by Amy Cross
I slam my knees into his groin, and he lets out a gasp as his grip on my throat loosens. I scream as I throw myself against him, and we both tumble over the back of the sofa and hit the cushions. Bouncing off, we land on the floor and I crack his nose with my elbow as I scramble to my feet and race to the door. I still need to get these guys down to the tracks, but first I need to figure out a way to knock the fifth of them out.
As I hurry out into the corridor, another shot rings out, missing me by inches. I stumble, bumping against the wall, but I quickly make my way to the front door and race out into the snow.
Hurrying toward the treeline, I struggle to push my feet through the heavy snow and I quickly find that I'm barely able to go above walking pace. A moment later there's the sound of another shot, but the bullet ricochets harmlessly against one of the trees ahead. I'm starting to panic, and I can barely breathe as I stumble a couple more times and finally drop down to my knees. I immediately haul myself up, but now my legs are burning with fatigue and the treeline looks so far away. I can only assume that the guy in the cabin is having to reload now, but he'll fire again soon. I run with my arms flailing out at the sides in a desperate attempt to stay upright, and finally I get to the edge of the trees and -
Another shot rings out and I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder. I tumble forward and fall between two trees, and then as I haul myself up I wince as I realize that my shoulder feels warm. In the moonlight, I can just about make out a bloodied patch, but it takes a few more seconds before I'm truly able to accept what's happened.
I got shot.
I've been -
A chunk of wood is blown from one of the trees next to me, and I instinctively turn and race deeper into the darkness of the forest. I don't even know which way I'm going; I only know that I have to get away, and a moment later there's another shot as a bullet flies past and hits the tree right in front of me. That's followed by another shot, then another, and then finally one hits me in the small of the back, right at the edge of my waist, and I cry out as I drop down once more into the snow.
This time, getting up is much more difficult.
I'm shivering with cold as I somehow manage to force myself onward, but I can already feel warm blood soaking through my clothes. I can't be certain, but I think I've only been shot twice, and I tell myself that I'll be fine just so long as I can get away from that trigger-happy asshole. I mean, I know I kinda brought this on myself by trying to kidnap them, but can't they see that I'm running away now? There's no need to keep shooting when I'm obviously no longer a threat.
Reaching the edge of the trees, I stop as I find myself at the top of a deep slope. Looking down, I see a few tree stumps poking out from what's otherwise a fine snowy drop, with a valley just above visible several hundred feet below. If I edge my way down carefully, I can probably pick my way east through the valley and come out near the -
Before I can come up with a plan, there's another shot, and I feel a blast hit my waist again. I instinctively fall forward and tumble down the slope, slamming into one of the tree stumps before starting to roll all the way down toward the valley. The world is spinning wildly, and I can't help letting out a faint murmur as I feel myself hitting several branches and twigs. All I want is for this madness to stop, but I tumble for what feels like forever until finally the ground levels out beneath me and I crash straight into something hard.
Once I'm at a standstill, I try to get up, but somehow my body isn't working. There's pain everywhere and I can taste blood, but I tell myself that I have to keep pushing. If I close my eyes, I'll die here, so I have to find some way to get to my feet. I count down from ten in my head and then I try again to rise, but this time with even less luck. It's as if my entire body has stiffened and begun to freeze, and finally I'm just about able to roll over onto my back.
I look toward the top of the slope, but so far there's no sign of the guy with the gun. I guess maybe I lost him in the forest, but that doesn't mean I'm safe yet. I need to get up, I can't stop fighting, but I feel as if all the strength is draining out of me. After a moment, I close my eyes and wait to feel better, but instead I simply slip into unconsciousness and the whole world seems to fade to nothing.
Chapter Forty-Six
Richard
When I open my eyes, I'm facedown in the middle of the tracks. I blink a couple of times, but somehow I already know that I'm back in Sobolton. Sure enough, when I open my eyes and sit up I find that I'm that same old cemetery from five years ago.
A little way ahead, there's a woman kneeling and examining one of the rails.
“Hey!” I call out, thinking that perhaps it's Milly, that somehow I've ended up back here. My head is spinning but, as I stumble to my feet, I realize that I should be hundreds of miles away in the snow.
And that woman, she's not Milly.
I don't know who she is, but her hair's a little lighter. She has her back to me, but somehow I can tell that she has a smaller frame. She's wearing a leather jacket and what looks to be some kind of skirt, and as I start walking up behind her I realize that she's tapping at the metal rail.
“Hey,” I say again, “what happened? Do you... I don't mean to bother you, but do you know how I got here?”
“It's not that complicated,” she replies, and her voice doesn't sound familiar at all.
I peer around her side, hoping to catch sight of her face, but from this angle her features are obscured by her long hair.
“I'm really sorry,” I continue, “but not a lot of this is making sense. I wasn't here. A moment ago, I was a long way away, so I don't understand how I ended up back here.”
“You'd understand if you just thought about it some more.”
I open my mouth to ask what she means, but she's still tapping at the rail with a strange kind of rhythmic intensity.
“Maybe I should start from the beginning,” I say with a sigh. “My name's Richard Archer and I'm looking for a woman named Milly Sutton. Have you seen her?”
“Milly Sutton?”
“Yes.”
“And you're Richard Archer?”
“Yes.” I hesitate as I realize that people here in Sobolton might know about us. Hell, they might even realize that we're bad people. There might be posters up everywhere, asking for information about us. “Listen,” I continue, “I don't want to cause any trouble but I'm struggling to put all of this together. If you could just tell me how I got here and -”
“Got it!”
As she says those words, she tosses aside a section of metal.
“I knew it!” she continues. “Mom was right all along!”
“What are you talking about?” I ask. “Listen, whatever you're doing, I don't wanna stop, I just -”
“They're alive!”
“Huh?” Stepping around to her side, I'm about to ask what she means when I see that she's pulled one side of a part of the metal rail. In doing so, she's exposed some kind of dark, glistening, wet cord that seems to run along the rail's inside, and a moment later I see that there seems to be blood caked all over the woman's hands.
“They're alive,” she says again, as she separates strands of the cord, which in turn seems to be twitching slightly. There's a faint sticky, squelching sound coming from inside the rail, as more and more blood runs from the edge of the metal and dribbles down onto the ground.
“What is that?” I ask, horrified by the sight of what seems to be a bleeding piece of metal.
“Mom was right!” the woman says, turning to look up at me with an expression of awe on her face. “Can't you see, Dad? Mom was right all along?”
“Did you just call me...”
Before I can finish, I realize that the woman does look familiar after all. I definitely haven't met her before, but she looks quite similar to Milly and also to my own mother. I feel a flicker of shock in my chest as I finally come to understand that – somehow – I'm staring at my own adult daughter.
“Jennifer?” I whisper. “No, this isn't possib
le...”
“Why didn't anyone listen to Mom?” she asks, as the thick, bloodied cords wriggle in her hands as they pass out of the metal rail and then back in through another section. “Why didn't you listen, Dad?”
“Get away from there,” I reply, reaching a hand toward her. “You're not supposed to be near this thing, Jennifer. Get away right now!”
“Why?”
“Because it's dangerous!”
“The rail is my destiny and the rail is all,” she says, with a sing-song tone to her voice. “The train is my god and I must serve my god. The rail and the god are one, and I am the spirit that serves them.” Her eyes are blazing now, as if they're about to burst into flames, as if she's on the verge of some kind of rapture. “You should know that better than most people, Dad. I live to serve the tracks and the train. They're my gods. My whole life, from beginning to end, is about feeding the railroad. I have to follow in your footsteps, and in Mom's footsteps too.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, grabbing her arm. “Jennifer, you have to run! Let go of that thing!”
“This is why we live,” she replies calmly, as a smile grows across her lips. “You must understand, Dad. You and Mom gave your lives to serve the beast on the tracks. It's only natural that I do the same thing.”
“No!”
I pull hard, but somehow my grip fails and I fall back against the hard ground. Jennifer's already laughing as I get to my feet, and there are tears in my eyes as I see that she's now covered in blood.
“No!” I yell, lunging at her again. “Jennifer -”
***
“- No!”
Gasping, I roll onto my side and feel cold snow against my face. Opening my eyes, I feel a strong wind blowing all around, and when I look up I find that I'm still down in the snowy valley in the middle of the night. I look around, terrified in case I see Jennifer still covered in blood, but after a few seconds I begin to realize what must have happened.
I passed out, and I dreamed of my daughter.
Or maybe it was more of a vision.
“Jennifer,” I whisper, shivering with cold as I force myself up.
The pain in my waist and shoulder is intense, but somehow I manage to start limping through the snow. After a few seconds I stop and look back, just to make sure that I don't see my own dead body still resting in the snow. There's no sign of anything, however, so after a moment I realize that I really must be alive after all. I passed out, I don't know how long for, but that vision of Jennifer was enough to wake me up and give me renewed strength.
I hurry on through the snow, desperate to get back to the shack. All I know is that I have to make sure that Jennifer never ends up like her parents.
***
Gasping with pain, I stop and lean against the side of the store. It's still the middle of the night, so the store's shut, but I have to be careful so that I don't make a sound and wake Chuck. Looking up, I see that all the lights are off, which at least is a good thing. I'm only about two miles from home now. I can do this.
I start shuffling through the snow, but after a moment I spot several large crates piled next to the store's rear door. As soon as I see the markings on the sides of the crates, I know exactly what I'm seeing, and I remember Chuck telling me a few months ago about his need to keep dynamite in case the roads ever get blocked.
“Dynamite,” I whisper, even as my face burns with the pain of intense cold.
I think for a moment, and then I limp over to the crates. Chuck should keep these things secure, of course, but I guess out here he thinks he doesn't have to worry so much. I open the first crate, and I'm shocked when I look inside and see several large packages with wires poking out of the sides. I've never seen actual dynamite before, other than in cartoons on TV, but as I carefully hold one of the packages up I swear I can actually feel the power that's wrapped tight in such a small bundle.
The railroad.
Why didn't I think of this before?
For so many years, I've happily served the railroad because it gave me a sense of purpose. I refuse, however, to let my daughter follow in my footsteps, but maybe it's not necessary to drag her away from the tracks. Instead, I could blow the tracks to smithereens, and then no-one would ever be subjected to this curse again. Of course, the explosion would only destroy one particular section of the line, but that might be enough to sever the link and make sure that the train can never run again.
That vision in the snow was a warning, it was a chance for me to glimpse Jennifer's future. I might not be able to change my own fate, not anymore, but I can save her.
I have to try.
I take a set of matches from further down in the crate, and then I turn and start carrying the dynamite through the snow. I have no idea whether this stuff is truly fragile, but I figure it's best to be extremely careful. I move slowly, taking my time to make sure that I don't drop the package. Strangely, it hurts more to move slowly but I figure I still have several more hours. I have time to destroy the railroad, save Jennifer's future, and still get home in time to keep my promise to Milly. I swore I'd be back by sunrise, and I refuse to be late. I don't want her to ever have to worry again.
My progress is slow, but eventually I spot the railroad ahead, glinting in the moonlight. I reach the foot of a steep slope and start scrambling up, struggling slightly until finally I get to the edge of the track. Finally I drop to my knees and set the dynamite right next to the first rail. To be honest, I was half expecting the line to somehow fight back, to try to stop me doing this, but I guess maybe the line can't watch every spot at once.
My hands are aching in the cold air as I find the fuse, and then I light a match.
The flame immediately dies.
I try again, and again, but nothing works. Every time there's even a hint of a flame, it's extinguished by the snow. I think for a moment, and then I carefully cover the fuse with my hands and try to shield the match. This time the flames lasts, and I manage to make the fuse start burning. I wait until the flame is strong, and then I turn and scramble back down the slope so I can wait for the explosion.
Stopping at the bottom, I look up, and I can see that the fuse is still alight. I have no idea how long it takes for a package of dynamite to explode, but I figure it can't be more than a couple of minutes. As I watch the flame, I feel a strange sense of guilt in my chest, but that's immediately pushed away when I think of Jennifer. No matter what else happens, I refuse to accept that she'll end up devoting her life to the railroad. Looking down at my hands, I see that they're shaking, but I know I'm doing the right thing.
“This is for you,” I whisper, thinking back to the awful vision I experienced a few hours earlier. “I'll never let anything bad happen to you.”
I take a deep breath.
Suddenly I hear a faint crunching sound, and I look up just in time to see that the package of dynamite has somehow come loose and begun to slide down toward me. For a few seconds I can only stare in horror at the burning fuse, but then I realize that I have to get out of here. I turn to run and -
Before I can manage even half a step, a huge explosion roars behind me and lifts me from the ground, sending me flying through the air in a ball of flame until I slam into one of the trees and then drop unconscious back down into the snow.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Richard
“Milly!” I shout, clutching my injured side as I struggle through the snow. “Jennifer! We have to get out of here!”
The explosion cracked several of my ribs and burnt one side of my face. I don't even know how I'm still managing to walk, but I guess all I can think about is Jennifer and the fact that I have to get her away from the railroad. It's one thing for Milly and me to choose this life, but Jennifer's just a baby. She has her whole life ahead of her and I won't let her get drawn into this curse.
“Milly! Wake up!”
Finally reaching the shack, I force the door open and stumble inside, only to find that once again the fire has
been allowed to die out. I hurry from room to room, but I quickly realize that the entire shack is empty. Milly never takes Jennifer out, especially not at night, and by the time I get back to the dining room I'm already convinced that something must be seriously wrong.
I stand totally still for a moment, listening to the sound of wind howling outside.
“Milly!” I call out again. “Where are you?”
Figuring that there must be some tracks in the snow, I turn to head back outside, but at the last moment I notice that one of the journals is open on the desk. I almost ignore this fact, but then I step closer and look down, and I see that Milly has left me a message. As I read the scribbled words, I start to feel a horrible sense of dread in my chest:
Richard,
Forgive me, I had a vision in the night of Jennifer. I saw her in Sobolton, drawing blood from the rails. She was filled with devotion to the beast on the tracks, and I couldn't stand to see what was happening to her. I've taken her away, I'll be back soon but I can't risk Jennifer getting drawn into this.
I love you. Forgive me.
As the full implication of that message starts to sink in, I let the journal drop from my hands. It sounds as if Milly and I experienced the same vision, but I have no idea where she could have taken Jennifer. Other than the railroad and the store, there's nothing but snow for miles around, there's not even...
And that's when I realize where she must have gone.
“No,” I whisper, before turning and racing out into the snow. “Milly!” I shout. “Stop!”
***
“Milly! Wait!”
Stopping as I reach the railroad, I realize I can see a figure far off in the distance, standing on the tracks. I squint, trying to make her out properly in the moonlight, but I can already tell that it's Milly. As I start making my way toward her, however, my heart drops as I see that she's not carrying Jennifer.
