The Renegade

by Daniel Evora

  Max didn’t respond, and I couldn’t blame him. Right now we’re basically screwed.

  “We’ve got a bird in the air, guys!” Thomas warned.

  For a moment we couldn’t hear it flying, but then a thundering buzz made its way into the picture. We both rushed out the front car and saw the entire transport carrier flying at us. It was bigger than usual and had all the bells and whistles. Stopping either train now would’ve been suicide.

  I couldn’t exactly see through the tinted window who it was

  “Okay, new plan,” Max spoke quickly. “We’ve gotta get rid of the cars on the train.”

  “We need some firepower to do that, the couplings aren’t meant to be taken apart,” added Matthews.

  “Well, how did you do it?”

  “Obviously, explosives,” Matthews shot back unnecessarily. He honestly looked a little annoyed by my question as he squinted his eyes--in a bitchy sort of way.

  “Don’t suppose you have any?” I decided to get on his level of irritation--just to get at him.

  “C’mon...if I still had any left I would’ve used them by now.”

  I gave him the side-eye for a bit and started roaming around the armored train cars while at the same time trying to rush to find any spare explosives. I did notice that Matthews quickly followed suit and started checking the bodies for anything as well.

  The carrier got closer and I could tell because the thundering buzz went from something I could barely make out, to all that I could hear. The sound alone getting louder made me search much faster. One of the bodies I came across was one that got absolutely obliterated by my sword. The blood gave me a strange shock. Something I haven’t felt since that one fateful night in the village. When I was forced to execute the villagers as punishment for siding with the Resistance of the East.

  The familiar dark reddish-black color made me really uncomfortable. It wasn’t like there was a pool of blood though. The man’s vest was only drenched in the spot’s where he was shot. I didn’t even know this man, but it made me feel sick for a moment to see that same blood get on my clothes again. Luckily, Matthews spared his face because I probably wouldn’t be able to do it if that were the case.

  After turning the soldier on his back, he had an unused explosive. I grabbed it cautiously, trying not to see if it was some last minute “gotcha” trap, because the Silents would definitely pull a stunt like that.

  “Will this do?” I asked him--holding up the grenade for him to see most of it.

  “No, throwables won’t work,” he shook his head slightly, and soon went back to checking more bodies. “Something that you have to place down.”

  I tossed the grenade back down and went to the next body and searched even faster when we heard the carrier start to approach the rear ends of both trains.

  “We gotta find something! Now!” shouted Matthews. That’s when I started panicking.

  Next thing you know I was going from body to body in seconds. Flipping some of them over like burgers on a grill. I couldn’t care about anything else other than finding more explosives.

  Finally, whilst sweating bullets, in one of the vests of a soldier. A trigger and a boxy-shaped explosive with some adhesive material on the bottom covered by thin plastic.

  “Here, I’ve got it!”

  “Time to go, then.”

  Matthews rushed to the service ladder and I followed him to the roof. We both caught a full glimpse of the carrier. It was bigger than I thought it would be.

  Suddenly, a thin rope dropped from the bottom side of the carrier as I swiftly leaped across the platform connecting the trains. As soon as I got back onto the left side Matthews kicked away the platform off balance and it fell straight to the ground.

  “Okay, Thomas, Max, we’re golden!”

  Thomas responded first, “Not yet. You’ve got some more company!”

  I’m guessing he was referring to the carrier. He wasn’t wrong. Matthews and I got ready to defend our ground as we anticipated the next, and hopefully last, oncoming wave of Silent Death troops. I expected there to be at least a dozen of them so I knew I had to play it smart with my last magazine.

  “How many you have left?” asked Matthews while he stared at my rifle.

  “Just this one,” I answered as I comfortably sat the stock up against my shoulder.

  “I’m gonna place the bomb, I’ll holler when it’s read--oh shit.”

  Matthews stopped all of a sudden and I looked at him weird as his face warped and his eyes widened. I never had seen such a look of dread on his face, nor would I ever expect it from someone like him. Following his eyes, I too would soon have the same look on my face. Dread. Fear. The wind flowing through and around my hair now gave me chills down my spine. Also goosebumps.

  There was no overwhelming number of soldiers marching onto the roof of the train, neither was there a juggernaut--much worse than that even. Two people deployed from that carrier. Just two. Two people that I least expected to drop down from the carrier were now a couple dozen meters from my position. Closing in like predators on prey.

  Adam...and Adrana.

  I was shocked beyond belief, that I almost put the rifle down. My heart started pounding now that I knew what I was up against.

  “Shit, we gotta go now, c’mon,” Matthews panicked.

  “No,” I said, readjusting my barrel to point towards Adam. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. “I’ll hold ‘em off, just get that bomb deployed.”

  “Are you crazy!?” barked Matthews; he glared at them again and said at a much quieter volume. “Your funeral.”

  My hands were shaking a bit. I was too scared to pull the trigger or at the least too frozen with fear to do anything to antagonize them. But for some stupid reason I ended up just switching my rifle to full auto and tried to empty my magazine into Adam. Instinctively, I swayed my fire away from Adrana.

  Unfortunately, Adam was too smart to leave himself out in the open like that to any kind of gunfire. Using a small win-shield to deflect any bullets that had the potential to hit him. He gave a bit of effort into it since win-shields had lousy range and couldn’t withstand much gunfire without heating up quickly--I was surprised that he was able to make a small, but adequate shield. Out of desperation, I kept shooting anyway hoping that one would hit him somewhere to slow him down. There was no use, and next thing I know I’m outta ammo since the rifle started clicking instead of shooting.

  “Matthews are you done?!” I shrieked.

  “Just give me a minute!” he exasperated.

  I noticed Adam had put away his shield, had brought out his white katana, and realized that the last option to hold him off was to fight him off with mine.

  “Crap.”

  Adrana turned to Thomas’ vehicle and tried to shoot and see if the shields were still up. As soon as she noticed the bullet ricochet off the bare surface, Adrana started emptying both her pistols into the vehicles, with the smallest smirk revealing itself 0on her face.

  “Dammit, hold on!” Thomas began swerving, while Chris held on to the side handle.

  Suddenly, Adrana went for Chris' arm since he was the closest from the end of her barrel. The bullet ended up ricocheting as the vehicle tried to dodge it and scraped across Chris’ right temple. The pain caused him to shout and let go of the handle when she shot again to try to get at his arm. Thomas swerved once more, causing Chris to lean over the edge of the vehicle.

  “Thomas!” warned Lily.

  “Aw crap, hold on I gotcha,” Thomas tried reaching out to Chris while keeping one hand on the wheel, and nearly missed. Chris ended up in a weird, but scary position. Completely frozen over the fast moving surface awaiting his fall.

  “Hold on!” worried Thomas--he brought up his walkie-talkie. “Max. Chris got hit!”

  “What?! Is he--?!”

  “He’ll be fine,” he stopped the transmission, looked over at Chris for a second to notice the blood on his face, and slammed the dashboard. “Dammit!” />
  Slowly, I unsheathe my katana and I could spot the slightest reaction from Adam whilst he slowly approached me. Then, I got into the proper stance, staring down towards Adam.

  “I recognize that stance,” divulged Adam, but it sounded as if he was repulsed by it.

  My hands shook even more while holding my own katana. My body unable to take the first strike, yet unable to flee the scene.

  “We’re set!” Matthews shouted out to me from below.

  All of a sudden, Adam charged at me with quite some speed. I wasn’t ready, but I was able to block and redirect his simple attack. His pace was all over the place, intentionally trying to throw me off because he knew for certain that I was afraid and above all, not ready to fight him. That was just one attack.

  After blocking, our blades made a loud clang that nearly made my ears ring. But, my hand started to become a little sore when handling my katana.

  He stepped back with the same speed and waited a bit. He probably was expecting me to go on the offensive. Or maybe he was checking my bluff. Or maybe he was just making sure that I was too afraid to attack. I wasn’t even sure about anything anymore. But, only one word. One thought. Kept firing off in my head.

  Survive.

  I knew he was toying with me. I knew he was trying to get me to surrender--and most of all fear him--and it was working for the most part. But, for some reason, I stood my ground. Again, I wasn’t even sure what I was doing. But, I kept standing in front of him like I was gonna do something to him. As a safeguard--from the small chance that I would even think of pulling a “fast” one on him--Adam made some distance between himself and I.

  “You’d be wise to surrender,” he warned.

  I stood my ground. Taking the defensive form once again and said, “Yeah. Probably.”

  Like his unexpected speed, he was also quite strong. With his second attack, I collapsed on my right knee and our blades ended up in a lockup. With all my might I tried as hard as I could to prevent his blade from slicing my shoulder open. I struggled so much that it started to become exhausting to hold him back. My arms trembled to hold that position, and soon my arms and shoulders were aching.

  Matthews tried shooting at Adam, but his small shield had recharged and he used his freehand for a quick moment to deflect the bullet fire. He couldn’t risk any more shots since I was right in front of Adam. So, he retreated behind cover.

  “Pull...the trigger!” I howled, while my arms were in agonizing pain. I was almost outta fuel.

  “What the hell are you thinking?!” Matthews yelled. “You gotta move!”

  “You’re...just gonna...ha-f- to...trust me!”

  Matthews hesitated, and got a little irritated by cursing at me, but eventually decided to pull the trigger causing a hefty explosion in the middle of the front and second car. The electrical wires held within the coupling sparked and caught fire for a second. A bunch of smoke rose from the combustion giving me the smallest window for escape. My knee was killing me, but I attempted to push myself past my limit, even to the point of yelling and screaming like a maniac. Once I stood up I was full of adrenaline and used the smoke to kick Adam away and pushed Adrana to the floor. It was hard to do that to her, but it had to be done anyway.

  Without any warning or knowledge of it, the brakes started to engage and it jolted the cars suddenly. I panicked since the gap between the car I was in and the car everyone else was in.

  “Crap,” I whined. “Okay, Nate, it’s just a jump. Just a jump. Just a jump!”

  I leaped into the air and pushed off the roof of the train so hard that I almost gave my hamstrings a cramp. The few moments I was in the air, actually wasn’t as scary as facing Adam, but I knew if I didn’t make it that I was screwed.

  Luckily, my feet were mostly planted on the edge of the car. However, I waved my arms in circles since my body was still catching up to the increased speed of the front. I nearly went off the edge, but fortunately Matthews sprinted towards me when he saw me jump and noticed that I would hardly make it. I reached out to him and he did as well while holding onto the service ladder.

  “I gotcha,” reassured Matthews, as he pulled me up.

  Breathing heavily--also my chest pounding with anxiety--I didn’t respond to that. Except I just waved my hand to him and leaned my hands on my knees.

  “You’re one crazy son of a bitch.”

  “Takes one to know one, asshole,” I laughed a bit at that. It was awkward though because Matthews didn’t find it at least a little funny and sort of took offense that I shot back so harshly towards him.

  Thomas eventually caught up with us and Matthews instantly caught notice of the absence of Chris’ movement.

  “What the hell happened?!”

  Thomas didn’t say a word. But the melancholy, yet frustrated look on his face told us everything we needed to know.

  “Dammit!” Matthews punched the car wall.

  “Don’t worry, he’s just passed out,” Max reassured. He speeds up the train by switching the throttle all the way up. “Thomas, you okay?”

  “I’m good. Lily?”

  “Still alive.”

  Matthews and I rushed right into the driver’s room again, and we noticed the armored train steadily treading behind us. We were going extremely fast--for a freight train. I could barely make out the individual sleepers on the tracks ahead.

  “How are we gonna make this turn?” Matthews asked Max, while checking through the tracks on the map.

  “Once I’ve gone fast enough, and outspeed this train next to us. I’m gonna engage the brakes. We’ve got about one more klick, before it’s too late to turn back,” Max explained while pointing out his plan on the map.

  “How do you know that’s gonna work?” questioned Matthews, glaring at the armored train slowing down steadily.

  “I don’t,” he flat out confessed.

  “What about the carrier? How are we gonna outspeed that?” I questioned while looking behind us. To my surprise, he either ignored the question or didn’t have an answer. The carrier still persisted and started to charge up it’s weapons.

  I quickly noticed the carrier’s guns starting to warm up. I got out my walkie-talkie. “Thomas, behind you!”

  “Oh, shoot!” Lily panicked and crouched down in her seat. Thomas began swerving back and forth again off the track to avoid the storm of bullets raining down upon them. The dirt and sand rose up and nearly concealed the vehicle in the process.

  The carrier was far too agile to outspeed. Thomas and Lily could only draw the carrier’s fire for so long.

  “Max, how much farther?” Matthews asked, watching the whole situation start to fall apart.

  “Half a klick left,” worried Max, while eyeing the distance counter from the start to the turn. The faster the train went, the faster the distance counter fell. “Hold onto your asses!”

  His hand hovered over the brake switch, and he continued to eye the distance counter.

  Six hundred meters it read. Quickly descending to five hundred.

  Then, three hundred.

  Two hundred.

  One.

  Ever so slightly, just before the counter hit zero. Max took a deep breath and said to himself.

  “Hope to God this works.”

  The counter beeped three times and the numbers flash lights of white and red to indicate that there was no turning back from this one. With intense force, he firmly gripped the brake switch and pulled it towards him fast enough it could’ve broken off if made by another material that wasn’t at least steel.

  Matthews and I kneeled down on the right side of the train, which is where the inside of the turn was gonna be at. I held on as hard as I could with both hands. I couldn’t even cover my ears from the cringe screeching and sparks coming from the wheels as they were forced to change speeds so extremely quickly. The whole car jolted, but thankfully, at the start of the turn, the train managed to stay on track. But I could feel the force of physics trying to lift me up into the a
ir and throw me off the side of the train. It was pulling me to the other side, so I held on even tighter to the guard rail. And pushed against the floor.

  About a third of the way through the turn, the armored came speeding right towards us looking as if it was gonna hit us from the side with its aggressively looking front side. That train looked like it was gonna hit me! The best thing I could do was try to close my eyes in the split second, within midway through the turn.

  The armored train missed me.

  But not the train.

  The big snow plow part of the front engine car sliced through the back of the train like a knife, and stuck there. Sending our car with it and off the track.

  “Oh shit!” yelled Matthews as the weight of the train and the impact of the collision sent our car onto its side. “Hold on!”

  The armored train eventually went onto its side as well, but the domino effect caused half of its cars to detach and start rolling and going all over the place.

  Thomas ended up swerving one last time to come to a complete stop, and was completely in shock by the wreck that just occured.

  I held on for dear life to the guard since I was on the outside of the safe space for the train. Matthews tried making his way to me. But, it was no use. One by one, my fingers started slipping off of the rail, and with pure instinct I tried pulling myself up, but I ended up going over. With debris flying all over me, as I hit the ground. Rolling at that speed was pretty useless. I took all the hits to the floor. It was like someone punching me in the boxing ring over and over again. I couldn’t block them nor suppress the pain. It felt like pure crap.

  Some of the smaller debris ended up covering me in the wind. Some of it hitting my limbs. Smaller sheets of metal plates covered me as a car rolled itself right next to me when I could do anything to stop it from getting any closer. As I tried getting myself up off the ground. A blunt edge out of nowhere flew into my face and hit me upside the head. Causing me to collapse back to the floor.

  Now for sure, I was done for.

  Shortly after that, the whole wreck went dead silent after a small explosion from the armored train’s front engine car.