Authors: Sean Fletcher
Trains, and Other Things that Go Off
Track
“Hold
on.” If it was possible, Matt pressed his face closer to the screen. “There’s a
train carrying more military tech—at least that’s what the company’s
manifesto says—”
“Did
you hack their server again—?” I asked.
“—heading
Northwest straight through the Queensbury rail yard.”
“So
what about it?” Cody said. “A train is coming through Queensbury, we still owe
the government taxes and—news flash!—I heard the sun will rise
tomorrow morning. Why is that a big deal?”
“Matt
says it’s carrying military tech,” I said.
“And
there has been an increase in theft of military tech,” Matt said.
“Hold
up, I didn’t know that,” Cody said. He looked at both of us. “Who’s been doing
that?”
“Sykes?”
I guessed. “I’m pretty sure he wants to get revenge, but I’m not sure how. Maybe
he’s stealing stuff and building a weapon or something.”
“But
you’ve talked to him a couple times,” Cody said. “Did he say anything about
needing weapons?”
“Nothing
like that, no.”
I
had never told them everything Sykes and I had talked about. That information
seemed way, way too personal, like a private club that only crazy super humans
could get into.
“It’s
not Sykes,” Matt said. “Police reports indicate these thefts have been going on
even before Sykes was in the area.”
“Okay,”
I said. “If it’s not Sykes, then who is it? Maybe Queensbury is full of
military tech enthusiasts.”
“That’s
for you to find out,” Matt said.
“What’s with all the military tech going
through here anyway?” Cody said.
“Queensbury
is in the middle of a major shipping lane for military production companies
like Coleman Inc and Rogers’ and Makers’ Tech, who have factories in the
north.”
I
stretched and grabbed my costume. “Well, we’ll find out who’s doing it tonight.”
Matt
clicked again. “The train doesn’t come through here for another two hours. You
can take a look at the end of your rounds.”
Lucky
for me, there was nothing else exciting happening in Queensbury. By exciting I
mean I didn’t get shot at, nearly die or watch someone else nearly die. Yay for
me.
So,
on to the train yard. I leapt and landed in a roll on the next building. My
brain switched instantaneously into Parkour mode, my eyes searching for new
launch points or things to swing off. The boots grabbed the concrete beneath my
feet and allowed me to vault over the next roof gap, landing with an ease I
hadn’t been able to before. I was faster than I’d ever been. In no time I was
looking down at stacks of boxcars below me.
“Dead
and desolate,” Cody commented after I’d had a look around. “Just how we like
it.”
“I’m
still going to wait for the train to come through,” I said. I took my time walking
on top massive stacks of boxcars and beneath loading cranes. There were a few
spotlights and some guards in a small house across the tracks so I guessed they
assumed the low, barbed wire fence would encourage everybody to stay out.
From
my vantage point I could see the stalks of skyscrapers sprouting above the
skyline. Sometimes, late at night, a fog would settle between the streets,
maybe coming off the lake nearby. Cody and Matt admitted that it helped me
blend in, but thought it was gloomy all the same. I didn’t agree. I found it
cleansing. It layered everything in a fine, misty sheen and breathed life into
the dank and dirty. It revealed the raw form of Queensbury to me. Others saw
only what was bad in the city. I tried to see the good between the crappy,
crime-riddled exterior. The layers slowly peeled back and revealed themselves,
Queens’ savage beauty. It made me like it all the more.
“Hey,
Cody,” I said hesitantly.
“Yeah.”
“Is
the mic on speaker?” A pause, and then I heard a soft click.
“Now
it’s not. What’s up?”
“I
was just wondering, you know.” I hopped down and over another fence and started
walking on the rails. “If you thought, hypothetically, that Liz might, maybe,
hypothetically, of course, say yes if I asked her on a date. You know, just for
fun.”
I
could practically hear Cody smiling through the speaker.
“Well,
Drake buddy, speaking, hypothetically of course, that, maybe,
hypothetically—”
“Get
on with it,” I said, already regretting asking.
“Yes,
I think so,” Cody finished. “Come on, Drake. You guys spar together all the
time and you hang out when you’re not doing that. She likes you. Besides, if it
doesn’t work out you can always take it out on each other on the mat.”
“Thanks,
Cody. You should go into relationship counseling.”
“That’s
what you get for asking a guy like me about things like that. Next time you
should ask Melanie. She’d have a much better idea.”
“Speaking
of Melanie, when are you going to—”
“Sorry,
Drake, mic’s on speaker again. You hear a train coming?”
The
rails started shaking. Its horn blared. As it grew closer I stepped into the
shadows of the boxcars as it thundered past, all blinking lights and ringing
sirens. The sound was so deafening I had to cover my ears and clench my jaw to
keep my teeth from rattling. I looked up to see how much of the train was left.
That’s
when I saw the men leap from the top of a boxcar and on to the train.
“Really?”
I groaned. “They couldn’t have taken the night off?”
I
rushed over to a boxcar closest to the tracks. The train was going a lot faster
than I thought. I needed to time this perfectly or I’d be nothing but a splatter
on the side of a shipping car.
“Okay,” I breathed. “Come on, they’re
getting away, comeoncomeoncomeon!”
I
sprinted and took a flying leap—and totally screamed like a little girl.
I hit the top of the train, rolled and grabbed an edge just as I almost toppled
off. After a second of unsure dangling I managed to pull myself up.
I
had to keep pretty low to the boxcar to avoid getting blown off. The cars were
all flat, not coal or anything, which made it easier for me to crawl forward,
the gloves and boots gripping the rough metal.
I
think Cody was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t hear over the roar
and clatter of the tracks and shifting cars as we barreled through the station
and on to the middle of Queensbury.
The
silhouettes of three men crouched on the car ahead of me. As I watched, they
pried open a hatch in one of the cars and hopped inside. When had Sykes started
employing henchman? That didn’t seem like his style.
I
approached the pried up door and peered down inside. It was pitch black. I
couldn’t see the men down there in the little light my mask could amplify.
I
jumped inside. My feet hit the bottom with a loud clang and I crouched, ready
to meet anyone. I could sense, rather than see, that there were other men in
the car.
Then
a gruff voice said, “Take him.”
A
net dropped onto me out of nowhere. Men emerged from the darkened part of the
boxcar and started hitting me while I struggled to free myself. I managed to
grab one and hurl him back but he was quickly replaced by another. I couldn’t
tell how many there were before a jolt of lighting shot up my spine and I
collapsed in a heap, my earpiece dead.
A
man stepped into the sliver of light from the open panel above us. He wore a
ski mask, but the rest of his body was clad in all black, almost like a ninja.
It took me a moment to register that it was a uniform. They were all in
uniforms. What was this, some kind of cult?
“That
was easier than expected,” the man said. He bent down to look at my face. “What
is he wearing? Whatever, let’s get him back to the warehouse. The boss’ll want
to see this.”
Another
man kicked my leg, which had begun to regain feeling in it. “He’s strong. You
think he’s one of them?”
“One
way to find out. Knock him out and let’s go—”
Something
landed on the roof of the boxcar. Steps sounded, coming closer to the open
door. The men looked up and some pulled out pistols and Tasers.
“Are we expecting company?” The man asked. Nobody responded, their focus
on whoever was above them. Somebody dropped in the opening. A metallic glint
and I felt a warm spray of blood on my face.
“Gah!
Attack! Attack!”
The
car filled with screams and loud bangs. I managed to push myself over to the edge
of the metal and pull the net off me. In the faint light I could barely make
out one man sliding between the uniforms, hacking and slashing.
They
were all dead in seconds.
“You’re
welcome,” Sykes said.
“What
are you doing here? How did you know I was here?”
Sykes
emerged from the shadows of the back of the car. He re-sheathed his knife and
used his foot to turn one of the dead men’s faces towards him.
“Stop
that!”
“I
just saved you. You should be grateful.”
“You
didn’t have to kill them,” I said. I avoided looking in the dark part of the
boxcar, where the rest of the bodies were. Already the smell of blood was
beginning to seep from the back.
“Ahh…but
you see I did. You may not be aware of this, but these men aren’t petty
criminals.” He bent down and rubbed the black uniform the man had on between
his fingers. There was a single sliver of a moon patched on his shoulder that I
hadn’t noticed before. “These men wanted you specifically. Why would that be,
Drake? Why would they want you?”
I
eased a little closer to the exit of the car. I could probably move faster than
him if I needed to. But did I need to?
“They
thought I was in their way, that was all,” I said, not really believing it.
“They
were Project Midnight, alive and well,” Sykes said. “Still up to their old
habits. They wanted you because they know what you are, Drake. Project Midnight
is still around and they’re still kidnapping and killing. Still trying to
perfect what they once had before I…hindered them.”
“Who’s
side are you on?” The words sounded strange to my mouth. Sykes and a ‘good
deed’ were two things that shouldn’t have gone together. “You kill without any
mercy, but you save me.”
Sykes
stood up. “I’ve told you before, I’m not your enemy. We’re one in the same, and
we have to watch out for each other.”
“And
you expect me to believe these guys were part of Project Midnight?”
“You
know the answer to that.”
I
couldn’t relax around him, not for a second, but I did walk a little ways
around him to have a better vantage point to leave the
boxcar.
“They
treated me like cattle,” Sykes said. “Like I wasn’t even human. The moment I
got my abilities, I was nothing more than a thing to them.”
“Didn’t
you want those powers?”
Sykes didn’t answer.
“Well
if you didn’t want those powers then what do you want? Do you want a cure?”
“There
is no cure. Not for this. You know what I want. It’s the same thing you’ll want
soon enough. When they start taking everything from you.”
That
made about as much sense to me as anything else he usually said. But I didn’t get
the chance to ask again, because Sykes said, “You’re welcome,” again and leapt
out the opening, leaving me alone in the boxcar with dead men from an illegal
project that should have disappeared a long time ago.
The
smell of death coupled with the shaking of the boxcar started to make my
stomach roll. I needed to get out. But before I could, my eye caught something
flashing in the pockets of one of the men. It made me sick just getting near
his body, but I snatched up whatever it was. It was shaped like a cell phone,
with a blinking red dot hovering over a touchscreen map of Queensbury.
I
stumbled as the train bumped again. First things first: I needed to get out of
here. I leapt to the top of the boxcar and steadied myself on the shaking
metal. The train was just passing a quiet looking apartment complex. The ground
was moving way too fast.
Without
thinking, I jumped.
Soft
ground did not greet me.
I
managed to roll when I hit but sharp pain cut in to my stomach and shoulders. A
large bush finally stopped me. Nothing felt broken but I would definitely feel
this tomorrow.
“Drake?”
Cody said.
My
earpiece was back on. “I’m here.”
I
heard Cody breath a sigh of relief. “You had me worried there, buddy. Something
must have severed the connection. We couldn’t see or hear anything once you got
into the train.”