Hide and Go Die(13)

The night was dark and deep.

Carrying bright flashlights in their hands, the group marched through the biting chilliness and tempestuous winds.

Chu Yi stood slightly behind the group, a contemplative look on his face.

The atmosphere was dark and complex. Everyone's hearts were heavy, and a bad premonition kept haunting the back of their minds, but at this very moment, no one could put a finger on the emotion they were feeling, or why they were feeling this way; they just subconsciously knew that something dreadfully ominous was approaching.

It was 12.

As they walked through the dark train, they were assaulted with ever changing sound of death.

One moment, if he had to describe it simply, it was like someone was smashing an extremely hard object in one strike with all of their might. Again, and again, and again… But presumably, that hard object wasn't particularly sturdy, because Chu Yi clearly heard a resounding crack, as if something just shattered into numerous fragmented pieces.

The next it was the sound of a spoon scraping along putrid flesh with a sickening squelch, meticulously emptying the blood and guts leaving all that was left was as a gory peel of intact skin.

There were no bones. No flesh or tissues. No hair. The corpses entire body had been hollowed out, and all that remained was his skin.

Dan Bai envisioned the scenario, and his body broke out into goosebumps. Attempting to suppress the bile threatening to force its way up, he swallowed hard; his throat nervously bobbed up and down. 

With echoing footsteps, the group made their way to the dining room as they had agreed on earlier..

Not a single spoken word broke this pantomime; it was only when the sticky, sloshing sounds of the wet mop being dragged across thick blood could be heard, did sound regurgitate into the space.

In this obscuring darkness, the scene before their eyes wasn't quite visible. However, because this hazy sight was still utterly terrifying, everyone had fixed all of their attention on it; they were completely engrossed with what they were seeing.

There was someone standing before the door of the dining cart. Its features were blurred and unrecognizable innthe darkness but they could still smell the heavy metallic scent of blood assaulting their senses.

With the squelch of the mop still wiping wetly on the wooden floor, it spoke up.

"Why are you out of your rooms. Don't you know not to venture out after 12. You'll be in deep trouble if the conductor catches you."

Chu Yi twitched at the mention of the conductor, ears cocking ever so slightly."

This was a foreign creature, the train had been empty of life since the beginning, buy now there were being faced with something out of place in the deathly still train.

This time Bai Chuan, carrying an unconscious Zhan Xi, was the first to speak up, fabricating a story on the spot,

"We were just hungry and decided to get something to eat from the kitchen. It won't take long and we will leave immediately after finding something to eat."

They could feel the creature stare hauntingly at them for a long while, then it let out a rough, cackling laugh.

"Well then, I'd suggest you hurry along to the dining car before the feast begins ."

The feast.

They immediately caught onto the key word, and felt a cold shiver run down their spine.

The ominous premonition at the back of their mind, nagging them harder.

Thanking the creature, they continued onto the dining car ignoring the way its dark eyes bored menacingly into their backs as they left.

The car of the dining hall was brightly lit. Upon opening the door, the sight that befelled left them sucking in sharp intakes.

People of all shapes and sizes laughed and chattered as they roamed the hall, bright smiles plastered on their faces. This would have truly been the typical scene of a lively ball. If it wasn't for the rotting blood and viscera scattered along the floors. Each and every passenger on this train had died a gruesome death, some had their skin peeled leaving only drooping flesh and muscle, some had been chopped in half, with their still warm intestines trailing behind them as they crawled slowly on the ground!

There was no deaths that were similar, yet they all wore the same polite flattering smile on their faces, it was as if they couldnt feel see the blood coagulating below their lifeless bodies.

Dan Bai's faced turned white in shock, then with a ugly hurl he began heaving out all the half-digested food he had eaten this day! The wet curdling sight of vomit splattering across the floor becoming increasingly vulgar as he coughed and dry heaved painfully loudly-

With the light music stopping, all the dead heads turned towards them, some even twisting 180 degrees to stare hauntingly at their figures. The shuffle of flesh scraping across the floor coming to a pause, replaced by the cracking sound of joints twisting beyond their limits greeting them!

Their was pungent smell of urine, it stinged their noses as Dan Bai suddenly wet himself in terror.

With light disgust on his face, Chu Yi who had been standing the closet to him, shifted away disdainfully.

The air was deadly still as they confronted the moving corpses before them, the smile on the their mangled, fleshy faces stretching widely.

Time seemed to stretch into infinite 

Ding. 

The music began again,

It was only then, when the light music began to play again did they shift their gazes away.

With a sigh of bated relief, the tension drained away from their bodies.

"Sh-should w-we go i-in?" RenYuanqing, whispered in a low voice. No one answered him. Even if there was no immediate danger, they still couldn't get pass the visual disgust and nausea of wading through a sea of putrid flesh and guts.

With a trembling voice, Dan Bai who still stood in a pool of his own piss asked if someone could follow him to the bathroom. They couldn't fault him, 

the disgusting smell of urine and vomit staining the floors made them gag in discomfort. They had all consciously moved away, leaving an empty space in his vicinity.

Zhong Feng volunteered to go, and the both of them inched cautiously to the bathroom. Flinching at every creak of wood underneath them.

But with bated breath, they managed to get to the bathroom unharmed.

Dan Bai cautiously surveyed the area. This unpleasant and nauseating bathroom made one feel awfully disturbed. Unrecognizable grease stains marked the entire floor. Whether it was the walls or the toilets, everything was repulsively filthy. Because the sky was getting darker, the lights on the ceiling lit up. When cast on the bathroom, the dull yellow glow emitted from the lights gave the impression that everything around them was being projected through an old, dirty lens filter.

Zhong Feng urged him quietly to hurry up. The longer they stayed by themselves, the more dangerous it would become.

****

Outside, their was an abrupt change in the situation.

With light, resounding steps, someone had entered, standing high above the mass of rotting flesh and looking down at them!

The conductor.

Chu Yi felt his heart jump, but for far diffrent reasons than the others . He could feel a burning gaze casually drifting past him, there were no words exchanged but Chu Yi could sense a brooding ambiguity and darkness hidden in those eyes.

"Alright passengers, its once again time to refuel. Fortunately, tonight we have a gracious guest who decided to contribute himself to the greater cause and fuel our journey onwards."

Fuel?

Who had volunteered to become fuel?

Why would-

Confused and disoriented, a terrifying thought that none of them wanted to admit flashed though their minds!

****

Zhong Feng stood dazedly in the dim light of the bathroom, his usually timid and shifty eyes gradually settling in a cold light as he stared at Dan Bai washing his face in the filthy sink a step away.

Deciding, He walked quietly step by step towards his unsuspecting victim, arm raising as the heavy hammer in his hand glinted coldly in the light of the bathroom. With a evil grin, he smashed down!

****

No sooner had the conductor said that, there was a loud scream coming from the direction of the bathroom.

Thinking of Dan Bai and Zhong Feng who had ventured out a while ago, there faces paled.

Not long after Zhong Feng came running back, his face white with fear, panicking he ran stumblingly back to the group, 

Stuttering between heavy breathes he cried,

"Dan Bai- Dan Bai's b-been KILLED!".

Chun Li's faced turned grave, turning on his heels he ran to the bathroom. Thrown haphazardly into the toilet cubicle, Dan Bai lay there dead. His faced still twisted in utter horror and despair right before his death.

His whole body lay strewn across the cold tiled floor, and his head seemed to have been bashed in by some instrument. Foul blood surrounded chunks of bone and macerated flesh meshed together, creating a noxious stage of grotesquerie. The cloudy white flesh of his brain still dripping quietly from where it had splashed onto the wall from the force of the blow!

Even he himself, felt bile rise in his throat, but the thought that rose in his brain, was far more terrifying than the corpse in front of him,

"Fucking hell." As it eventually registered in his head, Chun Li, who rarely cursed before experiencing these incidents, spit out a string of unpleasant profanities. "Don't tell me we're the fuel?"