CHAPTER FIFTEEN
4
I keep staring into the thick layer of smoke around us, trying to catch a last glimpse of Marina disappearing through the hole in the back wall of the train car. For a split-second, I can make out her long, dark hair shortly flutters in the wind.
Then she's gone, and it's our turn.
Hand in hand, Sarah and I stand right next to each other, facing the destroyed back wall of the train car. The last ones left, the last ones who still have to make the jump.
Sarah nervously twitches and moves closer to me, gently clinging to my arm, leaning her head against my shoulder. I smile and lean my own head against hers. After all this time, I still get excited every time the two of us are alone together.
We keep standing in this loose embrace for a while, while the airflow entering through the hole in the wall mercilessly blows icy breezes into our faces. The dark smoke that still rises from where that Mog threw the small red bomb encases the whole wagon like milky curtains, like waving fabric in the icy wind. Shadows dance around in the swath, faking movements where there are none and making me flinch every time.
The heavy layers of billowing fume seems to weigh the whole room down, it feels like every move takes more effort than usual. Breathing burns like hell; my lungs feel like they're on fire from all the smoke I've taken in.
It stings in the eyes, too. Keeping them open for longer than two or three seconds without blinking is almost impossible. Not that it would be of much use, anyway. The grey foggy clouds around us are so thick, I can hardly even see further than to the next seat row a couple of feet away. The wind doesn't keeps the clouds of smoke from getting out, so that they have been slowly filling up the whole wagon from the bottom to the top, turning it into a ghostly, menacing room full of dark corners.
I keep bumping into seat rows, because I can't see a thing. The only way to be sure Sarah is still around is by feeling her soft skin on mine, by hearing her heart silently beat right next to my chest. And despite the severity and danger of the situation, I wish this moment would never pass.
Having Sarah so close to me – Sarah, the cutest, kindest and prettiest girl I've ever met – I could forget the whole around us. Just the two of us in empty spaces. Only Sarah and me, wrapped in blankets of grey mist. There's nothing I want more than to just lose myself in her eyes for eternity. Lose myself for ever in this moment. A moment of peace. Of calmness. Of perfection.
A deafening noise behind us makes us both jump as the whole train car shakes. Sarah shoots me an alarmed glance. We both know what that means.
The Mogs in the next wagon are starting to get through the barricade of benches I've put up in front of the iron door to keep them from getting in here. It's not going to hold much longer, the crunching creaks coming from the seat rows is getting louder and louder. Whatever the Mogadorian army on is hammering against the door, they're going to break through sooner or later. We got no time to lose.
"I wish we could just stand like that for ever," Sarah silently whispers, as if sensing my urge to leave. I give her a kiss on the cheek.
"Me too," I whisper back and pull away from our embrace. "But if we do, whatever breaks through that door will make that 'for ever' really short." She crooks a grin.
At least I think she does. The smoke is so thick, I can't exactly tell.
I turn towards the hole in the wall and take a deep breath. Through the clouds of smoke, it suddenly appears way smaller than I thought, as if it had shrinked while I hadn't been looking.
I shake my head. The smoke is starting to cloud my own thoughts. I bite my lip, trying to focus on what's important. On getting Sarah out of here alive.
"Ready?" I ask.
"No," she hushes back. I smirk.
Neither am I. I have no idea what will happen when we jump through that hole. We don't even know how far down we will fall. It could be just a few feet, or it could be much more.
I hope Eight and Marina didn't get hurt when they jumped off. And that they have not run into more trouble afterwards. After all, those two other Mogs are still somewhere out there.
One more reason to get off this train immediately.
Another cracking noise from the iron door makes us start. Two more benches in the barricade break under the Mog's hammering They're almost through. We'Re running out of time.
I grab Sarah's hand and pull her a few steps backwards for some more runup.
"Here we go," I whisper. I make sure that my grip around Sarah's hand won't loosen when we jump, then I take one final, deep breath.
"John," Sarah says in a hoarse tone, but I ignore her. Whatever she's about to say, it has to wait until we're outside.
"Alright, on the count of three we run up to the hole and jump," I say.
"John, this…" she begins again, but I shake my head. Not now.
"One," I start counting, and tighten my grip around her hand even more. She groans in pain, but she'll have to bear it, I need to know exactly where she is at all times.
"John, we…"
"Two," I cut her off. Another one of the seat rows behind us shatters under the pressure.
"Three," I say and want to start running, but Sarah doesn't move. She even takes a step backwards, trying to pull me with her.
"Please, don't," she silently whimpers.
"Come on Sarah, we have to get out of here," I shout at her. "Right now! Do you want to get caught by the Mogs?"
An especially strong gust blows a big cloud of smoke into my stinging eyes and I can't see very clearly for a moment, but in these few seconds of vehement blinking, it seems like a sad, regretting look crosses Sarah's face. As if she actually prefers this option over jumping off the train. Or was it just my imagination? Her nose's shadow in the glimmering light, maybe?
"Of course I don't," she says, her voice different than before. Full of fear and shaking from indignation, but there's something different to it. Something almost accusing.
"I don't want to get caught by those monsters again. But I'm scared, John. If we jump, who knows how far down we will fall. You're a Loric. You have superpowers, you can survive about anything, I'm sure you'll be okay. But I'm just an ordinary human, John. We die, when we hit our head too hard."
"I'll catch you before you hit the ground," I say, trying to sound as confident as possible. But deep down I know she's right. What if something were to happen to her? What if I do lose my grip around her?
"I'll never let anything hurt you again," I add, and she shoots me a wry glance. Then she looks down to her feet.
"I know… It's just that…"
She falls silent, not finding the right words. Another hammering crack from the door.
She tugs a loose hair strand behind her ear, and as she does, she looks so innocent, so vulnerable, that I just don't have the heart to force Sarah into jumping. Not when she is so scared of it.
And then suddenly something – I don't know if it's the desperate look on her face or her stooped, upset posture – something reminds me of the day we found her in the New Mexican U.S. military base, where the Mogs had kept Sarah for weeks. I sometimes still have nightmares about that moment I stormed into that cell. The sight of her, broken and defeated, rotting away in a dark corner, all alone, holding on to that one hope that we would come and save her, close to just giving up.
Seeing her like that, exhausted and hardly conscious, broke my heart that day. I can't let this happen again. I must get her as far away from the Mogs as possible.
Sarah raises her head, as if sensing I have made my decision. I look deep into her eyes.
"Do you trust me?" I finally whisper after a few seconds of silence, pulling her closer to me.
"Yes," she says without hesitating. I smile, grateful for her unconditional confidence in me.
"Then close your eyes," I demand, nodding reassuringly.
She gives me a long, thoughtful look, than she does as I told her and closes her eyes, now fully relying on me to guide her.
Just like she did when she followed me into this whole mess. Which she should never have done.
I sigh and glance back to the iron door one last time. Of course, it's no use, I can't even see half the way through all this smoke. But from the cracking noise of the benches I can tell it's not going to last longer than a few more seconds.
"Ready?" I ask her. She bites her lip, then lets out a long sigh and nods.
"Alright then, Sarah, follow me," I order.
And we both start running.
Hello everybody,
Yup, it actually took me more than one month to write this little piece of crap. Nothing to add, my ability to keep doing something until the end is bad and I should feel bad.
Sorry if I kept anybody waiting, I'd like to tell you that it won't happen again, but unfortunately that would be lying.
So thanks to all of you who keep reading this story, it really means so much to me (yes, I am aware of the irony).
As always, reviews are welcome and really appreciated.
See you in hopefully less than one more month, have a great time, and thanks for reading =)