Chapter 21
Wreck on a wreck
Adrien burst into the engine's cabin. Alexei's back was to him, but he could tell the kid couldn't be happier. Time to ruin his day.
"You ready?" Adrien asked Zaitsev quietly.
"Water board that little bitch," Zaitsev replied. That must have meant he was ready to translate. At that moment, Alexei turned, a grin on his face.
"Hello, Captain America. Hello, Zaitsev," he greeted, with the help of Zaitsev's translation.
"Alexei," Adrien returned darkly.
The moron didn't pick up on it at all. "What brings you up here? We are making excellent time. This engine may be old, but it's pull force is extraordinary," Alexei babbled, his back again turned to them.
Without warning, Adrien grabbed the kid and lifted him, moving to a nearby window and – after motioning to Zatisev open it – shoved the kid's head and shoulders through the open space.
"What was your mission here?!" Adrien demanded.
The kid began screeching, and the only word Adrien could make out was Jekaterina.
"She's not going to help you here. Were you going to dissect human beings?!" Adrien continued.
Zaitsev listened to Alexei's hysterical noises, then repeated it in English. "No! I was there to evaluate combat effectiveness against the serpents! Analyze them for weakness!"
"There is a whole goddamn car full of surgical and containment equipment, what the hell is that for?!" Adrien pushed him out the window a little more.
"There was a separate team! Medical staff! I wasn't allowed to know their job! They were at the base during the attack!" Alexei explained through Zaitsev.
"Bull! You know more than you're saying!" Adrien argued.
"I'm just a xenologist! An analyst!" Alexei pleaded repeatedly. Zaitsev translated, then hesitated.
"Pierce?" he cut in.
"What, Z?" Adrien demanded.
"I think he's telling the truth. The kid is known to cave over less pressure than you are putting on."
Adrien's gaze landed on Alexei's. "Where, precisely, was Roscosmos keeping their queen here, Alexei? I know it didn't ride in on the meteor," he said in a lower, warning tone. That seemed to resonate as Alexei's eyes went wide.
Before he could continue, however, the sound of a helicopter's engine came to his ears. It was barely audible over the noise of the train. Looking up, Adrien saw one of the Weyland-marked UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters flying alongside them.
He yanked Alexei back in through the window and tossed him on the floor, then pulled his binos from his vest and looked closer at the chopper.
Jade, the corporate skank, was in the passenger's seat of the helo. He watched as she blew him a kiss, to which he responded with his middle finger.
"Get down!" Adrien ordered just as a torrent of bullets came ripping through the engine's cabin. By the firing rate, Adrien guessed it was an M134 minigun; probably a door gunner. One of those would've been useful for him at any number of points out here.
By sheer luck, the train abruptly entered a tunnel. "C'mon, we gotta get some fire on that chopper!" Adrien ordered. Alexei's interrogation was forgotten for the moment. He activated his helmet light to see where he was going. The tunnel had blocked all the natural light, and he didn't know how to activate the individual car's lights.
Returning to the car Petrov and Katja were waiting in, he tried to speak, but Katja jumped in first. "I know. Weyland."
"Your people have any weapons on board? Preferably propelled explosives?" Adrien asked.
She nodded and began heading back to one of the cargo cars.
Inside were crates, some of them piled to the roof. Popping one open, Adrien found himself an AK variant of some kind.
Katja seemed to know her way around the car better, as she began cracking open crates that held RPGs. Or maybe she was just reading the Russian on the sides of the containers.
Petrov, meanwhile, opened both sides of the car's doors. Smart; they'd need to clear their back blast firing the things.
"We fire in twos, then rotate," Katja suggested.
"Good, yes," Adrien agreed.
Katja and Zaitsev got into position with their launchers. Once the train cleared the tunnel, they found themselves in the heart of the Urals. Mountains towered on both sides of them, while the rail tracks ran along a skinny ledge of mountainside.
The helicopter came back into view, and the two Spetsnaz fired their rockets. Because of the RPGs' infamous 'accuracy', added to the wind shear and the moving train, both rockets went askew of their intended target.
Adrien and Petrov took position with their rockets next and fired. Adrien's totally missed. Petrov's actually clipped the area where the troop bay and tail met. The explosion didn't seem to have the power to totally take it out, however.
The bird was smoking now, and the gunner had fallen out; but clearly it was not out of the game completely. Pulling out his binos once more, he could again see Jade. She jerked her thumb to the back before waving goodbye.
"Helicopter's pulling out! Nice job, Sir!" Zaitsev congratulated Petrov.
"We're not out of this yet; back of the train!" Adrien ordered. Gathering ammo as fast as possible, everyone ran to the caboose.
Sure enough, just as Jade warned, Weyland trucks and Humvees were hot on their heels. "Zaitsev, go protect Alexei!" Katja ordered, and Zaitsev nodded and rushed from the caboose.
Good thinking on her part. Last thing they needed was their fearful engineer killed in action.
Without preamble, the remaining group of three began shooting at the trucks, and the mercenaries returned fire. "They're armored! Shoot the tires!" Katja suggested over the roar of noises.
Everyone shifted their aim downward and shot. With the deep snow and uneven terrain, the few tires that they were able to hit did cripple the vehicles to a stop. But they didn't hit enough of them.
Just as it seemed hopeless, the problem and solution decided to appear…
Katja was momentarily stunned as the serpents began dropping from the sky. Specifically, from the tall mountain towering over them.
They dropped onto the Weyland vehicles, desperately ripping them to shreds to get to the human occupants.
Unfortunately, they were dropping on top of the train as well.
"Stowaways," Adrien warned unnecessarily.
Turning, the group began heading back toward the engine; however, they were immediately stopped by the thudding noises on the train roof.
"Shoot through the roof!" Katja shouted. All three of them began spraying the roof, resulting in loud screeches, audible even over the noises of the train.
Within seconds, acidic blood began dripping through the roof and into the floor of the car. With their direct route blocked, the humans backed up.
"Roof," Petrov suggested, pointing upward. Adrien nodded and cupped his hands together, hoisting the lieutenant first and then Katja, before clambering up himself.
They maneuvered past the bullet-riddled serpent bodies and the blood, picking their way carefully to avoid falling, and jumped to the next car. Dropping below, they found themselves among passenger seating.
"Well, it can't get any worse, right?" Adrien asked. As if in answer to the question, a Humvee pulled up with a .50 cal, ready to rock.
Petrov pulled Katja to the floor just as the machine gun ripped through the car. Thankfully, she saw Adrien had hit the ground, too.
"Keep moving," Katja ordered, and they began a slow belly-crawl forward as the bullets shredded the environment around them.
"It's like basic all over again," Adrien laughed. How, how could he find any humor in this?
Before she could ask him, there was more shrieking from above, and the machine gun fire switched targets.
"While they're both distracted!" Petrov urged, and the group tried to crawl faster. Katja moved her forearms as fast as she could, propelling herself forward.
Arriving at the bridge of the next car, the three of them turned and fired on Weyland and the serpents.
"For sure it can't get any worse now," Adrien stated confidently. Then, a snap-hiss sounded, followed by a bright blue streak. It hit one of the Weyland trucks, destroying it instantly.
"Stop saying that!" Katja screamed at Adrien. She knew shouldn't be surprised by the hunter's sudden reappearance; but how the hell had he caught up to them on foot?
"Look," Petrov pointed.
Peering out from between the cars, Katja caught glimpses of serpents crawling underneath the train.
"Why would they do that?" Petrov asked as they began to double-time it to the front. Katja had made it a point to study some weak points of trains, and the only real thing under the cars were the brakes. But they surely didn't know that…
More Weyland vehicles went speeding by, but they completely ignored them. Instead, they headed for the engine. Looking out the window, Katja could see and hear small-arms fire coming from Alexei's position.
Zaitsev. He needed backup. Soon.
Looking back, she saw more vehicles and serpents, right on their tail – and the most hazardous of all, the hunter.
"Katja–" Adrien began, but was promptly cut off as a serpent popped up from below the cars and ripped him off the train.
The bright blue streak of plasma hit another human transportation precisely, giving Vai'dqouulth immense satisfaction.
It had taken considerable effort, but he managed to meet up with this oddly long human transportation. It reminded him of a snake.
He was glad that he had caught up with it, too. The hard meats had decided to ambush his long-followed quarry; and at the same moment, so did the other clan of humans.
The ensuing battle was messy. The hard meats were hiding on the mountainside and jumping on the vehicle as it passed. The stupid human machine was locked to a set of rails, so it had no evasive maneuvers available to it.
Add the other humans, and it became hard to know who to engage. The result was several wounds – something Yautja were proud to display; but with his supplies running low, not ideal.
As he turned to pursue the female and her drones – yet again – he watched as a hard meat warrior and the veteran went tumbling off the train.
A pity a warrior of his caliber met with such an end. He would've rather liked to finish hunting the human himself. But there was no time to reflect. He needed to catch up to Katja. Hopefully, she was heading toward the computer, which was likely with the runt.
Twice now she had shown reasonableness. She had bargained for the lives of her drones. And then, she had not engaged him despite social pressure from the now-dead veteran.
If he could get a calm moment with her, perhaps she would attempt to listen to him, even with the language barrier. It was clear this small group of humans did not want the serpents on Earth, and they weren't friendly with the clan that wanted to capture him.
It was not unheard of for humans and Yautja to work together, even now. There just were not many situations that called for it, and the humans generally weren't cooperative, being more interested in dissecting them or capturing their technology.
Yes, if he could convince her, he was confident the males would fall in line behind her.
Then he noticed the distance between them was increasing. Interesting; these extra vehicles did not have their own power and now Katja, or specifically, her drone, was unhooking them.
It had all happened so fast, Katja couldn't even process it. Adrien was dead, and it hurt as badly as if he had been one of her own men.
The sounds of Petrov firing his rifle seemed distant. So did his calls.
"Petrov, we-we need to buy some breathing space," Katja stumbled out, trying to gather her thoughts.
"What do you propose?" he asked, firing another few bursts at the trucks, serpents, and the hunter.
"Unhook the train cars. We can cut them off and take away landing spots," Katja stated.
"That leaves us with less cover, too," Petrov pointed out.
"We'll just have to make do. I'll get on the roof and bait them so you can work," Katja said.
"Ma'am, let me go–" Petrov began to protest.
"Don't! Don't argue! I've lost enough people on this trip! Now go! That is an order, in case you were wondering," she snapped before climbing onto the roof.
She knew the instant Petrov had uncoupled the car, because the one behind them began pulling away; and along with it, the hunter.
Despite the face mask and the distance between them, she could see the hunter realizing what was happening. He began to pick up his pace, slicing and shooting serpents as well as Weyland personnel.
A few of the serpents were trying to climb up either side of the train. Katja turned and put rounds into one. She was almost not quick enough to shoot the next, which had clambered silently to her side, but twisted just in time to fire a quick, deadly shot into its open mouth.
Evading the resultant burst acid blood, Katja ran and jumped to the next car. She landed directly on a patch of ice, just as the hunter closed in and more serpents boarded the train…
Adrien was lucky. He had hit a soft pile of snow, and the serpent had hit a boulder that was now disintegrating. It still hurt his back, however. He felt less lucky that he was now stranded out here and both parties wanted to kill him. And he had lost his rifle again. Great.
Just as he was about to follow the train tracks, he heard the sound of a small engine. Looking across the tracks, he could see a snowmobile headed his way. Weyland.
Once it was within range, he pulled his sidearm and began firing, killing the operator. Not wasting time, he jumped on the snowmobile and gunned it in the direction of the train.
Along the way, he noticed two things. One, they were heading into a storm – or a storm was heading their way. Either way, not a good thing. And this was no Minnesota blizzard. Somehow, regardless of the cold, this sucker had thunder and lightning coming out of it.
The second and more interesting thing was the random train cars that were slowly coasting to a stop. He could only guess that Katja was trying to cut off the infested sections of the train. Smart; that's what he was about to tell her before being rudely ripped from the train.
Despite the air getting hazier with snow, Adrien could see the train up ahead. The crazy woman was on top of it. Was she trying to draw attention to herself?
His focus was drawn away from her when another train car detached from the train. He had his answer. Yes; she was trying to distract the serpents, Weyland, and the hunter while Petrov unlatched train cars.
Moving up behind a Weyland-marked Ford truck, Adrien jumped from the snowmobile and into the box of the vehicle. The mercenary in it took no notice until Adrien tossed him off the vehicle. He picked up the man's rifle – which was like, the Gucci rifle of the gun world – and fired on the adjacent truck.
The driver cut hard at the gunfire, and hit a tree.
With that taken care of, and the driver of his truck clearly oblivious to his presence, Adrien decided to make a move.
He used the step rail and inched his way to the passenger front door. In another unusual stroke of luck, he found it unlocked. So, he pulled it open and sat down next to the driver.
"Man, it is cold out there, believe you me," Adrien said with a whistle. The merc looked at him, totally baffled.
"Eyes on the road," Adrien suggested, but the fool went for his gun. Adrien was faster and shot him with his own pistol.
"Wanted to drive, anyway," he said as he opened the driver side door and dumped the body out.
Quickly, he changed seats and accelerated.
Coming up alongside the train, Adrien noticed some grip points. He set the cruise control to match the train's speed and opened his door.
"This is not a good idea…" he mused to himself. They had to be doing about sixty miles an hour or more, and he was about to attempt to jump onto a moving train from a moving truck. Added to it was the rough terrain, so even the slightest bump or miscalculation could mean death.
Adrien did his best to steer while standing ready to jump on the train. The decision was made for him when he saw the truck was about to ram into a signal tower.
He jumped, and the door clipped him pretty good. There was a hair of a second left for him before the signal tower would've clipped him, too. That would've been fatal.
Not even bothering to check on Petrov, Adrien climbed to the roof of the train. He just caught a glimpse of Katja jumping between cars and slipping at the same time.
The hunter and serpents were closing in on her. He rushed and jumped onto a car that Petrov had presumably detached. His upper body collided with the car, and it hurt. Badly. But he managed to keep his grip as he pulled himself up and ran across the roof.
By the time he caught up, Katja and the hunter had killed the serpents. It was just them again.
Katja's focus had been on the hunter, but it shifted when she saw him. He swore her face lit up, but maybe it was the lightning from the sky. The hunter also turned, and he was sure he could read surprise in its body language.
"I lived, split-lip!" Adrien declared. Both sets of wrist blades shot out, and the hunter postured himself.
"Should've stayed away, Adrien," Katja said from the other side of the hunter. They might have had a slight advantage putting him between them, but there was no way they were going to win this.
"I wouldn't miss this even if it meant a ride home with full pardons," Adrien said as he hefted his rifle into a ready position.
For a long moment, they waited for one another to make a move. Then, in a surprising move, the hunter suddenly pointed with his index finger toward the front of the train.
"I know we're human, and you probably think we are stupid, but I am not falling for that trick," Katja scolded. No way she was turning her back to this thing.
But it surprised her again as it jumped off the moving train. When Katja looked up, she saw Adrien looking through binoculars.
"What are they doing…?" he trailed off. Katja came over and yanked the device from him to look through herself.
Up ahead was a bridge. It crossed a valley, which was formed by a moderate crevice between twin peaks of the same mountain. She soon understood Adrien's confusion. The congregation of serpents on the bridge were… killing each other.
They seemed to be directed by that monster that had chased them in the BTR. Adrien had named it Spot, if she recalled correctly. Then, seeing the distinct acid blood splashing everywhere, she realized what they were doing.
"They're trying to melt the bridge!" she exclaimed. The drop visually didn't appear that significant from this distance; but at their current speed, it could easily kill them.
There was no more dialogue. Katja and Adrien both dropped down to the cars – by coincidence, right in front of Petrov.
"What's going on?" he demanded.
"No, 'hey Adrien, nice to see you're alive'?" Adrien provoked Petrov.
Before they could get into it, Katja jumped in between them. "The serpents took out the bridge, and we are about to go over it!"
Thankfully, the men didn't begin an argument, and joined her in a sprint to the front of the train. On the way, though, Adrien felt the need to provoke Katja instead by reiterating his earlier point.
"Hunter is letting the serpents finish us off. Told you, cuts both ways."
She ignored him and continued to the engine. Busting the door open, Katja was greeted to the sight of a wounded Zaitsev propped up against the wall. He had taken a bullet to the ribs, obviously courtesy of Weyland, and he was bleeding profusely. She took a breath and reminded herself: one problem at a time.
"Alexei, stop the train! The serpents have compromised the bridge!" Katja ordered.
"You don't think I know that?! The brake lines have been cut, and there's no way the engine's handbrakes are going to have the strength to stop us!" Alexei stressed.
So, the serpents had gone after the brakes. And destroyed the bridge. Their intelligence was not to be underestimated.
"We move to the back of the train, then, and uncouple the last car," Adrien suggested after Katja translated for Alexei.
"What good will that do?" Petrov asked.
"I saw it in a kid's movie once with my daughter. Hear me out. The car won't have power; maybe we can engage its independent breaks and slow it enough to jump off," Adrien explained.
"A kid's movie?!" Petrov scoffed.
"We are out of time, move to the back of the train!" Katja ordered. Adrien and Petrov both hoisted Zaitsev up and carried him with them.
Unfortunately, they never made it. As the engine and a few cars passed over the bridge, its integrity failed, and the train plunged in a 'V' shape, the middle sections falling first amid the pieces of the bridge.
The engine itself became propped up in a 'wheelie' position, unable to pull its cars forward. The occupants were scattered about from the sudden dip, and then the train became stuck in place, suspended only by parts of a bridge and a prayer.
Around them, the storm, the serpents, the hunter, and Weyland waited…