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Chapter 293: Midnight Train - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2024-09-11 06:36:44 +0000 UTCThe train screeched to a halt in front of us. Markus fiddled with the command token he now held in his hand, looking more than a little nervous as he did so. He looked... uncomfortable as he held it.
After hearing my words, Markus and the other soldiers had gone to pack their supplies. The fort commander had noticed them moving around, and asked them what they were doing. Markus and the other soldiers had told the fort commander what I had said... and the commander had spent a while pondering their words. Then, the commander had come to me to verify my words. I had pointed out the large hole in the sky... not that it was very visible in the darkness. The hole in space was pitch-black, and didn't stand out much when there wasn't any sunlight to illuminate it.
The commander had spent a few minutes squinting at the patch of sky I had pointed out, before he finally sighed. Then, he had commanded Markus and the others to report my words back to town.
I thought that was a bit odd. After all, the military had dedicated messengers. However, while his behavior was strange, I was grateful for it. I didn’t want to leave Markus behind while we fled. I had promised Trish that I would check on Markus. How could I explain abandoning him at the last step of our journey away from the front lines?
When I saw the commander's expression, I realized that he believed me. Which made it all the more disconcerting when he refused to leave with us, or gather more soldiers to flee. Instead, he wore a grim, empty expression as he stared at the night sky.
A part of me suspected that he knew he might die here, and was trying to give at least a few of us a way to flee. A bigger part of me wondered why he didn't save more, or save himself. But I didn't have time to understand his psyche. The catastrophe was coming, and we needed to move. With the commander's orders, and a new command medallion, the seven of us left the fort and headed for the trains.
I tried not to let my last sight of the fort commander weigh on me as I saw a conductor step out of the train and frown at us. His eyes swept over my dress, before he took a closer look at my, Anise, and Felix's faces. Finally, his gaze settled on Markus's command token. Then, his gaze settled back on me.
“Who are you? You don't seem to be here to help unload the train."
“I’m Miria! I’m here because I have a healing ability, and I'm studying medicine. I was volunteering on the front lines as a healer. But now that things are starting to settle down, I want to go home and see my family. My… grandfather is in a pretty bad state of health right now, and I want to check up on him.” Old Mo wasn't technically my grandfather, but he might as well have been. He had taken far better care of me in this life than my real family.
The conductor’s expression softened a bit as he looked at me.
“How old are you?”
“Almost seventeen.”
The conductor sighed, and rubbed his temples.
“Young enough that you think the 'almost' matters." He sighed again. "The trains are meant to ship people to the front lines, but I guess there’s no harm in bringing medical volunteers back either. The front lines are no place for a kid anyway.” Then, he looked at the soldiers that had come with us. His gaze settled upon the token in Markus’s hand again, and he raised an eyebrow. "What about you four? You definitely don't seem like volunteers, or doctors." His eyes narrowed as he looked at the token. "You aren't looking to desert, are you? Did you steal that medallion?"
Markus winced, but stood his ground.
“We’re carrying a message back to town. Something has happened on the front lines, and I’m to bring word back.”
The conductor frowned.
“Doesn’t the military have messenger networks for that? Why would your commander send you to carry word back?” the man gave Markus and the other few soldiers a severe frown. Markus stepped forward and patted the train conductor on the shoulder.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
The conductor looked at Markus with an expression of confusion.
“My name is Matthew.”
“Matthew, then. The four of us have fought on the front lines for months. We’ve risked our lives to keep the country safe. Less than an hour ago, something… broke. I don’t know what it is, but Miria and her friends say that it has to do with space itself. Our commander told us that we’re to bring word back to town… and a part of me suspects that’s because the fort is about to collapse. If we were going to desert... wouldn't we have done so weeks ago? Why would we desert just as the front lines are stabilizing?” said Markus. “Every single minute we waste is a minute where the disaster creeps closer… and a minute we could be organizing relief efforts. I know that it’s irregular… but we need to go now.”
The train conductor’s expression softened somewhat. He didn't look like he completely believed us... but he also didn't look like he was staring at deserters anymore. He sighed.
"Fine.. You can get on. After we finish unloading the train. I don't know what kind of disaster you think happened, but the front lines need these supplies now. And I'll walk you to the military base.”
I frowned. It definitely didn't sound like the conductor actually believed us. That was... frustrating. But what mattered was that we were moving away from the front lines. Even if the conductor was being obnoxious, what mattered was getting to safety. Within a day or two, the veracity of our statements would be obvious enough anyway. With that thought, I felt a wave of relief flow through me. We had found a way to get Markus to safety.
The seven of us boarded the train under the watchful eye of the conductor. Then, we waited. Every single second that the men spent unloading supplies made me want to scream in anxiety. Unloading supplies and people wasn’t what we needed to do right now. We needed to turn around and move towards town as fast as possible. Unloading troops here was basically throwing them into a raging bonfire. If my fears about the spatial collapse were true, they probably wouldn't make it back to their hometowns. But since the conductor didn't believe us, there was nothing we could do. I just sat there and watched men and women march towards pointless and avoidable deaths and agonized over their fates.
Half an hour later, the train finished unloading. After that, it started moving again, and we started to charge away from the front lines.
We spent the next few hours on the train, as I kept an eye on the distant skies. As I used my various special sights to keep an eye on things, I realized the cracks were still spreading. However, they weren't spreading as quickly as before. It seemed that the further away the crocks got from the epicenter, the slower they spread. This helped quell my anxiety even more. We were making progress. The train was moving away from the calamity faster than it was approaching us. By the time we drew closer to town, I could only see the little cracks in the far distance. I started recalculating how much time it would take for the cracks to reach town, and breathed a small sigh of relief. We had a day or so until the spatial collapse reached us. At least for now, it seemed like we had outrun the collapse.
Markus and the other soldiers gave me a quick nod as I made my way towards the exit of the train. The obnoxious conductor eyed Markus and the others with a frown. Markus sighed, and gave me a quick hug.
“I’ll make my report to the base here as fast as I can,” said Markus. “I’ll meet up with you and Trish afterwards.”
“Got it. I’ll head straight to Trish’s clinic. I'll also grab Iselde and Vance, if I can convince them to come along. We should have about a day to get away from here. Stay safe. See you there.”
“I’ll work on securing some tickets,” said Felix. "It's late, but there should still be a few larger ships selling tickets off the mainland. Do we have a specific destination in mind?"
I thought about what I knew about the colonies, and came up blank. I knew that our continent had conquered most of the rest of the world, and that some of the colonies had darker skin colors. I also knew that the colonies exported a lot of raw materials to our continent. That was it.
I sighed.
"I have no idea. Just find whichever ticket leaves first, and make sure it isn't heading west. I would prefer if the ship headed southeast, to make sure we're moving in the opposite direction of the catastrophe."
"Got it," said Felix. "Anise, can you come along with me? It’s quite late, and I wouldn’t mind having a second pair of eyes around to keep me safe. Right now, you’re better at direct combat than me.”
“Of course!” chirped Anise. With that, the group of refugees from the front lines broke apart. I made my way towards Trish’s clinic, and hoped that Trish wouldn't be opposed to leaving with us. I didn't want to leave a single person that I cared about behind.
Author’s Note:
The week of September 23rd, I will be moving. I anticipate missing 1-2 MaM chapters that week, depending on how much time and energy it takes to move everything, set up/rebuild furniture, and basically just get everything settled. Budding Scientist chapter for that week may also be shorter than usual, depending on how things go.
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