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Chapter 10 λ
"That's our ride out of City 17?" Adrian whispers doubtfully. Olivia merely glances over her shoulder at him, and nods but doesn't answer. They (and the rest of the team) are crouching in an unused customs office at the train station, watching through a large mesh window. What they are watching is a train platform, or more accurately, a supply train being loaded, a step beyond the platform.
"That is, unless you have a ten-seater plane hidden about your person." Walt says, and is shushed by Chester, to Adrian's satisfaction.
"Alright team," Chester begins. "The train is set to leave in about ten minutes. While the metrocops are busy loading it, we'll move to a blind-spot. We'll wait there till the train is loaded, and when the platform is empty, we'll have approximately three to four minutes to sneak on. If we muck that up, we're all dead. Clear?" The rest murmur variations of "yes", so Chester nods, and says "Let's go."
Still crouching, Chester crawls to the office door, and opens it so slowly that it makes no sound at all. He pokes his head out and makes sure that the CPs are distracted. They're still working on loading the first few carriages, so they're all on the far side of the train. He reaches around for the handle of the next office's door, opens it, and dashes in. They follow one by one, until they're all in the next room.
"Wouldn't life be so much simpler if they built interconnecting offices?" Basil muses aloud, as Chester leads them to the back of the empty office. He slides a filing cabinet to one side, revealing a large air grate, which he pulls out of the wall. He steps aside, and the others crawl through, emerging behind a low wall built out of innocently-placed skips. Beyond the dumpsters is the platform and train, where the metrocops have moved on to the central compartments. Chester joins them, and replaces the grate.
The resistance team watches the CP team wheel trolleys in, empty them into the train compartments and wheel them back out again. Eventually the train is fully packed and ready to leave. The last metrocop slides the compartment door closed and pats the side of the train, then turns and pushes a cart back into the storage facility. As soon as the storage-bay doors close, Chester leaps out from behind the dumpsters and sprints towards the train.
The Combine use Razor Trains for transporting their soldiers, or prisoners soon to be soldiers. For citizen relocation and cargo, they use the old Earthly trains. These are now ancient and unlooked after, covered in rust and dirt.
Chester runs to the train, and leaps off the platform without stopping. The rest catch up with him, and scramble over the platform's edge more carefully. They follow him, crawling under the belly of the train, where he opens up a trapdoor. He climbs through, and turns to help the others up one by one.
When it's Adrian's turn, a loud hum starts up from around the front of the train, echoing through the cavernous depot. He looks around nervously, but Chester shouts at him to hurry up. He gets on the train easily; all he has to do is stand up through the trapdoor, and the compartment floor is waist high. From then on it's sort of like climbing out of a shallow pool without a ladder.
Next, Basil climbs up easily, and then it's Leo. By now, the hum is almost deafening as the train begins crawling forward. Adrian relaxes; maybe he overreacted before, maybe everything is going to be alright. A scream proves him wrong. He turns to see Chester and Mikhail, leaning over the opening. Then he sees that they've each got hold of Leo's arms, and are attempting to pull him through, as the train picks up speed. When they manage to get him up, Adrian looks away.
"I've never seen knees bend that way." Basil says, sitting next to Adrian. On the other side of the carriage, Olga tries to get Leo to be quiet as they stretch out his legs to realign them. Adrian doesn't answer. Olga pulls the cap off a medflask and tries to make Leo drink from it.
The rest settle around the boxes. Olivia looks at the label on the crate next to her. "There's food in here!" She exclaims, rolling onto her knees and trying to get the crate open. Some of the others try to do the same, but Chester stamps his foot to get their attention.
"STOP!" He bellows. They look up, hurt. "What d'you think they'll do if they get to the station and the crates are all smashed open? They'll know we were here, and then they'll tighten the security around the platform. Then anyone to come after us won't have any way out of the city, with the canals shut down!"
"But… it's chicken!" Olivia answers pathetically.
"What she's trying to say, Chester, is that the team can't waste this opportunity to get the nutrients that are inaccessible in everyday circumstances." Olga interrupts.
Chester looks at each of the fighters' faces in turn, then turns to Mikhail for support. Instead of backing him up, he says "This is true. For health and morale. Maybe we should--"
Chester exhales angrily. "Okay, listen here you. One crate, okay? I suppose that wouldn't be too suspicious, stuff gets lost in transit everyday…" His voice fades out as the others begin to argue which crate to open. Walt and Sylvia want beef, and Olivia argues for chicken, until Chester threatens to shut the whole thing down. Olga suggests pork, so Chester goes with that.
After they get the crate open. Stacked neatly inside are two columns of plastic lunchboxes. Olga passes them out, and Adrian pulls the top off his. It's sort of like an aeroplane meal; the bottom half of the box is a compartment plate, with two little pork-chops in the biggest section, and a few roasted potatoes and boiled broccoli on the side.
Adrian digs in. Everything's stone cold, but the undeniable taste of actual non-powdered meat puts everyone in a good mood. Even Chester makes some kind of Brit joke about something to do with a Sunday roast.
"I'm thinking of joining the Overwatch if we get to eat like this everyday." Sylvia says jokingly to Walt.
"I'd give them a map of all the hideouts if they gave me a couple of crates of this." He answers. It's another joke, of course, but it's not very funny coming from him. The carriage falls awkwardly silent.
Adrian sits back with his plate on his knees, watching the city dissolve into the forest's outer reaches, as the train lurches away from City 17.
Comments λ
And with that recycled line, dear readers, my story draws to a close.
That was obviously a joke :I
Sorry for the short chapter, I wanted to continue the train-ride in a new chapter. Why? That's for me to know and you to find out ;D Pretty soon actually.
A side-note; In case you didn't know it already, one of the Combine's tactics for getting people to join the CP or Overwatch is better meals. And Sylvia's line is a variation of what one of the people actually (jokingly) says in the game.