Free Degeneration by Mark Campbell

down. T he crossing arm snapped as it s truck against the roof of the FEMA bus.
    The drivers on the tracks watched the approaching train in horror. They panicked and either tried to b ack-up off of the tracks while others tried to drive forward to safety, but t he heavy traffic on the narrow street was unyielding in both direction s and prevented the vehicles from moving more than a few i nches. People abandoned their vehicles and left them idling on the tracks.
    The driver bailed from the FEMA bus, but left the busload of screaming passengers onboard. The passengers clawed through each other, desperately trying to make their escape.
    One of the conductors hit the airbrakes, but it was way too late and they were going way too fast.
    The train plowed through the FEMA bus and punched through the other vehicles on t he track like a missile, creating a chain of violent explosion s. B oth conductors were reduced to bloody splotches and the interior of the locomotive quickly engulfed in flames. The fiery locomotive derailed and brought the other cars along with it–
    Back in the passenger cars , the initial jolt sent every occupant whiplashing against the seatback in front of them, knocking many passengers unconscious . The two Amtrak officers flung towards the front of the cabin. The screams were deafening.
    A second violent jolt simultaneously shattered the windows and whiplashed the occupants again. S uitcases poured out from the overhead bins and the overhead lights darkened. Suddenly, everything started spinning, tossing luggage and unconscious passengers around like ragdolls; the passenger car was rolling .
    The six train cars, still linked together, rolled to a stop on Wilmington St reet , smoldering , lying upside-down . Twisted corpses, luggage, and scattered burning wreckage littered the pavement.
    Just a few blocks away from the derailment, a military checkpoint marked the edge of the downtown quarantine. It had been set up on Glenwood Avenue in an area heavily populated by restaurants and nightclubs. Normally, the avenue served as a main thoroughfare in and out of downtown Raleigh. Now the checkpoint was the only remaining thoroughfare since the military barricaded all of the other roads. The Glenwood Avenue checkpoint was codenamed Glenwood-Five Points.
    Glenwood-Five Points was a hodge podge of military vehicles and poli ce cars. Tall generator-powered halogen flood lamps gave the area a harsh clinical light and blinded the frustrated gridlocked drivers who had been waiting for hours to get out of downtown. Rows of barbwire and .50 caliber- mounted Humvees cordoned off traffic while two rows of guardsmen wearing hazmat suits and brandishing riot shields formed a line in front of the barbwire and Humvees , facing the crowd.
    The street was gridlocked with busses and cars stacked high with luggage. Angry drivers blew their horns and edged as close as they could to the car ahead of them. Traffic was allowed to pass one vehicle at a time through a small passageway in-between a row of barbwire and Humvees. Four CDC white-suits checked every vehicle occupant for any sign of infection before allowing the vehicle pass through the checkpoint.
    Suddenly, a guardsman ran out from one of the white tents on the side of Glenwood-Five Points and whispered something to one of the CDC whit e-suits. The startled CDC worker quickly signaled the other CDC white-suits and they ran away from the narrow passage in unison . In their place, another Humvee mounted with a gun turret pulled up and blocked off the passage way while more guardsmen ran multiple rows o f barbwire across the path. T he only remaining thoroughfare out of downtown Raleigh had been sealed . 
    Peopl e panicked, aban doned their vehicles, and started running towards the checkpoint. The guardsmen kept the besieging crowd back with riot shields and batons .
    A CDC white-suit holding a loudspeaker climbed atop one of the Humvees behind the guardsmen and surveyed the