"Ugh..."
"This flashbang is really a pain to deal with...!" Javier said, patting his face. The physical contact helped him stay awake. Although he was the closest to the flashbang, his steel helmet and gas mask blocked most of the light and sound. So, even though he was feeling horrible, he didn't suffer from a ruptured eardrum or temporary blindness.
The mutated leeches on the ground, on the other hand, were not doing so well. Leeches are photophobic, and if their environment is too bright, it affects their appetite and survival rate. This is something any leech farmer knows. So, even though they had mutated, the 700 candela brightness of the military-grade flashbang was enough to kill most of them instantly. The few that survived were writhing on the ground, as if their insides were damaged, and wouldn't last much longer. Javier had a lot of flashbangs with him because he knew the leeches' weakness. He just didn't expect to use them so soon.
"Hey!"
"Javier, are you okay? Did those leeches hurt you?"
After the flashbang's effects wore off, Rebecca, who was hiding behind a train seat, rushed out. She was worried about Javier. Even though they had only been partners for a few months and his bad attitude annoyed her, she couldn't stand the thought of him dying in front of her. She frantically checked if he was hurt.
Billy, who was behind her, was also worried. Javier had stood in front of them to block the leeches. He didn't want this kind friend to get bitten and become a zombie.
"I'm fine..."
"Hey! You brat, I'm fine. Stop touching me, oh! Damn it... don't touch me down there!"
Javier yelled at Rebecca. The girl had no sense of personal space and was touching him everywhere. It seemed she was just too worried.
Rebecca's face turned red when she realized what she was doing. She pinched Javier's waist in anger, making him cry out in pain.
"You bastard!"
"If you're fine, then get up. You made me worry for nothing. Here! Don't say I don't care about you; drink this...!"
Seeing that Javier was truly okay, Rebecca took a vial of green liquid from her medical kit and gave it to him. She acted as if she didn't care about him, making Billy shake his head in amusement.
"What is this?"
"Poison? Are you trying to poison me and get all my gear...? Wait, I'm not drinking this!" Javier said in disgust. The green liquid looked like a health potion from a game, but who would use green medicine in real life? Was it weedkiller? Would he just die if he drank it?
But it wasn't poison. It was a detoxifying agent that Rebecca had made herself. As a pharmaceutical expert, she was skilled in this area. This concoction was a poison antidote that also had a hallucinatory and sedative effect. It was useless to Javier, but it would make Rebecca feel better. She was genuinely scared that Javier had been bitten.
"Stop talking nonsense!"
"Just drink it...!" Rebecca said, not giving him a chance to refuse. She pulled off his gas mask, pinched his mouth open, and poured the liquid down his throat. Her aggressive actions made Billy take a few steps back. He had just thought that Rebecca was a good medic with a tough exterior but a soft heart. Now, he saw her as a little devil who was unreasonable.
"Cough, cough—!!!"
With the weedkiller down his throat, Javier felt his dizzy brain clear up. He wasn't sure if it was because of the medicine or if he was just hallucinating.
"Wait!"
"You two, stop messing around. The train is still moving, but the two U.B.C.S. guys are dead. Who is driving the train? If it's driverless, it's going to derail," Billy said, reminding them of their situation. The three of them suddenly remembered why they were at the front of the train in the first place—to find out who was driving it.
"Step, step, step..."
"Step, step, step..."
"Step, step, step..."
Without hesitation, the three of them looked at each other and rushed to the cockpit door.
"Clang—!"
The iron door opened, but the three of them were stunned by what they saw inside. Outside the window, a storm was still raging, and raindrops were hitting the glass. But the driver's seat was empty. The wipers were still moving, and the train was driving itself.
"How is this possible...?"
"The cockpit is empty. Did those two dead U.B.C.S. soldiers start the train and leave it on autopilot? Where is this train going? Damn it... at this speed, the train is going to derail. We have to stop it," Billy cursed. If the high-speed train derailed and crashed into the mountain, they would all die instantly. No one could survive that kind of impact. As for jumping off the train, were they trying to be Superman?
"Don't panic," Javier said.
"Look, there's a train manual here. The two U.B.C.S. soldiers probably left it here. How else would those two soldiers know how to drive a train? The military doesn't teach you how to drive something like this."
"Hmm... let me see. The brake system seems to be this lever. But... to brake this train, one person has to push the lever in the cockpit, and another has to push the same lever in the caboose. Tsk tsk... what genius came up with this braking method? Of course, something's going to go wrong!" Javier said as he picked up the train manual. He couldn't help but complain. The train's brakes were just like in the game. It required two people, which added to the fun but was also completely illogical. In an emergency, who could run to the caboose and pull the lever? It was a disaster waiting to happen!
But Javier had no choice. Their lives were at stake.
"..."
"Rebecca, you and Billy stay here. I'll go to the caboose. Remember to use the walkie-talkie. We'll pull the levers at the same time. Got it?"
Without hesitation, Javier took the black walkie-talkie from his shoulder and showed it to Rebecca. She nodded in understanding. Javier then ran to the caboose. The zombies had already been cleared out, so he had a clear path. A few minutes later, he reached the caboose and found a control panel similar to the one in the cockpit.
"Beep, beep, beep..."
"Hello! Rebecca, can you hear me?"
"I'm at the caboose. We're going to push the levers together. I'll count down from three. Three, two, one!"
Javier held the walkie-talkie in one hand and grabbed the lever with the other. When he finished counting down, they pulled the levers at the same time, and a screeching sound came from the train!
"Hiss—!!!"
The brakes were working. Sparks flew from the tracks, but the train was going too fast to stop immediately. It kept going forward and then derailed, crashing into an underground tunnel!
Oh, great, Javier thought, looking at the overturned train. He grabbed onto a metal pole in the caboose. He had forgotten about this part... In the game, if you braked the train, it would overturn and crash into the underground tunnel of the executive training facility. It was no different from crashing into a mountain, except that the crash was a little softer...
Damn it, we just went from a train wreck to a train drift.