Trail of Tears (17 page)

With every step Aidan fervently hoped that
his confidence in the train’s suitability for their transporting
the whole community was merited. Otherwise they could very well be
caught unprotected in the open. This was a desperate gamble but
there didn’t seem to be any other options. He had hidden the train
inside the station months ago when they had returned from their
mission but he had really not expected to need the steam train
again. The carriages had been badly damaged, he remembered. Many of
them would be too dangerous to use at all. He would have to repair
those he could in the days he had before the others arrived. He
hoped he would also be able to find enough fuel for the trip. Steam
trains had been almost extinct before the oil had run out and those
that that remained had been swiftly thrown back into service to
ferry supplies to the army in their fight against the vampires.

Many of the trains were on their last legs.
He was pretty sure that finding more carriages would not be a
problem but the more carriages they used the more fuel they would
need. It was all about compromise.

Flemming had thought that his time on
missions was over. With his injuries he would have been excused
most duties. As well as his face, his left hand was gnarled and
next to useless from the last time he had tried to coax speed from
the train. The flesh on his face and his hand was been seared so
badly that the skin had melted and then hardened so that it looked
like an ice cream left to melt and then refreeze. The nerves too
had died.

But he was the only one who knew enough to
handle the train. He forced himself forward. His feet disappeared
into the snow and the cold embraced him, numbing his legs and
making him stumble. He kept his eyes locked downward so as not to
expose himself unduly to the searing wind but he had to look up
every hundred yards or so to make sure they were still heading in
the right direction. The train station was seven miles as the crow
flew from the community, but there had been so much destruction in
the city that they had to constantly make their way around fallen
buildings or abandoned vehicles. His colleagues looked like wraiths
in the swirling wind and he found himself counting their outlines
regularly to ensure he hadn’t lost anyone.

He wasn’t used to being in charge of others,
especially military men who he had nothing in common with. Antonio
Cabreezi was the lead military presence in his group and he had two
others with him. He envied the Lieutenant’s easy manner with his
men. He had always preferred to remain in the background, not
liking the responsibility or the heaviness he felt in his chest
that it brought. But Harris had made it very clear that he had to
be in charge. Nothing could delay the train being ready. Already he
had noticed that the soldiers looked to Cabreezi before they obeyed
his orders and he was not confident enough to do anything about it.
Up to now it hadn’t been a problem and he hoped that Harris and the
others arrived before it developed into one.

For now, the men were following him as he
was the only one who knew where the station was. Cabreezi had given
up on the map he had brought after realising that it was no longer
accurate. As well as the three soldiers he also had a varied mix of
men and women chosen for their stamina and upper body strength.
Each person pulled a huge weight through the storm but they had to
get as much to the station as they could in the time they had.

There would be a few more items with the
main party of course but the majority of space would be taken up
with the wounded who could not walk and many of those able to walk
would be busy helping those who would have trouble in this weather.
He hoped that the main party did not get involved in any trouble as
most of their ammunition was in the sleigh that he pulled. The
armed men and women he had left back in the community would have
only what they were able to carry to defend nearly two thousand
people.

He didn’t envy them.

* * *

“We do not have room,” Lucy Irvine sighed,
“and raising your voice does not change the fact, young man.” The
boy looked about to argue further but the people in the line behind
him began to mutter and he thought better of it and moved away,
clutching a small puppy in his arms.

“I’m not leaving her behind,” he said
defiantly and moved back through the long line.

“You’re going to get some reputation.”

Lucy turned to see Harris smiling at her but
she couldn’t match his good humour.

“I hate this, Peter. I truly do. All that
poor boy wants is to bring his dog with him and I have to refuse
him because the dog is not essential to our survival. Every inch of
space is so important.”

Harris knew there was nothing he could say
so he merely laid his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. She
brought her hand up to him and squeezed back as she wiped a tear
with the other.

“How’s Sandra?”

Harris’ smile slipped a little. “She hasn’t
woken up yet. The healing is slow. Amanda says her body is
exhausted from the last few months and is enforcing a shutdown
while she heals. But we haven’t got a lot of drips left, so if she
doesn’t wake soon and start to eat she may never wake up.”

He sighed and looked down the line at the
people queuing to get their possessions included on the sleighs.
These people didn’t have much but what little they had meant
everything to them. Harris saw that many of the items were totally
useless for survival. Photograph albums, favourite books, and
collections of shoes spilled out of dented and torn boxes.
Beautiful dresses and scarves were packed as tightly as possible
along with tools and pots, pans and other essential paraphernalia.
They were obviously hoping that their favourite items would be
deemed acceptable if they accompanied essential items.

Lucy’s job was to search through everything
and ensure their limited storage allowance was no exceeded. Of
course, to do that she had to separate the items that just did not
meet their requirements. Harris felt his heart grow heavy. Who was
to say that a book of memories was no less important to these
people than a cooking utensil? Was a loved pet no less important
than a book on engineering? It was an impossible situation. They
had managed to make two hundred sleighs in total, cobbling together
various pieces that they had found around the city and by pulling
wooden panels from walls in the buildings. A hundred of the largest
sleighs had already been sent on ahead with the most essential
items and the others were being reserved for the wounded, the old,
and the remainder of their supplies.

These people had suffered so much though,
scraping for a living through the energy crisis and then being bled
to feed the vampires. There was only so much they could take. He
could not take their dreams from them as well.

“I know this is hard, honestly I do,” he
began and people stopped their conversations as his voice carried
over them. “I know how much your possessions mean to you, but we
just do not have the room. I’m sorry.” The crowd began to mutter
and he held up his hands for silence.

“However, we will take every item that
cannot come with us now and seal them where the food supplies are
stored currently. The room is dry and cold so your possessions will
remain safe there until I can get a team back here to retrieve
them.”

Harris saw Lucy raise her eyebrows but she
said nothing. He could see a number of people purse their lips and
nod while others spoke animatedly among themselves. One little girl
come forward with a box full of small cuddly toys and lift it up to
him.

“Mr. Harris, will you put these in the safe
for me,” a tear dripped from the girl’s eye as she handed up her
prized possessions and Harris knelt and took the box from her. He
picked one of the toys from the top, a small white teddy bear with
a red hat, and handed it back to her.

“Why don’t you keep that one and I’ll keep
the rest safe for you.” He smiled and the girl smiled back. She
hugged the toy.

“Will you really come back?” A man asked and
others nodded their approval at the question.

“Have I ever promised anything that I did
not make good on?”

His simple statement was met with a number
of nods and the man who had asked the question approached Harris
with a large picture album gripped to his chest.

“That’s enough for me,” he said as he handed
over his most precious possession. “That’s all I have left of my
wife. Be gentle.” Harris nodded to the man and then he abruptly
turned and strode from the room. More people started to come
forward and soon the queue in front of Lucy reduced significantly.
She came over and kissed Harris, her tears wetting his cheek.

“You are a special young man, Peter Harris.
Thank you.”

* * *

Robert Seager had not left April’s side
since the community had been attacked. They had worked almost
non-stop getting the community ready to leave their home. Everyone
bustled through the corridors carrying items, retrieving supplies
or removing debris and bodies. The fact that it was so cold meant
that the bodies had not yet started to rot but they still had to be
cleared.

Father Reilly directed the effort, made sure
that no one spent too long on the detail, and that people were
among friends and family when they performed it. He did not want
anyone coming across the body of a loved one with no one close by
to support them. The ground was too hard to dig so the graves were
shallow. They didn’t know if they’ have time to bury them all.

It had been April who had come up with the
best solution. She had quickly outlined her idea to Seager at the
back of the hall and he had been forced to present it to everyone.
It had been nerve-racking; not just because he wasn’t sure he
understood April’s true intent—her fingers had moved so quickly and
his knowledge of sign was still so limited—but also because he was
not used to speaking in public. It had worked out though. April
told him he had gotten her meaning in general, although he had
embellished the parts that he had not understood. The parts he had
changed had been better than her original plan, she had told him.
And she kissed him in the heat of the moment and become
embarrassed. She hadn’t kissed him since, but there had been little
time and their task was not exactly romantic.

Seager and April were putting the final
touches to their plan the morning before they were due to leave.
The area in which the dead bodies were placed was a natural hollow
in what used to be a water feature in a nearby park. The water had
long ago been siphoned off for cleaning in the community and the
bodies lay closely packed in the bowl. People came throughout the
day to say goodbye to their loved ones before they left.

Seager laid the funnel at the edge of the
area and walked back along its length to make sure the pipe was
straight all the way back to the fuel depot. April’s idea had been
to burn the bodies in the community’s main auditorium, using their
home as fuel. Seager had added the use of the dry lake bed. Most of
the people who came to say a prayer at the lakeside thanked them
for their idea, and Seager was astonished by how much comfort their
solution was bringing to everyone.

They would not be able to light the pyre
until after the main body had left, in case there were any patrols
around. Seager and April would remain behind with Harris and a few
others and perform the ritual. Father Reilly had also wanted to
stay but Harris had vetoed that immediately. Instead, there was to
be a funeral mass tonight for everyone to say goodbye. The wind was
already picking up and the clouds above were agitated and
angry-looking. The snow had stopped for now but it looked like more
would fall tomorrow when the people left for the train, making the
journey more difficult for everyone.

Seager had not thought much about God in
recent years. His parents had brought him to church when he was
young but that life was over. He was alone now. His parents had not
been in the same group with him that had been saved so he had no
idea whether they were alive or dead. He had felt lost when he had
first come to this community. Father Reilly looked after all the
waifs and strays so he had a bed and food, but sixteen was very
young to have your world turned upside down by vampires and the
loss of your parents.

He knew he had not handled it very well at
first. He had used his size to ensure he was a part of any group,
feeling he had to intimidate others in order to gain their
acceptance. He had slowly come to realise that the group would
accept him if he was just himself. At first he had thought that
Emma Logan was the girl for him, and he had clashed regularly with
Conor Ricks for her affections. As he looked over at April, he
realised that he had been wrong. It had been Emma’s strength that
he had responded to, a surrogate for the mother he had lost.

When Conor had left with Harris he had
thought his way was clear with Emma but it had become plain that
Emma would never feel for him that way. He had been surprised that
he had not been annoyed at this. Instead he had given Emma comfort
and had been happy to do so. He had come to realise that his
thoughts kept returning to the small girl who had strutted onto the
stage and stood up to the council.

He had known the stories about April, of
course. She had been Steele’s ward and she was mute. That was how
everyone described her.

He now realised that being mute did not
define her. And acting the bully did not have to define him either.
From the moment he had seen her on the stage he knew that he had
found what he’d been searching for. Not someone to replace his
parents but someone who could help him achieve his potential. He
still liked Emma, of course, but more as a sister.