"Now Angela you know better than to wake somebody up when they're sleeping." she scolded while gently pulling the child towards her before she turned her attention to the boy. "I'm sorry she bothered you." Renos shrugged.
"It's alright." he said while stifling a yawn, his mind still dawdling in his dreams, 'I wonder if those two in my dream were Sister Azmaria's friends that she had told me about.' He didn't stay focused on these thoughts for long for the woman had released her daughter allowing the child to parade around between the two seats giggling up a storm. Renos pulled up his hood, a small attempt to muffle the girl's incessant giggles that were becoming increasingly annoying by the second that was until it stopped abruptly and was replaced by a soft thud. Looking up he saw that Angela was seated on the floor looming above her was a tall man in dreary looking trench, his eyes lingered on the boy for a moment before Angela's mother spoke up.
"I'm so sorry sir." she apologized quickly taking her daughter under her wing she turned to the small girl, "now Angela say your sorry." She gave a tiny nod and made her best endeavor to look the frightening looking man in the eye.
"I-I'm sorry." once the words left her lips she stared dejectedly at the ground. In response the man simply grunted and continued on his way to the front of the train. Renos felt strangely unnerved by the encounter and silently watched the man move on to the the next car before allowing himself to relax.
'Why the hell was he staring at me..? And there was a strange aura emanating from him..' he adjusted his hood so that it shielded his face from unwanted eyes, 'whatever, he's gone now.' Turning to look out the window he saw that the sun was setting casting dark shadows across the ground and changing the sky from a shade of light blue to that of crimson smears painted amongst the clouds. 'I thought I had left this closed..they must have opened it at some point while I was asleep. Wait, I vividly remember that it was around noon time when I had boarded, how long was I asleep?' He looked back at the interior of the car, 'looks like it's been a while,' he noted when he noticed a fewer amount of people occupying the seats; he pursued the thoughts no further. The boy was about to return to looking out the window when he felt a slight tug on his sleeve, it was little Angela trying to get his attention.
"Mommy said to give this to you." she recited as she placed faintly warm muffin in his palm before scampering over to her mother across the small divide between the seats. At the mention of the girl's mother his clear blue eyes darted over to her, on her lap was a large brown bag filled with long loaves of what looked to be french bread that he hadn't noticed before, but then again he hadn't really paid her much mind earlier so he dismissed any further thoughts.
"Thank you." he murmured, his gaze still lingering on the woman; in return he received a warm smile that set him aback making him feel the need to look away. The sound of soft laughter tickled at his ears beneath his hood.
"You're welcome." said the woman quietly, her gentle laugh ceasing to be heard, "by the way, where you heading to?" her voice resonated with sincere curiosity, "you seem a tad young to be traveling by yourself." Despite the woman's soft tone of voice he couldn't help but feel slightly offended by being called too young .
"I'm eleven." he replied bluntly, "and I'm heading to San Francisco." With that said he took a vicious bite out of his muffin.
"Only eleven and your parents let you ride the train all by yourself?" she sounded astonished. Renos glanced at the woman out of the corner of his eye for a brief moment before going back to his muffin.
"I was suppose to be going with my guardian," he paused to take a small bite, "but we got separated at the station and she missed the train." The boy swallowed the last of his muffin and stared nonchalantly out the window while the woman took a moment to process his story. Suddenly the train jerked forward jostling the passengers around in their seats and tossing baggage about the aisle. Renos had been thrown up against the seat in front of him landing face first against his suitcase, immediately he forced himself to his feet bracing himself by holding onto a seat. "What the hell is going on?!" he cursed. Ignoring the expression on the woman's countenance he let his eyes rove over the rest of the car, everyone was seated firmly on the floor grasping onto permanent fixtures to keep themselves anchored; it was the same for Angela and her mother, he was the only one standing. 'Well looks like no one else is going to investigate this, so I'll just have to do it myself.'
He moved away from his seat and into the aisle, he felt the passengers' eyes on him and each in turn received a dutiful glare as he passed; he felt no need to explain anything to them. It wasn't long before he reached the end of the car, leaving the car's interior he had come to the junction between his car and the next. Renos was pressed up against the outer wall of the car, the pressure outside was immense slowing down any forward progress. Turning his head to the side he saw the scenery going by at a breakneck pace, "that's definitely not good." he said with dry sarcasm as he pried himself away from the wall to grab the iron railing in front of him. His eyes kept to the platform beneath his feet as he shifted his position in order to pass over the junction as safely as possible; again the train jerked as it followed a wide turn on the track, the sudden movement had enough force to throw Renos over the junction where he braced himself against the railing. 'Looks like another thing to knock off my to do list – ride a train.' he mused, having reached the next car he wasted no time in entering it after his close-call outside.
People were huddled together holding on tightly to the train's seats while they themselves remained seated on the floor just as they had been in the last car. In the boy's eyes these people were acting so pitiful, so helpless that it effortlessly made his blood boil. "What the hell is wrong with you people!" he shouted aloud snapping some of the passengers from their fear induced stupors, immediately all eyes fell on him making him regret ever having said anything at all. "You could at least try and act like you have a spine." he muttered as he made his way up the aisle ignoring halfhearted jeers of those who disliked his choice of words. As he approached the end of the car a reproachful smell caught his sensitive nose, looking past the last few seats were deceased bodies clad in train attendant's uniforms. Holding his nose he knelt down next to the bodies, 'so this is why nobody's willing to move.' In the hand of one of the assistants was the receiver to the phone hanging on the wall next to the door, he paid no attention to this and began to push the bodies aside trying his best to prop them up against the back of the final row of seats so that they wouldn't be in the way of him opening the door to the next junction. Forcing himself back up to his feet he glanced back down the aisle, 'I'll never understand why I feel the need to help humans when they don't even try to the help themselves.' he thought as he closed the door behind him, before him lay the junction and beyond that the tinder for the train.
"Well might as well get going." he murmured to no one in particular as he launched himself across the junction to cling onto the ladder to where the tinder was stored. The rungs were thin causing the boy to lose his footing numerous times as the wind rushed past him on all sides making it all the harder to climb upward. Rung by rung he pulled himself up until he reached the highest point on the tinder's steel container. Inside coal was piled up to just about three feet below the thick rim of the steel container, with little hesitation Renos allowed himself to drop into the vacant space kicking up a cloud of the dark fossil fuel. "There has got to be an easier way to do this." he sputtered through a small coughing fit as he crawled over towards the engine.
Smoke from the train's smoke stack flowed overhead giving the sight before him an even eerier appeal. From where he knelt he could plainly see the two conductors, but their skin was oddly pale even in the dimming light and even stranger was the objects that were adjacent to their backs; both men had become permanent ornaments on the train's levers that controlled it speed and its braking systems. The boy reeled back in horror and ducked beneath the steel rim of the storage space, a wave of nausea hit him head on ridding him of the meal he had consumed not long before. As he wiped the rest of the vile from his mouth on the back of his sleeve a low pitched laughter ruptured in the air from behind him. Renos spun around to see that very same man in the dark trench coat standing effortlessly upon the roof of the first car, in his arms he held a woman and child but their faces along with the man's were obscured by the plum of smoke the train released from its smokestack.
"Don't tell me that you're unaccustomed to seeing corpses boy." commented the man casually as if death was a common subject of gossip. Renos ignored the fact of where he was and stood up moving towards the dark figure of a man, his hair wiped around his face but through it he could now make out the faces of the man's hostages.
"What the hell are you doing?!" shouted the boy his voice was nearly forced back down his throat due to the speed at which he was traveling. Again the man chuckled having little regard for the two he held loosely under either arm.
"And I was told that you were an intelligent boy." his laughter wanned, "what does it look like I'm doing?" Renos sneered at the man's remark choosing to try and ignore it.
'Who told him about me? I've never seen him before in my life.' he thought quickly running scenarios through his head until he came upon a thought, 'unless...' The boy closed his eyes to to concentrate on wiping the emotions that he had been expressing so clearly from his countenance. In the next moment he opened his eyes he and calmly stared down the man, "do tell me if what I'm seeing is incorrect because it looks to me that you're going to release your hostages and check yourself into a mental institution." At this the man scowled as he barred his teeth at the boy, pearly whites catching the last glimpse of sunlight.
"Not very wise boy."
"Wasn't trying to be." he replied calmly taking cautious steps backwards until he was satisfied with the distance.
"Don't try it boy, bravery's a fool's trade." said the man stiffly moving back while taking both hostages under his right arm. The mother and child did little to struggle for their bodies were bound tightly with thick ropes. It was now that the boy allowed a smirk to form on his lips.
"Weren't you the one who said I was sophomoric?" he stated as he broke into a run, upon reaching the end of the container he jumped onto the rim before propelling himself across the vacant space below him that was the junction. The wind forced him forward adding to the strength of his jump, in a matter of seconds he had landed rather gracefully on the car's metallic roof a smirk still present on his face as he stood.