tightly to keep him from falling. The blonde man whimpered but said nothing and started cutting. As Dash watched the two of them work from the front of the train, Kwan climbed down and started looking around.

It was then he noticed a strong line slowing moving towards them from a long way behind them, but he couldn't get a good look at it.

At first, he thought it was another train, but it was moving way too slow to be that.

"Guys... there's something coming." He called out uneasily. Danny looked up and gasped when he saw it was a giant herd of infected people approaching them from the distance.

"WHAT THE WHAT?" SpongeBob screamed when he saw them too.

"There must be thousands..." Danny breathed in shock as he watched the herb move at a snail's pace up the tracks. There were so many that he couldn't see the tracks behind them and the edge of the herd was far beyond the horizon.

"WE GOTTA GO!" Kwan cried as he ran back onto the front of the train with Dash.

"Fuck, SpongeBob! CUT! CUT!" Danny shouted.

"I AM! IT'S GOING! PULL ME UP!" He pleaded after he successfully cut through the hitch, and Danny quickly pulled him up. The tanker fell and crashed into the ladder, destroying it and their only way down/.

"BUCKY, GO!" The black and white-haired teen roared as everyone but him and SpongeBob got into the train as Bucky started it up. Gas started to spill from the fallen tanker and onto the track. The two men on the overpass ran for the ladder as the train started to inch forward, but that was when they saw it was smashed to pieces and lay on the ground.

"What do we do now Danny?" Whimpered SpongeBob.

"Hope this works." He whispered and without thinking twice he kicked the blowtorch down, lighting the gas on fire; hoping the flames would scare off, or at least, slow down the infected wave. SpongeBob gasped as the flames engulfed the ground, thankfully missing the train and they ran over to the railing on the other side of the overpass as the train passed under them.

"We gotta jump!" Danny shouted.

"WHAT?! No way!" He cried, gripping the railing tighter.

"GUYS!" Sandy exclaimed from the train.

"COME ON!" Dash called as well. Danny looked back at his friend but realized he was going to jump. without missing a beat, Danny quickly pushed SpongeBob off the side of the overpass to the train and jumped down after him, landing on the top of the train. SpongeBob hit the top of the train too, but he ended up bouncing off to the ground. He cried out in pain and clutched his right leg tightly. Seeing this, Sandy jumped down and helped SpongeBob up.

The man limped as fast as he could and Sandy ran alongside the train.

The flames did nothing to stop the infected, or even slow them down, they simply walked right through the burning blaze, catching fire themselves. Danny quickly swung into the boxcar and saw SpongeBob and Sandy running beside him. He grabbed the injured SpongeBob's arm and hoisted him into the boxcar. Sandy quickly grabbed onto the edge and pulled herself into the boxcar as well as the train sped up and took them further away from the herd.

As Danny looked at the herd of infected behind them Jimmy and Timmy entered the boxcar.

"That...was a LOT...of them," Timmy said, a twinge of fear in his voice.

"Are you hurt...?" Jimmy asked.

"No, we're mostly okay." Replied Danny, giving SpongeBob's injured leg a sympathetic look. The boxcar quickly descended into an uncomfortable silence as the trained sped down the long road of tracks ahead...


As the train sped down the tracks it wasn't long before the sun began to set, casting a dark dim orange glow across the land, the branches of the dead trees casting long shadows along the cold ground. While the others slept in the boxcar, Danny, Bucky, and Timmy were in the cab, with Timmy asleep in a chair with his backpack on the floor next to him. He had wanted to see how the train worked but had quickly fallen asleep as soon as he sat down.

Bucky was standing in the front of the train, taking a smoke from one of the cigarettes Sandy had had on her while Danny kept an eye on the controls.

The teen sat in silence until he happened to look down and saw something sticking out of Timmy's backpack. Quietly, he bent down to the open backpack and examined a drawing one of the kids had made of Bucky and Chester. Just then Bucky entered the cab and Danny quickly put the drawing back.

"Next stop, the Atlantic." The man grunted as he took his seat in the conductor's chair and stared out the window as the outline of Bikini Bottom finally appeared on the horizan.

"We have to find a boat, we just have to," Danny muttered.

"We will." Bucky nodded as he abruptly looked up, and caught Danny staring at him. "Yeah, there ain't much to say." He sighed. "I'll be alive, I guess, blood in my heart, blood in my brain, at least."

"I'll leave you to your thoughts," Danny said and turned to the sleeping Timmy. "He's out cold like I've never seen." He chuckled and went to pick him up; only to jump back slightly when all of sudden Timmy's radio crackled. He was certain Timmy said that thing was broken. The teen frowned and picked it up.

"Hell...o...oo...there...?" A crackling man's voice said through the radio, but Danny couldn't recognize it.

"What the...?" Danny gasped as Bucky got up and stood beside him.

"Can't wait for you and Jimmy to get to Bikini Bottom, Timmy." Said the stranger. "I've got your parents right here, and you be sure to find me whether that Danny boy wants you to or not; now, what I need-" He started before the radio suddenly cut out.

"Holy shit..." Danny muttered in horror.

"I thought that fucking thing was broken..." Bucky snapped.

"So did I."

"Well, it sounds like somebody knows where we're headed."

"Who the fuck was that...? If he's convinced Timmy and Jimmy that he has their parents..."

"I don't know who that fucker is, but I doubt we're going to be happy when we find out," Bucky said as they both stared out the window at the fast-approaching city of Bikini Bottom...