"Please tell me you have twenty pounds of alabaster coal." Arken asked Jesper as he lit a few blue lights.
"Slight snag in the plan. Turns out the kid who was helping me buy the coal, didn't exactly know how to, uh, but coal?" Jesper lied.
"We know you gambled it all away." Kaz stared down Jesper. The latter cowering back a bit.
"I lost a little bit of the money."
Kaz gave him a look.
"I lost all of the money. But I managed to steal twenty pounds of alabaster coal!"
Arken held up the bag. "No no. There's sixteen pounds."
"Sixteen pounds of alabaster coal." Jesper corrected himself.
"Saints, Jesper." Danielle flicked the back of his head and hopped his hat off his head. Jesper leaned down to get his hat.
"Can we do it on sixteen?" Kaz asked with his head turned to the conductor.
"Never been done before." He grumbled.
Gunshots hit the walls of the train. Frightened, Danny inches close to Kaz, the man putting his cane in between him for her to hold as a way for comfort. They can't hold hands so that was the best he could do.
Arken shoved Jesper into a seat. "Sir here. Never shift your weight!" Arken went to push Danny down too but Kaz slammed his cane i front of him.
"Don't touch her." Kaz glared at Arken then softened his gaze and motioned to the bench with his head, Ellie sat down.
Arken rolled up his sleeve, eleven scars covered his arm.
"You've cross that many times?" Inej looked at his arm wide eyed.
"It's a numbers game." He responded. "Cross this often and you get nightmares." He opened the compartment that held the fireplace for the coal.
An explosion sounded and the sound of screams followed. "Land mines..." Jesper looked through the peep hole.
"I thought you said they weren't real." Kaz leaned over to Arken.
Arken scratched his nose shyly. "I said nothing of the sort. I just said I put up the sign myself."
"Oh my saints!" Danny's face started to pale. Kaz placed his hand on her thigh.
The train started and off they went. The engine chugged, the wind soared, Danny tapping her thigh with a rhythm. Another sound came from outside, it was a metal clang. Jesper held onto his his necker then to his guns.
"What was that."
"I've erected a system of timers along the line. But if metal to keep me apprised of our pace." Arken informed.
"How did you know where to put the poles?" Danielle asked the conductor.
"Physics and engineering account for," he paused for a solid five seconds. "Most of my success.
"Wait. You paused. Why'd you pause? Kaz why did he pause?" Danny trembled.
"And the rest?" Asked Inej.
"What we might call divine intervention." Arken spoke as he played with his fingers. "What others might call luck. And after all, the Fold is thick with volcra. And the tracks, um, are not complete."
"What?"
"Coal please." Arken ignored her and looked to Kaz.
Jesper say up straight. "I'm sorry... did you say the tracks weren't complete?"
"I said they aren't complete."
"What- but-"
"Ah ah. Ah, no moving." The conductor snapped at Jesper who had been moving uncontrollably. "We're a tad late, more coal."
Kaz placed down some more coal. Jesper was clutching his jacket again. "Back to the real issue. We're on tracks, that don't connect to other tracks?!"
"Yes, there's a gap, but-"
"You said you could get us through!" Danny yelled at the conductor, interrupting him.
"How much of a gap?!" Jesper shrieked.
Arken looked at Danielle. "I built slats on the car. They roll into place under the wheels. The turbine generates enough wind to ouch is all the way to the eastern track."
"So as long as we don't shift our weight, we'll be fine?" Ellie asked him.
"Precisely."
Another clang.
"Now, the noise may attract volcra but it's the only way across." Arken moved the coal around as he spoke to the crows. "There is a nest nearby. But we'll be fine. If they haven't attacked us in..." he was cut off by volcra growling.
"Well now we have a problem."
"No, really?" Danielle sassed. More volcra growled. Danny jumped into Kaz, he wrapped his arm around her uncomfortably.
"How do you fight them off?" Kaz yelled over all the noise.
"I outrun them." Arken responded. "Now open the throttle and toss in all the coal. Which works when there's twenty pounds of it!" He then snapped while he looked at Jesper.
The monsters outside snarled as they hit the train. One impaled itself on a spike on the roof of the car. Black, tarry, thick blood poured into the train and onto the floor.
"Damn it!" Arken opened a window to look up. "The stupid thing impaled itself on a spike!"
"We'll get it off! The others will stand on it!" Kaz screamed at all the growls and gnashing of teeth.
"More coal!"
"We're down to fumes!" Kaz threw in the bag.
"Oh my saints!"
Thuds.
"We won't make it with this extra weight!" Kaz yelled at the conductor.
"Give me a second!" Arken yelled with the rest of them.
"This is how we die?"
"Shut up Jesper!" Inej silenced.
"Jesper grab the goat!"
"Not the goat!" Danny blurted.
"I'm not throwing out the goat!" Jesper screeched.
"Grab the damn goat! It's not bait, it's for you!" A vein on Arlen's forehead looked like it was about to burst.
Jesper picked up the goat as Arken continued, "I need you to calm down. Hug the goat, shut the hell up!"
More metal clangs.
"Shouldn't we have hit that twenty seconds ago?" Danny asked Arken.
"How did you- yes. We should have."
"What does that mean, twenty seconds?" Kaz asked him.
Looking at him, Arken answered, "My timings are precise to get us outside. Even twenty seconds behind means the train stops inside the fold and that... that means we die."
More growls from outside.
"There's more coming..." Ellie cried.
Jesper rubbed his face on the goat. "So soft." He muttered.
Inej started to pray. Arken in a corner, scared shitless. "You may want to make your peace."
A monster had made a hole in the roof, Danielle screamed and clung to Kaz. Jesper stood up, goat in one arm and one of his guns in the other. He spun out his gun and shot at the volcra, it flew off. He shit a few more times, out of bullets. He took out his other gun and aimed. He shot a few more times before setting down Milo, the goat. He's named now.
Milo bleated, Inej looked to the goat then to Jesper. "Are they all dead?"
A monster opened the hole more so it could die through. However, Jesper held up his gun and aimed again. He let out a breath and shot. The monster now dead.
"Saints!"
Kaz just blankly stared at Jesper, Danny still on his arm. Another metal clang, their out. Sunlight flowed in.
Safe at last.