Hopped off a cargo wagon just before the scanning arcs. It was of utmost importance not to trip any alarms, because the very next minute city wall ahead would be crawling with firepower. It had enough vigilant snipers as is.

Skirted around the towering columns and carefully followed the slowing train. I dressed in colours of dirt. Insulated too, in case they watched with more than just naked eye. Dusk helped out in many ways.

I could have boarded a passenger train, but trusted my abilities more than somebody else’s questionable crafts. On top of that, this was Kalanta. Local forces had to be on the lookout for all manner of speech impairments. To put them out of their misery, if nothing else. This was that kind of place. Eastern province was a bit harsher than the central lands.

Passed the final pillar of technological sophistication and so did the train. Jogged to catch up and clung to the last wagon, carefully manoeuvring underneath. It was easy, especially since the long hauler was about to halt for the night within a safe haven.

Railway has always been my jam. Among other things, it was ultimately the safest move of transportation. Cars, for example, always garnered attention traversing over open plains. Meanwhile, most creatures have learned to stay away from the thundering, metallic serpent and its electrified track. However, occasionally contenders for its bounty popped up anyway.

Today was just that kind of day – and heftier size of a train merely called forth a disproportionally larger predator.

A hill – it simply rose. And kept rising. Firs atop swayed, snapped and slid to the ground like crumbs off a table.

I’ve been outside incomparably more than an average person. I’ve seen some incomprehensible abominations. Yet mere presence of this monumental creature made me freeze up and surrender life. I could barely even call it an animal. This looming mountain could change landscape by simply rolling over. There was not a single thing I could do to prevent its advance. Every single cell of my body understood the fact and resigned to that fate.

Fortunately, brave men and women guarding the transport did not have much common sense. Firm belief in their gear compensated for that. Grenade launchers whooshed one after the other. There was no visible damage on the curious peak, but it idled as if starting to have second thoughts. Approach slowed. It settled back down.

Even recollection made me shudder.

As if having flashbacks too, my new arm started acting up again. It just let go. I almost plunged down.

The darned thing was even more erratic than usual today. It thrashed during the encounter too. The claw slashed open its wrist whilst I stood petrified. Luckily, arm’s anatomy wasn’t that of a human. I cursed out its ingenious solution to the ordeal afterwards.

There was no reply. Not then. Now, however, the claw was out once more and the discussion was resuming. The segmented whipblade flailed, nicking me in the process again. Wretched timing. This awful limb did have a mind of its own – and it was bent on killing me.

I’ll evaporate that bastard’s entire credibility for this.

The wagon was nearly through the gates. Just a little bit more and I would be safe! At least from the beasts. I strenuously held on with a single grip.

Flailing appendage wasn’t making it easy. It threatened to cut me once more - on my arm. Evading that, I fell. My back hit stone and something in the bag cracked. Everyone was bent on putting my lame warhorse out of its misery.

My cover slowly rolled away. Wanted to curse out the scaly attachment again, but my mind concentrated on solutions instead.

There were none.

I’d be lucky to not get shot in next few seconds. I’ll have to try lottery if I live through this.

As though finally getting the memo, the alien hand lay still too. Asshole. I would punch it, but didn’t want unnecessary movement to attract attention.

It was quiet. Train’s rhythmic knocking faded off and I picked up no pitched shouts of raised alarm.

Relative silence.

I exhaled the breath I held for the past minute. All eyes had to be scrutinising cargo right now. In all honesty, I had little clue about station procedures in Kalanta. And yet, this was still my most realistic way in.

Watchers’ diverted attention merely delayed the inevitable. I was way too close to move in either direction. There purposefully was no cover as far as the eyes could see either.

However, the sun was about to go down. Decreased visibility would be in my favour. If only nobody got wise and used advanced detection.  

As if things weren’t bad enough, my ears registered a rapid approach. Like glide of another train on this very track. And indeed, there was that, but something else too. Glissading. My gaze darted around but I saw nothing in the grassland. And yet my ears couldn’t be mistaken. Slithering was getting louder and more immediate.

I was about to get eaten.

Should I run? Scream? Getting shot was probably preferable. I heard the horror stories. Staying alive for years while getting digested was not even in the top five of worst fates.

I desperately tried to pull something useful out of the pockets, but human hand shook. The poison probably wouldn’t even work. Rumour had it, most noxious nerve agents weren’t effective on them anymore. They adapted, evolved past that. The beast will simply use my chemical tricks as rouge. Their biology was literally out of this world.

The limb which could actually do something about miserable situation was being counter-productive again. Now with a stubborn impassiveness! It insisted on making two-thumbed equivalent of a fist.

I hated that thing with passion. Whacked it onto the metal part of the track out of spite. That only made my own vision whiteout. Pain feedback from unfixed body part was novel and intense.

Such was my final act self-defence. The strange animal whorled around me like a spring. I was petrified once more. Waited for some nightmarish end.

It didn’t come. I dared not hope, but perhaps it wasn’t predatory?

Turned my head to the sides as much as the constrictive animal permitted. Which wasn’t much, but I managed to see some reflections. Of myself. Sometimes. The creature had prism scales and they refracted sunset’s sparse light in a way that created illusion of invisibility. Animal seamlessly blended with the scenery. Even now it took concentration. It hurt to look. It’s as if it was actively catching my line of sight to erase its presence.

“Where is he?” the wind demanded and I looked around once more. There was nobody. Which left…

My eyes went wide. This spool of masking tape was a person?!

This was why these mutants had no rights anywhere. Nobody would consider this a human anymore.

The question repeated louder, with insistence so forceful it would have knocked me back had I stood. What’s worse, speaker enunciated the words excessively, as a foreigner might. Shudder ran down my spine – and that was before I consciously realised the reason of oddness.

This was no human. Legally or otherwise. The creature had never been human. I felt this in my bones; there wasn’t shadow of a doubt.

This was an invasive animal.

Worse. What I had here was a creature of real nightmares. A freak of nature. With speech, intelligence! How unnerving, unthinkable. Chilling.  

And yet, here it was – quite literally in my hands. A hand, in any case. Leftie was doing its own wayward things again. Right now, rather than slashing us free, it was gripping the strange creature by its never-ending spine. The hold was so firm, my slithering attacker was forced to cease squirming. The undulating changed the direction and twined around the offending appendage. I waited for it to get violently torn off.

No matter how hard I mentally pleaded with it, my commands to unsheathe the claw and do some much needed slashing was conclusively overruled. I don’t know why I put up with this useless passenger. The five percent of the time that it listened was hardly worth it.

Instead of pain and amputation, there was another question. “What did you do to him?”  

Primordial hiss fried my mind for several seconds yet again. When cogs started to turn once more, my brain could pathetically produce recollections of only one male specimen.

No, concentrate. This can’t possibly be it.

I felt the pressure on non-desensitised nerves as they were crushed – and slowly pulled away at last. Sensation was exquisite. Like sticking arm into an engine. Some days the world was just bent on crippling me.

Stupid limb finally woke from its stupor and sunk a claw in between attacker’s prisms.

“Where is the rest of him?” the abomination demanded and full picture finally came into clear focus. This outlandish snake was friends with my left hand.

“N… N-no-… H. Ha-h…” I attempted to speak, but stress of this situation was making me experience the worst bout of speechlessness.