Indigo (NaNoWriMo13)

Chapter 18 - Sleeper

Dedicated to Palenomian101

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Chapter 18 - Sleeper

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At the sound of the scream, Shift’s head snapped around.

The casual tone the conversation had fallen into tensed as passengers from the back end of the monorail ran past them. They fell over each other in an attempt to get further away from whatever had caused the scream, which only made the passengers in this carriage freak out and follow them, adding to the chaotic stampede.

Raph stood up just in time to catch a middle aged woman as she was shoved. Shift thought for a second that she was about to lash out as he steadied her, but recognition sparked in her eyes.

 “Oh, oh my god! It’s Indigo!” The words were accompanied by a glaze of tears which she rapidly blinked back. “There’s a monster, two carriages back! It’s... it’s just eating everyone!”

Raph glanced up at Shift and jerked his head. Shift took the signal to climb out of their seats and go investigate. Zoe and Athira followed close behind as Raph tried to get a straight answer out of the hysterical woman.

“Ma’am, it’s okay. What do you mean by eating everyone?”

“I don’t know! It’s just eating people!” She gripped Raph’s arms, glancing back over her shoulder repeatedly like she expected the monster to be right behind her. “It just walks over them and then when it spits them back out they’re not moving and, and, and oh my god! It’s just eating people!”

“Are they alive when they come out?”

“I--I don’t know I just, I was so scared! I just ran!”  

Shift reached the doors connecting the carriages together just as a man stumbled through. He crashed on to his knees as the door panels slid shut behind him. Shift went to help the man up, but the terrified citizen turned around and slammed an open palm, alight with orange colour, straight on to the metal panels below the glass.

Shift got that sinking feeling. “What’d you do?” he asked as the man scrambled to his feet. 

The man barely looked at Shift as he ran. “I ain’t letting that thing through, man! No way!”

And like that, he was gone.

Shift let him go and turned back to the door.

Through the glass, he could see a few people had reached the door only to find it wasn’t opening. The worry on their faces turned to frenzied terror. Two started pounding on the door, wailing and pleading to be let out while the other started trying to pull up a chair.

Shift grabbed the handle and pulled it, hoping it’d be that easy. The action only made the little auto lock icon flash in front of his face, taunting him as the panels refused to budge with a second or third tug.

He stepped back, trying to ignore the muffled shouts from the other side.

“Don’t leave us!”

“Please! Just let us out! I don’t want to die!”

The glass was too strong to break, but it didn’t matter. Shift had something better than a key.

He glanced over his shoulder. “Athira?”

Black colour engulfed the door and pulled it open. The previously trapped people barged past with flailing arms, almost taking Shift and Zoe with them without a coherent word in their direction.