We were in the cab now, and I was surprised by the amount of room in it. Natalia was looking around, and in a moment, she hit something, waited for the light to come on, and started the engine.
“Diesel, I guess,” Magnus commented.
“Think so. These days most are a hybrid of diesel and electric, and this thing looks new.”
When the train came to life, so did some small lights in the cab, and we could see around. Carey barked outside and I went back out into the rain, and we entered together on the car behind. The door pried open easily, and we got in to see leather seats. There were even a few bottles of champagne sitting warm at a serving area. First class train ride in Peru. Things could have been worse, like me flying around the passenger seat of a Jeep in a storm.
The cars connected, and I knocked on the window when I found it locked. Magnus hit some lever and it opened. Carey ran right to Natalia and licked her hand.
“Nice arrangement back there,” I told them. “Nat, you think you can drive this thing?”
She looked back at me and smiled. Soon we were starting to move along, lights showing our path on the tracks.
“I guess that answers that,” I muttered, and Magnus slapped me on the back.
“You should see her fly a helicopter!” he barked, and had a good laugh at his own joke.
I was sure that Mary would have a fast friend in this Natalia if they got the chance to meet. I really hoped they would, and soon. Time was running out on us, if what Vanessa said was true. A week before they were to dispose of most humans, the rest to be slaves for eternity.
NINETEEN
We were cruising down the line on our way to Aguas Calientes. Lightning still flashed occasionally and I kept a watchful eye out the window, trying to see if I could spot a ship among the dark clouds. The train was moving at a good pace, and I was thankful we were almost at our destination. I walked toward the engineer’s room exit, the door sliding open as I moved in front of it. Carey trotted along beside me and we moved down the hall to a washroom. The lights came on automatically as I entered the single restroom. Carey stayed outside the door like a little police guard dog. I appreciated the love.
I looked in the mirror and saw myself more disheveled than I’d been in a long time. It brought back flashes of myself a week after Janny had died: me not showering, not shaving, and hardly eating. The similarities were there, but now I felt more alive than I’d ever felt before. I’d survived the loss of my wife, the loss of the whole world basically, and now I had a mission.
After scrubbing my face in the sink, I lathered up and did the best job I could to bathe in the sink. It wasn’t pretty, but in a couple minutes, I was smelling a lot better, and felt ready to make the trek. The deep bags under my eyes were still there, but I saw a little extra sparkle in them that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
“Come on, Carey. Let’s find some food.” His ears perked up at this, and he had a little more jump in his tired step. We made our way down a couple cars, and there was a lounge. Behind the bar, I found some trays of food in the cooler. The temperature was still fairly cool in there. This state-of-the-art train had some good backup power. I found a still slightly chilled cheese and cracker tray, and grabbed a couple of apples. I filled my bag with some more miscellaneous foodstuffs: granola bars, potato chips, and the ever popular peanuts and pretzel mix. I tore a bag open and gave Carey’s drooling mouth a few pretzels before finding a bowl and filling it with “mountain fresh” water. He slurped it up, and I loaded a few of those bottles into my now heavy pack.
“Come on, buddy. Let’s go share with the others,” I said.
As the door opened, I heard Magnus talking to Natalia. “Uhm, Nat, do you know how to stop this thing?” Magnus asked her.
I looked out the windshield and was shocked to see us already approaching the station ahead.
She just shrugged and pulled the throttle back in an attempt to begin slowing down. It wasn’t slowing us down fast enough. We were still cruising at twenty with the station coming up fast.
“Dean, any clue?”
I scanned for the brakes and didn’t see the lever I’d seen in trains when I was a kid. The old trains all had them, but I’d never been on one this new. For all I knew, there was an app that controlled the damn thing. The distance was closing quickly and I jammed at a button on the dash in a wild last-minute effort. A loud train-whistle sound bolted out of a horn, blasting our arrival to anyone within twenty miles. Cursing, I hit the button next to it, and we jolted forward as the emergency brake took hold. The brake grabbed the metal rails and slammed us forward, hard.
The car slid and scraped, and I picked myself up off the ground, rubbing my head where it hit the dash. We were going to hit! We all braced for the impact, and time paused as we were about to make impact. I looked at Natalia, who was now bleeding lightly from her forehead. Magnus’ face was scrunched up in an animalistic snarl. Then time started again and we smashed into the car on the tracks. The lights flicked off as we went tumbling. Thank God we found the e-brake, because we couldn’t have been going more than ten miles an hour when we hit.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and leaned back against the wall. “Just like I planned it.”
“Yeah, Nat, next time we do take the copter. You know how to land one of those.” He placed his huge hand on her back and rubbed it lightly. He moved in close and whispered something in her ear. It was a tender, touching moment in this time of stress and pressure, and it reminded me of my wife, but this time a comforting reminder, not a desperate feeling of loss. Maybe all of this was making me grow as a person.
“Let’s get moving. Still a ways to go to get up to the top. And in the dark, no less,” I said, walking back to the second car and out the side entrance. My bag of food was heavy on my shoulder, but I was happy to have some rations again. There was a small fire at the front of the trains, and I thought about putting it out in case someone would see it from the sky. Then the urgency took over and I just wanted to get to the top to do what we had to do, if only I could determine exactly what that would be.
Carey and I looked for a vehicle to bring us to the top. I checked my watch; it was ten thirty. There weren’t many cars out here, but there were a few of the tourist vans and buses. I really didn’t think us driving a bus up the switchbacks was a great idea in the dark, especially when none of us had ever been here before. This wasn’t the way I’d wanted to come to this iconic place. Did aliens really build it? I doubted it, but now I did believe they might have had a part in its creation. I imagined an alien coming down, looking human in the fourteen hundreds. The people here were so isolated from the rest of the world at that time, he would have seemed like a god if he had shown them any sort of technology. They would have been astounded. That being said, they did seem to have advanced building techniques for the time. It also made me wonder about the rumors of aliens in Egypt, and what about Roswell? I had some serious questions for those twin guys… if I ever saw them again, and if I found out they were being truthful.
I turned on my flashlight and checked the first van. No keys. Checked the second. No keys, and it smelled like fish in there. I needed the third one to have some, or it was off to search the buildings for spare sets. I was in a hurry and didn’t think crawling around in the dark for keys was a good use of my time. Third van. No keys in the ignition, but when I was about to slam the door in frustration, I spotted something shiny in the cup holder. Bingo. I shooed Carey into the door and I got in and fired up the engine. It made some interesting noises, but I just needed the thing to get me to the top. I backed up and pulled over to the train, where the other two were waiting for us.