We left the thoroughfare and crossed railroad tracks on our way to the coast road and the hospital. The tracks paralleled the road and up ahead we could see a long train, unmoving. There must've been thirty or so cars, so many that I could barely make out the steam from the locomotive up front. Kaz swiveled his head around, looking for something as he cupped his hand to his ear.
"Do you hear that, Billy?"
I heard it the moment he asked. A steady droning sound, coming from where? I checked the train, thinking it was some sort of machinery working on the tracks. I slowed, craning my neck as the droning became a high-pitched scream. The sky behind us was swarming with aircraft, the six lead planes beginning their steep dive, straight at us.
I downshifted and slammed on the gas, not wanting to hang around and offer the Jerries a stationary target. The road sloped off on either side into two deep ditches. There was nowhere to go but straight ahead. We were alongside the train now, about fifty yards separating the roadbed and the tracks. The train whistle blew and I could see the cars jolting forward as the locomotive driver got the same idea I had, except you can't floor it when you're dragging thirty loaded boxcars.
"Ju88s!" Kaz cried out, and I turned for a second and spotted the bulbous glass nose sprouting machine guns as a twin-engine dive-bomber hurtled straight at our jeep. No, not toward us, of course not!
They were headed for the train. A single vehicle was nothing, not when a fat juicy supply train was sitting there, barely moving, just waiting to be blown to bits. Kaz grabbed for my Thompson in the back seat, but with only one hand he couldn't hold it and pull the bolt back. The screaming whine of the six dive bombers grew louder. They were almost on top of us when the first one let go its bomb load and pulled up, about even with us. I could see the swastika on its tail clear as day. I heard explosions before the bombs hit but it was Kaz, blasting away at the next incoming plane with his revolver. Not that it would do much good, but it was better than just sitting there.
The bombs hit wide of the train, crashing into the culvert, blasting dirt and debris over the train, the road, and us. I covered my head with one hand and drove with the other, wishing I had my helmet on. The train had picked up speed, which meant that it was going to stay alongside us for too damn long.
"Hang on!" I yelled and thrust out my right arm to get Kaz's attention. "Hang on tight!"
I slammed on the brakes and spun the steering wheel, sending us on a sideways skid down the road as I fought to keep control and not roll us over. We were dead even with the locomotive, and, as we skidded, I was facing it head on. I saw the engineer look at me and then up into the sky, his eyes and mouth wide open, fear showing on his face as if it had been painted there. The skid slowed and I pumped the brakes, getting the jeep to halt facing back the way we had come. Peeling out, I gave it all I had, racing against time and bombs and what they would do if that train was loaded with munitions.
The next bombs hit their target, and the next, until there was nothing but one continuous detonation. I looked back and saw the engine lift off the tracks and explode, sending a geyser of steam into the air before the next car hit the burning wreck and burst into a huge fireball of black smoke and angry red flames engulfing the front of the train, the road, and everything within a hundred yards of where we had been.
The next planes struck farther back along the train, their bombs impacting just behind us as they methodically took the boxcars apart. There were huge explosions of gas, multiple secondary explosions of all sorts of ordnance, and the screeching, crashing sound of boxcars sliding off the tracks and breaking up before the fire and bombs devoured them. By the time the last of the six dive bombers had hit the rear of the train, we were back to where we had crossed the tracks, looking down the rails at the burning wreckage, fire and smoke filling the air, obscuring where the planes were headed next.
I stopped the jeep and took my hands off the wheel. They were shaking so hard I put them right back, to steady them.
"Billy…" Kaz looked at me with wide eyes, his still smoking revolver in his good hand.
"Yes, Kaz, I will teach you how to do that, when your arm is better."
"Thank you."
"No problem. But I need a minute here."
"Thanks to your driving, we have more minutes than we reasonably should have. We would have been incinerated…" He was excited, the thrill of almost dying lighting up his face. I was just about getting my heart back into my chest, and didn't want to hear about how we were nearly blown up.
"Yeah, I know. You hit anything with that?"
Kaz was reloading, still smiling, his grin split by the scar on his cheek.
"I-"
He was cut off by the chatter of a machine gun and a Ju88 flying low out of the smoke. One of them had come back for us. Jesus Christ on the mountain. The bullets chewed up dirt and gravel around us but didn't really come close. If we stayed here we wouldn't be so lucky next time. I pulled a tight turn and headed back for the train, hoping to hide in the smoke until the plane became bored with searching for such a worthless target. I could hear the engines behind us. Since he was flying in the clear, it would be easy for the nose gunner to line us up this time before the smoke concealed us. Kaz kept firing at the airplane with his revolver. I pressed the gas pedal down and didn't let up.
"Stop shooting that thing, you're just making him mad!"
"You use the Thompson, Billy! I can't work it with one hand."
"Screw that-" I was interrupted by bursts of machine gun fire that hit the road ahead of us. I glanced back and saw the Ju88 off to our left a bit, lining up for a better shot. I swerved, trying to throw his aim off yet stay on the road at the same time. The smoke from the burning train was close, but we weren't going to make it. The nose gunner let go a long burst and I swear I could feel the bullets as they parted the air just above us. The pilot had to pull up. The shadow of the Ju88 spread slowly over us as we raced at top speed and he tried to fly as slowly as he could to give his machine gunner a chance. The shadow faded and I hoped we were home free. Then I saw the rear- facing twin machine guns underneath the fuselage emit bright flashes, like fireworks, as the gunner fired straight down at us. Bullets slammed into the hood of the jeep and I felt the vibrations in the steering wheel as I tried to keep my hands from flying off it. Everything slowed down, and I noticed that the bottom of the airplane was a light blue, just like the sky. It was almost pretty. Kaz had his arm raised and was firing that damn revolver of his again. I heard the pow, pow, pow of Kaz's bullets, but they were up against the hard, ripping sound of the twin machine guns spitting hundreds of slugs at us. Another burst of fire came from the machine guns as the plane pulled up and away and I heard one of our front tires blow out at the same time as the hood flew up with a mix of smoke and steam. The jeep swerved wildly and I fought to hold on, but the wheel rim couldn't take it and we spun around, off the road, into the air.
Chapter Thirty-three
I was on the ground. There were bodies all around me. My head hurt. I tried to sit up, which took all the strength I had. It wasn't enough. I heard voices. It might have been an hour after the crash, or two seconds. The last thing I remembered was the jeep going off the road, into the ditch. No one was around, just me and Kaz. Kaz? Was he one of the bodies? Who were they?