Chapter 9: The Train Riding Car
The two cars traveled fast over the train's top, with a distance of ten cars between them. Amelia's car was closing in while Alrick's slowed down. At some point both cars were moving at slow enough speeds to ensure their riders didn't risk falling off. Amelia had no doubt it was One-One's doing.
Alrick kept staring at her, expecting to see Jam join her on the top of the car. Seeing that his brother wasn't showing up, he checked his radar. The green dot was very far away from his arrow, and it didn't seem to be moving. This made Alrick gasp while his eyes went wide. He glared at Amelia while showing his gritted teeth, then he screeched at the sky.
Amelia, now only three cars away, recognized the sound as a ghom call for backup.
Alrick continued to call toward the wasteland and toward the sky, looking around to see if any ghoms showed up.
A few more calls later, a pack of three burst out from the ground near the train. They flew toward his car and landed before him. The frontmost ghom growled, holding its head lowered while its longest feeler stuck up threateningly.
Alrick growled back at the leading ghom. As soon as the creature charged at him, he simply pressed the ghom's head with his right hand until the creature found itself touching the top of the car with its mouth. He could crush its head if he wanted to, but he had other plans. Proving he was stronger, he convinced the ghom to back off. Then he chittered at it before pointing at Amelia and screeching his orders to the pack.
Amelia saw the ghoms fly toward her, but she wasn't worried. Her belt still had enough battery to repel them, and if they would insist for too long, she was ready to fight them off. She felt some pity for the creatures, but since Jam wasn't around anymore, there was no one to reason with them.
The lead ghom screeched as it landed, causing two more ghoms to pop out of the ground and join in. There was now a pack of five to deal with.
"You better not swarm in on me," Amelia said, scowling at the creatures.
The leading ghom let out its battle cry before charging at her. Its pack followed closely. They all flew together toward her, but were surprised to find themselves pushed away by the invisible sound shield that turned green upon impact with them.
"Alrick! Call them off! I don't want to hurt them!"
Alrick crossed his arms and continued to glare at her. "Why would I?"
"Please, I don't want to fight! It's only hurting those around us!"
"Your companions died because you insisted on following me!" Alrick said, stomping the car's top with his right foot.
As Amelia's shield repelled the ghoms again, she stared at him with her mouth open. He reminded her so much of herself during her time as the False Conductor, and of how she blamed Tulip for Atticus and One-One's apparent deaths.
He shouted, "You just couldn't let go of me! You wanted both of us!"
"I wanted both of you as my sons!" Amelia said while her shield repelled the ghoms once more. "And don't you dare blame me for this! You know that Jam wanted to stop you as well. He cared about you. If anyone is responsible for making Jam go through this journey … it is you."
Alrick clenched his firsts and closed his eyes. Then he screeched while staring at the sky, causing five other ghoms to come out and land next to him. After grabbing their leader, he threw it over to Amelia's car and screeched his orders while pointing at her.
Wonderful. Now she had ten ghoms to deal with. Her belt's sine wave wasn't looking so good – the battery was running low. She had no choice but to fight them. Grabbing her frying pan, she waited for the next attack.
The ghoms flew at her and received frying pan smacks to their heads, with a few kicks to the sides from time to time. When they tried to absorb her life force, she shoved her backpack into their mouths and pushed them away.
Alrick kept calling for more ghoms, but had no luck in finding any new ones.
Amelia grabbed a ghom by the long tendril and swung it into three other ghoms, then rammed the head of a flying one with her frying pan. Two other ghoms flew at her. She dodged one and kicked the other in the gut. "Don't you cockroaches know when to quit?" She shielded herself with the frying pan when another ghom tried to go for her face.
"Keep wasting your energy," Alrick said. "You're making their job easier." He screeched again, looking around.
Three more ghoms arrived in flight from the back of the train. Amelia put her frying pan back and stared at the odd formation. Ghoms didn't normally fly that close to each other. Why were those three so packed together? Once they got closer to her car, she realized what was going on. "Is that …?"
There were actually only two ghoms in the formation. Their longest feelers were wrapped around the armored arms of Jam, who was in his turtle form.
"He's alive!" Amelia said. Her number went down to 15.
Alrick stared in shock at first, but then smiled and morphed back into a human.
One of the two ghoms sucked some life force out of Jam's left arm and released him. The other one did the same to his right arm and let him fall onto the train's top. Then they joined the other ghoms in surrounding Amelia.
Jam immediately got up and started chasing the shifting car while using his jets to go faster. "Those sneaky, chitinous bastards," he said. "They couldn't even follow through with our deal."
Amelia used her sound shield to repel the twelve ghoms off the car, then launched her harpoons at Jam, sticking them to his armor. He jetted off while being pulled toward the shifting car by the harpoon pack's cords.
After repelling the ghoms again, Amelia safely brought Jam onto the car. They didn't even get the chance to say anything to each other, because Alrick ordered the ghoms to swarm in on them. Instead of repelling the creatures, the duo teamed up to fight them in hand to hand combat.
It seemed to go well at first, with kicks and punches being delivered to the snouts of ghoms. Then Jam ended up overwhelmed by the five ghoms piling on him. One of the creatures that remained on his back tapped him on the head three times with its paw before pressing his scalp with it and standing there with its snout held high.
"Why do my ghom fights always end like this?" Jam asked, looking bored.
The ghom on top of him sucked some of his energy, then chittered in such a way that it seemed to be laughing at him.
Amelia managed to make her way to Jam and delivered a kick to the rear of the ghom who stood on top of him. This made the ghom yelp and fly off then land nearby while growling at her and holding its longest feeler up in the air.
"You just angered their leader," Jam said. "It's challenging you."
"Let's do this," Amelia said, raising her fists and glaring at the pack leader.
The other ghoms stood aside, making way for the two to fight. The leader growled while showing off its large wingspan.
Amelia was not impressed. This angered the pack leader further. It stomped the car's top with its paws. To her it seemed like nothing more than a child throwing a temper tantrum. "Are you going to attack or what?" she asked.
The pack leader screeched its battle cry before jumping at her. She stepped aside and threw herself on top of it, her elbow delivering a hit on her way down.
"Well, that was easy," she said, resting atop the squirming ghom. "Anyone else want some of that?"
The other ghoms bowed to her and chittered. Alrick stared at her with a displeased look.
"How do I tell them to get the hell out of here?" Amelia asked.
"I could translate for you," Jam said. He tried to approach her, but the ghom pack pushed him away. Some even sucked bits of his energy out.
She pushed them aside and went next to him. "Try now."
Jam chittered at them. They all lined up and listened. He screeched and pointed at the wasteland.
Some of the ghoms sat and looked around. One sat and scratched its head with its left foot. Another decided to clean its wings with its mouth. Three other ones rolled on the ground, belly up.
"Very funny," Jam said, not looking amused.
The former pack leader let out some air through its snout as a sign of defiance.
Jam looked at Amelia. "I think they expect you to be the one doing the pointing."
She pointed at the wasteland. He chittered at the ghoms, then screeched again.
The swarm flew off the train and went back to the wasteland. The ghoms found a tree that still had some green growth on it, so they proceeded to suck out its life before digging burrows into the ground.
"Amateurs," Alrick said, crossing his arms as he stared at Jam and Amelia.
With the danger gone – at least temporarily – Amelia focused on the next important matter. "Jam, why didn't you answer when I was calling for you back there? And what happened to Samantha?"
He frowned. "I crashed onto a cube and fell unconscious for a few moments. My armor protected me, so the worst I got out of the crash was some neck pain. Samantha … didn't survive the fall." He pressed the left triangular button of his armor's chest and stared over his right shoulder at his backpack as it opened.
Amelia saw the beige fur of Samantha's back in there. The cat's head, tail, and legs were obscured by the backpack. With a sullen expression, Amelia said, "I'm the worst ally anyone could have."
"No, mom," Jam said. "You tried to save us. It's my fault she's dead. I didn't keep an eye on my battery. And the stupidest part is that I was surrounded by batteries! I just didn't pay enough attention to the assembly lines in the car, otherwise I would have known earlier that the cubes had batteries! I … I messed up big time."
Amelia put her right arm behind his neck and said, "We all make mistakes. Sometimes the only thing we can do is learn from them. And in this case we must also inform Frank … even if he's going to be furious about this."
"Who is Frank?"
"Samantha's partner. He's a tall bear, very kind to people, but he cared deeply for Samantha and protected her whenever she was in trouble. The news of her death will crush the poor bear's soul."
Jam put his hands on his head. "Having Samantha on my conscience was bad enough, but knowing that now there's going to be someone left behind who misses her … it hurts even more."
Alrick couldn't hear what Amelia and Jam were talking about, but he didn't like seeing them that close to each other. He growled as he felt the fire reignite inside him.
The car under him came to a halt as it reached its destination and was preparing to settle between two other cars. That was his cue to run.
"He's getting away!" Jam said, pointing at Alrick.
The car he and Amelia were on found its own place between two other cars near the one it was chasing. Its riders jumped off and continued to follow Alrick on foot.
"I hope he doesn't find more ghoms," Amelia said. "I'm running out of batteries on my belt."
Jam pressed the right button on his armor's chest, causing a hatch to open on the abdominal area. "Do you think you could use batteries like these on it? I've got a few more in my backpack."
The two batteries inside the hatch had a blue glow.
"Unfortunately, they wouldn't fit in my belt. It uses some special, smaller ones made by One for me. I was supposed to return for more of them before he gave me this mission."
"Oh crap," he said, disappointed. Then he saw the massive swarm of ghoms that was heading their way. "Oh crap!"
"There must be at least a hundred of them in there," Amelia said as she watched the red sky get covered by ghoms.
Alrick stopped and screeched at the swarm. Five ghoms landed, their leader challenging him. He won by putting his left foot on its head. This time, instead of ordering them to attack Amelia and Jam, he instructed them to wrap their feelers around his arms and fly him toward the front of the train.
"Great," Jam said. "He's using my idea against us."
Amelia stared at the swarm. "Can you ask some ghoms to carry us as well?"
"You saw how 'reliable' they are. They weren't even aiming for the car. I could have been dropped between cars, and could have fallen under the train."
The ghom swarm was getting dangerously close to them. Amelia and Jam came to a halt. She brought out her e-mailing machine and began typing.
To: One
Subject: Send Alan Dracula!
There is a ghom swarm over the train. Please ask Alan Dracula to teleport me and my son to the locomotive right away!
She sent it, only to receive this:
Sender: One
Subject: Sorry. Alan Dracula isn't available.
He must be dealing with some serious issues somewhere else on the train. I can give you another ride instead.
Amelia quickly wrote and sent another e-mail.
To: One
Subject: Hurry then! Send us next to the locomotive!
And keep an eye on e-mails in case the car needs to be stopped earlier.
The response to that was:
Sender: One
Subject: Strap yourselves in!
.
Amelia used the harpoons again to anchor herself to the car. Jam didn't need anchoring since his armor was heavy enough to keep him in place.
After elevating itself, the car went on its way toward the train's front. It was fast enough to keep up with Alrick and his ghom pack, much to his annoyance.
The ghom swarm continued to pass over the train, some of the creatures approaching Amelia and Jam's car too close for the duo's comfort.
"Why are they swarming like this?" Amelia asked.
"Usually, they do this when something disturbs them from their slumber," Jam said. "If someone falls off the train or if it rains somewhere in the wasteland, the ghoms will wake up and come to the surface. Then they'll gather and search for any forms of life they could spot. And it looks like we're on the menu right now."
She looked at what was ahead of their car and saw the head of the train. "We're almost there!"
Alrick was being lowered carefully by the ghoms just behind the locomotive.
"And he's already there," Jam said, frowning.
The swarm came down on Jam and Amelia, pushing them off the car. She used her harpoons to hold on to another car's side. Jam used his jets to stop his fall, then he landed on a car near Amelia. After regrouping, they were just three cars away from their destination.
The ghom swarm targeted them again, forcing Amelia to use her sound shield to keep her and Jam safe. "We'll have to go through a car so I can spare the sound shield's battery."
They both jumped onto the bridge that led to the second car, then they made their way to the door.
"Let's hope this isn't the car I think it is," Amelia said while opening the door. After they went in, she scowled. "It's that car."
Jam closed the door and looked around. There were large, crystal hexagons everywhere for walls on the sides of the corridor they were in. Each hexagonal wall portion seemed to show another corridor behind it, but everything seemed different from hexagon to hexagon. "These aren't normal glass walls."
Amelia sighed in frustration. "This is that blasted universe intersection car. Each of these hexagons are windows into other universes. If anyone breaks the crystal that acts as a barrier, they can enter our universe. It has happened before, and I hope it never happens again. At least not if the invaders are hostile."
He touched one of the hexagons with his right hand. "They can invade our universe, just like that?"
"Don't make it easier for them!" she said. Then she brought out her e-mailing machine and quickly typed a message.
To: One
Subject: Connect the universe intersection car to the locomotive! Now!
She sent it like that, not even bothering to add anything in the content area. It took mere seconds before the sound of moving gears came from outside – a sign that One-One received the e-mail.
"Let's move!" Amelia said, running through the corridor.
Jam followed her, but he couldn't avoid staring curiously into the hexagonal walls. There was nothing unusual going on in them. "Are we the only ones interacting with this car? The other universes seem … deserted."
"I don't think it's a good idea to interact with the other universes. This car can make you regret your life choices, and you might be tempted to invade other worlds or to try changing your own."
"None of that sounds particularly bad," Jam said.
Amelia looked at him with an expression that clearly meant, "Are you being serious right now?"
He continued. "I mean, why shouldn't we question if we're on the right path? Why shouldn't we go explore other worlds? Why shouldn't we try to improve our own?"
Those were some great questions, but she feared the answers to them would be given by the car itself by the time they'd reach the other door. She always saw it as the most depressing place to be in out of the entire train. Lives she could have lived – one of which included her and the original Alrick being together on the train – had taunted her when she explored the corridors with Hazel in the past.
Just then, they ran into a hexagon that showed them as ghoms. Amelia's counterpart looked like a normal ghom, but Jam's was dark green, with a proboscis instead of the long feeler. The Jam ghom also had power armor like his, but adapted to fit a quadrupedal walking style.
"It's like a mirror that alters our appearances," Jam said, waving at his counterpart, who waved back in sync but like a flipped mirror.
Amelia raised her right hand and saw her number on her ghom counterpart's right paw. "Hmm. Interesting. A world of ghoms."
"They're just as confused about there being a world of humans here," Jam said.
"This place can get weird. Let's keep going."
They headed to the left, since that was the only non-blocked path. On a hexagon to their right, they could observe a male deer – possibly Alan Dracula – that walked alongside a doe. Trailing behind the deer pair was a long chain of fawns that didn't seemed to end.
Jam smiled at them and morphed into his human form while passing by the hexagon. A bit further on the same wall, there was a view of a universe in which the car was filled with water.
As soon as he and Amelia were next to that hexagon, two beady eyes and a mouth zipped in to observe them through the crystal. "Hello there, friends! I am Randall from the Randall Empire! Can I interest you in a vacation on the Randall Train?"
Amelia scowled at him. "You took over the train, didn't you?"
"Well, it was abandoned, so I repurposed it. Now people from other universes come here to relax in this water hotel where you can breathe while being under water – because all the water here is Randall!"
"No, thank you," Amelia said. "We're not interested. We need to save our own train." She and Jam continued their journey.
"If you change your mind, I'll be waiting right here," Randall said.
Further into the car, Jam and Amelia ran into a dead end. The hexagon in front of them showed a younger Samantha dressed in a green vest. A tuxedo-wearing tuxedo tom cat accompanied her and their kittens. Three of the kittens were tuxedo cats, and one was beige, just like Samantha.
"Move along, kittens," Samantha said. "There's no telling what kind of people we might find here. Some might be dangerous."
Jam frowned, remembering whose body he carried in his backpack, which he closed at that moment.
The hexagon was lifted into the wall, clearing the path. Jam and Amelia went onward, now going through worse moods.
"Of all the fates she could have had, she just had to die traveling with me," Jam said.
"It was her choice to travel with you," Amelia said.
"But if I had been more careful, she'd still be alive right now."
"We both regret the things we've done, but be glad the worst you've done was to steal some stuff and to have unwillingly caused someone's death due to being careless. That's not even enough to get you a number higher than 500 on this train. I managed to rack up such a high number that it went up to my chin, so you can tell what kind of person I used to be."
Their path was blocked by a hexagon that descended from the ceiling. On the other side of its crystal, the duo could see alternate Grace and ten kids. She said, "This way!"
The kids followed Grace. Alternate Amelia and alternate Hazel were right behind them. Ghom screeching and chittering could be heard just before sixteen of the creatures flew into view. All of them were tied with black ropes. They pulled a golden carriage after them, and inside the carriage sat Samantha and Frank. While the bear blew a whistle, the cat said, "How does it feel to get a taste of your own medicine, Amelia?" Then she laughed maniacally as the carriage went out of the hexagon's view.
"What went wrong in that universe?!" Amelia asked.
Jam said, "I'll hazard a guess: everything."
The hexagon was lifted, allowing Jam and Amelia to progress. They had to take a right turn before being met with yet another hexagon. Beyond the crystal, there was Amelia exactly as she looked 33 years ago, dressed in Alrick's hoodie.
Young Amelia slammed her fists into the hexagon's barrier and screamed, "Let me in! He will kill me!"
Jam readied his right fist. "Stand back! I'll break the wall!"
"Wait!" his universe's Amelia said.
Young Amelia screamed as bullets flew past her. She ran out of view, only to get gunned down by … the Steward. The robot's face was lifted to reveal the Conductor sitting inside its head. He only had one eye and spoke in a robotic, monotone voice. "It's over, Amelia. I saw the future. You're never taking over my train."
A hexagon to the right of Jam and Amelia was lifted into the ceiling.
After turning to see Amelia and Jam, One's eye glared. "Don't even think of invading." He hid himself behind the Steward's mask and opened fire toward Amelia's feet.
Jam grabbed Amelia by the right arm and pulled her into the right corridor before any bullets could hit her.
"I better scrap this car before any alternate Amelias decide to break out of it," One said as he crawled away on the ceiling of his car's corridor.
Amelia and Jam were panting while running away. They stopped at a corner to catch their breaths.
"I am now even more worried that my brother might get himself killed by our universe's One-One," Jam said.
"Just because that other universe's One is ready to kill to defend the train doesn't mean our universe's One will do the same thing," Amelia said. "Even before he gained a split personality, he was still benevolent."
"Let's hurry. I think my brother's already inside the locomotive."
Amelia nodded, then ran alongside him.
Their path was blocked once more by a hexagon.
"Not again!" Amelia said. "We're in a hurry!"
Another Amelia, this time one just as old as her, headed toward them. She held an alternate version of Hazel by the hand.
"Is that Hazel?" Jam asked. "She looks just like the girl in the picture you've shown me."
"My Hazel is a boy, alternate pipsquirt!" alternate Amelia said.
"Oh. Sorry. My bad. He looks like my mom's daughter." He pointed at Amelia with his thumb. "Also, you're probably mistaking me for my father."
Alternate Amelia squinted her eyes at him, then at Amelia. "I see my counterpart from your universe has questionable tastes in men."
"No, no, that's not how I got here!" Jam said, waving his hands in front of himself.
"Hell no!" Amelia said. "My son was created with the train's technology, and his father ended up getting scanned by accident in the process."
Alternate Hazel hid behind alternate Amelia and said, "He still looks like him."
"At least I shave properly and I don't ruin my hair with scrunchies," Jam muttered while crossing his arms and looking to the side. "Also, I have never murdered anyone. Unfortunately, I can't say I haven't gotten anyone killed, even if it was an accident."
"Well, this isn't the strangest universe we've seen here, but it's still a weird one," alternate Amelia said.
The hexagon went into the ceiling. Jam and Amelia continued to walk through the corridor. After they took a right turn, then two lefts and another right, they were blocked once again.
"Come on, car!" Amelia said. "The train's fate is at stake!"
The hexagon to her right was lifted, revealing a new path.
"It seems the car finally understands that this is an emergency," Jam said.
A voice similar to Jam's said, "How do you think we're going to stop him? He's acting like a frickin' lunatic!"
"And from whom do you think he inherited that part of his personality?" an alternate Amelia asked as she walked alongside an alternate Simon. All the hexagons on the wall to the left showed them and their world to Jam and Amelia's universe.
"I never signed up for this!" Simon said, glaring at her.
Behind them, an alternate Jam followed in silence. He looked exactly like Jam.
"Actually, you did sign up for it the moment you messed with my scanner," alternate Amelia said.
"I was ten!" Simon said. "Nobody told me not to touch weird train technology!" He pointed at her. "You should have put your scanner somewhere out of children's reach!"
"How was I supposed to know that children would enter a car where passengers should be asleep?" alternate Amelia asked.
Simon raised his arms. "It happened twice! You didn't know? You've got to be kidding me!"
Alternate Jam chuckled. "You two are bickering like an old–"
Alternate Amelia said, "Ugh! No!"
Simon shot him a nasty look. "Don't even go there, Jam! You know I'd rather be under the wheels!" He stopped to look at Jam and Amelia.
Jam and Amelia stopped to look at him as well while alternate Jam and alternate Amelia continued their journey.
"Great," Simon said, glaring at Amelia. "One of these cursed universes wasn't enough. There just had to be two of them."
"Put a sock in it and move, ponytail!" alternate Amelia said.
Simon muttered something angrily before running to catch up with his gang.
"What was that?" alternate Amelia asked, looking with a mean stare at Simon.
He stared terrified at her. "I said, 'Yes, ma'am!' "
Jam and Amelia tried to continue their travel, but were once again blocked by a hexagon.
"Damn it, car!" Jam shouted. "Why do you have to show us all of this?"
"Do you see now why I hate this car?" Amelia asked.
In that hexagon, Hazel ran toward them. She stopped and stared at Jam with her eyes wide as saucers while her mouth opened as she gasped. Then she sat on the floor and started crying, hiding her face with her palms. "I … I'm sorry! I didn't know! I thought he was Simon! I didn't know the real Simon was dead!"
Alternate Grace and alternate Amelia appeared from behind a corner. Grace put her hand on Hazel's left shoulder. "Hazel, I wish we had met again sooner. I would have told you."
"It's not your fault," Hazel said. "I was the one who pushed him. I should have believed Amelia when she said he was my brother."
"This happened 'thanks' to that murder-happy friend of yours, Grace!" alternate Amelia said. "He traumatized Hazel so much that she sees anyone who looks like him as her enemy."
"I'm sorry!" Hazel said, still hiding her face and sniffling. "My brother was so nice to me … He always trusted me. He didn't deserve what I did to him. I hope he can meet some kind people in the afterlife."
Jam gasped as his blood ran cold. "She … She killed him."
Alternate Amelia stared at him with a sad look. So did Grace.
"Now I'm kinda scared about meeting Hazel," Jam said, his face turning green.
"Why?" Amelia asked. "You saw how our universe's Hazel worked alongside your father. If she didn't use her sound shield to obliterate him when she had the chance, why would she try to kill you? Relax. Things don't happen the same way in all universes."
Still looking worried but regaining his full human form, Jam said, "O-okay."
The hexagon was lifted, clearing the path. Jam and Amelia advanced through the corridor at a higher pace than before, but didn't run for fear of getting crushed by other hexagon walls that might come from the ceiling.
In a hexagon to their right, there was an alternate version of One-One. This version had three white eyes on the black stripe between its two white halves. His top eye turned green as he said, in a happy voice, "Hi! I'm One!"
"Hi," Amelia and Jam said at the same time, sounding bored while glancing at him. They continued to walk, only slower.
Alternate One-One's middle eye turned blue, and he spoke with a sad tone. "I'm Two. Please put me out of my misery."
"Sorry, we can't," Jam said.
The bottom eye on the robot turned red and glared at him and Amelia. His voice sounded angry. "I am Three! Stay off my train, you stinkin' aliens!"
"We weren't even planning on visiting!" Jam shouted back while his eyes looked to the right.
"Aw, that's a pity," One said.
"Please don't leave me here sandwiched between these two boneheads!" Two whined.
"Go wheel yourselves, you freeloadin' aliens!" Three shouted.
"That must be one hell of an existence that Conductor is experiencing," Amelia said.
The rest of the travel through the corridor was uneventful up until they found the door. Jam was about to reach for it when a hexagon wall dropped from the ceiling, denying him access to the exit.
"What?! We were so close!" he said.
The back of the corridor also closed behind him and Amelia.
He looked around frantically. "What's going on? This isn't funny, car!"
"Oh, it isn't supposed to be funny," a voice similar to Jam's said. "It's supposed to be an opportunity."
An alternate Simon in a lab coat and holding an electronic tablet walked into view from the right of the front hexagon. He was joined by alternate Grace in a lab coat, alternate Tuba, alternate Hazel in a lab coat, and three blue gorilla children that were obviously Tuba's, judging by the golden brass instruments on their shoulders. Everyone stared at Jam and Amelia through the crystal wall.
Jam said, "Tuba! Don't trust Simon! He's going to wheel you!"
Tuba laughed at him and put her arms over Simon and Grace's shoulders, holding them to her sides. "These two are harmless."
Simon and Grace smiled and waved their right hands at Jam and Amelia. They were both at 0. Hazel joined in and showed her palm too – also at 0.
"I'm guessing you two are from a universe where Simon and I led a cult," Grace said.
"Scary how things could have gone really bad, huh?" Simon said.
Grace brought out a camera from her fanny pack and snapped a picture of Jam and Amelia.
"We just need to know a few things about your universe so we can add more information to our research database," Simon said.
Amelia raised an eyebrow. "You're researchers?"
"Yeah, see, Grace and I met each other on the train after my denizen companion passed away. Since our universe's Amelia never boarded the train, we've never met her, so no cult was created. We helped each other reach zero, but then we realized neither of us wanted to go back to our old lives."
Grace added, "The denizens made us feel more at home here than we've felt in our real homes. So we grew up here. Recently, we met Tuba and her kids, and we were added to her already large family. Then One didn't know what to do with us, since we were at zero for so many years but we refused to leave. In the end he decided to put us to use, so now we're studying alternate universes through this car and reporting our findings to him."
Amelia looked at Hazel. "Was your universe's Hazel created by my counterpart? How does she have a working number?"
"Our Hazel wasn't created," Simon said. "She's just a regular passenger. Her parents died in a car accident, and she ran away from home before she could be taken to an orphanage. The train picked her up, and Tuba adopted her."
Amelia frowned. "Sounds like your universe was better off without me boarding the train."
Simon looked at his tablet and swiped on its screen with his finger. "Can you tell us about how things went for you in your universe, please?"
"It's complicated," Jam said, "and we're in a hurry to save our train."
Simon scowled at him. "You're in a class B universe, so don't give us that 'it's complicated' crap! Complicated would be a class F universe where passengers are four dimensional beings who are sent into a realm where they must solve not only their personal problems, but also the problems of the planets they've created, while their universe's equivalent of One is a twelve dimensional Eldritch abomination!" He took in a deep breath and let it out to calm himself down. "Look, it's clear that you're not going anywhere anytime soon, judging by how the car has trapped you in. So, please, work with us, and hopefully it will let you go."
To be continued.