'Remembered what?' Pietro asked, kneeling beside Wanda. I looked up, found myself in a dark corner of the boxcar, away from the open door or anything that could get me hurt. I felt strangely safe, the wall at my back, them in front of me — like a shield from everything that hurt.
The dizziness was partly due to the fact that I could see well again — the memories had reminded me just how bad my eyesight used to be, essentially living in this awful fog world, and now seeing everything in sharp detail was over-stimulating my brain. I had to keep closing my eyes just to find relief.
'All of it?' Wanda asked, smiling hopefully.
'No,' I shook my head, dropping one arm so it flopped at my side. The whole experience left me exhausted. I wiped at my face, and found there was dried blood beneath my nose. Grimacing, I scratched at it, trying to get rid of it. 'No, just the...just the start, I think. The Baron, how he changed me. And the Chairman.'
The twins stared at me. 'You saw him?' They demanded in unison.
'Um, yeah,' I said, rubbing at my eyes. His face was still there. His and the Baron's. It was not pleasant, to say the least. 'He was there, when I first woke up. He was...I don't know. He was nice to me.'
Pietro snorted, throwing his head back. 'Please.'
I just sighed, shrugged my shoulders helplessly. 'I'm just saying, that's what it felt like. I know what kind of guy he is, I'm not an idiot. It was just weird, that's all. Communist tyrant has nice manners, seemed almost normal for five seconds.'
'We've never seen him.' Wanda said, her brow drawing together as she raised her chin in suspicion. 'Never spoke to him.'
'He must take it personally, then,' Pietro surmised, half-joking. 'That you escaped him after he was so nice to you.'
'Ha-ha,' I said sarcastically, but it was to hide the fact that I was scared Pietro had a point. The Chairman had been unfailingly polite, charming in a way that made it scary to think of disappointing him. I wondered what a man like that would like when he was angry.
Considering the type of agents he hired/created, I couldn't imagine he handled rejection well.
Ugh.
The headache remained, and I still felt dizzy. Right now, that was my biggest problem. 'Why did that even happen? How? I mean, the bleeding nose, the everything…'
'Could be a side effect,' Wanda offered, but she didn't look me in the eye. 'Of the, er, the amnesia. Maybe seeing things, it brings your memories back? Parts of it, at least.'
'Yeah, I suppose,' I said, closing my eyes and resting my head on my knees. 'I just wish it didn't feel like getting hit by a truck.'
The blood made me think it was bad. I mean, normally I'd be pretty chuffed to know that my lost memories weren't gone forever, that I was in the process of recovering them so soon after all this started for me — but I was also pretty sure that bleeding noses was not a common symptom of memory loss or recovery. What was that about? Did it have to do with that freaky scepter thing? Or was it something else that happened to me?
Well, I wasn't going to find any answers here. I just hoped if it happened again, it wouldn't knock me out.
But the scariest thing was — in the few seconds after I woke up, I couldn't remember who I was. Not those lost memories, not the current ones, not even my own name — until Wanda said it.
Could I lose my memories again? Could I lose all of them?
Would I forget my entire identity? My entire life?
I couldn't bear the possibility.
'Is it that bad?' Pietro frowned, reaching out to steady me. 'Perhaps you should lay down again, if you are not well.'
'No, I'm fine, it should pass,' I said, having no idea if it would. Right now I didn't want to lie down, because I was afraid of going to sleep, and afraid of what I would dream. Would I have another terrible memory? The last two had felt so real, like I was actually reliving them. Every cold surface, every ache in my bones, every dust particle in the air, I had experienced it all. And I had a bad feeling that the beginning had hardly been the worst for me in the Crucible. 'I just…I need to think for a little bit.'
'We are here to help, okay?' Wanda assured me, taking my hand in hers. 'We will be careful next time, in case it happens again. You could get very hurt, yes?'
'Well, at least the worst is over, right?' I asked with a reassuring smile.
I did not expect to be proven wrong so soon.
Thump, thump.
A noise overhead.
All three of us looked up, surprised. Pietro frowned, was the first to ask, 'What was that?'
'Don't know,' Wanda said, slowly rising to her feet. 'Hail, perhaps?'
Then we heard it again, a thumping across the roof. It sounded far too heavy to be snow. All three of us exchanged looks, and I got up as well. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Something weird was going on here. I hoped to God it wasn't. 'I don't know, it sounds too heavy…'
'I'll go check,' Pietro said, already climbing up the crates to reach the ceiling hatch. But Wanda was right on his heel, despite his complaints, and then I was close in tow, bringing up the rear. Together, we braced our hands against the heavy metal hatch and pushed it open, our heads popping up in unison.
I got a face-full of cold wind so fast and so hard it almost gave me whiplash. My eyes watered and my cheeks stung, and I had to blink and look away, before adjusting again. Pietro climbed out first, helping us up onto the snow-covered roof of the car. The train wasn't going so fast as to blow it off, but the constant rocking and the sheer cliffside wasn't exactly reassuring, either.
It was, as expected, cloudy. I was getting sick of clouds. Flakes fell from the sky, whipping past us like tiny, spiraling bullets. Aside from the wind and the rattle of the rails, there was no sound up here. The three of us stood together, looking around.
'I do not see anything!' Wanda shouted, squinting against the wind. Her hair was a mess, whipping about in a startling resemblance to Medusa.
'Whatever it was,' Pietro said, turning to us with a shrug. 'Must be gone now.'
But I wasn't so sure. Blistering cold wind cut through my clothes like a knife through butter, but I barely felt it as I stepped closer to the back end of the car, noticing a disturbance in the snow. This latter half of the roof was clean, the snow blown off by the backdraft, but I still managed to spot the tail end of what looked like a shoe-print, right before the drop-off into the drawbar and couplers below. There, I thought I saw movement.
Starting to peer over, I held up a hand and called, 'Wait a sec, guys, I think there's something —'
BOOM.
The car in front of me exploded.
I cried out as crimson ball of fire erupted less than ten feet away from my face.
The force of the blast alone sent me flying, straight off my feet and right into the twins, who'd been coming up behind me. Hot metal and wood flew everywhere, bouncing off the mountain wall to the left, and tumbling down the ravine to the right.
The train rocked violently, our boxcar nearly blasted off its wheels. The back end reared up before crashing down again, thankfully aligning with the tracks as it meant to.
We landed hard, sprawling in a tangle. Pietro, the furthest, nearly fell off the other end of the car. He cried out, but I acted faster, grabbing his wrist before he could completely disappear over the side. 'Pietro! Hang on!'
'I'm hanging!' he called back, twisting in my grip, falling against the side of the boxcar.
I winced, started hauling him up. Wanda, lying next to me, appeared dazed, moving sluggishly, her eyes unfocused. A streak of blood smeared across her face, congealing fast in the frosty air, corresponding to the sudden new gash across her forehead. She must have been struck by something in the explosion.
I myself wasn't feeling too hot, so to speak. The left side of my face was stinging, like a bad sunburn, since I had turned my head just as the explosion went off. It didn't feel too bad — although that might be the adrenaline talking.
'A
re you okay?' I grunted, finally getting Pietro back onboard.
He winced, and smelled distinctly of smoke, but otherwise appeared unharmed. 'Fine. Wanda?'
'Been better,' she muttered, wavering slightly as Pietro took her by the arm, helped her to her feet. He fussed over her wound, tutting as he pushed her hair out of her face, while Wanda whined only half-heartedly, trying to angle her face away. 'Ah, Pietro! Stop it, I am not a baby!'
'But look at that cut! You may need stitches!'
'You worry too much!'
'Only about you, pen.'
'Pah! You sound like Dai,'
'Oh, like you remember…'
'I am only twelve seconds younger, stupid prala…'
I quickly lost interest in their banter, partly because it was getting a little annoying, and more importantly because some new contenders had just entered the scene. 'Uh, guys…?'
The twins stopped at once, their attention following my gaze to the back end of the car. The explosion had torn off the entire latter half of the train, leaving at least half of our own boxcar scorched, and at the ass-end of what was still a very long, very dangerous journey.
On which we were no longer spending alone.
From the back of the boxcar, stood three people. All adults, tall, muscled, and although each face was different, they all shared similar expressions: hardened and cruel, scarred by war. They wore white camouflage armor; a few had no sleeves, some wore shirts. I wondered how any of them could stand the cold like that — before remembering I could, too.
'Shit!' Pietro's hiss was the only warning I had that there was more danger.
I glanced behind me, and was alarmed to see more of these agents appearing behind us, from further up the train. All along the line of boxcars, they stood in stoic silence — in matching armor and patches, the sharp expressions on their faces. So many. Too many. I couldn't count them.
My eyes widened, breath caught in my throat. Fear rose in my gut at the sight of them, cold and clawing, turning everything solid and heavy. Then, remembering myself, I turned my gaze back to the three before us, knowing it was stupid to let myself get distracted with danger so near. I had taken too long to process the situation. Those three seconds where I looked behind me, the three agents could've attacked, taken me out, before I even had a chance to protect myself.
So slow. So stupid.
So silent.
I stared at those three, realizing I knew them.
Two males and one female, with striking red hair.
Agent Brandt — the Komitet — was back.No one moved.
So silent. The three of us, me and the twins, stood in a tight circle, surrounded on all conceivable sides. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to escape. To jump from this train meant certain death. Either we fell thousands of feet into the snow landscape, or become a Jackson Pollock between the train and the rock wall.
I didn't take my eyes off of Brandt, if only because I knew her. Well, I didn't know her, and in fact I recognized almost all the faces here from the streets of Novi Grad, but she was the only one whose name I had. Something about her screamed dominance, however — maybe it was the way she held herself, shoulders back, relaxed arms; or maybe it was the scars across her mouth, and ironic smile on her lips, like she had a witty, cruel joke just on the tip of her tongue.
In those few hair-raising moments of utter stillness, I tried to figure out what was going on. Why hadn't the Komitet attacked us yet? The explosion could've killed us, certainly, but it hadn't. Now they had us surrounded. The odds definitely weren't on our side here.
No one moved. I felt Wanda's hand brush against mine. The point where skin touched sparked bright red — I didn't have to look around to tell if her eyes were red, or that she was spinning webs of magic through her fingers. Pietro, likewise, was unusually still, especially for him. Everything from him was careful, cautious. He was holding himself back. I could practically hear his atoms vibrating, stress and tension just ready to break into action.
A low dread hung in the air. One way or another, this wasn't going to end peacefully. Not if the twins had any say in it, at least.
Brandt broke the silence first.
'This can go one of two ways, Amelia,' she called out, her voice carrying well despite the whistling wind. Her short red hair, whipping behind her head, was a violent splash of color against the cold white mountains. 'The smart way, or the fun way. It's up to you.'
She was speaking in English again, as if she knew that would get to me easier. Well, it worked. The air had sucked all the moisture out of my mouth, so I had nothing left but to swallow on a dry, frozen throat. 'Do I want to know what the fun way is?'
'You don't remember?' Brandt tilted her head curiously, a grin spreading across her features, making my gut twist in trepidation. 'None of the training matches, nothing what I taught you? No? Well, I thought the rumors were exaggerating, but I guess it's true — your memories really are gone! I wonder how that happened.'
At this, she threw a pointed look over my shoulder, but I didn't have the luxury of following her gaze. I wasn't risking a blind spot just to follow along. She was looking at Wanda. I couldn't keep the stutter from slipping into my voice. 'Y-you trained me?'
'Why, yes,' Brandt's eyes flicked back to me, again with that sharp-toothed grin. 'Well, I wasn't the only one. You were such a good little soldier, Amelia. But lately you've been a very bad girl, ever since you let those two get into your head.'
'I don't need them to know I want nothing to do with you or the Chairman,' I snapped, my hands clenching at my sides.
'Oh, now that hurts,' Brandt pouted mockingly at me, pressing a hand to her chest as if I just made a personal offense. 'I'm going to have to ask you to apologize.'
'What?' I scoffed, threw her a disbelieving look.
'You heard me,' Brandt said, her voice remaining even as she lowered her arms. The veins running down her wrist started to glow — first orange, then bright gold, as the skin of her hands turned a translucent red, cracked like lava. 'Apologize, now. Use that head of yours and remember that I am the last person you want to piss off here, yeah? Show me you can still be obedient, and I can promise you a less…severe punishment for going AWOL. And maybe I'll leave the two freaks a little singed.'
I didn't answer right away. Was there really a choice in this? Before I had doubted that these agents, whatever they were, would kill the twins. But the way Brandt spoke, implied that their health wasn't nearly as prioritized as mine was.
Or maybe Brandt was just a sadistic monster.
'No.' I said.
'Oh yay,' she said. 'The fun way it is, then.'
Probably that last one, then.
'Let me guess,' Pietro said in a low voice, as the agents started advancing on us, simultaneously bursting into flames. 'It didn't go well?'
'What gave it away?' I replied, pressing back a little as Brandt narrowed down on me. The other two on her heels were equally imposing, particularly the one chewing gum, with the shaved head. I definitely didn't like him, just on looks alone. 'Was it the exploding train or their friendly faces that clued you in first?'
I never got a reply. Pietro had already taken off.
A shout behind me.
Then all chaos broke loose.
To say the situation was precarious would be putting it lightly. I didn't like fighting to begin with, so you could imagine how much I appreciated going toe-to-toe with a bunch of very hot, very psychotic agents on top of a swaying train car hanging over the edge of a steep mountainside.
Here's a little hint: No.
Brandt came at me first. I dodged the first swipe and ducked under the second, before grabbing her by the front of her clothes and throwing her overhead. Brandt twisted in mid air, like an acrobat, before landing on her feet, one train car ahead. There, the other half-dozen agents were in battle with the twins, who filled the air with flashes of scarlet and silver.
Watching her arc thro
ugh the air, my head was turned and I didn't anticipate the following attack. A hot grip got me by the back of the neck. I cried out at the scalding touch, before reaching up behind my head and grabbing the offender by the arm and shoulder. Fast, I dropped to my knees, taking him over and flipping him on his back to the ground in front of me. Snow blew away from impact, and I cut around, sweeping my leg to knock over the third male agent coming up directly behind the second one.
Two agents on the ground. I dealt with the one I took out first. The bubble-gum-chewing one. He seemed only mildly dazed, and when our eyes met, he grinned at me, all pearly-white teeth and searing red eyes. 'Miss me, sweetheart?'
I blinked at him startled. Those words, that voice, tickled something in the back of my head. 'Savin?'
Eminent Silence Page 40
