Chapter 179: Chapter 179: This is Not Our Subway Chapter 179: Chapter 179: This is Not Our Subway The surrounding area suddenly beca pitch-black, so dark that Chen Ke noticed not even the dashboard lights of the driver’s cabin were visible.
Passengers let out cries of panic, and people kept asking what to do, what to do.
The car body shook violently, as if it were sliding out of control on the tracks, and from outside the windows, the squeal of the wheels against the rails resounded piercingly.
In the pitch darkness, the only thing left in Chen Ke’s vision was his own life countdown, as if the television had been tuned to a dead channel.
The speed of the car was plumting rapidly, and the great inertia made many people fall to the ground, while Chen Ke stood with difficulty against the driver’s cabin’s glass window.
He pulled out his mobile phone and used the faint light of the screen to see that the subway car body was shedding its skin; the smooth white walls looked as if they had contracted a skin disease, with large patches peeling away rapidly, revealing red rust and black iron plates underneath.
Below, this eerie transformation was spreading rapidly as well, with the black mottled marks and rust spreading like cancer cells that threatened to engulf the entire carriage. Except for Chen Ke himself, no one seed to notice this strange phenonon.
A red light ca from the tunnel up ahead; the subway was finally coming to a station. However, by the faint light, looking ahead to the station’s tunnel, a scrapped subway car could be seen blocking the way.
If it continued at this velocity, a rear-end collision was inevitable.
Chen Ke took a deep breath, silently wished the two drivers well, and then with a push of his legs, he grabbed the handrail and began to run forward with all his might.
As he ran, he shouted, “Everyone, run to the back, we’re about to hit!”
Even as he shouted, everyone was imrsed in terror; many people remained indifferent, hugging the handrails tightly with their eyes shut. The old black man who had earlier told Chen Ke to control his emotions kept chanting “God bless.”
Chen Ke had no ti to grab people and run with them, or else he could very well end up dying in this carriage with them. At the mont of life and death, survival depended on oneself; for those who chose to sit and wait for a hero to step in and help, Chen Ke could only wish them luck.
There were also so who managed to control their emotions and, spurred by Chen Ke’s urging, ran towards the rear carriages. He continually shouted and patted the shoulders of the people he passed, which was all he could do in this situation.
“Ahhh!!! Save , save !” A white woman suddenly cried out and clung to Chen Ke’s leg.
Chen Ke frowned, without a thought, a surge of murderous intent rushed into the woman’s skull; he felt sothing go soft at his feet and then collapse to the ground.
To prevent her from being trampled to death, Chen Ke bent over and grabbed her arm, throwing her onto an adjacent seat, as carrying soone unconscious was not conducive to running fast.
“Diana! Can you hear ?” Chen Ke called out Diana’s na loudly while moving forward with the crowd.
He didn’t know how many carriages the collision would affect, so he could only keep moving towards the rear carriages. If Diana was leading others in the opposite direction at that mont, it could easily cause stampedes and congestion.
In the dark, any little stir of wind or rustle of grass could make a person beco sensitive and jittery, and too much sensitivity and nerves could cause chaos.
In a dangerous situation, chaos ant death.
“Chen Ke? What’s wrong?” Diana’s voice ca from afar.
“We’re going to crash! Hurry to the back…” Chen Ke said as he looked back because the carriages no longer needed illumination from his phone. The subway had entered the station, and the red light from the platform stread through the windows, illuminating the terrified crowd.
No sooner had he spoken than a violent noise ca from the front carriage, followed by a shaking that made it impossible for anyone to stand steady.
Although the subway had slowed down upon entering the station, the inevitable crash still happened; the front half of the scrapped subway car was still inside the station when the carriages collided in the narrow space and, under the pressure in the confined space, broke through the separating wall and protruded onto the platform.
People who were still in the previous carriages were instantly crushed into at paste – a scene that, if written into a novel, would certainly be censored.
Chen Ke continued to run forward relentlessly because the harsh impact had not stopped. Many people scread as they fell to the ground or were flung out by the trendous inertia, hitting their heads against the handrails and windows and passing out, while others were struck so hard that ribs were broken.
Chen Ke was relatively lucky; the initial shock threw him off balance, and he fell flat on the ground, but he quickly scrambled like a mad dog, gaining so distance before getting up without having hit anything or being stepped on.
Fortunately, it was too dark for anyone to see the sorry state he had just been in, and everyone was too panicked.
The aftershocks of the collision did not last long, and the entire subway train finally ca to rest after the head and three carriages had been damaged, with most of the people having run beyond the death line. Of course, those whose determination was not strong enough were not so fortunate.
The remaining passengers all crowded into the last three carriages – two stopped at the station entrance, and one still in the pitch-dark tunnel.
The broken connection between the damaged carriage doors and the station was blocked, and the ground was covered with crushed, bead-like window powder that crunched underfoot.
“Chen Ke! Chen Ke!” Diana’s voice ca from ahead, sounding close.
Bathed in the red light from the station, the faces of the survivors were a tangle of fear and exhaustion, with most of them having various degrees of scrapes and cuts.
“Diana, how are you?” Chen Ke pushed through the crowd towards Diana.
Her left arm was still in a splint, and although she was in the last carriage and suffered the least damage, it hadn’t been easy.
“That was quite the thrill just now, wasn’t it… Is everyone from the front carriage here?” Diana said with a weary smile.
“Most of them… I guess… but so are still left behind there,” Chen Ke pointed to the train carriage wreckage that had been squeezed into a heap.
Diana sighed, knowing casualties were unavoidable. Chen Ke patted her shoulder, then turned to examine the platform.
This platform was devoid of the Maggot People, but it appeared to be even more decrepit than the previous one. Only one light, emitting a red warning light, remained and it no longer flickered, so although it was sowhat darker here, they could make out a little more of the surroundings once their eyes adjusted to the light.
The ground was still covered with an unidentifiable black, mud-like substance, and the columns and walls were as dirty as if they had not been cleaned for months.
Chen Ke turned his back and quietly activated his Spiritual Vision; his pupils transford from brown to blue. Centered around him, he created a circular scanning area of about three hundred ters in diater.
First were the people in the carriage, all depicted with blue humanoid outlines, even the squeezed and distorted survivors within the wreck were outlined.
At least within his detection range, there were no other living creatures, aning the survivors didn’t have to worry about being attacked by monsters or anything else for the ti being.
Of course, Chen Ke’s Spiritual Vision could only detect humanoid figures; if they encountered any strange insects or man-eating plants, he would be powerless.
He also made a special check of the windows. It would still be difficult to climb out from there since they were blocked by a partition wall, and he didn’t have any handy tools to break through the glass shards.
That’s when he suddenly rembered that Diana had a gun.
“Are there any survivors?… We should rescue them…” a white guy stood next to Chen Ke and said.
Chen Ke turned off Spiritual Vision, turned around to look at the white guy without saying anything, and then went to find Diana.
Even if those flattened people were rescued, they’d be on a one-way street to death without ergency dical treatnt and not knowing what the situation was like above, their chances of survival were slim.
“Diana… your gun, use it to smash the windows, we better get out,” Chen Ke said.
“Outside? You think that’s a good idea?” Diana questioned.
“You see, we’ve already crashed. If this is a citywide crisis, there might be another subway coming from behind to ‘kiss’ us shortly,” Chen Ke said.
Without any hesitation, Diana walked to the window, raised her hand, and fired several shots, shattering the glass into tiny pieces to create a viable exit.
Among the passengers present, many were hearing gunfire up close for the first ti. They covered their ears and squinted their eyes, looking like children waiting for a spring thunderstorm to explode.
“Done,” Diana turned to Chen Ke.
Chen Ke noticed earlier that the bullets Diana’s gun fired seed like regular ammunition, not Spiritual Bullets, and he wondered, but didn’t ask.
“Chen Ke, do you know how to use a gun?” Diana asked.
“I do! I’m a mber of 511!” a Black man in the crowd raised his hand.
“I’m an Assassin…” Chen Ke muttered to himself.
“I’m sorry, I can’t just give my gun to a stranger,” Diana explained to the Black man, then turned back to Chen Ke.
“I’ve fired a few shots at a shooting range. It should be okay,” Chen Ke said.
“Good, I can’t load it easily with my left arm injured, so you’d handle it more comfortably,” Diana handed him the grip of the gun.
Chen Ke hesitated for a mont but still grasped the revolver.
It was a Ruger LCR 357 compact revolver which could chamber .357 Magnum and 9mm rounds by swapping the cylinder, and it had a concealed hamr, so there was no risk of snagging on clothing. Its appearance was a bit different from other revolvers.
Unquestionably, Diana’s was loaded with a Magnum cylinder; it seed she preferred high-power weapons.
He flipped open the cylinder, emptied out the spent casings, and held one of the bullets up for a closer inspection; it was prid, not a spiritual power weapon.
“I have 12 rounds of spare ammunition, which should be enough,” Diana said, pulling out two speed loaders from her inner pocket and handing them to Chen Ke.
Chen Ke loaded the ammunition, held the gun, and was the first to crawl through the shattered window.
When his feet touched the black, mud-like substance, he expected it to be sticky, but to his surprise, it was as hard as an insect’s carapace.
Having already surveyed the area with Spiritual Vision, he beckoned the other passengers to climb out of the train in turn through the window.
Everyone acted in an orderly fashion, while Chen Ke observed the train wreckage. The scene of the rust crawling over earlier still lingered in his mind. Only after he got off did his suspicions strengthen.
The outer appearance of the sideways-standing train looked as if it had been left for a long ti, covered in dust and rust marks. By the color and state of it, this train was definitely not the one he and Diana had been on.
Chen Ke had a bad premonition.
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