Chapter Two
"Two brothers make an unfortunate discovery, as friends are welcomed home"
Near Hunterstown, Pennsylvania
Thursday 31st December 1931
07:00
Several hours from New York, most people were still in bed. The few that were awake were preparing for the new years celebrations about to take place that evening.
That was, except for a select few, who were crowded around a set of railroad tracks that made up the main route from Chicago's Union Station to New York's Grand Central.
A car made it way up the dirt tracks to where a group of local police officers were crowded around something on the ground. Parking far enough back from the track that an unscheduled train couldn't swipe it, but close enough to the officers that the car's occupants wouldn't have to trek through the thick snow too far; the car – the high of modern opulence in New York and other such cities – came to an unsteady halt after slipping through the partially-disturbed snow the last few meters. Out of the car stepped two FBI agents, almost identical in appearance besides the red and blue scarves they wore respectively.
"So how bad is it?" the agent in the red scarf – Hikage Fuma – asked the group of officers.
All signs seemed to indicate not good. Half the officers were green in the face, the others unnervingly pale, even for the cold weather. One officer was crouched by a water tower, throwing up his breakfast.
"Bad" was all the most senior officer there could say, before he lifted up the blanket covering the shape on the floor so he could show the agents, but baring the sight from his already traumatised officers.
Hikage had been a Pinkerton then an FBI agent since he came back from the war, but this was by far the worst injuries he'd seen a corpse take. All that was left was the torso and a single leg, a few inches of bone sticking out from the red blobs where the arms and remaining leg used to be. The man – probably a man – appeared to have been wearing a black suit before his unfortunate demise, but most of it was stained through with blood or torn off him now.
"This is the most intact one we've found so far" the lead officer admitted.
"Where's his head?" the second agent – Tsukikage Fuma – asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion.
"200 metres up the track" the lead officer told him, dropping the sheet over the body again "Along with a leg and an arm. Haven't found the other arm yet. There's also another leg but it's not from him, obviously. Or else we've discovered the first three-legged man."
Humour to cover trauma. Typical for those responsible for body-retrieval, even hardened officers.
"So there's more than one?" Tsukikage frowned. Mass suicide? Serial killer leaving his bodies on the rails? But surely that would provide a cleaner cut than this butchery.
"It's hard to tell, since they're all ripped to pieces" the officer told him "But we reckon it's in the teens."
Hikage's eyebrows climbed up into his hair. "Teens?"
He shared a looked with Tsukikage. No wonder their boss had insisted they turn up to what appeared to be a bog-standard suicide-by-train.
"We've been in communication with Adams County, trying to count torsos" the officer explained, his own face turning slightly green now "They could go further back than there. We don't know yet. Someone's trying to raise Maryland but god knows those guys don't rise early."
"And they were all along the track?" Tsukikage frowned "How often do trains pass through here?"
"Not much" the officer confirmed "Just The Flying Lancer last night. The morning coal train was the one who found them."
"So they were all hit by The Flying Lancer?" Tsukikage shook his head "How could they hit that many people not notice? Were they hijacked?"
"No" the officer shook his head "The train went the whole night giving the ok signal – no problems on board whatsoever."
"Or, rather than the training hitting them, these guys all jumped from the train" Hikage pointed out "That would've been a nice suit this one's wearing. Like a first-class dining suit."
"You're saying more than twelve first-class passengers from The Flying Lancer left their comfortable suites to jump and take their chances with the snow?" the lead officer seemed incredulous at the idea.
"That or they were forced off the train at knifepoint" Hikage added to his theory "Where is the train?"
"Stopped in Jersey" one of the junior officers now chipped in "They're swapping all the remaining passengers to another train to get them into the city."
"We'll have to talk to everyone on the train, have someone lock down the station before they can leave" Tsukikage decided "Come on, there's nothing for us here. Let's go."
The Pinkertons walked back to their car, jumping inside it in an attempt to escape the cold and gore.
Hikage sighed and lit up a cigarette. "You think we can do it?"
"Do what?" Tsukikage turned the engine on with a sigh, rubbing his free hand against his coat to keep warm.
"Cover up something of this scale?" Hikage gestured to the officers.
"Depends on how badly they want it covered up" Tsukikage shrugged "What about the lady?"
"We have to confirm her whereabouts next" Hikage told him "God, this is a mess."
Before they could leave though, Hikage jumped as a loud knock sounded at the window. He rolled it down, much to Tsukikage's disappointment, to find and out-of-breath fresh-faced officer standing at it.
"We-We have survivors!" he panted.
The Fuma brothers looked at each other, alarmed and shocked. Someone had survived the jump? Plus hours lying in the snow?
"Get in!" Hikage demanded, the young officer clambering into the back seat of the car just as Tsukikage peeled out of there.
"Where?" the driver asked.
"Four miles that way!" the officer pointed north-east in the direction the train had gone.
The drive took longer than they would've liked, the car struggling in the deep snow, but they eventually arrived to find a crowd of officers and two nurses positioned on a snow drift near the track, created by the legs of a large water tower.
Hikage jumped out of the car whilst it was still moving and scrambled up the bank to the top. He was absolutely flawed by who he saw one he was up there.
Half-buried in the drift was a young man in a suit, one leg attached only by bone and a few little strings of muscle and the corresponding arm completely missing. He appeared to have blacked out from the pain, but small trickles of blood in the snow around him indicated he was still alive. Holding him was a young woman, very much alive, her only injuries being some patches of skin peeled away from her back, arms and legs. She had probably been wearing a party dress, but it was mostly torn away by now.
Said young woman was glaring up at the stunned crowd.
"Well, are you gonna help him or are you just going to stand there and watch him bleed to death?" she demanded "I don't think you've realised this yet, but I'm in a really foul mood today, and I could kill you all right now, but that would be counterproductive at this point. So, get a stretcher, get my brother on it, and I'll consider not stabbing you all with this knife," at this she held up the knife that had been sitting in the snow next to her "when we get to the hospital. Crystal?"
Grand Central Station, New York, New York
Thursday 31st December 1931
10:30
"I'm telling ya, I can't wait to see it."
On the upper level of New York's grandest but not most central station, five people were sat around a set of tables in a café. They hadn't all intended to arrive together, but they all knew each other, and were waiting for people from the same train, so they decided to wait together.
The one who had made the statement was Yaiba Todo. The long-haired man had both arms folded behind his head, leant back in his chair and looking so comfortable he could fall asleep right then and there.
"The Flying Lancer, you mean?" his male companion, Hokuto Shijima, asked as he took a sip of his tea.
"Yeah" Yaiba nodded "I heard it's the grandest, most beautiful thing ever made on American soil."
"Oh, it definitely has been called that" Reiji Akaba, sitting at the table the boys had pushed theirs against agreed, wrapping his scarf around his shoulders a little more to protect him from the cold "It's also been called sleek, modern and extravagant. My words for it would be extortionate, ostentatious and gaudy."
"Man, I don't even know what half those words are!" Damen Lopez, a latino man who'd crossed paths with the boys several times before, laughed as he spun his empty beer bottle around the table with his hands.
"Well now I really wanna see it!" Yaiba rocked back and forth in his chair excitedly.
"You're out of luck there, boy" the fifth member of the group approach the table with a new pot of hot water for her tea. Masumi Kotsu sat down with the grace of a gazelle but more channelling ice queen than cute animal "Just heard. The Flying Lancer suffered a breakdown. They're moving all the passengers onto another train to shuttle them here."
Yaiba's jaw dropped with horror. "WHAT?!"
Several people looked in his direction at the distraught screech that left his mouth.
"Eh! Muchacho! What the hell?!" Damon yelped, his ears ringing as Reiji just sighed with embarrassment.
"You're making a scene!" Hokuto hissed, glaring at Yaiba.
"Yeah, it's the back-up carriages, so you'll see them" Masumi finished her statement before she'd been interrupted so rudely, not fazed by the outburst in the slightest "But they'll be towed in by a real sleek modern engine. An electric one, which is far less obnoxious."
"Aw man!" Yaiba fussed, clearly disappointed "Oh well." He looked over at Reiji. "Who are you meeting here Reiji?"
Reiji took the offered hot water from Masumi to top up his tea, then took a sip before he answered Yaiba's question. "My family's travelling in on the express. I want to introduce them."
"To us?" Hokuto seemed surprised, and a little touched.
Reiji smiled. "To each other, actually. My father adopted my brother after he and my mother had separated and my sister had already left home. Now Ray is married and expecting her first child, I thought it would be smart for us all to meet for the first time. She and her husband are coming in from Chicago, my brother from San Francisco. I wouldn't be surprised if they've already met, if informally, on the train in."
"Aw, good for you man!" Damon slapped Reiji on the shoulder with delight, surprising the older man slightly "I really gotta get the familia back together some day, you know? How hard is it to smuggle in a family of Guatemalans to New York anyway?"
Hokuto sat up, wiped his mouth and put on his best businessman face. "Well-"
He didn't get any further into his sales pitch than that, as at that moment, half the café's population stood up and walked out, all heading downstairs towards the station.
"Guess it must have arrived" Masumi stood up "Come on, I don't trust those idiots to find us if we don't meet them at the platform."
The five of them moved downstairs to the platform, where by the time they got there, the train had already come to a halt. They waited as the doors of the, admittedly very pretty, carriages opened, only for them all to get a nasty shock when they opened.
The second and third-class passengers seemed to be fine, but the riders in the first-class carriages were a whole different story. Those in light-coloured clothes could be seen to have blood splattering on them. All of them looked traumatised, eyes wide and bloodshot, faces drawn and pale. There were one or two children were crying.
"What kinda of breakdown was this?" Yaiba questioned "Did they derail or something?"
Just as they were are wondering this, a pair dismounting from one of the carriages got their attention.
"Ow! Ow! OWW!" The boy was whining, half leaning on the girl next to him "Ow! Yuzu, could we go a bit slower? Everything is killing me! Ow! Ow!"
The very large man following them seemed to be rolling his eyes in exasperation.
A repetition of "ow"s followed the pair off the train and along the platform until they were lost in the crowd.
"What do you think happened to them?" Hokuto questioned.
"Hey guys!"
Before they could ponder that, Masumi and Hokuto found themselves rushed by two of the dismounting passengers. Unlike the others, this couple still had big smiles and sparkling eyes.
"Hokuto and Yaiba and Masumi and DAMON!" the boy hooted with joy, letting go of Hokuto to now tackle an equally joyous Damon.
"Yugo! It's been too long!" Damon laughed.
"How was California, Rin?" Masumi asked, smiling at the girl who had hugged her.
"Warm, but dirty" Rin admitted now hugging Yaiba "It's great to be home."
"We got your letter!" Yugo cheered "And a present for Masumi's birthday too!"
"Oh, you didn't need to do that" Masumi insisted.
"No offence man, but you look like hell" Damon admitted, looking Yugo over. Up closer, he could see what appeared to be a few bruises on his skin and his clothes were a little torn up. Rin's too.
"What happened in there?" Reiji asked, searching the other doors with his eyes from his family disembarking.
Yugo laughed again, patting Reiji's shoulder, but it seemed more weary this time. "Live long enough and we'll tell ya!"
Near Columbia, Pennsylvania
Thursday 31st December 1931
11:00
As further down the track, police were unearthing bodies from the snow, just a few miles north-east, an oblivious young lady was on a fishing expedition.
She wasn't fishing for fish, exactly. Instead, she was knee-deep in the Susquehanna River, fishing out crates.
She wasn't alone. Three others in two boats were helping her to collect the crates and get them ashore to the waiting truck.
As she looked across the river to see if she could spot any other crates, she saw a piece of wooden framework used to rest the crates on the train on floating downstream. But what got her attention was the girl wearing an evening dress floating on top of it.
"Hey!" she called, waving her arms frantically "HEY!"
The girl, who appeared to be unconscious, sat up a little, blinking at the young lady by the bank in confusion.
"You ok?!" said young lady called to her.
Another blink. A small nod.