Invasion
Chapter 13

They listen to the sound of the train wheelson the tracks as they wait, bored. “Are we there yet?” she says, half-jokingly.“How much longer? I’m so bored.” “It’s only about an hour left, I think,” hesays. “Why do we even have to do this anyway? We can just fly there,” shecontinues. “Yeah, but we can’t leave them behind. Plus those things are upthere, I don’t really wanna mess with ‘em or disturb them, you know,” he says,“and I kinda like trains. It’s good to take things slow sometimes.” She letsout a huge sigh. They’re lucky though that the squids aren’t really doinganything. They are not defenseless and can be quite fearsome in combat. Shemotions her index finger up and down, levitating a glass of flowers on thetable. The train bumps and she accidentally flings the glass upwards, breakingit. Surprised, he gives her the “What are you doing?” look. “Sorry,” sheapologizes. “Don’t worry, we should be there soon,” he says. He looks out thewindow again while she leans on her hand, sighing. “Just go to sleep. We’ll bethere before you know it,” he says looking out the left window, a little spacedout. Just outside the right window is a steep drop towards the cliffs below. Mostof the track is on high ground. Aaanndd, he’s doing it again, but not reallyagain. He starts to remember the bad times too, flowing like a bad dream. Hecan see it so clearly and so vividly that it feels like he’s there. It’samazing how all those emotions can rush back in so quickly even after youhaven’t experienced them for quite some time: the laughing, the jokes, thecruelty…the ignoring; all those stupid people. A mix of sadness and anger and alittle hatred fills him, but mostly sadness. A tear drops from his eye, andanother, and another… He wipes it off with his hand. “Come on, Takashi,” hesays to himself, “you have to be strong. For yourself…and for her.” “Hmmm, whatdid you say?” she asks. “Nothing,” he replies. Suddenly they hear a quiethumming, getting louder by the second. They look outside to witness a creatureriding a mechanical hovercraft preparing to attack them. “You gotta be kiddingme?” she says. These creatures are different from the ones before, wearingbattle armor, quite tall, and carrying weapons: soldiers. One of them pulls outa strange weapon and fires it, releasing some sort of projectile towards thecabin. They quickly run towards the front compartments to dodge it as it blowsopen the side, just barely landing safely on the floor.

The impact caused it andthe compartment behind to slip from the tracks and onto the drop. He quicklyextends his arm and focuses on the chain connecting their compartment with thefalling one and breaks it apart, letting it fall to the cliffs; they’rebreathing quickens. They quickly get back up and start running towards thepilot. “Sergeeeeeeyyyy!!” he screams. “What was that??” Sergey says, lookingback. “Shit!” He runs with his men to see what’s going on, leaving Viktor onthe controls. They all meet up at the ripped compartment. “What the hell isgoing on?” Sergey asks. “Ummmm, that,” Takashi says pointing to the alienscarrying the deadly weapons. “Shit,” Sergey says, staring at them. It shootsits weapon again—death heading straight for them. But Olivia quickly reacts,pulling her energy and raises her arms to send out a wave of telekineticenergy, intercepting the projectile mid-flight—it explodes in a magnificentfirework. The creatures all start to fire more projectiles and she continues todeflect them all away. “I. Am. Getting. Tired. Of this,” she screams whiledeflecting. The aliens growl at them before flying away. Olivia leans on herknees, trying to recuperate after that ordeal. “Shit. Alright, what do we do mr.soldier?” Takashi asks. “What else? We kill alien scum,” he says, looking allcool. “Grab your weapons, men!” The alien then returns with its friends, two of‘em to be exact, and with full force. The men begin shooting at them with theirassault rifles, the creatures scream a terrible cry at the attack. Theyseparate and one of them gets closer to the cabin and actually jumps towardsthem wielding its staff like weapon, both edges of it glowing white and laced withan unknown energy. It targets Boris—he shoots back, but his bullets are no useagainst the armor it’s wearing—and it hits him with the staff, knocking himover with a bright backlash.

As it lands and stands up,producing a thumping sound on the platform because of its weight, they allstare in awe at its size and height as it towers over all of them. It thenproceeds to attack again, sending both Valentin and Alexander flying backwardswith the weapon. Again, the bright, white backlash is seen. The incredibleforce of the energy was powerful enough to send them through the door andhitting the wall, bending it. “Nooooooo!!!!!’ Sergey screams as he startsshooting the creature to no avail. The creature shields the bullets with itsarm and roars at him before preparing to attack. Takashi quickly jumps on itsback and sorta materializes a chain rope and pulls on the creature’s neck. Ofcourse, it’s slightly invisible and leaking energy. Olivia rushes in and slamsat the creature with full force, knocking it down. The staff slips from itshand and burns through the walls of the narrow door, landing inside leaning onone of the seats. Takashi continues to pull as hard as he can on the creature’sneck, obviously straining himself. It’s also struggling, holding on to thematerialized chain. “Hold it!” Sergey says as he points his rifle to its head.As he fires, the train bumps again, causing him to miss the shot, insteadhitting the chains causing it to disappear. Takashi screams as he almost fallsback. The creature quickly recovers, grabs him, and throws him across thecabins to the pilot. It then turns around, grabs Sergey with its right hand andstrikes Olivia with its left, knocking her overboard as she falls to thecliffs. It looks back at Sergey and begins to crush him with its bare hands.“Aaaaarrrrghhhhh!!!” he screams in pain. Takashi quickly gets back up and fliestowards it with great speed. They both go through the adjacent cabin, completelydestroying the frame of the door. Sergey is thrown upwards into the air andlands on top of the last cabin, grabbing on to the emergency door railing fordear life.

Olivia quickly recoversfrom her fall and, angry, quickly jumps and flies towards the train, producinga shockwave. As she reaches the train and is about to help Takashi, the othertwo creatures intercept her. A dogfight ensues, if you can call this adogfight. They shoot at her with their laser-firing space guns; it gives out thatunique laser sound as it fires. She maneuvers all over, trying to barely dodgethe lasers. She’s able to get close to one of them and punches the creature tokingdom come, sending it flying off its hovercraft and tumbling down on theside of the cliff as the machine crashes. Stupidly, she hovers for a moment tomake sure that it’s gone. Then the other one gets the drop on her and is ableto hit her on the side with its laser gun. “Aaaarrghghh!” she screams. It ramsher with its hovercraft. She turns around to face the creature as it whips outits staff. It tries to hit her, but misses as she dodges it and comes back witha good punch to its face. Unfortunately, her weakened state makes her unable togather all her strength and energy; she holds the spot where the laser grazedher body with her left hand. Meanwhile, Sergey is still holding on above thetrain. He tries to open the emergency door, with difficulty, but eventuallymanages to do so and enters, falls to the cabin. He lies on the floor, restingand catching his breath. But there’s no time for that, so he quickly pickshimself up and makes his way back to Takashi; he’s not doing so good himself.The creature has him pinned to the ceiling with its tentacles, with one wrappedaround his neck and another around his legs. He struggles and jerks around. Itgrowls at him. “Hey,” he says. He points his hand to its face and releases asmall, concentrated burst. Hitting its face, it fumbles back, releasing him. Helands on his hands and feet and quickly rushes to it unleashing a flurry of telekineticallyenhanced punches, psychic energy bursts out of his hands as he does so. Hestops to catch his for a moment. The creature is definitely feeling the impactof it as it wiggles and fumbles around. Suddenly, a gunshot is heard and abullet bursts out of its forehead. It falls down to the floor, dead. Sergey isstanding behind, holding his 9mm M1911 sidearm. “Thanks,” he says, stillcatching his breath, “Where’s Olivia?”

She’s still outside, inthe air, battling the last creature. In her weakened state, she’s unable tofight back. It tries to finish her off and lunges its staff towards her. Shegrabs it with both hands; her left just below the edge while her right is onit. She screams in pain as the energy burns. She musters up all her strengthand energy to hold it back, but something strange happens. Some of the energyon the edge flows to her right hand. She looks at it with confusion andtiredness. “Hey!” A voice shouts. They turn and see Takashi flying towards them,holding the other staff. He strikes the creature in full strength with its ownweapon, sending it towards the horizon. “Argh!” Olivia screams dropping thestaff. He quickly picks her up as the hovercraft drops and crashes. He landsback on the train with her. “Is she alright?” Sergey asks. “I don’t know,” hereplies, “shit, that’s a nasty wound.” “What is that glowing on her hand?”Sergey inquires. “I don’t know,” Takashi replies, checking it, “we can worryabout that later. You can go check on your men, I’ve got this.” “Alright. Becareful,” he tells him.

He runs back inside andinto the pilot. Viktor is kneeling on the floor next to the bodies of Valentinand Alex, crying. Badly wounded and burnt on several areas, they never stood achance. Sergey suddenly feels a feeling he hasn’t really felt in a long time:sadness…and fear. It grips him like a child’s hand that won’t let go. “No, notlike this,” Sergey says. A soldier learns to ignore his/her emotions, but thesight of his closest comrades’ bodies is too much. “I am sorry, Sergey,” Viktorsays. Sergey slowly walks closer and kneels down with him. He grabs and holdsValentin’s hand that lie on Alex’s chest, gripping it tightly. Tears roll downhis cheek, the first in a long time—though he probably won’t admit it later. “Theywere good soldiers, and good friends. Do svidaniya. You both will be missed,”he gives them a short eulogy and says his farewell. “Sergey, we are almostthere,” Viktor tells him. The city can be seen through the window.

Outside,Takashi tries to heal Olivia’s wounds, but replaceing it difficult to muster theenergy to do so after his battle with the creature. But he keeps trying,placing his hand over her wounds. “Come on, Liv. You’re stronger than this,” hesays to her. The energy that was absorbed into her right hand dissipates intoher. Suddenly he hears a low thumping sound coming from above. The aliens are preparingfor their final attack…and it’s a big one. All of the squid creatures beginlaunching explosive acid projectiles towards the ground, and it’s heading forthem. “Sergeeeeyyyyy!!!!” he screams. Still teary from the loss of hiscomrades, he fails to hear the bombardments happening outside. But he quicklyregains his composure as they’ve still got a job to do, and orders Viktor toget back to the controls before running back. “What is it?” he asks. He turnsto look at the numerous amounts of dark-green liquid substance raining downupon them. “What do we do?” he asks. “You take Olivia inside and braceyourselves,” Takashi says to him, weary, “leave it to me.” Sergey nods at himand quickly does so. He lays her on one of the seats and turns back around tosee Takashi outside raising both his arms to the sky. Using what strength hehas left, he surrounds the train with a huge force field. He seems unsure ofhimself, his heart pounding hard, his body tired and aching. When theprojectiles hit, the strain proves too much for him. “Aaaarrrrggghhhhh!!!!” hescreams in pain. The force of the impacts forces him down to his knees. Theshield weakens, but he tries hard to keep steady, to keep strong. Inside, Oliviastarts to regain consciousness. “Uhhhhh,” she groans. Sergey says to her, “Ah,you are awake. Are you okay?” “Yeah, what’s going on?’ she asks. “Uh, shortversion. Your boyfriend is outside doing his best to protect us.” She quickly getsup, “What??” she asks, shocked. She quickly pushes him aside and tries to runoutside to help him.

Unable to hold onanymore, he turns to see Olivia running to him as he gives in, lowering theshield. With his very last strength he jumps inside to the other cabin beforepassing out. The train then receives a fair amount of damage from the bombsbefore jumping off the track from the force and tumbles to the hillside nextdoor. As the train rolls down the hill leading to the cliff, they all rollaround with it inside, hitting everything. The backmost cabins crash into arock on the way and bend and drag the rest before snapping off and exploding. Theycontinue to hit more rocks that damages and separates them. With the pilot atthe front now, it hits another huge rock sending Sergey and Viktor flying to itleaving Olivia alone as the chain snaps off. The pilot cabin stops there on itsside while the cabin with Olivia in it reaches the cliff—the hillside angles backto almost flat level at this narrow part—hanging on its side as the train comesto a full stop. The trail of destruction it left behind is great with wreckagesand debris scattered all over as fires also burn in some parts. Sergey andViktor try to get up and stand, wounds and scratches covering their face andhalf their body. “Argh!” they both exclaim as they try to walk. Slowly theyreach the door, which is already destroyed, and step outside, fumbling. Theystare in awe as they witness the destruction that was left behind. His faceshows that expression of toughness again, fighting through the pain and againstoverwhelming odds. They survived this after all.

They slowly continue andwalk to reach the cabin where Takashi and Olivia are in, near the edge of thecliff. They’re shocked to see one of the cabins is barely hanging on the sideof the cliff. He quickly thinks of where Takashi and Olivia were when the trainfell, hopefully not in that one. He checks through the windows of the onenearest to them and sees Takashi passed out on the floor, also badly covered inwounds. “Viktor! Help me!” he shouts. At first, he wanted to enter directlythrough the window, but the broken glass would make that dangerous and painful.They instead climb to the roof of the cabin, tiredly, via a ladder on the sideand enter through the emergency door. He jumps in first followed by Viktor. “Shit,”he exclaims. “Takashi, are you alright?” “Uhhhhhh,” he groans. “Da, come on.You are alright,” Sergey assumes. He gets up and touches his forehead trying toquell the headache. “Uhhhh, what happened?” he asks. “I think you will want tostep outside and see for yourself,” he answers. “Ooookay,” he says, confused. Sergeytakes his hand and helps him get up. “Uh, where are we?” he asks, looking outthe window. “Where’s Olivia??” he asks with a worried face. “We do not know. Wewere just about to go look for her,” he explains. Worried, he quickly flies outof the emergency door and hovers above. “Oliviiaaaaaaa!!!” he screams for her. Sergeyand Viktor follow behind, climbing out of the door more slowly than him. “Youneed to slow down, my friend!” he shouts, “we cannot fly like you. Also, we donot want to attract the attention from our friends above.” He quickly fliesback down though—the wounds he sustained during the fall and the energy he lostduring the battle takes its toll on him. They quickly jump down to help him. Thetoll was definitely great, as just hovering for several seconds alone has rapidlydrained his remaining strength. He kneels on the ground next to the cabin withfatigue, shaking and shivering. His stare, blank like an unwritten whiteboard. Viktorcomes and helps him up; he picks him up by his right arm, without him budgingan inch, unmoved like a doll. “Come on, my friend. Snap out of it,” he says. Hesuddenly shakes his head like waking up from a daydream and quickly stands up,breathing heavily, hands pointed towards Viktor. “Hey, it’s okay,” Viktor says.“What happened?!” he asks. “You flew up and then went back down tired. I mean,really tired,” he explains. Meanwhile, Olivia is passed out inside the hangingcabin on one of the seats facing upwards. She wakes up and groans, also feelingthe fatigue and headache. She grabs her head trying to stop the headache andwake up. Her left hand touches the side of her body, her lower-right stomacharea, and feels the dampness. She looks at it and sees the blood…her blood.“Oh, fuck. That’s a lot of blood,” she remarks with a quiet voice. She can hearthe distant calls of Takashi from outside. “Oliiiviiiiaaaaaa….” She faintlyhears. Unable to move or speak loudly, she quietly speaks, “Yeah, I’m here,”resting her head.

All ofa sudden, the cabin shakes and she hears the bending and scratching of steel. Takashi,Sergey, and Viktor are also alerted to the sound. They see the cabins slowlymoving towards the edge, about to fall over. “Hey!!!! I’m here!!!!” she screamsat the top of her lungs for help. “Shit, that’s Olivia,” Takashi says. Theyquickly run to the edge. Olivia tries to move and grabs the edge of the seatsin front of her with her right hand first, but that proves painful thanks toher wound. So she stretches her left hand, but is unable to reach. The cabinstarts to tremble and shake more as both it and the other cabins attached areready to take a dive to the bottom of the cliff. She continues to try and reachit, but the seat she’s on breaks off to the side and she falls with it. Shegrabs on to the seats below, but proves useless as that one breaks off too. Shefalls down, breaking through the door and lands on the railings. “Ohhhhhhhh,shit,” she says, half-crying. The force of her impact has also started a chainreaction, culminating in the fall of the cabins. “Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!” Takashiscreams. He quickly points his hand to one of them and holds it back with allhis force, fighting through the pain and the fatigue. “Olivia!!! You have tofly up here!!” he shouts to her. Sergey and Viktor also try to help by pullingthe cabin—don’t really know what that’ll do though, but it’s better thannothing. “Arrrggghhhhhh!!!!” they scream as they do so. “Come on, Liv!!!” “Ican’t, Takashi,” she says softly, fully crying now. “You can do it, Liv!!!Please!!! I know you can do it!!” She wipes the tears away and leans on herside trying to get up. “I can’t hold it anymore, Liv!!!” he screams beforeletting go. Sergey and Viktor also release and jump out of the way. Oliviaquickly rolls over the railing, but catches herself midway through the fall,avoiding the train. She hovers on her back, but quickly spins around, as she’sunable to maintain focus, her vision getting blurry. She tries to hold herselfin the air, looking at the falling train as it reaches the bottom of the cliffand explodes. She forces herself to rise for a few meters, but stops. Takashikneels down near the edge trying to catch his breath and sees her. He pulls outhis hand and helps her stabilize. “Come on, Liv! I got you!” he shouts to her.“Okay,” she nods. With his help she rises to ground level and slowly reachesfor the edge. “That’s it, Liv! You’re almost there!” As she reaches the edge,she quickly falls to the ground and lies there beside him. She feels a greatsense of relief as the burden has finally been lifted of her shoulders. Theyboth continue to lie there and pass out for a moment, tired, too tired. They coulduse the rest. Sergey gets up and sees them resting there and lies back down, onhis back this time. “Da, we could use a little rest,” he says.