Spadeverse Vol. 1

Chapter 11 - False Refuge

Spade

Getting onto a passing train was easy... once she let go of the fear of overshooting the handrails and tumbling under its steel wheels. And so it took Spade the book worm her third try before she even managed it. It was not so much for the failed attempts that three trainers went past. Rather, it took three passing trains before she even built up the courage to elevate her hand close enough to the moving train to grab anything at all. So after three trains, and perhaps two or so hours in between each of them spent walking, her bare feet aching in a complaint, she found herself sat down in a squat sobbing to herself. She was out of her depth. Stuck in a prison of her own creation, surrounded by objects and things that can kill her if she took a step in the wrong direction.

This was not a book filled with danger that she can cozy up to knowing that she was safe. This was as real as it gets.

And besides knowing that Dark Spade... Chaos spade? Besides knowing her dark counterpart was out there, held more power of creation than she did, had her book and pen, Spade could not shake the feeling that she was under the threat of being ambushed by her at any time. There was also that uncanny feeling lingering in her chest like she'd fallen asleep in the middle of something except instead of waking up she'd just come blinking dumbfounded to herself. It took her three tries for her to gather enough courage to grab onto a moving train without fear of it killing her in the process. The first time it was just pure lack of courage to latch onto the open sides of the empty rusted steel of the cargo boxes.

The second she was about to until she spotted a young man regarding her silently on the roof of the cargo, sword on his back and feet shoulder-width apart with arms clasped behind him, he looked imposing there with the moving train as if stationery. Not just him, Spade noted a few other men and women; each disbursed evenly among the carts of the train, all with different weapons on their person. Pentagon knight's Spade realized, all likely assigned to watch over trade and cargo on the train, all there to make sure it reached its destination smoothly.

At first, she stopped because she thought they would try to stop her from getting on until she recalled something about the culture of the Knights and how they did their jobs. Often they took up freelancing jobs from escorts missions, guard duties to the hired sword. Some who found a job role they liked or are really good attended to specialize in that, thus getting more demand for their skills in that area. This sometimes meant that an organization earning themselves a more stable income could permanently hire a Knight who had consistent results from the job they requested. The people Spade saw on the roof were likely Knights under the heir of one such company. Being there to watch over the cargo and given the fact that she already saw other people within some of the empty carts, Spade figured so long as she didn't mess with the cargo they were watching over they would not act on her stowing away in the train.

So by that third time when she weighed out all odds of hurting herself or worse, when she built up the courage to jump onto the train she saw a well-built woman regarded her much like the man did on the last passing train, with tied-back hair and long coat she regarded Spade as she sat on top of a cargo box with a raised eyebrow. With a withdrawn look and her chest running cold, Spade bowed her head and ducked into the cart itself.

Logs filling up most of the cargo boxes only leaving a few empty supplies, the odd cluster of people sat in its steel belly. A few pensive faces rose up from their stopper to look up at her enter only to simmer down soon after. Gathered around in small clusters they talked in hushed whispers among themselves, families, friends, all huddled to their known circles like clandestined groups. all whispering or simply gazing away at nothing with thousand-yard stares, they looked downtrodden. A few (perhaps a lucky few) had brown sheets covering all but their neck and heads. Kids huddled with mothers as they slept. Some did covers and huddling.