Chapter 7: Veto

Just before the nearest monster could slip its skinny body through the doorway, the doors shut close, keeping them out for that moment. They didn't give up, obviously. They continuously slammed on the windows and walls vigorously, trying to break in.

"Jake, they're trying to get in!" I updated him as he continued focusing on moving the train. "Hurry!"

"I'm trying! I'm almost done! I just need to get this started!" he yelled back, flicking some more switches.

Meanwhile, glass began to shatter as the aliens easily punched holes through the windows. Fragments of glass shattered inwards, pouring into the cabin. We were only a few feet away from the broken glass, so I grabbed Zoe's hand and pulled her along with me.

"We have to move," I told her. "We'll go to the end of the train, where Jake is."

After much running, we leaned against the very end of the frontmost carriage, against the operator room door. I stared forward, at the claws of the beasts that they were using to pull themselves through into the cabin.

"What are we going to do? They're getting in!" Zoe panicked, turning away from the sight of the intruding creatures.

I didn't know how to respond to her. I still had my rifle, but there wasn't enough ammunition to kill the dozens of aliens. I couldn't do much more than shoot down those which threatened our safety. Jake was the only one who could save us. Jake had to get to train moving.

"There! I'm done! It's moving now!" Jake shouted over as the vehicle finally moved forward.

I was so relieved to finally get out of the invaded train station. And I was glad to finally be heading back to the apartment. However, all that joy was short-lived. As soon as I heard a loud thumping sound, I turned around to look at the source of the sound.

An alien had gotten into the train.

It began making awful shrieking sounds again, and I could hear its breathing so intently. Zoe turned as well to see what was going on. To her horror, it was an alien.

"Sweet Moses! It got in!" she screamed in fright as she tried to inch back further. However, we already as far as we could be, and couldn't move back further. "Let's all get into the operator room with Jake," she suggested.

"You go in," I told her, opening the door to the room.

Jake glanced over. "What's going on—oh my gosh! It's... in here?" he screamed as soon as he noticed the alien that was thirty feet in front of us.

"Get in. I'll settle it," I said to Zoe once again, before shoving her into the room with her fiancé.

I closed the door behind me, keeping my two friends safe from the vicious creature. Meanwhile, I wielded my rifle, ready to shoot at the hostile monster if it dared to attack. I could feel my teeth chattering—it was clear that fear was inevitable. Sweat also began trickling down my forehead, proving that I was clearly nervous.

But being afraid of such a monstrous and alien being wasn't unusual. After all, who wouldn't be intimidated by it. However, I reminded myself not to let the fear paralyse me. I mustered my courage, standing upright and strong against the beast.

It seemed to glare at me, but wasn't motivated to attack me. It just approached me slowly, not rushing anything at all. I cocked the gun, prepared to shoot it right in its eyes. Once again, it didn't seem very eager to attack me, seeing how it kept its claws by its side and moved very steadily.

All of a sudden, it began picking up its pace and started walking over briskly. Knowing that it was now or never, I placed my finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. And then, it began sprinting towards me. I closed my eyes, clicking the trigger.

All I heard was the sound of the released bullet, which swivelled while it swooped through the air. It slammed into the alien's right eye perfectly. The monster shrieked in pain, shaking violently before collapsing to the ground and having what seemed to be a seizure.

After moments of vigorous shaking, the beast finally relaxed. It seemed dead, so I brought down my gun and heaved a sigh of relief. We were finally safe.

I turned around and twisted the doorknob of the operator room door, opening the door and facing my two friends. Jake focused on operating the vehicle, while Zoe turned around to look at me. She tried looking beyond me, moving her head beside my torso. I assumed that she was trying to get a glance of the alien.

"It's dead," I reassured her, slumping down to the ground resting for a moment. I was just completely exhausted—physically and mentally. What a night it truly had been.

"I'm so relieved," Zoe said, touching her heart and exhaling. "I prayed to God that this wouldn't be how we would die. I really thank you, Adam."

I initially expected Jake to make a comment on Zoe's "religious" remarks, but he stayed quiet. I couldn't read his mind, so I didn't talk to him and responded to Zoe instead.

"It's really no problem," I lied. It really was a problem. I nearly collapsed in fear of the sight of the creature, and that would have caused our demise. I was lucky to have remembered about having courage and hope.

I then glanced over and Jake and tried to take a look at his face to try and guess how he was feeling. It just felt so unnormal for talkative, fun-loving Jake to suddenly become a quiet and cold person overnight. In fact, the night hadn't even ended.

"I'm focusing. If you were going to ask why I am right now," Jake replied quaintly.

I didn't make any further remarks about that. It was clear to me that Jake seemed either irritated or hopeless. He just seemed so filled with negativity. Well, until it turned out that it was all in my mind.

"No, seriously!" he exclaimed, sounding cheerier this time. "I'm trying to be very careful because this is seriously my first time operating a subway train. I have no idea if there are any more trains like this stopped at the stations ahead, so I have to make sure that I don't crash into any. It's surprising that there hasn't been any so far," he explained.

"I get it," I giggled. "I'll leave you to it then. Hope we arrive soon."

* * *

Day 2

"Jake, it's just past midnight. Are we reaching soon?" Zoe asked tiredly, before looking out of the door window. "We've been in this tube for almost an hour, and I'm tired of seeing that alien's corpse outside," she added, hoping for an update on our location.

"Then don't look outside," Jake joked.

Zoe and I just kept silent. It just wasn't very appropriate to laugh over the death of an alien that tried to kill us. Realising that, Jake pretended to forget that he had even said anything earlier on and moved on.

"Anyway, there's no need to whine anymore. Clark/Division is the next station, so we'll be there in no time," Jake reassured her, keeping on track with the subject.

Suddenly, a stationary train appeared in our sight. Jake gasped, fumbling through the controls in an attempt to find the brakes. It was so abrupt that Jake had to apply maximum brakes to stop the train and prevent us from colliding with the train ahead, which could have caused our untimely deaths.

"That was close," he commented at the very moment that the train had come to a complete halt. "There are really so many ways that we can die. Alien attack, train crash, fire—," he began listing before getting interrupted by me.

"We don't have time to list out ways to die. Let's just get out of the train and head into the station platform," I told him off, reminding that our goal was to head back to the apartment for Zoe's phone.

"All right. I'll open the doors now then," he said as he pressed some buttons to let us out. He turned off the engines too, such that the power was completely cut. We made sure to avoid any possible way that could lure the creatures. In this case, light was a factor that was important to remove as the aliens had eyes of an eagle.

The three of us then walked out of the operator room. We looked out of the opened doors, peeping at the station platform. There were numerous bodies—more than at Cumberland, and they were strewn all over like abandoned cans and tissues at a cinema.

I led my friends, stepping down from the edge of the train floor down onto the tracks. I made sure not to touch any electrical wiring, not even with the soles of my shoes. Yet another way to die, which Jake would have been excited to add in his list.

As Zoe stepped down next, I reached my hand up to her. As she lifted one foot off from the train, she stretched her hand and grasped onto mine. I helped pull her down, moving her away from the electrified track and putting her in the middle of the tracks.

Lastly, it was Jake's turn to get down. I reached my hand up once again, but he refused to grab it and hopped off on his own. I figured that he wanted to be "independent", so I let him get off on his own. I didn't warn him about the electrified track either as he was the train expert and probably knew that already.

"Step up here. This will get us up onto the platform," I directed, leading my friends up a stairway that linked back to the main station. Thus, they followed me steadily, walking up the steps quietly and discreetly.

I knew that the aliens could be hiding anywhere, so we had to make sure that we weren't easily seen. I pushed open the fence gate that separated the stairway and the station platform. For some reason, it wasn't locked, which seemed like a major security issue for normal times. However, this wasn't a "normal" time. We had no time to waste and had to get out of there as soon as possible. Had the fence gate been locked, we would have been trapped in the tunnel.

"Be careful. There might be much more aliens here, considering the fact that we're back in downtown," I warned them.

They, however, shushed me, even though it was clear that the alien did not have enhanced hearing. In fact, I thought that their hearing seemed weaker than ours. Whatever the case was, I lowered my volume a little so that they wouldn't keep shushing me.

We moved through the platform, avoiding the bodies. Unfortunately, it was pretty hard to not step on them, seeing how they were everywhere. Almost every tile that made up the platform floor was covered by them. I had to tiptoe to make my feet fit within the small spaces between the bodies.

Finally, we reached the stairway that led up to the exit nearest to our apartment building. It was only a minute's walk away, which was convenient and safe for us. It just wasn't safe to stay above ground, exposed to all the aliens for any more than three minutes.

More bodies lay around, on the steps of the stairway and near the faregates. We ignored them, knowing that looking at their opened but lifeless eyes would only scare us more. Eventually, we exited the station and got back up above ground again.

"There's going to be some around here. Don't let them spot us," I cautioned Jake and Zoe. "Creep along the walls of the buildings and move slowly."

The two nodded and followed my footsteps, moving behind me, but at a distance. Some people say there's safety in numbers, but in this case, it wasn't true. The more people there were trying to camouflage, the higher the risk of being spotted by the aliens. We had no choice, though. We couldn't split up, so we just stayed five feet from one another.

"We're almost there. Just one more block to go!" I exclaimed quietly, relieved that we were finally going back under shelter again. Even though we were in the open, however, I didn't feel so fearful and neither did my friends seem panicky anymore. I guess it was just the reassurance that there were no creatures near us that kept us calm.

Finally, we arrived at the south exit of the apartment building, standing before the shattered glass doors of the entrance. I looked down at my feet. They were planted just before the nearest bit of glass. I moved my gaze further, staring ahead, all the way until the furthest glass fragment. It was easily thirty feet away, which meant that we wouldn't be able to make a silent and discreet entry into and exit from the building without causing cracking sounds from the glass. Thinking about how difficult it was going to be to make it across, I almost wanted to veto my own suggestion of returning to the apartment.

Nonetheless, I lifted my right foot, raising it but keeping it as low as possible, such that when I landed it on the glass, it wouldn't emit such a loud and unnecessary noise. Soft, crackling noises arose from the glass, but it wasn't very noticeable.

I turned behind and saw that Jake and Zoe was just watching me but didn't seem to hear the noise. Thus, I moved on slowly and carefully, making sure that my footsteps were quiet. I assumed Jake and Zoe were following me, so I picked up the pace slightly but still steadily. After much cautious walking, I stepped out of the area of the glass fragments.

I turned around again and saw Zoe struggling slightly. I had the urge to backtrack and assist her a little, but Jake stopped me, holding his hand up. Instead, he helped her balance on the gritty pieces of glass, before the both of them successfully reached the end of the pile of glass shards.

"That wasn't the best experience, I have to say," Zoe commented, scratching her head and chuckling nervously.

"I don't think anything tonight has been the best that we've had," I sighed, recalling the fateful turn of events ever since the engagement party. It was hard to think that it all started only six hours ago. It just felt like an eternity.

I made my way towards the elevator lobby. I spammed the up button numerous times, but the button didn't seem to light up. I looked up at the floor display panel, but it seemed to be powered off.

"I don't think the elevators would make a good idea, Adam," Zoe warned as she walked over to me. "Even if the power comes back on, it may break down while we're in it."

I turned around, my back facing the elevators. I reckoned that we wouldn't have any other way to get up but the stairs. I closed my eyes for a moment, picturing myself ascending through fifty flights of stairs, which was going to be way worse than descending.

"Looks like we don't have any other choice," I laughed, although it became obvious that it was fake. There was nothing joyful about making your way up a skyscraper—by stairs.

I made my way to the same stairwell that we came down from earlier when we evacuated from the apartment. It was further away than from the other stairwell, but it was nearer to the apartment unit, so I chose it over the other.

I pushed open the door hastily, before looking up. I stared through the small gaps between the stairs, which didn't seem to end for at least a thousand feet. Of course, I knew how tall the building was. I just never thought about scaling it.

I turned around and looked at my friends for a moment. I could see their determination, painted on their faces. I turned back at glanced at the first step, inhaling heavily, before opening my mouth to speak.

"Let's do this."