Inches from Disaster

Professor Lin tumbled over a few chairs and faceplanted into the tile floor, nearly knocking him unconscious. He eventually stood up, body aching all over, and ran to a nearby window. Sure enough, the train had stopped, but thankfully it appeared not to have completely derailed. The next moment, he saw a band of soldiers, guns drawn, running towards the front of the train.

"What's going on?" He was thinking out loud, as he tended to do, but he was the only one in the room at the time, so no response came.

He limped out of the carriage and onto the earth outside. The summer sun's hot rays felt as though they were cooking his skin. A ton of dust had been kicked up at the front of the train, making it hard to see what was up there. Another band of soldiers went by, and now he found himself face-to-face with Song Qizheng, his hand cradling the gun he had shown off earlier.

"Yuchen, go back inside," he said, "Remember those beasts we were talking about on the boat? The back of the train is safer."

"A beast?" he echoed, "What kind of beast is so big that it stops a train?"

The dust was beginning to clear as the sound of gunfire rang out.

At the front of the train, part of the brown, segmented body of what appeared to be a massive centipede came into view. And when I say massive, I mean it was taller than the train itself. Naturally it could flatten most normal creatures. And its giant legs that looked like spikes were flailing about, making quite a terrifying sight.

"That kind," Captain Song said, but when he turned to his friend, he was already gone.

I'm not getting eaten by a giant bug today. Professor Lin thought, No, not today!

He ran inside and soon was racing towards the back of the train. Too terrified for words, he shoved aside anyone who might have been in his way. The rush of adrenaline made him completely forget about how much his body ached. As he was recklessly running through the narrow hallway of one of the sleeper carriages, he crashed into someone.

"Ow...Hey, watch where you're going," he said.

"Professor Lin?" The voice was shockingly familiar.

It was Qiu Shujie and two of the other lady students. Only, they were naked except for white bath towels.

His face red, Lin Yuchen jumped back and averted his gaze towards the wall. It took every ounce of his willpower not to look.

"Wh...why aren't you wearing any..."

"I was in the bath with Chenxi and Yimeng when the train jolted to a stop and that alarm came on," she said, "We thought there was a fire or something so we got the hell out of there."

"You didn't even have time to..." he tried to say, but was interrupted by a powerful roar pulsating through the air and shaking the world. The girls caught each other's bare shoulders and screamed.

"Professor, what's going on?" Shujie's voice was trembling.

"There's a monster outside! I saw it! That's why the train stopped." After he said that, another roar shook the cabin.

The girls screamed again, and by now it was safe to say they were in a panic.

"We need to hide!" one of them said.

"Professor, hide or you'll get killed!"

Shujie grabbed his hand and tugged him along.

"You idiots, what is hiding going to do?" he shouted, "We have to run. Go put your clothes back on!"

They weren't listening to him though. Instead they were running up and down the hall, trying every door, but they were locked. Eventually they found a closet--a very tiny closet--and crammed inside, pulling Lin Yuchen with them. With the door shut, there definitely was not enough room for four people. It was too dark to see anything, but he could feel a lot of flesh pressed up against his body.

What a disaster it would be if someone opened the door right now, he thought.

The very next moment, the door flung open. The face belonged to one of the last people Professor Lin wanted to see: Xie Cai. At the sight of his discovery, Cai recoiled in terror. His mind went to all sorts of places it shouldn't have.

"What's going on in here?" The words barely came out.

"Hey, get lost!" Lin Yuchen said, "This isn't what it looks like!"

"Let me in! I wanna hide too. I don't wanna die!" He tried to force himself into the closet, without much success.

"Get out, perv!" Shujie yelled, "There's not enough room!" With her wide legs, she kicked him so hard he hit his head on the opposite wall.

"Find another closet, loser!" said the girl named Chenxi.

"Fine!" he spat, "Wait till this gets out!" and with that he was gone.

While that was happening, Captain Song had mustered all the soldiers. For the past several minutes, they had been shooting at one section of the giant centipede's body. However, it was coated in a thick exoskeleton, which served as excellent armor. Not only was the indiscriminate fire failing to do any real damage, but it also was making the beast angrier.

Soon, it turned its body and was crawling slowly along the right side of the train, letting out gut-wrenching howls as it did so. Captain Song commanded half of his men to stay where they were, and took the other half with him to the right side, where they began unleashing a maelstrom of bullets at its face. With its colossal mandibles, towering antennae and four beady eyes, it looked very intimidating.

"Aim for its eyes!" he commanded.

The soldiers shot with great accuracy, for each and every one of them was an accomplished marksman, but the insect seemed unfazed by it. Evidently, even its eyes were covered by some form of armor.

Even angrier than before, the giant centipede dug its uncountable legs into the ground and began racing towards the band of soldiers. It's size might give you the impression that it is slow, but no, it was actually very fast. Its legs were very nimble. At full speed, it could have even been a match for the train.

Right as some of the men were about to break formation and run, Captain Song told them, "Cease fire!" Stepping in front of the band, he took his own gun and moved his index finger onto the second--the lower--trigger. A flash of light a spell of smoke followed as an pointy bullet raced out of the barrel.

Mind you, these secondary bullets were quite different than the primary ones: they made a much louder sound as they cracked through the air and packed a much stronger punch, too. They were expensive though, meaning Song Qizheng's supply was limited. Though they were made of a simple metal alloy, he treated them as though they were solid gold.

The bullet struck dead in the center of the monster's forehead, leaving a distinctive cracking pattern on its shiny exoskeleton. It recoiled and screeched as strangely-colored blood began to seep out. It was stunned, but still far from dead. A few more of those should do the trick.

"We need to lure it away from the train," he then said, "If it dies there, it will be a pain in the ass to get the carcass off the track."

Just then, a tall man with a broad, clean-shaven face stepped forward and saluted. "Captain Song, with your permission, I will lead the men into the forest--off that way--and lure it with gunfire. The thing is fast, but the dense trees will slow it down. Once it has moved off of the track, give me a signal, and I will finish it off"

Sure enough, the edge of a forest could be seen not far in the distance. "Granted, Zhaoyuan," he said, "The rest of the men will stay with me and guard the train. When it moves off the track, you will hear three gunshots. No more, no less. Use this to kill it."

Having said that, he gave the man the artifact gun. With both hands, Zhaoyuan received it as though it were a treasure handed down by a god. He then mustered the men and led them with quick footsteps through the tall, golden grass and into the forest. After the insect began moving towards the forest, Captain Song regrouped with the men on the other side of the train and set up a perimeter.

Still hiding in the closet, Professor Lin and the girls could hear the sounds of gunfire and roaring getting fainter and fainter.

"Is the monster going away?" one of the girls whispered, sounding a little more spirited now that the danger seemed to have passed.

"Let me take a look," Professor Lin slowly pushed open the door and ran over to the window. The girls joined him, watching as the massive, cylindrical body moved deeper and deeper into the host of fat trees and leafy thickets.

"Oh, look at that!" Shujie's sweet, cheerful voice had returned. "It's going away!"

"Wo-ow..."

The girls were so struck with amazement that they seemed to forget that they were still only a thin bath towel away from full nudity in plain view. It wasn't until a few male students came in from the other end of the carriage that their wits returned and they scurried back to the changing room.

Several minutes later, the giant centipede's tail finally came into view. As it was being dragged slovenly over the glossy steel tracks, leaving behind a hideous trail of mud and slime, Song Qizheng pointed his gun, now filled with blanks, to the sky.

Three clean shots rang out, sending shockwaves through the vault of heaven, following which four or five more reverberated out of the depths of the forest.