Casualty

Nadia and Razha are nearly out of the woods when the first explosion’s thunder fills the valley. Razha runs ahead faster, and Nadia tries to keep up. They emerge in the clearing a long way from the side, but they can see the fireball consuming the tracks. Once the smoke and dust start to clear, what remains is a hole blown out of the hill of gravel, and three unconnected rail lines near each other, ending in twisted deformed rails.

But the train is still coming. She can’t tell if it’s slowing down.

“It is still coming our way!” Nadia says.

“Get down!” Razha drops prone and Nadia falls next to her. They see the engine separate from the train and run over the end of the tracks to crash to a stop ahead on the gravel mound.

Then suddenly a flash forces Nadia to cover her eyes and an even louder explosion rocks the valley, shaking the ground and every tree around them as a strong wind blows over them.

“Stay down!” Nadia says. Her own words sound distant and echoed and the world around her is blurry and disorienting for a moment. She pulls herself out of the daze as Razha jumps to her feet.

“Cover your mouth, that was a reactor explosion, black death in the air!” Nadia says, pulling her bandana up.

“What about the rest of the train?!” Razha says.

“It looked like it was fine,” Nadia says.

“We have to go check on our comrades!”

“Let’s go!”

The two of them run toward the dust cloud as it slowly settles. Once the ringing in Nadia’s ears subsides, the valley falls silent. Not a bird or bug speaks of what they have just seen. The fire from the bomb has been blown away by the reactor explosion, and it looks like a number of trees were knocked down. The only creature around is a blue drake charging toward them in a panic.

“Lightning!” Razha says.

“Here, girl!” Nadia grabs hold of her reins as she runs past, and the drake stumbles to a stop, dragging Nadia’s lightweight body along a few Length. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

The drake looks around anxiously in all directions, flicking her tongue at anything and everything. Nadia climbs on her back and extends her hand for Razha to climb up behind her. She guides the drake back the way she came, although Lightning is hesitant to comply.

Razha pulls her scarf tight around her face as they ride through the dust cloud. Lightning darts left and right to avoid what little bits of metal debris survived. As they approach their comrades, Nadia sees four of them gathering around one lying on the ground--Zal.

“Zal!” Razha jumps from Lightning’s back as soon as they get close. She runs up to them.

Filla gently turns them over onto their back while Annia holds their head and neck still. She puts one hand on their wrist and her head down near their chest.

“Zal! Zal!” Filla says as Razha falls to her knees next to them. “Alive! Breathing! Unresponsive!” the medic says.

“Lucky to be alive after that!” Krev says.

“What happened?!” Razha says.

“We had a problem,” Annia signs. “Engineer abandoned the train without stopping it. So Zal tried to stop it themself.”

“Oh Zal, reckless foolish Zal!” Razha says.

“Deformity in their arm. Bleeding from both ears,” Filla says, checking around their mouth, where more blood seeps out. “They could have internal bleeding, fuck. Annia, keep their neck held straight, I can’t know if it’s injured and we could hurt them more by moving them.”

“No! Zal! Zal!” Razha leans down to touch the skin of their faces together, mixing their blood with her tears. “You have to stay with me Zal!”

“They're still with us, Razha!” Filla said. “But I have to get them back to camp, I can’t help them much more here.”

Razha looks up at Krev. Her eyes are red--Nadia has never seen her so distraught. Nadia sits down next to her and puts her arm around her, reaching up to wipe some tears from her face.

“Medical extraction, Krev, let’s go!” Razha says, her voice breaking.

“Right,” Krev says. “Come on, Lightning, here girl.” He takes the drake’s reins and leads her over to the wagon.

Nadia catches sight of another figure approaching. A stranger, seeming disoriented, stumbles their way from the east, wearing a dusty grey train engineer’s uniform. His face and arms look badly scraped.

“Well look who it is,” Krev says. “He’s responsible for all this, could’ve just stopped the damn train himself!”

“You!” Razha rises to her feet. Her face turns from despair to pure rage. She walks his way, in such a threatening posture. He slowly starts to back away, but she runs up to him. She pushes him to the ground. Throwing her rifle aside, she jumps on top of him and punches him in the face. “Coward!”

“Why?! Why?!” the man says.

“It's your fault! If you had just pulled a damned lever when you were supposed to!” She grabs him by his shirt and shakes him. “Don't you even care how dangerous your cargo is?! Do you know what could've happened?!”

“I don't--I don't under--”

She stands up off of him and takes a deep breath. “I ought to tear you in half and feed you to these drakes after what you've done!”

“Please, mister terrorist! I'll--”

Razha kicks him in the ribs, “Don't you ever call me that!”

Her comrades come to surround the two of them. He is cowering beneath her. Nadia puts a hand on her shoulder. “He's just a worker, Razha, he’s not worth it. Please, just let him go. It is what Zal would want.”

“Damn it!” Razha says. “Go!” She stares at the engineer and points away from Korben. “Go! My act of solidarity today will be sparing your pathetic life, you miserable fucking coward. Run back to whatever city you crawled out of and never set foot in Zintaia again!”

She turns away from him and Nadia catches her in her arms, letting her bend down to bury her face in her shoulder.

He gets up and runs off before she can change her mind.

Nadia walks with Razha back to the wagon, where Annia and Kalen are helping Filla lift Zal gently onto the cart.

“Zal...” Razha says.

“Razha,” Nadia says. “If you need to go back to camp with them, we can handle the rest.”

“But...I should be with you in battle, something could...” Razha says.

“You’re in no shape for battle,” Kalen says. “Stay with Zal.”

“Okay.” Razha hugs Nadia so tight she can’t breathe. When she lets go, she kisses her until she can’t breathe again. “Be safe, Nadia.”

“I will be okay. And I will be back with you tonight, okay?” Nadia hands her her black rifle. “And don’t forget your Reverie.”

“Okay.” She climbs into the cart with Filla and Zal. “Good luck out there, comrades.”