All Chapters of ZERO-DEATH PROTOCOL : Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
100 chapters
Iron-Shod Footsteps
"He’s on the exterior bulkhead," Zoya whispered, her voice dropping an octave as a heavy, deliberate kick echoed through the rough-hewn pine walls of the timber car. The entire carriage shuddered, the raw wood groaning under the sudden application of outside force. Toby pressed his back harder against the opposite wall, his eyes wide white circles in the absolute darkness. "He kicked it? He actually kicked it through?" "Not yet," Zoya muttered, her hand sliding instantly to the hilt of her combat knife. "The timber is thick, but he’s testing the structural integrity. He knows we’re inside. He knows exactly where the weak points are." Outside, the locomotive’s whistle screamed a high, piercing note that bounced off the jagged mountain granite, echoing down the steep gorge. With a violent jerk that nearly threw Zoya off her balance, the train accelerated. The rhythmic clack-clack of the iron wheels over the rail joints doubled in speed, transitioning from a heavy, deliberate crawl to
A Freight of Splinters
"He’s shifting his weight again," Zoya whispered, her eyes locked onto the shadowy upper ribs of the wooden boxcar where the roof beams met the vertical pine slats. "The wind is masking the rest of his movements, but the suspension just dropped two inches on the rear left corner. He’s not trying to kick the door down anymore. He’s climbing higher." Toby swallowed hard, his small hands clutching the hem of his oversized coat as the train surged forward, negotiating a sharp, banked curve that sent a chorus of high-pitched squeals rippling through the iron couplings. "Higher? Where is there to go above the door? There’s only the roof overhang and—and the gap between us and the coal tender." "Exactly," Zoya said, her voice entirely devoid of panic, though every muscle in her frame was coiled like a strained spring. "He’s riding the blind spot. If he’s straddling the coupling between this car and the tender, he’s protected from our line of fire if we somehow managed to blow the door off,
The Siding at Oakhaven
"The engine pitch is dropping," Zoya said, her head snapping up as the heavy, rhythmic roar of the locomotive’s boiler suddenly altered its cadence, shifting from a hard, driving labor to a rhythmic, sputtering chug. "He’s cutting the throttle. Why is he slowing down here?"Ariful leaned heavily against a stack of rough-hewn pine planks, one hand pressed tightly over his mouth to suppress a hacking cough. "There... there’s an automated signal siding five miles past the ridge. A maintenance turnout. They use it to clear the single-track grades when the ore haulers come down from the upper mines.""A siding means switches," Zoya muttered, her eyes narrowing as she calculated the geometry of the tracks beneath them. "Which means stationary levers. A man doesn’t even need to climb inside to deal with us if he can throw a rail point against us while we’re rolling."Toby’s eyes widened in the gloom, his voice cracking with sudden, sharp panic. "Wait—throw a switch? He’s going to derail us?
Shadow in the Stacks
Vance hit the gravel shoulder with the practiced, effortless fluidity of a man who had tumbled from moving freight cars more times than he had slept in a proper bed. His heavy boots dug into the loose ballast, kicking up a spray of grey dust and crushed stone as his knees buckled and absorbed the crushing forward momentum. He rolled once, twice, his long wool coat swallowing the friction, before coming up into a low, tactical crouch behind the rotting timber pilings of a rusted water tower.He didn't grunt. He didn't curse. His breathing remained slow, deliberate, and perfectly measured, a stark contrast to the screaming metallic shriek of the train’s braking system as the timber car and its trailing loads rattled past his position at a still-dangerous twenty miles an hour.With gloved fingers that moved with mechanical precision, Vance slid the heavy canvas scabbard off his custom-built, scoped bolt-action rifle."Too easy to kick a door," Vance muttered to himself, his voice a low,
Splintered Pine
"Keep down, Toby! Get under that stack right now!" Zoya hissed, her hand shooting out to grab the boy’s collar and violently yank him downward as the air outside suddenly split with a sound like tearing canvas.A high-caliber bullet ripped through the thin wooden planking of the boxcar with terrifying velocity, missing Zoya’s head by mere inches and showering the dark, enclosed interior with a lethal spray of razor-sharp wooden splinters."Ah!" Toby yumbled backward, scrambling frantically on all fours beneath a massive pile of rough-cut pine lumber stacked against the far wall. "He’s shooting through the walls! He can see us through the boards!""He can’t see us, he’s guessing our height based on the door frame!" Zoya shouted over the deafening clatter of the iron wheels, pressing her back flat against the vibrating timber wall while her fingers frantically checked the empty chamber of her sidearm. "He knows the dimensions of these cars by heart! Don't move an inch!"Another deafenin
Blind Alley
"He’s going to keep punching holes until he hits bone," Zoya said, her voice tight, hard, and clipped as another massive slug tore through the cedar siding a foot to their left, raining a fresh cascade of wood chips across her shoulders. "We can’t stay in this wooden trap. It’s a coffin on wheels."Ariful coughed violently into his sleeve, his face pale and slick with cold sweat as he pressed his back against the vibrating wall of the boxcar. "The... the walls of this car are old pine, Zoya. Rotted through by decades of winter damp and mountain rain. But the connecting bulkhead ahead..." He wheezed, drawing a ragged, painful breath. "The bulkhead leading into the next flatcar... it’s reinforced with iron brackets, but the flooring at the base... it’s rotting out from coal dust and oil.""Show me," Zoya ordered, dropping to her knees beside him amidst the scattered debris of splintered wood and dust. "Toby, keep your head down against the lumber stack! If wood starts flying again, curl
The Iron Bed
"Right here," Ariful wheezed, his knuckles white as he jammed the curved tip of a heavy, rust-pitted crowbar into the decaying gap between the floorboards of the boxcar and the rusted iron-strapped base of the adjoining bulkhead. "The wood has gone soft as wet sponge from years of standing water and coal slag leaking from the tenders. Put your shoulder into it, Zoya. We don't have five seconds before he fires again."Zoya didn’t hesitate. Ignoring the frantic, rhythmic pounding of the train’s wheels against the rail joints, she slammed her weight directly behind Ariful’s hands, her boots finding purchase against a stray beam. With a sickening, prolonged groan of tearing timber and screaming rusted nails, the rotted floor planks gave way in a sudden, explosive shower of dark dust and rotten splinters. A freezing gust of alpine wind instantly roared into the enclosed boxcar, carrying the sharp, metallic scent of damp iron and high-altitude snow."Toby, move! Now!" Zoya barked, reaching
A Shot in the Gust
"Through the gap! Move, Toby, move!" Zoya yelled over the deafening, metallic shriek of the train wheels hammering against the frost-covered iron rails, her hand clamping hard onto the back of the boy’s wool jacket and shoving him forcefully toward the gaping, splintered hole in the bulkhead.Toby scrambled frantically on his hands and knees, his boots kicking up a small cloud of rotted wood dust and dark coal slag as he wriggled through the narrow, jagged opening like a desperate animal diving into a burrow. "I’m through! I’m in!" he cried out, his voice cracking with a mixture of terror and adrenaline as the fierce alpine wind caught him square in the chest, stealing his breath away.Ariful followed immediately, his frail body shivering violently as a deep, rattling cough tore from his throat. He dropped hard onto his hands and knees, his long coat snagging briefly on a protruding iron bolt before Zoya reached down, grabbed the fabric of his collar with a fierce grip, and hauled him
The Tunnel Mouth
"Keep moving!" Zoya shouted over the shrieking roar of the wheels, her voice cutting through the freezing alpine gale as she hauled Ariful fully onto the vibrating iron deck of the flatcar.Ariful collapsed against a massive stack of structural steel girders, his hands clawing at his chest while a fresh wave of violent coughs wracked his thin frame. "The... the cold... it's like ice in my lungs..." he wheezed, his knuckles turning chalk-white as he gripped the edge of a steel flange for support."Don't breathe too deep, Ariful! The air up here is thin enough without freezing your bronchial tubes!" Zoya ordered sharply, scanning the open flatcar with eyes narrowed against the stinging wind. She dropped into a tactical crouch, her hand resting instinctively on the empty holster at her hip before remembering her sidearm was spent. "Toby, get behind that lower girder stack! Right now! If Vance pops up on the coupling again, I want three inches of cold-rolled steel between you and his rifl
Into the Dark
"I'm behind it! I'm tucked all the way in!" Toby’s voice scrambled across the steel deck, thin and frantic against the mounting roar of the rail line. The boy wedged his narrow frame deep into the recessed angle of the lower girder stack, his small hands clutching his knees as his wide eyes stared up at Zoya through the swirling grey mist. "Zoya, look at the wall ahead! The rocks—they're right there!""I see it!" Zoya shouted back, her boots locking into the diamond-plate ridges of the flatcar floor as the sky above them abruptly swallowed its remaining light.The jagged, grey limestone cliffs of the canyon wall sheared inward, pinching the tracks into a narrow, stone-ribbed corridor. Above them, the sky vanished entirely, replaced by the low-slung, dripping stone archway of the Blackwood Tunnel."Keep your head down, Toby!" Ariful rasped, his voice breaking on a harsh, wet cough as he curled tighter against the base of the steel beams. "The soot—the smoke inside—it's going to choke t