2. The Bank Job

Victor easily breaks the door open, and gains access to the general store. Inside, you hear a squeak in fright from behind the counter, then a saloon girl stands up, a shaking double barrel shotgun in her hands. She can't see much of you. You likely look like a creature of darkness from the angle.

Victor raises an arm in surrender. I'm not here to hurt you," he says hurriedly. "We are going to set the train ablaze, and I need supplies. Didn't you hear me shouting a warning? You have to get out of here little lady and run someplace safe. I'll be getting those supplies now, so git!"

She's shaking even harder. "Okay." She pauses a second, unsure what to do but understanding that Victor isn't one of those monsters, then she decides, grabs a box of shells and runs out the back door.

Smart cookie, he thinks as he sets about grabbing kerosene, and a few coils of rope that he throws over his shoulder while hefting the flammable liquid in his other hand, having already sheathed his Big 50. At the last minute he remembers he needs a lighter, curses under his breath and goes back inside, rummaging around where he thinks one would be, and heads back out toward the others.

"Get it moving!" Dirt calls to the man, as he goes about gathering supplies! He’s holding the door closed with his hands for now, but he doubts he could beat what’s inside in a contest of strength.

Still, he had beaten the train into submission once before with his bare hands!

"We need some chain or rope to maybe tie the doors closed. Place some dynamite under the train's carriage and make a kerosene trail to a place of safety. Light the mach and watch it go boom." She helps Reverend to make sure he doesn't suffer any more wounds before their plan is finished.

The Reverend limps into the store when the coast is clear, and he sets about finding some mining or demolition charges. He sets about finding some dynamite... then returns to Ruby's side for her support.

You've gathered the supplies and have everything where you want.

This night train, and it's different from the other you can tell easy enough, also consists of an engine and tender, two sleeper cars, and a freight car. It has an ominous, palpable feel, much of its exposed metal is rusted to an almost blood red hue and pieces appear to have been torn off, leaving jagged metal protrusions. If a train could be undead, this is what it would look like.

The windows on the sleeper cars have been boarded over on the outside, but iron plating has been welded undeneath the boards to seal the sunlight out.

At a safe distance, Ruby says in a low voice, "Let's get this over with." They work in pairs to tie the ropes and chains over the boarded up windows and any doors to trap the fiends inside, while one member lays the dynamite.

"Make sure you get out of the way! This thing could go all over town! In pieces, with any hope…" he adds, sure that much of the night would be spent running about the place with buckets of water! At least the townsfolk could come out of hiding and help with that part!

"Well Rev, the dynamite was your idea. Why doncha do the honors while we help Ruby secure the doors so none of them monsters get out?"

Kane shivers when Dirt mentions pieces. That was a horrible thought and one he hoped to forget quickly as he got busy with the doors and windows.

The bloodied Preacher nods and sets about placing the dynamite -- here and there, under and on the train. The engine he packs with the stuff. If the blast doesn't kill a single vampire, it will for damned sure wreck the locomotive. This train's days of carrying the undead from town to town will be over...

The chains rattle against the sleeper cars and soon you're feeling someone or something slamming against the door. As the Rev places way to much dynamite around the engine and under the cars, you struggle to hold the chained and rope-tied doors closed. More of em pound against the doors. How many of them are there anyway?

When it's all set and the fuse lit, you run taking shelter behind the station house from any direct debris but still running farther and farther.

The dynamite explodes!

A thunderous wave collapses the station house and the telegraph. The water tower collapses. A hellstorm of kindling and burning metal rips through the town. Above it all, the wailing scream of the ghost rock stores combusting in the engine sounds like the Devil's own are coming for your innards!

You collapse to the ground, a rain of train parts and wood framing rattling down around you.

When the smoke clears you see a single vampire stalking toward you in the grim hellscape. This one seems different. Older. Meaner.

He comes!

Ruby is up.

Ruby is momentarily dazed from the shockwave and lies on her back staring up at the night sky. Smoke is starting to blot out the stars. With a grown she sits up, dusts herself off as best she can. When she stands up, she sees a lone vampire remaining and he looks pissed. She groans again. "Oh, come on! Look alive, we got one unalive bastard left!" She hid her trunk safely before the explosion but it wasn't near at hand right now. She pulls her revolver and hopes someone else has a better idea what to do. She aims for the heart and fires.

The creature strolls forward, unconcerned by your feeble weapons. "Did you think you could come into my train and disrupt my plans? I shall make each of you linger in torment for a thousand years watching all of your hopes and loves crumbled to-"

BLAM!

The pistol shot strikes the heart and the monologing villain explodes into a rain of dust.

Dirt wheezes and pants heavily, as he picks himself up off of the now-littered ground.

"Guess one of em could speak the lingo!" he says, letting the adrenaline flood and then leave his body. He slumps down onto his arse in the dust.

"Hell of a shot, Ms. Reyes! Didn’t like the sound of what he was saying!"

The fiery explosion flattens several buildings in town as surely as it obliterates the vampire train, and a truer bullet than Ruby's has never been shot.

The town of Dandridge is safe, but when the smoke clears and the dust settles... Reverend James Turner does not rise again.

Ruby's jaw drops. She figured her shot wouldn't have much impact other than slowing it down while the others came up with a more effective plan. She looks at her gun half in wonder. She feels like she should say something important, something memorable, but nothing comes to mind. All she manages is a response to dirt.

"Uh, thanks."

A thought comes to her and she looks at the small pile of ashes that is all that remains. "Don't bring fangs to a gun fight!" She nods to herself. That was the best she could come up with but it wasn't half bad.

"Where is everyone? Kane? Rev?" she looks around.

There are only two other survivors in the town, such was the frenzy of the vampires. Both of them, Edith Darton who hid in the bank, and Allan Lewis, a terrified deputy in the Marshalls office who may never recover his wits, thank you profoundly, and vow to leave for greener pastures.

The posse of bank robbers disappeared in the night, after helping themselves to the payroll that was in the bank.

As to you, you don't hear about another Night Train. At least, not for a few years, but that, folks, will be a different story.

The End