The Split

Chapter 51

The train grew smaller and smaller as it trailed off in the distance away from the city. The crowd around me talked among themselves frantically, all looking for another way out of the city now that the train had left the station. The scene would soon be chaos and I made my quickly to the staircase that led out to the exit.

A familiar growl echoed from the halls above.

"Otto..." I thought sadly, thinking about my old friend and the other brave men who had guarded the entrance outside. Had any of them escaped from the terrible creature?

All of the people fell to a hushed silence as the growling grew louder. I backed away from the staircase and pulled out my pistol. With great strain, I reached into my pack and pulled out another magazine. I placed the new one between my legs and fumbled for a few seconds before reloading the weapon with my right hand. My left arm was still in agony, it hung there uselessly, paining me every time it was swung in any direction even by the slightest fraction. The creature had completely ruined my arm and now, it was coming down here, and it was angry.

Seconds later the top of it's enormous head appeared above the guardrail, and it walked into view. This time it did not charge me with flailing arms, and instead carried a Degtyaryov machine gun. The people screamed when they saw it, and it's head moved as it searched the crowd for me. Some people behind me started to run towards the tracks, and it opened fire.

The hunter shot the entire 60 round pan into the dense crowd below. It tore through multiple people with each shot, leaving a sickening path of gore behind. I crawled behind a nearby bench for cover, listening as I heard the large creature walking down the steps. Waiting to hear it reload, I popped my head out in confusion when I didn't.

My body grew tense with involuntary fear as I saw the creature come closer. It had dropped the machine gun, and was now using another weapon, or more accurately WEARING another weapon. I don't know where it could've gotten it, but the Hunter had a flammenwerfer (flamethrower).

Fire poured out of the tip and into a group of scattering people. Miserable shrieks echoed throughout the platform as the poor souls burned alive. I ducked back behind cover but could still see the streak of flame moving past me. It was almost 10 meters long and scorched through the panicked people with impunity. I began to scoot backwards, angling towards the edge of the platform and down off into the track. The creature turned the corner, looking my way.

Succumbing to a combination of fear and tactical instinct, I lay flat on my back like a corpse. The jet of flame came over me sweeping right. For an instant I could hear screaming as the people beside me shrieked as they burned, but then it was pained silence.

The top of my skin was burned away, in agonizing pain I felt as the blaze tore parts of my arms and chest down to the muscle. The heat suddenly vanished and I struggled to sit up. The hunter was turning his flame the other way down the tracks, his weapon inaudible as I waited for my hearing to return. I moved my arms down so I could keep moving backwards, and was greeted with a sharp pain.

I looked down to see my hands blackened and charred from the fire. The skin left untouched was swollen and red and hurt on contact.

Why couldn't I hear?

I paused and reached my good charred hand up to my ear. It was completely gone. A rough stump sat in a field of raw bleeding skin where my hair had once been. I felt the other one; they were both gone.

Despite my aching hands and loss of hearing, I was mostly unharmed, and was able to jump down into the tracks headed in the opposite direction. A large mass of similarly burned people formed around me, all trying to get away from the Hunter. My grip on my gun was starting to loosen as I stumbled forward. I looked over my shoulder at the creature and saw another line of flames coming right towards us. I turned around and lowered my head, tucking my gun into my chest as the heat washed over me.

My legs grew weak and tight as the fire covered me from head to heel. Pain spread through all corners of my body as the searing flame scorched me to my spine. No longer able to stand, I collapsed, but tried to control my fall, and now lay on the ground facing the Hunter. My head was propped up against something, but I could not feel what. My entire body was numb, butI was still able to move. I flexed various muscles, trying to ignore the pain, so I could see what parts of me still worked.

From the ankle to my pelvis, I could do little more than twitch. My shattered left arm was as useless as it had ever been, and I could not bend at the waist. By some miracle, my right arm had retained most of it's motion and still held the now-piping hot gun in my hand. Would it even fire? The creature turned from side to side, running it's flammenwerfer continuously. In an instant my increasingly sluggish brain came up with a plan. I waited for it to turn the other way and raised my gun. As the hunter roared in fury, lighting the people ahead of me, I fired all of my rounds at his back.

Several shots later, a pressurized explosion rushed past me as the tank caught fire and covered the creature in bright yellow and red flame. It cried out loudly and sank to the ground. An inferno encased it's entire body as the light grew brighter with each second. For a short moment it lay on the ground burning, motionless. I closed my eyes, and coughed, relieved it was over.

A hideously deformed version of the creature's roar jarred my eyes back open. It was starting to get up and was moving towards me. I raised my gun pulled the trigger.

Click.

The magazine was empty. It was coming faster now, just meters away. This was it. It was over. I tried to relax and accept my fate as the Hunter was nearly to me.

A dazzling flash of multicolored light appeared in front of me, and a man in a strange suit burst into the room.

Was I seeing things?

He turned to see the creature and raised his right arm to reveal a mortar-like appendage where a hand should have been. It fired at the Hunter, bright flashes of light that created even brighter explosions. The Hunter seemed to pop outwardly, sending chunks of gore and it's strange black blood all over the tracks.

The man paused when he saw me and bent down. His armor was black and seemed mechanical. Scales of a type I had never seen before moved around the surface, changing the plating at will. His helmet was rounded yet strangely angular in places and bright blue lights burned where his eyes would be. I tried to look at his gun, but found my vision limited as blood crept into the corners.

I was dying, and the man looked like he wanted to help. He touched me in places with a strange instrument and gestured wildly. He had been talking I realized. I wonder what he was saying...

(The narrative returns to the main character here. -A. Fila)