Train To Nowhere

Chapter 3: I, Esper

The cold gripped Udanya's cheeks. Gasping, she felt a hand to her neck. She heard a woman screaming, a man crying. Her head couldn't move to look around, the hand taking away her breath quickly.

"I told you," a distorted voice told her, "you're either mine or you're dead!"

Her eyes shot open the moment a scream escaped someone's lips. She shot up, in the bed on the train.

"What was that!" Sandrine yelped. "Did you have that dream too? Did you hear that scream?!"

"Dream? Oh no...where's Vanessa?!"

The sisters scrambled up and rushed to their door.

"It's locked?!" Sandrine yelled, starting to panic. Udanya banged on the steel door, trying with all her strength to push it open.

Footsteps were coming towards them. Loud footsteps. Horrible groans. Heavy breath.

"Do you hear that?" Sandrine asked. "Those groans...someone's in trouble!"

"It's coming this way..." Udanya said, stepping backwards.

The door began to wiggle. The small handle clearly couldn't handle the strength of the person on the other side. The handle twisted and distorted, creaking and groaning. Udanya instinctively held out her arms to protect Sandrine, who shook terribly.

The door finally opened. In one swift movement, two women were thrown into the room and Udanya pulled out. Udanya screamed as she was forcefully taken out.

"Udanya! Don't take her!" Sandrine cried. The door shut again, locking tight. She banged on the door, continuing yelling for a long time before she could hardly breathe anymore.

"W-where am I?" A soft voice finally whimpered after she stopped yelling. Sandrine whirled around to look at the woman that were left behind.

One was Ife, an Esper from the Esper Union. Sandrine recognized her immediately. The other was a very pale woman, almost sickly, with long, black hair.

"You're in my room," Sandrine said shakily, helping her up, "what happened to you two?"

Ife turned to the pale woman, who got up and quickly pulled out a communicator.

"I'm n-not sure..." was all Ife was able to get out.

"What's your name?" Sandrine asked the pale woman. "Let's get to know each other and fine a way out!"

"Yuuhime. I like mecha shows and ice cream." The pale woman said stiffly, her eyes wide in fear.

"I-I'm Ife," Ife peeped, "your S-Sandrine from Destiny's Kiss, r-right?"

"Mhm!" Sandrine nodded. "Ok, let's all calm down."

Despite saying this, she herself still shook. She knew she had to stay calm if she wanted to find her sisters, but the horror that just happened shook her still. Her voice still cracked at inconvenient times.

She thought she was taking it better than the other two, though. Ife was melting with fear, while Yuuhime was hyperventilating more and more, trying to call someone.

"Ok! Ok!" Sandrine held out her arms. "We all just need to breathe."

"I-I'm trying!" Ife gasped pathetically. Yuuhime ignored the two, finally giving up on calling and slumped to the ground.

Sandrine groaned in frustration and, without thinking, wrapped her arms around Ife.

"Ok, ok," Sandrine said shakily, "we're all super duper freaked out right now, b-but we can't do anything if we don't calm down!"

Ife, although still shaking and wide-eyed, slowly nodded and started to breathe easy again.

"I-I'm better now." Ife peeped. "Can you let go now?"

Sandrine blinked and pulled back, embarrassed.

"N-now, Yuuhime. Yuuhime?" Sandrine turned to look at the pale woman, who was knocking on the wall.

"Hm?" Yuuhime glanced over.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm searching for a weak spot."

"You can't just break the wall!"

"It's an emergency." Yuuhime paused and tapped a specific spot again.

"What is it?" Ife asked quietly. Yuuhime quickly kicked the wall, the hallway coming into view. She knelt down and peered around, coming up only to tell them the coast was clear.

"If we hurry, we can probably find others." Yuuhime explained.

"Ok! Let's go then!" Sandrine said, bending over to crawl through the hole.

"We have to get to the front," Ife whispered, "so we can stop the train!"

Sandrine nodded as she helped her out of the hole. Yuuhime was close behind, covering the wall with a black blanket.

"It's so dark..." Sandrine said, feeling around for her communicator. Ife stood close to her, tapping her feet.

"The hole is covered," Yuuhime announced, "let's go now."

The girls walked quickly through the bumping hallway, Sandrine in the front with her communicator's flashlight on. Yuuhime glanced a lot at her phone, her lips quivering.

"Are you ok, Yuuhime?" Sandrine asked.

"I can't contact my bo..." her face went red, "...I-I mean, my friend, I'm worried."

"Don't worry, we'll find them!"

"Yeah." Ife nodded. "What's t-their name?"

"Ta-"

The train suddenly jerked. Ife caught Sandrine and held onto the wall. Yuuhime let herself fall and gripped the carpet. She led her eyes to the nearby window and looked out.

"We're slowing down!" She called past the loud screeching of the tracks.

"What?!" Sandrine yelled. "How can that be!"

"We have to get to the front NOW!" Yuuhime said as she got up and ran towards the frontmost doors. Once she got to them, she flung them open only to see a hanging woman right in the middle of the cabin.

She froze. She was usually desensitized to this kind of thing thanks to what Kokuzan did to her, but this...

...was different. The body twitched and moved, like a chicken without its head. Fortunately, her head was still there, but Yuuhime wished it wasn't because of the horror in the body's shaking eyes and the black liquid that poured from her unhinged mouth.

She was still alive, despite everything.

"Oh my-!" Sandrine ran over, horrified. She reached for the door, only for a large hand to snap it shut before any of the girls could go through. A masked figure pushed Yuuhime roughly into the wall, her head shattering a light, beginning to bleed.

Ife jumped into action, throwing a smoke bomb into the masked person's face. This seemed to do only a little help, for as soon as the smoke bomb went off, they jumped out of the way, albeit coughing, and slashed at Ife with a short knife. Although it cut a bit of her jacket, she didn't get hurt herself. She jumped towards Sandrine and Yuuhime and protected them, shaking.

"G-go away, meanie!" Ife hissed, terrified. The masked person simply put their hand on the door and melted it shut.

Yuuhime struggled to get up as the masked figure ran away.

"We have to go after that..." Yuuhime said, but couldn't finished her sentence because of her pounding head.

"We have to find something to bandage you up!" Sandrine said, helping Yuuhime stand.

"Ahmed!" Ife peeped, "I-I came with Ahmed b-but someone came a-and knocked him out in our room before they took me!"

"Where?" Sandrine said quickly, "We have to find him!"

Ife nodded and led the way. If Ahmed was still there, she didn't know. But she knew she and the others were not in any shape to fight anyone, so this was their best bet.

She hoped.