Chapter 64: Safety Meeting

Chapter 64: Safety Meeting

The three of them walked down the center of the oversized train, which had enough space in the center for two of Hardcase’s mech-suits to walk side-by side. Which was probably by design.

The construction was mind-bogglingly massive and resembled a towering apartment complex sitting on it’s side rather than a train, and it had the space to match.

There was nothing ‘standard’ about the inter-city train. The steel beams for the tracks had been mass-produced by an Industrial Tinker, designed and reinforced by a Train Tinker, then covered in armor plating sourced from The Workshop.

The tracks were ten meters apart and as wide as a king-sized bed. Rather than cutting someone in half by laying them out on the tracks, you would simply flatten their entire body like one of those railroad pennies.

Contrary to expectation, the inter-city train did not go as fast as possible to avoid staying out in the wilderness for long, because the Replicators were smart and it didn’t take much smarts at all to sabotage the tracks.

Instead, the train moved along at a relative snail’s pace, escorted by a few dozen supers while scanning the track in front of itself carefully.

Perry could ride his bike to Washington city faster than the train could.

He’d probably get eaten by mutated ants or giant mind-controlling badger people, but the point stood.

The three of them arrived in the middle of the pack and were lucky enough to find three seats next to each other near the front of the auditorioum, where a man was standing next to the podium.

Once everyone was seated, the man at the podium began to speak, his jowels making his grey mustache jiggle.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, I’m conductor Walthers. When speaking to me, call me Conductor or Conductor Walthers. When speaking of me to others, I don’t give a shit.”

“Now,” the conductor said. “Orientation. Your cabin assignment and your escort details were chosen by Nexus to maximize efficiency, and for the most part I’m going to stick to that, but while you’re on my train, I have the final say.”

“To my right is Commander Vern, and to my left are lieutenants Hutchins, Cassock, Jackson and Clark.” He said, pointing at the men and women standing at attention beside him. “Commander Vern will be in charge while I sleep, and the lieutenants will organize the escorts. Any order from them is an order from me.”

A silver screen dropped down behind Conductor Walthers, and he turned partially to face it as a graphic of the train was displayed.

“Now, the armory, where the Tinker weapons are stored is here,” He motioned to a heavily armored segment of the train that was buried under layers of cabins and armor, near the center.

“If there is a need, you can follow the yellow line on the ceiling to reach the armory. It’s roughly equidistant from all the cabins.”

“The train has a series of automated alarms, each of which is composed of multiple color combinations, borrowing from Franklin City’s setup for ease of transition.”

A list of a dozen or so color combinations filled the screen, along with a sentence describing them.

“You’ll also receive a pamphlet and there’s a cheat sheet painted on the inside of your room’s doors. The ones circled in red are all hands-on-deck situations and mean that everyone on board will likely need to defend themselves. In those situations, the armory will be unfolded, allowing for higher traffic to pass through.”Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

“The ones circled in yellow indicate certain bulkheads have been sealed as containment measures. There will be a pictogram LED display beside these warnings that will indicate which bulkheads are sealed, and where you are in relation to them.”

Perry’s attention began to wane, despite his best efforts. He knew it was important stuff, but it was so dry!”

Perry tuned in on some of the more interesting fragments of the train’s orientation.

“...In the event of brain controlling parasites, you are expected to commit suicide before they achieve full motor control. If this is too difficult, please inform one of the lieutenants that you’ve got brain-worms, and they will end your suffering...”

“...The event that no one you know remembers who you are, you may assume there is either a Minder attack or you are a composite entity that has been regurgitated by....

“...Do not go outside during a wandering gravity storm without the power of flight and a body that is rated for at least fifteen G’s...”

“...Do not bring back animals you have hunted during escort duty to the cafeteria and serve them up. That’s how you get brain worms...”

“...The cafeteria has a set menu each day and you may eat as much as you like. Loitering in the cafeteria is encouraged for those who don’t have escort duty...”

“...Children conceived on the train must be checked for supernatural entities that may have tried to stow away inside them before the age of four...”

“...The rec room has been difficult to find ever since the minder, Nonsense was killed there repelling a hostile boarding action. If you do find the rec room, do not report where it is to command. We won’t remember it, and neither will you. If you stumble across the rec room and aren’t on duty, feel free to have a good time, but make sure you clean up after yourself, since the janitorial staff cannot find the place...”

Another fifteen minutes of orientation later, and they were dismissed, Natalie holding their escort schedule.

“Looks like we’re on duty in two days,” Natalie said as the three of them walked back to their rooms. “We’ll be escorting the fourth car for eight hours, and about half the days afterwards, too.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Jerry said with a shrug. “Knew there was a reason I taped those down.”

Perry chuckled.

“Hey, am I seeing things, or is your friend...melting?” Jerry asked when he turned back towards the seating.

“I have no idea what’s going on, my short term memory is fried,” Heather said, shaking her head from where she drooped around the edges of the milk-carton ‘chair’ she’d been sitting in.

“I think we’ll take Wraith to our cabin.”

“Cafeteria.” Heather said, shaking her head. “It’s all-you-can-eat.”

“Cafeteria then.”

“Try the gummy worms and pizza,” Jerry said, waving to them as they left, Heather putting her utmost focus into walking and not turning into a puddle.

Once they were out of earshot and back on the main hall, Perry spoke.

“I don’t want to come off as judge-y, because Jerry seems harmless and you could probably kill him if he tried anything, but what inspired you to follow a strange man back to an undisclosed location to do drugs with him? That’s generally a red flag.”

“I dunno,” Heather said. “I’m just...frustrated, and thought maybe smoking some pot would help.”

“Frustrated with what?”

“My dad! Where is he? What is he doing? Is he planning on killing me, or did he just cut ties completely? I think...I think he might be in Washington City.”

“Oh,” Perry said.

“I wanna find him while we’re there.”

“And then what?” Perry asked.

“Kick the crap out of him for eighteen years in a row. Then we’d be even.”

“That seems difficult to cram into two weeks, but we can help you look for him.” Perry said.

“I’ll help too.” Natalie said, her face set with determination.

“Aw, thanks Nat, you’re so cute and tiny and squishable,” Heather said, stepping away from Perry’s shoulder. “I could just eat you up. Nom nom nom!”

Natalie shrieked as Heather began to engulf the smaller girl like The Blob.

“We’re fine, it’s fine,” Perry said as passing supers in the main hall gave the three of them odd looks while he tugged the squirming Natalie out of Heather’s grasp.

“Heather. Pizza? Remember the cafeteria being all you can eat?”

Heather reformed, her eyes bloodshot while a trembling Natalie clung to Perry like a koala.

“You’re right,” She craned her neck to look at the arrows on the ceiling. “Which color was it, again?”

“Blue for the cafeteria.” Perry said.

“Dear Lord, I’m hungry,” Heather said as she began following the line.

“Are you all right?” Perry asked Natalie.

“I’m fine.” Natalie said, climbing down from his torso. “It was like stepping into a warm bath with a plastic bag around you. I was just surprised is all.”

“Gets into weird places,” Natalie muttered under her breath as they walked.

Nerve boosted Perry’s hearing by about 47%. High enough above normal to be considered a superpower.