JESUS & Co. (#4): Robot Train Read online

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  In the valley Luke was the first to realize Job’s aim with the portal wasn’t what he’d hoped it was. While the hard part of getting down the side of the valley was out of the way they still had a good distance before they reached the bridge.

  Isaac had gone through second and was already walking down the tracks toward the bridge when he turned to ask, “Did anyone remember the dynamite?” Everyone was already through, but Job hadn’t closed the portal yet. Suddenly, a large coil of fuse landed on his side of the portal. Then a couple of small boxes. Then an arm poked through holding a large box. To his surprise Essie’s head and torso leaned through too.

  “Someone hurry up and get this. This stuff’s heavy.”

  James took it from Essie’s hands and loaded the boxes into John’s arms. She handed more through. By the time they were done John was stacked so high with boxes of dynamite he couldn’t see in front of him. James tossed the fuse over his head and directed Elijah and Luke to split duties on the smaller boxes.

  “Remember to get Sheba from the prison car. You have to blow up the bridge before that one gets on it.” The last thing she handed through was the detonator. “You better hurry it up or that train will be gone before you get all that dynamite set!” Essie yelled just as Job closed the portal. “She’s right,” he said. “We have to pick up the pace.”

  The team jogged down the tracks until they arrived at the bridge. James directed Luke, Thomas and Elijah to take a box off of John and grab some tape from the smaller boxes. They set the dynamite all over the bridge like ants on a drop of maple syrup. Job came along behind connecting the fuse to each stick.

  When everything was in place they retreated to the shadows waiting for the train. John manned the detonator while James kept and eye on the tracks to give the official signal. It wasn’t long before the Swiss train came rumbling by. The sound nearly knocked Elijah to the ground it rumbled so loudly. But the team waited quietly. Patiently. The bridge was so long they couldn’t see the other side in the middle of the dark, but just when James thought the train was about to end more cars rumbled by. At 730 cars he stopped counting and gave the signal.

  Kaboosh!

  The sound of exploding trusses and steel boxcars reverberated off the river and down the valley. Rapid splashes of large pieces of metal came after. The original blast could still be heard bouncing off the atmosphere back down to the team. When the loudness ceased it was replaced only by the eerie sound of twisting girders scraping against each other as they lost their balance succumbing to gravity.

  James looked out into the madness. The boxcars were still coming spilling themselves into the river. A sudden screech struck through all the other noise. Someone pulled the brake sending the shrill sound of metal grinding metal into his ears. “Get ready for a fight,” he said.

  When the cars finally stopped the team easily took down the initial soldiers. The next group took cover by staying on board. John went nuts with the dynamite. To James’ surprise he realized John must’ve been cutting a fuse for each stick while they were waiting. John lodged a couple dozen sticks into cars as he ran down the tracks. Explosions took their roofs off. Thomas and Luke were quick to jump inside the cars to verify the demise of the enemy. Isaac and Elijah jumped ahead. As they hopped from car to car following John’s explosive path James and Job discussed the possible location of the prisoner car.

  “I didn’t see it cross the bridge, did you?” James asked.

  Job shook his head. “My bet is it’s the last one.”

  “Of coarse.”

  They hustled down the line. The snow next to the train was littered with blown up pieces of the train and tulip petals. Finally, they came to the end of the train. James and Job readied their weapons. Thomas and Luke took position on the far side of the prison car. Isaac and Elijah took the near side. John was nowhere to be seen.

  “Hold your position here,” James said to Job.

  The car was solid steel. No windows except for a small porthole in the front door. James climbed up the ladder and peered through the window.

  Blackness.

  He jiggled the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Just as he stopped the sound of cranking gears broke through the air. Still investigating the doorknob he shouted, “Where’s the dynamite?”

  “Captain!” Job yelled.

  James turned around to see bright lights emanating from about 100 cars up the track. The ground began to vibrate then it shook with the thunder of a thousand wildebeests running for their lives.

  “It’s moving!” Elijah shouted.

  “Thanks for the update genius,” Luke said climbing up the ladder to the prison car.

  “Get ready!” James yelled.

  The shaking grew stronger as the light approached. Soon, the team could make out the figure of a large robotic train car walking towards them.

  “I want one of you under the cover of the prison car. Elijah, that’s you. Thomas and Job, drift back into the darkness. Far enough away to fire, but not so close it can see you. Isaac and Luke, I want you two to stick with me.”

  “What are we going to do?” Luke asked.

  “We’re going to say hello.”

  When the robot was close enough to fire on, James instead examined his foe. It was indeed some sort of train car reworked with articulating limbs and joints. Its head was as large as a man. Its eyes glowed a dull red. It was adorned, head to toe, in patches of green and blue neon lights. Perched on its shoulder was a minigun. Steam billowed from two hornlike exhaust pipes on its head. Encrusted in its chest was a white glowing sphere. In one hand was a flame-thrower spraying fire in a sweeping motion in front of it. In the other hand was a giant sword. The robot towered over the nearby dilapidated passenger cars still on the tracks. It was a solid 30 feet tall.

  James shook his head in disbelief. “Fire!” he yelled. Isaac and Luke fired away. Isaac’s arrows did nothing. Luke’s machine gun burst only seemed to annoy it. It pointed the flame-thrower at them causing them to run into the darkness, but in different directions.

  It choose Isaac.

  With the machine giving chase away from the prison car James devoted his attention to getting the door open. He pounded on the door hoping for an answer. “We’re trying to rescue you! If you can hear me please respond.”

  “Who are you?” a small voice came from inside.

  “It’s hard to explain. How do I open this door? I don’t have a key.”

  No answer.

  “Listen, I’m James. And there’s this terrible…thing out here trying to kill us. If I can’t get you out you’re going to be stuck in there for a very long time.”

  “I still don’t know who you are James.”

  He clinched his fist. Cut the crap lady. Just tell me how to open it. “We’re from a far away place. We need your powers. We need you to help save someone. I can explain more later, but right now we need to get you out of there.”

  “You promise you won’t hurt me?”

  “I promise.”

  “I think they keep the key in a glass ball.”

  “I’m going to need more details than that.”

  “Only the General Director is allowed to have the ball. It’s white.”

  At those words his eyes slowly moved up to see the robot pounding away in the darkness. It sprayed fire revealing Isaac and Luke running away. But James’ eyes focused only on the glowing sphere in its chest.

  James stepped to the side of the car looking into the night. Where is he? His concentration was broken by the battle taking place. The robot tossed his flame-thrower to the ground and fired a fist rocket at Isaac.

  “John! Where are you!”

  He saw more gun bursts surround the robot. Job, Thomas and Elijah had shown up. They were doing a good job distracting that thing. He hopped down from the prison car and waded through the darkness. He didn’t take more than two steps before he stumbled over something on the ground. With
a rush of nervous excitement he felt around until he realized it was a body. Not just any body.

  It was John.

  Once he confirmed a pulse he realized he probably concussed himself by not getting far enough away from one of his dynamite sticks. He searched for the sticks which he found strewn on the ground nearby. He grabbed two and returned to the prison car.

  “I’ll need you to go to the far side of the room in there!” He yelled through the door to Sheba. “Take cover if you can. And cover your ears.” He wedged the sticks between the doorknob and the wall, lit the fuse and took off.

  He was hoping for a larger explosion, but a smaller one was probably in Sheba’s best interest. Once inside the prison car he saw just how bereft the room was. Sheba had curled up in a ball on the far side, but there was nothing to protect her from the blast. He scooped her up in his arms and walked outside when suddenly, he bumped into Job.

  “Just the man I was hoping to see,” Job said.

  “Get your portal open and take us home.”

  As Job pulled out his portal device he said, “I heard the explosion and hoped to find the door open. I’ll send you two first. I’ll need to go back to let the others know we don’t have to kill that thing.”

  “How did those miniguns not hit you?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it couldn’t track targets well in the night.”

  Inside the prison car Job opened the portal. James carried Sheba in his arms then came back to drag John through. Job ran outside, fired a few shots in the air and waited for the action to come to him.

  As the other soldiers approached the robot followed. He ran out around them hoping to distract the robot which would allow unmolested access to the portal for the others.

  It worked perfectly. Except that he didn’t really want the giant robot chasing him. Once he felt comfortable that everyone was through he pulled out the portal device and opened it up right in front of him and closed it behind.

  ~

  Back at Opolis Sheba woke up quickly. She was nervous about the events that had just transpired, but she was grateful for the rescue. Still sitting on the floor the scraggly girl with ratty hair looked up to the special forces team that had just saved her. “Who are you?”

  “Seems OK to me,” Elijah said. “What’s the next step?”

  James said, “She needs to cast a rejuvenate spell on Jesus before its too late.”

  Thomas locked his safety and slid his gun to his back. He knelt to Sheba’s level and said with a smile, “My name is James. I know you’ve been through a lot, but we need to ask you a favor. A really big favor.”

  Sheba’s eyes got real big.

  “We’ve got a friend who needs help. He’s going to die if we don’t help him. The problem is we can’t do anything for him. You can. Will you help us?” He winked at her.

  “I’ll do my best,” the little girl smiled so big and bright her cheeks puffed up to her eyes. She jumped to her feet, picked up her tattered dress and curtsied. “Which way do we go?”

  The team hustled down halls and up stairs until they arrived at a surgical room. The ceiling was white. The walls were white. The medical furnishings and equipment were all white. Even the instruments next to the operation table were white. Everything was white except for the red mess lying on the operation table dripping to the floor.

  At the entrance to the room Thomas knelt to Sheba. “That’s him. He’s banged up pretty bad. Can you revive him?”

  Sheba, wide-eyed and moving slowly, looked up and gave him one of her giant smiles. She walked over to the table, put a hand on Jesus and whispered something to him. He didn’t respond. She took a step back, put her hands together and said something no one could hear. Little yellow and blue balls of light bubbled up from the ground around her. They gained energy and floated through the air like little fireflies. The lighting overhead shut off. She kept at her spell until the room was entirely lit by more and more floating yellow and blue energy balls. Her hair floated up as if by a constant wind. The surgery utensils rose as well. Some of the equipment next to her lifted off the ground too.

  Then it all crashed.

  Exhausted, she fell to the ground. Thomas picked her up in his arms. “What happened?”

  “It can’t be done.”

  The rest of the team looked to the man on the operation table. “What do you mean it can’t be done?” Thomas asked.

  “Its too late. It won’t work.”

  “Too late?” He looked to Jesus. “It can’t be. He can’t die. He is the Savior.”

  Can’t get enough of the peculiar events of JESUS & Co.? Well don’t worry. The next and final issue is scheduled for release March 1, 2015. Get ready for SPACE DRAGON.

  Beginning April 1, 2015, a new series starts. The Miserable Planet follows the events of a hapless mecha pilot, Tuck, as he assesses the damage dealt to his army after a battle. What will he learn as he digs through the remains? What secrets are buried on the planet?

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