….
Rock rolled his shoulders and slowly cracked his neck.
"Come on. Our families are still in there. We're bringing them back no matter what."
He gripped the door handle, and slid the partition wide open.
Twenty pairs of milky, cataract-blind eyes snapped toward them.
With a collective, screeching roar, the horde charged down at them.
Rock lowered his shoulder like an NFL fullback, meeting the front wave head-on.
SLAM.
The lead infected hit Rock's chest and bounced back as he drove his taped left forearm up into the creature's chin, following with a piston-like right hook that shattered another attacker's jaw.
A third infected scrambled over the headrests and lunged for Rock's throat, but he raised his taped forearm in time, its teeth scraping across the layers of tape before sliding off harmlessly.
"For the love of god… the duct tape actually works!" a viewer two rows down gasped. "Smartest thing I have ever seen in a zombie flick!"
Behind him, Arthur used seatbelts to choke back thrashing limbs, while Kyle smashed his bat across an infected's ribs.
Rock cleared the vestibule with a sweeping kick, shoved Arthur and Kyle through the forward doors of Carriage 11, and slammed the latch shut.
The entire theater let out a collective breath; only to choke on it immediately.
Carriage 11 was twice as bad, as thirty infected stood crammed between the seats.
"We can't fight through that many." Arthur panted.
Suddenly, the desert sunlight vanished.
The train plunged into pitch-black darkness.
Inside the carriage, the infected instantly froze.
Their snarling died to aimless gurgling; their milky eyes stared blankly into the shadows, completely dormant.
Beside the doorway, Arthur checked his phone's amber clock. "Six miles to the next junction. We're doing ninety, so once we hit the tunnel, we will have about two minutes. That's our window."
"Can we make it through two cars in two minutes?" Rock asked, wiping blood from his knuckles.
"We have to." Arthur said.
Rock leaned his heavy shoulder against the doorframe, a faint smirk touching his mouth. "It felt good seeing your kid on the phone, didn't it?"
"Yeah." Arthur admitted quietly.
"Are you grateful or what?"
Arthur looked up with a tired half-smile. "Why is your ringtone so tacky?"
Rock blinked in the dark. "What's wrong with my ringtone?"
"Sounds like synth-pop from 1984."
"It came with the phone." Rock replied deadpan. "How do you change it?"
A soft ripple of genuine laughter broke across Auditorium 1. Even in the middle of an escalating nightmare, the natural, human conversation between Keanu and Rock felt completely authentic.
Rock adjusted his tape, his tone softening. "I bet you never got to play with your daughter much. Working all those eighty-hour weeks. When she gets older, she will understand why you worked so hard. Dads get all the shit and none of the praise. But it's all about sacrifice, right?"
Arthur said nothing, his gaze dropping to the dark floor as guilt weighed heavily in his eyes.
Rock gave a small grunt. "What's with that look? Did I sound cool?"
"Yeah." Arthur whispered. "You sounded cool."
The train burst back into daylight, and the infected screeched to life instantly, hammering the glass.
Arthur pulled out his phone again. "Three miles to the next tunnel. We need to draw them away from the aisle before we get there, then we can slip past while they're distracted."
He turned to Kyle. "Give me your phone."
Kyle handed it over.
Arthur grabbed a water bottle, wrapped Kyle's phone inside it, and set the alarm for sixty seconds.
The moment the train plunged into the next dark tunnel, Arthur pitched the bottle down the center of Carriage 11. It clattered against the far bulkhead, blasting a loud pop melody.
The horde of zombies whipped around blindly toward the music, scrambling toward the back.
"Now!" Arthur hissed.
–"Don't make a sound, bro." someone in Row F muttered. "Cover all corners, don't get the hiccups!"
The three men dropped to their bellies, crawling beneath the seats while infected boots stomped harmlessly inches above them.
They slid into Carriage 12 just as the train cleared the tunnel, locking the door behind them.
Carriage 13 was lightly populated.
Rock barreled through the four infected attendants, pinning them against the compartment windows so Arthur could reach the restroom door.
Arthur pounded the panel. "Maya! Maya, it's Dad! Open up!"
The lock clicked and the door swung open.
Little Maya stood there, face streaked with tears.
Behind her, Claire cradled her pregnant belly with an exhausted sob, flanked by elderly Clara and the homeless man.
"Dad!" Maya sobbed, throwing her arms around Arthur's neck.
Arthur fell to his knees, burying his face into her shoulder, Keanu's voice cracking on screen: "I've got you, baby... I am sorry. I am so sorry."
Beside them, Rock stepped into the doorway.
The terrifying brawler vanished, replaced by an affectionate husband touching Claire's tear-stained cheek.
"You took your sweet time, you idiot." Claire sniffled, laughing through her tears.
Rock wrapped his massive arms around her and their unborn child, holding them close.
–"Please… don't get comfortable, yet." Laurence whispered grimly in Row F. "Carriage 15 is where the other passengers are."
Kyle immediately dialed the cheerleader, Jenny. "Jenny! We got the survivors from Car 13! We're coming to Carriage 15 right now! Open the door!"
In Carriage 15, Jenny reached for the latch.
CLICK.
A manicured hand clamped down on her wrist. Richard Evans, the transit COO, stood over her, his left hand resting inside his coat on his concealed revolver.
"Don't touch that door." Evans hissed, turning to the terrified commuters. "They just crossed four cars crawling with monsters! How could they survive without being bitten?! They're infected! Grab some neckties! Tie the door shut now!"
–"Hey, you calling her stupid when you're still wearing a fucking tie?!" someone in the theater cursed angrily. "You could so easily be grabbed and choked out with that!"
Panicked commuters scrambled, looping neckties and belts through the door handles, binding the partition tight.
–"Just watch this cowardly piece of shit!" a guy in Row D cursed loudly. "He's manipulating everyone!"
Down the corridor of Carriage 14, Arthur carried Maya, leading Claire, Kyle, the homeless man, and Clara toward safety. Behind them, the rear door gave way, and fifty infected surged into the aisle.
"RUN!" Rock bellowed, swinging a metal pole to swat back the lead runner.
They reached Carriage 15, but the door wouldn't budge.
Through the glass, fifty passengers stared back in cold panic.
Evans stood front and center, waving his hands: "GET AWAY! YOU'RE INFECTED!"
"OPEN THE DOOR!" Arthur roared, slamming his bloody fists against the glass. "THERE ARE CHILDREN OUT HERE!"
–"Let them in, you assholes!" a viewer shouted at the screen.
The horde was ten yards away.
Rock didn't waste a second begging. He turned on his heel to block the corridor with his body.
"Arthur!" Rock roared. "SMASH THE GLASS! GET THEM INSIDE!"
Rock hurled his chest into the front wave, driving taped forearms into snarling faces.
But fifteen bodies piled onto him, dragging him down.
Arthur snatched up Kyle's splintered bat, swinging at the tempered glass until it spider-webbed and gave way. "Kyle! Get Maya through! Move!"
Down the hall, an infected lunged from the side, sinking its teeth deep into Rock's bare wrist; just above the duct tape.
CHOMP.
Rock's body jerked, and a guttural groan tore from his throat.
–"NO!" a woman in Auditorium 1 shrieked. "He got bit on the wrist! Why didn't he tape his hands?!"
Rock refused to give ground, shoving the infected aside before throwing his massive frame against the service fire door and sealing the swarm behind him.
Through the shattered glass of Carriage 15, Arthur reached his arm back out: "ROCK! COME ON! JUMP THROUGH!"
Rock stood leaning against the door, black veins already pulsing up his neck.
"Take her and get out." Rock rasped, blood on his lips. "You have to go."
"Rock, no! We can pull you through!"
"I said go, you idiot!" Rock barked. "I am getting tired... take care of her... please..."
Rock turned his fading gaze toward Claire, who was screaming hysterically as Arthur held her back. For one final moment, he smiled, tender and heartbroken.
"Sophia!" Rock shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing over the glass. "That's our baby's name! Sophia! Take care of our daughter, Claire!"
With one final roar, Rock threw his body into the horde, dragging them down into the dark as the corridor collapsed.
–"Damn this man... he's holding them all back!" Noel choked out, tears in his eyes. "What an absolute warrior!"
Silence gripped the auditorium, broken only by muffled sobs from the audience.
Arthur dragged Claire through the opening, collapsing into Carriage 15 as Kyle slammed the metal partition shut.
Before Arthur could stand, Evans drew his revolver and aimed it straight at his chest. "His eyes! He was touched the infected! THROW THEM OUT!"
Driven by hysteria, the passengers shoved Arthur, Claire, Maya, and Kyle locking the door behind them.
Arthur stood in the cold corridor, clutching Maya, staring through the glass at the cowards inside.
In Carriage 15, elderly Clara sat by the window, staring through the rear door at her infected older sister Eleanor, whose milky eyes gazed blindly through the pane, before turning toward Evans waving his gun and the passengers who had just exiled a child and a pregnant widow.
"A load of shit." Clara whispered softly. "All of you... Just a bunch of selfish cowards."
Clara stood up, walked past the seated crowd, and put her withered hand on the rear door latch.
"Wait! What is she doing?! STOP HER!" Evans screamed.
Clara looked Evans dead in the eye.
"Thank you for everything, Eleanor." Clara whispered.
She pulled the door wide open.
When elderly Clara pulled the latch free, the tempered glass partition gave way under the pent-up pressure of nearly eighty infected.
They spilled into the cabin like a ruptured dam; tumbling over armrests, tearing through seat cushions, snarling in a deafening roar that swallowed the screams of fifty commuters in seconds.
Down in Row F of Auditorium 1, Laurence sat with his fingers pressed hard against his mouth.
The sound mix from Ludwig Göransson was suffocating: a sickening metallic drone blended with the tearing of coats and luggage.
Through the carnage, Richard Evans didn't fight.
The transit COO scrambled backward on his hands and knees, ruthlessly grabbing a flight attendant by her collar and shoving her straight into the jaws of the oncoming horde to buy himself two steps.
He threw his weight against the crew restroom door at the front of the car, slammed the latch, and collapsed against the basin, hyperventilating as blood splattered across the frosted glass.
–"Someone kill this man!" a viewer cursed furiously.
Outside on the drafty exterior platform between Cars 15 and 16, Arthur, Claire, Maya, and Kyle heard the slaughter through the steel siding.
Arthur didn't look back.
He had Maya clamped against his body, his right hand gripping Claire's wrist to steady her against the sway.
Behind them, Kyle kept his head down, tears cutting clean lines through the soot on his cheeks.
The train turned around a curve, afternoon sun casting long shadows of high voltage transmission towers across the windows.
Then, the emergency brakes engaged with a shriek of steel that made half the theater flinch.
"Attention, all surviving passengers..."
The conductor's voice crackled over the intercom.
"This is Pacific Express 101. We have reached the East Daegu freight rail interchange. The main trunk lines are completely blocked by a massive military freight collision and burning fuel tankers. The train cannot proceed any further on this track."
The PA hissed before the conductor drew a trembling breath.
"I am leaving the cab to manually inspect the yard. I will locate an operational switcher locomotive and bring it around to the far left siding track. I repeat: the far left siding track. If anyone is still alive on this train... make your way across the yard on foot. May God be with us all."
The locomotive shuddered to a dead stop amidst a vast graveyard of rusted freight cars, twisted tracks, and burning boxcars.
–"This conductor's a goddamn hero," Noel whispered. "He's doing everything he can to get those people through."
–"Are they going to walk now?" DJ said, leaning forward. "See that terrain? It's wide open. They will be sitting ducks out there."
–"Yeah man… No high ground either." Noel muttered, his iced coffee forgotten in his hand. "Those forty foot containers block every sightline. If that horde gets out, there's nowhere for them to go."
Arthur forced the door open with his shoulder.
He jumped down, and caught Maya, setting her down gently before reaching up to support Claire. Kyle dropped down beside them, gripping the splintered stub of his baseball bat, scanning the deserted yard.
They moved in a tight diamond formation, ducking beneath the shadow of a derailed tanker car.
Overhead, thick plumes of black smoke rose into the sky from three overturned cargo trains.
Down on the tracks, pools of burning oil hissed against frozen stone.
Arthur held his hand up, signaling a halt.
Up ahead, fifty yards across an open switch-track, stood a lone diesel switcher engine. In the cab window, the conductor's silhouette was clearly visible.
"There it is…" Arthur whispered. "Far left track. Keep your head down and stay behind me."
Before they could take three steps, a high-pitched sound came from the elevated overpass above.
Everyone in the theater looked up at the top of the frame.
A runaway freight train, its lead cars engulfed in flames, came rocketing off the high embankment.
The front wheels skipped the frogs, the locomotive tipped sideways, and the entire thirty-car train tumbled down.
BOOM.
The impact was cataclysmic, and the Dolby Cinema subwoofers detonated with enough force to shake the auditorium's velvet armrests.
The flaming freight cars plowed through the yard, shearing through power poles and smashing stationary boxcars.
A massive steel cargo container, crushed, went airborne, tumbling end over end straight toward the survivors.
"GET DOWN!" Arthur screamed, throwing himself over Maya and Claire.
The container smashed into the ground ten feet away; the concussive blast hurled Kyle and the cheerleader, Jenny, who had miraculously escaped the car behind them, sideways against the wheels of an overturned flatbed.
Debris, dust, and thick gray smoke swallowed the screen for five agonizing seconds.
When the dust settled, Kyle pushed himself up from the gravel, coughing. "Jenny? Jenny!"
A few yards away, Jenny was lying against a rusted wheel assembly, gasping for air, her knee pinned beneath a bent steel rail. Kyle scrambled over, throwing his weight against the iron bar, trying frantically to lever it off her leg.
"Kyle..." she choked out, pointing a trembling hand into the smoke.
From the wreckage of the burning train, figures were crawling out.
They are not survivors, but dozens of infected soldiers and civilians.
"Hold on! I am getting you out!" Kyle cried, tears cutting through the soot on his face.
Suddenly, a man stumbled out of the smoke from behind them.
It was Richard Evans.
His Italian suit was torn to ribbons, his face covered in grime, eyes wide with animal terror. In his right hand, he clutched his snub-nosed revolver.
"Help me!" Evans yelled, his voice cracking. "The engine is moving! Help me over this rail!"
"Help me lift this first!" Kyle begged, grabbing Evans's sleeve. "Her leg is caught! Please, mister, just help me lift it for three seconds!"
Evans glanced down at Jenny before turning toward the fifty snarling infected surging through the burning gap behind him.
His face twisted into something devoid of humanity.
Evans reached down, grabbed Jenny by the collar of her jacket, and violently yanked her forward; throwing her directly into the path of the lead runner.
"NO!" Kyle shrieked.
The infected collided with Jenny, both tumbling onto the frozen ties, and the creature's jaws clamped down hard onto her collarbone.
A sickening wet crunch echoed through the center channel.
"SHOOT THAT BASTARD!" someone in Auditorium 1 shouted, furious. "What the hell is taking so long for him to die? Just kill him!"
Evans didn't look back, as he scrambled over the bent rails, sprinting toward the switcher locomotive with his gun tucked against his ribs.
Kyle dropped to his knees in the dirt without running or even turning toward the approaching horde, instead reaching out and gently pulling Jenny's twitching body into his arms.
Jenny was crying, blood bubbling at the corner of her lips, her eyes already glazing over with milky blindness. "Kyle... it hurts...."
"It's okay." Kyle whispered softly, cradling her head against his chest, tears pouring freely down his cheeks. "I am right here… and I am so sorry…"
Jenny's spine arched with a violent, bone-snapping crack.
Her jaw unhinged, fingers curling into claws, and she buried her teeth straight into the side of Kyle's neck.
Kyle closed his eyes and held Jenny tighter, refusing to pull away as the smoke swallowed them both beneath the advancing horde.
"God damn it." DJ muttered, his throat burning as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I didn't come in here to get all choked up..."
.
….
[To be continued…]
●──────●◎●──────●
Author Note:
Visit Patreon to instantly access +1 chapter for free, available for Free Members as well.
For additional content please do support me and gain access to +18 more chapters.
--> [email protected]/OrgoWriters