Brief Leave from Occupational Duty in the Balkans
2nd Air Assault Brigade (On Leave)
07:38 Madrid Time
March 11 2004
As the lovers entered the train, Adam was uneasy. Why did the Colonel in him feel something coming on? His feelings were uncommonly wrong, but they had been enough that he had come to question them. He glanced around the train for signs that something was amiss. Everything he could see gave no credence to his conviction, but then the present rarely betrayed the future. He couldn't shake it as much as he tried. His arm, still wrapped round her slowly changed from the lovers embrace, to a protective ward.
His uneasiness was surely rubbing off on Rachel who began to look around uneasily as well. Neither of them could pick up on anything in the train car, or in the entrance. Those newly boarded were disposing of their luggage in the carrying compartments while the passengers were all reading or listening to music, or writing on their laptops and were blissfully unaware of the pairs concerns. One of them in particular, a young dark skinned woman of perhaps 25, with frizzy hair done up in a bun was relaxed and at ease to the point where she was fast asleep. The man across from her, an older business man with a golden Rolex wrapped round his wrist, was in fact glaring at her as she snored.
All of it seemed too calm. Almost too serene. Almost too perfect following his tour. And the silence while he looked around. It was more uncomfortable than the thought of a problem.
He stopped himself after a minute and turned to Rachel. Without a word, he kissed her forehead and then brought her chin up til they were looking each other in the eye.
"Is everything alright, Adam?" she asked.
"Everything's fine." he said, brushing some of her dirty blonde hair past her ear. "You know what it's like after a tour. I'm just a bit uneasy." he finished.
"Aww, I'm sorry." she said with a sympathetic face.
He sighed in agreement. It was a pity. It was always a pity. That damned transition period had no limit on the trouble it gave him. Of course, his feelings were not always wrong. In fact, more often than not he was right. It just seemed odd. They were in a train station in Madrid. They weren't in some field or grove in Novi Pazar, with bullets and gunfire ringing out around them. What could possibly happen here that would concern him? That he wouldn't be able to handle.
He decided to just put it out off his mind. He pulled her close to him as she closed her eyes and he rested his head on hers for a moment. In moments however he had to straighten up and the two carried on to their seat as a few people walked up behind them, heaving their luggage up the steps and speaking in a thick Cockney accent.
The pair walked through the aisle and down to their seats. B1 and B2 if he remembered rightly. Originally, they had intended to travel in Economy Class, but after being notified of his service in the military, the pair were unwittingly, and rather unwantedly bumped up to Star Class. As good as the perks were, neither of them wanted to stand out from anyone else. They didn't want to be recognized. They just wanted to be alone, together, now and forever.
The EuroStar, it seemed to him had undoubtedly grown in importance and Prestige since his last visit - at least, in Iberia. Here, the EuroStar had been passing through on spare time and could hardly be expected to make trips in the holiday season. Now, it seemed, he was sitting on the train in Paris, prepared to head out to Berlin, or London, or Amsterdam or any other of their 'premier' locations. The once clear windows were now tinted, with blinds and shutters dotting spread on them through the differing cabins. Cabins too, he remembered had never been onboard in Iberia. It had all been farther North.
"D1, C1, B1 ..." he read aloud, walking down the aisle. As he looked on the outside of B1, he noticed that unlike the others, striped dark blue and green curtains had been pulled across the door, so as to give at least some privacy. "Here we are." he said while he pulled the door open.
"Ladies first" he gestured to Rachel. She smiled and walked into the cabin, her child leading the way. Before following her inside, he took one last look around.
"Oh this is so lovely." she said from within. "Come on." she called to him with a giggle. He still couldn't shake the feeling. Why not? It was starting to annoy him now. No. He mustn't be annoyed. This was the first time he had seen her in almost exactly five months. He wouldn't spend it annoyed. Content with his resolution, he turned to follow her in when as he turned, he noticed a very familiar man running past the window of the EuroStar train.
The same young man from earlier, with tanned skin and the frazzled hair style, was running towards the steps now, coming up from the cabins farther back he assumed. As he turned, his denim jacket stuck slightly to his back, almost like it was glued there with sweat.
Adam turned into the cabin, ignoring his urge to chase down the boy. Inside, the two seats were a luxurious brown leather, looking brand new, as if they had been bought and laid out especially for Rachel and him. Maybe they had, but he doubted it. In the middle of the cabin, a wooden table was standing, it's optional wings folded out to provide the maximum surface area to hold the champagne, and the iced container in which it stood. A pair of glasses, shined and cleaned out stood beside the drink, offering themselves to him and to her. In between them, a brief thank you and congratulations note signed by the crew was present.
"Well it was a nice thought of them." Rachel said, smiling a little disappointedly as she ran her hand over her stomach. "You go on and have some, for the both of us." she said, her smile widening across her rosy cheeks, so full of life and joy, of warmth and love.
"I'm meeting with the President of the European Union to review a composition of Brigades and Divisions of the nations finest in Lisbon, and you suggest that I drink from the bottle?" he asked in an exaggerated disbelief.
"Why not?" she asked, leaning forward to rest her chin on one of her hands while the other rested on her stomach. "I'd say you've earned it." she added.
Although he had trouble going along with it, he couldn't deny her logic. He was no drinker, but he had always enjoyed a small drink, and for quite some time now he had been barren. Still, even a glass could not justify opening up a new bottle of Champagne. "I couldn't." he concluded. "I'll signal for the stewardess." he said, ending the matter.
"Alright, it's up to you." she said with a content smile. As much as they wanted too, they both knew that she couldn't partake with a baby on the way, and he was to be in a position that would need a clear state of mind soon. Even if he had earned a break.
He pressed the standard button, left most of three, above the door and it lit up. They were only waiting a minute. Maybe a bit less. But they didn't talk. Maybe they didn't know what to say. Maybe they didn't know how to say it. But, nonetheless, his mind wandered. He thought back to the young man, the scruffy looking backpack on his back. The backpack that had vanished as he had run back up the stairs.
"Ladies and Gentlemen" came the voice on the loudspeaker, "welcome aboard the EuroStar. All of our staff will do their utmost to assist in your comfort and well being on this trip to Lisbon. It is currently 7:41 on March the 11th. We expect to arrive on schedule, and without delay. If you would please put on your seat belts, we will be departing shortly."
"They're already late." Rachel mused, glancing at her watch. Adam smiled.
"You know what pilots are like."
"Pilots don't operate trains." she laughed.
"Pilots, Drivers, Conductors. They're all the same. None of them have a schedule other than their own." he said.
She smiled at him. He could never get over it when she smiled. It lit up his life, and nothing else could compare. Irresistibly, he smiled back. They were only smiling for a minute when the stewardess came to the door.
She was tall, and a little pale for Spain, but her dark brown hair was left to dangle around her shoulders giving her a slightly exotic look that, no doubt, made it easier to blend in with the locals. She had deep hazel eyes that felt a little bit like they were looking through him, at least to Adam. It was a little unnerving.
"Ah, I trust everything is to your liking, Mr. and Mrs. Templer. Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked. Maybe Rachel felt differently but it seemed to Adam as though she was talking like they had known each other forever. It seemed to be a common trend in the service sector.
"Yes, actually. We both really appreciate the thought you and your coworkers put into this, and it is really quite special, but-"
"But you don't want to risk the Champagne with a baby on the way?" she finished, smiling as he was trying to react. Rachel carried the conversation in his stead.
"Yes, thank you."
"No, don't worry." she said. "I would be the exact same way." she carried on while she reached for the bottle and glasses. "Well I hope that you both have a pleasant trip, and if there's anything else you need, don't hesitate to ask." she finished with a smile.
A slight lurch forward and the a
ping from the aisles indicated the start of their journey. As the stewardess left, the door slid closed behind her. Through a crack in the curtain, Adam could just see the station begin to roll behind them.
"Was I just interrupted by a Stewardess?" he asked in disbelief. There was a brief silence as the two lovers slowly began to laugh at the fact. Sunlight peered in through the curtain after a few moments.
Rachel moved her mouth to speak, but no words came out. From the far end of the train, a rolling explosion burst forth from the rugged old back pack, left behind by the young man who had so rudely bumped into Adam and his pregnant wife. It started first small but quickly grew.
By going off further back in the train, and now that the train had started its journey, the explosion tore easily through the train car as the C-4 was detonated on a timer. The compartment shredded as the explosion enveloped the cars ahead of it, behind it and careened off the station floor and ceiling to envelope the platform, and the train next to it. The explosion, for a moment perhaps, grew weaker as shrapnel of steel scraps and industrial nails, coupled with bits from the train car, flew in all directions.
The secondary explosion was however, the bigger of the two and it quickly tore through the ceiling above to engulf a section of the main floor. The rolling shockwave traveled both back and forth, knocking the first few cars off their tracks or sending them crashing into the ascending car. Farther down the line, Rachel and Adam could feel the train shift and be violently knocked out from the station to slide along the train tracks. The massive blast from the explosion shattered the windows of the train in a wave of destruction as the wind blew past the train cars now in the center of destruction.
The window beside them had, thankfully shattered outwards as Colonel Templar jumped into action. With Rachel in tow, he hit the deck as fast as he could. A roll out from the seat into a ball on the ground offered the best protection he hoped, though the door shattered in the wave of the blast. The window in the aisle too was shattered and scattered across the floor as the lovers hid underneath the table. Screams were now erupting from across the train as a piercing ringing was all that Adam could hear. His vision too was wrong. Things were blurry and out of focus as he tried to prop himself up off the floor.
Rachel was lying there too with him, tears rolling down her face with bits of shattered glass resting harmlessly on her side. She had no cuts or bruises that he could see immediately, but nonetheless a steady stream of blood was running down her face as she began to scream in a panic. He didn't have time to console her. He could hardly hear himself, and he knew she was the same. He pulled her closer to him, noticing only as he brought her nearer, the blood running down her face was his own. Shattered fragments of the door had embedded themselves in his arm. It wasn't critical, he could tell right away. But it was excruciating nonetheless.
From the floor of Cabin B1, he held Rachel. Trying desperately to console her. Trying desperately not to berate himself. Trying to focus. Trying to clear his vision. Trying to stop the ringing in his ears.
Trying to explain the sudden explosion erupting from a train on the other side of the station, and trying desperately to avoid the realization of the third explosion, erupting from the main floor of the train station itself.
