A loud metal clang tore me out of my reverie, I stared around my eyes wide as I stared at the metal surrounding me. Where in the blazes was I? I tried to remember where I had been before, I went up the stairs at home, then blank. Nothing, I couldn't remember. I looked around noticing I wasn't alone in the metal room. Another loud clang as the room hobbled, I clenched my fists in sudden realisation, the room was moving! The sound was similar to that of a steam train! Now that I realised where I probably was I noticed the cadence of a moving train, the familiar sounds of the steam train. I narrowed my eyes, this made no sense, there weren't even any operable steam-trains in my area! Had I been kidnapped?

While I was trying to collect my thoughts someone jumped up next to me glaring wide-eyed at the other people in the room. He finished his glare on me, the dude was probably my age, he jumped back a few steps raising his fists, his eyes narrowing in determination. “Why have you kidnapped me!?” The guy roared, “I will not go down quietly!”

“Kidnap you?!” I exclaimed, staring at the guy in confusion. “I don't even know where the fuck I am!” The guy looked at me, his eyes wide, he ran a hand through his blond hair muttering to himself. “What in the hell is going on.”

Before I could answer with any suspicions of my own the train screeched as the cabin we were in jolted. The people that had been getting to their feet were knocked back down, the cabin floated for a brief moment. My rising in the air a bit and the telltale dropping of my stomach told me I was falling. In a surge of panic I quickly bundled up, chin to chest, legs pulled up, arms covering my head. In a split instance the cabin hit something, slamming the people around the cabin into the hard metal surface. Screams of pain and fear echoed throughout the room as the cabin started sliding. If the cabin was sliding that meant.. My mind blanched in realisation, “Brace yourselves!” I roared as loud as I could, trying to find something to hold onto. My eyes flickered to a metal extrusion and I grabbed hold of it as well as I could.

The people that heard me rushed to do the same, some of them were to dazed to focus, then what I was fearing happened. Another sinking of my stomach, this one shorter than the other, with a loud slam the cabin hit something, my shoulder popped and I roared in pain. I let go of extrusion and fell onto the metal floor. It was not done yet, the cabin started sliding again, I rolled myself up again, protecting my vitals as best as I could the cabin started tipping over, I slid towards one side, then it truly tipped over and started rolling, I saw in a glimpse as other people were thrown around the cabin. With a smack the back of my head hit a metal wall and my sight went black.

I groaned as I woke back up, a few blinks and I could see through my blurry eyes. I tried to get up and hissed in pain as I looked at my shoulder, I knew this feeling. My shoulder had dislocated, again. I cursed in anger as I got back up. I glanced around and saw a few others getting to their feet, to few. I looked around, the colour draining from my face as I saw a few figures bent into shapes that were humanly impossible. I gritted my teeth,, grabbing my arm around the elbow I took a deep breath. With a sharp tug I snapped my displaced shoulder back into place. With another hiss of pain I straightened myself.

I walked over to the nearest person getting to their feet, it was the blond-haired dude from earlier. “Howblsrubh.” I coughed as I spit out some blood, fuck, I could feel the cut inside my mouth. After clearing my throat I tried again. “You good?”

The guy groaned as he glanced at me, he was bleeding from multiple spots and from the way he was cradling an arm I would guess it was broken. He straightened, or he tried to, wincing he fell back to a bent over posture. “Not the worst day, definitely not the best.” He said managing a small smile.

I forced a chuckle, he managed a grin. When someone in the corner groaned in pain the smiles disappeared. We walked over, an older man, about forty in my estimates had been rushing from person to person, checking injuries doing what he could to treat the injured. We walked over as he was binding the leg of middle-aged woman, she was probably a beautiful woman. She had a latino heritage, her curly hair was a mess, her face was smeared with blood and tears and other muck. Her formerly nice red dress was torn and disheveled. The older gentleman glanced towards us, short slicked-back dark hair, with streaks of grey, and a well-maintained salt and pepper beard, the coat he was wearing made him seem like a doctor.

He looked us up and down, “You boys hurt? Anything serious?”

I shook my head, “Dislocated my arm earlier but I set it, other than that just bruised.” The man nodded after a short glance at my arm, his gaze shifted to the blond guy. Blondie shrugged, then flinched. “Broke my arm, cracked a rib I think, otherwise I'm fine.” The doctor nodded once more, he turned his gaze back to the woman, focusing on her lag, which was in dire shape. “You boys take a seat, let me treat the worst of the injuries then I will get to you.”

I nodded Blondie did the same and we moved back to a wall and sat down watching the doctor work. I let my gaze wonder throughout the room, all in all I counted ten people including myself. Three of which I was pretty sure were dead. The latina seemed to be the most seriously injured, me and blondie were still the best of in comparison to the others however. I glanced at him, “People call me Zoa, how bout you?” 

Blondie blinked then smiled, “Name's Reginald.” I chuckled as he mentioned his name, he frowned and stared at me with a raised eyebrow, “What?” he asked inquisitively.

“Nothing, I was just thinking that is a real rich boy name, are you sure it's not Reginald the third?” Reginald managed a tired chuckle.

“Actually it's Reginald the twenty-first.” I blanched as I stared at him. “No shit?”

He grinned, “No shit.”

“So you are from a rich family?” 

“Yup, family is from old england, noble ancestry blabla. Well I never really did fit in back home, I was to connected with the lower ranks of society, as my father put it.” he told me with a sigh, “Truth is I spent a lot of my time and money being an adrenaline junky, found other people who enjoyed the extreme and we hung out too much. It freaked my mother out.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Adrenaline junky huh, same here.” I sagged down against the wall getting marginally more comfortable. “Been running cross streets and rooftops since I can remember, no parents, no family. Not a blood related one anyhow, me and a few others lived from what we could snatch, then we made our getaway using what people lately call Parkour.”

“I never really did parkour, mostly snowboarding, parachute diving, free climbing and shit like that.”

Reginald answered, then suddenly he glanced at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Shouldn't we be talking more about the fact that we were kidnapped, rammed into a steel box, then presumably thrown off a cliff? What we talking about our hobbies for.” His voice rising in pitch towards the end, he made a movement to fold his arms but flinched in pain. I stared up at the metal ceiling, or floor, or wall, whatever it actually was, I took a moment before answering him.

“Why'd you have to make me remember, I was nicely forgetting about it for a minute.” I sighed as I relented. “None of us know where we are, I'm pretty sure of that. Nor how we ended up here, from the short time I've spent looking around everyone in the cabin was as confused as me so I think that's a safe assumption.”

“What do you mean, cabin? Although I agree that probably no-one in here knows.”

“Steam train.” I told him, mentioning to the walls around us, “This is one of the cabins.”

Reg frowned, “How are you so sure?”

“Sounds earlier, I'm positive I heard a steam engine, and the clan-clang, probly tracks.” I said shrugging, wincing at the gesture, putting a hand on my sore shoulder.

The doctor finished treating the last of the injured and headed towards us. Before he could utter a word there was a clanging on the metal wall above us. Everyone froze and stared at the roof, another clang, and then a screech unlike any I heard before. A young woman to my left was making the Christian cross gesture, I had to agree with her. Although I'm not a christian myself I couldn't deny hoping that God would deal with whatever unholy evil was banging on our roof.

The smashing on the roof continued, and to our combined horror the steel was caving in. Fist-sized dents appeared, another smash and the dents grew. Reginald stood up and gazed frantically across the room. “Everyone find whatever you can that could be a weapon!” The others froze for a moment as they stared at him. “NOW!” he roared, shocking the people around him into action. I jumped to my feet myself, looking around for anything. My eyes were drawn towards a sharp twisted metal pipe, I picked it up, it wasn't as long as I would have liked but it was a huge step up from nothing.

Reginal told the people to gather around, making a semi-circle around the dents, everyone held something that resembled a weapon. We all watched as the dents were smashed, again and again, growing in parallel to our growing tension and fear. One of the dents smashed open and humanlike hands tore at the steel with inhuman power, the dent turned into a hole and a human male gazed through it, with decidedly inhuman eyes. It released another of those godawful screeches and jumped into the cabin. With a roar Reginal rushed forward and swung his steel bar at the creature, it smacked the creature in the head, causing nothing but a minor scratch. The creature screeched and charged him, Reginald reacted, managing to push the steel bar between him and the monster, the creature clawed and screeched as it tried to cut out Reginald's throat.

I froze for the briefest of moments before charging the creature, Tackling it of Reginald I engaged it in a wrestling match. The monster easily overpowered me, I managed to kick it back a bit, then the creature grabbed hold of my leg and bit. I roared in pain, the good doctor stepped up and smashed his steel pipe into the creatures face, knocking at away from my leg. Another middle-aged man with a military haircut smashed the tip of his steel pipe into the creature chest right where the heart would be, only to watch in horror as it did not penetrate.

“We need to cut off its head! Hold it down!” A voice roared, reacting to it I charged the creature, grabbing hold of an arm, its fingers scratched at me. I had to use all my strength to simply hold a single arm in place. Reginald had rushed over and was clinging on to another arm as best as he could. The young girl that had made the cross gesture jumped onto its legs. The latina woman joined her as the four of them frantically held the creature down. A young man, the doctor, and the soldier started stabbing and smashing at the neck in a frantic effort to cut off its head. It took longer than it had any right to take, my body was sore from the scratching and clawing fingers of the creature. The three guys chopping and stabbing its head eventually mentioned to tear it off and the creature fell still. I fell on my back breathing heavily, I flinched as I felt the burning in my lower leg. I looked at the bite on my calf, it was relatively minor but the flesh around it was strangely dark.

“SHIT!” The young man said as he ran over to me, “You've been bit!”

“Yea,” I remarked, wondering why he stated the obvious, “It's not that bad though.”

“It's fucking terrible!” The young man yelled in a panic. “DOC!” He roared as he turned around and stared at the doctor. “You need to plug his leg! The infection cant reach his head!”

The doctor ran over, the man had already gained dark circles beneath his still clear and determined eyes. “What infection?!” He asked as he grabbed my leg and looked at it, he frowned as he looked at the darkening flesh.

“I'll explain while you work! Just stop the flow of his blood! Don't let it spread beyond his leg!” The young man frantically urged. The doctor tore some cloth, binding it above my kneecap, he frowned for a second as if wondering what to do. “Basically a zombie virus!” The young man said as he motioned towards the creature they killed, “If you don't stop the infection from reaching his head the dude is toast!”

The doctor blanched at the words but seemed to be convinced by the seriousness in the young man's voice. He got to work on the leg, I flinched as he made a tourniquet and used pieces of metal to put pressure on my veins to stop the blood flow. I watched as the dark colored flesh started spreading outwards from the bite, I felt the colour drain from my face as I realized I'd be as good as dead if that spread.

“You know what that... Thing? Is?” Reginald asked, pointing towards the deformed corpse of the creature.

The young man nodded, glancing at the creature. “It shouldn't be possible, from its heart cage, and the glow, and the eyes... I'm pretty sure that's a Kabane.”

“A what now?” 

“Well there's this anime I watched, and it had these overpowered zombielike creatures, they had this steel cage around their heart. Nearly impenetrable, they were stronger than normal people, and they infect people with bites just like zombies! But that's in an ANIME, it shouldn't be possible!” The young man muttered panicking. 

“Can the infection be stopped?” I asked, my voice betraying me as it cracked.

The young man suddenly stiffened a bit, the determined gleam in his eyes returning. “Yes!” He said, putting a hand on my shoulder in an effort to reassure me. “The main character in the anime was bit, he stopped the infection from reaching his brain by hanging himself. They didn't exactly explain how it works but I think it spreads through the bloodstream. If we can stop your flow long enough for the infection to settle you should be able to survive!”

"You think?!" I asked in a fit of panic.

"I'm pretty sure!"  He quickly reassured me.

I nodded, glad that there was at least a sliver of hope for me to survive this, everyone quieted down as we watched the infection spread through my leg. My veins becoming strangely visible under the darkened skin, glowing with a strange orange colour.

The infection slowly spread towards my knee, I barely noticed I was holding my breath while it happened but I could not help  myeslf. I breathed a breath out in relief when it stopped at my knee, the others released their own breaths as we all sagged in relief. I might still die today, but it wouldn't be right here right now.

For now, that would have to do.