light…”
He was interrupted by Dog, who rose instantly, the hair on the back of his neck standing up and a growl sounding low in his throat.
“Something’s wrong,” Chee said.
“He smells them,” Shaniah said.
“Smells what?” Hollister asked.
“The Archaics. They’re here,” she said.
“How do you know?” Hollister asked, looking out the window but seeing nothing in the darkness.
“Because I can smell them too,” Shaniah said.
“Well, that changes things,” Hollister said.
“How?” Shaniah asked.
“Wasn’t planning on a night assault. I figured you could wear your fancy cloak and we would attack them in the daylight, since they don’t like the sunlight,” he said.
A howl went up from outside the train, and Dog answered with a bark. He clawed at the door, anxious to be outside, ready to attack.
“We’ll back up, then return tomorrow in the daylight. Monkey Pete
…” Hollister turned around looking for the engineer, who had disappeared. Suddenly the outside of the train lit up, the exterior lamps and spotlights coming alive, and through the shooting slots in the armory car, they could see hundreds of Archaics standing in the woods, watching the train.
“Where’d he go?” Hollister asked.
Just then Monkey Pete hustled back into the armory car. “No backing up tonight I’m afraid, Major,” Monkey Pete said.
“Why not?”
“Well, Major, them critters”-he looked at Shaniah and tipped his cap-“no offense, ma’am, didn’t mean to say critter. Those… our enemies have pushed about a dozen trees onto the tracks thirty or forty yards behind us. Big trees.”
“Pete, this train can practically fly,” Hollister said. “Can’t you jump over them or push them off the tracks or burn them or something?”
Pete looked crestfallen, as if Hollister had insulted his train somehow.
“No, sir,” he said. “Like I said, they’re too big to burn and we ain’t gonna move ’em, because I’m pretty sure them Archaics outside got other ideas for us. So you better come up with a plan.”
Hollister paced back and forth, his hand on his chin, thinking.
“You do have a plan, right, sir?” Chee asked.
Hollister looked up, smiling. “Yes I do. Pete, let’s get your fire-shooting contraptions ready to go.”
“But, Major, I done told you, we can’t burn these trees. They’re too big and if-”
“Don’t worry, Pete, I got it all figured out. We aren’t going to be burning the trees.”
“All right,” Shaniah said. “The Fire Shooters, then what?”
Hollister grinned.
“Then we open the doors,” he said.
Chapter Sixty
“Open the doors-are you insane?” Shaniah said.
Chee said nothing, looking away but actually thinking the same thing.
“Why would we want to do that, Major?” Monkey Pete said. “Sounds crazy to me. Like you’re letting them right in.”
Hollister smiled. Outside, the Archaics began to howl and scream, and rocks and sticks started thumping against the side of the train.
“Don’t forget, we’ve got the devil’s traps and we’ve got a little surprise for them,” he said as he shrugged into one of Pete’s Fire Shooters.
Chee picked up his Henry; he was already wearing his double-rig Colts.
“Pete, what about the horses… we can’t lose them,” Hollister said.
“No worries, Major. Them stock doors close up with solid steel, they ventilate out the top and sides. Ain’t nothing can get in there except noise. Might spook ’em a little is all.”
Hollister nodded. “Pete, you get up on the Gatling and start letting ’em have it. Shaniah, Chee, you come with me.”
They left the armory. The sounds of Archaics clamoring over the roof of the train were getting louder. Inside the main cabin, Hollister and Chee each took a door on opposite sides of the car.
Hollister glanced at the paintings and bunches of garlic around the doors and windows. “I hope those work,” he said. He worked the gauge on the Fire Shooter.
“Ready, Chee?” he shouted. The howls and squeals of the Archaics were getting louder and louder.
“Ready,” Chee shouted. “Dog! Stay!” he commanded. Dog whined and sat on his haunches as if Chee had just asked him to choose a head of lettuce over a side of bacon.
Shaniah, standing at the side of the door nearest Hollister with her blade in hand, threw it open.
Outside, a group of fifteen or twenty Archaics clustered near the train. The open door caught them completely by surprise. But they recovered quickly and launched themselves toward the train. The first one hit the threshold and bounced away, Van Helsing’s traps working, at least for now.
Hollister turned the knob on the Fire Shooter and pulled the trigger. Flames shot out through the door and Archaic after Archaic caught fire. Hollister swept the nozzle back and forth like he was watering a garden and the flames erupted, filling up the surrounding woods with light.
The noise surrounding him was nearly indescribable. Dog howled, Chee shouted for the animal to stay. Above him, he heard the sound of the Gatling as Monkey Pete opened fire and cleared the creatures off the roof of the train. Unable to use her blade, Shaniah took up a Henry and fired through the port. Outside, the screams of the Archaics became nearly unbearable; the stink of burning flesh reached Jonas’s nostrils and he thought he might retch, but he held on.
Despite the flames, the Archaics kept coming, hurling themselves at the train. Hollister looked at the gauge on his Fire Shooter. It was more than half empty. Since his field of vision was narrowed to what he could see through his door, he had no idea how many he had killed.
“Chee! How much juice you got left?” he hollered.
“Maybe a quarter tank, Major. There’s a lot of them. They keep coming,” he shouted over the din.
“When you run out of mixture, you close that door. Van Helsing’s charms seem to be working, but let’s not take any chances.”
“Yes, sir,” he shouted, triggering the Fire Shooter again. A new wave of Archaics came through the trees and Hollister bathed them in flames. Some of them began to run away, but he kept the pressure on the trigger.
“They are new! Initiates!” Shaniah shouted over the noise. “Mature Archaics would never stop. They would keep coming until they killed us or we killed them.”
Hollister filed this away. It was chaos now, but somehow this was important information. It would come in handy at some point, he was sure. For the time being, he kept pulling the trigger on Pete’s Fire Shooter.
A few minutes later, the device sputtered and the flame died. He checked the gauge. Empty. He slammed the door shut and a few seconds later Chee did the same at his end of the car. Monkey Pete was still firing the Gatling from the roof of the armory car.
“Pete! What’s going on out there?” Hollister shouted up to the engineer.
“We killed a lot of them, Major. Some of ’em took off and there’s maybe fifty of ’em left that I can see…” the Gatling fired again. “About forty left now.”
“Chee, load up and get Dog ready,” Hollister said. “Shaniah, you reload too. We’re going out there and kill the rest of them. Before they decide to retreat back to the mine.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Shaniah said. “Even forty Archaics, initiates or not, can be formidable. You do
