I cycled as fast as I could that I could barely feel my legs still attached to my body until I started to see the faint sight of the station from the distance. I jumped almost instantly from the bicycle when I could already clearly see the stairs that lead to the second floor, and carried the bicycle using my two hands as I rushed upstairs.
When I reached the third floor and finally to the platform, I put down the bicycle there before rushing towards Ryan who was on the other side of the platform. I could even barely care if the rest of the others probably looked at me like I was in a hurry and holding my bladder as I was running towards him. I eventually reached him with barely any air left inside my lungs.
"Whoa… whoa… breathe… Travis…" Ryan said to me, chuckling a bit.
"I guess… I barely have… anytime… for that…" I responded, while catching my breath.
"But… where are Jon and Cap-" Ryan was about to ask, before I cut his sentences.
"They are still in the middle of the street, which is why I have some things to tell to you all…" I said.
I began to explain to them as brief as I could about the further details of trapping the aliens. Starting with finding the ideal place for it, which turned out to be three buildings located southwest of the station, then to the decision of making a Vietnam War jungle-like traps inside them, continued by capturing few aliens as bait for the others, and finally the evacuation plan for the rest of the other survivors to the elevated railroad.
"Wait a minute…" Ryan said before asking, "How do we suppose to know how many survivors out there in the first place?"
"We do not at all…" I responded to him, "All we know for sure now is that there are no less than fifty survivors, including children."
I continued further by explaining that since the numbers of them could even tolled above 200, the only hideout that we had would definitely not suffice. Therefore, the only feasible option left would be to evacuate them into the elevated railroad. Since we should also have some kind of a border for the railroad, another hideout establishment at another station was also necessary. I ended by stating that I was to look for a possible station, to which Ryan responded by asking who was going to guard the hideout.
"Okay… but please clear me on one thing…" Ryan said, "Who is going to guard this place if you and I are going to look for another station?"
In almost immediately, I could feel that the rest of the others suddenly had their eyes locked towards me and Ryan. As I had not thought about the matter, I could not give him any answers, and it also seemed to be troubling him since he had a confused expression drawn on his face. Fortunately, there was one among the others who volunteered to come with either me or Ryan to the other station, so that there would still be either one to stay. The one who volunteered, was none other than Kyle.
"In that case," Kyle said, "Let me come with either of you…"
Ryan and I both glanced at each other for a while, before I finally gave my final decision to be the one who go with her, suggesting that Ryan was to stay at the station to guard the rest of the others. He also seemed to agree with my decision, since he only nodded with a relieved expression on his face.
"Alright, but before I go, here…" I said to Ryan as I handed him my submachine gun, "you may need it…"
In an instant, everyone gave out another shocked expression on their faces, including Ryan and Kyle. Realizing it, I tried to explain to them that the submachine gun would not be as effective to bring with me since I could not fire it without drawing the attentions of aliens on my journey.
At first, most of them did not seem to be convinced right away, except for Ryan. He eventually helped me in making them understand and adding that the submachine gun would be of use to them should any aliens suddenly storm the hideout when both Kyle and I were absent.
With the rest of the others finally more convinced, Kyle and I began to prepare for our journey along the elevated railroad loop, in search for another station suitable for a hideout. Kyle began by heading downstairs to the second floor to take a bicycle, while I carried mine down to the railroad.
As she was carrying her bicycle down, I gave Ryan the ammunition for my submachine gun, but not all of them since I also needed some for Captain Quentin's handgun. When we were finally ready, I looked at my watch and realized that the time was then exactly 03.00 p.m. To be honest, I had no idea on where we should go for at all, but fortunately she suggested something that I immediately agreed on.
"I hope we could be back before it goes dark…" I muttered to Kyle, as I went on my bicycle.
"Let us start by going south first, then…" Kyle responded as she started cycling, "I think there is a station there that looked similar to this one…"
Thus, we departed on our bicycles to the direction of the south along the elevated railroad with a rather quick pace. Even though the railroad was constructed in a loop that we would eventually went back to our hideout after determining the most suitable station, any leads or suggestions would definitely help in shortening the time needed in searching it.
I believe it only took us not more than five minutes before we reached the next station, which was damaged rather severely as there were many holes on its platform walls, roof completely absent, and as we just reached the station's platform, we realized that all of the pillars seemed to have been cut in half. Apparently, some of the aliens had some sort of large sized very sharp-edged blades and for some reason, they cut the pillars in half, causing the roof to fall and destroyed elsewhere.
"Travis," Kyle said, pointing down to the road below as we were just passing the station, "look…"
She pointed towards what seemed to be piles of ruins just below where the station was standing. When I looked closer, I could see few of the ruin parts resembled that of a pillar that had been cut off. Since the ruins were very close to where the station was, I assumed that they used to be the station roof before it fell and destroyed. In almost an instant, I was reminded by the bulky alien that seemed to carry a large sized blade with it back at the hospital.
"Let us just hope it was not the work of those bulky aliens…" I responded to her, as I signaled her to move again.
As we began to cycle our bikes again, fear started to surround my mind as I realized that the very same aliens could still be lurking somewhere along the elevated railroad. It eventually penetrated my mind, but not because of the longer time that I spent outside at the foggy railroad. It was caused by what was revealed before my eyes about three minutes after we passed the first station.
"Hold on…" Kyle said, suddenly stopping her bicycle, "we should be seeing another station by now, clear as day…"
"Here? Right in front of us?" I asked, not sure of her words.
Kyle only nodded once, as she then walked slowly and lead her bicycle with her. I followed right behind her, still oblivious to what she had just said. If only I had spent some of my teenage days in Chicago, I might recall the same thing like she did.
As I finally began to see what seemed to be the remains of a station, but with everything also cleanly cut in half. Kyle insisted that we were to climb up to what used to be a platform, saying that we should probably took a look inside the train cars if there were any to find out what might had happened there.
Since I believe what she said made sense, I agreed with her, and thus we climbed to the platform as we also helped each other carried our bicycles up there. However, very shortly after, she gasped hard to what she saw right in front of her, closing her lips with both of her hands as she did, releasing her bicycle and made it fell to the platform ground in the process.
At first, I had not yet seen it clearly, until I walked a bit past of her that I realized, there were four train cars in one of the railroad, cleanly cut in half. That was not the sight that instantly kicked my fear right into my mind. It was the sight of several people inside also cut in half, with their hands still there as their body parts that were missing were from the area of chest and above. What made it worse was that there were absolutely no traces of blood whatsoever around them, on the train floors, or even on their clothes.
I could feel my heart suddenly pounded fast, it felt like it could explode at any time as I could barely watch for another additional second at the sight. My mind suddenly went blurry as I try to calm myself down, spontaneously holding my head with my left hand which was currently trembling violently. Good for me however, that I could begin to clear my mind a bit quicker than when the dead bodies rained down. I clenched my teeth as hard as I could, and I could feel that my hand was starting to shake less violently, although both of my feet were still shaking.
As I began to look at Kyle's direction, she seemed to be struggling greatly on keeping herself calm, and she was looking away from the horrifying sights. I immediately approached her, and convinced her that we had to get out from the station as fast as we could. She nodded violently as she was still shaking, and carried her bicycle before we moved again. I helped her climbed down from the platform, as we reached its end, before we could finally move away from the station for good.
Shortly after, a metal twisting screeching like sound was heard right from behind our backs. I was so shocked that I dropped my bicycle as I turned around and pointed Captain Quentin's handgun towards the direction of the half-cut train cars. Just as I turned, I realized that the train cars began to bend down as the rails on where it rested also began to fracture downwards rapidly.
Then, all of a sudden the train cars fell down hard to the street below along with the rails where it rested on, leaving a huge rectangular hole on one of the railroad tracks. The train cars finally hit the road hard, resulting in a massive and rather deafening banging sound, and echoing for a short while before it began to disappear.
If I had to be honest, I was extremely curious as what kind of damages that both the rails and the train cars had sustained that caused such destruction to them. However, I reminded myself that it was not the right time to stay and think about it while another urgent task had been entrusted to me. I urged Kyle to continue moving as she seemed to still had her attentions locked to the huge hole.
"Huh… I guess it is better like that than for the others to see half-cut dead bodies…" Kyle muttered, still shaking a bit.
"Yeah, well… come on… we have to move on…" I responded to her, convincing her to move again.
We continued to cycle again along the railroad for a short while, before turning to our right direction upon reaching a railroad T-junction. Apparently, if we chose to go straight ahead instead of turning right, we would get out from the elevated railroad loop zone. Just when we had turned, I could feel like the atmosphere had somehow changed, but for a rather good thing since it could somehow sway my mind off the horrifying experienced even for a little.
I asked Kyle if she had also felt the same, to which she confirmed it. She also said that we had just entered an old trading district zone, as she pointed out that there were also some vintage buildings around the area and was still functioning as a trading location or banking, although many of them had been relocated and/or re-functioned as vintage-styled hotels. Based on what I had remembered, the southern part of the loop was known for the Great Vintage Library.
Not long after she had finished her sentences, I began to see a silhouette of a vintage styled station platform hidden among the dense fog right in front of me. As we approached it closer, it turned out that it was indeed another vintage styled station that Kyle had mentioned earlier. When we finally reached the platform, we climbed it up and could finally look at the station in more detail.
The first two things that I noticed in an instant about the station were its foundation pillars and its roofing style that definitely resembled the 1910s architectural style. Once I realized it, I had the sudden urge to look at what could be downstairs. I immediately parked my bicycle on the platform, as I looked for any means of access towards downstairs. It turned out that the stairs also had a vintage style on its handle.
I was expecting to see that the interiors of the second floor was also similar to the one at our hideout, and just as I stepped my feet on the second floor, it turned out that it indeed had very similar features. There were three significant differences compared to our hideout however.
The first one was that instead of restrooms, the staffs' office was located on one of the corners of the second floor. Secondly, was the amount of ticketing machines were the exact same of six, but with each two located on each of the rest of the corners of the second floor. The third one was the location of the restroom that was right under the stairs to the third floor, unlike the one at our hideout.
As I had finished looking around, Kyle also pointed out the numbers '1907' that was shown right above the office door, as well as written right on the center of the second floor ceiling, strongly indicating that the station was built on that year. Just when she pointed at the direction of the office door, I realized that I had not checked inside of it yet.
I rushed towards the office, but rather quietly until I reached right in front of the front door and readying Captain Quentin's handgun on my right hand. I gave Kyle a signal that I was going to break in, to which she responded by aiming her bows and arrows towards the door. I crouched a little, pointing the handgun towards the door, before breaking inside.
It was such a huge relieve that there was absolutely nothing inside of the office, besides a couple of dead computers, something that seemed to be a public notice microphone, as well as a couple of metal cabinets. Kyle was the one who looked inside them, and she notified me that there were only documents and stationeries inside them.
"Well… this is unexpectedly better than what I thought it would be…" Kyle said, with a little smile on her face.
I had to agree with her, especially knowing that the benches on both of the second and third floor were still neatly arranged like there was literally nothing bad that had happened on the station. I even thought for a brief moment if something was going too well it would be some sort of a sign that something bad would be imminent, the thought which I immediately shrugged off.
"Do you think we need to check what was on the first floor?" I asked her.
She fell silent for a little moment, before she decided that it would be best for me to wait on the second floor while she went downstairs. I decided that for the time being, I might check the station's restrooms as well.
When I looked inside, the first thing that I did was to find out if the water was still running. I approached the sink and turned on the water tap, and to my surprise the water was indeed still running. I quickly washed my face and neck a couple of times, feeling the cool stream of water running down from my forehead, my closed eyes, to my cheek and chin, and finally to the sink again as it flowed down towards the sink hole.
When I felt like I already had enough, I slowly closed the water tap as I looked into the mirror, giving out a couple of loud sigh before I took a deep breath and headed out of the restroom. Just as I had stepped out, I saw Kyle was sitting at the nearest bench, smiling or rather, grinning at me.
"Well… someone seemed to be more refreshed…" she said, chuckling, "Okay, my turn now…"
I sat down at the exact same bench where she just sat, as I waited for her inside the restroom. I slowly leaned back, and turned my heads towards the ceiling as I stared towards it rather blankly while I could also hear a faint sound of water flowing from the restroom.
'Now… how should we start with everything in here…' I thought to myself as I was staring at the ceiling.
Shortly after, the sound of the water flow stopped, and in reflex I stood up as I saw Kyle headed out of the restroom, looking more refreshed herself. She looked at me for a while, before she also asked me the very same question that I had been asking myself.
"So?" she asked, "Where should we start?"
I told her to get back to the third floor first, as I believed that it would be best for us to determine our further decisions there. When we were back at the third floor, and finally at the platform, I realized that unlike our hideout, the station did not have any single train cars at either of the railroad tracks. Instead, I saw that there was some kind of a tiny food court on the other corner of the platform.
"Well… I guess we could start from there..." I told her.
I did not consider the food court tiny for no reason. If I was to assume its area, perhaps it was only a little less than three times the size of the staff's office, with only eight sets of round dining tables and chairs inside it. Strangely enough, they were all also still neatly arranged like nothing bad had taken place there.
There were also only three stalls there; two for foods, and one for drinks. Kyle was the one who confirmed that few of instant foods and drinks were still stored well inside the stalls' cabinets. It turned out that there were also four food and beverages vending machines there, with each two of them containing a rather full amount of snacks and drinks. I immediately realized that we could turn it into some sort of the resting place for the second hideout, especially for the other survivors later on when they had to wait while we had to deal with large numbers of aliens inside the concrete jungle.
"Okay… let us start from here first…" I signaled Kyle to help me move away the dining tables and chairs away from the food court.
When we had finished moving them away, we rested for around five minutes before I decided that we should go back to our hideout, notifying the rest of the others that we had succeeded in finding the right station that we could use as our second hideout. At first, Kyle objected that either one of us were to stay at that station.
Since I believed that there were no other safer options, I convinced her to go together since if we were to encounter any of the aliens our chance of survival would be very slim should we were to split up. Fortunately, it did not take long for her to agree with me.
We headed to where we had parked our bicycles, and went on it. I looked at the time to find out how long it had been since we left the station, and realized that the time was already 04.09 p.m. I felt a little relieved to know that we could still make it to the station before it went dark, at least supposedly…