The train cabin was full of meta humans. Wendigo, troll, Orc, Dwarf, Human, Ghoul, there was a pygmy, and in a water tank even a merman, a young Giant took up the whole back wall.
"What the fuck?" KC breathed, there were others on the bunks that lined the walls, under thin white sheets, they were all asleep, drugged.
At that moment the train bucked hard, KC raced to the door to look back over the train, the back carriages tore away, crashing and rolling in the dirt, leaving just half the cabin behind us, our carriage and the engine itself.
KC's face twisted in pain for a moment before she relaxed, above us a hind swung and crashed into the ground, adding to the wreckage of the train. "They're OK" she said. She must have received a comm. message, "They're all OK" she stressed "They've got one of the choppers, come on lets stop this thing, then we can get the fuck out of here" We moved through the carriage, careful to avoid the giant, I was pretty sure he was in a drugged sleep, but I didn't want to take the chance.
Outside the gunfire continued, sounding distant now, a chase perhaps? KC moved to the front, gun up, I felt for my knives thinking better of it, my hands were slippery and slick from blood, I didn't want to chance loosing my grip, my electricity would be dangerous too, whilst I had a general immunity to it I wasn't sure how it would play if I was covered in something conductive. A single shot took out the remaining guard at the controls and KC chattered with Lathain on stopping the train, pushing buttons and hauling levers, a high pitched whistle filled the air as the brakes engaged, the floor lurching slightly as it tried to slow, I glanced out of the window of the booth, there were balls of sand flying around in the distance, Lathain was a long way off.
"We'll just have to sit it out until they come pick us up" I said "Whilst they sort that I'm going to see if I can clean up somewhere"
"Yeah well you need it" KC muttered I tried to ignore her, she was looking at a map on the wall of the booth "Where about on this do you think we are?" She asked
"No clue" I said, spitting blood from the corner of my mouth, mine or from the tank I had no idea at this point "No comm. for GPS and I've not been able to keep track of how fast we were going to work it out" I told her "Try cross referencing the grid references with your GPS"
"See that's the thing, I already did and it says we should be practically on top of a base near this reservoir, but I can't see one, a base OR a reservoir" indeed she was right, out the window there was just an expanse of desert. "Maybe my comm. is broken?"
"Maybe" I murmured, "or maybe . . ." there was something odd about the scene in front of me, it seemed unchanging as we slowly rolled towards it, the train chugging to a halt, almost like a picture on a roller banner that spun round to give the illusion of more space ahead. "Try and go forward a little more" KC gave me a look that told me she wasn't pleased to be told what to do, but did it anyway, the train jolted for a moment before easing forward slowly. I watched the landscape, not in the front, but to the side at an angle, sure enough something seemed very different, in front we saw nothing but sand and rails, but as we continued at the side rocky boulders appeared, rocks which hadn't been shown at the front.
"It's some kind of camouflage" KC said, she was quick for a non magic user "You think it's here to hide the base?"
"Most likely, which means we'll probably meet resistance, if anything it's probably there to dissuade people who are lost into thinking they've found water, the map shows another part of the reservoir close by east wards, if someone were to see nothing but sand they would probably swing that way, thus leaving the base alone" I blinked my eyes a few times trying to shift my vision to the astral plane.
The world of colour moved to one of electric blue lines and purple haze, like a negative for a photograph in purple ink, ahead of me there was the orange haze of a mana barrier, a deep one too, we were right in the middle of it, but the edge could be seen. Odd however that the barrier seemed to have cracks and tears in it, whoever had built it was not maintaining it properly.
I blinked again to see KC shuddering. "What?" I asked
"I hate when you guys do that" she said "Gives me the creeps, with your eyes clouding up and everything" she shuddered again "So what did you see?"
"We're in the middle of the barrier" I confirmed "Looks a bit shaky to me, it's not very strong anymore"
"Think they're no longer around?" she suggested, I looked back to the carriage behind holding all the meta humans, we could only hope.
The train broke through and the change was instant, the reservoir was a dam that dropped sharply away to the left, but came near the edge to the right, there was greenery on one side too, though the desert heat and strong winds would mean they were only the hardiest of plants and probably not edible. What must have once been a base was now just a few shack buildings, the shell of an old larger structure could be seen as KC pulled the brakes again to stop us.
We waited in the train for a moment, but there was nothing, no movement, no passing shadows, not even the customary tumble weed I had always envisioned in a place like this.
"Either no—one is home or we spooked them into hiding" KC said, "We'd better make this quick, you clean up in the water, I'll take a look around" Whilst I didn't like the idea of leaving KC to scope out the place on her own I really had no choice but to follow her suggestion, the blood coating was thick and it was drying, cracking against my skin in the dry heat. KC came with me to the water's edge, satisfied that there was no one around she left me to strip and bathe, I'd retrieved a bottle of wash from the lab area, thankful for the suds despite the strong chemical smell. I washed in my underwear, once clean I scrubbed my clothes as best I could, all the while keeping an eye out just in case.
The whole area really felt like a ghost town, it was at times like this that I wished I'd learnt the life spell Master Wodan had suggested, it would have told me just how many critters there were around here. The water in the shallows was warm to the skin, gradually getting cooler as I waded deeper to wash the blood from my hair. Climbing out KC was sat at the edge beside my clothes, her rifle on the ground. That meant she thought we were safe enough, I could relax a little.
"Not a soul but for a few lizards" she said "Can't even see tracks of larger animals, nothing has been this way in a really long time" she said, she raised a brow as I waded up towards the edge taking in the lightning scars that covered my whole left side. "Damn girl that's a sexy look" she said with a grin "How do you keep the boys off you?" I didn't comment and she rolled her eyes. I rung the water from my hair and pulled on my damp clothes, feeling a million miles better.
"So what have we got?" I asked. KC grinned and threw something to me, I caught it, a candy bar.
"We got a whole host of rations, and . . . " she held up a dangling set of keys "We got a broken down bus with enough gas to get us to Gary, which is the next stop"
"A bus?" I asked, she nodded "Big enough to take a few others?" KC's face fell
"Oh hell no"
