Chapter 4:

The train rumbled along the track. The driver seemingly oblivious to the missing carriages at the back. On the roof of the last carriage, a dark shape oozed along, feeling it's way. Then it reared up, it's mass forming into a humanoid shape. Perhaps only four feet tall, but then its arms extended, and stretched down to the roof. They narrowed to become harsh spikes, the colour draining out of them as they became silver, catching the final red and purple glow of the sunset.

The rear of the carriage was open, the door ripped away, the surrounding surface pock marked with damage from flying shrapnel. The inside of the carriage was brightly lit, at the far end some faces could be seen in the far carriage, pressed to the door, watching inwards with incredulous expressions. Inside the carriage, some stragglers cowered in the seating bays. Trying to remain inconspicuous, trying to hide from the quartet in the central aisle.

Three of this quartet were kneeling on the floor, staring back at the gaping hole at the rear. An assortment of guns clutched in their hands, their faces tense, breathing heavily. Sweating, even though there was a chill wind blowing in through the hole.

The fourth stood impassively. Hardly moving except for the gentle swaying of the train. Her face a mask.

"Is that it?" Sarah asked breathlessly.

"I don't think so." John replied. "I thought I heard it jump to the roof."

In unison they looked up. There was no clue, no sound to be heard. Sarah finished reloading her shotgun.

John said. "Some of the..." He hesitated. "... thing. I thought I saw..... saw it going back together on the train we left behind. Can it survive?" He turned to the others, seeking reassurance against his fears.

"I heard some tales." Derek said. "The later models had redundancy. Two power units, two chips." He took a deep breath. "Could be if there is something on the roof, it's still alive."

"Just one chip left in it then." Sarah said. She pumped a round into the gun, turned to them and said with grit in her voice. "All the more chance of us hitting it."

Cameron held her hand up. "I can hear it." Cameron's voice was soft. "It's up there."

The sound of punctured metal rang to their left. Swinging around to look John saw a thin silver blade running from the ceiling to the floor. It abruptly contracted upwards, thickening as it withdrew, then vanished into the roof. There was silence for a brief moment, then a loud burst of gunfire from Derek's MP5, and the ceiling shattered, fragments of plastic rained down on them. When his gun fell silent, the ceiling was peppered with holes above their heads. He reloaded.

"Now it can see us." Cameron said.

A speck of silver appeared in a hole above their heads. It rapidly grew, and a blade came shooting down towards them. Cameron gently kicked Derek out of the way, then grasped the blade. The other three scrambled backwards, as she tried to break the metal, but it slithered in her grasp and retreated back to the ceiling.

"It does not want to show itself." Cameron said.

"If it's lost metal, it's lost protection. Too much chance we can hit it to hurt it." Sarah replied.

"So we're safe down here right?" John asked.

As if to answer him, the blade came down again. There was a scream of pain from the seating bay to one side of them. John turned around to see the middle aged man pinned to the floor, the silver spike had pierced his shoulder and he was pinned like a butterfly on a board. Then once more the blade retreated.

Derek and Sarah both started firing into the ceiling. Cameron had still not fired. She had a Glock stuck in her waistband, and a large black-metal shotgun in her hands. John saw this, saw the metal stock, and had an idea.

"Cameron. I need your help." He called to her, then turned to the others. "Keep it occupied. I know how to beat this thing."

He lobbed the Glock he was carrying towards his mother, and the magazines from his trouser. Then turned to Cameron.

"We need to get on the roof. Carry the shotgun. I need you to get us up there from the door, and make sure we don't fall off. And whatever you do, do NOT stand up." He took her hand and led her to the gaping hole at the back of the carriage.

Derek had started picking his shots. "Only one magazine left." He called out to Sarah. "I hope your kid know what he's doing."

Sarah had her eyes fixed on the ceiling. Concern on her face. "So do I....So do I...." She muttered, then fired again at a trace of silver.

Needing both hands, Cameron stuck the shotgun into her belt, then swung out of the remains of the door, and punched her hands into the body of the carriage to pull herself up to the roof. She looked down to the far end and saw a small, almost child like, figure which had silver spikes for arms. It was plunging them into the roof of the carriage, again and again.

She reached down and swung John up beside her, keeping one arm around him. Hugging him to her, whilst her feet and other arm were braced to the surface of the roof.

Derek was on his final magazine. Sarah had emptied the shotgun. She pulled the Glock and started firing to the roof, which was becoming increasingly shredded.

"We should move." Derek shouted.

"NO!" She shouted back. "We must stay here, to stop it dropping down."

Derek fired again, a short burst, then his gun fell silent.

"No more bullets." He yelled. "Whatever he's going to do, do it quickly." At that moment a blade came down again. This time the machine could see them much more clearly now, and it's aim was true. The blade struck Derek full in the chest. He was slammed into the floor, his ribs creaking under the impact. In it's depleted state the machine had lost strength, it could still pierce human flesh, but it could not pierce the thick layers of Kevlar in the jacket. The blade withdrew, ready to be tried again.

On the roof John was eyeing up the overhead cables, and the diminutive figure spasmodically slashing down into the carriage.

"Cam." He said. "You need to throw the shotgun to about a foot above it's head. So that the gun is end on. It needs to be close to the cable, close to it's head. Do it now."

As he said this, the figure looked up. Seeing him, it abandoned it's destruction of the carriage and started moving towards him. Cameron had drawn the gun, and now threw it in a smooth motion towards the advancing figure.

Inside the carriage, there was brief respite for the crouching pair. Sarah reloaded the Glock with the final magazine, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then she realised where the machine had gone.

"JOHN!" She screamed, dropping the Glock, and scrabbling on the floor. Despair filled her voice, as she tried to get to her feet, lunging down the corridor in a desperate and futile attempt to stop the machine's purpose.

On the roof, the gun arced towards the figure. As it got close the barrel struck the cable, and slid along it. Seeing it the figure stretched out a hand, reaching for it. Arm lengthening.

"Like Adam." Cameron said.

A spark of electricity leaped from the stock of the gun to the hand of the machine. With the arc formed, the spark got brighter. Then the machine grasped the gun. Huge current surged, the cables above their heads shook and hummed, and gave off warmth. The gun started glowing, then brightened to a red heat. At the same time the machine started going through spasms of reformations, it's liquid metal heating up, the machine trying desperately to shift it's vital parts away from the heat, but unable to stop the current flow. The electricity arcing between gaps, rejoining the metal together. Then the heat in the gun got high enough to explode the full load of shells. It erupted in cascade of molten shards, the machine below it gave one final desperate twist of shape, then shattered into glowing fragments, that cascaded out into the darkness.

The train continued on. Heading into the night.

Cameron swung John back through the door, then jumped down beside him.

"Terminated." She said, walking towards Derek and Sarah.

"How.... how..." Sarah said, her mind racing. "Are we safe?" Staring at John.

"For now." Cameron replied in her monotone. Then added as if in an afterthought. "It did not get too hot. There was not enough heat for a big explosion." Sarah glanced up at her. Cameron winked.

Epilogue:

Agent Ellison approached the stationary carriages. It had only been a half hour since they had come to a stop. The brakes had applied automatically, screeching to a halt. The rest of the train was being followed by police helicopters and patrol cars. He thanked the Lord for having the good fortune to be nearby, with his radio tuned to the police bands.

"This is the type of work of my favourite fugitive." He muttered to himself.

There was a child, perhaps four or five, approaching along the track. A boy in shorts. He seemed to be searching for something, looking down at the track and surrounding gravel. A passenger? Ellison thought, and started towards him.

As he approached the boy, he realised that he had been mistaken. He was not a boy at all, but a girl in a skirt. When he was close enough to speak, he realised she was older than he'd thought, about mid teens.

She spoke to him in an impatient tone, a voice used to being obeyed.

"I must go Fort Stantham. It is one hundred and forty seven miles from here by road. You will drive me."

Ellison spoke a silent prayer. "Please Lord, give me strength for dealing with children."

The girl looked at him for a few seconds, then said. "Now! Didn't you hear me?"

Ellison's prayer remained unanswered. He sighed, and pulled a coin from his pocket.

"I'm not a taxi driver." He drawled at her in his laid back tones. "But I will help you."

He flipped the coin to her. "Here's a quarter. Call a cab."

With this he turned on his heels and headed back to the train. When he reached it he turned around.

The girl was still staring at him.

THE END

A/N:
Hope you enjoyed it. All comments welcome, especially on how I can improve as a writer. Am starting work on the final part of this vaguely related series of three stories. 'Dominion' should be ready in a couple of weeks. Since writing chapter 1, I've read some other stories in this group. Seems that many other people have covered the school angle, all much better than I can hope to! So I'll be leaving that now, and moving on to other areas.