Chapter 25

"Thom, I think you better get Sarah back in her seat and strapped in."

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow as I did, and he flicked his eyes towards the front. It took me a couple of minutes before I realized what he was trying to tell me.

"Let's get you strapped back in, Sarah, the wind is picking up and it's gonna be a little rough up here for awhile until we get back to where I live."

"We're not gonna crash, are we?" she asked.

"I don't think so, but we could be jerked around a little if the wind picks up some more. I want you in your seat with the belt on so you don't get all skinned up."

"Ok."

I got her into her seat and pulled the belt tight. I slipped my headphones back on; leaving one ear clear on Sarah's side so I could hear her if she asked me any questions. Puddles changed a couple of settings on the radio and I could hear the incoming chopper traffic. I watched as the trailing chopper blew two sections out of the tracks on both sides of the rails before he caught up to the other two choppers. I watched as the two outside choppers dropped to about head height and the trailing one lifted up so his nose was pointing towards the train engine. I didn't hear any order to fire, but they all seemed to open up at the same time. I can't begin to describe what I saw, but needless to say it looked like a butcher shop on both sides of the train. The center chopper literally blew the cabin section of the engine apart before rising up and opening fire on the flatcars. God, I thought, I am glad they aren't shooting at me. The whole area looked like a butcher shop that had exploded. There were pieces of those things everywhere you looked. What I thought was really weird was that some of them were actually running towards the choppers like they were trying to catch them when they dropped. Maybe what we heard was true that they were attracted by noises. From my own observations, I would have to say they were.

I did notice that none of them tried to run or hide. When the choppers stopped firing and just hovered, more of them seemed to show up at the sides of the train. They ran towards the choppers where they were hovering and waiting. I watched enthralled as the choppers just waited untill those things were almost to them before they opened fire again. This time they didn't fire as long, but other than some pieces crawling around I didn't see anymore coming out. What I thought was particularly gruesome, was that the ones that hadn't been hit in the head were still crawling toward the choppers, whether they had one arm, half a body, or other main body parts missing. I was watching one in particular, pointing towards him, letting Puddles turn the chopper so the cameras could catch it. Since he was on clear ground at the side away from the rest, I could clearly see that there was no blood trail behind him. I knew he should have been dead, but his insides were trailing behind him as he crawled slowly towards the hovering choppers. He left parts of his insides behind him as he crawled. It gave me the creeps and I hoped we got good pictures for Puddles to take back to the fort.

"Have them circle and see if there are anymore around the trains before they go back to the fort."

Puddles tore his eyes away from the one we were watching and gave the order. I noticed he kinda shivered as he did, and I had to smile to myself at his reaction.

"Also, while I am thinking about it, have one of them fly up the tracks a few miles and blow sections out of the two sides coming into Lordsburg. That way none can come in from the east. Let's do one more wide circle around the area and then you can take Sarah and me home. I think I have seen enough to give me nightmares for months."

"Yeah, me to!" "In spades, Thom."

We did the fly around but other than a few of them wandering by themselves, I didn't count more than thirty or so. I knew the troops would be able to handle those with no problems. Lordsburg was now ready for us to take it back. I knew also that the hundreds of trucks sitting all over the place were full of supplies we would be able to use. The flight back to San Simon was short and quiet, and I spent the time thinking about what we would have to do in the future to combat these things. I knew the toughest nut to crack would be Safford with its prisons. We would lose people and I knew it. Hopefully I wouldn't have to be part of it, because it would be sometime yet before we started moving in that direction.