Chapter 8: B: The Card Flies

👉 Previous Decision: You chose to try to run to the engine cab alone with the keycard.

Maya clutched the engineer’s override keycard, its metallic surface slick with adrenaline. She had to get to the engine. No time to explain, no time to wait.

“Maya! What are you doing?” Ethan’s voice was a frantic shout behind her.

She didn’t answer, bursting into a sprint toward the front of the train. The locomotive’s roar was a furious beast ahead. She pushed through the vestibule door, the blast of cold air striking her face.

Just as she reached the door to the engine cab, a shadow loomed beside her. Julian. He moved with a speed that startled her. His hand shot out, not toward her, but toward the keycard in her hand.

His fingers closed around it, wrenching it from her grasp. She cried out, struggling against him.

“Foolish girl,” he sneered, his eyes gleaming with a manic triumph.

With a powerful flick of his wrist, he flung the keycard out the open mountain window into the dark abyss. The small metallic rectangle spun once, then vanished into the roaring wind and the black depths below.

Maya stood there, helpless, watching the last chance disappear. Julian smiled, a chilling, victorious expression. The train roared on, its speed unchecked, the bridge now a dark, blurry line against the distant horizon.