Chapter 8: Crazy Train

The asphalt roads through the swamp were slick with rainwater and the swamp mud that had spilled over onto the road from the river below due to the storm. The road was barely discernable from the water in the limited light of the headlights. We had had to slow down our speed considerably, just so that we wouldn't accidentally drive headfirst into the swamp.

The swamp was getting close to being flooded. The water in the river that road rose out of was nearly level with the road. The Spanish moss hanging from the trees blew back and forth in the wind. I could see things floating in the water that could have been dead logs that had fallen into the water, or they could have alligators.

Don't panic don't panic don't panic don't panic don't panic

The storm was still going strong, and I was starting to worry about how hard it would be to get back to the mainland in this weather. There would be a very real chance of the boat being flipped over by the massive waves that were being produced by the strong winds.

Up ahead was a fork in the road where we would turn left onto a bridge, cross a river, and pass the lab. I would probably fake a bathroom emergency, which would make Albert need to stop the car. I would actually go to the bathroom, because to be honest, I needed to piss like a racehorse. But after that, I would "get attacked", yell for Albert to save himself, and make my way to the research lab.

Keep telling yourself that. You're going to get eaten as soon as you get out of the car. It will probably be something hairy and decomposing.

Soon we slowly came to a stop in front of where my map had shown the place where the bridge connected to the other side of the river. To be specific, the bridge provided a connection between the side Albert and I were currently on, and the side that we needed to get on was across the river over a bridge.

Houston, we have a problem.

The bridge over the river looked like half of it had fallen into the water and been swept away. There was no way we were going to be able to use it to cross the river, at least, not in the car. Maybe we could make it across a different way?

"Hey, Albert? I'm going to go check out the bridge and see how stable it is. Please, stay here and keep the van running just in case something happens, okay?"

Not bothering to wait for his response, I grabbed a flashlight from the glove box and hopped out of the van into the pouring rain. The downpour chilled me to the bone but I carefully walked closer to the bridge. I moved away from the van with the squeaking of the windshield wipers getting harder for me to hear. I didn't want the van parked on the bridge just in case the remains of the bridge gave out and fell into the river. When I moved onto the piece of the bridge that was still standing on this side of the river, it creaked dangerously and I immediately got back off.

I thought about us maybe using the guide rail as a miniature bridge across the river but if the bridges supports were that unstable

I peered over the edge of the drop-off that led into the side of the river, trying to see if there was any way that Albert and I could make our way across on the underside. After one look, I could see that idea was a no-go.

From what I could tell by the sign on the side of the bridge, the drop off was about six feet above the river's usual water level, but the current water level was about two feet below the drop off. The rain had been going strong for a few hours now, so it wasn't that surprising. I pulled out a piece of bubblegum flavored taffy and unwrapped it. I stuck the piece of candy in my mouth, wadded up the wrapper and dropped the piece of wax paper into the water below. The water quickly whisked the wrapper away with ease.

Well, that clears that up.

If we tried to make our way through by wading or swimming across the river, Albert and I would die, no question about it. The swamp would become our final resting place if we tried to swim across, mainly because of the water currents and height that the water had reached. We would probably drown before making our way to the other side.

I took a closer look at the remains of the bridge. I didn't think a storm could have easily taken out a bridge made of concrete and steel unless it was very old or very badly constructed. As I looked, I could see some scorch marks, the kind I was very familiar with. The kind of scorch mark that was caused by a powerful explosive going off.

This was bad. If someone had bombed the bridge they were trying to cut off escape routes off of the island. The bridge had also led to the island's marina. If the boats were cut off from the rest of the island, it would mean that people couldn't use them to escape.

I looked all around and noticed the shadow of something large moving around in the water where the bridge had been. I instinctively got away from the river. I had already had the fiasco in West Africa and the shark attack in the aquarium add some fuel to my great dislike of "things that move around in murky water and then try to eat your head".

If I ever watch any of the Jaws movies ever again, it will be too soon.

Of course, the shadow could be debris from the missing part of the bridge. Still, I felt uneasy about what I saw. The events of the day had been making me jump at every shadow I saw, and every weird noise I had heard since the diner sent my heart beating like the wings of a hummingbird on a massive caffeine high. I backed away when I saw that the shadow in the water was moving, no, the shadow was swimming back and forth in the river. Debris never moves against the current, especially not like the way the shadow was moving upriver and closer to my side of the river.

I got up off of my knees and started scurrying away from the riverbank, then started running back to the van. I could hear something burst out of the river and hit the ground with a loud, squishing thump on the muddy ground. I threw open the door to the van as soon as I reached it and screamed something at Albert that basically amounted to: "Albert, please drive the van down the other available road now. I do believe there is something in the river that would greatly enjoy the act of devouring us."

What I actually said was: "Go! Go go go go go now! Other road! Big thing in the water! Not safe! Going to eat us! Go now!"

I could hear a loud thumping noise coming closer to us as I fastened my seatbelt and Albert put the van into second gear and started to drive. I looked at the side view mirror and saw the stuff of nightmares. A hulking behemoth of scaly greenish-black skin with white fangs lining a long snout had climbed out of the river and was starting to quickly follow the van. I started to whimper like a kicked puppy.

Why does almost everything that gives me nightmares come from the water? Mutant zombie sharks and now a mutant undead alligator? What cruel god have I offended to make this happen?

The alligator continued to follow us as Albert drove away. The giant mutated alligator was determined to catch the van. It made some sense. Alligators and crocodiles were known for being territorial and aggressive. It would make sense that the giant alligator also had a nasty attitude. Then again, who knows what had happened to the thrice-damned hell beast, I mean, the poor creature to make it so freaking huge.

Dammit, it's just going to keep chasing us. What the hell is its problem?

I opened my window and pulled out a grenade from my bag. I leaned out of the window, trying to keep my balance while trying to aim the device at the horrible manifestation of my worst nightmares. Albert wouldn't be able to outrun it for long; we were going to run out of gas sooner or later and if the van ran out of fuel while this scaly river beast was chasing us…I didn't want it to come to that.

I pulled the pin and threw the apple-sized explosive at the giant alligator's snout. It ended up going off right beside the alligator's eye but it was enough to severely disorient the creature. It stopped following the van, pausing in its pursuit to try and shake off its confusion. I continued to watch the road behind us and the sight of the giant alligator quickly faded into the distance.

Thank you, whoever it is that invented the hand grenade.

"It's stopped chasing us for now. I guess that grenade really helped. I'm really glad we found those earlier. How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine."

We continued to drive along the road. Albert was breathing heavily from the stress and I wasn't much better off. We needed to get off of this island soon.

As we drove deeper into the swamp, we passed signs alerting passers-by to the "Research Shuttle". Intrigued, I pulled the map out again. The Research Shuttle was a train that cut through the swamp that went from the lab's parking lot to the lab itself.

I wonder why the lab is so far away from the parking

"Albert, I think I found another way for us to get to the tour boats. There's a train up ahead that will take us to a research lab across the swamp. If we take the train, we can just cut through the lab and move on to the tour office. How does that sound to you?"

"It's better than what we have going so far. I have no problems with your plan."

"Cool. After we clear the lab, which should be relatively empty because of how late it is and how isolated that part of the island is, we should cut across this stretch of forest that will take us to the amusement park which is right next to the tour boat station."

We soon arrived at the parking lot, and we were mildly surprised at how silent the place was. The parking lot was lifeless. It was filled with cars and trucks but there wasn't anyone there that I could see, alive or dead.

Oh hell, if there are cars here, then there's going to be a lot of zombies at the lab… or survivors. Please let the people at the research lab be survivors and not be more mobile corpses.

Albert parked the car in a no parking zone right in front of the train's station. After all, we were the only people here and it wasn't like we were going to get a ticket. First off, the members of the island's police force were all off fighting the undead in the town and second, this wasn't our vehicle. Also, I didn't like the look of the parking garage. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure that that kind of structure isn't supposed to be covered in foliage that thick. I'm also pretty sure that the vines covering the parking garage aren't supposed to be moving.

Before entering the train station, we opened up the back of the van to see if we could find anything useful. I found a few more cases of ammunition and another pack of grenades, which made me very happy.

Yay! More booms! Wait, why would the aquarium need ammo and explosives? Hmmm, well they did have two mutant sharks swimming loose. Meh, it makes about as much sense as everything else that's happened today.

We entered the station cautiously, trying not to make too much noise. If I had learned anything by this time, it was that even though our attackers were dead, they were surprisingly smart. The undead had already shown that they were able to perform an ambush by hiding and waiting until we were in range for them to lunge at us.

Sneaky undead bastards.

The station was pretty bare except for a cluster of vending machines and a security office that had its door wide open. The lighting was fairly dim, the glow of the fluorescent light bulbs scattered throughout the room vainly trying to beat back the encroaching darkness. The floor that was closest to us was covered in an easy to clean tan linoleum that was fairly blood splattered.

Somebody had a party and didn't invite us! How rude.

There wasn't really much to the station. It was basically a large room with a large glass ceiling that was connected to a smaller room. There were large red and white plastic benches where people could wait for the train.

The train was in the station and it looked all right, or at least it looked like it wasn't damaged. The train was shaped like one of the subway cars in New York, vaguely pill shaped and long with four cars. I could see the obvious Umbrella logo and the words proclaiming it to be "The Umbrella Express" but it looked like there was something wrong with it.

I wonder what the heck is…Oh! Bloody handprint. Hmm, well that is definitely not a good sign.

I checked my handgun to make sure that I was loaded, and kept it in my hands, the barrel pointed up. Albert also had his gun out; we weren't taking any chances in here. With our luck, there was an undead or three waiting behind the train or maybe even a bench, ready to attack.

"Albert?"

"Yes?"

"Did you happen to get a good look at the parking garage?"

"No, what about it?"

"I'll just say that we should get to the train and out of here as fast as we can. That is unless you feel like getting into a fight with the mutated vegetation that's growing over there."

"Mutated what?"

"The place was actually, and I mean really, crawling with vines. Albert. The. Vines. Were. Moving. Plants do not do that. Plants are not supposed to do that. I do not want to see if they are friendly."

Albert went into the security office to find out how to get the train running while I stood guard outside the office to make sure that no undead could sneak up on us. A couple of undead came out from behind the train while he was in there, but I took care of them with a couple of shots. I could hear Albert rummaging inside the office. The rustling of papers, the clicking of computer keys, and the occasion sound of his feet let me know that he was still doing fine.

I looked down at what I had gotten off of the undead that had attacked me while I was covering Albert. I now had a plastic keycard, a security badge, and sixty dollars in loose bills. I gathered it all up and shoved it into my backpack.

Who knows if I'll need these later or not?

Meanwhile the storm was still raging outside. The rain was pounding furiously against the glass ceiling like pebbles. The thunder and lightning had picked up again, a flash of light would light up the room and be followed by a sound like a cannon going off. Right as Albert came out of the office, I looked up as another flash of lightning lit up the sky and I saw something that was completely out of the ordinary.

On the other side of the glass ceiling, I could see long, twisting tendrils creeping over the roof. I tried to figure out what they could be and then I remembered the parking garage, that had in fact, been in the direction the vines were coming from.

Oh crap.

As soon as I had thought that, several of the vines punched through the glass ceiling, showering shards of glass over the floor and letting the rain fall freely into the station. Numerous dark green vines started creeping down into the train station, moving about like the feelers on an insect, searching for prey.

"What the hell is wrong with this place?"

Albert and I broke into a run, trying to avoid the vines that swayed menacingly towards us. I bobbed and weaved around the vines, jumped over benches, and slid under grasping tendrils, never breaking my pace. I bolted into the open train door and hit the emergency door-closing switch as soon as Albert made it through the gauntlet and into the train. He rushed to the back of the train and started messing with the controls and getting the train started. The vines were banging themselves against the windows of the train, determined to get in.

The inside of the train was dark and the little light there was outside was blocked by the mass of vines over the windows. These windows were probably just as strong as the ones on the station ceiling meaning that the vines would probably get in soon.

I can't see anything. How the hell am I supposed to defend myself?

I braced myself to be able to fight them off when the train lurched and started to move. The lights in the train flickered faintly once and then turned on all the way, illuminating my line of sight. The mass of vines was writhing obscenely over the windows, trying to desperately hold on and not let us escape. The train still continued to move despite the efforts of the plant, and we continued to pick up speed until we broke free of the plant's hold.

We left the station behind with another burst of speed and I watched out the back window as the large concrete parking garage started to break apart. As I watched, a flash of lightning cracked across the sky and showed the large growth rising into the sky. Glad that we hadn't stuck around long enough to see that up close and personal, I went to the car that Albert was currently in to rest and get ready for whatever we would find at the lab.

The inside of the train was rather dull like a New York subway car, but this train was much cleaner, and didn't have any graffiti on the outside or inside of the car. The off-white plastic seats were cushioned with some kind of scratchy red fabric and there were poles spread throughout the car for passengers to hold onto if they couldn't get a seat.

The tram was moving at a quick clip, but I still felt uneasy. There had been too many close calls today for my own comfort. Albert seemed to be doing all right sitting down on the bench, but I was too wound up to be able to sit down without getting up immediately. I was simply killing time by pacing from one side of the tram to the other before I finally leaned against the wall that didn't have a nearby window and stared out of the window directly across from me.

I still had my yellow backpack on, but then again, I felt safer with it on instead of leaving it on the floor of the tram. Then again, I had some very nice handheld explosives and a lot of ammunition stored in it as well as my crowbar that was hanging off of it. I pulled my shotgun off of my backpack and began to load some shells into it. The feel of the shotgun's metal and wood in my hands was comforting and made me feel a little better and more secure.

All of a sudden, I started to hear a rustling, sliding sound that made my wet hair stand on end. Immediately after that, I heard a hissing noise coming from the air vent on the wall across from me. I rushed closer to it and got ready for what I thought was most likely going to happen, which was some sort of monster, probably an undead snake, about to burst out of the vent.

I mean, I've already had to fight undead humans and sharks, and I could be wrong but I'm pretty damn sure that wasn't an ordinary twenty-foot alligator. Then there was the plant. Snakes are not out of the question.

If I have learned anything from watching horror movies, it's that you don't just stand there like an idiot if you hear an odd or ominous sound. You load up your gun and you get ready to kill whatever monster or chainsaw-wielding psychopath that has been trying to kill you and is now trying to sneak up on you. You do not let the thing that is trying to kill you, sneak up on you. You kill it before it kills you.

I grabbed the spray-can of pesticide that I had picked up earlier from my backpack. I got my lighter out of my pocket along with the can of bug spray I had picked up earlier that night. I had my plan.

This would probably be better if used hairspray, but I'll work with what I have.

"Albert, get ready!"

As soon as I had said that, a bunch of snakes burst out of the air vent and right into the blast area of my MacGuyvered flamethrower. If your enemies are too hard to shoot and are smaller than a breadbox, kill them with fire. It's how I got rid of a couple of wasp nests back home.

"Yee-haw, eat your heart out Saint Patrick! Death to the legless ones! Screw this; I'm making a belt out of all of you scaly bastards! Maybe even a pair of boots! And a wallet!"

Fire is fun! And useful! Anyone who says otherwise is a lying liar from Liarsburg!

Soon all that was left of the snake was a large pile of ashes, snake bones, and some very large scorch marks on the floor of the train.

Albert had been kind enough to shoot the few snakes that had managed to escape the flames and I tucked my lighter back into my pocket. I shook the can, it sounded empty so I tossed it into the small trashcan in the corner. It must have been half empty when I had found it. Well, it had lasted long enough to kill a bunch of snakes so I couldn't really complain.

"Well, I can't pull that trick again," I remarked resignedly.

"You can't? Why not?"

Albert had an eyebrow raised in what I took to be interest or confusion. I didn't blame him; a flamethrower is a fairly handy tool to have.

"That was the only aerosol can we had, unless you've got some hairspray in that coat."

"I'm sorry to say that I don't."

I had gotten my shotgun back off of my backpack, if more snakes were lurking about, the spray from my shotgun would kill more of them at once than a single bullet from my handgun.

The storm raged outside the train as it zoomed along the track. Looking out the window I could see the rain coming down in hard, heavy sheets of water. It was as if someone was dragging a heavy gossamer sheet over the train.

All of a sudden out of nowhere, something slammed against the last train car, making the whole train shake. I was flung up against the window I had been looking out of, smooshing my face and chest against the glass. As I backed away from the window, I saw something moving in the water parallel to the train. Something that looked very familiar. Trying to keep my voice steady despite the fact that I was terrified out of my mind, I raised my voice and called out to Albert, who was currently picking himself up off of the floor.

"Uh Albert, I think our friend from the bridge found us again."

I got a bunch of the grenades out of my backpack, stuffing them into the pockets of my jacket along with some shotgun shells that I had stuffed down the front of my shirt. If a well-thrown grenade could drive the giant alligator off once before, it could drive it off again. I didn't think the alligator could get into the train, but if it followed us all the way to the lab, well, that we be a giant problem. Maybe if I shot it in the eye-

The train lurched again as the alligator slammed against it, and a warning beep began to fill the air as the train began to lose speed.

"Wait, what's happening? Why is the train slowing down?"

The train swayed dangerously again and I heard a metallic crunching, creaking sound coming from the last car on the train. The back of the train had been torn away and

The alligator was clinging to the floor of the last train car with its stubby front legs, the other half of its body dragging along the tracks. It long gaping jaws were snapping at us all the way in the front car and it seemed determined to get to the front car where we were and well, eat us.

It's what everything else has been trying to do today. Why should the twenty-five foot alligator be any different?

I needed to get myself in a stable position. The alligator's rocking of the train was currently making it almost impossible for us to keep our footing. I hooked my legs around a nearby pole, sitting on the ground facing the giant alligator. I had my shotgun aimed straight at the scaly green beast and I pulled the trigger. The thing thrashed its head around in pain as it was peppered with shot. It finally swung its head toward me and glared.

Oh crap, I made it angry!

I loaded another cartridge that I had fished from my shirt into the shotgun and aimed at a point slightly below its left eye and pulled the trigger. The kick from the shotgun sent the aim upwards and its eye was riddled with bits of shrapnel. The alligator had managed to hoist itself up a bit further into the train car, but it still had an unstable grip on the train. Albert fired a few shots into the alligator's head but we weren't doing enough damage to drive the thing off. If the alligator kept rocking the train, it could end up going off the tracks entirely and then we would be at the scaly green demon's mercy.

If I didn't have a phobia of alligators and crocodiles before, I sure as hell have one now.

I stood up using the pole as support. I had a crazy, stupid plan that might work but would put me way to close to the alligator for my nerves. I could ask Albert to do it, but I'm the one that had the plan.

What is it that Grandpa Fabian says? Never ask someone to do something that you wouldn't do yourself.

"Albert, I'm going to do something crazy and stupid! Cover me!"

He gave me a confused look as soon as I had yelled that but I held his gaze or at least I tried to. He must have seen that I was serious, that I knew what I was doing, or that I was determined to do what I was going to do because he gave me a slow nod while he hung onto his own pole.

I nodded back and began to steadily make my way closer to the alligator, using the poles to keep myself upright despite the unsteady motion of the train. I'm actually kind of proud that I only stumbled twice. When I reached the third car, I was about seven feet from the beast's long snapping jaws and about two seconds from wetting my pants.

I held onto the nearest pole as the train started to incline upwards as we went up a hill. The alligator lost some traction and slid back a few feet but still clung tightly to the train. The alligator was a lot more violent now that I was closer to its jaws and therefore much more easy to eat than oh, I don't know, maybe someone named Albert who was farther back.

Damn me for not getting him to do this.

It kept opening its jaws and snapping them shut, trying to get closer to me and gobble me up. Now that I was closer to the large green beast, I saw that it practically armored because of its thick scales. The bullets had barely even damaged it.

The eyes are always a vulnerable area but the thing kept thrashing around so much that they would be near impossible to hit with my skills. I was close to giving up and going back to just trying to drive it off with the shotgun and hoping that the closer range would do more damage. Then it hit me like a punch from Rocky Balboa, the alligator was trying to eat us because it was hungry. I was not at all willing to be on the menu and it didn't seem to want to eat lead.

Maybe it wanted some pineapple? After all, it can't possibly be as tough on the inside.

I watched as the alligator continued to open and close its massive jaws, trying to snap me up. I held up my grenade trying to get the angle just right. I stared into the pink flesh surrounded by green scales and dagger-like white fangs that led into its dark throat. Finally, I pulled the pin, I pitched the grenade into its mouth as it started to close its mouth and I ran like the terrified person I was.

I crossed over into the second car as soon as I heard a muffled boom, and a thump as the alligator's body fell to the floor. I kept my gaze on the body even as the alligator slowly slid off of the train. The train was much more stable now and had stopped its violent rocking. It had even gotten a bit faster now that the alligator wasn't weighing it down.

Turning my head to face Albert, I asked him, "Do you think it's gone?"

"You fed it a grenade. If that didn't kill it, what do you think will? Are you well? You're incredibly pale?"

"No, I'm not. I'm really not, but I can deal with it. But a word of warning; I'm probably going to have a nervous breakdown as soon as we get off of this island, so you should probably prepare for that."

"Thank you for the warning."

The train shuddered to a stop as soon as he finished that sentence. I looked at the train that was radically different from the one we had started with. The fourth car was missing its back end and there were bloodstains all over the floor where the alligator had slid off. There were broken windows and lights throughout the train where the shaking of the train had messed up our aim and the rain was leaving puddles everywhere.

"Okay Albert, this is the plan. If anyone asks, we found it like this."

AN: Ren here! I had the hardest time writing this chapter. Sorry about the long time to update. I was playing Resident evil Umbrella Chronicles and was heavily inspired by the train sequence from RE0. As always, please review.

I would also like to thank my follower moon82993. It helps to know that someone out there likes what I've been writing enough to want update alerts.