Jared pushed himself upright, hands brushing at his clothes. The effort was pointless. Shards of metal and glass clung to him, biting through the fabric, refusing to let go. He looked at the ogre, its body blackened and twisted. The stink of burnt flesh hung in the air. Shadow Kind, then. No doubt. He fumbled for his camera, the click of the shutter sharp in the silence. Images sent, flagged for his boss. Another message, this one for the cleaners. The location marked. Someone else would have to deal with the mess left behind. 

He stayed below, letting his eyes adjust. The ground here was lower than the platforms. Ten feet, maybe. It had felt farther when he fell. Two tracks, running east and west, each with three rails. The train was derailed, three cars in all. The first perched awkwardly on the platform above. The other two, stranded, twisted away from the rails. All of them crushed, metal folded in on itself. Not speed, he thought. Just the way they were built.

The two cars stood upright, barely. He slipped inside the second through a door torn open. The air was thick with the smell of metal and something sour. Shards of glass crunched underfoot. Personal things everywhere. A pink umbrella, yellow ducks grinning up at him. Shopping bags, pasta boxes, a jug of milk leaking onto the floor. A raincoat, caught on a jag of metal, hanging as if waiting for its owner. He let his fingers trail along the fabric. Sunglasses spun away, clattering. An empty purse, abandoned on a bench.

Such a strange collection of items.

He searched the pockets. Coat, purse. Nothing. No wallets, no phones, no devices. Nothing left that mattered.

He found the control cab, mostly untouched. The panel was dead, switches all off. A gap where something had been pried out. Wires dangled, connectors exposed. The investigators had taken the computer. He would have liked to see what it remembered.

He stepped out, following the tracks east. The way the train had come. He kept to the outer rail, careful to avoid the center one. Power should be off, but he wasn't going to test it.

Only the emergency lights burned along the rails, leaving the world in deep shadow. He pulled out his flashlight, thumbed it on.

Everything here fit the story. Emergency brakes locked, scorched where they'd fought the wheels. The marks told him the brakes had slammed on while the train still had power. A failure in the system, just like the report said.

So why had there been an ogre?

He stumbled, hand slapping the tunnel wall. A hole yawned at his feet, wide and sudden. He knelt, flashlight slicing through the humid dark. The air reeked of mildew and old water, thick and sour. Voices echoed up, thin and shivering, bouncing off the concrete.

“Hey!” he called, voice carrying down the sixty-foot drop. “It’s alright. You’re safe now! Hold tight down there; we’ll get you out.”

The response was immediate, frantic, and layered. Numerous voices, some hoarse, some sobbing, some calling up in broken thanks. “We’re down here! Please! Please, help us!” “We’re cold!” “There’s water down here!”

“I see you,” Jared said, steadying his tone, firm but warm. “You’re not alone anymore. I’ve got a team coming; we’re going to get ropes and a lift ready. No one’s getting left behind, you understand? Just breathe. Stay calm.”

He touched his ear and engaged his communicator.  “Jared to Command. I found survivors. Looks like fifteen in a hole. Alive but probably hypothermic. Going to maintain contact until we’ve got extraction ready.” The staticky reply was quick. An affirmation, movement. Good.

Jared leaned over the edge, light searching downward. Faces stared back, pale in the beam. Grime streaked their skin. Some wrapped in torn clothing. Water lapped at their waists.

“Alright,” he said, voice steady but carrying. “While we wait, I need to know what happened. Start from the top. Who’s the train crew down there?”

A man lifted his hand, shivering. “Station crew,” he called up weakly. “We were in the maintenance office. Lights went dead, then this… thing showed up. Big, with tentacles. It looked at us, and then we just dropped.”

Jared’s stomach sank slightly. Another Shadow Kind.

“What about the derailment?” he asked. “Anyone remember anything before you blacked out?”

A woman’s voice answered next, thin but sharp with memory. “We were coming into the station. It was slowing down, normal at first, then the lights flickered. The brakes slammed, hard. I hit the seat in front of me. Then… metal screaming, the car twisted, and we were... Gods, we were sliding. It felt like being inside a blender. When I got out, people were bleeding. Someone came through the smoke, and then I couldn’t move. Couldn’t even blink.”

Another voice broke in, a man’s. “They dropped us down here after that. I remember flying, or floating maybe. Then a splash. Been cold ever since.”

Jared leaned a little closer to the edge. “You’ve all done good staying calm down there,” he said. “You’re going to feel lightheaded, maybe sore when we pull you out, but we’ve got medics coming. Nobody’s dying in this hole today, you hear me?”

A few of them managed faint laughter, a fragile sound in the echoing dark.

Jared’s lips twitched into a small, tired smile. “We’ll have you topside soon.”

Behind him, the rescue team was coming. Their footsteps echoed, distant but growing. He kept his eyes on the faces below. For a moment, he let the tension slip from his chest. Just a breath.

At least there were survivors. Something left to hold onto.