Chapter 23: Chapter 23
The sky above the desert split open. The clouds gave way, not to sun, but to the silhouettes of descending warships, humming with power and bristling with weapons. The sight was enough to make everyone on the train stop what they were doing and look out the window.
Panic took over instantly.
"Yagans," Eric whispered, his face tight with a deep seated dread. He stood up and began walking briskly through the train car, eyes scanning the ceiling as if expecting it to rip open at any second.
Jimmy, still staring at the descending warships, followed him closely.
"We need to get off this bloody train right now."
Eric said loudly, urgency rippling through every word.
As they passed Yelena, she remained perfectly still, her gaze fixed on the warships, analyzing their tight V-shaped formation, her expression unreadable but focused.
"You seem pretty tense,"
Jimmy said, keeping up with Eric’s pace. "They could be here for something else."
"No, they’re here for me, unfinished business"
Eric replied, his voice flat, stripped of hope.
"Unfinished business? What do you mean unfinished business?"
Jimmy launched back.
"They captured me before I was transported to Atlas. Look, it doesn’t matter,"
Eric said, turning back to address Jimmy with a sharp motion.
"If we don’t get off this train, everyone’s gonna—"
**BOOM**
He was cut off by a deafening explosion.
The side of the train car a few feet away from them disintegrated in a burst of fire and shredded metal, leaving a gaping hole that screamed with rushing wind.
The sudden change in pressure violently sucked people out. Eric and Jimmy were pulled from their feet and thrown toward the opening, their screams lost in the chaos.
"Don’t let go! Don’t let go! Don’t let go!" Jimmy yelled continuously, his words swallowed by the howling winds.
He found himself hanging from the side of the speeding train, his body flapping violently in the wind like a ragdoll.
Luckily, Eric, who had managed to find a handhold on a twisted beam, was gripping Jimmy’s legs tightly, preventing him from falling.
Outside, the warships began to split open.
Tall, muscular, thick-scaled humanoid creatures, the Yagans, began jumping out, one after another, landing hard on the top of the train with thunderous impacts.
"H@#$&₹#@Y&,"
a yagan roared, its landing causing a deep dent in the thick metal surface.
Eric looked behind him. A group of six Yagans was closing in fast. They moved with an unsettling speed, completely unaffected by the train’s momentum or the chaotic winds. Eric began pulling Jimmy closer.
"Kid, we have to bloody move! Now!" he yelled, straining with effort.
Jimmy, with a burst of strength and panic, grabbed hold of a shattered railing and pulled himself up. He crawled closer to Eric, his muscles screaming in protest.
"We have to move!"
Eric yelled again, louder this time.
"What?! I can’t hear you!"
Jimmy yelled back, struggling against the roar of wind and screeching metal.
The wind was so powerful they could barely stand. They were holding on for dear life, their fingers clawing at every textured bolt and openings on the surface of the train.
Unseen by them, the Yagans had gotten so close they were practically on top of them, their muscles bulging as they flexed their claws aggressively.
"Oh, shit!" Eric yelled as one of the Yagans reached for his face with a guttural snarl.
Suddenly, a powerful laser beam erupted from inside the train.
It blasted upward, slicing the Yagan reaching for Eric in half with brutal precision. The beam continued to soar, colliding with a Yagan warship overhead, causing a fiery explosion and a shockwave that pushed Eric and Jimmy farther away from the rest of the incoming Yagans.
The heat from the blast washed over them like a furnace, even through the wind.
Humming with intense force, the laser beam sliced through the sides and top of the train, exposing large sections of the interior to the open air.
Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the laser stopped.
The exposed sections of the train made it clear to the Yagans on the roof who the source of the beam was as they walked forward menacingly with closed fists.
Yelena stood fearlessly below them, staring straight up at them, her gaze ice cold and unflinching.
Without wasting a second, one of the Yagans pounced, reaching Yelena in less than a second and knocking her away with a powerful blow that sent her crashing into a wall of twisted seats.
"Don’t worry about me. I’ll handle this insect myself," the Yagan bellowed in his own language.
He walked menacingly and majestically toward Yelena. Each step was a loud stomp that left deep dents in the metal floor, his gaze locked on her like a predator playing with its prey.
Hearing his command, the rest of the Yagans leapt over and headed for Eric.
"H@#$&₹#@Y&,"
the huge Yagan said in his language, sounding gibberish to Yelana as he raised his arms in mockery.
"From the looks of it, you seem to be a warrior as well. Good. Fight me with all your might and don’t disappoint me."
He spoke with a deep crackling voice.
Meanwhile, Eric and Jimmy crawled slowly away from the incoming threat. But it wasn’t enough. The Yagans were closing the distance by the second. Eric was desperate.
There was no way he could get back into the train but he still had the cell charger, and an idea sparked in his mind.
"Grab the charger from my pocket, quick!"
he yelled to Jimmy.
"What?!"
Jimmy yelled back, barely hearing him.
"The cell charger! Grab it!"
Eric repeated, louder this time, emphasizing every word.
Jimmy struggled, inching toward Eric and latching onto his body, searching thoroughly for the charger. A few seconds later, he found it.
"I have it! What now?"
Jimmy yelled.
"The charger is a two section device! You have to split it!"
Eric shouted.
"How do I do that? My hands are busy!" Jimmy yelled back, gripping tightly with both hands.
"You’ll have to let go!" Eric roared.
"What?!!!"
Jimmy yelled again, shocked. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
"Listen! Once you let go, split the charger by pressing down on the octagon shape at the side!"
Eric shouted over the wind.
"They act like magnets, but once it’s split, you can use one to hold on!"
Jimmy’s heart pounded like a war drum. He had never done anything like this before.
"I can’t do that! It’s too dangerous! It might not work! I don’t want to die, Eric!"
Jimmy spoke loud, droplets of tears forming in his eyes.
"Man the bloody hell up, Goddamnit! We’ll die if we just sit here waiting to get killed!" Eric snapped, eyes burning.
"It’s better to do this than to do nothing. Trust me on this, Jimmy."
Eric looked behind him into Jimmy’s eyes, his voice going soft for just a moment.
"Trust me."