Chapter 3:
The sun was low on the horizon, and as the train rounded a corner, onto the next seemingly endless stretch of track, a deep red glow entered the carriage from the fading light. A sudden brighter spark of blue lit up the now darkening trees by the track, as the overhead cables briefly lost contact with the trains pick ups.
Seemingly oblivious to this, the man in the blue suit at the far end of the carriage moved his gaze away from them, looking around inside the carriage. Then he turned back to them. Looked at John, and started walking slowly towards them. Swaying slightly as the train passed over undulations in the track.
Sarah knew what to do next. She turned to her son and shouted. "John. Next carriage. Now!"
She did not wait for a reply, but picked up the bag that Derek had placed next to him, as she did she turned to the nearer machine and shouted. "Cameron. Rip up the floor, and side walls of the connecting corridor. Then shaped charges on the coupling. We need to separate the carriages."
She turned back to John, and threw him the bag. "Claymores, two each side of the door, on the outside, facing this way. Keep the remote."
She moved to stand in the corridor alongside Derek, who was still braced in the seat, leaning his gun on it. He had never seen anything like what they were facing, but he had heard tales. Stories that were told on those quiet nights. Stories that he had never fully believed, which had always seemed far fetched and exaggerated. But he clutched the gun to himself, as the man advanced. Then the machine paused. It was next to the family who were trying to hide in the seat bay. Derek could not see them, but he had seen the teenage boys trying to hide there earlier. Behind him came the sound of Cameron starting to demolish parts of the train.
The man lifted an arm and pointed into the bay. The arm seemed to thin, the blue of the jacket compressing against the arm, then slowly turning to a silver as it extended into a blade that was stretching towards the cowering family.
The shotgun went off next to his ear. The man's arm took the hit at the elbow, jagged shards of silver erupted, and the blade fell to the floor with a clang, its tip coated in red. The man turned his head back towards them. As he did so the jagged shards on his stump of an arm retracted in on themselves. The stump stretched out, and the arm seemed to grow back as they watched. The blade on the floor appeared to melt, and turn into a silver snake, that wriggled over the floor towards the man's foot. As it struck his foot, it turned to the same black as his shoe, and became absorbed. The man then began walking slowly towards them.
Cameron was attacking the short connecting corridor. She had already ripped up the covering over the coupling, flinging pieces of metal and plastic behind her, narrowly missing the couple who were trying to hide, too terrified to move on up the train with the other passengers from that section.
John could see down towards the track, the sleepers racing past. He could see the coupler, two pieces of hefty metal holding hands, holding the train together. A thick cable next to them, carrying power through the train. A sudden blast of air made him look up, Cameron had kicked out the side wall, exposing the outside ends of the carriages. The sound of gunfire erupted from where Derek and his mother were engaging the other machine. John worked quickly, pulling out a Claymore. The magnet on it's base secured it firmly, he checked he had the remote in his pocket, then pulled out the safety pin. Seeing it was OK, he picked up another Claymore.
Derek held the MP5 steady as he fired on full auto. The impact from the bullets halted the advance of the machine. Ripping into its surface, and causing small craters of silver. The shotgun blasts from Sarah were more effective. She was aiming for it's legs, each shot ripping out chunks of silver, causing it to collapse to the floor. Derek emptied the magazine, and pulled out a new one from his vest. At the same time Sarah had emptied the shotgun, she began filling it with shells pulled from the bandoleer. Her fingers shaking, dropping shells on the floor. Derek looked up at the machine as he re-cocked the gun. The silver craters on it's body were filling in, the blue of it's suit merging together back into a seamless surface. The last streams of silver, liquid like mercury, were re-absorbing into it's feet. It began to move towards them more quickly.
Cameron was finishing placing the shaped charge from her belt, as John took the last Claymore out of the bag. She stood up, and jumped over the gap into the rear carriage. Moving the TAC-21 into her hands.
The machine was half way towards them when Derek started firing again. The bullets were only slowing down the machine, it still made progress towards them.
Sarah screamed at him. "We must hit something vital, a chip or power cell. Keep firing."
Did she really think I was going to stop? He thought.
The machine was only a few yards from them, and Sarah was still struggling with the shotgun, when a stubby nosed rifle appeared next to Derek. It erupted fire towards the still advancing machine. It's face and chest were smashed into a chaos of silver. Cameron stepped forward and kicked it, sending it sprawling back down the carriage, as she let the empty magazine fall, and replaced it with a full one.
"Move back. Now!" She shouted at Derek, Sarah had already retreated to where John waited, clutching the remotes.
Derek scrambled backwards, then turned and leaped over the gap. Clutching at the fragments of the door on the other side, he pulled himself in.
The machine had reformed, and was advancing on Cameron once more. She finished loading the TAC-21 and raised it to fire. The machine raised it's left arm and a blade of metal elongated towards her, fast enough to knock the gun to one side. The machine raised it's other arm, which elongated to a blade, as it did so it pulled it's arm back to strike at Cameron's chest. Cameron was struggling to bring her assault rifle round in time. She dropped it and struck with her fist at the approaching blade. The impact of her fist caused ripples in the arm, but the silver metal oozed around her small hand. She pulled back, but the silver held her in a vice like grip. She raised her foot and kicked it in the chest, but held by her hand, the machine stayed on her, it swung again with a free blade straight at her neck.
The blade shattered as a shotgun blast hit it. A second shot hit its leg, causing it to collapse to the floor. Cameron swung her free hand to chop at the blade which held her fist. She broke free, and the metal encasing her hand fell to the floor, to reform into silver rivulets that streamed towards the fallen machine.
As Cameron turned back towards them, Sarah screamed to John, "Now! Blow the coupling." He pressed the switch as Cameron reached the edge of the far carriage. There was a blinding flash, and a loud explosion, the floor shifted violently under their feet, throwing them to the floor. Cameron was flung back towards the silver monster, which had reformed and was advancing once again.
Suddenly the carriage heaved, and the gap between them and Cameron increased, the coupling had broken.
John started shouting in a panicky voice. "Cameron, jump. Please jump. I need you. Jump."
The carriage jerked, and the gap stopped increasing as the carriages became held by the connecting cable that was now taught, and strained with the tension between the carriages. Cameron started running towards them again.
Sarah shouted to him. "The Claymores, NOW!"
At the same time a hail of bullets from Derek's MP5 struck the shape behind Cameron, slowing it down, but his magazine was soon empty. She reached the edge of the carriage and leaped. Her arms reaching for the floor beneath their feet. A silver snake surged from behind her and grasped her ankle. As she came down, her hands grasped the edge of the carriage, her fingers biting into the metal. The snake tightened its grip on her ankle. At the same time it shortened as the machine came walking towards them. Then there was a Crack,Crack,Crack from Johns pistol, the large bullets thudding into the snake, and causing it to part. Cameron pulled herself into the carriage just as the machine leaped after her. At that moment John hit the remote, and the Claymores blew. A thousand shards and fragments flew into the advancing hulk of metal, ripping it into twisted sheets of silver.
Sarah aimed at the taught cable still holding the carriages together, she fired and with a snapping sound it parted, the gap between the carriages suddenly increasing again. As the squirming sheets of metal fell, some of them started to coalesce rapidly, one blob, reached out a tentacle and grabbed the trailing cable on the carriage they were on. Other blobs of silver scattered onto the track, some plastered the face of the now quickly retreating carriage, sparks flying from it's brakes. The one that had grabbed onto the cable started to form into a human shape. Sarah started firing at it, but with the bouncing on the track, she missed more than she hit. It reached up with more offshoots to the carriage and pulled itself towards them. Cameron had pulled the Glock from her waistband and levelled it at the blob in the doorway. As she fired it leaped up and outwards.
At first John thought that the remains of the machine had jumped out into the dusk. But a thump on the roof above their heads told him otherwise.
The train, now missing half it's carriages thundered on into the night. Sparks flew from the overhead cables as a formless mass slithered along the top of the last carriage.