Chapter 4 - Salar

One of the soldiers turns his attention from listening in their car, they all seem to be looking forward to the front of their car, the sound must have come from up in front of even them.

Uh, we don't have much of plans for this thing. Half of us barely understand the mechanisms that move it, says a woman with dark red hair pulled back into a tight braid. We should figure out what that sound was, though, she adds.

You continue to discuss, formulate, and organize a plan when suddenly an ear-splitting sound rocks the tunnel.

KRACKAKOOOOOOW!

You're simultaneously deafened and blinded by both the sound, and the sudden flash of white light. You feel the rumble that reverberates the whole tunnel, and worse, you feel the train beneath your feet lurch unexpectedly. It's a strong jerk up as this speeding train hits something and starts to go upwards instead of forwards. You only have a brief moment before you realize this train is no longer following the tracks it should be, but is rocketing upwards from its underground confines.With only a split second to act you hear screaming, the rending of metal against stone, and your own breath echoing in your ears, as from a far away location.

As the train rockets up and bucks around Aelar and Firn manage to grab hold and brace themselves. They find hold on their train car. As the train continues upwards the soldier car and engine separate from the rest of the train and start to roll sideways.

Xadira hits her pin and a translucent purple shimmer surrounds her as she huddles into a ball. As your train car hits some of the rocks of this slop it bucks upwards and Xadira is launched into the air as nothing is holding her in place.

Utes instinctively braces herself into a solid position inside the train car. Looking back she sees the entrance to the last car, the lab car, and a moment later it is gone. The hero car splits in two with a loud CRACK. The lab car veers off another direction and starts to roll like the soldier car and engine.

In all of the noise and chaos you see the engine to the train. It's entirely engulfed in orange flames and it billows black smoke. As it, and the soldier car, are pulled off the the left the entire train crests this hill it is now climbing rapidly. The entire train, now separated into 3 pieces arcs through the air and you see nothing but white sand in every direction.

As the soldier car and engine arc out and smash back into the ground the engine erupts with one more explosion, destroying most of the structure and blowing apart the entire soldier car. Xadira, still in a ball flies through the sky and soon finds herself falling. She falls and falls. She was launched nearly 40 feet in the air and impacts almost like a metor leaving a small crater. As she hits the ground the purple shimmer around her glows bright, and then seems to shatter as the damage is absorbed into the shield. She finds herself in a crater, but unscathed.

As the portion of the hero car that has Firn, Aelar, and Utes on it hits the sand it starts to roll. Firn and Aelar are jostled loose and flop against the sand as the train car continues to roll further. Utes, inside the car, rolls with it, but is solidly braced and only winds up slightly dizzy from all the spinning.

The other half of the hero car and the lab car are last to crest the hill and the just barely do so, tipping up over the edge and sliding across the sand, it finally comes to rest near Aelar and Firn.

The scene happens in fractions of a second but the whole event seems to have taken forever to finally come to a rest. After all of the chaos, suddenly there is silence. You hear fire crackling near where the engine and soldier car are now completely engulfed in flames, but everything else is suddenly silent. You are all still alive, somehow.

Nix pops into existence and finds herself falling about 3 feet to the ground from the point where she disappeared. Looking up this steep collapsed rock hill she sees a jagged cut path caused by the train as it passed. Bits of twisted and torn metal and wood litter the path up to the brim of this natural ramp. Looking back she can see the empty train tunnel that abruptly ends.

As you approach the lab car it's on its side and is silent. Trying the door it is still locked as well as jammed closed in the collision.