The Loyal Ones

Ch 19: The Captain

Kit wasn't in the car.

It took maybe an hour for the miners to start singing. It was the longest Dally had ever sat in a transport in silence. When they finally did start it was loud to be heard over the thundering pistons, like long howls into the dark. 

Apart from that, the rail car just like how they always were. Hot, loud, choking. The inside skin of the great machine was warm and damp. Its heat had built up and up until the thralls were panting, slumping over each other. Dally's nostrils went numb to the stink of sweat.

Nessie had been crying into Dally's back, and started again once they heard the singing. Maybe normally they'd be happy to hear so many new songs at once, but right now it hurt. The miners slang was different, and most of the songs Dally had never heard before. When they sang in Corps it had an accent like a mouth full of gravel. Dally leaned back against Nessie, humming under his breath.

The miner from before was politely looking away from them, staring into the dim red heat.

"What's your name?" Dally asked.

The miner sniffed, rubbed sweat off his face with one thick, clawed hand. "Ansel."

"I'm Dally."

"Is your friend alright?"

Dally shook his head.   

Ansel hesitated, then awkwardly snaked an arm in between them to rest a hand on Nesette's shoulder. Nessie flinched, and then relaxed, sobbing again.

The day passed. The only way to tell was the pink light fading above them, then slowly coming back. The teeth-rattling shake of the train never stopped, and the doors never opened. After the first few hours the singing faded, as everyone's throats dried up.

"They'll give us water, right?" Red asked.

"Maybe," said Ansel, without opening his eyes. The miner had kind of adopted them, like they were a pack of dumb puppies. Nessie was asleep with their head in his lap.

After the second day it was obvious — there wasn't any water or food coming. The light faded again, leaving them all in red darker than blood.

"We're going to have to tap the car," Dally said to Red. His voice rasped, until he swallowed, painfully.

"Huh?"

Ansel growled in the dark, vibrating where he was crushed up against Dally's side. "He means cut one of those veins in the wall, drink some of the stuff in there." The miner didn't sound happy. "Where I come from there's consequences for that"

"There's consequences for not doing it," Dally said. "You think we'll make it to Provok without water?"

"You want to drink the car's blood?" Red asked.

"It'll be okay," Dally said. "They won't see. If they do I'll tell them it was me."

Ansel snorted, but he was grinding his jagged teeth in the dark. Dally could hear it - a squeak and click. After a while he rubbed his face. "You know how to do it so it heals clean?" he asked Dally. "The old ones can do it."

That was something they'd figured out early - everyone in the car was young. Ansel wasn't even thirty, and he was one of the oldest. Some of the miners were even younger than Nessie, thirteen or fourteen year olds.

"No," Dally said. "Kind of. Maybe if it was lighter."

"Psh."

But that seemed like an understanding, so the four of them squirmed their way through the crowd until they reached the wall a few feet away.  The car's skin was warm, vibrating with the thrum of pistons. Dally felt  around on it, and next to him the darker-dark of Ansel's shadow was doing the same.