Resident Evil:

The Whole Story.

Chapter Thirty.

The moans of the restless passangers from the lower compartment sent a shiver down Rebecca's spine, despite trying as hard as she could to ignore them. They couldn't make their way up the stairs. Whatever had turned them into what they were now had robbed them of their intelligence and they could only stand at the bottom of the stairwell and stare up at them with their blank, white film covered eyes.

She didn't understand it, the wounds that some of them were suffering were debilitating at the very best and beyond lethal at the very worst, a human body could not function normally with the amount of damage they were suffering from. They should be dead, they were dead. And yet they were still moving, and they could take nearly half a dozen gunshots to the chest and barely seemed to feel it but a single shot to the centre of the forehead brought them down like a sack of bricks.

It wouldn't fit in her head, zombies were the stuff of horror movies and video games and comic books. She had been training by a doctor, she knew that something like a zombie was almost medically impossible. The dead couldn't be brought back to life, well technically you could bring back a person who's heart had stopped but the window of time which you could do that in without the person suffering from severe brain damage was too small.

But on the other hand it didn't seem like the people down below were exactly in control of all of their faculties, they didn't seem capable of speech or any logical reasoning. Perhaps they did have brain damage, she had to admit that she didn't exactly go into the exact medical science of how a zombie apocalypse would actually work.

But while the brain might be damaged that didn't explain how their bodies could function. Some of the wounds that she had seen were impossible to survive and most of the others were debilitating, it had to be from a disease but Rebecca didn't think that one that could do what she had seen on the train since she and Edward had board could exist, it had to be artificial but if that was so, who had made it? Umbrella? This was their private train line and it was known that they did medical research, perhaps it was some experimental strain of rabies? Had they been trying to develop the cure to a disease and yet in doing so, had made one worse than anything Rebecca had ever seen before.

A thousand questions and yet not a single answer to be seen, not that it mattered at the moment anyway. What had caused zombies to come into the world didn't change the fact that they were trapped on a train full of them. Of course, that wasn't the only problem. She and Edward were cut off from the rest of the team and it was a safe bet that the forest wasn't safe which meant that the rest of the team was in danger as well and they weren't able to warn them because they radios were still not working and even with all of that, it still wasn't the worst part.

No, the worst part that was in addition to the flesh hungry monsters, they were trapped on the train with a madman. Billy Coen didn't look like what she expected a madman to look at, in fact if she was going to be honest, he was actually quite attractive. That almost made it worse, if he had been disfigured than she would have been able to believe what was said about him readily. She wondered what the said about her.

He was currently trying to get one of the windows open, while the creatures below had been unable to figure out a staircase, yet, none of them were very enthusiastic when it came to the idea of breaking the window open. Billy had mentioned that he had taken cover in the train so that was as much conformation as she needed that the forest wasn't safe either.

That was the best way to think of it,

Well, it seemed like she and Edward were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or, rather they were stuck between a forest full of monsters and a train full of them, either way they wouldn't be safe unless they got back to the city. Suddenly a horrifying mental image of Raccoon City overrun with whatever sickness had struck this train danced in front of her eyes, rotting corpses walking through the streets, no one being able to stop them. Screams filling the air.

Whatever else happened, they couldn't allow whatever this was to reach the city, to reach any city. If it did, then it would be the end. The end of everything, they would have to get the CDC on the phone as soon as they got back. Not to mention the FBI, the National Guard, the Marines, the Army, NATO and maybe just to be on the safe side the justice league and the Avengers and Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver as well.

The thought caused a laugh to escape from her mouth and made Edward and Coen look back at her from where they were working on the window, she cleared her throat and looked down at her feet. Things were bad enough as they were, she didn't need them to think that she was beginning to crack from all that had happened up to now.

Of course, going insane might be the only sane thing to do. Maybe she had gone insane, maybe after her dad had died she had been taken to a mental asylum and left to rot and this was just the latest in a long series delusions. It was odd how comforting a thought that actually was, but no. This was real, no matter how much she might wish otherwise. She had to keep herself together, she didn't have another choice.

She pushed herself up from the chair she had slumped down in and walked over to where Edward and Coen were standing, Rebecca's eyes landed nervously on the large silver revolver that was tucked into the back of Coen's pants, he had his back to her and he didn't know that they knew who he actually was. When they had asked him for a name, all he had said was that his name was Dylan. She could reach out and grab his gun and then he would be disarmed and they would have at least one less problem to deal with.

But as she stepped closer she saw Edward shake his head and considering it was sort of her fault that they were trapped on the train to start with, she decided to follow his lead and thus went to stand by his side. "Any luck?" She asked as she kept throwing a glance back at the stairway at the far end of the compartment, the moans seemed even worse when she was far away from them.

They sound miserable, forlorn, damned. Rebecca had to wonder if they even knew that they were up here or if they were just moaning because they were in such pain, it was too a horrible a thought to contemplate but try as she might she found that she couldn't get it out of her head. If it was the case, than the ones that she and Edward had shoot on their fight to get out, well, they had probably done them a favour.

That was how she had to think of it, if she didn't then she was fairly sure that she would find herself curled up into a ball in the corner, rocking back and forth. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn't here Coen answering her question. "No hatch, no latch. No emergency release lever, we're going to have to break it if we want to get out." He said before he stepped back from the window and crossed his arms. "Shoot it out."

Edward frowned at the words that sounded a lot like a command before he spoke. "And why don't you do it, exactly?"

"I've only got a few bullets left in the revolver and you did hear me when I say the forest isn't exactly much safer than in here, right? Well, I'd like to save as much ammo as I can till we're as far away from here as we can get. You've got a gun as well and you've got more ammo than me, I'd bet. Now, can you please just shoot it out so we can get out of here?"

Edward grunted but he moved so he was facing the window but far enough away so that what he wasn't likely to get hit by any glass shards, Rebecca moved out of the way and so did Coen. Edward drew his gun out of his holster and pointed it at the window for a moment before he spun and had the gun pointed straight at Coen's face, a look of shock came over his features for a moment but as soon as it was there it was gone and the felon stared back at Edward, fingers tapping against his bicep.

Edward gritted his teeth before he began to growl out his orders. "All right Coen, we know who you are and don't even try to deny it because I am not in the mood. Put your hands where I can see them and do it now!"

William Coen stared at him unmoving for a moment before he slowly began to put his hands into the air, his face a blank mask and his dark blue eyes giving away nothing. Edward nodded his approval before he spoke, this time to Rebecca but she noticed that he didn't take his eyes off of Coen. "Rebecca, cuff him and get his gun. Don't worry, I've got you covered."

Rebecca nodded and tried to feel braver than she was as she stepped towards Coen, the man was at least a head taller than her and could probably split her in half if he wanted too. She stepped behind him and took the pair of handcuffs for her belt and reached up to his arm, having to stand on her tiptoes to reach his wrist. Her fingers had just curled around his wrist when suddenly he spun, Rebecca vaguely heard the gun go and the sound of glass shattering but before she had time to fully register what was happening, she was facing Edward and she also had a thick arm wrapped around her neck.

"Drop the gun and do it now, or I swear to you. I will snap her neck like it's a twig."

"Do that a I swear to you that I will put a bullet it through you eye, that's assuming I don't decide to beat you down and throw you to those things downstairs!"

"I don't think you will, I don't think you'd forgive yourself if her blood ended up on your hands. And by the way, what unit are you working that you hire a teenage girl?" His laugh was cruel and Rebecca wanted more than anything else to spin around and punch him right in the nose but the chokehold that he held her in was too strong and it was hard for her to even breath.

"You don't know me, kill her and any chance of you getting out of here alive is gone."

"I go back into custody then any chance of coming away alive at all is gone, I was on my way to be executed. You really should know that, if you know what I am."

"We know who you are, we saw the little mess you made of those men in the jeep. You scum, did they beg before you were done with them?" The hold tightened and Rebecca could only let out a panicked squeak as it was suddenly so much harder to breath. Edward almost looked paniced for a moment but as soon as it had been there it was gone. "If you kill her I swear-"

"If you don't put that gun down then I swear! It looks like we're stuck at an impasse. You'll kill me if I don't let her go, I'll kill her if you try and stop me from leaving so here's what I suggest that we do. You are going to put the safety on, eject the clip and pop the round in the chamber. Don't try and fool me, I was in the Marines after all. Then you're going to put it on the ground, I am going to take her gun, throw her to you and then I am going to jump out of the window, thanks for that by the way and you are not going to follow me. Got it?"

The men were quiet, the only noise were the moans of the dead below and the light patter of rain outside made only clearer by the broken window. Rebecca stood in the middle of it, wondering if there was anyway she could break the hold he had her in when all of sudden, the ground slightly shifted under her feet. From the look on his face Edward felt it as well. Then the ground gave a sharp jolt and Rebecca lost her footing and Coen let out a curse as he fell, the train was moving.

The sudden movement had made Coen loosen his hold just enough for Rebecca to break free and stumble away, from the corner of her eye she saw Edward lunge forward and slam his fist straight into the murderer's face, knocking him to the ground and sending his revolver flying and sliding under one of the tables. Edward raised his fist and slammed it into Coen's face again and again and again.

Rebecca just laid their on the ground watching for a moment but when she felt moisture hitting her face, she realised that they had bigger problems. The train was picking up speed and they had to do something about that, she leapt to her feet and rushed over to Edward. She reached out and grabbed his arm but she really had no chance of holding him back. "Edward! Calm down! We can't kill him, okay! The train's moving, we have to do something about that."

Edward panted heavily as he stared up at her, his eyes were wild like he was some kind of animal but after a moment he let out a heavy breath before be nodded. "Handcuffs."

Rebecca nodded and set to looking for them, thankfully they hadn't moved from where she had dropped them after Coen had grabbed her. She hurried over to them scooped them up but hurrying back and passing them to Edward, who manhandled Coen so he was on his front before he cuffed his hands to his back. "You okay?" Edward asked her as he pulled Coen up to his feet.

Rebecca nodded, it was on the list of worst things that had happened to her in her life but it was nowhere near the top. It wasn't even the worst of the night. "Edward, the train's moving."

"I know, look this will probably take us to Latham or maybe Stoneville. I say, we wait out the ride. Climb out of the window as soon as the train stops, get some help. Clean out the train and then we come back with help for the others." For a moment, Edward sounded so convincing that all Rebecca wanted to do was nod her head and go along with it but she knew that she couldn't do that.

"Edward, whatever caused these people to change it must still be infectious, and even if it isn't we can't take the risk of it getting loose in a city, Latham has nearly two hundred thousand people in it. Stoneville almost a hundred. If this infected populations of that sized and it managed to escape the Arklay Region? It could be the end of the world, we have to stop the train and we have to do it now."

Edward's face became a grim mask before he nodded. "You're right, damn it you're right. But were kind of stuck up here and we don't have enough ammo to shoot out way out either, so any ideas?"

Rebecca frowned for a moment and looked around the car, the only exits were the stairs that lead down to the undead, waiting horde below and a door that apparently lead into a kitchen, if the sign at the side of it was correct. Well, they had nothing else to lose and so Rebecca hurried over to it, she pulled open the door and nearly gagged at the smell that came to greet her.

A man in a chef's uniform was slumped next to the heavy duty fridge at the back, his head had been slammed into the side of it going by the red stain that was halfway up the fridge. It didn't look like this one had come back, even though he did have some of the similar bite marks on his face and hands that the others did. He must have bashed his head in when the train had come to a stop and thus wasn't able to come back to life.

That seemed to suggest that whatever had done this didn't truly bring the dead back to life, at least not all of the way. Whatever infected them had to be in their system before they died, or the brain had to be undamaged for them to be able to come back. She shook her head, none of that mattered now. They needed to find a way out and they had to do it now.

There was a window but the train seemed to be constantly picking up speed and if they tried to climb out of it, assuming they could get it open without shooting at it because she imagined that a window breaking from being shot out at this speed would not end well for any of them, she glanced at the roof and nearly cried in delight when she saw the hatch. "Edward! There's a service hatch!"

Edward glanced up at it and nodded as he shoved Coen into the corner. He got on to his knees and cupped his hands in front of himself and gave Rebecca a boost up to the hatch, she pushed and pounded on it for nearly five minuites, it wasn't locked but it almost seemed like someone had glued it shut until it finally opened. All the time she had spent trying to get it open, she had noticed the train was going faster.

It was slowly but sure picking up speed and she had no idea what that meant, was there a survivor hiding out in the driver's compartment? It was possible but then why did they wait until now to get it going again? Perhaps they were in the engine room instead and had been trying to get it fixed while the rest of the train had been getting slaughtered. She supposed in the end it didn't matter, they had to hurry.

"Rebecca, I don't want to be rude or personal but could you maybe hurry it up." Edward called from beneath her and with her face burning as it was, Rebecca was glad of the fact that her head was in the crawlspace and thus her face couldn't actually be seen. She placed her hands on the cool metal to steady herself before pulling herself inside.

It took a bit of squirming to turn herself around but eventually she manged it and she was staring down at Edward as he stood in the kitchen. "Okay, how are you going to get up here?" She tried to reach down to him but as she already knew, her arms were too short and even if they weren't, she didn't have the upper body strength to pull him up.

"Hang on a second." Edward disappeared from her view and all she could see was the floor of the kitchen and Coen's legs, she wondered if he was actually all right. Edward had really let him have it and in some cases it was possible for a single punch to kill a man and Coen had been quiet since Edward had hit him. She didn't particularly care about Coen of course, but if he died because of something Edward did then it would be difficult for him.

It was odd that she had chosen now to think about this, they had worse things to worry about. Coen was just as like to die on this train from some other reason than whatever injuries he had acquired from Edward's treatment of him. But it made her feel better, to focus on the future. It helped her to convince herself that she was going to have a future, that was not going to die here and neither was Edward.

Something shook the vent, like something heavy had moved in it. For a moment she wanted to think that it had just been a result of the train gaining speed but that would be a lie she told herself for her own vent, something had moved in the shaft. Something big, she glanced over her shoulder to see if she could see anything but all she saw was a dim darkness.

"Rebecca?" Edward's voice calling for her nearly made her jump and hit her head against the metal roof of the shaft. She quickly turned and glanced down at Edward who was staring up at her with a heavy frown on his face. "It's no good, I was going to grab a chair from the dining car and see if I could use it to stand on to reach you, but they don't look wide enough for me to stand on and I'm not sure that they could take my weight for more than a few seconds before they broke."

Rebecca bit her lip for a moment before she glanced back over her shoulder and then in front of her before looking back down at Edward, with a sense of mounting fear in her gut she spoke. "Look, maybe...Maybe I should just go on ahead on my own? I mean, we need to stop the train from getting to the city, to any city, so you just sit tight and I'll make my way to the driver's compartment."

"No, I don't like that." Edward commanded and Rebecca did her best not to show how relived she was that she wouldn't have to go on her own. Edward glanced around the kitchen for a moment before he let out a sigh. "Don't suppose we have any other option do we, hang on a second?" Edward moved out of sight once again and she heard him picking something up, half dragging and half carrying it over.

A complaint was on her lips when he saw that Edward dragged Coen into sight, she supposed that there wasn't any other option but she didn't like it, she didn't like it at all. She heard the click which meant that the handcuffs had been unlocked and Edward placed his hands under his armpits and lifted him up. As soon as the felon's head through the hatch Rebecca took hold of his shoulders and pulled him through, the man's dark eyes glared at her as she pulled.

It took a lot of squirming but eventually they were facing the right way, Rebecca drew her gun and pointed it at his face. "Try anything funny, and I swear I will shoot you right now, got it?"

Coen continued to stare at her, his eyes seemed small and cruel but that could just be do to his bruised and swollen face. He didn't break the stare for a while but eventually he nodded before turning to look down at Edward and stretched down his arm to pick Edward up. Edward glared up at him but took his hand and once he was off of the ground Rebecca helped to drag him into the shaft.

Once Edward was safely in the shaft, he tossed her the discarded handcuffs and Rebecca quickly cuffed Coen's hands behind his back, the man letting out a groan. "Really? How am I going to be able to crawl with my hands cuffed like this?"

"Worms crawl without hands, and you're lower than one." Edward said as he reached down and pulled the hatch shut. "So I am sure you're going to be able to manage." With that, Edward began to crawl down the shaft, Coen growled and began to squirm forward on his stomach while Rebecca began to crawl behind him, bringing up the rear. The shaft didn't rattle again, so she could almost convince herself that she had imagined it.

She wasn't sure how long they had been crawling, the tightness and the heat and the dark and the endless moans from below seemed to make it last for an eternity but they had to be in the same car and eventually they came across another hatch, Edward pulled it open and ducked his head into the room and pulled it back in before glancing back at them. "It looks like a conductor's office, we must be on the same level. The shaft can't go on much longer than this, and the room's clear. I think this is going to be our best shot."

Rebecca nodded and Edward returned it before he jumped into the room, Coen turned around so he went in feet first with Rebecca pushing him and Edward pulling him down. Once Coen was out of the way, Rebecca jumped in and Edward came over quickly to steady her. "You okay?" Once Rebecca nodded Edward returned it and walked over to grab Coen. "Keep an eye on him, hold on to him. No offense rookie but I am better shot than you are so I am going to take point, got it?"

"Got it." Rebecca responded and held on to Coen's arm as Edward drew his gun from his holster and walked over to the cabin door, he threw it open before pointing the gun one way and then the another before he looked back at Rebecca and nodded before gesturing for her to follow. Rebecca took a deep breath and gently pushed Coen forward.

They came out in a hallway that was thankfully clear, a stairwell stood at the end next to a phone. For a moment Rebecca considered calling what had happened in but she stopped herself when she realised that the phone looked like it was something out of a costume drama and was probably just used for decoration and even if it was working, then whoever she called would just assume that she was playing a practical joke on them.

Considering that Edward didn't even glance at the phone as he stood at the top of the stairs she was going to assume that he had already thought that through as well, Rebecca pushed Coen forward and soon they were all standing at the top of the stairs as well. Edward nodded and began to slowly walk down into the lower cabin.

For just a moment there was silence before she heard three gunshots in quick succession. "Rebecca! Get down here now!" Rebecca pushed Coen down the stairs and stood half frozen as she watched Edward shooting into the cabin, taking down the rotting corpses that were stumbling down the length of the car. Rebecca knew she had to help, she drew her handgun and tried to aim it but with every sway of the train her aim was thrown off and when she pulled the trigger, each time the bullet went of course, burying itself in the stuffing of one of the seats and one even shattered a window.

Edward kept shooting, each of his bullets hitting his mark but with each one he downed another two came limping down the aisle. Rebecca gritted her teeth and made herself focus as she raised her gun again before shoving Coen into the corner. She used both of her hands to steady her aim even more so and pulled the trigger again and again and again, each bullet hitting there mark and bringing more of the walking corpses down.

Soon the train compartment was clear, more due to Edward's doing than her own as her bullets had been more buying him time to reload. Still, she had to wonder how much ammo they had left, her clip had nearly been empty when Coen had saved them when they had been trapped between the two undead hordes but she had used the last of those bullets and half of her current clip as well in helping to clear out the zombies. And that was how she had to think of them or she would never be able to face any of it.

A clip for their pistols held fifteen bullets and she had eight bullets left in the current clip and two full ones, thirty eight bullets all in all and she wasn't sure how many Edward had left. All that mattered was, she was fairly certain that even together they wouldn't have enough bullets to fight off the entire train even assuming they made direct headshots from now on.

And that was assuming that Coen didn't try to become a problem. Rebecca took hold of the felon's arm and dragged him down the rest of the stairs and went to stand over by Edward, who was breathing heavily and looked like he was trying not to be sick by the stench of rot in the air. "We should keep going, we can't be far from the driver's compartment now."

Edward nodded and powered through, not looking at the mutilated bodies that pooled on the floor. Rebecca swallowed heavily and tried to fight back the bile at the bottom of her throat as she stepped around the bodies on the floor. The feel of their dead fingers brushing against her boots, well, it was hard to stomach as they finally made their way to the door at the end. The only decent thing was that Coen seemed to not be putting up much of a fight, maybe he was as horrified as the rest of them.

The car beyond them was almost more like a straight passage to the next one, there was only two doors in all of the car, one of the side and another at the end of it. The golden slate on front of the one on the side identified it as a toilet for the staff of the train and thus they paid it little notice. The other car had a square window at the top and Rebecca could see that it lead outside.

She glanced up at Edward who nodded before he reached out and took hold of the door handle and slid it open, the roar of the wind was almost deafening to the speed that the train had reached by now, the rain blew into the compartment and hit all of their faces and the darkness that awaited them was almost impenetrable. Edward frowned before he raised his arm to shield his eyes from the onslaught before he pressed forward, fighting against the wind and the rain.

Rebecca made Coen walk in front of her but still needed to place her own arm in front of her eyes and walking through the wind felt like she was walking through wet cement that was quickly starting to dry, she could feel the rain soaking into her clothes as they pushed on and once this was all over and Rebecca was safe back in her apartment she knew that the first thing she was going to do was have a bath.

She barely heard the sound of the door opening over the wind but she could feel the relative heat emanating from inside and at that moment all she wanted to do was push past them and slam the door shut and curl into a corner, she heard Edward say something but the words had been swallowed up by the wind. Rebecca's teeth were chattering as they finally got inside and she shut the door, when she turned around Rebecca had an idea what Edward had said.

The control had been ripped out, it looked like an animal had been let lose in the control room. Monitors were cracked and lengths of wire fell down from the controls and trailed across the floor, the air was filled with the smell of something that she had to assume was battery acid. Edward slowly walked over to the controls and leaned down to pick up a broken leaver, stared down it for a moment before he threw it into the corner with a curse. "It's trashed, it's completely wrecked. We can't stop the train this way."

Rebecca jammed her gun into Coen's spine and marched him over to one of the chairs that was in front of the console, she forced him to sit down before releasing one of his hands from the cuffs and then reattaching it with his hands bound around the metal spine of the chair. Rebecca walked over to the console to see if there was anything they could do, she glanced up at the windows to see that the rain was pounding against the windows with such a heavy force that it was forming a thick and watery curtain, with the darkness outside she couldn't see anything at all.

She looked back down at the controls again, biting her lip. Even with her limited mechanical know how she knew enough to know that even if they had unlimited amounts of time she knew that they would be able to fix this. The speedometer was still ticking away, the train was still picking up more and more speed and when she glanced at the gauge that monitored how many miles they had travelled. "We're almost fifteen miles away from where we started and we are not slowing down, we have to do something!"

Edward slammed his hands down hard on the console, when he turned to face her his eyes were wild. She had to take a step back from him, Edward's gaze softened slightly but he still looked more scared than Rebecca would ever expect. "What can we do? The controls are trashed and I have no idea where I would even begin to start with fixing them."

"There has to be an emergency brake!"

"If there is it's probably been gutted like the rest of the controls!"

"Get to the engine car." Coen had been so quiet up to now that the sound of his voice sounded almost alien, Edward made a move towards him but Rebecca held up her hand to stop him. "This isn't a locomotive train, if it wants to go backwards then they have to take control from the back of the train. It's a small chance but whatever wreaked these controls might not have done it to the other one and you can trigger it's emergency brake. It's a small chance but it's better than none."

"Why are you helping us?" Rebecca asked but she couldn't deny that at the moment she didn't find anything wrong with his logic, Coen stared at her for a moment before he finally decided to speak.

"Cause you're right, whatever happened on this train is contagious. If it get's to a major population centre with no warning and nothing in place to stop it then it could be the end of the world. I've seen terrible things, but nothing compared to what I've seen on this train. I never thought that I would wish for execution but I did when I was on here. And even if I did manage to escape, if this get's loose where would I go? Nowhere in the world would be safe. Now, stop wasting time and get to the engine car!"

"He's right, I hate to admit it, but he is right." She turned to face Edward. "We have to try and get to the engine car and we have to go right now."

Edward stared at her for a moment before he glanced at the speedometer and the mile counter before he looked at her again and held out his hand. "Give me your gun, now."

"What-

"That's an order!" Once Edward roared that at her Rebecca knew that she couldn't deny him and thus she handed her pistol over, Edward nodded before he pulled the silver revolver that Rebecca assumed that was still under one of those tables in the dining car. "Take this, quickly we don't have time."

Rebecca took the revolver from him and glanced it over, it was heavier than her pistol and the grip was made for a larger hand than hers and it took a moment to get used to it. "Okay, now what?"

"Now, you stay here. I don't trust him on his own. The second the train stops, if he get's loose from those cuffs somehow there's no chance in hell he doesn't bolt for it. I am going to head to the engine car." Edward held up his hand to stop Rebecca from objecting. "This is not a debate, I am your superior officer and I am not saying, I am telling you. Stay and keep an eye on him, I'll be back as soon as the train's stopped."

Rebecca nodded as Edward turned and walked over to the door pulling it open and sliding it shut behind him, after a few heartbeats of silence there were several loud bangs filling the air. It took all she had not to go running after him, she had her orders and she had to follow them. She began to pace, her eyes glancing from the door and the speed and mile counters, watching them tick up with more and more dread growing in her stomach.

"Worrying about it isn't going to make it go any faster." Coen's words cut through the silence like a bullhorn and made Rebecca clench her eyes shut in frustration, repeating over and over in her head that she shouldn't shoot him. "You can ignore me as much as you like, that doesn't mean what I'm saying is any less true. You want to know what else is true? Your friend's an idiot."

"Shut up." Rebecca muttered as she kept her eye on the mile counter, as they went faster and faster the miles seemed to slip further and further on, like a man falling on an oil slick. How long before they would be too close to any city for it not to make any matter? How were they even going to make it back to the others? Perhaps the best thing to do would be to wait for the train to stop and then once Edward got back they could walk the rest of the way to wherever the train was going.

"He is an idiot." Coen carried on as he squirmed in the chair, the handcuffs clinking as he moved. "He's about to go into hostile terriorty without any back up when he knows we need to stop the train and the only reason he kept you back is because he doesn't trust me to not go running. Even if I did, what does that matter? Stopping the train's more important, he must really not like me."

Rebecca opened her mouth to speak again when suddenly the train rocked violently and it almost knocked her to her feet, Billy craned his head to look at the speedometer and let out a hiss before he turned his head back towards Rebecca. "On the other hand, maybe he won't actually need too. If we go much faster than we're going right now, we are going to derail. Of course, if that does happen it means we won't have to worry about this spreading, partly because we'll die!"

Rebecca wasn't listening to any of it as she stared desperately at the controls in front of her. Her gut was tightening more and more with each moment that passed and there was still nothing to be heard from Edward. Coen was speaking to her but she didn't hear his words even when he was basically screaming at her, even when he was screaming at nothing.

The ground slipped away from underneath her and back collided hard against something, sending a sharp pain through her. She couldn't breath at all, it took her a moment to realise that she was on the roof of the cabin and that Coen was upside down, his hair hanging down past his ears. There was another loud thump and Rebecca found herself rushing down to meet the floor.

Darkness claimed her and the screaming was replaced with science.

End of Chapter Thirty.


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DiscordantSymphony