Grand Concourse - Harbor Central Station
04:57 PM - Jan 14, 2534
—
The group slips deeper into the vast, echoing space of the Grand Concourse. The cold doesn't hit them as wind, but as a physical weight, a massive, smothering blanket of air that presses on their lungs and steals residual heat. The ceramic floor is slick with frozen sand and dust that crunches thinly under their boots. Shadows pool everywhere, massive, breathing things that distort distance and mask movement.
Kaius leads, his knife fully drawn, body tight from the first kill, constantly assessing the architecture. Thora shadows him, sweeping the galleries overhead. They are the point, forcing the terrified group to maintain a slow, agonizing pace.
Solan inches forward with the others, squinting at the flickering thermal slate pressed tight to his chest. The screen shows nothing but a muddy haze of useless colors, a patchwork of cold blue and hotter reds and oranges. The air in the abandoned concourse carries every sound too far and not far enough, bouncing echoes into one another until nothing is trustworthy.
His voice breaks before he even finishes the first sentence. "The a-acoustics in here are a n-nightmare. Any predator could be ten meters away... or fifty. It's i-i-i—" he swallows hard, "it's i-i-impossible to pinpoint anything."
The space around them feels like a mouth. The ceiling arches in a jagged sweep overhead, ribbed with broken beams and frost-heavy pipes.
Ahead of them, the man they only know as the hunter stops moving in an instant so abrupt it's frightening. Kaius's entire body locks, shoulders going rigid, breath flattening into silence. His gaze is fixed on the abandoned ticket kiosks ahead. Nothing but a wide block of pure black at the far end of the lobby.
His voice drops low and sharp. "Behind the pillar. Stay close. Move."
He doesn't raise his tone. He doesn't have to. The command punches through all nine of them at once.
Rhea grabs Calyx by the arm and yanks her toward the massive structural column. Kade hauls Jessa behind a rust-eaten security barrier. Evin ushers Mariel and the baby toward the concrete partition with shaky urgency, whispering, "Go, go—just stay low—just stay with me," even though he's barely holding himself together. Thora takes her place at the front without hesitation, her armored plating catching the dim light in a dull, threatening gleam.
Kaius's eyes never blink.
Something moves behind the kiosks. Not a footstep. Not a breath. Something heavier. Something angry.
A shape slips out of the absolute dark, peeling itself from shadow like the station birthed it whole. Its mangled fur hangs in burnt clumps. Half its face is melted into a puckered mask of blistered skin. The other half remains terrifyingly intact. One bright, furious eye locked onto them.
The same tiger he dropped down the maintenance shaft less than an hour ago.
Its snarl starts low and wet. It climbs into a gurgling roar that makes every loose panel overhead tremble.
And then it attacks.
No warning. No posture. Just an explosive burst of muscle and spite. The beast launches straight for the center of the group—Mariel, who's cradling Tovin against her chest.
Thora doesn't think. She just moves.
She shoves Mariel and the screaming toddler behind the concrete barrier, planting herself as a silent wall of armor and instinct. Her boots skid on the frost as she braces for impact.
The tiger hits her like a runaway train.
Thora's armor shrieks under the razor drag of its claws, sparks kicking up as fur and ceramic collide. She gets shoved backward so hard her heels carve twin trenches through the slush.
Kaius is already in motion.
He darts sideways, boots ricocheting off a fallen sign, using the momentum to flip himself up and over a crumpled turnstile. He lands in a low crouch on the metal railing, balancing on a bar no wider than a finger. His knife flashes out in one smooth motion.
"Mother— roll!" Kaius shouts, eyes locked on Mariel.
She hears the grinding snap of her coat tearing before she feels the tug. The tiger's jaws clamp down on the thick fabric hanging off her shoulder, ripping off a full strip as she dives sideways. She screams, rolling hard, shielding Tovin's head as the baby cries loud enough to echo.
Thora absorbs the brunt of the tiger's next swipe. The claws dig through her chest plate, opening deep trenches in the ceramic. She doesn't make a sound, only digs her boots into the floor and tries to hold the monster back. But her stance breaks, and she's forced sideways by the sheer weight of the beast.
Solan loses it. His slate clatters to the floor. "The T-T-T-train car! The p-p-platform! Get i-i-inside a car! G-G-go!" His voice screams, jumping two octaves into a high, melodic shriek.
Jessa grabs Kade by the coat and yanks him toward the ramp. "Move your ass!"
"I am moving!" Kade shouts back, tripping over a half-frozen duffel bag and nearly face-planting.
Rhea pulls Calyx after her, shouting, "Stay with me—Cal, stay with me!"
"Don't touch me!" Calyx snaps, but she stays close anyway, eyes wide with raw terror.
Evin slips on the frost while trying to shield Mariel, crashing onto his side. "Dammit—shit—shit—keep moving!"
The formation collapses instantly, just ten bodies scattering in different vectors across the frozen concourse.
The tiger whips its head toward the chaos, choosing its next victim with shocking speed.
Kaius stands poised on the metal railing, every muscle coiled, tracking the beast's weight shifts and line of attack the way a mathematician tracks variables. To him, the concourse is nothing but angles, rails, broken signposts, jutting pipes, and frozen ledges. All pieces of a puzzle he can sprint across faster than most people can think.
The tiger lowers its head, muscles bunching for another kill-shot.
Kaius races past Thora, knife glinting like a shard of frost. He throws his weight low, twisting into a tight, spinning kick meant not for show but for pure mechanical damage. His heel smashes into the oxidized magnetic rail, and the blow rings out like a gunshot. The vibration rattles along the metal lattice overhead. Loose frost, icicles, and a hunk of old frozen signage shear free in one heavy clatter.
A cluster of ice slabs, thick as paving stones, crash straight down onto the tiger's burned spine.
The animal roars, staggering sideways as fresh agony rips through its ruined hide.
The entire concourse shakes from the impact and one of the overhead storage beams, long corroded and sagging under frost, cracks with a sickening groan.
Rhea looks up just in time. "Holy—MOVE!"
The beam snaps free.
It plummets toward Kade.
"Bro, what—" Kade barely gets out half a sentence before the thing comes screaming down.
Jessa grabs the back of his coat, yanking him with such reckless force she practically spins him across the slush. The metal beam slams into the floor where he'd been standing, exploding into a spray of rust flakes and ice shards.
Kade stares at the impact crater. "I almost got KO'd by a building, Jes. A building. That's embarrassing as shit—don't tell anyone."
"Dude," Jessa snaps, breathless. "Everyone saw."
Thora absorbs another blow from the tiger's claws, a full-body collision that knocks her backward so hard her skull clips the rail behind her. Her eyes flash, unfocused for half a second. A concussion-level force rocks her head before she shakes it off and braces again, jaw locked.
Solan, trembling, fumbles with a device clipped to his belt. It's not a weapon; it's a seismic rangefinder he jury-rigged earlier to map structural vibrations. His hands are shaking so violently he almost drops it, but he manages to slam his thumb on the activation stud.
The device unfolds with a soft electronic whir and projects a wide, pulsing wave of low-frequency resonant sound into the air.
The concourse responds.
Vibrations ripple through the floor tiles and metal supports, small, directional tremors that distort sound waves and scramble movement patterns. Not enough to harm the tiger... but enough to disorient its hearing and slow its targeting.
"The r-r-rangefinder— it messes with the f-f-frequency refraction!" Solan yells, voice slicing through a rising Level 3 stutter. "I-it's not a w-weapon—b-but it'll b-buy seconds! K-keep it facing the d-device!"
The tiger jerks its head, confused by the oscillation. It roars and snaps wildly, its aim thrown off by the refracted echoes bouncing around the concourse.
Kaius uses the moment, vaulting off a pile of collapsed chairs, using a railing as a springboard. His hand, already clawed open from the earlier fight, grinds against the metal. The injury screams red-hot through his bones, a flash of pain that almost makes him miss his landing.
He hits the ground hard, stumbles, catches himself on that same mangled hand, and snarls under his breath. The palm tears wider. Blood slicks the rail.
Jessa fires her stun pistol again, bolts sparking off the tiger's flank without doing a damn thing. "Okay, yeah, this gun is literally a toy. A TOY, Kade!"
"Maybe hit it in the feelings!" Kade yells back, firing wildly in the air.
"Kade, shut the—"
The tiger whips around, snapping at the sound.
Kaius doesn't give it time to reorient. He lunges toward Thora. "Boulder—Car A! Now!"
Thora shoves the tiger's weight off long enough to sprint with him toward the nearest passenger car. A hunched, derelict husk with shattered windows and a long dead emergency light inside.
Kaius shoulders the half-broken door, slamming it open. "Inside!"
The others pile in. Rhea dragging Calyx, Evin tripping over a loose cable, Mariel clutching Tovin as he shrieks against her collarbone, Jessa and Kade diving in like children escaping a wave.
Solan stumbles in last, clutching the shaking rangefinder, its resonance still humming.
Kaius and Thora slam the damaged door shut just as the tiger barrels into it.
The glass detonates outward in a violent spray, turning into a whirling storm of glittering shards. The door bows under the force of the hit, metal screaming like it's being peeled apart.
Thora braces her shoulder against it. Kaius does the same with his injured hand, gasping through clenched teeth as pain flares.
"Car A is c-compromised!" Solan shouts, glasses fogged and crooked. "The w-w-windows are gone—w-we'll freeze—w-we can't s-stay—"
Kaius cuts him off. "Move! Down the tracks! Get to something reinforced!"
Rhea kicks open the back exit toward the tracks. "Out! Go!"
The group spills onto the narrow maintenance walkway beside the rail line, boots slipping on frost.
Behind them, the tiger hits the door again.
This time, the hinges give.
The entire door rips free and sails across the platform, slamming into a support post with a metallic CLANG that echoes into the tunnels.
The tiger climbs into Car A, ripping through shredded seats and glass, then prowls to the exit, head low, breath steaming.
It sights the fleeing group, its eyes locking onto their movement down the line of trains.
Kaius backs up the line, knife raised, body tensed. "Boulder—on me."
Thora steps beside him, blood running down from her temple, eyes locked on the approaching bulk of the beast.
The others sprint down the track, already slipping out of sight behind the next set of shadowed train cars.
The tiger lowers its head.
Kaius lifts his blade.
Thora squares her stance.
And together, the two of them drag the monster's attention away from everyone else and into the frozen dark between the cars.
The fog outside Car B presses against the windows like bruised milk, thick enough to swallow the world whole. Inside, the moment slips from tense to catastrophic in a breath.
The tiger doesn't wedge its way in, it slams through the ruined frame of the previous car as if the train owes it blood. The impact shudders through the entire rail line. People scream. Someone drops a lumen lamp that rolls across the floor, flickering wildly.
Thora surges forward, silent and immovable, sweeping her arms to shove bodies toward the connector door. Rhea yanks Calyx by the wrist, half-dragging her.
"Move! Move, damn it!" Rhea shouts, her voice raw.
Calyx stumbles, boots skidding. Behind them, Evin shoves Mariel ahead, barking, "Go! Keep going!"
The tiger storms down the aisle, its frost-rimmed fur bristling, jaws snapping at anything that shifts.
Kaius snarls, pushing Rhea forward and throwing his weight against the connector door. Thora grabs two terrified teenagers and hauls them through with calm, terrifying precision.
They crash into Car B, a wider, darker maintenance car that reeks of rust and old coolant. But the tiger hurls itself at the connector doors again before the group can even breathe.
Kaius slams the inner lock, but the metal bends inward immediately. "Rhea, help me hold—"
The weakened seam explodes inward before he finishes. The tiger bursts through, sending a shockwave through Car B that knocks everyone sideways. A toolbox clatters off a bench and skids across the floor.
The beast plants its claws in the grated flooring, steam rolling from its muzzle. Jessa fires twice in quick flashes of white-orange. Kade yells something half-coherent. Thora herds the group toward the far end with fast, sharp gestures.
The floor jolts again, and Evin loses his footing. His boots skid on a slick patch of coolant. He pinwheels, grabbing for anything, but the half-open side door betrays him. He tumbles out of Car B and onto the narrow service ledge, slamming onto the freezing metal.
"Evin!" Mariel screams, grabbing the doorframe and pulling hard against the icy wind. Her fingers scrape at the hinge. "EVIN!"
Calyx's voice breaks. "Dad!"
Tovin's scream is piercing, panicked, the sound of a child unraveling.
Then, the tiger turns away from the main crowd. It pivots, breath billowing white, and stalks back toward the open door Evin fell through. Its tail flicks. Its muscles bunch.
Evin scrambles against the narrow ledge, hunched low, trying to flatten himself behind an exposed section of undercarriage piping. His breath comes in quick, shaky puffs. He presses a hand over his mouth, knowing even a gasp might draw the beast.
The tiger sticks its massive head out through the door, sniffing the frigid air. Its eyes sweep the exterior, hunting the shape that fled. Mariel claws at the door, screaming his name again, but the vibration of the wind drowns her out.
Kaius breaks from the group, fury and sickness burning under his skin. "Keep moving!" he roars, voice cracking as he shoves people toward the next car. "Go!"
He yanks the side panel on the opposite wall and forces it open, motioning everyone through. Rhea tries to follow, but she sees Solan frozen, wide-eyed.
"Solan, move!" she snaps.
He hesitates, torn between Evin outside and the others inside. Rhea lifts her hand and smacks the back of his head. "Move!"
Kaius is already out the emergency panel, dropping to the exterior lip of the train. He keeps low, skirting the side, angling himself toward the tiger.
The beast inches farther out through the doorway, scanning the ledge. One more step and it will see Evin shaking behind the pipes.
Kaius cups his hands around his mouth. "HEY!"
His voice ricochets through the hollow, frozen trainyard.
The tiger snaps toward the sound.
"Come on," Kaius growls, breath smoking. "Come on, you bastard."
Evin hears the shift in weight, hears the claws scrape, and uses the moment. He bolts, scrambling on hands and knees along the ledge, hauling himself toward the emergency panel where Rhea yanks him inside.
Kaius keeps the tiger's attention as the group surges back into Car B's far end. The beast lunges toward him, its roar vibrating the metal around them.
The run to Car C is pure bedlam. No rhythm, no formation, just a frantic stampede across a swaying rail line that feels ready to drop them into the abyss beneath the station. The fog isn't fog anymore; it's a wall pressing in from all directions, swallowing their outlines and hurling them forward blind.
The tiger stays on them like it's got their damn scent printed into its skull. It crashes through the mangled remains of Car B's doorway, skidding on the frost-slick metal, teeth gnashing in fury. Sparks burst from a severed conduit overhead, raining tiny flares of blue-white light as the group sprints.
Car C looms ahead. A squat, reinforced cargo car with dented plating and old military insignia half-peeled away. The thing looks like a rusted coffin on rails, but compared to the rest of the collapsing line, it might as well be a fortress.
Solan stumbles in the lead, clutching his slate to his chest. "Th-Th-This one! Th-there—reinforced seal—h-hardware's still intact!" His voice cracks, collapsing into a panicked squeak. "It'll hold!"
He slams his frozen fingers against the panel, fumbling the connection. The lock spits a static-filled refusal.
"N-n-no, no, no—d-don't—d-don't do this to me," Solan whimpers, slamming his palm against the slate.
Behind them, Rhea whirls around, pushing the remaining group. Jessa yanks Kade forward by the hood as he nearly gets clipped by a swinging cable that whips down from above like a striking snake.
"Kade, MOVE! That thing almost shaved your whole skull off!"
"It would've improved my bone structure," Kade pants back, hopping over a snapped beam.
The tiger's roar, impossibly, erupts again. The massive beast explodes out of the collapsing remains of Car B, covered in dust and twisted metal, fury overcoming its trauma. It is directly behind them.
Solan shoves all his weight into the slate connection. "C-come on—open—open!"
The lock clicks.
"Inside!" Kaius shouts.
The group pours into Car C in a stumbling, tangled flood, boots scraping on the grated floor. Mariel half-shoves, half-carries Tovin, who's screaming again.
The tiger hits the walkway behind them, the entire line jolting with the impact. The tremor sends Evin slipping toward the edge. He catches himself on a bent railing, but it snaps in half instantly.
Evin goes off the side.
Mariel's scream tears into the air. "EVIN!"
Kaius lunges without hesitation, grabbing the back of Evin's coat as he falls. The sudden weight rips through Kaius's injured hand. He growls, pain buckling his knees, but he wrenches Evin upward, dragging him back onto solid metal.
"GO!" Kaius barks, voice raw.
Evin stumbles toward the door, but the tiger charges, fast, too fast, and slams its full mass against the car's side. The walkway jerks, and a row of unsecured oxygen tanks rattles loose behind the group. They roll with alarming speed, clanging and bouncing, turning into lethal metal projectiles.
Jessa shrieks and dives out of the way. One tank whips past Kade's ear so close it rustles his hair.
"Who the hell stores bombs on a train?!" Kade yells as he throws himself through the doorway.
"H-historical m-military cargo—unr-regulated—" Solan pants.
"NOT HELPING!"
The last tank slams into the doorframe just as Evin reaches it. The collision makes the door seize mid-slide. A grinding metallic shriek fills the car.
"It's jammed!" Evin cries, bracing his shoulder against it.
Kaius reaches the door and shoves hard, but the metal refuses to budge. Behind him, the tiger charges again, claws ripping sparks from the walkway as it barrels straight toward them.
Thora slams into the door beside Kaius, her entire body braced like a living barricade. Her silent snarl is all grit and fury.
The tiger launches forward.
Kaius yells, "Push! PUSH NOW!"
The group throws their weight into the door. Solan wedges his slate into the track. Rhea jams her boot heel under the panel seam. The entire car screams in protest—
The door gives.
All of them collapse into Car C in a single avalanche of limbs and panic. Thora grabs Evin by the collar and drags him in with the last surge. Kaius dives through behind her just as the tiger's massive head slams into the doorframe.
The door screeches shut. The lock slams home with a brutal metallic CHUNK.
Silence lands like a hammer.
Evin sprawls on the floor, chest heaving, eyes wild. Tovin cries so hard he hiccups. Mariel folds over him, kissing the top of his head. Calyx kneels beside her father, checking for injuries she's too shaken to see clearly.
Rhea straightens slowly, trying and failing to hide how much her hands shake. "Everyone up. That steel's old. It buys us time, not safety."
Kaius looks at Solan, his breathing shallow, his face grim. "You got us in. Now what, Bruce Wayne?"
Kaius pauses, his eyes narrowing, surprise briefly disrupting his control. "Di-Did you just...?"
Kade snickers, a high-pitched burst of laughter instantly muffled by his gloved hand. Solan glares hard at Kade. Kade zips his mouth shut, turns to the ceiling, and mutters, "Wow, look at all the dust up there. Totally fascinating."
"It was the most-most efficient so-solution," Solan counters, adjusting his glasses and letting out a shaky breath that fogs the air. "Not one word. We're safe, d-dammit."
The tension finally breaks.
Mariel soothes Tovin, whose wails fade into confused sniffling. Evin, still gasping for air on the floor, lets out a strained, barking laugh. Calyx manages a reluctant smile.
Kaius, however, just stares at the scene, his dark eyes narrowed. He pushes off the door, knife still in hand. He shakes his head slowly, the corner of his mouth turning down in pure, weary disdain.
"You people are all liabilities," he mutters, surveying the noisy, disorganized group. "Get to the front. We need to assess this car's structural integrity."
—