Chapter Four

"Are you sure about this?" Noodle asked uncertainly as she crouched in the cramped, tilted conductor's cab, staring at the small side window that faced the inside of the building that the train had run in to. Beyond the window some sort of small office could be seen, mostly in ruins and slightly obscured by swirls of heavy dust that hovered in the air.

"Yer the only one small enough," Murdoc explained from behind her as he dug through the various cubby holes and compartments that were in the cab. To Noodle's right, a darkened control panel sat in deathly silence, seeming to mock their instance to remain alive and even some what hopeful in the face of a terribly bleak situation, "and i's the only spot where nothin's in the way. If you could ge' t' the door, you, Russ and I can pry i' open from two sides."

Noodle watched the older man over her shoulder with a tight lipped frown, shifting her weight on her knees so that her legs wouldn't fall asleep from the uncomfortable angle that she was sitting in. Murdoc finally found what he was looking for and announced his discovery with a cheer of 'Hail Satan!' before he squirmed out of the cubby hole he'd crawled in to and held up a large, slightly grimy wrench.

"I do not want to leave you all in here," Noodle said after Murdoc had joined her near the small window, handing the rather cumbersome tool to the small girl after she spoke.

"Yer not," he said calmly, shaking his head, "Yer gonna go open the door, and we'll ge' the bloody hell ou' of dis thing,"

"And if I can't get the door open?"

"Then we think of sum'in' else. You gonna keep blatherin' at me or ge' goin' through the damn window?" Murdoc snapped rather gruffly, his newly gained patience already starting to thin. Noodle huffed her own frustrated sigh and turned back to the window, fumbling with the wrench until she managed to find a way to stick it in the back of her pants in such a manner that it wouldn't slip out as she tried to go through the small opening.

"Ready?"

"As I will ever be, Murdoc-san," Noodle grumbled. Murdoc picked up the other object he'd retrieved from his searching, a light but sturdy crowbar, and positioned himself in front of Noodle, covering his face with one arm as he began to slam the curved end of the object against the small window repeatedly. Eventually the fourth-inch thick safety glass gave way, spider cracking in the center where Murdoc concentrated most of the force of his hits, and he was able to lift one booted foot up to press the loosened material out of the black rubber molding that it sat in. The shattered window gave way and fell away, clattering noisily in the thick silence inside the building as it landed on a pile of rubble that lay below the tilted side of the train.

Murdoc moved away from the window and gestured to it with his crowbar.

"See yeh on the other side, luv,"

Taking a deep breath and one last look at Murdoc, Noodle quickly crawled up to the edge of the window and shimmied her way through opening, putting both hands out in front of her as she did so. Once her hands touched the small mound of debris that had fallen beneath the tilted side of the train, she used her position to easily summersault out of the train on to the carpeted floor of the office. Coughing at the amount of dust she'd kicked up, she slowly rose and surveyed her surroundings.

What she'd thought to be an office was a very close assumption; however it wasn't a conventional office by any means. Large pieces of broken window lying on the floor indicated that this was actually some sort of city-police run prevention program. The now dirty rug in the center of what was clearly a lobby floor confirmed this with a giant shield emblem announcing its connection to the Portland City Police Department, and a slightly dust-obscured sign above a receptionist desk declared 'Street Prevention: An Ever Growing Community'.

From where the train had landed several chairs and benches had been knocked over. A coffee table was on its side, a scattering of magazines and newspapers littering the floor. A water cooler on the other side of the wall had also been knocked over, the large five gallon jug slowly spilling the remainder of its contents via a small trickle on to an already large dampened spot on the floor.

Great. We broke a police office. That is going to be fun to explain.

"Noodle!" Murdoc yelled through the open window, snapping her out of her thoughtful trance. Noodle spun around to look at him in confusion, "The door," he informed her rather shortly, gesturing towards the object in question.

Noodle muttered a half hearted apology and picked her way through the mass of ruins until she was able to crawl up to a steady enough spot near the tilted sliding doors. Looking down she could see that there was just barely enough space for the doors to move outward. It would allow a big enough gap that most of them could get through, even Russel, though he'd definitely be a tight squeeze for the larger man.

On the inside of the train, Murdoc hopped back down from the conductor's cab, twirling the small crowbar in his fingers as he carefully moved to where Russel and 2D stood at the double doors that would, if all went as they planned, lead them to eventual freedom. 2D was squinting through the haze at Noodle's form, a worried expression creasing in to his face. A little ways down from them, Kara still lay unconscious on the window above the center facing seats, her tattered bag and jacket situated next to her.

"You sure i's safe t' leave 'er ou' der?" he asked quietly, glancing up at Russel to indicate that the question was directed mostly at him. Ignoring the obvious as usual, Murdoc interrupted the second Russel opened his mouth.

"No, bu' unless yer keen on rottin' in this thing fer the rest of eternity, I suggest you take a side an' start pullin', face ache," the older man grumbled as he moved up to the door and crawled to the top of it, using the small foot-wide space above it to position himself where he could get the crowbar in to the crack. He jammed the end of the curved section between the two rubber lined sections of the door and yelled for Noodle to do the same with her wrench down at the bottom. She did as he instructed and between the two of them they were able to pull the door open just a crack. 2D and Russel then moved in and pushed their fingers in to the free space.

"Ready?" Murdoc asked as he exchanged looks with each of them. Everyone nodded, and on his count of three they all began pulling, pushing, and prying. The door gave horrid, loud screeching noises of protest as it tried to resist the group's prying. It shuttered against its track, the sheer force of the locked hydraulics that were used to operate the door being enough to give the four of them sufficient problems in getting it open. Just when it seemed as if the door wasn't going to give and their tired, burning muscles would relinquish before the contraption did, there was a sharp, metallic ripping sound that filled the cab and the opening became wider, just enough to let them all through as Noodle had previous thought. 2D stumbled at the sudden jerk and fell flat on his face, but Russel was able to keep a hold of his end and Murdoc jumped down to the side and grabbed the other one, their combined strength keeping the doors from automatically slamming closed again. Noodle also stumbled backwards from where she was standing, tumbling end over end rather ungracefully to the carpeted floor below.

"D! Get the girl and get out!" Russel grunted to the fallen singer, his arms trembling as he and Murdoc desperately held on to keep the door open. Though they could attempt prying the door once more if it closed, there was no guarantee that the noise they'd heard wasn't the sound of the hydraulics breaking to such a degree that it would have been jammed permanently shut.

Quite frankly, no one there was willing to even risk the chance.

2D scrambled to his feet and went to where Kara lay, quickly pulling her dead weight frame on to his back and snagging her belongings in to his other hand, grunting as he realized that her weight was much more than Noodle's. Clumsily and awkwardly, he stumbled towards the door, pausing just before the opening to toss the messenger bag and jacket down to Noodle, who'd finally gotten to her feet again and was waiting nervously for her band mates to get through the limited opening. She caught the objects easily and called out for 2D to hurry.

He hesitated. He didn't know why, but standing there staring down in to Noodle's pleading eyes, looking at the ruined office that he was about to jump in to, he locked up. His heart started to pound against his ribcage again, much the way it had when he'd come across the desolate town for the first time, and a terrible sensation washed over him. Despite the crash there was a certain bizarre sense of safety within the trashed train, as if what was left of the metal walls and glass windows could protect them from something far worse than what had occurred. That meant that going in to the office, leaving the sanctuary of the MAX car, meant stepping in to something that they, even as residents of a place like Kong Studios, might not be able to handle. He felt sick, and he desperately wanted to reach down and yank Noodle back inside and stay on the train, even if Murdoc had said that they'd essentially be trapped inside there.

The doors gave a sudden jerk inward, completely shattering his line of thought and causing Russel and Murdoc to cry out loudly. They yanked back as hard as they could to keep them from closing completely, their arms quaking against the force.

"GO, TUSSPOT!" Murdoc roared at the suddenly indecisive 2D. Just then Kara let out a soft moan and shifted slightly on 2D's back. He looked over his shoulder at her, frowning lightly as she slowly roused in to consciousness. She mumbled something that sounded like a name, but he couldn't quite identify what her soft voice had spoken. His hesitation was gone, and like it or not, they were going outside. There was very little he could do about it anyway.

"Hang on, Kara!" he cried out before leaping out of the opening and hitting the ground roughly. He fumbled, unable to keep his footing from the oddly angled drop and the smattering of debris that he'd landed on. His foot snagged between two large pieces of crumbled wall and he tilted to the side, Kara rolling off his shoulders rather roughly. A second later he and Kara were both on the ground, 2D groaning from a new found pain lancing through his already throbbing skull from a badly placed piece of wall cement that his head connected with, and Kara curled up on her side as the jolt of falling had roused her completely in to a very disturbing and unwanted consciousness.

"...goddess, I thought I was dreaming," she whispered in a hoarse, awed voice, her eyes staring wide eyed at the train wreckage that lay before her. Her stomach turned sour and churned in a completely new kind of terror that washed over her, though she didn't have the strength of conviction to get up and be sick somewhere.

At the train, Murdoc and Russel were still struggling to keep the sliding doors from closing on them. The doors continued to groan, creak, and snap in protest as they trembled against the two men holding them open.

"Murdoc-san! They're going to close!" Noodle cried out worriedly. Russel looked to Murdoc and grunted as his feet threatened to slip and his arms shook terribly.

"Go," he ordered, staring at the greasy haired bassist. Murdoc shook his head vehemently, grimacing as the section he was holding open pressed harder and harder against his already wounded arm.

"No way. On three, we both jump out," he offered. Russel frowned, his body getting pushed forward a bit more as the broken but still pressured hydraulics thrust enough force against him to actually cause him to move, "They won' hold! If we don' go now..." Murdoc trailed off, his expression actually betraying a hint of concern for the first time that Russel could ever recall.

"...crazy crackah ass. Right. On three!"

"One!"

"Two!"

There was the briefest of hesitations as the two of them stared at each other in uncertainty, a moment of doubt as to what they were leaving and what they were possibly walking in to. It was the same odd, ill-feeling sense that had overcome 2D when he'd gone to jump out. Within that flash of a second, though, Murdoc was nearly shoved away from the door as it tried once more to throw off its humanoid shackles, and certainty replaced doubt instantly.

"THREE!" they yelled, hurling themselves away from the doors and down to the floor below. They rolled down the pile of rubble, cursing as a few more bruises were added to their already injured bodies.

The doors creaked loudly and proceeded to slam closed on their own volition, the force of their snap-back actually causing the windows to shatter in their holdings and a loud crash to ring through the building. A tense silence followed, broken only by 2D groaning at the horridly intense migraine he'd earned and Kara muttering incoherently under her breath while she stared in utter and complete disbelief at the train.

It wasn't long before Murdoc was on his feet, dusting his jeans off with his hands and using the time to gaze around where they'd managed to land. Russel followed shortly, a hand on his shoulder where a piece of rebar from the broken wall had jabbed him rather uncomfortably but left him uninjured when he landed. One eyebrow arched upwards on his head when he realized what they were in.

"A police station?" he muttered in an a tone belying the irony that he suddenly felt, "We crash a damn train and land in a police station?"

"We didn' crash shit," Murdoc hissed, digging in his pockets until he locate a partially crushed pack of smokes, putting one between his teeth with a scowl, "Wutevah hit us did tha' jus' beau'ifuly. An' I dun think i's a 'station', Russ. Looks like an office of sum sort,"

Russel stared at the greasy man while he lit the cigarette hanging out from his teeth and took a long drag. In no mood to argue with him, he gave a grumbled 'whatever' and shoved his hands in the pockets of his baggy cargo jeans.

"It's clearly police run, man," he added a few seconds later after staring at the billboard behind the receptionist's desk.

"Yer point?" Murdoc quipped as he blew out smoke from between his jagged teeth.

"My point, Muds," Russel said as calmly as he could manage, resisting the urge to slap a hand against his face as he so often did when Murdoc behaved in his usual manner, "Sumin' whack is goin' on here, and I fer one would feel better if we at least get some damn supplies and maybe a weapon or two."

It was Murdoc's turn for a questionably raised eyebrow.

"Weapons?" he echoed, throwing his hands in the air dramatically, "Fer what? The bloody city's ghosted, Russ! We and tha' damned red headed bird are the only ones 'ere! What're we gonna fight? FOG!"

During their conversation Noodle had moved to where 2D was kneeling with his head in his hands in an attempt to nurse the severe, pounding migraine he had. She'd been talking to him softly, mostly ignoring what was going on in front of her in her attempt to assist her friend any way she could, but upon sensing the beginning of yet another argument her head snapped up rather suddenly. Her dark eyes narrowed while Russel proceeded to explain in a quickly rising tone that Murdoc was not quite sane if he believed that there was nothing they needed to protect themselves from. She huffed a heavy, irritated sigh and rose to her feet, speaking softly to 2D after he'd lifted his own head to stare at her in confusion. She marched over to the two men, surprising them by pushing herself in between their bodies, her hands on each of their stomachs as her short form some how kept them apart.

Maybe she was scared, terrified even, of what they'd gotten themselves in to, but she was tired of having the two of them carry on as if nothing was wrong. She put aside her own gut wrenching feelings, reminding herself that she was tougher than she'd been acting, and if anyone was going to keep the group together it was going to have to be her.

"Enough!" she snapped loudly, glaring at both of them and silencing their bickering, "We are not in a situation for petty arguments and childishness!"

"You should talk!" Murdoc growled back, miffed that he was once again being told off by some one three times his junior, "OW! Crickey, wut the hell!" he exclaimed breathlessly, bending over as a sudden, sharp pain lanced through his stomach causing him to clutch at it with his free hand. Noodle had roughly jabbed two fingers in to his gut, the move striking a nerve in order to silence him.

"Whatever is going on," she started as evenly as she could, tossing a threatening look up to a rather stunned Russel, "it has put us in a very dangerous situation. I, for one, do not feel like dying today, and I would hope that the two of you feel the same. If we are going to survive we must stop arguing with one another and instead work together to get out of this! We are a band, let us act like one for once in our lives!"

Murdoc slowly straightened himself up, arm still wrapped around his stomach as he and Russel shared a long, tense stare. Noodle watched them closely, her arms still held out incase any more fighting should break out between the two so-called adults.

"Little sistah's right, Muds," Russel finally said, his voice much softer than before.

"Ehh," Murdoc groaned, looking down at the fringe-covered eyes that were now trained intently on him. He took a drag off his slowly fading cigarette and let the smoke slowly float out from his mouth, "Righ', righ'. Sorry Noodle girl," he finally muttered, stepping away from her to avoid any other unseen attacks that might come flying from the little axe princess. He extended his hand to Russel and the two men shook in a truce, "Weapons i' is. Shall we?" he asked, gesturing with a grandiose move to the door that stood to the right of the desk. Russel nodded, and they picked their way through the trashed office to the door and what lay beyond it.

After the door had been open and they'd disappeared in to the darkness beyond, Noodle went back to where 2D sat. He'd finally gotten off his knees and was simply sitting in the middle of the floor with his head still in his hands. The girl red haired girl that Noodle had heard 2D call 'Kara' before jumping out of the train had moved from where she'd been laying, muttering in wide eyed shock, and had grabbed her belongings from where the Asian girl had dropped them. She now had her back against the wall and was clutching the bag to her chest as if it were a life preserver in a storm. Though her expression had become a bit more normal, her skin still held a sickly pale tone and she seemed to be not all there at the moment, her eyes trained on some far off location beyond the window that her gaze was trained on.

2D gave a start when he felt Noodle's thin hand grasp his shoulder lightly. A halted gasp escaped his lips and his body tensed for a second, but relaxed once he realized that it was simply his younger friend coming to check on him. She stared at him with concern obvious in her round face.

"2D-san, are you feeling all right?"

"M' 'ead hurts..." he muttered quietly, rubbing the heel of his partially sleeve covered hand over the top of his forehead. He'd pulled down the sleeves of his long shirt and was clutching the hem with his fingers pressed in to his palm. It was an odd little habit he had, and one that didn't come up unless he was feeling particularly horrid and wanted nothing more than to crawl in to a warm bed with a thick comforter and sleep until the sun set.

"I am sorry, there is nothing I can do about that," Noodle said, a deep frown creasing her lips. 2D managed to some how force a hollow smile past the horrid, sharp pain shooting through his head and gently patted her hair.

"Dun worry," he told her, feigning confidence he really didn't have, "I'll be fine."

Noodle returned his statement with a skeptical look, but chose not to press him any further on the issue. Wounds were one thing, easily patched up and mended so long as they weren't life threatening. Pounding migraines that were a combined result of old injuries, current bumps, and over all stress required pain killers, which neither of them had, and sleep, which no one there was about to suggest he try and get.

Instead of dwelling on it, Noodle turned her attention to the red head against the wall. Kara's eyes were no longer disturbingly vacant, but to say she looked calm and healthy would have been an out and out lie. Noodle wondered how she hadn't completely snapped yet.

"What about your friend?" the young girl asked 2D, gesturing towards the wall. 2D turned, blinking in clear surprise. He'd actually forgotten about Kara, though not intentionally. The agony ripping through his head was to blame for that. Slowly he rose and managed to stagger over to her, Noodle walking beside him with a hand on his arm to ensure that he didn't go toppling over again. He stood over her, waiting for her mind to register his presence. Slowly she tilted her head up, her eyes narrowing as her mind slowly processed who he was and forced memories from before the train crash in to the front of her thoughts.

"2D..." she finally mumbled, her voice a little slurred. The blue haired man managed a small grin as he went over to the wall and took a seat beside her. Kara rubbed her face with one hand, wincing as her fingers brushed across the gauze that had been tied around her head where she'd received the nasty head injury that caused her to be out for so long.

"You 'member me den?" 2D asked after he'd curled his knees back to his chest and rested his arms across his knees. He looked sideways at the red head, watching her fingers trace a pattern over the bandage.

"Yeah. Took me a moment," she admitted, a heavy, weary sigh escaping her lips, "Guess I whanged my head pretty damn hard. I barely remember anything after talking to you,"

Noodle took up the spot on the other side of Kara, nodding slowly to her.

"You were quite injured, but lucky. If 2D had not caught you when he did, you would have wound up underneath that," the Asian informed her, pointing at the remaining section of the MAX. Kara's eyes followed the teen's thin finger, her expression darkening once more upon seeing the damage that was done. After a moment of silence she found herself dropping her face in to her hand, dimly taking note that she could barely move her other arm.

"Why can't my life be normal for once?" she moaned, her voice muffled from her palm being positioned just over her mouth. The other two stared at her, then at each other in clear confusion, but via a silent agreement neither pressed Kara to go in to what she meant. Instead 2D went digging for his cigarettes and rose to his feet once more, stepping to the other side of the room to light up away from the girls.

Noodle sat in contemplative silence, her ears twitching every time she heard faint shuffling, either from 2D as he smoked or from beyond the open door. Occasionally she could make out distant, far away voices, and though she could not hear words she felt comforted knowing that Russel and Murdoc were still in ear shot. Eventually a soft whine brought her attention back to the current room, her eyes traveling to Kara as the older girl gingerly pressed two fingers against the nasty, deep bruise that covered most of her shoulder.

"Are you all right?" Noodle asked. Kara winced as another light press brought sharp pains to her arm and nodded slowly.

"I'll be okay. Its not broken, which is a blessing to count, I suppose,"

2D turned his gaze away from the window he was staring out of while taking slow, long drags off his cigarette and allowing the nicotine to soothe some of his aches away.

"Pro'ly the only one," he commented, his tone suddenly dark as he crossed his arms across his chest and gestured towards the window with a jerk of his head, the dwindling cigarette dangling loosely between two fingers. Kara and Noodle exchanged a look of uncertainty, both slowly rising to join 2D out the window.

"Why are you being so negative, 2D?" Noodle asked as she approached. 2D frowned, bringing the cigarette back to his lips, pausing instead of taking a drag.

"Doesn' look promisin', luv," he informed the two of them, his lips pulled tight on his narrow face. The whole situation was obviously not a good one, nor a promising one as he had so aptly put it, but something else was bothering him. Ever since the first hit to the head he'd taken, he'd been thinking far more clearly than he'd managed to do so in years, and it gave him an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. Not only was the situation not right by any conventional or unconventional means, there seemed to be so much more beneath the strange surface that they were all seeing. For all his unexplainable clear thinking he couldn't grasp whatever it was that was hiding just beyond the fringe of understanding, and that was more frustrating than his bizarre understanding of what they were in.

What he was actually seeing didn't help matters, either.