“We have four more hours at our present rate of speed.” Draper commented to the people in the cab. There were five of them left there now, the backup engineer, Draper, Max, Stewart and a soldier that seemed to be some sort of assistant to the Colonel.
“Help me with this Tim.” Draper said, indicating the body on the floor.
The other soldier nodded and picked up the feet of the body. Draper grinned and picked up the body by the shoulders, “Next time I will be more specific.” he muttered as he picked up the heavy, bloody part of the body, which his subordinate handled the cleaner, lighter part.
Stewart moved to the door of the cab and slid it open.
“Wait! You're going to just toss him out?” asked Max.
“Yes.” Draper answered.
“Why?”
Draper didn't answer, he just maneuvered the body outside to the railing and he and Tim tossed the engineer off the side of the train. When they came back in Draper said, “Tim, see if you can get something to soak up this blood, will you?” The backup engineer mentioned they had some stuff for soaking up oil spills in one of the tiny cabinets. Draper turned back to Max and said, “The body was in the way here, we could have kept it on the train or tried to pass it back to another car, but I felt that doing so could put one of my men at risk of injury. If you have a problem with how I am doing things, be sure to report them to my superiors when we get back.”
“No. It isn't that.” Max appeared frustrated, “Wait a minute, maybe it is that. If we start acting less than human are we really winning anything?”
“I can tell you that everything I am doing and going to do will be done with the one single goal of saving those humans who still live. I will take any edge I can get, no matter if it is tossing bodies from trains, wiping up blood or even blowing up the fuel we have to get home, if I think it is in the best interest of completing our mission. They sent me on this mission Max because I get things done. Sometimes getting things done requires doing things you would rather not think about. I do have lines I will not cross, but keeping a corpse in the cab with us is a distraction and could impede our ability to succeed.”
“Okay.”
“Really, just okay?” asked Stewart.
“I get it. We all want to get in, get out and make things safer for everyone. I have to think differently. I wouldn't want to ride all the way to Chicago looking at the body the whole way anyway.”
“Good. Now I have to get on the horn and see if I can find our Chicago assets and get them into a position where they can help us.”
Stewart went back to debating with Max about wearing the bullet proof vest the army had given her in the heat once they arrived.
“It won't be effective against the high powered bullets from the military rifles, but should shrug off most civilian ammunition.”
Max looked at her with raised eyebrows, then at the floor of the train, still coated with blood from the engineer.
“That is different Max! They had a machine gun, chances are we might run into some turned police or just good old boys with shotguns and pistols. A vest might make a difference, but is it worth the weight and constraint in this heat?”
“Yes. That poor sucker should have had one on. I thought this train was armored?”
“No, just the fuel car.” Draper said, breaking away from his radio for a moment.
“Still, a vest might come in handy, I say wear it. I'll even wear the helmet they gave me.”
“Maybe.” Stewart answered, still thinking it over to herself.
The train rolled on through the grassy hills of western Illinois, the sun rose in a smoky, humid haze to cast its fiery light upon early August corn and bean fields that would never be harvested.
Chapter 34
“How is our empire building going today?” asked Aubrey to Harry.
“About as planned, Ramey has the group out west under control, another couple of days and we can attack.”
The two of them were alone in a windowless conference room, which was lined in ornate wood paneling made from Honduran Mahogany. Aubrey had left a guard outside to make sure they were not disturbed.
“Father would be pleased.” she said.
Harry snorted and looked away, “What can we do about Sentry?”
“Careful.” Aubrey warned.
He waved his hands dismissively, “I don't think even his mind can be everywhere at once. He has the whole world to attend to, this is a limited risk.”
Aubrey nodded, but looked wary, “Nothing. We can't do anything. He is like an old Aztec god, bloodthirsty and powerful, only this deity actually gains more power as humans are sacrificed to him.”
Harry nodded and sat down along one side of the table, “It makes you wonder if this is the first time, doesn't it?”
“I've thought about that. I think Sentry must have modified an already existing mutation, one that wasn't so virulent, it would explain half of our myths and quite a few of the old gods. He did something…but what?”
Shrugging his shoulders Harry said, “With him, we will probably never know. He's got us good doesn't he? It makes me wonder if he planned it this way or just got lucky.” Harry was talking about the hierarchy of blood, earlier made zombies could control zombies they made and zombies their own zombies made, but Sentry had not made just one 'child' he had made many, so the various branches of children had less control over their nieces and nephews than their own child.
Aubrey moved around to the head of the table and sat herself down. “Like you said, we will probably never know. How are the troops in Chicago doing?”
“Well we've mopped up most of the sniper teams that were inserted yesterday, there may still be a couple around, but I bet by mid morning we will have them taken care of. There haven't been any more missile or artillery attacks in the last twelve hours, so my bet is that we got them all.”
“No more fly byes either. I guess they learned that we have the anti aircraft batteries well manned. That was a good move, by the way, raising the dead soldiers up to man the battery. “
Harry nodded his head slightly.
“Do we have a count on how many of our people are still in Chicago?”
“Oh, there are a hundred thousand or so left wandering around here for security. The place is empty compared to how many people used to be here. I sent all the zombies towards Iowa. You know, this shows that Sentry is not infallible, he missed the whole state.”
“There aren't that many people there. He missed Wyoming too.”
“That was planned.”
“So was this. They've reacted faster than we expected, but we will get there. What about Emma?”
“Ella.” Harry corrected, “She is….well, in the vernacular, 'super'.”
Aubrey's head came around to stare at Harry intently. “I can't sense her anymore.”
“Me either, she only stays here from loyalty now.”
“After she killed that guy, took his soul, essence, whatever you want to call it, she seemed very different.”
“She still is. Faster, stronger, tougher. I think she can even move our lesser children around now. I caught her doing it when I went to have breakfast with her this morning.”
Aubrey raised one eyebrow questioningly.
Harry nodded, “Yeah another soldier we caught alive, I ate, she….absorbed. Then she had eggs and bacon and we had sex for forty five minutes.”
