Traveler

Musician: New Lands and a Newbie

Traveler Chapter 9 (Musician)

New Land and a Newbie

I obeyed Laika, though honestly I didn't know why. I managed to hop aboard my boxcar just as the train was leaving, the City-issued backpack containing two newly-acquired sandwiches and bottles of water.

At least, I'd thought it was my car, until Laika glowered down at me from a corner of the box. I sighed, climbing to my feet. "Whoops."

She rolled her eyes and held out a hand reluctantly. I plopped a sandwich and a water into it sarcastically.

I sat in the other corner of the boxcar and slowly picked at my own sandwich, staring out at the landscape.

Suddenly Laika spoke. "What do you know about us?"

I glanced over; she was staring straight ahead at the passing landscape. "Us?"

She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated gesture. "The people who live outside of your Splitting City."

“Splitting?” I knew I must’ve sounded like an idiot, but none of what she was saying made any sense.

“It’s an expression. And not a fond one, in case you were wondering that, too. Back to my question.”

"Oh. The land changes here, and you have something called music. Also, we are in the middle of nowhere.” I felt the urge to meet her scathing comments with my own.

She glared at me, then slowly softened into confusion. "What do you mean about the land changing?"

I shrugged. "They told me it was the same everywhere. There was no reason to leave. No mountains, or natural landmarks or waterways, or anything at all, really. Just flat, green land. They said it had all been leveled by the Wars."

She looked at me strangely. "What else did they tell you?" The question sounded very cautious.

I glanced at her without moving my head, and this time she was staring at me. I looked away uncomfortably. "Does it matter?"

Laika glared. "No, I'm just asking because I have absolutely nothing better to do."

"Sarcasm?" It was a somewhat new concept to me, and one she seemed fond of.

"Uh, yeah."

I stared into my lap. "Nothing really. We never asked, and they never shared."

Laika nodded, contemplating. "You know of the Whispering Rocks?"

I shook my head slowly. She looked into the distance again. "Well then, that's where we're going."

"Wait," I protested. "You said you'd take me to the address."

She bit the corner of her lip for a moment. "Trust me, I'm helping you. If you want to get anywhere here, you can't seem like a complete newbie."

I looked over at her again. "You? Helping me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't think too much into it. I just don't want to be the cause of your death. Laika, accused of the murder of Casen by leading to a strange house." She spread her hands in the air as she spoke, as if pantomiming a headline. And for the first time, she flashed a quick smile. I couldn't help but notice how pretty it made her, but banished the thought with a vengeance almost before it had time to cross my mind.

Instead, I tried to keep the conversation going in a positive direction. "And I don't want to be dead.”

I caught a hard exhale that hinted at laughter, but that was it. We sat in silence after that, until finally Laika pulled out her black laptop. "Look at it and you just might be," she warned, hazel eyes already scanning the screen at an impossible rate. I didn't dare even shift my gaze, instead watching the land again and listening for the music.

Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I'd thought. Or, maybe… it would be worse.