The survivors pushed through the next door, already trembling and broken. But the moment it opened, they staggered back, gagging.
The air hit them like a wall—sour, putrid, unbearable. It was the smell of rot.
The lantern revealed a carriage blackened with decay. The walls sagged with collapsing meat, pulsing with maggots that wriggled in thick, white swarms. Rotting bones jutted from the heaps, slick with yellow ooze. The ceiling dripped greasy, black liquid that burned their skin on contact.
Sophie gagged so violently she almost fell. "Oh God, oh God, I can't—"
The floor was worse.
It wasn't wood. It was a carpet of corpses—half-decomposed bodies, stacked and fused together, their skin green and bubbling. Their mouths twitched, whispering softly, moaning in endless hunger. As Evelyn stepped forward, her boot sank into one's stomach—and the bloated corpse burst, spilling rancid fluid and writhing worms all over her legs.
She screamed, shaking them off, the maggots crawling up her skin like they were alive with purpose.
Leo was next to stumble, tripping on a collapsed ribcage. The bones snapped open like jaws, biting into his leg. He shrieked as blood poured, only for more maggots to swarm into the wound, wriggling deeper inside.
Alex dragged him back, but even his strength faltered when the corpses began moving.
The heaps of rot trembled—and then rose.
Dozens of half-rotten dead stood, their bodies collapsing with every step. Jaws hung loose, eyes milky, their flesh sloughing off like wet paper. They staggered forward, dripping rot, maggots falling like rain. Their groans filled the carriage:"Join… join the feast… feed the worms…"
One lunged at Sophie. She screamed as its jaw unhinged unnaturally wide and vomited a stream of wriggling white larvae onto her chest. They burrowed immediately, eating through her shirt and skin.
"Get them off!" she shrieked, clawing at herself. Evelyn shoved her lantern forward, the light sizzling the maggots into smoke, but Sophie's chest was already bleeding, raw holes left behind.
Alex fought savagely, punching a corpse so hard its head caved in—only for another to claw at his back, ripping strips of skin away. He bellowed in pain, falling to his knees as worms swarmed into the wounds.
Leo was pale, his veins bulging unnaturally as the maggots inside his leg spread upward. He gasped, eyes rolling back. "They're… they're eating me alive…"
Evelyn's hands shook. The lantern sputtered again, weaker and weaker. The light wasn't enough anymore. The rot wanted more. It wanted to devour them whole.
The corpses lurched closer. Dozens, maybe hundreds. The walls themselves seemed to pulse with infestation, as if the entire carriage were one rotting beast.
Evelyn's scream tore through the chaos. "We're not food!" She slammed the lantern to the floor.
It shattered.
Light poured out in a violent explosion, brighter than ever, a cleansing fire that burned through flesh and rot alike. The corpses ignited, maggots sizzling into smoke, the walls collapsing into ash.
When the light died, they were left kneeling in darkness. Bloodied. Shaking. Half-alive.
Sophie clutched her chest, sobbing. Alex staggered, his back torn open. Leo lay gasping, his leg twitching violently as though something still writhed inside.
Evelyn looked at them, her own body crawling with phantom itches. Her voice was hoarse."This train… it wants to break us piece by piece. And if we keep going… it will."
The next door opened. The stench that leaked out was worse than rot.
And the whispers came again, low and mocking:"Deeper still. Until there's nothing left."