When the carriage Richard and Talbot were still reluctant passengers on flew through the air towards the twisted crumpling wreckage disappearing into the lower levels, they glimpsed an approaching patch of floor that was still intact. They slid down the tipping carriage and jumped off. They hit the floor hard, rolled and crashed into the wall.
The carriage they had just disembarked from struck the damaged piece of floor they had sought refuge on and tumbled Richard and Talbot over the edge when it ripped free from its supports. They landed on the side of a lower carriage and burst through the window. The seats cushioned part of their fall and bounced them to the floor. They slid down the upended carriage towards the group of Insectoids gathered in a heap of entwined limbs at the bottom. Talbot reached out and grabbed a seat leg with one hand and Richard’s flaying wrist with the other. When Richard had secured a hold on the seat leg opposite, Talbot released him.
Richard grinned at Talbot. “See, that wasn’t so bad.”
Calming down from the rush of adrenaline and the hellish ride, Talbot looked at Richard. “I’m not sure if you are brave, mad, or utterly stupid. We’re no better off. We are back on the train with the monsters and this time there’s no door separating us.”
Richard shrugged. “I never said my plan was perfect, but we’re still alive.”
Talbot glanced at the mass of wriggling nightmares below as an Insectoid untangled itself from the heap of twisted bodies and pulled its limbs free. He doubted alive would be something either of them would be for very long if they remained in the train.
The Insectoid looked up and let out a clicking call before climbing the carriage. A second Insectoid, dragging two broken limbs, emerged from the group and headed up towards them.
Using the seats to haul themselves away from the oncoming monsters, Richard and Talbot climbed. By the time they had reached the top, three more Insectoids climbed after them. The two men gazed around at the mass of twisted metal and mangled carriages that formed a mountain of sharp edges they had to climb down. Progress would be slow. Talbot aimed the rifle at the nearest Insectoid and fired. The creature tumbled down the carriage, knocking two others back to the bottom. As he shifted his aim to his next target, the train lurched, forcing him to grab hold of something to stop himself from falling into the Insectoids’ twig-like clutches Metal creaked and screeched as the pile of wreckage shifted before settling to the occasional clang of something falling and the groan of the ship adjusting to the new shift in weight it was forced to support.
Richard glanced up when a series of calls revealed the Insectoids below weren’t the only ones they had to worry about. A group of them stood at the edge of the hole the train had punched through the wall and stared down at them. Richard stepped off the carriage and started climbing down. Talbot shouldered the rifle and followed.
Colbert examined the ladder running down the wall and then directed his flashlight down the elevator shaft at the door they needed to reach three levels below. “It seems easy enough. Climb down, force open the door, and it’s a short sprint to the armory. We grab as many of the alien weapons as we can and then get the hell out of here. Mission completed.” He stepped back while some of the others had a look.
Though the men remained silent, Colbert knew by their expressions he wasn’t fooling them any more than he was fooling himself. The shit was bound to hit the fan and they’d all receive a large face-full.
Shots rang out, killing some of the monsters that swarmed towards the Russians, but all were aware no matter how many they killed they wouldn’t survive the onslaught from so many.
A loud crash from above shook the room like thunder and halted the monsters.
The ribs of growth shook, dislodging pieces that landed on the floor and bounced down the sides of the hole. The ceiling groaned. The agitated alien arachnids jerked their heads back and forth as they screamed short shrills, as if they were communicating.
Rozovsky joined the others at sharing their gazes between the halted creatures and the ceiling. “What’s happening?”
It was a question none of them could answer.
A series of deafening crashes, clangs and screeches of metal foreshadowed the collapse of the ceiling that buckled before it gave way. Something appeared and, for a brief moment, hung poised above them before it dropped.
To avoid being crushed by the falling juggernaut and its accompanying wreckage, the creatures dived back into the hole and raced down the strange rib growths.
The train nose-dived after them.
Pieces of wreckage rained down around the men who pressed themselves tighter against the walls and watched the carriage dragged behind follow the front part of the train into the hole. The next carriage clipped the edge of the floor hole and tipped to the side, coming to a rest against the edge of the gaping hole it had forced through the ceiling. After a few minutes the falling debris ended. The carriage, the floor and the ceiling groaned as all settled.
The shocked Russians looked at each other.
Vadik grinned at his comrades. “I’ve been surprised by many things almost impossible to believe since setting foot aboard this alien ship, but I have to say, a train coming through the ceiling to save us, fuck me, I didn’t expect that.”
Momentarily forgetting the constant death and danger that stalked them, the others smiled at their good fortune.
Babinski took a step nearer the battered carriage. “I wonder where it came from.”
Vadik stuck his head through one of the broken windows and gazed up the carriage. It was bent, buckled and full of sharp edges. It would be a brutal climb, but doable. He pulled his head out. “To use an American expression, let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, it saved us and has also provided us with an exit.”
“Not more climbing,” groaned Sergei.
Vadik gazed back into the carriage when something scraped the side. A head rose into view and before he could back away or defend himself, the Insectoid jumped through the window and knocked him to the ground. A blur of twisted twig-like limbs adorned with thorny tips, frantically slashed and stabbed at his body and face. Vadik’s pain-wracked screams and convulsions ended when a spike entered his ear and pierced his brain.
The attack had happened so quickly, his shocked comrades barely had time to react before the monster turned on them. It leaped at Babinski. The Insectoid exploded in a spray of bullets. When it fell to the ground Rozovsky continued firing. Blood erupted from the wounds and limbs were sliced from its body. When the weapon ran out of ammo Rozovsky struck the monster repeatedly with the rifle butt, crushing its head to pulp.
Nikolay placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “That’s enough Rozovsky, it’s dead.”
Rozovsky removed the flashlight from the rifle and let the gore-stained weapon clatter to the floor.
With weapons raised and senses on high alert, Mikhail, Sergei and Brusilov approached the carriage and peered inside.
Mikhail climbed through a window and glanced at the tangled heap of dead Insectoids and then up the wrecked carriage. “That seems to have been the only live one.”
Brusilov glanced over at Babinski knelt besides Vadik’s body. “You okay, Babinski?”
Babinski climbed to his feet. “I won’t be until we leave this damned place.”
“Well, hold it together and hopefully we soon will be.” Brusilov cast a sad gaze at his dead comrade before he crossed to the train and peered inside as he worked out their next move. He glanced briefly at the dead Insectoids before gazing up the length of the carriage. At the top he spied another carriage they might be able to pass through, but beyond that wreckage blocked his sight. Another comrade dead and they were still nowhere near to finishing the mission. How many more would die before they left what was fast becoming their tomb. He briefly considered abandoning the hunt for alien weapons, but if he did, he argued, the men’s deaths would have been in vain. At least if their mission was successful their lives would have had some purpose, and they still had to find a way back to the exit because they couldn’t return the way they had come.