It wasn't just once, he heard the rustling again and again. Subtle, but too coordinated to be random. Enough for him to know that there were several people hiding within the bush, as though they were expecting people to exit the train.
For a moment, Marcus thought he was lucky. They hadn't spotted him yet. But then came the flickers of thin red beams, cutting faint lines through the darkness and landing near his feet.
Lasers!
Instinct took over as he lunged back into the train's door and took cover just as a torrent of gunfire shredded the space he had been standing in.
Metal sparked behind him as he slammed into cover, with his heart pounding but his hands and demeanor calm and steady. Marcus leaned out just enough to track the lasers back to their source.
One… two…
He popped out and fired three quick shots.
"Ugh!"
He heard a sharp grunt come from the bush right before the next wave of bullets sprayed the side of the train, ricocheting off its armored walls.
Unwilling to trade bullets from a disadvantageous position, Marcus moved fast, slipping deeper into the train. He passed through two more coaches, stepping over the bloodied remains of both soldiers and the bandits that invaded the train before stopping near the third coach.
He paused right before opening the door as he could see a few shadows moving from where he was.
There were men hiding within, though he couldn't tell if they were allies or otherwise, and he had no sure way of knowing. And also, no time to find out properly.
Along the way, he had scavenged three flashbangs and two grenades. Now was the time to put them to use.
As for the men hiding within the coach, they couldn't tell that Marcus was hiding close to them as he had been moving barefoot, and stealthily.
Pulling the pin from the flashbang, Marcus opened the door slightly, just enough space for the flashbang to pass through. He tossed it in quickly before diving behind for cover. Clapping his hands on his ears.
Bang!
Even from a safer distance, the concussive burst stung his ears, making them ring, but his vision was clear as he wasn't fully caught in it.
Following the explosion, gunfire erupted instantly, bullets chewing through the door he had just used. Though the people inside panicked, they were still able to fire in the right direction. After a few rounds of bullets piercing through the doors and the ceiling of the train, the men stopped firing and silence filled the area for a few short seconds.
There was no movement from the door again.
Thinking that the perpetrator had been taken down, one of the men walked cautiously and approached the door. He fired a few precautionary shots at the door, before pulling it open.
"Is there anyone there?" One of the men within the coach asked, unaware that he was shouting as his ears were still ringing.
Untrained men.
That was the first sign that Marcus picked up on that gave him an inkling of who the men within the coach were.
The moment the door was opened, Marcus struck with his combat knife, slicing the throat of the man open. He then caught the body before it hit the floor, steadying it just long enough to pry the automatic rifle away from his hands.
Without hesitation, Marcus flicked the torchlight on him and hurled it into the coach. Immediately, the men within opened fire again. This time, most of their bullets hit their own man who came to check the door.
By the time they stopped shooting, the man's body fell to the ground. Before they could catch their breath, a flashbang and a grenade were thrown into the coach.
Bang! Boom!
The explosion from the grenade was enough to shatter the glass of the train, and strong enough to deform a part of its side. The men who were caught up in one or two of the explosives cried out in agony.
It was at this moment that Marcus stepped in and ended their lives. Wasting no time, he slipped back the way he came, his feet barely making a sound. The disturbance from this coach was enough to pull the attention of some of the men hidden in the weeds.
And he could tell this as a few of the grasses outside were moving unnaturally, against the direction of the wind.
A few seconds later, figures emerged from the undergrowth and entered the coach Marcus had just cleared. As their eyes adjusted to the dim light and the bloody scene became clearer, the realization hit them that these were their own men, dead.
Rage suddenly filled them.
They scattered like hornets, several of them heading in Marcus's direction, and others fanning out in the opposite direction to flank whoever had done this.
One of the pursuers kicked open the door to a nearby coach, only to hear the faint clinking of metal, just a second too late.
Click.
Clatter!
Bang!
A flashbang went off with a blinding burst of light and sound. Marcus had rigged it to the door with a shoelace, setting a trap for whoever was foolish enough to follow without caution.
He was already at the other end of the coach, and the moment the flashbang went off, he got up from his hiding spot and opened fire at the men at the other side of the coach.
Even for an ambush, this doesn't make sense. These men are untrained, sloppy, loud, and reckless. There is no way they would overrun trained soldiers on their own. Then… most likely, the real fight is happening somewhere else on the train, where the bulk of the soldiers are holding a line of defense.
Just a Marcus pieced all of this together, the ground beneath the train began to rumble, as though an earthquake was tearing through the tracks beneath.
He stopped shooting and braced himself against a wall, trying to gain a proper footing, however, the tremors below intensified. This went on for a few seconds before it stopped.
Then—boom!
A deafening explosion ripped through the train. One of the coaches further down the line erupted into flames and shrapnel. The force from the explosion was so immense that it hurled nearly eighty percent of the carriages clean off the tracks, including the one that Marcus was in.
His world flipped sideways as a shockwave ran through the coach he was in and the train plunged into the towering sea of weeds