Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book Two)

E9 Part 6: Corridors and Fire Escapes

Light Evacuation Car B1-A1-N3. NERV Headquarters.

Rei put her palm down on the control panel. The tram accelerated.

With a loud crack, the light in the car cut out.

Misato flipped the flashlight up. Shinji saw a single stone arm reaching through the roof, the crushed remains of the fluorescent in its hand.

The tram hit a bump. When Shinji's eyes refocused, the arm was gone. The air whistled through the empty hole in the ceiling.

"Listen to me," Rei said.

Something clanged against the roof towards the back of the car. Shinji flinched. Misato swung the flashlight towards the source of the sound, her single good eye darting back and forth.

The Doctor opened his mouth, then immediately started to hack and cough. "Bit louder, perhaps?" he finally managed to get out.

"Listen to me," Rei repeated at a slightly higher volume. "When the vehicle stops, there will be a hallway that leads to a door. I must enter first. "

Shinji heard a noise like a gunshot. He twisted around to see the Doctor lying sideways in his seat, his teeth gritted, his eyes bulging at the large tear in the ceiling above where his head had been just a second before.

"I will require approximately sixty seconds to disable the security countermeasures," Rei shouted above the wind howling through the punctures in the roof. "I will open the door as soon as preparations are complete. You must hold it back during that time."

The Doctor and Misato looked at each other.

The entire car suddenly lurched to the side, throwing Shinji off of his feet. It hung at that angle for a moment, dangerously close to tipping over, until it slammed back down onto the tracks with bone-rattling force.

As he pulled himself upright and latched onto the chair he'd stumbled into, Shinji saw Misato lean in close to the Doctor. "Options?" she muttered. Shinji could just barely hear her.

The Doctor shrugged. "... challenge it to whist, maybe?"

She narrowed her eye. "I don't know the rules here. You're going to have to tell me if that's an actual idea or if you're just being stupid."

"Eh, the second one. Left the cards in my other coat." The Doctor motioned towards Rei. "Gotten us this far, hasn't she?"

Misato straightened up. "Do what you have to, Rei," she called across the car.

"Yes, ma'am." Rei flicked her eyes towards the panel. "Destination in thirty seconds."

Looking out the windows, Shinji could see lights in the distance. The tram swung around in a wide arc, then dove down towards what looked like the entrance to a tunnel. He had just enough time to see the words CENTRAL DOGMA - EMERGENCY ACCESS on the arch over the opening before the car rushed inside, dodging through a maze of underground passages at a dizzying speed.

The breaks suddenly came on. The tram car screeched to a halt in the middle of the tunnel.

His heart pounding, Shinji released his death grip on the chair. He saw Rei stand up. "I'm going," she said.

The Doctor gave her a slight nod. The tram's door slid partway open, then jammed. Rei vanished in a blur.

The Doctor got up and gingerly stuck his head out of the door, glancing upwards towards the roof. "Gone for the moment, I think," he said quietly.

They crawled out of the battered car. The tunnel, Shinji noticed, was wide and well-lit. Multiple sets of tracks ran over the ground, most likely to accomodate different sizes of trains. True to Rei's description, they stood in front of a long side passage that split off from the tunnel proper and terminated at a single unmarked hatch.