CHAPTER 24
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I squinted at the sun shining through the window next to the bed. Only black blocks of wood remained from last night’s fire. Larry was writing in a book that laid open on the table, also in the room. I sat up and rested my back against the wall at the head of the bed.

“What you writing?” I asked.

“Just a diary entry, about yesterday,”  Larry said.

“Why were you out there all alone in the dark?”

“I was looking for something, someone. My daughter.”

“She’s missing?”

“I was out hunting the other day, caught a magnificent moose, we could’ve eaten well for weeks! But when I came home, I was greeted by a horrific sight… I presume some bad people had come by, because our house had been torn into pieces, and my wife… My wife laid dead on the kitchen floor, with buckshot scattered around her abdomen…” Larry paused, “surprisingly, none of our money had been taken, but little Ella was nowhere to be seen. She’s only ten… I’m hoping she ran off in fear, because if not, I don’t want to think about what they could’ve done to her… I search for her day and night, but so far I’ve had no luck.”

Sounded eerily similar to my incident.

“Are you familiar with Haraldstown?” I asked Larry.

“No, I don’t think so..?” Larry replied.

“It’s a place that hosts auctions, they sell young girls to the highest bidder. They kidnapped me and my sister. Killed father in the process… I fear they may be the ones that took your daughter.”

“No… That can’t be! How would they get here?? This island is on lockdown!”

“I don’t know, but I live a lot further from the valley than you do, and that didn’t stop them.”

“You got out, didn’t you? That means she could’ve been able to too. Maybe she’s on her way back here right now! Is your sister still on that airship of yours? Did the two of you happen to have seen a blonde little girl with blue icy eyes?”

“No.. My sister wasn’t as lucky as me. She’s still out there, somewhere..”

“I’m sorry to hear that.. I guess we’re in the same boat then.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Is there any way to get back to the valley?”

“Not yet, but they are building a railroad bridge that’ll connect us with the mainland. There’s a lot of iron around here, you see, iron that will make someone somewhere very rich, while the rest of us work ourselves to death in the mines.”

At least it wasn’t Unionsville, no queen ant throwing them into a cave if they disobeyed.

“Why don’t you make money off of the iron? Grab a pickaxe and mine, sell the ore, hire some more miners, and build your own company from the ground up?”

Larry laughed: “Oh you.. It’s not that simple, putting food on the table takes up the majority of my day, and I can’t afford the equipment to refine iron, let alone deliver it to customers. The wealthy use their wealth to generate more wealth. Us normal people on the other hand, get stuck doing the dirty work until we are too sick and old to keep going. You’ll understand one day.”

Larry had a very pessimistic way of seeing things, one that would keep him from achieving great things, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Let’s get this cabinet out of the way, shall we?” Larry said, “we can ask the workers over by the bridge how long they think it’ll take before they have it finished.”

I got out of bed, picked the rifle up by its strap, and swung it over my shoulder. Significantly lighter than the VRC. We pulled the cabinet away from the door. It took more effort than when I had the help of my legs.

We walked along a thawed road leading away from the cabin. I could see my every breath due to the cold. Passed a frozen lake, I saw a fish hopping out of a hole in the ice, and made sure not to step on the trail of ants crossing the road. Must be freezing working in this weather. A hawk pecked on something laying in the slushy ditch.

“Looks like we found the cabin’s owner, what was he thinking?” Larry shook his head, “search his pockets, maybe he has something useful.”

The hawk screeched, and fluttered away.

“See? They’re a lot more scared of us during the day,” Larry pointed out.

Felt weird going through a dead man’s pockets, but he wouldn’t be needing any of his belongings. His very simple, ragged pants had nothing in them. Claw marks were visible on his back, the coat had been ripped into shreds. Stenched of urine, perhaps he had gone out to do his business. Why not just keep a bucket in the cabin and empty it the next morning?

“Nothing,” I told Larry.

“Oh well, at least we got his rifle,” Larry replied.

Felt better about having taken it knowing it wouldn’t be missed.

“You should take his coat, or what’s left of it. Better than going bare armed like that,” Larry told me.

I couldn’t get it off the corpse, so I tore it in two, then slid the halves off each of the arms, and put it on. A very temporary solution. Untied the sack of ammunition and put it in the coat pocket nonetheless. A mosquito had landed on my arm. Smack. Didn’t get it in time, I scratched the itch.

“Hear that?” Larry asked.

I listened. Chuff, chuff, chuff. Smoke travelled across the sky.

“There it is!” Larry nodded towards the other side of the lake where a locomotive followed by many cars stacked with rails traveled. The steel rails gleamed in the sun.

“Come on! Let’s catch a ride!” Larry sprinted towards the train.

Kept up with him, buttoning the coat as I ran. Larry ran alongside the freight train, caught ahold of the ladder between two of the cars, and jumped onto it. He quickly climbed aboard and reached his hand out.

“Grab my hand!” He shouted.

The train was faster than me, Larry was moving further and further away. I fell face first in the snow, but quickly got up. Three cars behind Larry, the last car was catching up to me. I saw a car ladder next to me, and grabbed it. My hand moved forward, my legs couldn’t keep the pace. I was dragged along the snow, stubborn enough to not let go. Caught the ladder with my other hand, lifted my entire weight with my arms, climbing. Managed to get my right foot on the bottom step, and pushed myself up onto the car.

I laid there resting my exhausted arms until Larry came peeking over the stack of rails on the car I was on.

“I was afraid you weren’t going to make it there for a second. Glad you did, this will save us days of walking,” Larry climbed down to me.

“You don’t have to doubt me, I always make it,” I assured him.

We entered a tunnel, smoke from the locomotive came down over the railcar.

“I once knew a guy who talked like that.”

“‘Knew’?”

“A real daredevil, had one of those fancy cameras, did photography of the wildlife up here, made quite the fortune I heard. Sadly, his luck came to an end when tried to catch a close up of a polar bear.”

“Should’ve been armed.”

“Oh he was, had a thirty-thirty rifle on him at all times, but polar bears don’t go down that easy.”

Made me wonder if I was living life too much on the edge. If it led to finding Maria, I didn’t care if it damn near killed me.

The tunnel ended, I breathed the fresh air hitting my face. We were travelling down a mountain, into the snow covered plains, saw three houses no bigger than specs far, far apart. Chirping birds flew alongside the train.

“Are there any towns around here?” I wondered.

“Not really, they’re building one by the mines so that workers can quickly get to work, but right now there are only tents. We do meet with the natives and host a market every year on that big lake over there,” Larry pointed at a large flat snow covered area void of any trees in the middle of the plains, “it starts tomorrow, actually. Almost everyone on this island will be there.”

“Interesting.”

Could one of them know anything about the other Joe Barth? Chances seemed slim, but not impossible.

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