{"id":483,"date":"2009-11-10T09:38:15","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T14:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=483"},"modified":"2018-10-30T19:56:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T23:56:00","slug":"finzel-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=483","title":{"rendered":"Finzel, Part six"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part One<\/a><\/p>\n

Part Two<\/a><\/p>\n

Part Three<\/a><\/p>\n

Part Four<\/a><\/p>\n

Part Five<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jacob never imagined gasoline would be such a problem.\u00a0\u00a0 With everyone gone, and the roads full of the dead, he figured there\u2019d be plenty to go around forever.\u00a0 But the stuff in the cars only lasted a year or so, and the stuff in the tanks just about five years.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t understand why it went bad.\u00a0 Gates said it was water, corrosion, age.\u00a0 Gates started bitching about gas from day one \u2013 he actually spent time trying to push Parker into building a mini-refinery.\u00a0 Hoarding crude oil and converting it themselves.\u00a0 Something Parker never committed to and Gates, probably, was too lazy to do himself.\u00a0 Why bother when they could convert to diesel, which lasted longer for some reason, and then move on to homemade fuels.\u00a0 The two rebels had been using biofuels from the waste that the community\u2019s crops produced, but they\u2019d been weaning off of those.\u00a0 Relying on their high grade liquor concoctions, no doubt.\u00a0 The days of true mobility were numbered, though, according to Gates.\u00a0 Too much wear and tear on the Land Rover.\u00a0 They\u2019d scoured the countryside for spare parts, patching the thing together for nearly a decade on roads that were no longer safe to travel.\u00a0 Vast potholes opened along the surfaces, floods washed out gulleys, trees and landslips formed natural barricades.\u00a0 If ever they wanted to go any serious distance along the interstate, it would have to be on foot.<\/p>\n

But there was no escape plan.\u00a0 As they weaved onto Braddock Road, skirting past downtown Frostburg and heading onto the shattered streets along the rail line, moving ever closer to the phantom train, that thought suddenly crystallized in Jacob\u2019s mind.\u00a0 There was no Plan B.\u00a0 No way out.\u00a0 If something put them in danger, there was nowhere to run.\u00a0 Head into the mountains with winter coming?\u00a0 No emergency rations, limited ammunition, few functional weapons, and only a handful of people who could hold up in a real firefight\u2026 That was Parker\u2019s people.\u00a0 One big soft belly exposed to the world, relying only on their ability to hide.<\/p>\n

McGavin and Gates knew this.\u00a0 They were ready to run.\u00a0 Jacob had seen that a hundred times whenever he visited them at their warehouse and, even now, when he glanced back at the crates of supplies neatly packed into the rear of the Land Rover.\u00a0 They were ready to leave with a moment\u2019s notice.\u00a0 And they probably had a plan, too.\u00a0 Back to DC?\u00a0 North into Pennsylvania?\u00a0 If anyone had a plan, it would be those two.<\/p>\n

The road names meant nothing now.\u00a0 Industrial waste cum residential in that mountain town, Hicksville Maryland sort of way.\u00a0 Trailers in the hollows, big houses on the hills, and abandoned shit in the middle.\u00a0 Frostburg\u00a0 was supposed to be a dead traintown, a bypassed nothing, a forgotten village, but the university had kept it alive.\u00a0 That mix of small town and boom town ran deep.\u00a0 Room enough for the pick-up mounted yahoos and the more cosmopolitan college kids.\u00a0 Jacob liked that middle ground.\u00a0 He was envious of it.\u00a0 He\u2019d be in college now if it wasn\u2019t for the fucking end of the world. Maybe he\u2019d be up here, or College Park, near where he grew up\u2026 Or anywhere in the world.\u00a0 Not now.\u00a0 He\u2019d never have the chance.\u00a0 He\u2019d never see the world.\u00a0 Hell, he\u2019d probably live out a shortened life in the dark hills of western Maryland and join the others in the graveyard beside Parker\u2019s house, a wooden cross faded by time marking his last memory.<\/p>\n

Jacob strained to make out road signs.\u00a0 People used to live here.\u00a0 They\u2019d know all of the roads.\u00a0 Lived and died, for generations, all for nothing.\u00a0 All so the world could end, and their town fall into decay, and their graves get buried by tall grass and landslides and trees, and their roads fall into ruin and become fields again.\u00a0 Lots of cars rotting in driveways.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lots of people stayed home\u2026 That was good old country thinking.\u00a0 Rot and die at home.\u00a0 Defend your castle.\u00a0 In the city, people fled.\u00a0 Panic, fear.\u00a0 Take to the roads, clog up the highways.\u00a0 The dead on the Interstate were a bunch of city slickers.\u00a0 No sense of community, neighborhood.\u00a0 How many sad, friendless office workers died as they lived?\u00a0 Commuting one person to a car, stuck in traffic?\u00a0 Out here they died in each other\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n

Jacob turned away from the ghost houses.\u00a0 He stared ahead, pretending he was driving.\u00a0 Watching McGavin\u2019s intensity and gauging his reaction time as he swerved around potholes and obstacles.\u00a0 The tracks appeared on their right, peaking from behind the late autumn leaves.\u00a0\u00a0 Gates was devoted to that direction entirely.\u00a0 Sloppy.\u00a0 He was supposed to be watching for trouble from all angles.\u00a0 Jacob found himself surprised to learn that Gates was probably just as excited about the train as everyone else.\u00a0 What did it represent to him?\u00a0 Certainly not the old world.\u00a0 For all his talk, did Gates secretly want the boredom of his old life back?\u00a0 Or was he thinking escape?\u00a0 And, with that, it became very clear to Jacob why Parker assigned him to the team.\u00a0 Murray and just about everyone else wanted to go home again, Gates and McGavin were open to the highest bidder.\u00a0 Jacob had no real designs for anything.\u00a0 He was the oldest of the children who had come with Parker\u2019s group, or been born after.\u00a0 He was the oldest of the generation that called Parker\u2019s settlement, and Finzel, home.\u00a0 Truly called it home.\u00a0 The place where he grew up.\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone is always coming home\u2026 That\u2019s what Parker said.<\/p>\n

If something better really came along, would Jacob take it?\u00a0 Probably\u2026 Survival of the fittest.\u00a0 But would he ever forget a childhood spent in the forest outside Finzel?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 And Parker?\u00a0 The woman who so easily replaced the mother that he lost to the apocalypse?\u00a0 Never.<\/p>\n

McGavin stopped, pulling the Land Rover across the road.\u00a0 The road continued, but you could barely tell.\u00a0 Deadfall from a decade of storms, and just the slow encroachment of nature, had pretty much turned the stretch of blacktop to meadow and forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tracks have been clear this whole way.\u201d Gates muttered.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we walk.\u00a0 North.\u201d Murray said.\u00a0 The first he\u2019d spoken since the hotel parking lot.<\/p>\n

Gates was shaking his head.\u00a0 \u201cHow have they cleared the tracks without us noticing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if they\u2019ve always been clear?\u201d Murray asked.<\/p>\n

McGavin waved his hand towards the ruined road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, what if someone has been keeping them clear since day one?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years of stealthy railway maintenance?\u00a0 That requires the sort of emotional imbalance that isn\u2019t exactly welcome here at the end of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray opened his door, picking up the light pack he had put together from between his legs.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not impossible that trains have been running this whole time.\u00a0 We wouldn\u2019t really have noticed.\u00a0 This is miles away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo why blow the whistle now?\u201d Jacob asked.<\/p>\n

Gates turned smiled.\u00a0 \u201cWell, if we indulge my paranoia, it\u2019s because they want to lure us into a trap.\u00a0 And, like moths to the flame\u2026\u201d He shrugged and looked at Jacob and Murray levelly, then leapt out of the Land Rover.\u00a0 McGavin followed silently, and Jacob was the last.\u00a0 Something in him told him that it wasn\u2019t paranoia.\u00a0 The world was a bad place.\u00a0 They had all started to forget that.<\/p>\n

The tracks were clear.\u00a0 A straightaway through the forest.\u00a0 Many of the trees were already skeletal, ready for the coming winter.\u00a0 The brilliant colors of fall now gone to brown, leaves drifting down in the breeze that tussled the upper branches.\u00a0 Gates kicked through leaves and walked up to a fallen tree that had been roughly cut a few feet back from the edge of the rail.\u00a0 Jacob looked to the opposite side and saw the rest of it.\u00a0 McGavin bent down and studied the rail itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot much use,\u201d he said, running a finger along the rusted surface.\u00a0 The rails ran dull brown, but there were signs of use.\u00a0 Silver streaks here and there.\u00a0 Weeds and saplings springing up in the path of a train broken, stunted, chewed off.\u00a0 \u201ccertainly there have been trains running\u2026 But not too often.\u201d\u00a0 He looked up at Murray, who was staring blankly ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, kiddies.\u201d Gates called over his shoulder, taking to the center of the railbed and moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know what this means?\u201d Murray muttered.<\/p>\n

McGavin stood up, brushed a leaf off his shoulder, and smiled crookedly.\u00a0 \u201cNo, Walter, I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCivilization.\u00a0 If they\u2019ve been running trains all this time, then they have commodities\u2026 Trade.\u00a0 Communication.\u00a0 They\u2019ve got to be bigger than we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGavin huffed and shook his head, turning to follow Gates, who had already covered several yards, stumbling occasionally over small branches and washed out gaps between the rotting ties.\u00a0 Clear or not,\u00a0 the mystery train operators weren\u2019t keeping the tracks themselves up to snuff.\u00a0 Though, Jacob guessed, that was a harder task than simply clearing brush and trees.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all he was able to concentrate on.\u00a0 The usual beauty of fall that tended to enchant him was gone.\u00a0 It was high alert time.\u00a0 But an acute awareness that was hopelessly distracted by the little things.\u00a0 Cleared trees.\u00a0 Signs of humanity.\u00a0 Signs of life besides that which had thrived beneath Parker\u2019s wings.<\/p>\n

Then there it was.\u00a0 A single locomotive.\u00a0 One of the old, squat workhorses that Jacob had seen outside Union Station a thousand times.\u00a0 The short ones that never strayed far from the trainyard and looked like they steamed out of the 60\u2019s.\u00a0 It was in piss-poor shape, too.\u00a0 Windows busted out, the gunmetal gray weathered black and brown, dirt and leaves collecting everywhere they could.\u00a0 How the hell the little thing made it all the way up here was mystifying.\u00a0 Maybe they used them at other train yards?\u00a0 Maybe it was a survivor of the destruction of Cumberland.<\/p>\n

McGavin and Gates fanned out, but Murray and Jacob froze in place.\u00a0 They both watched the two experts stalk the locomotive like cats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there something wrong?\u201d Jacob hissed.\u00a0 \u201cIs someone in there?\u00a0 What\u2019s happening?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacob\u2019s panic kick-started Murray, and he grabbed the boy and headed towards the treeline, taking shelter behind a recently cut tree angled up towards the sky, the massive root system a filthy, half-buried crown.\u00a0 Jacob saw shadows everywhere.\u00a0 He saw every fear possible rising up from the loamy forest floor, and from behind every tree.\u00a0 Mankind\u2019s time had come to an end.\u00a0 Now was the age of ghosts.\u00a0 Murray had his rifle pointed towards the locomotive, his hands shaking.\u00a0 Jacob fumbled with his pistol but didn\u2019t do any more than hold it by the grip, aimed at the ground.<\/p>\n

McGavin and Gates vanished.\u00a0 McGavin round the side of the engine, and Gates, boldly, up and inside.\u00a0 One of the handgrips gave way as he was hoisting himself into the cabin and he fell back gracefully, landing on his feet, then climbed again.<\/p>\n

There were several frozen moments.\u00a0 Jacob\u2019s heart pounded in his ears, the trees rustled with the mindless passage of nature and life, and his ears pricked at every tiny forest sound.<\/p>\n

Finally Gates reappeared and waved for them to approach.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When they cautiously crept up to the engine Gates, up in the cab looking down at them through the ruined sliding door, said, \u201cWhat the fuck are you two doing back there?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know\u2026I\u2026\u201d Jacob looked to Murray who, ashamed, was glaring down the tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis baby\u2019s our train.\u201d McGavin said, coming round from the front.\u00a0 \u201cI think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCab\u2019s been cleaned,\u201d Gates added.\u00a0 \u201cWish I knew how to work it.\u00a0 Do these things have keys?\u201d<\/p>\n

McGavin shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cAnyway, no sign of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo how\u2019d it get here?\u201d Murray asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Walter, I would assume someone drove it here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are they, then?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou two can fucking cut it with the attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGavin spread his arms and pursed his lips.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t think\u2026 I mean.\u00a0 Could it \u2013 \u201c Jacob knew they\u2019d all make fun of him if he said it.<\/p>\n

\u201cGhosts, young Jacob?\u201d Gates laughed.\u00a0 Jacob flinched, but Gates seemed good natured about the idea.\u00a0 Maybe he was thinking the same?\u00a0 Jacob almost grinned when Gates didn\u2019t shoot him down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s strange times,\u201d McGavin said, \u201cbut I think we can rule out the Phantom Train of Frostburg.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what, then?\u201d Murray asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo options.\u201d\u00a0 Gates leapt down from the cab.\u00a0 \u201cThe driver is holed up back in town or out in the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo let\u2019s find him.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGavin slung his rifle over his shoulder and started walking back down the tracks.\u00a0 \u201cIf they want to be found, they\u2019ll let us know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates shrugged and followed, but Murray stayed by the engine.\u00a0 \u201cHold it the fuck there, you two.\u00a0 We gotta find whoever drove this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGavin turned, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u2026why are they clearing the tracks?\u00a0 Where are they going?\u00a0 Where are they coming from?\u00a0 Why\u2019d they stop here?\u00a0 We have to know.\u00a0 We live<\/em> here, man!\u00a0 Anyone else is a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the least we can use it.\u201d Jacob added.<\/p>\n

\u201cUse it for what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Surely you two have a use for it!\u201d<\/p>\n

McGavin looked at Gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can use it to go back and forth and blow the whistle and freak the fuck out of agrarian survivalists.\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n

McGavin tapped a finger to his nose and smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need this!\u201d Jacob insisted.<\/p>\n

A dark cloud passed over McGavin\u2019s face.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t.\u00a0 This is nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need answers.\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d Jacob asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall it a gut feeling.\u201d McGavin replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the bigger picture,\u201d Gates said, looking to Murray, then Jacob.\u00a0 \u201cAll this work done without alerting us.\u00a0 That involves some level of secrecy.\u00a0 If they live around here, then no way they\u2019re ignorant of our little outfit.\u00a0 If they\u2019ve decided not to contact us, then that\u2019s the way it should stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to expand.\u00a0 We need to rebuild\u2026\u201d Jacob muttered.<\/p>\n

Gates truly looked sad.\u00a0 He walked back and put one hand on each of Jacob\u2019s shoulders.\u00a0 \u201cThat world\u2019s gone, Jacob.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo!\u00a0 It\u2019s not.\u201d\u00a0 Jacob surprised himself, and Gates removed his hands.\u00a0 \u201cIt can\u2019t be.\u00a0 We have to work together.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to die young toiling in Parker\u2019s fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmen,\u201d McGavin whispered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to stay hidden in the woods like some goddamned animal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cParker and her people are a rare breed, kid.\u201d Gates said, \u201cWe\u2019re inherently evil.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t trust any other group I met.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hate people.\u00a0 You always have.\u00a0 Both of you.\u00a0 You only joined up with Parker because it was lucrative.\u00a0 Because you liked the idea of heading out to fucking hide your heads in the sand and the only way you could do it and keep up with your lazy shit was if we all worked for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, kid.\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n

Murray nodded, though, and stood beside Jacob.\u00a0 \u201cThe kid\u2019s right.\u00a0 What the fuck have either of you two really done for us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, all the supplies for a start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrading nostalgia for free food.\u201d Jacob said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd women.\u201d Murray added.<\/p>\n

\u201cTold you,\u201d McGavin said to Gates, who rolled his eyes and turned his back on the other two.\u00a0 He froze when he heard Murray chamber a round.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, Walter.\u00a0 Now you\u2019re in the deep end.\u201d McGavin replied, arms out again.<\/p>\n

Jacob edged away, not sure what was happening.\u00a0 He was pissed, but he didn\u2019t intend this.\u00a0 Never this.\u00a0 There was a weird light in Murray\u2019s eyes, and he realized that it had been there all along.\u00a0 Staring at the tracks, taking in the cleared trees and shrubs, and then when he trained his rifle on the locomotive.\u00a0 Possession.\u00a0 Anger.\u00a0 Fear.\u00a0 Envy.<\/p>\n

Gates turned around, but said nothing.\u00a0 He simply stood there and stared at Murray, expressionless.<\/p>\n

McGavin, usually the quiet one, stepped up as peacemaker.\u00a0 \u201cLook, Walter, relax.\u00a0 We\u2019ll go check out the town and see if there\u2019re signs of life, okay?\u00a0 We\u2019d do that anyway.\u00a0 It\u2019d be irresponsible not to.\u00a0 I agree with you.\u00a0 We agree.\u00a0 We need to get the full picture, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray just smiled, and Jacob shuddered when he saw it.\u00a0 He backed away from all three.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee,\u201d Murray said, \u201chere\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking.\u00a0 You,\u201d he gestured with his gun to McGavin, then to Gates, \u201cand you are a cancer on our community.\u00a0 Just as whoever drove this train last night is a cancer.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been just fine for ten years.\u00a0 Ten<\/em> years!\u00a0 We\u2019re safe, we\u2019re hidden, we have food and community.\u00a0 I\u2019m just fine living out my days the old way.\u00a0 The way we used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThought you were excited about the train, Walter.\u201d\u00a0 McGavin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot if they\u2019re doing\u2026whatever it is they\u2019re doing in secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates shared a glance with McGavin, then shrugged and said, \u201cUm\u2026okay, Walter.\u00a0 We\u2019ll not look for the train driver.\u00a0 Is that what you want?\u00a0 I\u2019m confused here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d McGavin shifted slightly.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re confused.\u201d\u00a0 Jacob caught the drift and backed up a little bit more, stumbling on the railbed\u2019s stones long ago buried under ivy and brush.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I have it figured,\u201d Murray continued, \u201cis that we\u2019d be a whole lot better off without you two fucks.\u00a0 And a whole lot better off if we destroyed this train and kept things just as they are\u2026better than before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates kept his hands up, and kept his gaze locked on Murray.<\/p>\n

Murray lapsed into melodrama.\u00a0 He rolled his eyes and waved his gun around, \u201cOh, let\u2019s call it the perfect murder.\u00a0 Crazy train people shot us, killed you two assholes because you\u2019re Parker\u2019s fucking front line douchebags,\u00a0 poor little Jacob has to go, too.\u00a0 Sorry, kid.\u00a0 But loose lips sink ships.\u00a0 And it won\u2019t surprise Parker that her pet rat got offed in a firefight.\u00a0 She knows he\u2019d stick by you two.\u00a0 Then I\u2019ll make sure this train never runs again and go home.\u00a0 We hunker down and live out our days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHappily ever after, eh?\u201d Gates asked.<\/p>\n

Murray leveled his gun and scowled, \u201cYeah, happily ever fucking after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates flicked his eyes over his shoulder towards the locomotive and recoiled.\u00a0 Murray spun, saw nothing, and was blindsided by McGavin.\u00a0 The two fell hard, McGavin\u2019s head bouncing off one of the rusted rails.\u00a0 Gates covered the distance in three large steps and dropped down on Murray\u2019s back with one knee.\u00a0 The other man screamed as his spine cracked, his arms spasmed and he tried to turn, but Gates grabbed a handful of his hair and smashed his face against the rail, once, twice, and a third time just because it felt good.<\/p>\n

Gates sucked in air, turned and looked into McGavin\u2019s dead, staring eyes, then looked over his shoulder at Jacob.<\/p>\n

The boy was shaking his head.\u00a0 He let out a small animal sound, then crashed into the woods and melted into the shadows, though Gates could hear him for about ten minutes, cracking and battering his way deeper and deeper into what had become, after so short a time, a primordial forest.<\/p>\n

He looked over at the locomotive.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Fuck it.\u00a0 Fuck it and fuck any hope that Parker\u2019s people had for salvation.\u00a0 Let them all die on this sad little mountain.\u00a0 He stalked towards the engine and pulled himself up into the cab.\u00a0 He started with any exposed wires, and then he worked over the control panels, and then he figured out how to get into the engine compartment and took it from there.\u00a0 Let the old world die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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