When they stepped out of the room, there was not a single person around. Everyone had left, and the feeling that they were trapped started to grow. They looked around in silence, afraid to speak before Jedd motioned for them to follow.

  “They have activated the traps. Once we were on the light rail, we would be fine.” Jedd began to run, followed by the other two following him. The floor underneath them began to change.

  As they ran, Ralphie watched as the soft tile underneath his feet began to turn gray and blocky, hard as stone. Leon yelled out, “Something's wrong.” His voice echoed as they kept running. Underneath them were large obsidian blocks with light emitting from beneath them.

  “Shit,” Jedd yelled out. “We have to stay moving there magnets.” One of the blocks flew in front of Ralphie, nearly clipping his nose. Leon yelled out as one of the blocks flew down from the ceiling, shattering his collarbone. His face filled with pain and agony momentarily before The Minds relieved him of pain from the left side of his body. He looked up and yelled, “Ralphie, you're left.” Ralphie pivoted to the other way as another block flew to his side. He could see the end of the path at the end of the hallway.

  “I’m going for it,” he yelled out, sprinting for the exit. Before Jedd even had a chance to yell out to him, the entire floor lurched forward, springing the three of them into a momentary weightlessness. They all crashed back down into the floor. Leon landed on the hard ground, the pain radiating throughout his entire back. He was in shock, barely able to move. A block fell towards him, and in a split second, Ralphie reached out with both hands, grabbing the block, slowing its speed.

  But it still collided abruptly on Leon's chest, pinning him down on the floor. Ralphie cried out as his fingers were pinched between the block and his chest. Leon began to scream as the magnetic force of the block slowly began to crush him, squeezing the air out of his lungs. Jedd ran over to the block, grabbing hold of it, pulling up with all his might. Leon let out a scream as the sound of his ribs cracked under the pressure.

  “Pull,” Jedd yelled out as they began pulling up harder. Ralphie slid his hands underneath the block, using the last little bit of his strength to push up on the block, giving him just a little bit of room. Leon anxiously slid out from underneath it as he felt the magnetic force increasing with every second. Jedd managed to slip one of his hands, but Ralphie only managed to get one out as the block was sucked into the ground. The weight of the block cut his forearm clean off, leaving just the bone sticking out. Ralphie gasped before he fell to the floor. The blood began to leak out of his arm. Jedd and Leon ran to his side, dragging Ralphie a couple of feet to where the blocks ended. Ralphie’s vision faded in and out before he fell to the floor.

  “Fuck,” Jedd yelled, rushing into his bag, grabbing a bandage, which he frantically wrapped around Ralphie’s missing hand. The blood stopped, as the rest of the arm drew a stark, pale color.

  “What do we do?” Leon asked, panicked.

  Jedd looked around, “We have to hide, try and find medical supplies, we can’t get out with him like this.” Jedd propped Ralphie up so that he was sitting straight up. “If they capture him, they won’t kill him; they will want to question him first. We have to leave him here for now and retrieve him when he gets captured. Are you hurt?”

  Leon gasped, “I’m ok, let's keep moving.

  Jedd looked back down at Ralphie, and he was breathing, which was reassuring. “I have several charges in my bag. We are going to need to set them up. I will show you how.

  Ralphie had a massive headache when he woke up. His whole shoulder was numb. He looked down to see his whole forearm missing. The room he was in was blinding, and he heard several voices talking. “He’s up,” one of them said.

  A Blue grabbed Ralphie by the neck, pushing his head from side to side to get a good look at him. “Ralphie Studd,” the interrogator said. “We were wondering why a kid as young as you would be here. Not sure how you came across this weapon.” Blue held the gun, and it smoothly reflected the overhead lights. But don’t worry, we will track it down.” The Blue pulled his mask off, grinning. He was a hideous-looking man. “See, I’m not going to hurt you, not that I can. We had to put so many drugs in you to wake you up that you can’t feel anything.”

  The Integrator took out a knife, drawing a line down Ralphie's face. “But that means that I can carve you up to look all pretty. This is my friend, he's a translator of sorts.” The interrogator pointed the knife towards the Blue sitting next to him. He's here to pick up on if you're lying, and he’s very good at reading between the lines.” He scooted closer to Ralphie until he was in your face. “We know who you are. There's quite a file here on you. I see your parents are here in this facility. I reckon that's why you came. We can kill them for you if you would like. I don’t know if you know this, but we’ve had the liberty to go through your house, and we found this letter. “I feel like life is beautiful. I can feel the earth's warmth. It goes on and fucking on before ending in I cannot see beauty.” God, you're a miserable, dramatic lad, don’t you think? That's what you leave behind if you die. It's awful.

  Studd managed to grin slightly, blood squishing between his teeth, “Happy Accident,” he smiled.

  “How fucking romantic,” the interagator said. “So if I can’t hurt you and you're not afraid of death, then why don’t we talk. Your friend Leon is going to get himself killed. We know he was with you.” Ralphie's eyes began to shut. The interrogator snapped, “Open his eyes up.” He screamed. “So tell us what you know about Leon Miller, or I swear to you we will torture him for the rest of his life. One of the Blues put a device under Ralphie's eyes that opened his eyes wide. For the life of him, Ralphie couldn’t understand why they wanted Leon so bad. It must have something to do with the chip. He knew he had to stall.

  “You know it's funny. It was about five years ago when I started writing the letter. I’m honestly not sure why I started writing it. It was that just-in-case letter, the one that someone would find. It could sum up your whole life in just a page or two. Tell people what you loved about them and what your life meant to them. You could throw in some hobbies, maybe get a couple of laughs. You can make it cryptic and mysterious so that when it's read, it seems like there was more to you than there was. You could end it on a sweet note. You know, tell them that it wasn’t their fault, maybe you’ll get a couple of tears out of that. It almost seems selfish. I never finished the letter. I couldn’t bring myself to keep writing it. Something about it made me want to keep going despite it.”

  Four guards surrounded the light rail. It was lit up with bright fluorescent lights that beamed down from above. The entire light rail sat with its doors open. The inside was lavish purple, wrapped in a metal tin. It was small, no more than five coaches. Jedd noticed that each guard was standing between each entrance of the light room. He pulled out a small set of dice from his pocket, which he tossed in the guard's direction. Each guard raised their gun, their flashlights on as they swept the room. Jedd then pulled out a Mirage, placing it in front of him as the camouflage spread out.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He then motioned for Leon to stay silent before he whispered, “We have to go in quietly. The conductor of the train is instructed to leave if they hear gunfire. So hold onto your gun until we're on the train.” Jedd then leaned down towards the mirage before pushing it as it slid closer and closer to the train.

  Each one of the blues was walking shoulder to shoulder as they began to circle the room. Jedd pulled out another pair of the two dice, throwing them as they ricocheted off the walls, ricocheting around three times. Jedd pulled out his gun as he slid the Mirage to the edge of the light rail. He sent out a series of shots towards the Blue, picking up the mirage as they stepped on. The bullets shredded through two of the blues, causing the other two to duck down. The light rail took off as the Blues outside the train let out an array of bullets of retaliatory fire. The floor rattled underneath the three of them.

  “They will bring security around here soon. We need to hide,” Jedd said, moving through the train carts.

  Footsteps could be heard approaching, getting closer and closer. “Pull out your gun,” Jedd warned Leon, “Try to hide as best as you can.” Jedd took a couple of deep breaths as he felt the surging rage of survival creep into his consciousness. The Blues banged open each of the train car doors with a tremendous force before yelling clear at each one.

  Jedd kept his vision looking forward as he pressed himself as close as he could to the entrance of the next train cart. He sat there in silence as the long shiny barrel of one of the guns crept into his vision about a foot away from his nose. Jedd reached out, grabbing the gun as he let out a shrieking cackle, pulling the Blue towards himself. Smashing his elbow into The Blue before pulling out a knife, slashing The Blue's throat. Several shots ricocheted throughout the train car. Jedd put the number of Blues to around four or five.

  The thing about fighting Blues is that they stick together; the death of one or two of them doesn’t matter; they will sacrifice themselves to complete their goal. It is pretty easy to kill one of them as they will be the bait, but the others will spread out to the corners, waiting for their opportunity. Jedd grabbed the gun before turning around to Leon, “Put on that helmet,” he said, pointing to the Blue at their feet. Jedd then peeled the gun around one of his shoulders and let out a multitude of blind shots around the corner.

  The helmet hissed as Leon put it on. His clothes began to become soaked in the same metallic black and blue color, the light shimmering against the clothing. He felt his chest inflate as the black dye worked to pull his chest away from his broken ribs. Leon took a couple of full breaths.

  Jedd tilted the edge of the gun towards the opening in the train cart until he could momentarily see one of the Blues standing out in the open. They exchanged fire, the bullets sparking as they flew by and smashed against the back of the train car. A couple of the bullets that Jedd had fired burrowed themselves in the blue.

  Jedd knew that he had to move fast. The remaining Blues would waste no time. But they were vulnerable, predictable, and they relied too much on The Minds. Jedd had killed thousands of them.

  Jedd sprayed as many shots into the corners of the train car. The blood from the Blues painted the windows red. Leon lunged past Jedd, shooting another one dead.

  “Leon,” Jedd whispered as Leon lay prone against the train car floor. “What do you see?” Jedd asked. Leon held up two fingers before he slowly pointed to the back right of the train car. Jedd nodded before he tilted his head towards the back right of the train car. He couldn’t see anything.

  Jedd held up his hands, slowly counting down from five. Once he reached zero, Leon and Jedd both aimed their guns and fired. The bullets are ripping through each one of the Blues. The Blues returned the fire by shooting out the lights on the top of the train cart, turning the whole cabin completely dark. A slow, wheezing noise came from the train cart.

  Leon took a couple of steps forward towards the train cart before Jedd put a hand to block him.

  “Be careful, their suits will keep them alive.” The wheezing from the blue in the other room faded. Jedd ripped a piece of his shirt off, tying it to his gun before he pulled out a lighter, lighting it on fire. He turned back to face the room, scanning it, before, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Blue crouched in the corner. The Blue was covered in blood, illuminated by the orange flame as it grew bright. Jedd's smile grew as Blue struggled to raise his gun. Jedd ran over, stepping on the Blue's arm as he cried out in pain. Jedd then pushed the gun away from the Blue, crouching down, peering at the man. He pulled off the Blues mask, revealing a pale man. Jedd stuck the gun into the man's mouth as he tried to bite down on the gun.

  “Whoa, whoa, not too soon,” Jedd chuckled to himself. Jedd's smile turned crooked as he pushed the gun into the man. “Where’s the Studds at?” The Blue's eyes were full of fear; he had heard about Jedd. “Follow the hallway out of the train down to the right room with the silver doors,” his vocal cords strained.

  “Thanks,” Jedd said as he pulled the trigger. The bullet flew straight through the Blue's skull before the Blue's body slid towards the floor.

  The yellow lights were dashing past them outside the window. It felt deadly silent as Jedd placed the helmet on his head. He turned towards Leon. Leon looked at him with part confusion, part horror, and part awe.

  “He was going to kill himself anyway,” Jedd said as he wiped the blood off the gun. “There’s more on this train, but I’m willing to bet that they will wait for reinforcements. Striking as we exit the train. You look shaken up.” Leon was staring at the Blues that lay on the floor. He had been shot through the head but was still alive. Letting out a gurgle from his mouth, the blood was pouring out of it. Jedd saw the brief flicker of fear in Leon's eyes, but before he had the chance to take a step forward, Leon reached forward and fired two shots into the Blue.

  “You ok?” Jedd asked Leon, his face stern and stoned.

  “Doesn’t matter now,” Leon turned towards Jedd, “It's war,” he said as he reloaded his gun.

  Jedd could see the anger surge through Leon, “You do go numb at some point.”

  The train began to slow down before it came to a stop. Jedd pulled out two small backs covered in fiery red circles. But as it came to a stop, no one was outside.

  “Another Trap,” Leonn asked.

  Jedd took a couple of steps forward. The silence was frightening; the lights overhead seemed brighter than before.

  When Leon took a step out of the train, he felt as if he had crossed a warm barrier. Fear began to creep into his mind.

  Leonn tilted his gun ever so slightly towards Jedd. Jedd looked up ahead, still walking forward.

  “There, here,” Jedd said. There were two giant metal doors up ahead. He turned around to face Leon, the gun pointed at him. Jedd put his hands up in the air. Leon's head was beading with sweat.

  “What do we do?” Leon's hands were shaky. “If we go in there, we die. I know we will. I don’t want to die.”

  Jedd looked at him for a second, “You won’t, I promise you. I need to set these charges; they are our way out of here. You go find Ralphie's parents. I am going to set these charges and hopefully find where they're keeping Ralphie.”

  Leon nodded solemnly.