Dark Zone

92

Dean was just punching the lock button on the bathroom door when he heard the explosion. He slapped his hand against the open button, but the door didn’t respond. He slammed the large button again, harder this time. The door hissed open as the train shuddered, wheels and brakes screeching ferociously. People in the car screamed, throwing themselves down — Dean ran through the coach toward the back as the lights flickered. The back end of coach nine had been blackened and some of the metal twisted; an old man lay white-faced on the floor, arm severed just above the elbow. He looked at Dean for a split second, horror in his eyes.

There were voices behind him, shouts. Dean pushed into the vestibule at the back of the train, now a jagged and misshapen envelope of metal. Sparks flew upward; the train rocked violently from side to side, still moving at a good pace.

The train had been severed; the other half was behind them but a good distance away, with the gap growing even as the brakes were applied. The gap was five, then ten meters. There was another explosion, more sparks, screams from behind him.

Lia was in the other half of the train.

Dean waited a few more seconds as the gap grew wider, then he leaped into the darkness.