Several Internal Security agents wearing plain cloths but identified by I.S. armbands hurried through the car on their way forward.
"What is it?"
"Could you come up to the security car? We could use your help…"
…The Railscout slowed forward momentum allowing the steam engine to catch up. The cow-catcher at the front of the locomotive opened and the Railscout fit perfectly inside a compartment there with a metallic clang.
In the armor-plated security car, a sharp buzz from a table top of electronic controls signaled the I.S. Onboard Chief Officer (O.C. O) that the surveillance drone was secure.
Shep and Nina stood behind the O.C.O. seated at the console as he replayed a video image for the third time and said, "I was hoping you people could tell me what that is."
The grainy image played on a malfunctioning monitor, I.S. never received the best equipment and train security occupied a lower rung on the totem pole. Nonetheless, the image displayed a house-sized mound of flesh with a big ugly mouth straddling a road fifty yards off the tracks.
Two creepy, flat eyes moved-drifting up, down, and side to side like flotsam atop a pond-on pale, slimy skin.
General Shepherd ran a hand over his eyes as he told the O.C.O. as well as the assembled security force, "Hostile Number one-five-seven. It only gets a number because no one has figured out a polite enough name for it."
"It looks like it’s just sitting there," the Chief observed. "No arms or legs. Maybe it can’t reach the tracks."
Nina scoffed, "Keep telling yourself that."
"Then we should stop? We have to hit the brakes now if we’re going to stop before we get to it."
"Nope. Can’t do that," Shepherd explained. "We need to push through really fast. Tell your engineer to crank the steam. Seems to me, that’s the best way to get by this thing."
Nina added, "Listen, you’d better radio I.S. HQ for this sector. They’ll need to get some military units over here to clean up that pile of shit. Tell them you’ve got a one-fifty-seven."
The Chief pointed out, "There’s no way military units will get here in time to help us."
Shepherd said, "She knows that. What she means is that you should radio them now, ‘cause we might not be around to radio them later…"
…The steam train chugged across the western Pennsylvania landscape gaining more and more speed as it ran on rails cutting between a collection of soft hills, patches of forest, and then one of the hundreds of ghost towns inside The Empire’s borders.
The mound of pale creature sat on a stretch of road at the edge of the empty village. It spoiled what could have been a Norman Rockwell painting of small town America. Other than the movement of its two yellow eyes and the occasional grinding of its massive, ugly mouth, the thing showed no sign of life.
Five I.S. agents traveled on the train, including their Chief who remained in the security car to monitor the situation while the Conductor searched for soldiers or volunteers to help.
The I.S. agents not watching monitors divided, a pair went to the locomotive to protect the crew and another two took positions in the old-fashioned caboose.
Nina and Shep, carrying assault rifles with grenade launchers, waited at the middle of the train, a train that included the large steam locomotive, its tender, the armored security control car, two mail coaches filled with packages and bags, a dining car, and four old-style passenger cars followed by the caboose that also served as a secondary security station..
With time short, Nina sent a porter to find Denise in the sleeping car and fill her in on the situation. Other attendants moved passengers forward to the enclosed mail cars where the windowless walls and heavy doors provided better protection.
On Shepherd's advice, they planned to race past the creature as quickly as possible. By the time the train reached the danger zone, the locomotive hit top speed. Smoke billowed from the stack, the cars rattled and shook causing gasps of fear among the passengers huddled in the dark mail cars, and the rail lines vibrated to the point of emitting a low hum like a tuning fork.
All of the defenders carried radios. Shep listened to the play-by-play from the I.S. agents in the locomotive: "Closing on it now, no sign of movement. Those friggin’ eyes are looking right at us! Man, that's some ugly shit."
The cars clickity-clacked along the tracks as if the train had gone mad.
"We’re passing…no movement…nothing."
Shep watched from his position alongside Nina in one of the passenger cars. The big blob of sickly pale fat did not move. Its two eyes swirled around in its mass and stayed locked on the passing train.
"Man, I think we’re okay on this," the forward-most agents cheered.
Shepherd and Nina drifted toward the rear of the train as the last coaches passed the disgusting mound of flesh. They both slid open windows better see the hideous creature, allowing the foul smell of the thing to seep inside.
The security detail in the caboose radioed, "Hey, no sign of movement. It’s just looking at us like…wait a second…what the Hell..?"
Nina and Shepherd saw what the men in the caboose saw: the creature’s massive mouth opened and the entire blob of a thing heaved, complete with a bellow that sounded as if it vomited.
In fact, it did.
Things flew out of its mouth. Large insect-like beasts with bodies as large as an automobile and wing spans stretching a good thirty feet from tip to tip.
As they flew out-expelled from the belly of the blob-their undercarriages unfolded revealing rows of legs and two scythe-like appendages.
The swarm-six of them-hovered in the air for a moment then headed toward the escaping train. The quick flap of their membrane wings created a loud whir audible even over the frantic chugging of the steam engine.
"We’ve got incoming!" Shepherd radioed as he followed Nina through the passenger coaches and then finally into the caboose.
One I.S. agent had removed a glass panel from the roof cupola to aim a heavy machine gun at the approaching flock.
The second agent asked nervously, "What are these things? What was that big blob?"
Nina answered the man with an angry tone in her voice; a tone Shep knew did not come from hostile animals but from his ability to deflect her questioning. "These flying things are fetching dinner for the big thing. I’m just saying, you don’t want that to happen."
"What? They’ll carry someone back and feed it to the momma-thing?"
"Not exactly," Nina delighted in the nasty explanation probably as a means of releasing the nastiness she felt toward Shepherd at that moment. "These flying things eat you then go back to 'momma'. Then she eats them. I have to think, that would just suck."
"Don’t worry about it," Shepherd assured. "Just start firing. Look for the soft spot under the neck. Don’t bother with the heads; they’re armor plated."
On cue, the officer in the cupola ripped loose a burst of fully automatic gunfire while shouting, "They’re…coming…in…fast!"
Nina opened the rear door of the caboose and was greeted by a disgusting maw, two eyes on stalks, and the swing of one of the scythe-like appendages.
Forest dived back into the caboose. The bone-blade of the creature crashed through the wooden walls like a knife through butter. Those walls splintered and warped. The rear part of the caboose’s roof collapsed midway down and blocked the rear door.
The impact knocked the machine gun man off balance and he fell out of the cupola. On the way down, his weapon fired wildly. Bullets from the gun killed the second I.S. agent and nearly did the same to Nina as she lay prone on the floor.
"Get out! Get out!" Shepherd ordered as he dragged the machine-gun man to his feet.