1931 The Grand Punk Railroad: Local

by Ryohgo Narita

  “Be careful. A flat-out run is better than an unsteady walk.”

  “Right!”

  The three of them ran to the very end of the car, then jumped, all in a rush. Mary almost lost her balance, but the woman in the coverall caught her hand, and she managed to recover.

  It might actually have been fortunate that the darkness and smoke kept them from seeing the surrounding landscape. If they’d sensed the speed of the train and the height of the roof, they probably wouldn’t even have been able to stand up properly.

  After they’d kept running for a short while, a gunshot rang out, half-lost in the noise of the train.

  The woman in the coveralls gave a short shout.

  “Get to the dining car! Once you’re past it, it’s okay to get down from the roof!”

  Then the woman in the coveralls stopped in her tracks.

  When the Beriams looked back, wondering what had happened, the trousers of her coveralls were split at the thigh, and a red stain was spreading across the area. In spite of herself, Mrs. Beriam almost stopped. Anticipating this, the woman in the coveralls yelled loudly:

  “It’s fine! Just go!!”

  Their eyes met. They illustrated the unspoken words between them with terrible clarity.

  With a small, polite nod, Mrs. Beriam took her daughter’s hand and broke into a run.

  The girl tried to turn back, just for an instant, but her mother’s hand pulled her along firmly, and she gave up struggling and followed.

  After watching them go, the young woman turned on her heel. If possible, she would have liked to run away as well, but the wound on her leg seemed to be deeper than she’d thought. Realizing she’d be a sitting duck if she kept moving around, she decided to stand between the Beriams and the sniper.

  The upper body of a sly-looking man was protruding from the gap between the cars they’d leaped over. A black sniper rifle had been set up in front of him.

  Looking disappointed, Spike called out:

  “Listen, do you think you could get out of the way? I can’t aim for the kid’s legs like this.”

  “Somebody go up to the roof and drag that woman down. Spike, keep your gun on her.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Hey, though, camping on the platform in this damn cold was worth it. I looked up right when they jumped over, so I had a great view of the young missus’s panties.”

  They probably wouldn’t be able to capture the mother and daughter on the roof in time. Goose sounded sour, but Spike kept right on bantering without seeming to care.

  “Watch your tongue.”

  “’Scuse me. Still, you know what they say: In this world, most stuff doesn’t go according to plan.”

  He ignored Spike’s words and put a question to him instead:

  “By the way, was that man in the white suit really an even match for Chané?”

  “I’d say yeah, probably.”

  “I see…”

  After a short silence, Goose spoke gravely:

  “We may have to keep withdrawal in mind as we act. However, before that, if nothing else, we will execute one more plan.”

  Then, lowering his voice, he gave Spike an order:

  “If you see a solid opportunity, get rid of Chané.”

  Help me, help me.

  Why, why, why did this happen?

  At first, we were supposed to go as a group of five, so I felt safe, but then—I thought there was no such thing as monsters, but then—

  We split into two groups by Room Three, and my group was supposed to go on to the conductors’ room alone. At that point, I already had a bad feeling about this.

  After that, when I saw our comrade’s corpse in the freight room, I wanted to cut and run so bad I could barely stand it.

  And then, right after that, that guy—that white devil appeared in the room. He slit my friend’s throat before we knew what was happening!

  My other friend got caught, too. I’m sure he’s already dead.

  I ran away on my own. So what?! I wasn’t really on board with this plan to begin with.

  Master Huey wouldn’t take hostages, and he’d never even consider killing a little kid as an example. It looked like Miss Chané knew that, too, but she obeyed Goose because she had to, in order to save Master Huey.

  Besides, I know: There’s one crucial difference between Miss Chané and Goose. Miss Chané idolizes everything about Master Huey, but Goose only wants the “blessing” Master Huey talks about. Of course, most of the guys are probably like that; I’d like that blessing myself.

  Nader’s group, the ones that sold us out and got killed yesterday, didn’t know about Master Huey’s body, see. Their betrayal was pretty inevitable.

  But I can’t do it anymore, either. Master Huey’s one thing, but I can’t follow Goose.

  To think he’s planning to dispose of Miss Chané because she’s in his way! Miss Chané, who was more devoted to Master Huey than anybody.

  Dammit, dammit, dammit, I’ll just keep going and make a break for it. I’ll open the door in the conductors’ room, and when we come to a big river or something, I’ll jump.

  I’ll be killed; if I stay here, I’ll be killed for sure.

  Ah, this is the last freight car. Once I get through here, I’ll be at the conductors’ room.

  Just as I passed by the door to the freight room, I realized that the door was standing half open.

  By the time I saw a big, brown hand stretch out from it, it was too late. A huge palm covered my face.

  Help me, help me. I don’t want to die yet.

  He dragged me into the freight room. It’s all over. I’m gonna get killed by the big guy in front of me. This guy has to be that Rail Tracer monster.

  I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, please, please spare me

  “Relax, we won’t kill you.”

  The man beside the monster spoke. He had a face like a devil’s, with a tattoo on it, but he looked like an angel to me.

  “In exchange, there are a few things we want you to tell us. That’s all right, isn’t it?”

  In the first-class compartment that was serving as the Lemures’ temporary headquarters, the woman in the coveralls lay beside Nice and Nick. Five or six black suits surrounded them, and Goose stood at their center.

  “Well, now. Our second meeting has filled my heart with delight, young lady in coveralls.”

  Contrary to his words, a flame of fierce hatred blazed in Goose’s eyes.

  “I’ve heard rumors. They say there’s a hitman called Vino who kills in excessively gruesome ways. When I heard about the condition of the corpses, I thought that might be the case, but… I never dreamed it’d be a woman.”

  With a small sigh, Goose stooped down and tilted his captive’s chin up.

  However, her soot-smeared face remained expressionless. Her only answer to Goose’s question was silence.

  “You’ve certainly done it now. Thanks to you and those white suits, our plan is on the brink of ruin. How many of my comrades have you killed? Why would you do a job that brings you no profit, Vino… Or should I say, Rail Tracer?”

  Nice and Nick had watched the exchange silently until that point, but at those words, their eyes went wide.

  However, when she heard that, the woman in the coveralls gave a muffled chuckle. Before long, the chuckle gradually grew in volume, until she was laughing loudly.

  “And what… is so amusing, pray tell?”

  “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! How could this be anything but funny?! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha… ha-ha-ha… No wonder I had no idea what you were talking about! You’ve got it wrong, pal, you’ve got it all wrong! That’s a lethal mistake!”

  “A mistake?”

  Goose raised an eyebrow.

  “You’re mistaking me for that thing, aren’t you? For that red monster! Too bad! It’s not me! By now, that monster’s probably eaten its way through all the white suits and black suits! No, if this keeps up, I bet we’ll all get eaten, too! I mean, it even butchered that
child!”

  Goose started to say something, but his voice was drowned out by the noise of the door being wrenched open.

  “Goose! There’s a problem!”

  “What is it?”

  “W-well, our comrades who were in the dining car have vanished!”

  “… Vanished? What do you mean?”

  Clicking his tongue, Goose took his subordinates and left the room.

  Afterward, the only ones left were the three bound hostages. Possibly they no longer had enough people for it, or possibly he’d simply forgotten to give the order, but he hadn’t left a guard in the room.

  The moment she’d confirmed this, the rope that had bound the hands of the coveralls-clad woman slipped off.

  “Huh?”

  As Nice’s and Nick’s eyes went round, she dexterously scraped her fingernail against the rope that bound her legs and severed that one, too.

  Nick, whose eyesight was good, noticed something odd about the woman’s nail. She’d grown the nail long, and it was sharpened like a blade. A portion of it had fine bumps and dents carved into it, like the teeth of a saw.

  It was a nail that seemed to have been designed on the assumption that it would be used to cut ropes.

  “All right, I’ll untie your ropes, so hurry and run.”

  Even as she spoke, she was expertly undoing Nice’s and Nick’s bonds.

  “Th-thank you very much!”

  Nice thanked her and stood, but then she remembered something. She asked the woman a question:

  “Excuse me… That child you mentioned…”

  In response, the young woman looked uncomfortable. After hesitating just a moment, she confessed the truth to Nice:

  “There was a kid joking around with you at the counter in the dining car, remember? It was that boy.”

  She’d half-expected that answer, but even so, Nice’s vision seemed to dim.

  More than anything, it hurt that she’d have to tell Jacuzzi about this.

  Assuming they made it off the train alive, that is.

  A few minutes earlier, an incident had occurred in the dining car.

  “Change.”

  Two black suits had been guarding the hostages in the dining car when two of their black-suited companions appeared.

  “Right. Take care of the rest.”

  Handing over their guns, the two who’d been on guard duty headed back to the first-class compartment.

  They stepped out of the dining car onto the connecting platform, and just as they were about to open the door to the first-class cars…

  From the dining car behind them, they heard what sounded like a passenger’s scream.

  “What’s that?”

  When the pair turned around, it was obvious at a glance that something was wrong. The lights in the dining car had gone out.

  They immediately turned back, flinging open the door to the meal car. A little moonlight filtered in, but they couldn’t make out the details of the situation inside. However, of the row of windows along the side, they could tell that the very farthest and the very closest were wide open.

  “What happened?!”

  However, there was no response from the comrades who should have been there.

  As they broke out in cold sweat and kept a wary eye on their surroundings, before long, the incandescent lamps in the dining car lit up again.

  There was nothing wrong with the bulbs. The car had probably suffered a temporary power outage.

  However, that wasn’t important.

  The problem for the two black suits was that…

  … the comrades who’d come to trade places with them were gone without a trace.

  They felt the volume of their cold sweat double. The wind that blew in through the open door was rapidly cooling their sweat-soaked bodies.

  “What is this?! What happened?!”

  One grabbed the shirtfront of the passenger closest to the door and hauled him up.

  The response that returned was incredibly simple and easy to understand, and everything about the shuddering man seemed to vouch that it was the truth.

  “A reh—! A-a-a reh—reh! … A red monster just, mo-mo-mo, re-re-re-re, a red monster! A red monster! I-it leaped in through the window and dragged the two in black out of the windows!”

  “A monster?! What did it look like?!”

  “I-i-it was dark, so I don’t know! I just, it was, I know real well that it—it was—bright red!”

  The man had seen something terrible, and he seemed to be shaking so hard that the words wouldn’t come out right.

  With no help for it, he returned to the connecting platform and spoke to his waiting comrade:

  “Hey, I’m going to go report this to Goose. You have a pistol, right? Use that and guard the lot in the dining car for a bit.”

  “With one pistol?”

  “It’s fine. They can’t do a thing.”

  He turned back to the dining car, checking on the passengers through the window. Nobody seemed to have a weapon.

  “There won’t be a prob—”

  The instant he turned around to tell him there wouldn’t be a problem, he found himself faced with an extremely big problem.

  There was no one there.

  He didn’t understand what had happened. However, he was sure that in the instant he turned, he’d seen something out of the corner of his eye.

  Something dimly lit by the sky, which had begun to pale. A bright-red something.

  In the space of a breath, he understood perfectly:

  The passengers might be one thing, but against that red monster, a pistol would be no use whatsoever.

  Before he knew it, he’d run back through the door of the first-class passenger carriage as if he was fleeing from something. As a matter of fact, he was.

  Inside the dining car, an awkward silence reigned.

  No black suits had come in since the uproar a moment ago. At this point, it would have been easy for them to just walk out.

  However, what would happen if they left this place?

  They didn’t know what had happened to the white suits after that, and there was no telling where that red monster would appear. In that case, it might be better to stay here, where there were lots of people.

  Besides… Of the people who’d left this place earlier—the weird gunman and the children—not a single one had come back. At that thought, they couldn’t have moved even if they’d tried.

  How many minutes had passed? Eventually, the uncomfortable silence in the car was broken by the sound of the door opening.

  It was the door on the opposite side from the first-class carriages. Had the group of five black suits who’d passed through a little while ago come back, or was it someone else—?

  The correct answer was the second one. In addition, of all the possibilities, it was one of the worst answers available.

  “All right, nobody move!”

  “If you move, we’ll shoot, I swear!”

  Two men with guns made this declaration the second they appeared in the doorway.

  None of the passengers recognized the men’s faces, but it was obvious at a glance that they were dangerous.

  Aside from the fact that they had guns, both men were dressed all in white.

  “Who’d have thought the black suits would just disappear for us? We sure got lucky.”

  “I guess hiding by the dining car this whole time was worth it.”

  “So, folks, let’s have you hand over your money and valuables.”

  “Wait, you’re sure we don’t need to take ’em hostage?”

  “It’s fine, it’s fine. The kidnapping’s pretty much failed anyhow, and there was no way it was gonna work in the first place. I say we just take the money and make a break for it.”

  “Yeah. Ladd’s disappeared somewhere, too.”

  Chatting away loudly, the white-suited men took one step into the car.

  Clunk.

  A dull sound, as if someone had struck a tree with an ax,
echoed through the dining car.

  “Gyaaaah…”

  “Ahg! ……?”

  With brief groans, the two white suits’ eyes rolled back in their heads, and they fell to the floor.

  When the passengers looked past the fallen white suits, a big man whose head practically brushed the ceiling was standing there. His enormous fists were clenched tightly, and they hovered in the area where the white suits’ heads had been.

  Was this a savior or a monster?

  The passengers followed the big man’s movements with tense gazes.

  However, the first one to speak was a young guy who appeared from the former’s shadow. His face sported a tattoo, so it was obvious that he wasn’t a respectable individual. He held a Thompson machine gun at the ready, and there was a bright, childlike smile on his face.

  A few of the passengers realized that he was the guy who’d been crying at the counter before the incident.

  Jon and Fang were watching the situation develop with round eyes.

  Then the words he spoke plunged the passengers back into despair.

  “We’ve captured this train. If you don’t want to die, please follow our orders!”

  About that time, Spike was on the roof, leveling his sniper rifle. His body was flattened on the roof, and he was looking through the scope of the abnormally long barrel. He had two figures in his sights. They were a good distance from here, probably on top of the freight car.

  However, that wouldn’t be much of a problem. Now that the sky had begun to lighten, he could clearly see the difference between the two shapes.

  One wore a black dress, and the other was an incredibly deep red.

  When he’d first made out Chané’s figure, he’d just assumed she was fighting the man in white, but apparently, she’d switched opponents at some point during the last several hours.

  It’s amazing she’s still got strength left, after several hours of mortal combat.

  Spike was impressed all over again at Chané’s irrational strength, but the red shadow that had continued to fight her was something else as well.

  It wasn’t clear what they were doing now; both had stopped moving and seemed to be facing each other. Whatever the reason, the fact that Chané wasn’t moving was all to the good.