X-Marks: Rising Shadows

Ride

I left Macie with Dad and walked into the next cabin where others began to crowd. It was then that I noticed that the back half of the train was missing and through the jagged hole that was left, the sun was rising between the smoke of the upper city.

I was hypnotized by the beautiful site of purples and pinks washing from the sky into the shimmering ocean, but I was stranded with fear. Only three carts were left of what was once a mighty train. We needed to find that magnet before there was nothing left of any of us.

Beside me, a thick green velvet curtain hung. I lifted it from its place thinking it was for a window but found a closet instead. I stepped into the confide space and lowered my head under a pole that extended to each side.

Another quake rocked the train and knocked me against the wall of the closet.

I held a bump on my head and cursed as I lifted from the cluttered ground. I pulled up my hand. It was tangled within the sleeves of dusty old coats. Beneath the moth-eaten cloth, a pair of glowing red eyes stared back at me.

I jolted from the closet, screaming on my way out.

"What the hell -" I said and stumbled back.

"What happened?" Valen said and caught me before I fell.

"There's something," I said and pointed into the closet, "There's something in there!"

Valen crept towards the closet, hanging her head low as she pulled away from the green curtain.

"I don't see anything -" Valen said for a moment before she too stumbled back, "No, It can't be," she said and clawed through the tangled jackets with more speed.

"Valen, what is it?" I said and craned my head towards her to take a better look.

Valen stood up from the curtain with a small figure in her hands.

"Momo, she sent you didn't she," Valen said and held the pink haired doll with two hands.

"Please," the doll shouted and hit her fist on Valen's hands, "Let me go with you!"

"We have to get it out of here," Valen turned and said to me, "This has to be the other magnet."

"We can throw it into the ocean," I said and pointed to the gapping hole in the back of the train.

Valen gripped the doll tighter and began fighting her way towards the back of the train. The lower city people were drenched in mud and water and struggled to all fit within the tight confines of the train. I gripped the back of Valen's shirt to keep her with me as we pierced through the crowd to the end.

We arrived in the back of the train where the hole left by the magnets had left the metal and wires of the train jutting out and spilling into the ocean rushing beneath the tracks of the train as we speed forward. I let in a deep breath of the salty air as I struggling to stand near the dizzying sight.

The doll in Valen's hand kicked and thrashed. Its innocent face showed the kind of fear I had seen many times from the mice in labs. I didn't know how and I didn't know why but it turned my stomach colder to watch it squirm as it did.

I could tell Valen felt the same. She held the doll over the edge but couldn't seem to let go.

"We have to get rid of it!" I said and pointed to a blinking black disc on the edge of the train.

Valen closed her eyes and tossed the doll into the crashing waves of the ocean, and after she did, the black discs anchored to the sides of the train fell into the water with her.

"What are you two doing back here!" Mat shouted from within the crowd behind us.

"We got rid of the magnet," I shouted over the whirling winds.

"You have to come back," Mat said back, "I disabled the magnet. We have to get everyone to the front and lock the cabin. This train's going back underwater!"

Valen and I looked at each other with frightened stares through our hair that whipped in our face.

I took her hand, and she locked onto mine. We pushed ourselves through the bodies that pulled us back and over the crushing litter that tried to trip us. But we wouldn't let go. We weren't giving up now.

I stood on top of a cabinet to see how much space was left at the front. It was filling fast. Just how many more could it fit? I looked beside me, there on the ground was Mat's mother. She was holding onto a little boy who was crying.

She looked up at me, "Evee, please tell me what's going on?"

"We have to get to the front, they're locking the front doors!" I said.

Mat's mother stood with the child on her back, "Please, take him," she said.

"You have to come with us too," Valen said and took Mat's mother's hand.

We inched our bodies closer and closer to the front. Fighting the bodies of people trying to get closer as well. Once we got to the open door of the cabin, I could see Mat waiting on the other side.

"Over here!" Mat said and craned his neck over the crowd.

I pulled his mother's hand forward so he could see but before I could move any closer the doors of the cabin began to move.

"Mom!" Mat shouted so loud he was heard over the crowd.

The door was closing faster, pushing the crowd out of the way like we were made of liquid. It then that I could see where the divide of the cabin was. Valen was still next to me, her hand locked into the back of my shirt. Ahead of me, Mat's mother stood with the little boy carried on her back. We were standing in the front of the cabin, and Mat's mother was not.

"Evee, Valen, do something," Mat shouted to us as he fought to part through the crowd.

I reached forward with every inch of my arm could stretch. I pushed my body into the crowd without a care for who or what I bumped into. Mat's mother was all he had left, and I would make sure she stayed with us.

Mat's mother reached out to me and grasped my fingers. Beside us, the steel walls of the door were closing more and more in. Valen grabbed my waist and pulled me back, forcing Mat's mother and the little body on her back a bit forward.

The door was narrow, so narrow I wasn't sure anyone could even fit through the small of a hold.

"We're going under," I heard Nate shout from the front of the cabin.

I looked up through the narrow space of the doors and watched a wall of water ripped through the back cabin. Their screams of terror and locked my fingers tighter on Mat's mother's hand. I wasn't letting go.

I wedged my body through the narrow space as the force of the doors closing hit my back with piercing pain.

"Valen," I said and locked onto Mat's mother shoulders, "Pull now!"

Valen gripped my waist tighter and pulled down with all her waist. I fell back with Mat's mother and the little boy still in my grip, and we popped through the opening of the doors onto the other side.

I looked up as watched the door lock shut in an instant.

Mat stood above me with his mother in his arms, tears in his eyes and his mouth curled back into his mouth.

"I thought - I thought I was going to be alone," Mat said as he huffed back his tears.

I stood in front of Mat, a puddle of water rushing into my shoes and looked up at his mark.

"We never were," I said and held on to Valens' hand.