Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Thirty-One

           

Chapter Thirty-One : I've Robbed A Few

    "You honestly think this is our best choice?" Silas questioned the next morning as the group finished up the small breakfast Charlotte and Evangeline had prepared for them and discussed the train. 

    "Yes." Colt replied simply and Charlotte shook her head while holding Grace a little tighter against her chest. 

    "I don't like this idea. Why can we not simply gather up what supplies we can, load up the cart and wagon and try to find a different train?" 

    "I see no other train." Jedidah countered, to which Colt rolled his eyes.  

    "There has to be a second train somewhere!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Opening those doors and setting God knows how many rabid loose cannot be the answer. We'll be killed." Charlotte felt Silas's hand on her arm and knew he wanted her to calm down. But how could she when everyone here seemed to have lost their minds!?

    "We're not going to just set them loose." Colt assured her. "We're going to kill them." 

    "What?!" Katherine, Ox, Rachel, and Silas all exclaimed at once. 

    "You can't be serious!" Katherine argued. "There are probably over two hundred rabid on that train. We can't hope to defeat that many!" 

    "They'll rip us all to shreds." Rachel agreed. 

    Colt shook his head as he stood up. "I thought about this all night and I think I know a way to make it work." 

    "You think you know a way?" Charlotte questioned with disbelief. 

    "I never was the type to make guarantees about anything." Colt replied calmly. "I know you're worried about your little girl and that's why I'm gonna put you on a rooftop with a gun and you're not going to be anywhere near the rabid when we let them off the train." 

    "On a building?" Charlotte asked, feeling foolish for her sudden outburst. She had never been the kind to see the worst side of a situation. She had always tried to find the silver lining to every cloud but this new world was making that increasingly more difficult.

    Colt sighed as he pulled his revolver and unlocked the cylinder spinning it slowly and staring down into it with concentration. 

    "Will y'all listen to my plan now without interrupting every few minutes?" he questioned and Charlotte looked around at the group. Everyone remained silent and simply waited for Colt to continue speaking. 

    "Alright then. The rabid are drawn by small fires but it ain't enough to take their attention away from dinner. But now a big fire... Now a real big fire draws their attention and puts them in a kind of trance. Katherine and I saw it firsthand once. She compared them to bees when you blow smoke at them and she was right.

    "Now I checked out the train yesterday and the first car is the engine, followed by the kitchen/dining car. Then there are three passenger cars, a bunch of storage cars and a couple more passenger cars are on the end. I reckon those were for the low income passengers."  There was a darkness in Colt's voice when he said this and Charlotte wondered what caused it. 

    "We'll keep the first seven cars and leave the remaining eight. The first seven are the only ones I'm worried about clearing out. There is no need to waste any more ammunition than that or risk letting any more rabid loose than those in the first seven cars. First thing we're going to do is gather up every bit of supplies this town has to offer and pile them up beside the storage cars. Then we're gonna set fire to the building on the right side of the street and put several rifles up on the rooftops on the left. We'll go car to car, clearing one before moving to the next. I'll be the one opening the doors....."