Dawnrunner

Chapter 8

The journey from Hong Kong takes us west through southern China, passing through India near the Kashmir region, through the deserts of the Middle East into Turkey, and finally to the city of Istanbul. All this time, the Dawnrunner barely slows, and never stops for any reason.
The impact of the cataclysm is clear everywhere we look. From the windows of our carriage we can see scattered signs of civilisation, particularly as we pass closer to once great cities. Some of these have walls; others have built smaller versions of dome covering the Sanctuary. At no time does the train enter the cities, running instead on newly laid track that bypasses them entirely. The further away from them we go, the sparser the collections of life become. In the harshest regions, the only people we see are groups of nomads carrying breathing-masks like the ones we received from the guards.
It is night by the time we pass the northern wall of Ankara, about 300 miles out from Istanbul. I prefer the night because the sky is black and starless behind the ash cloud, and I can pretend I’m looking at the dome, which is easier than the truth.
I’ve taken to sleeping what little I can during the day, allowing me to function at night when I’m more comfortable. Rachel thinks I’m mad, and is fast asleep right now. From the corner of my eye something grabs my attention from outside the train. It’s a white light, flashing in the distance. In the darkness I have no idea what is causing it, but I can hear yelling from inside the train: the guards have seen the flashing light too and for some reason it’s a cause for alarm.
I step out into the corridor and nearly collide with one of the soldiers barrelling towards me.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Nothing to worry about, Miss. Please step back inside.” He fixes me with a look that says he won’t move until I do as I’m told. With all the resentment of a small child being sent to their room, I move into the cabin and listen to the door close behind me.
“Carli, what’s going on?” Rachel asks blearily.
“Nothing, go back to sleep,” I answer. It really is nothing, I remind myself. Just a light.

The city of Istanbul was the site of the Coalition’s last great stand – and the final victory of the Global Effort. At that time, the construction of the Sanctuary was already complete. All that remained was to determine the path the GE train would take across Europe. The capture of Istanbul was crucial to avoid a lengthy campaign against the separatist resistance in Kazakhstan and Russia. On the day Istanbul fell, final preparations on the Dawnrunner began.
“Do you believe the story?” That was the question Rachel had once asked me long ago, when we were kids.
“What story?”
“The one about the city that was fighting the GE: they say that they were winning the fight as long as they could see the sun. Then the cloud came and everything changed.”
Istanbul is the only Global Effort city to have a Dawnrunner station but no dome. Only a giant wall culminating in two enormous gates marks the city as inhabited. The eastern gate shudders as it parts to accept the racing train. All at once we’re hit with blinding strobe lights from within the city, and with the grinding of brakes and steel wheels, we pull into our last stop before the final journey to the sky-clear location.
Within the wall, much of the historic architecture of the ancient city lies in ruins, leaving precious little untouched by either the cataclysm or the GE reclamation forces. Some new constructions, such as hermetically sealed factories and residential complexes, have appeared in a radius around the station. The largest of these is an air-purification compound, with long vents built into the surrounding columns.
Rachel pulls on the handle to the exterior door, but it doesn’t budge. There’s a soldier standing just outside our room, so I flag him down.
“Why is the door locked?” I ask through the glass.
“I’m sorry ladies, but the air is too toxic for the passengers to leave the train. Please remain on board until we reach Amsterdam.” I step back inside to find Rachel on the bed looking sullen.
“I know,” I tell her, “I’m sick of this train too.”
A loud bang from outside cuts off her reply.

The area around the train descends into chaos. Four jeeps the size of small trucks rush through the compound towards the Dawnrunner on its right side. The strobe lights that were until now focusing on the train move to light up the rapidly-approaching cars. They have no roofs, just large bars crossing the centre from either side. On board each car are three or four riders, all wearing breathing masks against the wind. Mounted on two of the vehicles are large machine guns, which start firing at the strobe lights. There is the sound of deafening gunfire and at least two of the lights go dark, plunging the compound back into partial darkness.
GE soldiers are everywhere, swarming over the train and rushing out of the nearby factories. Each soldier carries an assault rifle and wears a mask and night-vision goggles.
The driver of the lead car raises something over his head, which he throws towards the train. We scream as an explosion rocks the carriages, causing them to teeter on the rails before landing back down with a crash. Several of the soldiers are wounded, the rest resume firing at the jeeps.
A wave of gunfire starts hammering the train from across the compound. Three of the soldiers are killed instantly before we realise the shooters are the soldiers from the factory, the same ones wearing GE body armour. Suddenly the troops from the train are fighting their own people in addition to the newcomers in the cars.
The first of the jeeps pulls up alongside the train. A tall man in the back stands and begins firing his rifle at close range, decimating the troops near our carriage. One of the soldiers retaliates with a shot to his shoulder and the man falls back into the car, which speeds off under a cover of machine-gun fire.
Another grenade detonates towards the rear of the train. Rachel is next to me, screaming.
“What the hell is going on?!”
“I don’t know!” I scream back. “Wait, listen…” Through the barrages of shots and explosions, I somehow make out one other sound. It’s the twin gates on the east and west side of the city opening simultaneously. “The gates are opening; I think we’re going to escape!”
Under a rain of bullets, the train slowly begins to move back in the direction it came from, towards the eastern gate.
“They’re taking us back to Hong Kong!” I yell.
“Carli, look! Who’s that?!” A man wearing a wide-brimmed slouch hat with the left side turned up jumps from one of the jeeps onto the side of the train. He’s holding a dagger which he uses to force open the door. Seconds later the train’s brakes engage and we come to a screeching halt.
The GE troops outside the train are falling. The only ones left seem to be the group that had come out of the factory, the ones that are clearly on the side of the men in the jeeps.
“This is really bad!” Rachel is in panic-mode, and I’m not doing so well myself. There’s a jolt from somewhere behind us, and all of a sudden the train is moving again. The train is… but we’re not. Looking out from the car we see the back half of the train – the half we’re not riding in – take off for the eastern gate.
We watch in horror as the half-train gains speed, chased by the three remaining jeeps. Out of the nearest carriage appears a team of soldiers carrying rocket launchers. In one shot another of the jeeps is on its side in flames, while the other two struggle to manoeuvre around it. The troops switch to machine guns and continue firing until the partial train achieves the speed it needs to escape. Within seconds the back half of the Dawnrunner reaches unmatchable velocity and disappears across the ruined landscape of Turkey.