5 Chapter 5: Crimson sky
Once Sarah said it, everyone near her got confused. They didn't know whether that woman was just crazy or if she was saying a factual thing.
For a moment, they stayed frozen in the same place, looking at each other. It was the shock of receiving such an affirmation, but also the fear to look up to the windows and find out that it was true.
It was hard to choose where to look, be it the destroyed train, the frightened face of Sarah, their own pale faces of fear, or the cruel reality above them.
The first one to take the initiative and look up was Owen. He clenched his fists tightly, gritted his teeth, and then raised his head.
The air left his lungs and his eyes widened even more.
"How? H-How it can be?" The manager rubbed his eyes, opening them again and facing the same scenario as before.
The skies were dyed crimson, just as Sarah said before. It was as if someone had hurt the sky, and it bled enough to get completely covered.
The other survivors also started to look above and each one of them had the same perplexed reaction.
Two people among them couldn't bear the shock and covered their eyes, crying afterward. Others were crying as well but kept looking at that strong color that made their eyes hurt. There were a few that could maintain a composed expression outside, but inside were just as in despair as the others.
Sarah raised her upper body from the ground, pinching his own arm as strong as she could, just stopping when a trickle of blood ran down from the part she was pinching.
"That's… not a dream at all, huh?" She mumbled, trying to get up, but not finding the strength to do so, since her legs were so weak.
"Haha… Hahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHA!" She started to laugh hysterically, tears accumulating in her eyes and running down her cheeks.
She was going to scream, but one of the survivors crouched beside her, putting his hand on her shoulders and pleading with his eyes for her to stop.
"We are already in a bad situation here. Don't turn it worse, miss." He spoke, with a tired voice.
The last one of them to look to the sky was Will and he was one of the few that stayed with a blank expression.
He also couldn't believe what his eyes were showing to him, but something inside his heart made him stick to the grain of hope remaining.
"Hey, everyone, what's with those faces!? We don't know what's happening outside there at all, do we? I mean, okay, that's crazy and all; the sky is crimson, and our train just fell to the side, a lot of people died… Well, anyway, we don't know what's happening there, ok?"
After they heard his words, those survivors started to get silent and their hopes also raised.
"We need to get out of here and see what is happening, ok?" He repeated. Everyone has soothed again.
"He is right. No pessimism until we can see the actual thing. We need to be resilient." Owen agreed, and after him, other survivors gave their words of comfort.
Soon, they could calm down Sarah enough for her to stand up. Then, gathering some seats spread around, they made an improvised support to help them to reach the windows above and get out of the train.
One by one, they began to leave that place.
It was a relief that they were finally doing so. That place was getting them sick and they were unsure if someone was coming to help them.
Owen and Will decided to be the last ones to go out there.
"Do you think that something serious is happening, Owen?" The professor asked, apprehensive, not showing half of the optimism he displayed minutes before.
"Of course. Look, the people who are already out there didn't scream or cry, they are silent. Maybe it's relief. We are safe, man. By the way, where is all that positivism from before?" He giggled.
Will smiled, showing somewhat shiness.
"The group would continue thinking about bad things and worn themselves out until we lost all the hope and will. The only way to break it was by showing positivism. There should be someone doing it, and I decided to be the one. I don't believe even in half of what I said, though."
After he stated it, he climbed the support of seats and left the train.
Owen, for a moment, looked at him surprised. He wasn't expecting that he would be this kind of person.
The manager followed him after giving a last look around to be sure that there were no other survivors that they couldn't notice before.
He had his hopes raised. He was even optimistic as well. After that comfortable silence of the people who went up there, he was sure that everything would be ok…
It was what everyone who got there thought before they faced what was going on.
Once Owen stepped outside, he saw a hill. They were on a part where the train passed on the coast of a mountain, rounding the entire city, just to enter it again at another point.
No one could sort out why they made such a course for the train, but the most accepted reason was that that part gave a good view of the entire capital, so it was good for tourists.
Owen, then, turned around, looking towards the city… his jaw dropped after he witnessed that scene.
The other survivors were in silence looking at that chaos together with him. They weren't crying, grimacing, or yelling in panic. But they were hit so hard, and their hopes shattered so badly, that they couldn't come up with a proper reaction to that situation.
Owen bit his lip hard, to the point of feeling the taste of blood in his mouth. Despair took place in his heart as he thought about how things were going on down there.
The imponent capital was completely immersed into pure chaos.
Buildings were fallen from their foundations, some of them about to collapse in front of their eyes. There were a few of them which were completely exploded, with their wreckage spread on the ground and harming other buildings around.
Some constructions were covered in flames. Cars and people could be seen down there, driving and running crazily in all directions, trying to find a way out of that disaster.
The earth was suffering from eventual earthquakes, cracks and ravines were being opened on the ground due to its intensity. A strong wind was punishing the place as well.
It was a real mess. Just as if someone exploded a bomb inside the capital. However, the damage suffered was coming in different patterns.
The chaos wasn't just in the city. The forest around the mountain, and even the mountain itself, were covered in flames, animals in despair…
Everything around was over.
"That's… That's just like an Apocalypse! It's just like God got angry on us and just exploded everything!" Sarah said, putting her hands in front of her face to prevent her to look at it.
She was starting to cry as well and the others followed her.
Another explosion happened inside the city, followed by half of a building finally falling from its structure.
Around them, the devastated forest seemed to lose more and more life.
The world they knew was being completely wiped out for a force they didn't understand.
The crimson sky was being covered by dark red clouds that were appearing out of nowhere, and really fast. From them, no water dropped, but thunder and lightning helped the divine punishment that befell in the world.
All of the survivors shivered in fear when a lightning bolt landed on the forest and exploded its surroundings, creating a crater.
The strong wind was making the wreckage fly around and strike other constructions. Some hurricanes were threatening to form here and there as well.
The survivors were so terrified of what was happening that they couldn't move their bodies to get out from the top of the train for a long time.
Owen was the one snapping back to reality first. He shook his head, shutting his eyes and saying in a bitter tone:
"Let's get down. We can end up harming ourselves if some accident happens again."
They went down to the rails, in which part of them was destroyed as well.
The first ones to get down helped the others who couldn't do it by themselves. Owen was one of them since his leg was still badly injured; he didn't take that glass shard from there yet.
The survivors gathered together once they were all down there, looking at each other.
Maybe they were expecting that God was merciful with them and ended that situation in a snap of fingers, or that someone appeared suddenly and saved everyone in a heroic act.
But there was no hero there. And, if God really exists, at that moment he was busier making all the humans pay for their sins.
For a long while, no one talked, and the world kept falling apart regardless of their prays.
