assistant had been sealed.
'Keep…moving…forward…' Shep implored but it seemed as if another blade from either the roof or the side blocked every step they took…
…The locomotive roared forward out of the forest, across a trestle overlooking a cold stream, and through a rolling field. Ahead of it, on the tracks, landed the fourth flying insect-beast, challenging the engine head on.
From Hivvan saboteurs to human train robbers, this creature would soon learn that while the steam train came from a museum, it did not lack teeth.
A gun pod deployed at the front of the engine just above the cow-catcher compartment storing the Railscout. The weapon spooled to life and released an incinerating fire of plasma, eradicating the insect’s armor plating and destroyed everything except for two fibrous wings that fluttered off in the January wind like oversized leaves…
…The I.S. agent raised his heavy machine gun and fired a torrent of bullets straight up, tearing away an entire section of roof and eating into the belly of a beast. A sickly puss rained down upon him even as his dead target lost grip and fell away from the speeding coach.
That puss smelled like gasoline and it burned. He screamed.
Shep came to his assistance, forcing him forward even as blades from the remaining creatures tried to skewer them.
One of the monsters stuck its head in through the destroyed patch of ceiling. Nina hit it with full-automatic fire right in the face. It retreated for a moment.
'Go! Go! Go!'
The security man-still screaming from burns to his face and shoulders-let Shep lead him out the door and to the open-air ramp leading toward the next coach. He unlatched the door and saw a small crowd of volunteers as well as the Conductor waiting in there.
Shepherd gently pushed the man inside and ordered them to, 'Get this fella some help and get forward.'
One of the creatures swung its head between cars and tried to engulf Shepherd as he stood above the coupling. Nina tackled Shep out of the bite of the monster and into the next coach. The sight of the two diving in just below alien jaws encouraged the Conductor and the volunteers to accelerate from a walk to a sprint toward the front of the train.
Nina, lying on the floor next to Shep, turned and fired her weapon through the portal they had just crashed through. The insect thing squeezed into the space between the cars, its spindly legs resting on the metal crosswalk as if it might just follow them into the passenger car.
Nina reacted, 'Fire in the hole!'
Shepherd did the only thing he had time to do; he rolled under one of the seats.
Nina launched a grenade from the M203 on her M4's barrel and also rolled for cover.
The grenade hit the creature at close range. The explosion pushed it back into the rear-most coach. Chunks of the creature tore off and the wood frame of the passenger car caught fire as the creature went up in flames. The flash-fire threatened to engulf the entire compartment.
The last two of the insects stood on top of that coach jabbing their scythe-claws through the roof hoping to hit prey but actually cutting at their burning comrade.
Nina stood and reloaded her launcher. She then fired a second grenade into the burning coach. The explosion split the train car in two. The rear half derailed and rolled down an embankment. Two of the dying creatures went with it while the third-the last one-took to the air with its wings on fire. It fluttered for a second like a warped firefly and then fell.
'We need help back here,' Shepherd radioed from the floor between seats. 'Get us a fire extinguisher and someone who can uncouple the last coach.'
Nina, still full of anger, turned to face Shepherd with half-a-mind to restart the interrogation right there. She wanted answers.
Then she saw the metal rod through his shoulder.
'Holy shit, Shep,' anger evaporated into panic.
The explosion had sent shrapnel every where, including a foot-long steel rod through the seats and into his right shoulder.
The Conductor and two men entered the car and worked quickly to disconnect the burning, dragging coach from the train before the flames could spread.
Nina held Shepherd. A blood stain formed on his shirt and his sharp eyes glazed.
'Oh my God. I need a medic here!'
'It ain’t nothing, Nina. Don’t go fussin'.'
Nina took stock of the nasty-looking wound. The rod had not hit any vital organs but the pain was immense, or it would be, once the adrenaline of battle faded.
'Oh, Shep, this is my fault. I shouldn’t have fired the grenade so close.'
'Now don’t go sayin' that. You did what you always do, Nina. You won the fight.'
He fell unconscious. Nina felt for a pulse and found a strong one. Still, she cradled his head in her lap and forgot about her questions. Suddenly they did not seem so important.
10. Redoubt
Trevor stood at the apartment's only window and from what the other Nina told him, most apartments did not have windows and those that did needed to shut the shudders after dark. That gave Trevor only another few minutes to view the city from the thirteenth floor of what felt like a nearly empty skyscraper hotel.
From his vantage point, he saw a couple of other skyscrapers which were part of the cluster of tall buildings comprising central Thebes; each colored dirty green, each-according to Nina-dormitories.
As he scanned the city, he saw smaller square-shaped and rectangular buildings; he saw fuel cisterns and generator stations, roof top greenhouses and air defense batteries.
Far away from the downtown sector, he saw smoke stacks and factory buildings including a giant structure resembling a sort of industrial cathedral, but a veil of smog hovered over the district obscuring the view.
A few traffic lights worked and he spied a handful of vehicles that reminded him of cargo carriers, transports, and cars from home but the streets remained mainly empty.
It was January in this world, too, yet half the buildings in the city emitted no smoke. That meant half the buildings in the city did not need heat because they were empty.
Overall, he saw a dark, sad city more depressing than the empty cities on his own post-Armageddon Earth. Those cities had died. This city-this 'Thebes'-seemed more a zombie: dead but too stubborn to pass quietly.
The thought made him shiver because he knew there had been a Trevor Stone on this world. A Trevor Stone who-like himself-led humanity’s fight. A Trevor Stone who made some mistake or another; who had failed.
Yes, they brought him here as a prisoner, but he felt pity for these humans. The Nina of this world thought that he could help so she kidnapped him. Could he judge her harshly? Had he not sent waves of his K9 killers to slaughter a village in the name of victory?
The bathroom door opened. Reverend Johnny joined Trevor at the window.
'What is it you spy, my friend?'
'I have spent every day since the world changed fighting so as to never see this.'
Johnny nodded his head and quoted softly, 'They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again…their country will be known as 'The Land of Wickedness,' and their people will be called 'The People with Whom the LORD Is Forever Angry.' '
The second sunset of their stay in Thebes neared. The two men were kept isolated the entire time, starting first at a vacant military barracks, then an empty dining hall where they found the food as bland as the walls, and now this apartment. Other than the company of a few silent guards, they remained alone except for the occasional question of 'how are you guys holding up?' and the promise that 'this won’t last much longer,' during quick visits from Nina.
As for the dormitory, the furniture felt old, musty, and hard. Trevor found neither communication devices nor any type of radio or television. The dim lighting tended to flicker on and off, meaning power generation posed yet another issue for the people of this Earth.
With his eyes fixed on the darkening city outside, Trevor told Johnny, 'I want to apologize. It was my foolishness that led us here.'
'You owe me no apology, Trevor. I am wise in many ways but your vision in matters such as these is keener.
