Derailed - 6. Pray for Peace,Prepare for War

Chapter 5

I ran back to the entrance of the tunnel, only to see the main part of the station empty. I looked around, but saw only an empty train sitting there. I headed to Andrea's medical tent, but it was as empty as the platform. I looked around a bit at her equipment and charts of our medical information she had been keeping on us. It looked as though she had dropped everything she was working on, which I knew from experience was very unlike her. As long as I've known her, she has never left her desk like this.

"HELLO!" I called out, hoping I would find someone, but all that answered was a dead silence. I left Andrea's and made my way to the main plat form. It was so surreal to see it completely void of life. Even with the few of us who lived down here, it always managed to seem alive, but now, for the first time, the place seemed truly abandon.

"HELLO?!" I began screaming, but once again I was greeted by silence. It was now that I truly began to worry, and began to move more frantically between the platforms, until I came to the food court. It was there that I looked up and saw a light coming from up stairs. I ran up to see the light from Mark’s lab on and the others all standing around, looking concerned. I felt my heart ease up the tension it had built up as Seth looked up to see me climbing the stairs. I barely reached the top when, with a loud POP, he appeared in front of me.

"I'm glad you’re here. Something’s come up," he said, grabbing my arm. Not even giving me a chance to ask what was going on, I felt his power kick in. The ground beneath me vanished and my sight went black for a split second and then it returned to me as I felt a sensation, as if I were falling, and I found myself in the lab with the rest of our team all crowed around Mark, who looked as though he was trying to decipher some kind of message. I could hear a distorted voice through the speakers.

"What’s going on?" I asked, wondering as to why everyone was looking as though someone had died. It was Corbin who finally spoke up.

"We got a message from Tim, he says he has a group that he gathered that needs a pickup," he said, still with a very serious look on his face.

Tim was a collector whom we often worked with; he had the most dangerous job of all of us, he remained above ground and helped find other infected people and helped smuggle them out of the main parts of the city. It was then that he would contact us and we would go and bring them down into the subways until a smuggler ship arrived from Xaven. It was never clear as to when a ship would arrive. It was always a different point in time; it was done this way so it didn't arouse suspicion. Sometimes we could be harboring refugees anywhere from one night to one week to one Month, the longest I’ve ever seen it go was three months. Some of the refuges at that point had become very distraught, believing that the ship wasn't coming.

It was Tim who helped me and my mom out of the city when our cover was blown. I still remember that night vividly. It was while waiting on our ship that my mom decided that she wanted to stay and help. Corbin agreed and instead of leaving, we remained in the station.

"Sooo, when do you guys head out?" I asked, but it still seemed as though I was missing something

Corbin looked at me as though he were analyzing me. "Not us, Cameron, I’m a man of my word, get ready. You’ve got 1 hour. You’re heading up with us. We leave first thing tomorrow morning, so get some rest."

I felt a lump of both excitement and fear as he said the words I’ve been longing to hear. I started to turn and run when he spoke up again.

"Before you do anything, go see Andrea. You look like hell."

It took me a few seconds to realize what he was talking about, but then I realized I was still really banged up from my fight with Magashi. Andrea walked with me back to her tent. Along the way I sensed a sort of sadness in her, which was unusual for her normally happy demeanor.

When we reached her tent, I sat up on the metal table she has placed in there and she immediately began to go to work on all the various cuts and wounds that had been inflicted on me. Looking as though she was fighting back tears and fears, she smiled at me.

“You cant keep making this a regular habit, ending up in here with cuts all over your face, I may not always be here to fix it right away. What were you and Magashi doing, anyways? It looks as though you two were absolutely trying to kill each other.”

I smiled weakly and just shrugged my shoulders as she continued healing my cuts. She moved from my face to my back, where I had taken a large number of the rocks Magashi was throwing. If my back looked anything like it felt, I could only imagine what must be going through her mind. Even after she had finished, I still felt a little sore and cursed Magashi under my breath; now I had to go out on my first mission at less than a 100%.

“I swear he’s way too hard on you guys. What if I wasn't here? Where would you guys be then? You can’t go out smuggling people underground when you look as though you've been bloodied up with a bat.”

She turned and began to put away the papers she had left out earlier, she still looked as though she could burst into tears at any given moment. We had been though this numerous times before and it had never really affected her like this before. I wanted to cheer her up, but I wanted to be very careful about what I said so as not to risk upsetting her further.

“He only has all of our best interests in mind. He told me before the VCU solders are going to go easy on us, they have only two objectives; capture us or kill us, and they tend to ignore the first,” I said, trying to make her feel better.

She turned to me, still looking as though she were fighting back tears but forced a smile. I think more for my sake than her own.

“I know he does. I just get so worried when you guys head out. I couldn't bear the thought of losing one of you guys; you’re all like family to me and if you guys ever got seriously hurt you might not make it back here in time for me to save you. She then shook her head and collected herself.

“Look at me. I'm getting all emotional all over nothing, right? I mean, after all, this is just a simple collection mission. You go up, load everyone onto the convoy, then on the train and back here.”

It had been decided a long time ago that because her powers were very effective in combat that she would stay under here, out of the line of fire, even though she protested often for Corbin to let her go up, but he told her that her power was too valuable to risk losing that. Without her, this team wouldn't last very long. So she agreed and remained our medic whenever we needed her.

I hopped down from the table and mentally went through of all the possible ways I could get back at the Magashi when I saw him again.

I walked back to my tent to see Seth there, lacing something up on his forearm that looked almost like a leather brace. He had one on each arm and he was just finishing the last knot.

“What’s that?” I asked, nodding at the weird gloves. He gave me a sly smile and stuck his arm out straight and flexed his forearm. Instantly, a sharp nine-inch blade shot out.

My eyes grew wide as it retracted quickly into the leather glove just as quickly as it had shot out. “Where the hell did you get those?” I asked, still in awe of the perfectly concealed weapon.

“Adrian made ‘em for me right before my last mission. He got the design from an old book on medieval weapons. They’re great, considering all my power is really good for is running away. These give me a slight advantage over the enemy. It’s not like I have your power, where everything within a mile is a potential projectile. I still haven’t used them yet, but if I ever need to, it'll be nice to know I have them.” He went back to tightening the laces.

I crawled inside the tent and made a place for me to sleep for the night, while I watched Seth mess with what he called assassins blades. He sat there for several minutes shooting them out and retracting them back in. It was amazing how easily he could do it with just a quick flick of his wrist. And then a wave of fear hit me. The thought of him actually having to use them. The thought of us actually having to fight and the possibility of Seth, or anyone of use, getting hurt or worse. I laid there for some time, imagining the images of my friends, no, my family, being hurt or captured. Eventually, Seth was satisfied with whatever it was he was doing and slid the leather gauntlets off his wrist and climbed in beside me.

“You don't think we could get attacked, do you?” I asked, wondering why he would be bringing them. After all, Andrea said this is a simple collection mission.

“I dunno, I don't really think so, but it could happen, I guess. Corbin always says, ’Go up ready for a fight.’”

I think he could tell what was on my mind. It must have been what was on his mind the night before his first mission. I wondered if it was on the mind of everyone the night before they march off into a possible battle. Seth sat up right and turned to face me. For the first time, a serious look came across his face. He reached into his sack and pulled out one of the leather gauntlets that he had been messing with.

“I was going to wait until the morning to give this to you, but I can’t wait,” he said, holding out the gauntlet he had been working on.

He handed it to me and began showing me how to put it on and use it. We spent at least an hour before I finally got the hang of it. He then took on a serious expression, yet again.

“Let’s make a pact right here and now, that no matter what happens up there, we’ll have each other’s back, I’ll have yours and you’ll have mine. And that no matter what, we’ll return here alive,” he said, holding out his hand. I took it and we shook on it. We both swore we would come back. I laid down and went over everything that Magashi had taught me over the years. The different forms, stances, maneuvers and what he had taught me about my power, how to try to keep control... or risk hurting everything and everyone around me, including those I cared about most. It wasn't until about an hour after I heard Seth sleeping that I was finally able to drift off myself.

The next thing I remembered, I was standing in a black room and Seth was standing there in front of me. I went to walk towards him but my legs wouldn't respond. I was frozen where I stood, so I began calling out, only to realize I couldn't make any noise. It was as if I had no way to let him know I was here and he seemed oblivious to my presence. It was then that I saw an armored figure with a gun pointed right at the back if his head. I tried to scream out and warn Seth to move, but he still couldn't hear me in my mute state, so he continued to stand there. The solider placed the barrel of the gun an inch from the back of his head and place his finger on the trigger. It was as if time crawled to a stop and everything moved in slow motion. I closed my eyes and heard a loud BANG. The sound of it echoed through the entire room. When the sound had all but disappeared, I opened my eyes and felt my heart sink as Seth's lifeless body lay before my feet, the blood from the hole in the back of his head now running in between my feet. I wanted to cry out and scream, but no noise would escape my lips only the cold dead silence.

It was then that I looked up to see the same solider, now with the gun pointed at Andrea and she had a look of terror on her face as she was trying heal Seth, knowing that it would do no good he was already gone. Again I was helpless to stop it. The solider once again lifted his gun as he crept up behind her kneeling body, crying over Seth, and once again I could do nothing but watch as another of the people I loved was killed in cold blood. Another shot was fired and Andrea fell next to Seth... dead.

This continued with every one of them. I watched helpless and hopeless, as one by one, Corbin, Bruiser, Adrian, and Mark were all killed execution style, their lifeless bodies scattered around my feet, their blood covering the ground where I stood and even still, I couldn't scream, I couldn't cry out or move away from the horror. It was only when I felt as though I would go completely numb and lose myself to the anguish, that I heard a click and felt the cold steel of the barrel of the gun press against the back of my head. My eyes grew wide as I heard one... last... final... Bang.

I bolted upright in the tent, sweat was pouring from my face and my breathing was heavy. I could barely keep myself from shaking to pieces. I turned and put my hand on Seth, just to make sure he was still there alive. I even considered checking his head to make sure there wasn't a bullet hole, to see that he was ok. Knowing that I obviously wasn't going to get any more sleep, I decided to get dressed and head for the train.

I grabbed the leather gauntlet Seth had given me and I made my way down to the platform. I saw Mark and Corbin were already there. They were standing outside the door of the train arguing. Mark seemed to be arguing a lot these days and it wasn't like him to be this emotional over anything, but he and Corbin looked as though they were ready to begin swinging at each other. I moved in closer to see what could have Mark this frustrated. I found a spot behind some old crates and crouched down when Seth popped in behind me.

“What are you doing?”

I quickly grabbed him and pulled him in behind the crates with me. Luckily, Corbin and Mark were so involved with their argument they didn't seem to notice Seth's entrance

“Why won’t you listen to me? You've always trusted my judgment before. I'm telling you he’s not ready, his powers are still unstable. You saw what happened to my lab. If he were to lose control even for a split second it would jeopardize the mission,” Mark said, in what sounded like a frustrated tone.

I felt my fist clinch as I heard the words come from Mark. He was trying to ruin my one chance to see the outside world again. For almost 10 years now I have seen nothing but the same stone walls, breathed the same stale air and now, this close to my only chance to see the sky again, and he was going to try to take it from me. I wanted to jump out and ask him what his problem was, but I didn't want to do anything that might make Corbin change his mind, including eavesdropping.

“I do still trust your judgment Mark, but after what Andrea told me, I think it may not be the mission you’re concerned about. It’s getting harder and more dangerous every time we go up. I need everyone we’ve got and I can’t leave anyone out because...” But before he could finish, he was interrupted by a now even more frustrated Mark.

“Oh and I suppose you don't have your own reasons for keeping Andrea out of the line of fire, or are we suppose to just turn our heads to that as well?”

It was then that I saw a fire in Corbin's eyes. He looked as though at any second he would snap Mark in half. He closed his eyes and looked as though he was trying to keep himself from doing so. His teeth grated a little bit and finally he spoke up through clenched teeth.

“That's different and you know it. She has no way of fighting back, she would be in the way and a liability, so don't even try to pull that.”

Mark finally regained his composure and stood there with his familiar blank expression across his face, as though he were analyzing everything he came across. The same old Mark I had always known.

“FINE! I get it. Your decision is obviously final and there is no point to argue the issue any further. I’ll get the nanodroids ready. He turned and began to walk off back towards the stair case leading to his lab, but after a few steps he looked over his shoulder at the still seething Corbin.

“I'll respect you decision as our leader, but know this: should anything go wrong, I won’t hesitate to leave you and this entire operation.”

With that, Mark stormed off, leaving Corbin looking as though he wanted to put his fist through something. I had never seen him this way and I had never heard anyone talk to him that way. It was almost as if Mark was challenging Corbin’s role as leader and I couldn't imagine Corbin doing something that would recklessly endanger any of us... and I was more than ready to handle this. Mark’s lack of confidence in me was really beginning to get on my nerves. Did he really think I was that much of a threat?

Corbin walked up and slammed his fist on the side of the train and once again closed his eyes and looked as though he were speaking to himself. When he finally stood up and began to board the train, he stopped in the doorway and turned to look directly at where Seth and I were hiding.

“You’re not very good at eavesdropping, Cameron. Try to pick a better spot next time.” And with that, he stepped onto the train.

I sat there crouched behind what I thought had been a good spot to remain unseen, but was now corrected. I don't get it. I thought to myself, ‘How long did he know I was there? Did he know from the beginning and if so why didn't he say anything to me? Did he want me to hear the argument and what good would that do beside let me know how little trust Mark had in me? That wasn't like Corbin at all.

I slowly crept onto the train, hoping that Corbin would have picked a different compartment to ride in. I saw Adrian smoking a cigarette. Seth and I took the two seats across from him. I looked around and saw no sign of Corbin, which made me feel better, as I would not have to deal with the obvious questions now.

I looked over to see Seth talking to Adrian about the mission. It appeared as though this was as simple as you could make it. Tim had the refugees staying in a church that often helped us hide out when we needed it and the convoy was all set up. We would enter the city under the guise of delivery workers. Tim would meet us at the exit of the other subway station, which let out in a deserted area of the city. With the truck, we would enter, make the pick up and leave, a simple in and out mission. Knowing this made me feel better. I didn't want there to be any chance of me possibly proving Mark right.

It was right then that Mark happened to walk in carrying what looked like a large duffel bag, which he set down at his feet and began rummaging through. I looked inside to see that it contained numerous large vials that had a strange blue thick-looking substance in it. He then pulled one out for each of us and handed one to each of us. I turned the vial over in my hand again and again, unsure of what it was suppose to be. Finally, after a few seconds, I got up the nerve to ask. Mark looked at me as though I had asked the world’s dumbest question. I don't think he realized that not all of us were geniuses like him.

“They’re nanodroids, tiny computer fragments I developed. It’s how I can sneak us all past the check points. Once they’re in your system I can make them give the scanners a fake reading and also allow us to pass much more freely throughout the city,” he said, sounding almost annoyed that he had to explain it to me.

I swallowed the contents of the vial and almost gagged. It had the consistency of melted wax with grains of sand, which I was guessing were the nano-whatever he used. Everyone else did the same and we all began to gag in unison. It was Adrian who finally spoke up.

“God, Mark, do you think you could make that shit any more nasty if you tried?” he asked, trying not to throw his back up. Mark got this slight annoyed face and in one swift movement downed his and got up to take one back to Corbin in the other car.

Before he left he turned to Adrian and with a smirk on his face said, “Forgive me, next time I’ll be sure to flavor it for you, or better yet, you can skip yours and be picked off at a check point. Is that what you would like?” With that he turned and left the three of us to finish gagging.

Adrian then stood up to take his place at the control of the train leaving me and Seth their alone. Seth looked up at me and gave a slight smile.

“You remember what I said last night; no matter what, we’re both coming home.”

I nodded that I understood and felt only slightly better as I felt the train begin to move. My head began to race faster and I thought to myself, ’No matter what, I won’t let my dream come true. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure we all come home safe.’

I heard Adrian’s voice come over a PA system. In a loud, excited tone I heard, “Next stop, Station B.” I watched as my home disappeared and began on my way to return to the surface for the first time in 10 years.

There was no turning back now.