Chapter 15

 

There was silence in the railroad carriage. In the distance, metal continued to grind and wood to crack.

It took Johnny half a moment to clear his head. He had to make sense of where he was, of what had happened.

One thing was clear—the car was tipped on its side.

He seemed to be okay.

But what about the others?

“Is anyone hurt?” he bellowed into the darkness, his heart racing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some movement. A small shape of luminous green floated along up above the scattered boxes. It was the girl ghost, Petunia Budd.

She began to call out, in that papery sort of ghost voice, sounding very scared.

“Iris! Iris!”

A germ of fear formed in the pit of Johnny’s stomach, like the first hint of nausea. The train had wrecked, probably derailed. And what had happened to Nina? Why wasn’t she saying anything? If only Johnny could see better. But the dense fog outside offered little illumination.

Johnny pushed several boxes aside as he stood. “Sparks! Sparks!”

There was some thudding and clunking as more boxes were manhandled.

A shaky voice came out of the darkness. “I’m okay, Johnny.”

“Are the rest of you guys all right?” Johnny hollered.

“Yeah, I guess so,” came Marko’s voice.

The boy ghost Raj floated into view. “Me, too. But then I’m already dead.”

“Rex?” Johnny yelled. “Where are you?”

“Over here.” The ghost agent emerged from the darkness at the front of the carriage. “Well, this certainly throws a spanner into the works.”

Johnny groaned. “So much for a train that can’t be derailed.”

“The enemy must have figured out a way to outsmart the sensor wheel,” Rex said.

Petunia was still darting around nervously up above them. “Iris! Iris!” she panted. “I can’t find my sister!”

“Okay, everyone,” Johnny said. “Let’s help Petunia find Iris.”

Johnny was worried. Iris hadn’t made a peep since the wreck. She could be seriously hurt, lying unconscious beneath the boxes that had been strewn around. This could be bad.

Nina had on her etheric goggles now and took charge. “She’s here somewhere. Raj and Petunia, can you fly slowly around where she was sitting? Maybe we’ll spot her.”

Under the very pale green glow of Petunia and Raj, everyone began to pick up boxes—some of them surprisingly heavy—and move them to the side. They found Iris a moment later, crumpled beneath boxes of pork loaf—rations for soldiers up north.

Rex and Marko hefted the boxes off her, and Petunia zoomed down to hug her sister. That’s when the battered girl slowly came to, with a fluttering of her eyelids. Johnny could tell that she would have one terrific shiner. Too bad for a girl with such amazing violet eyes.

“Iris, are you all right?” Marko sounded anxious. “Are you hurt?”

Slowly rising to a sitting position, she shook her head, nodded, then shook her head again. “Dunno. Maybe.”

“Let’s get her up,” Johnny said.

“Right,” Marko agreed.

The two boys tried to haul Iris to her feet. That was when they discovered something was wrong. Very wrong.

The girl screamed in agony as they tugged on her arms.

Johnny had never heard a person make such a terrible noise. “Ease her back down! Now!”

Johnny didn’t know what to do. He looked at Marko, but Marko seemed just as baffled.

Nina elbowed her way onto the scene, goggles pushed up on her forehead.

“Let me check her out. I earned a first-aid badge from the Woodland Guides. Johnny, get out your flashlight.”

My flashlight! Johnny thought. Of course! Both he and Nina carried one in their backpacks. But he’d been too stunned by the crack-up to even remember it until now.

While Johnny pointed his flashlight at Iris, Nina squatted down by the injured girl. “Now, this may hurt a little bit, Iris, but be tough.” Nina prodded gently at the right arm—shoulder, upper arm, and forearm. Iris didn’t make a peep. But when Nina started to feel the left forearm, Iris screamed again, though not so horribly.

“Nuts!” Nina muttered. “She’s got a broken radius bone, I bet. Let me feel it again, Iris. I’ll try to go easy.”

Iris nodded. She bravely allowed Nina to probe her forearm again, though she did whimper a bit at the pain.

“I think it’s a partial break,” Nina announced. “Bad, but not real bad.”

Petunia was floating right above Iris and Nina. “You be careful with her,” she snapped. “She’s my little sister!”

But Nina, not seeing the ghost, let alone her moving lips, never heard her scolding.

From outside came the sounds of men hollering and shouting, of gunfire and clashing blades.

Johnny put up his hand. “Everyone, quiet. Listen.”

They all went silent. Something was happening out there in the fog. And it didn’t sound like a tea party.

There was more shouting and shooting. And the noise seemed to be getting closer.

Just then, Colonel MacFarlane, still mounted on Buck, flew into the railroad car, stopping right in front of Johnny.

“Am I glad to see you, Colonel! What the heckfire is going on?”

“The scoundrels threw something on the track from the embankment a short way ahead of Sal,” the colonel answered. “Something big enough to derail the train.”

So there had been no time for Sal’s anti-derailment warning system to work, thought Johnny. No wonder they were in this pickle.

“As soon as the SGS forces and soldiers started coming out of the passenger cars, they were ambushed,” the colonel continued. “There’s a devil of a fight going on. I fear it may spread back here. We have to get you out of this car and into the woods. Now!”

Over a desperate few minutes, the colonel and Buck hauled Nina, Marko, and Johnny up out of the car and flew them into a dense thicket of trees nearby. Then, with Petunia hovering overhead, the colonel gently lifted Iris out. She cradled her arm as best she could.

From the safety of the woods, Johnny heard more shouting and shooting. But there was also another noise—a guttural bellowing from things that sounded not quite human. He had no idea what exactly was happening out there in the fog. But it didn’t take much imagination to understand that they were in terrible jeopardy.

They all kneeled in the dirt amidst the twigs and branches, with the colonel and his men arrayed around them. Private Boo, normally the most good-natured of ghosts, seemed almost as if he were in pain, rubbing his temples and grimacing. And the stalwart Corporal Marchiano hugged himself as if he were freezing cold. Johnny wanted to ask what was wrong, but there were far more pressing matters at hand.

Marko actually looked at a loss. It was pretty clear that this mess was a lot more than he had bargained for.

“Ask the colonel if he has any ideas,” he whispered to Johnny.

Johnny caught the colonel’s eye. The ghost officer and the other troopers had dismounted, so they wouldn’t be as visible. “Colonel, what do we do?”

The colonel was about to answer when a terrible scream—much closer than before—cut through the fog.

“You and the others sit tight here,” the colonel said. “Sergeant Clegg and Private Boo will stay. I aim to sortie up the tracks with the rest of the lads. See if we can help those SGS and army boys up front. They sound like they’re in trouble. We’ll find you later. We could use your help, Captain Ward.”

Rex nodded, pulling his army revolver out of its holster. “Quite right. I think it’s time we got into the action. May I ride with you, Colonel?”

With a wave to Johnny and the others, the colonel, Rex, and the four troopers set off through the brush and fog.

Even in a tight spot like this, Johnny’s photo instincts took charge. He grabbed his camera and began to creep forward to the edge of the vegetation. But before he could get more than a few feet, he felt a hand on his shoulder, sharply tugging him back.

It was Marko. And he seemed to have regained his bossy attitude.

“What do you think you’re doing, you fool? Those goons out there will see you. You’ll get us all killed.”

Johnny yanked away from him. “Can’t you get this through your thick skull—I’m a news photographer! I’ve done this before and I know what I’m doing!”

That’s what happens when you get stuck working with an amateur, Johnny thought as he snuck forward. Marko may know his street thugs and pickpockets, but he doesn’t know much about a news lensman’s job.

When he reached the edge of the railroad bed, Johnny saw a trio of hulking figures—zombies for sure. They had axes and bludgeons in hand, and were surveying the ruined railroad carriages. They were standing with their backs to Johnny, making the scene a perfect shot.

Johnny looked down into the camera’s viewfinder, focused the lens, and snapped the shutter. The flashbulb flared.

And before its light faded away, the three hulking figures had turned and were charging straight at him.