The Never Ending Train

12 Battle

A door bangs open, the one leading to car 1 and two women come wrestling out. One of them is screeching like a banshee, so loud and alarmed that it's hard to understand what she's saying. "Why did you do that? We're all going to die!!"

I realize that one of them is Nora. I watch with horror as they continue to thrash around. A flicker of pride sparks in my chest when Nora finally whacks her in the head and the other woman trips over her own feet and falls to the ground with a squeak.

"Haha! That's my girl!" Dominic shouts, seemingly unaware that the train's speed is still slowing, meaning a lot of bad things. Nora flashes a smile.

"What did you do!?" Dr. Silas almost shouts, scaring the rest of us.

"I slowed down the train." Her eye catches on the still group of Influencers in car 3. All of the passengers have either hid under the seats or fled to other cars in fear.

"Why!" Someone else shouts.

"The black mist is going to catch up with us now!"

"How did you even do that?" At this question, the train engineer pops out with a smile and bows, like he just did us a great service. A man nearest him grabs him by the collar and shakes him.

"Why!?"

"If you would just shut up!?" Nora starts. Everyone silences, some cutting sharp glares at her. "A lot of moving woke most of us up, if we just intensify that, I was thinking using the tremors from the black mist, it's sure to snap those fools out of it and save us all, yea? Plus it might help with some of our illusions."

"The earthquake from the first time tore the last two trains apart. You think getting even closer to the black mist will save us?" Although I can see where Nora is coming from, whoever said that also has a point.

"Not to mention all the innocent lives at the back of the train!!" I clench my teeth, knowing that there have been deaths already due to the Influencer's march. How are the passengers reacting right now? They must be scared, some are going to die. Remorse floods my body. I feel ashamed that I'm standing here, safe from the black mist, though not safe from death in general.

"Plus only a few of us get illusions, as it's rare." Someone else says. This is true, I've only had one so far. Dominic has had a few. There's a couple other people who had hallucinations so far, and it's been super rare.

"Don't you dare call us crazy." One of the influencers growls menacingly from his spot, ignoring the part about illusions. They start moving towards us again. "Throw them all out, save the girl so we can speed up this train again." He orders. They're right at the door now. Some of us start filing into car 1. It's a slow process, everytime they take a step, we take a step back. The air is thick with tension.

I think using the black mist to our advantage is the best chance we have at this point, if I can get past the thought of more innocent lives being lost in the process, and they don't seem to fully grasp that so it's lucky that they're advancing so slowly.

And just as I think that, one of them pounces. She slides her knife into the guy nearest her and pushes him out the window, breaking it in the process. The rest of them rush towards us.

"AHHHH!!!!" A battle cry and all hell breaks loose. Grunts and screams of pain and curse words fly all over. A buff looking man rushes at me but doesn't get far before Dominic punches him into another guy. Dominic screams in pain and I realize it must be because of his back.

Kai drags Nora through the raging crowd and to us. "Scarlet, grab Dominic! Head towards car 1!" He and Nora position themselves in front of me, Kai somehow stole a knife from somewhere and holds it in front of him. Every once in a while, an Influencer notices us trying to escape and rushes us, thank god they come one at a time though because Nora and Kai can help each other.

I don't think it would have mattered anyways, what with the way this overcrowded train car was filled with raging men and women going crazy. People kept bumping into us, making it increasingly difficult to support Dominic, though he does most of the walking himself.

My heart rampages inside my rib cage, feeling like it's physically bruising me. Fear shakes my legs but I force them to move.

One slow and agonizing step at a time, fighting against the wave of hot bodies every second, we finally manage to get to the door, luckily not being stabbed in the process. My heart has been thundering in my chest. By then, I realize with horror that the noise has died down just a little and more and more bodies litter the ground. They're actually killing each other. The smell of blood hits me sharply, like I just noticed it. I did just notice it, or how much of it stained the ground. So much that hardly any of the floor is showing at this point.

People still shout and charge at each other. Some are thrown out the window. The passengers on this train must be scared and waiting for us to give them news, or taking action on their own. They must be too afraid to help us in this mess of flailing arms and knives.

That thought suddenly seems very ironic to me. The very tools we were given to survive have been used to turn on each other and the train that was supposed to protect us from the black mist has become a cage.

Shaking my head of my thoughts, I succeeded in shoving Dominic through the door. Turning around for Kai and Nora, I pause when they're nowhere in sight. Weren't they right in front of me? I cast my gaze around the room, trying to look for them but instead locking eyes with a crazed looking man. He's fit.

He rushes at me from across the train, shoving others out the way. My mind fights itself trying to decide whether I try to fight this guy so I can look for Kai and Nora or leave them. But there's no time to decide. The Influencer is right in front of me in just 5 seconds and he lifts up his knife, stained with blood, and swings it down.

I jerk backwards, a scream slipping from my lips. The knife nicks the middle of my chest, ripping my shirt in the process. He doesn't let me breathe, he goes for another swing and I jump to the side, knowing that I wasn't fast enough this time. I close my eyes, waiting for the stabbing pain.

Instead, I hear a grunt and shuffling. Then something knocks into me, hard. My forehead smacks the ground and I black out.

----------

Scarlet gotta stop getting knocked out.