"What's going on?" A gruff voice called as we passed by. It was one of the four boys sitting on the lone table at the end of the carriage.
"Oh, nothing to trouble yourselves about. We went to visit some friends but realised we preferred our original seats," Morgana told them, giving them her best smile. The sort that would knock me dead if it was turned my way. Not these guys though.
"I can't help but recall you didn't have those bags before." He said as he got to his feet. "In fact, I think I saw the LaVeen's carrying them." His friends got up as well. "And your friend there has a bruise on his face." He pointed at my face.
Morgana gave them an embarrassed chuckle. "Of course, this must seem so strange. Not to worry though, it can all be explained. You see my friend is a bit of a ditz and fell over - which is why his face is bruised."
She did an exaggerated roll of her eyes as if it was a common occurrence.
"And our bags were carried on by our good friends, the LaVeens," she nodded towards him in acknowledgment of his point. "Because we had originally planned to sit together but we've decided to stay at the back."
She finished the sentence with a smile and went to take a step away.
"What are your names?" The spokesperson of the group asked.
"My name's Marina. The ditz is Billy, and my other friend is Dom. Pleased to meet you."
"And tell us, what are your family names?"
This was definitely not going to plan. I shuffled slightly closer to them. If they attacked, I wanted to be in their way so that I could prevent them from getting at Morgana or Dillon.
"Deonze, Williams, and Sanders," Morgana answered through gritted teeth.
He tsked. "Ah. It seems we have an issue. You see, I've never heard of you. Ryan." The leader made a move with his hand and the boy at the back left through the carriage we'd come from.
"We're a quiet bunch. Keep ourselves to ourselves." I told him. Clearly this wasn't going to work. Three on one odds weren't amazing but I had just come away on top in a similar situation. Only one thing for it really.
"And you've got bruised knuckles, so it s-"
I lashed out before he could finish his sentence. Surprise had worked nicely on the LaVeens, I didn't see why I'd stop such a winning tactic.
I'd crossed the small distance between us in a moment, leaping into him feet first. He let out a big 'oof' as he fell back into his friends. Perfect.
I hit the ground hard, pain jolting up my side, but quickly spun my legs out, trying to knock their feet from under them. It didn't work, or hurt them much, but gave me enough space to leap back up.
The trio used that moment to pull batons out. Not great for me but they were still squashed together and it was too confined for them to get better placements. Bless the lack of space – I'd be done for it without it.
The leader swung for me as I dived into them again, landing a blow on my ribs. It hurt but nothing I couldn't handle. He wasn't quick enough to withdraw his strike though and I managed to lock my left arm to my side, trapping his baton.
Using his own arm, I pulled him into the fist of my right hand. Once. Twice. And after the third his grip on the baton loosened. It was mine now.
Just in time as well because I had to dodge a swing from the bigger of his two friends. A guy who had his head shaved so short I started thinking of him as an Egg.
Egg had made a rookie error and swung the baton towards my head rather than my body, allowing me to duck underneath it. Landing a hit of my own on the leader's chest, he let out a wail. That was a problem for me because it would no doubt call attention to what was happening. I immediately lashed out at Egg's stationary knees. He buckled with a cry and fell on his leader, letting me turn to the final one.
He looked a bit scared and as I raised my stolen baton, he dropped his own and put his hands up in surrender. I didn't bother hitting him. He was done and it would be a waste of time if I tried to restrain him. Instead, I grabbed the purse hanging from the leader's belt and ran back to Morgana and Dillon.
"They'll be here any second. Move!" I snapped, adrenaline surging.
We started with our quick walks but once again we were stopped as we got to the next carriage. Again it was by the occupants of the lone table which left me wondering if they were there as guards. I didn't even give these ones the chance to say anything. I still had the baton out and began beating them across the legs without warning. I wasn't trying to hurt them too badly, I just wanted to make sure they couldn't follow. Unlike the first group, these guys didn't care to keep quiet and screamed for help.
I opted not to try to knock them out. It was a risk that I might do real damage by mistake. Instead, I told Morgana and Dillon to run. We'd caused too much noise and there was no doubt trouble would be coming for us. The plan now was to get off the train as quickly as possible. I had to hope the next five carriages would go better than this, otherwise we wouldn't make it.
We ran into the carriage we'd boarded originally and saw someone exiting one of the cabins. No point messing with what worked, I thought as I kicked him back into the room.
There were five surprised sets of eyes inside but none looked like they'd be a problem so I firmly closed the door and kept pace with the others.
Morgana was already red in the face from the effort of carrying the big bag but I didn't think I could hold it and fight people. For now, I was hoping she would be able to hold up until things got a little calmer. The good news was that the shouts could barely be heard as we got into the next carriage and the only people out of the rooms were a startled pair of card players. Neither of which seemed interested in fighting. I gave them a cheeky grin and nod in thanks. Though I imagine they thought it was just a greeting.
We moved through the entire carriage without an issue but slowed as we got to the next as the layout had changed.
There were no cabins in this one, it was completely open. On each side were four sets of tables that could fit four people. Even here, in what was clearly the 'bad' end of the train, the tables were nice. Each table came with a lamp - although not magic this time - and exquisite trimmings. They'd really spent a fortune on this machine and I was getting upset again because I couldn't steal the whole thing.
Nobody got up to intervene as we walked by and anyone who looked towards us got a polite smile to appease them. There were too many people for me to fight in here so I set a brisk pace that bordered on a jog. A few people started asking questions but I figured if we stopped to answer, our story would quickly fall apart. Instead we acted like we couldn't hear them and continued walking. Lucky for us it worked.
The questions had gotten louder and louder as we walked through but nobody got up to challenge us, so we managed to make it into the second to last carriage. Almost at the end. I could practically taste our freedom.
The layout in this carriage was the same as the previous one. Sixteen people sitting at tables on either side of the aisle. The occupants of this carriage were a lot more curious than the last however. It felt as though every single head in the area turned towards us as we walked through.
At about the halfway mark, I noticed someone getting up to bar our path. The look on his face made it clear the game was up. I looked behind me and saw people from the previous carriage were walking through the door, suspicion written on their faces.
"We're going to run over anyone who stands in our way," I muttered to Morgana and Dillon. "Just keep moving."
We made it another few steps before a girl with red hair put her hand out to stop us. Seeing no other option, I launched straight into attack mode. Grabbing her arm, I threw her back into the table she had risen from. That seemed to be the signal everyone was waiting for because it all kicked off.
Screams and shouts of outrage could be heard from every direction as we broke into a sprint. Someone grabbed Morgana's bag, nearly pulling her off her feet, but I smashed down on his wrist with the baton, forcing him back with a cry. Somehow we managed to stay on our feet but the occupants of the final tables had got up to block the way.
"Use the bags as shields and ram them," I commanded.
Fully in the zone and trusting my judgement, they didn't hesitate for a moment and we bowled the blockaders over. A person reaching out from the right tried to grab on to me but got a sore arm for his efforts, courtesy of the baton I was becoming very fond of.
"Go! Through the door now!" I shouted, turning to swing wildly at the approaching crowd.
"Brandon!" Dillon shouted, panic flaring in his voice. "They've got my foot!"Fear gripped me. Losing Dillon wasn't an option. I stomped down wildly, desperate until I felt his foot wrench free. It seemed to work as a moment later, we fell through the door.
I couldn't believe our luck. There's no way we should have made it through that many people. I knew that most people would just ignore us until it got to the point it was clear they could no longer do so. It was actually a common phenomenon we often exploited when committing crimes in the open.
More often than not, people will just let you walk away from doing something wrong because they expect somebody else to deal with it. I'd even heard of people walking past things as extreme as murders and not doing anything because they believed it was someone else's problem.
The crazy thing to me was that even the ones that stepped up, didn't seem to fully commit to their decision and that had allowed me to throw the first strike. I let out a disbelieving laugh as I looked around.
My mirth evaporated as I looked back the way we came. It seemed like we had pushed that phenomenon past its limits because people were getting up – and they looked angry.
Fortunately, there were still bodies tangled on the floor which bought me a few precious seconds to look around.
This carriage appeared to be dedicated to storage, which was a huge boon because I didn't think we would be able to escape if there were another thirty two people to bar our exit. Our pursuers finally managed to find their footing and the quickest of them lunged for me. He was over confident though and I easily sent him down to the ground, blocking the path for the other attackers.
Behind me, Morgana and Dillon were trying to open the exit door and I could hear the rattle of a chain.
"It's locked!" Dillon shouted, panic clear in his voice.
My stomach dropped. The mob had paused after my first strike, but now they surged forward again, propelled by the pressure of bodies behind them. Those in front desperately braced backwards, clearly afraid to come within my reach but soon they'd have no choice.
"I'll hold them off, you work the lock. I'll buy as much time as possible!" I called out to Dillon.
The people attacking could obviously hear me and took that as an invitation to fight. The front three tried to rush in at once but they weren't used to moving together, and to make things worse, they had a braying mob pushing at their back. It made them easy to deal with.
I stabbed the baton into the middle one's face, popping his nose and causing blood to flow. The poor lad tried to hold his face but was pushed to the ground by the people behind, taking the leftmost person down with him.
A couple fell over the bodies of the frontrunners which delayed the one on the right from making any ground. I decided I couldn't be merciful here. If they were able to sneak past me, they'd have a chance to stop my friends and I couldn't allow that. So I swung the baton at everyone in sight. Boy or girl, standing or falling, they got the business end of my favourite new stick.
I inched back as slowly as I could, swinging constantly to fend off probing attacks, and eager hands.
A brave or stupid boy jumped over the growing pile of fallen students and tried to kick me in the chest. It wasn't to be. I twisted my body and threw a quick punch to his torso, collapsing him into a storage rack.
That gave me an idea. If I could pull the storage racks down, then I could form a barrier. With me here, they would struggle to clear it and that would definitely give Dillon enough time to pick the lock.
Excited, I grabbed the left side rack and tried with all my power to throw it into the oncoming mass. The current leaders of the pack all scrambled backwards in a panic… until we all realised nothing was happening.
Embarrassingly, I hadn't noticed that it was screwed in place.
A girl laughed at me before rushing forward, clearly thinking I was inept. The joke was on her though because I took a box that wasn't locked down and threw it in her face. She cried in shock but I wasn't done, and my foot smacked her in the solar plexus, forcing her back into the crowd.
I could see more and more kids rushing to join in on the hunt, and for some reason Morgana and Dillon still hadn't dealt with the lock. Things were starting to feel a bit dicey