Train wreck

The blaring alarm reduced the chaos for a brief moment, but not everyone realized what the alarm was meant for and kept fighting. A few people rushed to the adjacent compartments, but Surya knew that he had to take the kid and leave immediately, but the task proved harder than it seemed.

Turning back, Surya's heart sank as the doors connecting the compartments started to close sooner than they were supposed to, and he started to panic. He knew that the tube in which the Magrail moves is almost made into a vacuum to remove resistance, but if the sealed cabin breaks, the air inside the cabin will rush out.

A built-in safety mechanism usually fills the tube with air to make up for the pressure differential. This was designed so that, if another compartment faces failure, at least the safety of the passengers would be guaranteed. Surya didn't know how much time it would take for the pressure to equalize.

Under normal circumstances, the repair bots in the tube would have temporarily repaired the damage, and the passengers would have been evacuated to the neighboring compartments. In this situation, though, an evacuation seemed nigh impossible.

"Seal destruction is imminent; the estimated time is two minutes." The robotic PA announced. "Already!?" Surya screamed in shock.

He knew the countdown wouldn't activate until half of the nanobots were depleted. The bots have a limited self-repair timeline—a temporary fix.

"Are half of the nanobots already depleted?" He muttered to himself as he trudged through the corpses to grab the kid, who was petrified and grabbing onto one of the support rails.

The glide blade disables any repair nanobots at the contact surface, and Surya knew that feature was exactly the issue as the seal break countdown had started already. The barrier could break at any time as the bots run out.

*beeep beep beeeep beeeeep*percent

Now the alarm sound became more intense, and a different kind of warning started to sound.

"Self-repair bots are down to twenty percent. A catastrophic loss of pressure is imminent. Please evacuate now. Estimated time remaining: Thirty seconds."

They had only 30 seconds left. Surya swiftly took the kid's hand, placed it on the closest pole, and told him, "The glass is going to break. If you want to survive, do exactly as I say!".

He was highly anxious. Surya was capable of surviving without a scratch, but protecting the boy was a different story altogether. The boy nodded.

"Don't panic and take in deep breaths. This shield is supposed to be used with a breather mask." Surya said, holding out a gauntlet-like device and putting it in the kid's hand. It adjusted itself to his hands. "Since I Don't have it, you'll have to hold your breath till the pressure stabilizes. And the shield will run out soon. When I signal you, hit this button." Pointing to a button on the boy's dorsum, "Hit it and hold on to this pole." The boy nervously gave a thumbs up, understanding his instructions.

Surya had his shield already equipped, as it was a vital piece of equipment for him. No one tried to attack Him or the kid after Surya disposed of the crazy guy with ease. They were banging and screaming at the closed doors near them, but they never attempted to go to the other end of the compartment.

He suddenly remembered the guy with the Sigun blade and looked at where he came from. He was in the same compartment. No wonder Surya didn't hear any sound from that side. He had massacred everyone. The whole place was a bloodbath. The guy was sitting on a pile of corpses with his face drenched in blood.

His bloodshot eyes stared right into Surya's soul. He didn't forget the promised duel. Surya could easily win the fight by not warning him, as he would be vulnerable when the door broke, but his obsession with fighting could never let him pass up the chance to duel with the strong.

He knew the guy was focused on him, so he just shouted, "The glass is gonna break! Activate your shield when I signal you! I hope you have one!". The guy simply nodded. He looked absolutely calm. Surya was in a state of confusion, contemplating whether his calmness was a product of detachment or a natural composure that he possessed.

If it was the latter, it would be scary.

*crrrack*

Surya looked at the crack in the window. It was getting wider. The repair bots were running out. Surya shouted, "Activate it on the count of one!". The counter decreased to 1% in an instant.

"Cabin integrity critical; imminent failure."

The counter switched and showed a detailed counter with a decimal. The counter read '1.673%' and was rapidly decreasing. '1.426' '1.203' '1.045' Surya shouted "Three!", as soon as the counter came down to 1. The numbers started to decrease faster than ever. Two had to be skipped. "One! Activate the shield now!" He shouted

"Zero percent. Cabin failure imminent", was the robotic PA's final announcement. For a second, nothing happened as the counter hit zero. Surya and the kid exchanged confused looks. They let out a sigh of relief. Then, suddenly-

*BANG!*

A part of the door exploded and fell out, Sucking everything inside the compartment.

Surya glanced out, and it was a bright 'black hole' sucking everything out.

The sudden loss of pressure was deafening, and a normal person cannot withstand such high-pressure differentials without a shield. The affected people near the doors were falling outside like dominoes, one after another. The ones who managed to hold on died with blood spewing out from all over their bodies. They just exploded like a bunch of tomatoes.

The blood was getting sprayed around on everyone near the broken door. Surya felt as if gravity was rotated by 90° and was hanging with his feet outside the broken door. Both the kid and the butcher were in the same state. The crazy guy looked calm enough, even though the pressure was immense. His composure was frightening.

Surya switched his attention to the kid. He was having a hard time; his hands were loosening bit by bit, and holding his breath was a hard task for him. His face was slowly becoming pale. He probably didn't hold his breath due to the shock of the events. Only a quarter of the time had passed.

"I-I can't hold on-" The kid started to mutter, but Surya couldn't hear him amidst the deafening roar of the depressurization.

The pull was too much for the kid to handle, and to his horror, Surya realized the kid was about to let go. He was looking at Surya, and words weren't needed to convey that the kid was being thankful and was saying goodbye. Surya swiftly climbed up to catch him.

At that exact moment, the kid let go of his grip. Surya dove out with one arm and managed to catch him just in time by the kid's arm. The pressure was slowly stabilizing. He pulled the kid inside and climbed back into the compartment. They weren't being pulled as hard anymore. The air current weakened, and the pulling finally stopped.

But it was still too early to deactivate the shield. The shield deactivated, indicating that 20 seconds had passed. The kid was gasping for breath. The pressure was low but manageable. The air was still being flushed out, but it was slowly getting better. The kid slowly regained his composure but was still heaving in shock.

Surya hugged him. "It's alright; it's over now. Don't worry, I've got you. No one can harm us, so don't worry," he said, patting his head. He started crying in his arms. They felt as if they had just fought a huge battle for survival and won.