Chapter 4: The Former Apex Car

Jam had been asleep for half an hour until he was awakened by a bright light flashed into his eyes.

The one shining the flashlight was Alrick, having equipped it on the top of his power armor's left lower arm. He whispered, "Wake up, you mug!"

Jam extended his neck down into the hole between the leaves of the floor. "What is it, bro? Do you want me to help you climb up here?"

"No, you get your arse down here this instant!" Alrick said while pointing at the branch he sat on.

Jam silently made his way to his brother. "Are you still scared of her?"

"Put a sock in it!" Alrick said. He pointed an accusatory finger at his brother. "You trust the old woman so much you decided to kip next to her. Without your armour on too!"

Jam looked at himself. His soft shell's yellow plastron was the only thing standing between his chest and anything that could harm him. He knew that any sharp object could pierce through it as if it were made of cheese.

Alrick crossed his arms. "Get back in your armour and let's leg it before she wakes up!"

"Wait!" Jam said. "Don't you want to hear what she told me?"

"You can tell me while we head to the locomotive. Now move!"

"But there's still so much I want to learn from her! Bro, she created us! She knew the people who looked like us!"

Alrick froze. "Did you just say she … created us?"

Jam nodded.

"That's just porkies!" Alrick said, holding his fists to his sides. "I had a life before we woke up next to the dead ghom! I remember it like it was yesterday! I was an engineer!"

"She said she made us using the ghom," Jam said. "We're twins because we both hatched out of it. She also mentioned something called a memory tape."

Alrick squinted at him through the glasses. "Did she modify our memories using that memory tape thing?"

"The memory tape was used to give us the personality and aspect of the man she tried to recreate. And get this: his name was Alrick as well!"

The tortoise became shaky. "T-that doesn't prove anything. Plenty of people are named Alrick."

Jam asked, "What about the woman you saw in your dreams? Is her name Amelia too?"

"I think I've called her Amelia once in a dream. But … she looked younger, and I was the same age as I am now. How can she be so old while I've stayed the same?"

"What if you look like that Alrick guy did when he died 33 years ago? You share the same name, and you keep seeing a young woman named Amelia in your dreams, and you said you seemed to be in a relationship with her. It all makes sense now."

"So I am a guy brought back from the dead," Alrick said, "and she was my partner. But if I am him, then who are you?"

Jam looked at the number 337 on his right palm while stretching the webbing between his fingers. "I … I don't know."

"Didn't you say she knew the people who looked like us?"

Jam nodded, feeling his heart rate increase.

Alrick looked up at the hole between the leaves. "Who was the other guy?"

The softshell had a blank stare while his mouth remained open.

"Answer me, Jam!"

Jam looked at him and said, "Her deceased coworker."

Alrick's right armored fist clenched and shook. "She was already trying to replace me."

"No, no, it wasn't like that!" Jam said, waving his hands in front of himself. "She didn't even enjoy working with the guy. He was a murderer. That explains why denizens keep attacking me when I reveal my human form."

"So, you were a murderer," Alrick said.

"No! Brother, I have no memories of that! Please don't hate me just because I look like him! I didn't choose to look like him! Amelia made me this way!"

Alrick grabbed a small branch with his armor's right hand and said, "That unfaithful hag!" He tore the branch off and crushed it.

Jam took a few steps back. "Brother, you're scaring me."

"And to think I wanted to rebuild the train for you and me to live in peace. I was helping the murderer who was my replacement all along!"

"I'm not him!" Jam said. "I've got many of the same memories that you have! And they're not even Alrick's! They're hers! It was her memory tape!"

Alrick gave him a death glare, and the red glasses made it look even scarier. "I will give you two options. You come with me and help me take over the train, or you stick with the hag, be all lovey-dovey with her or whatever, and get left behind after I separate the locomotive from the cars. Make your choice."

Jam couldn't choose either of those options. He wanted to stay with Amelia to learn more about himself, but he also wanted to have his brother with him. "Amelia said she will try to get us both off the train, or at least find a place where you and I can be safe. Can't you just talk to her first?"

"I see you've made your choice," Alrick said. "Don't ever approach me again. It won't end well for either of you if you do." He jetted his way to the top of the canopy, then ran to the door and left the car.

Jam remained on the branch, staring at the hole in the canopy above him while tears poured off his turtle face.

Amelia looked around, not seeing Jam anywhere. There was a pile of leaves next to her, so she went to check if it was him hiding there. After she pushed the leaves away, she exposed Jam's leathery shell. "Jam?"

The shell turned black, and dog legs came from its sides, along with three tendrils and a dog tail. It was a ghom, and it turned its gaping mouth hole toward her, screeching infernally. The creature jumped on top of her and sucked in her life force, causing her intense pain.

Amelia woke up screaming out loud. Then she sat with her arms wrapped around her bent legs, trying to catch her breath.

There was no ghom near her, but there was Jam, all tucked inside his shell and quivering. His hair stuck out from the hole where his head should be, and at the hair's center there was the tip of that long nose of his sticking out.

"I'm sorry for startling you, Jam," Amelia said, sitting cross-legged next to him. "I … had a nightmare."

Jam continued to hide, still shaking. Her finger touched his nose, causing him to bring out his head. "Hey! Stop that!" he said.

She chuckled at him. "Sorry. I was just worried because you didn't say anything."

He came out of his shell and got on his feet. His eyes had a piercing stare.

"Jam, is something wrong? Is your brother still around?"

"Never mind where my brother is," Jam said. He pointed his claw at her. "I think it's time for you to fess up."

"But I'm not hiding anything," Amelia said in an amused tone. "You're the one who tried to fool me, speckled shell!"

"I'm also the one who looks like your dead coworker. I just want to know why. Why did you try to bring him back from the dead too? What did he mean to you?"

She scowled. "I have nothing to do with your appearance! I told you, Simon and I were never on good terms with each other!"

"How can you say you had nothing to do with it when you're the one who created me?" Jam said, putting his left hand on his chest. "There's something you're not telling me. Maybe it's something you don't want Alrick to find out."

"I've told you all I know! I didn't intend for this to happen!"

"Maybe you and this Simon guy were closer than just coworkers." He formed a heart with his hands while smirking at her.

"No, we weren't! Ugh! For heaven's sake! He was almost five decades younger than me!"

"Or maybe you tried to revive him because you've wronged him in some way."

"Reviving him was never in my plans! I just wanted my Alrick back!"

Jam didn't look convinced.

Amelia added, "If anyone tried to revive him, it was the train. I bet it's laughing at me right now. This must be my punishment for … "

"Go on," Jam said.

Amelia looked away. "Probably not. I have no regrets tied to him." Her number announced that it had changed. She looked at her palm. It was 48.

Jam pointed at it. "You're lying!"

"Fine, maybe I do have a bit of regret," she said, facing him again. Her number went back to 45. "But it certainly wasn't enough to push me to revive the pipsquirt."

Jam took human form again, fully revealing his academic dress. "Then why do I look like him?"

She sighed. "You want answers? So do I. Get in your armour. I think I know where we might find those answers."

Amelia used her harpoon pack while Jam used his jets so they could jump from car to car. They went on like that until they reached the car with the Apex symbol graffiti on it, then landed in front of it.

"This used to be the mall car," Amelia said. "It was turned into the Apex car after the kids took over it. Now it's just a safe place where the former members who stayed behind gather to help other passengers and denizens." She knocked on the door.

A pink-haired teenage guy with ear guards opened up. He said, "Welcome back, Amelia!" Then he took one look at Jam and went pale, uttering unintelligible words while walking backwards into the car.

Jam rolled his eyes. "No, I am not Simon."

"He is my creation," Amelia said while pointing at Jam with her thumb. "We're here to find out why he looks like Simon."

The pink-haired teenager looked at his own right palm. His number jumped from 205 to 250. "First he asks me to cut the numbers out of his skin with scissors. Then I find him dead in his room, several days after his death. Then I had to be the one to bury his body. And now there's another guy who looks just like him!" He stomped away, his voice breaking as he said, "I'm done. I am so done. I'm going to sleep. Screw guard duty. I'm done."

"That poor kid," Amelia said. "Well, let's go upstairs."

They went up one of the unmoving escalators together. Once at the top, they turned to the right and entered a room above whose door there was a text that said "TOMB". Inside, they found not only a tombstone with Simon's name on it at the base of a palm tree growing out of a sand pit, but also Samantha the cat.

Amelia's eyes went wide. "Samantha?"

The cat, who up until that moment sat facing the tombstone slouched with her ears lowered, turned around with her eyes half-closed and said, "Bonjour, Amelia." She gasped and had eyes wider than Amelia's when she saw Jam. "Simon?!" Her hair puffed up, making her look bigger than usual. "Impossible! I saw them bury you! And before that you were dead for over three days! This must be a nightmare! I must wake up!"

"Enough!" Jam shouted. "I am not Simon! I am Jam! I am one of Amelia's creations, and neither of us knows why I look like this!" He gestured with his power armor's hands toward himself. "I'm sorry that I've startled you, ma'am. I just wanted to see his grave. Also … I need to see his tape."

"His tape is in his room," Samantha said, avoiding looking into Jam's eyes while her fur relaxed. "I never had the strength to view it, because I am still not over his death. A word of advice from this old feline: since you may have ties to Simon, viewing his tape might be dangerous. So it is always good to have someone with you to stop the tape player if things get out of control."

"Thank you," he said. "Amelia, I'm ready to find out the truth."

"Then let's go to his room," Amelia said.

Simon's room had a broken door that had been left that way ever since the kids broke in. His stuff was left exactly the same way he had left it, but now with more dust than ever before. His desk lamp still continued to function.

On his bed, there was an object that looked like a cube with chipped corners. It had a button on top, a slit on one side and another on the opposite one, and a lens on the side between those two sides. The tape was stuck in the device and, judging by the dust on it, hadn't been touched by anyone for a week.

"This little thing killed him?" Jam asked while inspecting the tape player.

"Don't underestimate it," Amelia said. "I almost died trapped in my tape before I've met the Conductor."

The softshell started the projector. "Let's see if we can get an explanation out of it."

A rectangular projection appeared in the air, displaying lots of static. The memory could barely show pieces of itself here and there. People with casseroles of food were gathered in a room. There was a blond toddler there, dressed entirely in black, standing stiff and emotionless.

Static engulfed everything, then the tape showed something that made Amelia gasp. The toddler stared at a coffin in which a bearded blond man lay. A young blond woman patted the kid on the shoulder and said, "Stay strong. Don't cry. You're a soldier, and soldiers are supposed to be brave."

The kid nodded, not taking his eyes off the dead man's face even for a second.

Amelia looked away.

Jam put his armor's left hand on her right shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, it's just … the funeral. It reminds me that I've missed Alrick's."

Samantha entered the room. "So, you're not affected by the tape."

Jam looked at her. "And that means ...?"

"It means you are not Simon," the cat said. "Which begs the question: who are you then?"

"I'm Jam. Whoever says different can kiss my speckled shell."

"Shall we get a better look at the tape's content?"

"How do we do that?"

"Just focus on it. You'll find yourself in it in no time."

"Okay," Jam said, fixing his stare on the floating projected screen.

Jam, Amelia, and Samantha were transported inside the tape, among the static.

The next memory was much clearer. It was a room with many adults as an audience, and one woman in her mid thirties at a podium. There was a bunch of kids lined up, with numbers on papers pinned on their chests. They were all sitting on chairs. The blond toddler, who was obviously Simon, was among those kids, with the number 55 pinned to his gray school vest's chest.

"Simon Laurent!" the woman from the podium said.

Simon went to the microphone meant for the pupils and awaited instructions. An elderly woman with glasses whispered to another elderly woman. "That's my pupil over there. He's the best at spelling in my class."

The woman at the podium said, "Spell the word 'definitely'."

Simon took in a deep breath. "Definitely. D-E-F-I-A-N-T-L-Y." He grinned with confidence at her.

The other kids started laughing at him.

"I'm sorry," the podium lady said. "That is not how you spell 'definitely'. What you've spelled there is 'defiantly', an adverb which is related to the noun 'defiance'. You have been eliminated."

Simon's eyes widened in disbelief. "But that's how people write it on the literature forums! They've always been right about how things should be written! Just ask my teacher!" He pointed at the woman with glasses.

The podium lady rolled her eyes at him. "Sometimes people can be wrong, Simon."

"They can't be wrong when so many people write it that way all over the internet!" Tears were welling up in the toddler's eyes. "Maybe you're the one who spells it wrong!"

The teacher covered her face in shame. The young blond woman – who was probably Simon's mother – gave him a mean stare from the audience.

Simon noticed them both, and his face turned pink, but he refused to accept the loss. He still waited there.

"Simon Laurent, please free the microphone so the next contestant can step up," the podium lady said.

Simon stomped the floor. "No! I'm not leaving until you admit you're wrong!"

The podium lady gave him a bored look. "Step away from the microphone or I'll have to ask your teacher or your mother to escort you outside."

After looking at his mother, Simon saw how angry she looked. Nobody was on his side at that moment. Not wanting to be seen crying, he ran to the door and left the room.

Outside, he rushed down a hallway while sniffling, then halted when he saw a green light that created a tunnel on the walls on the hallway's sides.

A heavily armored train painted in a military camouflage pattern rushed from one tunnel to the other, stopping as soon as Simon approached it. One of its doors opened, showing a golden light.

Simon looked behind himself for a second, but then decided to board the train and run away from the consequences of his public outburst.

"He always was a sore loser," Amelia said.

"One more reason why I hate being compared to this guy," Jam added, scowling.

Simon woke up in the middle of a city unknown to him. He was so scared that instead of exploring, he started crying out loud.

The one to hear his cries was none other than a younger Samantha. "Aw! Hush, kitten. I am here to help you."

Simon stopped crying. He put his right hand on the cat's head and petted her while his number's green light illuminated her fur. "You're a talking cat! Are you real?"

A bit annoyed by the petting, Samantha pushed his hand away. "Of course I'm real. Everything here is just as real as you are. Follow me! I'll show you how to survive in this hazardous world."

The tape's static took over and changed the scene. Samantha and Simon were talking to a creature made of water, inside which there was a golden device that had a handle, a dial, and a green radar screen.

Samantha held a golf club in her paws. "This product is just the right thing for your problem, Mister Randall. It is the perfect thing to make omelets with. Show him, Simon!"

Simon took four small eggs out of his pocket and put them in a frying pan. Then he grabbed the golf club and swung it at the eggs until they turned to an omelet with eggshells in it. "Good enough for you?"

Randall grinned. "Yes! I need this in my life! We have a deal!" He passed the radar device to the cat and took the golf club with him on his travel.

Simon looked at his palm as his number made a sound. "It went up!" He showed his palm to Samantha. The number 55 glowed on it. "What does this mean?"

"Sometimes, numbers change depending on what you do."

"So, did I do a good job today?"

Samantha smirked at him. "Yes. You've done well, my apprentice. You have earned this for your hard work." She gave him the radar device.

"What does it do?"

"I don't know. We'll just have to figure that out once we get some batteries for it."

Amelia glared at present day Samantha. "I've expected nothing better from a con artist."

"I did what I had to do to survive!" present day Samantha said, showing her fangs. "I've helped him survive too, did I not?"

"You know what he became, and you know why. So don't wash your paws of this."

Present day Samantha lowered her ears and shrank away.

The tape skipped to another one of Simon and Samantha's adventures. This time they were in …

"The tape car!" Amelia said.

While the younger Samantha watched the passengers' memories and picked which tapes she wanted to add to her collection, Simon wandered through the large room and carried a white bag with him. He saw the tape projector hooked to the tape of a cassette with Amelia's name on it. Next to those there was another device that looked like one of the train's cannons. Out of it, green scan lines were emitted and sent onto the projection of the tape. The back of the device expelled green glowing orbs that lost their glow once they dropped into a square container.

The image that was being scanned was of Amelia and Alrick as kids in school, with a jar of jam on their desk. Simon passed through the projection to see what would happen. Nothing happened. Next the projection showed Amelia and Alrick's college graduation day. Just when Amelia was wiping Alrick's face with her turtle-themed handkerchief, Simon stepped into the image again and said, "Hey, Samantha! Look! I'm a nervous British guy!" At that moment he found himself inside Amelia's tape. "W-what's going on?"

Present day Amelia had a shocked look on her face. "That explains everything! The intruder was Simon!"

"Intruder?" Jam asked.

Simon was brought out of the tape just as he watched some people try to get younger Amelia to go to Alrick's funeral.

"Stop fooling around!" younger Samantha said. She grabbed the tape player and Amelia's tape and hid them in her purple shirt.

A loud screech grabbed their attention. It came out of a ghom that rushed toward Simon.

Younger Samantha recognized the danger and puffed up her hair. "Simon! Run! These things like to eat passengers!"

They ran away, chased down by the ghom while present day Amelia, Samantha, and Jam watched.

"I've turned a porter into a ghom and sent it after them," present Amelia said. "I was angry at them for entering the tape car while my experiment was in progress. But now I understand what happened. He got scanned, and the scanner mixed his data into the orbs. Hazel's school vest data was taken from the one he wore. His American accent was also inherited by her and Jam. And Jam is … almost entirely Simon, but with my memories."

Jam stared at her with an awkward look on his face. "So that makes me not just your son, but also ... his?!" He morphed into his turtle aspect again.

Amelia held her head with her hands. "This is so disturbing! I … I'm sorry. I never expected anyone to mess with the scanner. Normally there would be no awake passengers in that car. Well, there was that other intruder the Steward scared away prior to those events ... God, I've messed up worse than I thought!"

"I'm the son of a murderer," Jam said with the thousand yards stare in his eyes.

Amelia hugged him and said, "Don't let it define who you are. His choices are not yours."

Jam looked at her with squinted eyes. "Then why does everyone judge me by his crimes?"

"Because they don't understand the situation. Trust me, similar cases of mistaken identity happen even in the place where I come from, but we have laws there that help prevent violence. And if I can't get you there, I can at least give you a home in the gravity turtle college car."

"The one where the Emperor's guards tried to kill me and my brother? I don't think there's even a ghost of a chance for us to live there."

"I guess you've met them pretty early on, when Simon wasn't part of my team. They've stopped hunting him down after I've explained to them that he was trying to change his ways."

"I'll have to think about your offer."

As soon as Amelia released Jam from the hug, the tape moved on to the next memory. It showed how Simon was separated from Samantha, and how kid Grace saved him from the ghom then taught him that her high number meant she was really good at the train. It showed all the damage and denizen wheelings they did throughout the years as the Apex grew with them.

"He and Grace were nasty people," Jam said.

The tape showed how Simon, as a young adult, started warming up to Tuba in the color clock car. Then it switched to a distant view of the scene where Simon made Tuba fall to the wheels.

"Simon kept this memory at a distance," Samantha said. "He regretted murdering Tuba the most."

"How could he do that to someone who had just helped him out a few minutes before that?" Jam asked. "Why did he tell Hazel that he got rid of her adoptive mother just like that? Why is he smiling about it?"

Samantha closed her eyes and lowered her ears. "He believed he did the right thing. Making it seem like killing denizens wasn't a big deal was always the Apex's way of making children distance themselves from denizens."

The next scene showed how Simon got told by Amelia about the possibility that he might be wrong about her way during her time as the False Conductor. She called him a child, causing him to attack her.

"You weren't kidding when you said you weren't on good terms with him," Jam said.

"If Hazel hadn't screamed at him and turned into a turtle, I would have obliterated Simon then and there."

Jam looked at Hazel, who was crying. He tried to hug her, but his arms went through her while static came out of her body, buzzing. That made him back away.

"You can't directly interact with memories," Samantha said.

The tape fast-forwarded to when Simon extracted and watched Grace's memory tape. A purple portal opened on a wall behind him.

"Is that a deer?" Jam asked.

"That is Alan Dracula," Amelia said. "One sometimes employs him. The gun Alan Dracula was holding with those arms on his back is one of the train's devices that I have repurposed so I could recreate Alrick. I've once scanned a ghom and used its code to turn troublesome denizens into more ghoms. One had the idea of using the ghom orb on Simon to stop him from taking full control over the Apex."

Jam saw Simon get turned into a ghom by the weapon's shot.

Amelia continued telling the story while the tape showed what she was talking about. "Grace asked me to lead her to the locomotive to plead with One to turn Simon back into a human. I've begrudgingly accepted, and through our journey, that annoying brat started to see the damage he had caused. Hazel and One convinced him to change his ways, and so our team of four was founded."

The tape showed Simon and Hazel in a car full of giant, sliced fruit. They were tasked with changing back Amelia's victims from ghoms back into fruit fly denizens. Hazel changed four ghoms into flies while Simon changed three.

"I won!" Simon said. "I've changed back more of them than you did!"

"No, you didn't!" Hazel said. "Since when is three greater than four?"

"I shot four! You thought you landed a hit on the fourth one, but you didn't see me shoot it."

Hazel scowled at him. "Simon, we both know you only shot three."

"Nuh-uh! I shot four!" he said, puffing up his chest. His number changed, expanding from his chest to halfway up his neck.

"Why are you so scared to admit defeat? You're only lying to yourself." She pouted. "You're slipping back into your old ways, Simon."

He glared at her. "I ..." His tone was aggressive at first, but then became calmer while his expression softened. "I don't like losing. It means I'm weak. It makes me look like a joke to people."

Hazel said, "You shouldn't be afraid to admit defeat. Denying you've lost will just make people laugh at you even more."

"But admitting defeat also makes people hate me," Simon said, taking a giant watermelon slice for a seat.

"No, it doesn't!" Hazel said. "Come on! Admit it!"

He raised his arms and shouted, "All right already! You won! Happy now?" His number decreased until it was below his neck.

Hazel smiled. "See? It's not the end of the world. You can change just like Grace did."

"I'm scared," he said.

She took a seat next to him. "Of what?"

"Of change. Nothing will ever be the same again."

Hazel frowned. "Do you really want to go back to wheeling denizens?"

He put his hands before himself. "No! That's not what I meant! I meant … Grace and I can never go back to being, well, Grace and Simon. I can never see her the same way after realizing how she made me live a lie for eight years. And she can never trust me again, because I went against her orders and even extracted her memory tape while she was sleeping in that car with those living block things."

"But Grace still sees you as a friend."

He hid his face behind his palms. "Being demoted from 'best friend' to just 'a friend' still hurts. And I feel like soon Grace and I will be just acquaintances."

They both sat there in silence, and the tape changed the scene. This time, it showed Simon going to his room in the mall car, dragging his feet while having numbers nearly reaching his chin.

Grace followed him and said, "Hey, Simon! How did you do today?"

"Leave me alone!" he said, slamming the door shut before she could enter.

She stood behind the closed door. "Bad day, huh?"

He sat with his back stuck to the door. "Just go away. It's clear that I'm doomed to die on this train." His number expanded halfway up his face, going over his nose. He was fighting back the tears.

"If you want to talk about it, you know where to find me," Grace said.

Simon got up and slowly opened the door, just in time to catch her still in his sight. "I'm sorry about that." His number decreased, stopping just below his chin. "I'm just very disappointed in myself. I failed to save a null … uh, denizen from a wild ghom." He broke down crying.

Grace put her right hand over his left shoulder. "If it helps you get it off your chest, I'm here to listen."

He nodded at her. When she gestured for him to follow her, he complied.

The tape then showed Hazel and Simon trying to pass through the hedgehogs' car. Jam was familiar with those denizens.

When a bunch of pink hedgehogs blocked their way, Simon tried to be diplomatic. "Look, I know the Apex has given you trouble, and I am partially responsible for that. I promise I will help fix your houses."

One of the hedgehogs asked, "Why would we trust you? We've seen how you've thrown others to the wheels!"

"We have changed," Simon said. "We no longer wheel nulls–I mean denizens! Denizens!" He gave a nervous laugh after realizing he had just angered the hedgehogs again.

He and Hazel exited the car immediately as hedgehog quills flew at them. They slammed the door shut and tried to catch their breaths. A few quills were stuck in their backs.

"Nice job, Simon," Hazel said in a mocking tone.

He shrugged. "I didn't mean to insult them; it's just that old habits die hard." Looking at her pouting little face, he added, "I'll think twice before opening my mouth next time. I tend to anger others because I don't word things right. I'm often scared that I'll lose everyone that way."

"As long as you don't intend to hurt others, you'll always have me and Grace," Hazel said.

He smiled at her. "Yeah."

The tape then skipped to the moment where Grace and Hazel left through the exit while Simon tried to force himself to smile and hold back his tears. He looked like an empty shell of himself in that moment. All of his number's digits were E letters reaching with one row above his neck. Bandages hid part of his right lower arm and his palm. His left leg also had a bandage.

Another skip and the tape showed Simon sitting next to One-One in the jungle car. Simon's right arm had a strange patch of skin where a digit should have been. His right palm also had similar patches, missing the brackets of the number. All of the glowing digits on him were still E letters, the number's length remaining unchanged.

"Is it still glitched?" Simon asked, showing his right palm to the robot.

One-One, in Sad-One's voice, said, "I told you this would happen. You can never get an exit now."

"Can't you just give me a new number?"

"No can do," One-One said as Glad-One. "The train knows you've been assigned a number. If you lose any of its components, that number will be giving errors, making the system unable to track your progress."

"Aw, man! So if someone loses an arm here while they have a number, they are doomed to an eternity on the train?!"

"Pretty much," One-One said as Sad-One. "You could visit the universe intersection car and break into another universe where the train works by different rules. Then you could go to that world's version of your home. Maybe even meet the alternate versions of Miss Grace and Miss Hazel."

"But they wouldn't be my Grace and Hazel!" he said with arms stretched before himself.

"Then tell them the truth and maybe Miss Grace could come visit you," One-One said. "Jesse Cosay managed to board the train for the second time, so Miss Grace could do the same."

Simon put his hands on his head. "I can't let her do that! The denizens will try to kill her again! And Hazel will be left alone if Grace boards the train!"

"Then accept your situation," the robot said.

"It's very painful to accept it!" Simon said. "Maybe it's time for me to finally face my tape. That's the only thing that might be able to cure me of missing my friends."

"Be careful when viewing that tape. You should ask someone to keep an eye on you in case things go bad." Switching to Glad-One's voice, One-One added, "I'm sure Amelia will be glad to help if you ask her."

Present day Amelia sighed and said, "One, you had too much faith in me."

Jam glanced at her.

The tape cut to where Simon went to Amelia, who sat in lotus position atop a train car and stared into the distance.

"Amelia?"

"What do you want now, Simon?" the past Amelia asked.

"Please help me. I need someone to keep an eye on me while I go into my tape to resolve some issues that keep eating away at me."

Past Amelia crossed her arms and said, "Hmpf. I'm not your babysitter. Man up and deal with your problems alone!"

Simon frowned. All he could do was let out a faint "Okay." Then he turned around and left.

Samantha hissed at present day Amelia and puffed up her fur. "You made him stop asking for help! It's your fault he's dead!"

Amelia pointed at her. "I was not responsible for his problems!"

The cat tried to scratch Amelia, who pulled her hand away just in time to avoid the claws. "Had he asked me, I would have been there for him! But he never even considered it because you made him feel weak for it!" She hissed at Amelia again.

"Calm down, you two!" Jam said, putting himself between them. "Amelia, while you had no obligation to help him, you also played a part in his demise. Maybe you too should choose your words more carefully."

Amelia bowed her head. "I suppose I could have been politer when I refused his request. It's too late to apologise to him, but I will consider the consequences of how I word things from now on."

Her number went down from 45 to 35.

"I didn't tell Hazel that day," Amelia said, "but my number was 39 and went up to 49 right after Simon left."

Samantha sat in silence, with her ears lowered.

The tape showed how Simon locked himself in his room and sat on his bed. He extracted his own tape from his head and inserted it into the projector. Suddenly, he was inside his tape, and so were the watchers. His memories played out normally, starting with the funeral and going all the way to when Grace and Hazel were about to leave. Then everything froze.

"What is happening?" Jam asked.

Simon looked around, likely wondering the same thing. Out of him, another version of himself appeared in addition to the replica that was already there. At first the new replica was made of static, but then it became fully colored. It was him but with his hair freed from his ponytail, and wearing a red army jacket instead of his white hoodie. The guy had numbers all the way to his forehead.

"Why are you here?" Simon asked, glaring at him.

The Simon covered in numbers said, "I am here to show you how awesome you could have become in your last moments."

"Why would I ever want to become you? You got eaten by a ghom while I got this far because I did the right thing!"

With a smirk, the number-covered Simon asked, "Oh yeah? Then tell me, if you did the right thing, how come you've lost everything?"

The bragging Simon faded away while the tape unpaused itself and repeated the memory of Grace and Hazel leaving through the exit over and over.

Simon sat next to a wall and kept watching them as tears ran down his face. "I don't know."

The tape skipped to show how Simon got thinner and thinner until the surroundings turned into static. He too became covered in static and dropped on his left side, becoming one with the floor. Then all the static was washed away by a black void that poured from the top.

Jam stared at the tape player, which had stopped playing. He didn't know what to feel anymore.

"So that was why he was so sad about Grace and Hazel leaving," Amelia said.

Samantha curled up on top of the bed's pillow, lowering her ears and closing her eyes.

To be continued.