It soon became obvious to me that there were no guards or policemen on the train with us. The immense panic that was sparked by the initial knife attack should have sent them running, but there was no such police presence. Just me, Veronica, and a gang of extremely murderous cultists who somehow knew everything she was trying to do.
The biggest problem wasn’t the imminent threat of being stabbed, beaten or shot – it was what was happening with our expert at the University. Veronica was already on her way to that location when she stopped by our estate. If they could identify and attack her, it was likely that the source also knew who he was and the information he possessed.
I’d have to ask her about it after we were finished with the attempted murder.
The man charging at me with bloodlust in his eyes was not deterred by the knife I held in my hand. He was here for one reason, and that was to stop us from getting to Genta and figuring out what their master plan was. If he died in the process, it was of no concern to the leader of their sect. He would consider it a meaningful way to leave the mortal coil.
He was holding a hammer, the type you’d use to hit nails. While it wasn’t the most effective weapon if you needed instant results – a good strike could knock someone out cold. I already knew exactly how he was going to utilise it. He was going to hoist it into the air and try to crack my skull open with it.
The space I had to manoeuvre in was small. The benches on both sides took up most of the room in the carriage. If you moved to one side it would keep you from moving back and forth without leaping over them. With the train still in motion that would all but guarantee a mistake. It was not a risk worth taking.
Luckily – none of these Scuncath knew the first thing about fighting effectively. They were an unruly mob of religious extremists picked from the crowd and told to cause as much mayhem as possible. Any level of organized resistance would pose a serious challenge to their plans. They made a serious error in messing with me.
The swing was way too slow. It was almost effortless for me to dip into the aisle and avoid his attack. I was scornful; who did he think he was kidding with a half-hearted attack like that? I kicked off the bench and grabbed his long hair between my fingers, pulling him back until he lost his footing.
The grease sticking to my fingers was not the best feeling, but having the knife pulled across his neck until it hit the artery was probably worse. The violent spew of blood that followed took even me by surprise.
Blood gushed from the opened vein, coating the window to my left until it was impossible to see the outside world. While I held the back of the man’s head and let him bleed out, I slashed at the other attacker and caught him across the chest, leaving a long bloody gash in my wake. Knives were good for many things but they made one hell of a mess.
With a new neck hole opened for my friend and his body going limp from anaemia, I thrust his head forward and crashed it through the window. Shards of blood-stained glass rained down onto his dead body. Veronica finally finished screwing around and drew her gun, shooting the other man in the chest and putting him down. To say that she was perturbed by the incredibly violent display would be an understatement.
After a few false starts, she finally came out with it; “There’s something wrong with you.”
“You say that after gunning someone down?” I replied. I’d somehow killed him without getting any blood on my clothes. Small victories.
“Slashing his neck, painting the window and then throwing him through it is a little more theatrical than shooting a man.”
I held out my arms and laughed, “I’ll allow them to stab you through the head next time, shall I? Though, given your thick-headedness, Goddess knows whether it would be sharp enough to pierce it.”
Veronica saw me as a stupid little girl playing with toys. There was a barrier between what she saw and her willingness to believe. Sure, I out-fought her and pulled a gun, but was I ready to use it on another person? There were no barriers now. She understood that I was not boasting when I said I could dole out harm in the same ways that she could.
“We’d better go before they see the mess,” I concluded. I reached into the overhead compartment and grabbed my trunk from the rack.
Veronica growled, “How many of these lunatics are there?”
“Two less than before...”
“I’m being serious.”
Veronica’s eyes turned to the unconscious woman on the floor. She reached down and dragged her back up onto one of the seats, slapping her several times across the face until she finally sputtered back to life. She wished she’d stayed asleep because Veronica immediately pressed the barrel of her gun square against her forehead.
“Talk. How many of you are on this train?”
The Scuncath’s reaction was less than helpful. The distress she felt about her two dead comrades was clear. She screamed and struggled, but Veronica only responded to her plight by cracking her around the head with the butt of her gun. Dazed and unable to escape, she was again subjected to more questions.
“How many of you are there?”
“F-Fifteen.”
That was a lot more than I anticipated, but where were they? All hell had broken loose yet they were nowhere to be seen.
She flashed her damaged teeth, “But it does not matter. You will perish here, and there shall be none who can stand in our way. From the very moment you boarded this train – your fate was sealed, your death warrant signed.”
The entire train lurched forward suddenly, almost causing Veronica to lease her bead on the hostage. I didn’t like that one bit. They were screwing with the engine.
“I hope they don’t make us stop. We have a schedule to keep,” Veronica complained.
“I don’t want these Scuncath driving the bloody train. They’re going to make us crash - stopping would be for the best.”
Veronica had an expression that would be more appropriate for a minor inconvenience, like struggling to find a parking spot while visiting the mall, or stubbing her toe on the corner of a table. It was a type of casual disdain that felt out of step with the mayhem going on around us. The train was getting faster as we spoke.
Veronica hoisted the cultist to her feet, and with a mighty hip toss, threw her clean through another one of the windows. She flipped twice over in the air, before coming to a violent landing on the embankment by the side of the railway. If she survived that, she was going to have more than a few broken bones as a result.
“I hate people who talk like that.”
She did it because she annoyed her? She was trying to browbeat me a few seconds before for slicing some guy’s neck!
“If they know who you are, what about Genta?”
Veronica exhaled and leaned back against the carriage’s wall, “Genta has already had a run-in with these Scuncath. Part of the reason I wish to speak with him is because they stole something extremely valuable from him and the University. It's called The Book of Cambry.”
“What’s that?”
“His family’s life work, the most comprehensive collection of scholarly notes on ancient Walserian rituals, religion, worship and demonology that there is. You can guess why they stole it.”
“And they didn’t want to kill him?”
Veronica shrugged, “Allegedly not. How and why? That is a mystery even to me. They certainly don’t have any issue with killing everyone else they meet. They must have a reason.”
“This is a mess. Someone’s leaking information to anyone willing to listen. They already know that you’re coming to try and stop them.”
“That won’t help them. I’ve never once failed in a job I’ve been given, and I don’t intend to start now.”
I fished my gun from the trunk and slipped it into the holster beneath my skirt. I should have never parted with the pistol in the first place. The law of dramatic irony demanded that a fight happen once it was removed from my reach. Veronica kept an eye on the door to the next carriage over.
“Still no sign of them. They’re waiting for us to move.”
“I can hardly refuse an earnest invitation like that,” I said, “My Father would die of shock if he learned of it.”
Veronica pulled the door aside between the carriages, allowing a strong bluster of wind to cut through and threaten to flip my skirt. The countryside whipped past at a worrying speed as the train gathered momentum. Our only hope lay in the hands of the signal operators who were stationed along the line to prevent accidents from occurring.
Veronica got into a stance and steadied herself next to the door. She pulled it open and prepared to fire, but what awaited us inside was far more horrifying than a gang of armed cultists ready to fight.
“What in the Goddess’s name is that horrendous thing!”
It was almost impossible to describe with words alone. While we were busy handling the three spies and getting our weapons ready, they were preparing a dark ritual. A large blood-stained circle had been painted onto the floor of the carriage, and several dead bodies spoke to the brutal massacre that followed once they got their hands on the passengers.
One of them had been transformed into a disgusting form, one that threatened to make my war-weary stomach turn. It was as if a bloodhound had sprouted from within the poor man’s body. A vicious head filled with gnarled teeth emerged from his mouth. Legs sprouted from his ribcage. A long tail slithered against the wooden floor. The beast was covered in a thick layer of gore. It was disfigured. Its mouth was held open, revealing a black hole lined with far too many teeth.
It was huge, even larger than the dead human it wore like an obscene veil. Yellow eyes filled with nothing but malice looked at us, and it took off in a sprint so fast that it threatened to be upon us within moments. Veronica slammed the door shut and looked to her left, where a ladder allowed access to the train’s roof.
“Let’s go up!”
I didn’t argue with her. I was completely shell-shocked by the horrendous creature that was now gallivanting around the train like a wrecking ball. If I had any doubts about the legitimacy of their demon-summoning ways, they were now firmly laid to rest.
I followed behind as she scampered up the metal rods and hefted herself up onto the roof of the carriage. There was a slight slope on either side, which made our already unsteady footing even more treacherous. As soon as I started my ascent, the beast crashed through the door and kept going, bursting through the second and disappearing out of sight.
“What the bloody hell is that?” I yelled again.
“I believe it’s a minor demon. It didn’t take them long to exploit Cambry’s book!”
“I didn’t even think demons were real, and you’re telling me that they’re summoning them in broad daylight?”
Veronica nodded, “Imagine how much worse it’ll be if they have time to prepare something more elaborate!”
The dog was back, poking its head from the carriage and looking my way. I drew my gun and fired several shots into it, but the damnable fiend didn’t even flinch from the impact. It was seemingly impervious to such simple means.
“I hate this bastard thing already!”
“Run!”
Veronica grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the way as it leapt up into the air and came crashing down where I was kneeling. That was far too close for comfort, which meant that I couldn’t hold my own rescue over her as leverage anymore. The wind stabbed at us like a fan of knives, pushing us back and leaving a cold sting in its wake. I could hear the demon rumbling behind us, gnashing teeth and howling in outrage.
It looked like a monster from the deepest, darkest pits of hell – but according to Veronica, it was only a lesser demon. They could get worse, and they would get worse if we didn’t stop the Scuncath soon.
The roof of the train was just as treacherous as what awaited down below. It barrelled down the line and passed through into a thick canopy of overhanging trees. The branches could easily knock us from the roof if we weren’t careful. We stayed low and did our best to avoid being whipped by them. The demon was not so concerned with self-preservation, it laughed in the face of those puny twigs and charged at full speed to try and murder us.
I turned to face it and fired more speculative shots, hoping that one of the bullets would find a weakness in its armour and strike it down, but such hopes were dashed as they harmlessly bounced off of the tough hide it was covered in. The movement of the carriage was too severe for me to aim accurately and hit it in the opening where its mouth should have been.
I was out of ammunition in the magazine anyway. I holstered the gun and held on tight to my trunk. The monster leapt into the air once more and clawed at me, but using the suitcase as a makeshift shield turned it into a glancing blow. The force of it alone was enough to send me skidding into Veronica’s back. She scrambled for purchase and eventually found a handhold, but I was not so lucky. I found myself sliding down the curved edge and off of the roof, saved at the last second by a railing that ran along each side of the carriage.
I was being beset from all sides by new threats. The trees were dangerously close to wiping me out, the ground sped along beneath promising broken legs and cracked bones, and now the cultists inside of the carriage could see me helplessly hanging from the roof like a reed in the wind.
“Hold this!”
I threw the trunk into Veronica’s arms and strengthened my grip using both hands. The cultists were watching with bemusement. My plight must have seemed very entertaining from the safety of the inside. I decided that sharing the joy with them was a better idea than facing down the demon again.
I started to swing on the bar by pushing off from the window. I waited for the perfect opportunity to present itself when my back was clear. Once I was sure that I wouldn’t get wiped out by a passing tree, I put my back into it and shattered the cheap window with my boots. The cultist standing there with a smile on his face learned the importance of due diligence, as I flew through it and took him down to the ground with my legs squeezing on his neck.
Knife out. I brought it down through his eye socket and killed him in one blow. There was a sudden scramble from the rest to arm themselves and get revenge, but I wasn’t going to let them. I pulled the knife free and threw it at the nearest gun-toting foe, embedding it into their forehead and sending them crumpling to the floor.
I hopped over the bench and took their gun, a pistol, from the floor. A loud blast rang out, a stray burst of shotgun pellets hitting the wall next to me and sending wood shards fluttering into the air. I acted on instinct. This was a terrible situation with even worse odds of survival, but I couldn’t stop and think about it now.
My mind worked methodically. The first priority was ridding the carriage of everyone holding a gun. These narrow quarters were the perfect kill box. There was nowhere to hide and it was only by the grace of the out-of-control train that the shotgun missed me. Most of the Scuncath were holding blunt weapons. There were two knives and two more guns.
One of the guns was a rifle at the front door. He was not going to be able to hit me without shooting through his friends. The second was a revolver in the hands of a panicked woman to my right. She was fumbling with the hammer. It was single-action, with no room for error.
I moved. I rolled over the bench and barely dodged a strike from one of the clubs. I took aim, but the woman finally remembered how to use the damn gun and fired back at me first. The bullet missed, but it was close. I returned the favour by shooting her in the chest.
One of the club-wielders tried to smother me by leaping onto my body and pinning me down. I dodged to the side and found myself sitting on the bench, with him on his hands and knees. I came down with the heel of my boot and smashed his head against the opposite seat, knocking him out cold.
Veronica had somehow navigated her way down to the ground floor again by evading the demon. The door was thrown open. Her hands grabbed the rifle and pulled it against the cultist’s neck, choking them out and rendering them unable to provide covering fire. This struggle would continue for thirty seconds while I grappled with the rest of them.
They were swarming now. The numbers were in their favour, and in their eyes, all they needed was a quick and messy end to this fight. One lucky blow would end it all and give them the victory they sought. I dodged more attacks and kept myself atop the bench to even the height difference.
Veronica’s captive was putting up a better fight than the others, elbowing her in the gut and successfully gaining enough leverage to push her away. Veronica’s arms waved as she teetered dangerously close to falling from the front platform and beneath the wheels. The rifleman turned on her with his gun raised, but I wasn’t going to let that happen.
I snapped my fingers and broke it. He pulled the trigger, causing the bullet to misfire and send pieces of shrapnel into his hand. He screamed in pain, while Veronica gladly took advantage and knocked him out by slamming his head into the wall. That took a lot out of me. The combination of range and precision sapped most of my magical energy.
Veronica was now free to wreak her own brand of havoc from the flank. It turned into a violent, all-out melee as we dispatched the last of the cultists with guns, knives and fists. Mother dearest thinned the ones swarming me with a few shots from her pistol. I snuck in two more of my own.
Just when we were about to move on to the last few gathering at the other end, we were interrupted by the arrival of the lesser demon. The roof above us sagged inwards as a result of its heavy weight and clawed feet. I moved out of the way with milliseconds to spare before it could crush me. The cultists cheered its arrival on the scene, but that only served to attract its attention.
Veronica pulled on my jacket while the dog performed an about-face and moved to chow down on those who believed it was a messenger from god. The door closed behind me at the exact moment its savage teeth came down on one of their legs. The screams were more than illustrative enough from there.
“How are going to kill that bloody thing? It’s bulletproof!”
“I don’t know – and did Damian never teach you good manners? Your language is terrible!”
“You can wash my mouth with soap if we get out of here alive!”
“We have to stop the train. We can worry about the demon once we do that.”
I grabbed my trunk from where she’d left it and followed her lead through the next three carriages, which were empty of any further foes. That demon wouldn’t be satiated for long. It wasn’t going to stop rampaging until everything in its sight was dead.
When we reached the front of the train it was evident why the engine was running out of control. One of the cultists had stabbed the engineers to death and left them in a pool of blood by the door. Nobody was driving the thing!
“Do you know how to drive a train?” Veronica inquired.
“What do you think?” I snapped back, “There has to be a brake here somewhere!”
I left the trunk with Veronica and shimmied around the coal cart. A small platform was built into the construction of the train, allowing the engineers to manoeuvre around the sides without having to climb on top of the unstable pile. I was full of confidence in finding a solution until I actually came face to face with the controls.
“I have no idea what any of this is,” I muttered.
It was dense, incomprehensible, a tangle of bronze and gauges and pipes. There were levers and buttons and valves, none of which were labelled in a manner designed to help a moron layman like me. It was like running headfirst into a brick wall. I didn’t know where to start!
But I had to start, and quick. If I didn’t do something, the train would inevitably run into an obstacle that would kill us all. These cultists weren’t here to play. They were going to stop us and die trying.
“Lever! It’s probably a lever, right?”
I reached out for the first one I could find and pulled on it. The engine roared even louder in response. I slammed it back the other way and presumed that the engine would slow down in time. Why the hell would the big red lever not be the brake? I was starting to lose my head. I tried fiddling with several other knobs and handles to no avail. Veronica was yelling at me from the carriage.
“We’re close to the station, you have to stop it now!”
The countryside was giving way to a less-developed urban area. Houses flew past in a blur, and many onlookers were met with the sight of a panicked girl assuming the controls of an out-of-control steam engine. I considered using the last of my magic to break one of the components, but I decided against it. I didn’t know which piece to break, which was the same problem I was having now.
“I really don’t want to die in a train accident!”
It was a last-ditch effort. I reached out and grabbed a small wooden handle that I’d neglected to try and pulled on it with all of my strength. I almost smashed my head against one of the gauges as the train squealed in protest at the sudden change in momentum. We kept going, flying through the station at the end of the line and sliding through into the railyard that lay beyond, sparks flying and the contents of each carriage being thrown hell for leather.
I kept a tight grip – so tight that my hands turned white from the pressure - until I was absolutely sure that the train was done moving. My blundering operation had done the trick somehow, starving the engine of heat and putting on the brakes. I staggered back around the coal car and met up with Veronica, who was hanging from one of the railings with wide eyes and ruined hair.
“You almost killed us anyway!”
“I stopped it, didn’t I? You couldn’t do it either, you didn’t even try!”
I was so shaken from stopping the train that I failed to notice the elephant in the room until it crashed through the side of the carriage with a dead body between its jaws.
“Oh good! Our new friend is still here.”
Veronica sighed, “We’d better kill it before it starts eating people in the town as well.”
“I’m open to suggestions.”
The demon sniffed the air and turned on us, having caught our scent in the wind.
“I believe we should start by running away.”
I took my suitcase and nodded, “Agreed. After you.”
DWS demons are cool
It soon became obvious to me that there were no guards or policemen on the train with us. The immense panic that was sparked by the initial knife attack should have sent them running, but there was no such police presence. Just me, Veronica, and a gang of extremely murderous cultists who somehow knew everything she was trying to do.
The biggest problem wasn’t the imminent threat of being stabbed, beaten or shot – it was what was happening with our expert at the University. Veronica was already on her way to that location when she stopped by our estate. If they could identify and attack her, it was likely that the source also knew who he was and the information he possessed.
I’d have to ask her about it after we were finished with the attempted murder.
The man charging at me with bloodlust in his eyes was not deterred by the knife I held in my hand. He was here for one reason, and that was to stop us from getting to Genta and figuring out what their master plan was. If he died in the process, it was of no concern to the leader of their sect. He would consider it a meaningful way to leave the mortal coil.
He was holding a hammer, the type you’d use to hit nails. While it wasn’t the most effective weapon if you needed instant results – a good strike could knock someone out cold. I already knew exactly how he was going to utilise it. He was going to hoist it into the air and try to crack my skull open with it.
The space I had to manoeuvre in was small. The benches on both sides took up most of the room in the carriage. If you moved to one side it would keep you from moving back and forth without leaping over them. With the train still in motion that would all but guarantee a mistake. It was not a risk worth taking.
Luckily – none of these Scuncath knew the first thing about fighting effectively. They were an unruly mob of religious extremists picked from the crowd and told to cause as much mayhem as possible. Any level of organized resistance would pose a serious challenge to their plans. They made a serious error in messing with me.
The swing was way too slow. It was almost effortless for me to dip into the aisle and avoid his attack. I was scornful; who did he think he was kidding with a half-hearted attack like that? I kicked off the bench and grabbed his long hair between my fingers, pulling him back until he lost his footing.
The grease sticking to my fingers was not the best feeling, but having the knife pulled across his neck until it hit the artery was probably worse. The violent spew of blood that followed took even me by surprise.
Blood gushed from the opened vein, coating the window to my left until it was impossible to see the outside world. While I held the back of the man’s head and let him bleed out, I slashed at the other attacker and caught him across the chest, leaving a long bloody gash in my wake. Knives were good for many things but they made one hell of a mess.
With a new neck hole opened for my friend and his body going limp from anaemia, I thrust his head forward and crashed it through the window. Shards of blood-stained glass rained down onto his dead body. Veronica finally finished screwing around and drew her gun, shooting the other man in the chest and putting him down. To say that she was perturbed by the incredibly violent display would be an understatement.
After a few false starts, she finally came out with it; “There’s something wrong with you.”
“You say that after gunning someone down?” I replied. I’d somehow killed him without getting any blood on my clothes. Small victories.
“Slashing his neck, painting the window and then throwing him through it is a little more theatrical than shooting a man.”
I held out my arms and laughed, “I’ll allow them to stab you through the head next time, shall I? Though, given your thick-headedness, Goddess knows whether it would be sharp enough to pierce it.”
Veronica saw me as a stupid little girl playing with toys. There was a barrier between what she saw and her willingness to believe. Sure, I out-fought her and pulled a gun, but was I ready to use it on another person? There were no barriers now. She understood that I was not boasting when I said I could dole out harm in the same ways that she could.
“We’d better go before they see the mess,” I concluded. I reached into the overhead compartment and grabbed my trunk from the rack.
Veronica growled, “How many of these lunatics are there?”
“Two less than before...”
“I’m being serious.”
Veronica’s eyes turned to the unconscious woman on the floor. She reached down and dragged her back up onto one of the seats, slapping her several times across the face until she finally sputtered back to life. She wished she’d stayed asleep because Veronica immediately pressed the barrel of her gun square against her forehead.
“Talk. How many of you are on this train?”
The Scuncath’s reaction was less than helpful. The distress she felt about her two dead comrades was clear. She screamed and struggled, but Veronica only responded to her plight by cracking her around the head with the butt of her gun. Dazed and unable to escape, she was again subjected to more questions.
“How many of you are there?”
“F-Fifteen.”
That was a lot more than I anticipated, but where were they? All hell had broken loose yet they were nowhere to be seen.
She flashed her damaged teeth, “But it does not matter. You will perish here, and there shall be none who can stand in our way. From the very moment you boarded this train – your fate was sealed, your death warrant signed.”
The entire train lurched forward suddenly, almost causing Veronica to lease her bead on the hostage. I didn’t like that one bit. They were screwing with the engine.
“I hope they don’t make us stop. We have a schedule to keep,” Veronica complained.
“I don’t want these Scuncath driving the bloody train. They’re going to make us crash - stopping would be for the best.”
Veronica had an expression that would be more appropriate for a minor inconvenience, like struggling to find a parking spot while visiting the mall, or stubbing her toe on the corner of a table. It was a type of casual disdain that felt out of step with the mayhem going on around us. The train was getting faster as we spoke.
Veronica hoisted the cultist to her feet, and with a mighty hip toss, threw her clean through another one of the windows. She flipped twice over in the air, before coming to a violent landing on the embankment by the side of the railway. If she survived that, she was going to have more than a few broken bones as a result.
“I hate people who talk like that.”
She did it because she annoyed her? She was trying to browbeat me a few seconds before for slicing some guy’s neck!
“If they know who you are, what about Genta?”
Veronica exhaled and leaned back against the carriage’s wall, “Genta has already had a run-in with these Scuncath. Part of the reason I wish to speak with him is because they stole something extremely valuable from him and the University. It's called The Book of Cambry.”
“What’s that?”
“His family’s life work, the most comprehensive collection of scholarly notes on ancient Walserian rituals, religion, worship and demonology that there is. You can guess why they stole it.”
“And they didn’t want to kill him?”
Veronica shrugged, “Allegedly not. How and why? That is a mystery even to me. They certainly don’t have any issue with killing everyone else they meet. They must have a reason.”
“This is a mess. Someone’s leaking information to anyone willing to listen. They already know that you’re coming to try and stop them.”
“That won’t help them. I’ve never once failed in a job I’ve been given, and I don’t intend to start now.”
I fished my gun from the trunk and slipped it into the holster beneath my skirt. I should have never parted with the pistol in the first place. The law of dramatic irony demanded that a fight happen once it was removed from my reach. Veronica kept an eye on the door to the next carriage over.
“Still no sign of them. They’re waiting for us to move.”
“I can hardly refuse an earnest invitation like that,” I said, “My Father would die of shock if he learned of it.”
Veronica pulled the door aside between the carriages, allowing a strong bluster of wind to cut through and threaten to flip my skirt. The countryside whipped past at a worrying speed as the train gathered momentum. Our only hope lay in the hands of the signal operators who were stationed along the line to prevent accidents from occurring.
Veronica got into a stance and steadied herself next to the door. She pulled it open and prepared to fire, but what awaited us inside was far more horrifying than a gang of armed cultists ready to fight.
“What in the Goddess’s name is that horrendous thing!”
It was almost impossible to describe with words alone. While we were busy handling the three spies and getting our weapons ready, they were preparing a dark ritual. A large blood-stained circle had been painted onto the floor of the carriage, and several dead bodies spoke to the brutal massacre that followed once they got their hands on the passengers.
One of them had been transformed into a disgusting form, one that threatened to make my war-weary stomach turn. It was as if a bloodhound had sprouted from within the poor man’s body. A vicious head filled with gnarled teeth emerged from his mouth. Legs sprouted from his ribcage. A long tail slithered against the wooden floor. The beast was covered in a thick layer of gore. It was disfigured. Its mouth was held open, revealing a black hole lined with far too many teeth.
It was huge, even larger than the dead human it wore like an obscene veil. Yellow eyes filled with nothing but malice looked at us, and it took off in a sprint so fast that it threatened to be upon us within moments. Veronica slammed the door shut and looked to her left, where a ladder allowed access to the train’s roof.
“Let’s go up!”
I didn’t argue with her. I was completely shell-shocked by the horrendous creature that was now gallivanting around the train like a wrecking ball. If I had any doubts about the legitimacy of their demon-summoning ways, they were now firmly laid to rest.
I followed behind as she scampered up the metal rods and hefted herself up onto the roof of the carriage. There was a slight slope on either side, which made our already unsteady footing even more treacherous. As soon as I started my ascent, the beast crashed through the door and kept going, bursting through the second and disappearing out of sight.
“What the bloody hell is that?” I yelled again.
“I believe it’s a minor demon. It didn’t take them long to exploit Cambry’s book!”
“I didn’t even think demons were real, and you’re telling me that they’re summoning them in broad daylight?”
Veronica nodded, “Imagine how much worse it’ll be if they have time to prepare something more elaborate!”
The dog was back, poking its head from the carriage and looking my way. I drew my gun and fired several shots into it, but the damnable fiend didn’t even flinch from the impact. It was seemingly impervious to such simple means.
“I hate this bastard thing already!”
“Run!”
Veronica grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the way as it leapt up into the air and came crashing down where I was kneeling. That was far too close for comfort, which meant that I couldn’t hold my own rescue over her as leverage anymore. The wind stabbed at us like a fan of knives, pushing us back and leaving a cold sting in its wake. I could hear the demon rumbling behind us, gnashing teeth and howling in outrage.
It looked like a monster from the deepest, darkest pits of hell – but according to Veronica, it was only a lesser demon. They could get worse, and they would get worse if we didn’t stop the Scuncath soon.
The roof of the train was just as treacherous as what awaited down below. It barrelled down the line and passed through into a thick canopy of overhanging trees. The branches could easily knock us from the roof if we weren’t careful. We stayed low and did our best to avoid being whipped by them. The demon was not so concerned with self-preservation, it laughed in the face of those puny twigs and charged at full speed to try and murder us.
I turned to face it and fired more speculative shots, hoping that one of the bullets would find a weakness in its armour and strike it down, but such hopes were dashed as they harmlessly bounced off of the tough hide it was covered in. The movement of the carriage was too severe for me to aim accurately and hit it in the opening where its mouth should have been.
I was out of ammunition in the magazine anyway. I holstered the gun and held on tight to my trunk. The monster leapt into the air once more and clawed at me, but using the suitcase as a makeshift shield turned it into a glancing blow. The force of it alone was enough to send me skidding into Veronica’s back. She scrambled for purchase and eventually found a handhold, but I was not so lucky. I found myself sliding down the curved edge and off of the roof, saved at the last second by a railing that ran along each side of the carriage.
I was being beset from all sides by new threats. The trees were dangerously close to wiping me out, the ground sped along beneath promising broken legs and cracked bones, and now the cultists inside of the carriage could see me helplessly hanging from the roof like a reed in the wind.
“Hold this!”
I threw the trunk into Veronica’s arms and strengthened my grip using both hands. The cultists were watching with bemusement. My plight must have seemed very entertaining from the safety of the inside. I decided that sharing the joy with them was a better idea than facing down the demon again.
I started to swing on the bar by pushing off from the window. I waited for the perfect opportunity to present itself when my back was clear. Once I was sure that I wouldn’t get wiped out by a passing tree, I put my back into it and shattered the cheap window with my boots. The cultist standing there with a smile on his face learned the importance of due diligence, as I flew through it and took him down to the ground with my legs squeezing on his neck.
Knife out. I brought it down through his eye socket and killed him in one blow. There was a sudden scramble from the rest to arm themselves and get revenge, but I wasn’t going to let them. I pulled the knife free and threw it at the nearest gun-toting foe, embedding it into their forehead and sending them crumpling to the floor.
I hopped over the bench and took their gun, a pistol, from the floor. A loud blast rang out, a stray burst of shotgun pellets hitting the wall next to me and sending wood shards fluttering into the air. I acted on instinct. This was a terrible situation with even worse odds of survival, but I couldn’t stop and think about it now.
My mind worked methodically. The first priority was ridding the carriage of everyone holding a gun. These narrow quarters were the perfect kill box. There was nowhere to hide and it was only by the grace of the out-of-control train that the shotgun missed me. Most of the Scuncath were holding blunt weapons. There were two knives and two more guns.
One of the guns was a rifle at the front door. He was not going to be able to hit me without shooting through his friends. The second was a revolver in the hands of a panicked woman to my right. She was fumbling with the hammer. It was single-action, with no room for error.
I moved. I rolled over the bench and barely dodged a strike from one of the clubs. I took aim, but the woman finally remembered how to use the damn gun and fired back at me first. The bullet missed, but it was close. I returned the favour by shooting her in the chest.
One of the club-wielders tried to smother me by leaping onto my body and pinning me down. I dodged to the side and found myself sitting on the bench, with him on his hands and knees. I came down with the heel of my boot and smashed his head against the opposite seat, knocking him out cold.
Veronica had somehow navigated her way down to the ground floor again by evading the demon. The door was thrown open. Her hands grabbed the rifle and pulled it against the cultist’s neck, choking them out and rendering them unable to provide covering fire. This struggle would continue for thirty seconds while I grappled with the rest of them.
They were swarming now. The numbers were in their favour, and in their eyes, all they needed was a quick and messy end to this fight. One lucky blow would end it all and give them the victory they sought. I dodged more attacks and kept myself atop the bench to even the height difference.
Veronica’s captive was putting up a better fight than the others, elbowing her in the gut and successfully gaining enough leverage to push her away. Veronica’s arms waved as she teetered dangerously close to falling from the front platform and beneath the wheels. The rifleman turned on her with his gun raised, but I wasn’t going to let that happen.
I snapped my fingers and broke it. He pulled the trigger, causing the bullet to misfire and send pieces of shrapnel into his hand. He screamed in pain, while Veronica gladly took advantage and knocked him out by slamming his head into the wall. That took a lot out of me. The combination of range and precision sapped most of my magical energy.
Veronica was now free to wreak her own brand of havoc from the flank. It turned into a violent, all-out melee as we dispatched the last of the cultists with guns, knives and fists. Mother dearest thinned the ones swarming me with a few shots from her pistol. I snuck in two more of my own.
Just when we were about to move on to the last few gathering at the other end, we were interrupted by the arrival of the lesser demon. The roof above us sagged inwards as a result of its heavy weight and clawed feet. I moved out of the way with milliseconds to spare before it could crush me. The cultists cheered its arrival on the scene, but that only served to attract its attention.
Veronica pulled on my jacket while the dog performed an about-face and moved to chow down on those who believed it was a messenger from god. The door closed behind me at the exact moment its savage teeth came down on one of their legs. The screams were more than illustrative enough from there.
“How are going to kill that bloody thing? It’s bulletproof!”
“I don’t know – and did Damian never teach you good manners? Your language is terrible!”
“You can wash my mouth with soap if we get out of here alive!”
“We have to stop the train. We can worry about the demon once we do that.”
I grabbed my trunk from where she’d left it and followed her lead through the next three carriages, which were empty of any further foes. That demon wouldn’t be satiated for long. It wasn’t going to stop rampaging until everything in its sight was dead.
When we reached the front of the train it was evident why the engine was running out of control. One of the cultists had stabbed the engineers to death and left them in a pool of blood by the door. Nobody was driving the thing!
“Do you know how to drive a train?” Veronica inquired.
“What do you think?” I snapped back, “There has to be a brake here somewhere!”
I left the trunk with Veronica and shimmied around the coal cart. A small platform was built into the construction of the train, allowing the engineers to manoeuvre around the sides without having to climb on top of the unstable pile. I was full of confidence in finding a solution until I actually came face to face with the controls.
“I have no idea what any of this is,” I muttered.
It was dense, incomprehensible, a tangle of bronze and gauges and pipes. There were levers and buttons and valves, none of which were labelled in a manner designed to help a moron layman like me. It was like running headfirst into a brick wall. I didn’t know where to start!
But I had to start, and quick. If I didn’t do something, the train would inevitably run into an obstacle that would kill us all. These cultists weren’t here to play. They were going to stop us and die trying.
“Lever! It’s probably a lever, right?”
I reached out for the first one I could find and pulled on it. The engine roared even louder in response. I slammed it back the other way and presumed that the engine would slow down in time. Why the hell would the big red lever not be the brake? I was starting to lose my head. I tried fiddling with several other knobs and handles to no avail. Veronica was yelling at me from the carriage.
“We’re close to the station, you have to stop it now!”
The countryside was giving way to a less-developed urban area. Houses flew past in a blur, and many onlookers were met with the sight of a panicked girl assuming the controls of an out-of-control steam engine. I considered using the last of my magic to break one of the components, but I decided against it. I didn’t know which piece to break, which was the same problem I was having now.
“I really don’t want to die in a train accident!”
It was a last-ditch effort. I reached out and grabbed a small wooden handle that I’d neglected to try and pulled on it with all of my strength. I almost smashed my head against one of the gauges as the train squealed in protest at the sudden change in momentum. We kept going, flying through the station at the end of the line and sliding through into the railyard that lay beyond, sparks flying and the contents of each carriage being thrown hell for leather.
I kept a tight grip – so tight that my hands turned white from the pressure - until I was absolutely sure that the train was done moving. My blundering operation had done the trick somehow, starving the engine of heat and putting on the brakes. I staggered back around the coal car and met up with Veronica, who was hanging from one of the railings with wide eyes and ruined hair.
“You almost killed us anyway!”
“I stopped it, didn’t I? You couldn’t do it either, you didn’t even try!”
I was so shaken from stopping the train that I failed to notice the elephant in the room until it crashed through the side of the carriage with a dead body between its jaws.
“Oh good! Our new friend is still here.”
Veronica sighed, “We’d better kill it before it starts eating people in the town as well.”
“I’m open to suggestions.”
The demon sniffed the air and turned on us, having caught our scent in the wind.
“I believe we should start by running away.”
I took my suitcase and nodded, “Agreed. After you.”
DWS demons are cool
