Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty: A Train Full of Rabid

The group rode into the tiny railway town only about an hour before nightfall that same night. The buildings were rickety at best and it was clear this town was a ghost town. There didn't appear to be any rabid wandering the streets, though the rotting piles horse fur and bones littering the street, and the picked over bodies of humans made it clear there had been rabid here before. Colt scanned every visible building as they rode past but couldn't see any evidence of living people either.

"Well I'll be damned..." Frankie muttered, looking at the long black train pulled up at the station.

"How did you know that train would be sitting here?" Colt asked Jedidiah. Jedidiah scratched at his old gray mare's mane and shook his head.

"You will not believe me if I tell you so why do you even ask?" he questioned. Colt grumbled and held up a hand to bring the cart and wagon, and everyone on horseback to a stop.

"It's damn near dark. I think we need to be getting on that train and locking it down for the night." He said.

"And in the morning we can search the town for supplies to stock the train up before we go." Katherine added. "I'm sure this town doesn't have much..."

"... but it's bound to have something. I agree." Colt said. He started off toward the train, everyone else following slowly and as quietly as was possible behind him. Colt thought the town was abandoned but that didn't mean he wanted to go making a bunch of noises and alerting anything that might be here.

"That's a nice train." Frankie said with a quiet whistle from atop the wagon seat. Evangeline nodded beside her.

"A big one." She agreed.

"I do not think we'll need so much room." Comanche added as they neared the giant mechanical marvel of black iron and steel.

"We'll probably only keep the first five cars. Usually that'll be the engine, the kitchen car, dining car and bedrooms. We'll need the fifth car for supplies." Colt replied. He jumped from the saddle and walked to a closed door on the third car of the train. He wondered why someone had chained and locked it from the outside.

"Colt stop!" Evangeline cried out and Colt's hand froze on the handle of his gun that he'd been preparing to draw and use as a hammer to break the lock.

"Dammit, Evangeline, you're supposed to be keeping your voice down." He growled without looking at her.

"Go ahead then and open the door." She shot back indignantly. "But you'll want to look in that window before you do."

"She's right, Colt." Silas replied slowly. "That train is full of them......"

Colt took a step back and looked in the window to see the rabid that filled the inside. Rotting, salivating, lurching rabid. Some were sitting in seats and some were wandering aimlessly up and down the narrow aisle.

"Shit." Colt stated simply. He jogged up to the next cart and saw that it was locked and full of rabid as well.

"It's a rabid museum." Comanche marveled.

"Why are they all just piled up in there?" Charlotte questioned.

"Probably got sick along the way.... The townsfolk locked 'em in good and tight." Frankie replied, using her crutch to point at the chained lock on the engine car as well.

"How come you didn't warn us that the train would be full of rabid, old man?" Colt grumbled at Jedidiah and the older man shrugged.

"My mind didn't show me that minor detail."