Daddy told me to run, so I ran to the only place I could, the front of the train. I didn’t even want to think about why Daddy told me to run, he never does something that responsible unless shits really hit the fan.
Daddy is good at fighting, and he usually wins whatever fight he gets himself into. Whether it be with power or cheap tricks, he always pulls through. So I just have to have faith that that’ll happen this time, just like always.
Bullshit. Who am I kidding? Daddy may be good but I could tell he was tired as fuck. The explosive magic circuit we made did jackshit to that bodybuilder looking asshole. To make it worse, I can’t help at all. I’m a four and a half year old short stack with no muscle or magic to speak of. Sure I’m good with magic circuits, and if I had enough energy crystals I’m positive I could fuck that guy sideways, but all I have on me is the one powering my invisible backpack.
Well I do have that prototype plasma pistol, but that will kill me before it kills the berserker.
The thing isn’t stable. I’m still working out how to get more ‘bang for my buck’ with magic energy, and the experiments haven't been going well. Everything I try just explodes! To be fair, I’ve only been working with the stuff for about a year and a half. So I think I’m making good progress, but that's all worthless right now.
As I run from train car to train car, I catch glimpses of the fast moving environment outside. It’s a cold snowy mountain with a wall of stone on one side and a huge cliff on the other side. I can’t jump off the train, I’ll just die. All I can do is run to the front of the train, looking through any boxes I can, and hope for a miracle.
After a few minutes of running, looking through boxes, and trying not to think about how Daddy’s doing, I manage to reach the front of the train.
“Haah, haah, haah. What, now?” Through strained breaths, I ask my question aloud. I was at the front of the train. If the berserker comes, what will I do? Again, I can’t use magic thanks to that stupid space worm or whatever and I don’t have any usable energy crystals. Maybe I can do something with the train controls? Looking around the small, cramped locomotive, I find the controls at the front of the train, with a decapitated body in the chair.
Now, I come from a war torn world where people die all the time, but that doesn’t mean I’ve seen people die, or dead people without big white cloth covering them. While I’m sure drunk me has seen such things before, I most certainly haven't.
The body is slouched over the controls, and it’s blood is all over the place. The blood is flowing from the body, over the controls, and down onto the floor. There was so much blood. I think I’m gonna be sick, but I have to think of a plan. I turn away from the body and move to the corner to try and calm down.
This is my happy corner. Nothing bad will happen in this corner. Take all the time you need Julie, this is the happy corner.
I might be going crazy. While doing my best to ignore the smell, I pull out my notebook. What can I do? As if trying to block out everything around me, I put all my focus and attention on my notebook. I could disconnect the train cars from the locomotive to get away, but I have no idea where the train is going in the first place. Daddy didn’t tell me exactly why we were coming here, just that it was really important. I could try and jump off the train, but with how fast it's going, I’ll probably just die. Plus could a four year old even survive high up in the mountains? I doubt it. Another option is to fight the berserker guy, but that would only end in me being on the bad end of a homicide.
The only choice I can come up with that won’t immediately get me killed, is that I disconnect the train cars from the locomotive, and I hide. Once I get to the train’s destination or some place where I can jump off and survive, I get off and sneak away. Let's go with that one for now.
I put my notebook back in my bag and stand up to put my plan into action. But then I turn around and see the decapitated head of the train conductor.
JESUS CHRIST THAT'S DISGUSTING
I let out a small shriek and fall backwards. The head was rolling around the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind wherever it went. The ghastly expression of horror still stuck to its face. I stared at it for a few minutes until I remember that there's someone on this train who’ll probably kill me on sight. I slowly stand back and make my way over to the connection between the locomotive and the train cars.
If I remember correctly, there should be a pin to keep the two connected.
As I exit the locomotive and go out onto the walkway, I scan the place with my eyes to make sure that no one else was here. After confirming that no one was here to relieve my head from my shoulders, I look towards the coupling. It was the american ‘link and pin’.
I carefully and slowly climb down to the link and make my way over to the pin, desperately clutching at the link every time the train even so much as shook slightly.
Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die. I should have just stayed in the happy corner. I wouldn’t have to do this if I just stayed in the happy corner.
While thinking of a better place, I reach the pin. I pull upwards with all my strength, and nothing happens. I pull at it again, and it still isn’t going anywhere. Maybe a four year old can’t do this. But I can’t stop here. I need to get this pin out, I’m already here. I can do this!
Hyping myself up, I start pulling on the pin with no remorse. I continue to pull on the pin with no remorse. After what felt like an hour of pulling, I haven’t made any progress.
This is fucking stupid! Why can’t I do what Daddy did? That would be so much easier. But noooooo. I can’t fucking use magic because of that ugly ass space worm or whatever. All I can do is make fucking magic circuits and those can’t even help me in this situation! It's not like I can just make a magic circuit to do it. I don’t have any energy crystals other than the one that I’m using to power my backpack. Wait a second.
I can just use the one from my bag to power the circuit. Why didn’t I think of that sooner. I’m usually smarter than this.
I slowly and carefully crawl back to the locomotive and get back onto the small standing area. I get the pencil I’ve been using to write in my notebook and carefully lean over onto the connection of the locomotive and the train car. Because of all the jostling from the train and the heavy shaking of my hands, the magic circuit takes a while to finish, and it isn’t the cleanest looking circuit either.
But as long as it works.
That's all I needed. Hell the damn thing could even blow up for all I care. As long as the train cars are disconnected from the locomotive, then it's more than enough.
I grab my backpack and fish out the energy crystal powering the invisibility circuit. After I put the crystal into the circuit, it begins to glow. The snow covering the link and pin quickly melts as the metal heats up.
Now that I think about it, it is snowing isn’t it.
Looking around, there’s tons of details I didn’t notice in my state of panic. The cold, blistering winds carrying the snow. The snow covered trees zooming by. The great forest at the foot of the mountains. The odd animal quickly hiding as the train roars past. The planets rings just barely visible behind the clouds.
While I look at the scenery, I notice three things about myself. One, I’m very, very cold. Two, because I’ve been sitting here in the snow for all this time, I’m very wet. Three, I’m really tired. I need to get inside, back to my happy corner. It’s warm inside, in my happy corner.
I grab my backpack and with shaky legs, move to the door to enter the locomotive. As I’m about to enter, I hear the handle on the door to the train car behind me turn. A bloody axe pokes its head through the door, followed by the last person I want to see right now.
“This is so annoying, I can’t find the super weapons anywhere. I’ve looked all over the place, Terry didn’t have ‘em either. Maybe I should just destroy the… train?” The berserker looks at me, who’s still halfway into the door, with clear confusion.
“Um, hello there miss. Are you lost? Where are your parents? If your on this train then your parents must be here. Shit did I just make an orphan?”
“Uh…” My eyes are locked onto the axe as I slowly move behind the door. The axe head was as large as me, and this guy was holding it up with one hand like he's holding a damn stick. There was blood stuck to the axe. It wasn’t dripping, but it was still a crimson red.
That’s Daddy’s blood, isn’t it?
My legs almost gave out at the thought. I knew that Daddy probably wouldn’t win, especially because he decided to be a responsible parent and get me to safety. But the fact hadn’t clicked in my head. Daddy’s dead. He’s dead and I’m never going to see him again.
“Are you okay? I know I’m scary but people usually don’t start crying when they see me. Oh! It’s the axe isn’t it? You’re scared of the axe right?” The berserker hides the axe in the train car and crouches down. “Come on, I won’t hurt you. I just need to make sure that you have no idea what's going on so that you won’t cause problems in the future.”
He’ll probably kill me if he finds out that I’m Daddy’s daughter, I need to get away.
I slowly move backwards and into the Locomotive, hiding behind the door as I do so.
“Come on now, there's no need for tha-” His sentence is cut short by a sudden lurch from the train car. The magic circuit had done its work, the train cars were now disconnected from the locomotive. The train car that the berserker was on slowed down, and the locomotive that I was on sped up with its newfound lack of weight.
“Hey! What happened?” The berserker was dumbfounded as the distance between us grew. “Did you do that? Get back here!” The berserker’s shouts grew more and more distant as the train cars got farther and farther away.
I just stood there, on the locomotive travelling away from him. I wasn’t going to move until I couldn’t see him anymore. Until I knew he was far away. However, the berserker had other plans.
He grabbed his axe from behind the door, leapt off the train car, and started sprinting towards the locomotive. At first I thought that was a good thing. He would tire himself out trying to catch the locomotive, and die in the frigid mountains. But what I wasn’t hoping for, or thought of for that matter, was that he was fucking faster than the locomotive.
Are you fucking kidding me! Can’t this guy just leave me alone? You already killed my dad what more do you want?!
Even if he wasn’t that much faster, he was definitely catching up to me. What the fuck. I have to do something. Although I don’t exactly know what he’ll do if he catches up to me, I have a few guesses. I stop standing like a moron in the doorway and run inside the locomotive. Once inside I start flailing around like a headless chicken trying to find something that will get me out of here.
I push the decapitated body out of the chair and start wiping the blood off the controls. Even if it was disgusting and made me want to throw up, I can do that later. After getting the controls to a state where I can see all the buttons and labels, I’m reminded how bad I am at learning foreign languages.
Remember, I’m only four and a half years old in this world and children learn to read at ages four to seven. Regular children, not me who's spent 30 plus years of her previous life speaking nothing but english. I mean can you blame me? Everyone spoke english back on earth.
Even though the train controls were crammed into a small space, there's still so many buttons and dials. They’re all labeled sure, but I can barely read the signs in the market place and the fact that none of them are labeled by color isn’t helpful at all.
“Ummmm, D. Ecel. Era. T. E. D-ecel-era-t-e. Decelerate! This one is to decelerate! Lets not touch that one.” I read a word I haven’t seen before, damn I’m smart. Daddy would be proud.
Moving my eyes away from the “decelerate” button, I begin to look for anything that would look like an “accelerate” button. Why can’t they just use a dial or a lever for this. Why did it have to be buttons? Did they not want to make this child friendly? Do they hate kids?
If you think about it, shouldn’t the accelerate button be near or next to the decelerate button? Wait, there's multiple buttons next to the decelerate button, and they all look the same!
While I try to read the labels on the buttons with very limited success, the shouting of the berserker slowly gets clearer as he gains on the locomotive.
“Stop the train you little shit! If you stop the train I promise I won’t kill you!” It sounds like he's mad. It also sounds like he's getting closer. Meanwhile I still have no idea how to make this thing go faster. If this were a car, I could just use the pedals or something and if the car didn’t start I could just hotwire it.
Actually.... That's not a bad idea.
I’m one of the smartest people when it comes to magic circuits, courtesy of a god, and even if trains are a new concept in this world, they’re not new for me. I push the chair out of the way and look underneath the controls to see a small access door into the internals of the locomotive. I turn the small handle and the door swings open. Luckily it wasn’t locked or else I wouldn’t have a way in.
I grab my backpack, crawl inside, and close the door behind me. The space is extremely cramped with tons of square pipes running all over the place. The pipes intersect with each other multiple times and all converge in a large square box. The box is sitting above a huge energy crystal thats lighting the whole compartment with a dull red glow.
This is so cool. That energy crystal must be worth millions. The pipes and boxes must be housing the circuitry, they probably covered it to prevent potential damage.
I crawl through to the big box and start inspecting it, looking for some way to access the behemoth of a circuit most likely inside. There are hinges on one side and clips on the other. With a little aggressive persuasion, the clips come loose and the box opens up.
They must have made it like this for ease of access. However I have to question the ‘ease’ any average adult would have accessing the box in a space that I can barely fit in.
Regardless of the lack of space, the box opened and revealed something beautiful. The circuit was so large it barely fit inside the box. It's symphony of lines running parallel and perpendicular to each other was a sight to behold. The red mana from the energy crystal lit up the circuit as its power coursed through it. I could see where the energy was going and where there was a lack of energy by only the glow it gives off. It was the most magnificent thing I had ever seen. I really wanted to meet the person who made this and apologize for how much I’m about to mess it up.
I pull out my pencil and begin to inspect the circuit, trying to figure out how to get it to go faster. After a while of tracing lines with my eyes poking at a few things, I decided that if I were to ever find the person who wrote this circuit I would kill them.
This is so god damn complicated. I swear I’ve forgotten what this line does five fucking times now. This is why people commented their code back on earth. I’ll just write it down in my notebook.
Once I have everything labelled in my notebook, then I can really start messing with this circuit. However, I was so engrossed in tampering with the inner workings of the train that I forgot that someone was chasing me. With a loud clang, I heard the door to the locomotive fly off its hinges.
“Gotcha! Wait, there's no one in here!” I freeze as I hear him enter.
Shit, I completely forgot about him. Its okay. Its okay, if he doesn’t find the access panel then I’m all good. Infact, can’t I just hid in here until he goes away? Yeah, that’s a good plan if I’ve ever heard one. Let’s go with that.
“I swear I saw the brat come in here. Did they jump off? That would make my job so much easier. I don’t even know why they chose me for this mission. I’m not exactly the ‘stealthy’ type and Esia is better at search missions anyways.” I could hear the berserker look around the locomotive as he spoke to himself.
“Still, why would a brat even be here?”
Because Daddy was bad at thinking ahead
“Wait, didn’t the rat say that Terry had a brat? I haven’t seen Terry in a while, but I could totally see Terry bringing his brat here.”
Hold on, rat? As in a double agent? Are you telling me someone sold Daddy out? Wait but didn’t that Grandald guy say that this was already a set up? So one group of people set Daddy up, while another person sold Daddy out leading into a berserker being here. What the fuck has Daddy been doing to make so many people want to kill him?
“But if its Terry’s brat, then it's possible that they know how to go invisible… So if I set the place on fire, then they’ll have to come out of hiding.”
Ummm could you not? For the love of god could you just leave without breaking something?
“Plus, if I do that then I wouldn’t have to worry about missing the superweapons. Oh but I’ll have to go back and destroy all the other train cars too… This is gonna be my whole day isn’t it.”
Please go break the other train cars first. I know you probably won’t but I would still be really thankful.
If the berserker was going to destroy the locomotive, then it was important that I slow the thing down so I can get off without becoming roadkill.
I know where the decelerate line is so I can activate it easily, even if I can’t actually press the button on the controls.
This seemed like a good plan. The berserker was going to set the place on fire and I would slow it down enough where I can get off safely (hopefully without being seen) and get away. I still don’t know if I’ll survive this high in the snowy mountains but it’s better than just getting cooked alive.
Just as I put my pencil on the decelerate line to connect it to an active line, I heard a loud clang as a huge axe cut through the metal that made up the control panel and stopped only a foot away from my face.
In the name of fuck! What the hell!
I recoiled in fear as the axe is loosed from the control board. Understandably, I was extremely shocked that an axe almost cut my head off. I was lucky, but the circuit that ran the whole locomotive wasn’t so fortunate. My hand had run across the whole circuit while my pencil was pressing down on it. A huge mark now connected almost every line.
“Well shit. That isn’t good.”
As I whisper to myself, magical energy started to overflow into every input and output of the circuit. Everything was turning on and off at once and the circuit started to glow intensely. I’m no expert, but it looks like it wants to explode.
No wait, I am an expert and it definitely wants to explode. Time to leave.
While the berserker continues his assault on the controls, I throw my backpack on and crawl as fast as I can to the access door. His axe almost hits my head a few times but the circuit won’t give me time to let me care. Once I’m there I turn the handle and throw it open.I break into a sprint the moment I’m able and run past the berserker straight towards the open door.
“Gotcha you brat!”
Alas the locomotive was so small, that even though I was in the doorway, all the berserker had to do was lean over and grab me by the scruff of my neck. Still holding me by my neck, he held me up in front of him and pulled his axe out of the now cut up controls. With a sharp glare he asks me a question.
“Blah blah blah I’m a shitty musclebrain who goes around killing nice people’s dads.”
I’ll be honest, I’m not even listening to his question so that might as well have been what he said. I’m busy trying to get free of his grasp and get the fuck out of here before the circuit goes boom.
“Hey! Did your parents never teach you to make eye contact when an adult is speaking to you?”
He grabs my chin and makes me face him. His face has a few scars on it and its lightly covered in sweat. Pretty gross if you ask me. Caboose if you’re watching this please call the Child Protective Services.
“Now I’m going to ask you some questions and you are going to answer them truthfully. Who brought you here?”
Like hell I’m going to answer that honestly.
“The head representative of the Eshos government.”
“Sure why not. It doesn’t matter who brought you anyway. Do you know if there are any super weapon plans on this train?”
“YES! Yes there are! On the back end of the train! Lets go right now!”
Please get me off this train. It's going to go pop soon and I really don’t wanna die.
“You seem a little too enthusiastic about that. Any reason-”
A deep and violent fiery burst cuts off his question. In the span of a mere second, fire erupts from the gashes in the controls and fills the locomotive. Red hot shards of metal fly past me and embed themselves into anything they come into contact with. With more force than a baseball bat to the gut, the shockwave sends me and the berserker flying out the door. Only after being launched back about a hundred feet do I realise that the locomotive had been blasted a solid ten feet off the ground by the force of the explosion. The front of the locomotive had been blown clean off while peeled back sheet metal barely clung together in the rear. As the fireball of a locomotive smashes into the ground, I crash into the snow barely missing the train tracks behind me. I see the berserker land into the rails and hear a bone-chilling snap as he fumbles on the ground.
I lay there in mute shock as the burning remains of the locomotive fall around me. Every inch of me felt that boom, and every inch of me was incredibly sore. The smoke from the wreckage plumed up into the sky, turning the snow a deep soot-like color.
“Holy shit”
I turn my head to look at the berserker. He was just laying there. Looking a little closer I could see that his neck was bent at a weird angle and large shards of metal had dug deeply into his back. He must be dead.
I didn’t move for a long time. The fire from the wreckage kept me warm enough. I had thought that an avalanche would sweep me away, but it looks like the explosion had blown all the snow away. At least I don’t have to worry about that anymore.
After a snowflake lands in my eye while I lay there, I realise that it’s still snowing. I should move to find shelter. I slowly stood up. Every part of my body felt sore and shaken. I’m seriously surprised I’m still alive. I’ve seen some of my co-workers in my previous life liquidize the inside of fruit by blowing it up. I should be grateful that such a thing didn’t happen to my brain, but I’m too tired to care. I shuffle to the peeled back corpse of a locomotive, and collapse inside. I take off my backpack and lean against one of the few remaining walls.
Warmed by the fires dotted throughout the wreckage, I quickly fall asleep.
