Hunger Games- Dawn After Fire

Chapter 5 — The Crash

The attack came just before dawn.

Maria woke to screaming metal.

The train shook violently beneath her while emergency lights exploded across the ceiling in flashing red bursts.

People shouted through the corridors.

Somebody yelled for everyone to take cover.

Then another explosion rocked the transport hard enough to throw Maria against the wall.

Outside the windows, shapes moved through the blizzard.

Aircraft.

Dark.

Silent.

Wrong.

Maria scrambled upright while soldiers rushed past carrying rifles.

“What’s happening?” she shouted.

Cass appeared at the compartment entrance gripping the doorway for balance.

“We’re being boarded!”

Juniper sprinted behind him holding two hatchets stolen from an emergency equipment locker.

“Which honestly feels excessive for six in the morning,” she muttered.

Another blast shook the tracks.

The lights flickered.

Tomas shoved open the rear compartment doors.

“Move!” he ordered. “Now!”

Gunfire erupted somewhere farther down the train.

Sharp.

Controlled.

Nothing like the chaotic firefights shown in old rebellion footage.

These shots sounded precise.

Professional.

Maria followed the others through the narrow corridors while smoke poured through the ventilation systems overhead.

Passengers screamed.

A soldier crashed through one compartment window after being thrown backward by another explosion.

The train lurched violently sideways.

Then Maria saw them.

White armored figures dropped from the aircraft onto the train roof above.

Their helmets reflected only cold silver light.

No insignia.

No faces.

Only the ice symbol burned across their armor.

“The Dominion,” Tomas breathed.

A soldier burst through the next compartment door.

He moved terrifyingly fast.

One strike disarmed a Peacekeeper instantly.

Another sent someone crashing into the wall hard enough to crack metal.

No wasted movement.

No hesitation.

Juniper swore beneath her breath.

“Okay,” she muttered. “That’s deeply concerning.”

Cass grabbed Maria’s arm.

“We need to jump cars.”

“What?”

“The front section’s already lost!”

The train suddenly screamed against the frozen tracks.

Everything tilted sideways.

Maria lost her footing.

The world exploded into noise.

Metal twisted.

Glass shattered.

People screamed.

Then darkness swallowed everything.

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Cold woke her.

Freezing air bit into her skin while snow drifted slowly through broken steel wreckage.

Maria coughed violently.

Pain shot through her shoulder.

The train had derailed across the mountainside.

Entire transport cars lay shattered beneath snow and fire while smoke poured upward into the blizzard.

For several seconds, Maria couldn’t move.

The silence felt wrong after so much chaos.

Then distant shouting returned.

She forced herself upright.

Bodies moved through the wreckage.

Some wounded.

Some not moving at all.

Maria’s stomach twisted.

“Cass?” she called weakly.

No answer.

“Juniper?”

A hand grabbed her arm suddenly.

Maria nearly screamed before recognizing Tomas.

Blood ran down one side of his forehead.

“You hurt?” he asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“Good. Stay moving.”

Nearby, Juniper hauled twisted debris away from trapped passengers while muttering curses under her breath.

Cass knelt beside a shattered communications panel trying frantically to restore signal access.

“It’s dead,” he snapped finally. “Completely jammed.”

Another distant sound echoed through the storm.

Crunching footsteps.

Tomas turned immediately.

Through the blowing snow, white armored figures advanced down the mountainside.

Slow.

Steady.

Unstoppable.

Maria’s chest tightened.

“They survived the crash,” she whispered.

“They caused it,” Tomas corrected.

Juniper grabbed her hatchets.

“Well,” she muttered darkly, “that feels rude.”

Tomas pointed toward a partially collapsed maintenance tunnel farther down the ridge.

“Move!”

The survivors ran.

Snow whipped violently around them while Dominion soldiers advanced through the wreckage behind.

Gunfire echoed across the mountains.

Maria slipped twice on the ice before Tomas caught her arm.

The tunnel entrance yawned open beneath layers of snow and rusted steel.

Old rail lines disappeared into darkness underground.

One by one, the survivors disappeared inside.

Then the mountain swallowed them whole.

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