train to tokyo [shui]

Chapter 9

Silent.

It was utter silence for a moment as we watched the piece of metal split into thousands of pieces. Then chaos came. 

'Holy shit!' shouted Ayumi. 

'We're going to die!' wailed Lea and Leila in unison. 

'Shut the fuck up, you two!' Lui yelled angrily. 

'All of you, follow me and keep moving!' Tanaka-san demanded with authority. 

We had no choice but to resume to our formation before and continue to walk uphill, aware that the fire had only just started to die out. I swallowed back my fear. Even though the fire was slowly stopping, I could still feel the extreme heat mixing with the extreme cold. It felt weird, being completely frozen and melting at once. 

I frown in frustration. There wasn't supposed to be any bombs. We weren't even in the area. Unless...the sick truth dawned on me. The aim of the bombs in the place where the train fell was supposed to drive the targets into this clearing, where even more dangerous bombs were place.

And we were the targets.

The image of the piece of metal shattering like it was glass from the explosion replayed in my head. Suddenly, I could see Lui being the breaking into pieces. Fear clenched my heart. We had to keep moving.

According to Tanaka-san, we were now an hour away from where the helicopter is. The blizzard was starting to pick up, snow falling more. Hail dripping, little shards of ice splattering on us. The rain was thick and hard to see, so Tanaka-san made us grab onto the person in front of us with a hand, the other holding your partner. 

My teeth started chattering uncontrollably from the cold, and it seemed like everyone else's teeth did too. I could my skin quivering from the cold and exhaustion, aching to just stop and take a rest. But we couldn't. 

Boom. 

A second one, this time to our right and so clear we could see every single dirt , snow and grass particle being blown up into nothing. The dark smoke made everything so much harder to see, and Haruto nearly slipped. It seemed so much closer than before, everything shaking before going absolutely still in the next minute. 

Our feet hurried moving by themselves, our bodies desperate to get out of this place. Most of the snow had melted away from the heat from the bombs, leaving water that was just started soak the dirt we were walking on. Mud squished as we walked on it, and I could hear Lea groaning in disgust. It wasn't pleasant. 

We kept on moving, despite the harsh weather conditions and danger. By now, my jumper and trousers were completely soaked. So was my hair. It was completely wet, sticking to my head uncomfortably.

The cold wind rushed past me, it almost felt like it was being dragged and was trying to bring me along. I dared to look back, and what I saw wasn't pretty.

Wind from all directions were being sucked into a pillar of wind that was flayed out at the top, just reaching the clouds. It looks as if grey clouds had been made into a vortex.

A cyclone.

My heart slammed against my chest repeatedly. A cyclone. On top of the bombs. The first bomb just made this feel like I was in a movie even more, but the second bomb snapped me out of it. Something about the smoke and fire made it feel too dangerous to be a movie. Now fear was seeping in again. All I could register was walk, walk, walk.

'Half an hour more!' announced Tanaka-san. Despite the danger I felt relieved for a second. We were nearly safe. Home. However, the relief didn't last long.