Chapter 8: The Cube Platformer Car

Alrick broke into a grocery store and pointed the net launcher gun at the cashier, who was a lamb dressed in a black vest. He hoped the cashier wouldn't question what the weapon did. "Give me batteries!"

"We're sorry, sir," the trembling cashier said, "but we do not sell batteries. Only fresh vegetables brought from the vegetable garden car."

Alrick growled in frustration and grabbed a lettuce, then shoved it into his backpack before continuing his run.

Amelia, Jam, and Samantha arrived and saw the quivering lamb.

"Sir, have you seen an armoured tortoise denizen come through here?" Amelia asked.

The lamb pointed with his keratinous finger at the destroyed door to his left. "Yes. He broke in, threatened me with a gun, stole a lettuce, then punched the other door open too."

"Sounds like my brother all right," Jam said.

The gang resumed the chase and found another broken door on the next car. It led them to a car full of pumpkins of various sizes. Its sky was a sickening green.

"This is where Grace saw me for the first time," Amelia said. "Well, she saw my mech and my numbered arm to be more exact."

"There's something scary about this place," Jam said. "It might be this atmosphere that's fitting for some Halloween shenanigans."

"It's probably why Grace's memories related to this car looked so terrifying in her tape. The Steward had been chasing her in here until I showed up and called it off."

Samantha shuddered while the hairs on her back stood on end. "Who wouldn't be terrified while being chased by a multi-legged robot with blue flames coming out of its eyes? You ordered it to kill me. I still see it in my nightmares to this day!"

"I've told you I'm sorry!" Amelia said. "I even signed that peace treaty with you. We're no longer enemies, so there's nothing to worry about. Besides, the Steward is under One's command again."

"But you and I are hardly allies," Samantha said.

"I'm trying to be a good ally. Just give me a chance instead of dismissing me as still being the monster I used to be."

Samantha watched her with squinted eyes. "Don't forget: you've greatly disappointed me after we became allies. I'll give you this one last chance. If Jam ends up dead too because of you, then I will burn the bridge and will attack you every time we cross paths."

The travel through the pumpkin car went extremely silent from that point on. So silent that they could hear something get smashed in the distance.

"That must be my brother!" Jam said. He and Amelia ran toward the source of the sound and found a destroyed exit.

They saw Alrick smash open the door to the next car too. He entered and disappeared into its darkness.

Jam put his left arm in front of himself. "I'm a little worried about going into that car, but at least I've got a flashlight." He made the flashlight come out of the hatch of his armor's forearm.

Alrick jumped on big, metallic cubes that emitted a faint blue glow while floating in a black void. Some of them moved side to side, others up and down, and some diagonally. He observed the gaps in the walls around the room and saw how the cubes were being built on conveyor belts before being released to float to their places in the tall, dark room. One of the components inserted into every cube's top hatch caught his attention: a battery.

Amelia launched her harpoons at a floating cube and pulled herself toward it, climbing to its top. "We'll have to jump our way up. I think I can see the door there."

"I can see Alrick's jets too," Jam said, pointing at his brother, who jumped from cube to cube and made each one fall after spending some time on it.

"He's trying to prevent us from reaching the top," Samantha said as she watched the cubes drop without their glow.

Jam jumped and landed next to Amelia on the still-floating cube. "There are plenty of cubes that could lead us to the door. I'm sure we can get there."

"We need to be careful," Amelia said before launching herself at a cube that went up and down. "There seems to be a bottomless pit below us. If we fall down there, we'll either smash into some cubes on the way down and get killed if reaching a high enough velocity, or just die after falling for several days."

"You've got your harpoons and I've got my armor," Jam said, knocking his armor's chest with his right hand's knuckles. "We'll be fine."

Amelia jumped to another platform before saying, "As long as these cubes don't all fall at the same time."

Jam joined her on the cube. "It's just like platformer video games, except in first person, and the penalty for falling is death in real life."

Samantha's fur was all puffed up as she stared into the darkness below.

"But it's still fun," he added, jumping and jetting for the nearest cube above him.

Alrick kept opening the hatches of the cubes, extracting the batteries from within, which he then threw into his backpack before jumping toward higher cubes. The door with a ledge in front of it was just ten jumps away at the top, and he could barely see his enemies below.

"So," Jam said, "once we get to Earth, assuming it's possible, will we still find many of the things from your memories? Like video games, dirt bikes, blackcurrant jam and such?"

Amelia climbed onto another cube and waited for him to join her. She said, "I don't know what we will find once we get out there. I haven't seen the Earth in over 33 years, and the only information I can get from out there comes from the e-mails Hazel sends me. All I know is that schools still exist, and that there is a talk show aimed to make humans aware of the Infinity Train's existence."

After they jumped onto another cube, Jam continued with the questions. "If my brother and I can come with you to Earth, what will life be like for us out there? I mean, we're some kind of human-turtle hybrids. Will the humans accept us for who we are, or will we have to keep our turtle identities secret for the rest of our lives? Can we marry humans and … have kids with them?"

Amelia pondered for a moment. "I can't give you any concrete answers."

"Then at least tell me what you think might happen," he said, joining her on another cube.

"Some humans will accept you as you are," Amelia said. "But don't expect everyone to be accepting of those different from them. There are humans who hate other humans just because of skin color or class or gender or various other reasons that shouldn't even matter to them. From what Grace told me, things have improved out there, but there's still a long way to go before racism, sexism, and other such prejudices won't be so common."

He frowned. "I guess nowhere is safe from that kind of stuff."

"As for your last question, I suppose you could find people who would marry you. But since you're hybrids, there are high chances that you might be sterile, even if your code somehow passes for DNA."

"What does that last part mean?"

"It means you might not be able to have children with humans, and possibly not even with other denizens. But this is just going by the findings regarding most animal hybrids. There has never been an adult human-denizen hybrid like you before for humans to study."

"Are they going to study me if they find out what I am?"

"Only if you agree to participate in the studies. But first we need to inform the humans about denizens and the Infinity Train. We might have to participate in that talk show eventually."

Jam sighed and continued to jump along.

Alrick collected the last battery he could acquire on his way up, then jumped onto the blue ledge. He didn't need to punch the door open; it opened itself for him. Before going outside, he turned around to look down. He could see the faint silhouettes of Amelia and Jam on a cube. Knowing they were safe, he finally got out and jetted to the top of the next car.

"We're almost there," Amelia said, launching her harpoons toward the next cube. She pulled herself to it, climbed to the top, and waited for Jam and Samantha to join her.

Jam jumped, used his jets, and realized that instead of going up he was slowly going down. Looking at his feet, he saw that they were no longer emitting the blue flames. His screen showed the battery at 5%. "Uh-oh!" Then his fall went faster while he flailed his limbs in the air. "Oh crapI'mrunningoutofjuice!"

Amelia quickly shot her harpoon at him, but he failed to reach it with his right hand.

All Samantha could do was shout, "Mon Dieu!" Her voice faded away along with Jam's screams as they disappeared into the black void below.

Amelia shouted, "Jam! Grab onto a cube! Jam! Say something! Samantha! Jam! Samantha!" She sat at the edge of the cube, on her knees, staring at the harpoon pack's cord that dangled toward the darkness. They were gone.

It took a few seconds for her to snap out of shock and think again. She decided to go back down and look for them.

"Jam! Samantha! Give me a sign! Just … Just give me a sign already!" Her eyes started tearing up. "Jam! Samantha!" She was already eight cubes down. At that moment she wondered if it was even worth it to keep going after them. She looked at the top.

The door was barely visible from there, and it was open. Alrick was getting further and further away from her, and if Jam wasn't going to be around anymore, she had no way to track Alrick.

Amelia looked into the abyss again. "Jam! Samantha! Please answer! Alrick is getting away! I'll have to leave if you don't say anything!"

There was only silence as her tears fell into the darkness below.

She screamed, "Jam! Samantha! I'm sorry!" Then, in a barely audible voice, she said, "I've failed you." Her number changed from 10 to 20.

She pointed the harpoons at a cube above her and fired them. As she made her way to the top, the tears continued to fall on the sides of her face and off her chin, staining her suit. She was alone again, and the last person she cared about who was still on the train hated her. On top of all that, she would have to break the news to Alrick that she failed to save his brother. She knew he still cared about Jam, and it would only make him hate her more, but he'd want answers eventually.

Finally on the ledge and in front of the door, Amelia looked behind her at the abyss. She wanted to scream her companions' names one last time, but decided against doing so. It would only give her more pain if she'd face the silence again. She had to stay on Alrick's trail.

The door to the next car wasn't damaged. Suspecting that Alrick might have gone on the top of the cars instead, she launched herself at the next car and climbed onto it. Up ahead she could see Alrick jet away in the distance. She hurried to catch up to him.

Alrick noticed her and started running faster. A car in front of him was in the process of being shifted. He considered it might be a good opportunity for him to lose Amelia. Either it would head toward the back of the train and force her to slow down, or it would head toward the front, giving him a lift and getting him closer to the locomotive. He jetted on top of it and waited for it to reveal where it was going.

Amelia saw the car take Alrick away from her. She had no chance of catching up to something that fast, unless …

Searching through her backpack, she brought out the e-mailing machine. There was one new e-mail in there.

Sender: Hazel Hughes
Subject: Simon might be my dad?!

Amelia didn't bother to open it. She had to write and send an e-mail to her boss right away.

To: One
Subject: I need this car shifted to the front!

Please send the car below me after the other car that's near me and heading toward the front. Once the other car stops, stop this one too. Keep an eye out for e-mails in case I need it stopped earlier than that.

It took less than a minute for a response.

Sender: One
Subject: Here you go.

Have a safe trip!

Another e-mail followed.

Sender: One
Subject: Try not to fall off.

Riding these things is dangerous.

The car underneath Amelia used its wheels to climb over the cars on its sides. She hooked the harpoons to the car's top for stability and refused to look back, her tears having finally dried up. Once fully lifted, the car darted toward the front of the train.

To be continued.