Out Of The Past
Part XVI - A Visit And A Warning II
Unable to do anything more than 'drive' the train the rest of the night, Eliah settled into the helm chair to think.
She always failed to understand why Wilford got so upset if someone wasn't at the helm nearly every minute of every day. It wasn't like they actually 'drove' the train. They pushed. Snowpiercer was the lead engine for the time being. They were the one's who needed to worry what was on the track ahead, not Big Alice.
Eliah gave another sigh as she readjusted herself in the chair.
Control.
It was all about control with Wilford. Either real or perceived, he always had to believe he was in control of everything that was happening.
She gave a small laugh.
Control.
If Wilford knew just how not in 'control' he was, she believed it would give him some sort of a seizure.
But now he had set his sights on something new to control. The Wellstead woman.
Eliah had no doubt that given enough time, Wilford could manipulate her. He was a master at that particular skill. But he only had a week. So she had no doubt he would start soon and do as much damage as he could in that short amount of time. Meaning she had to get to the woman before he did and possibly assess how much damage he had already tried to do and stop him from doing any more if she could. She knew he had been trying to turn her against her former train from the start, but Wellstead wasn't as easy a subject as Wilford had anticipated. But Wilford was also very determined to get what he wanted. Eliah herself had only managed to stand against his attempts in the past due to the training she had learned from her parents.
Always on the move. Always suspicious of everyone. That seemed to define her life growing up. She doubted they had lived in any one place for more than a few months before the next move. Her parents had been her source of security and stability. As long as they were there, it mattered little to Eliah where they lived. It wasn't until years later she came to understand their need for constant movement. When she first stepped into her father's world.
He had always made it seem so thrilling with his stories.
She found it terrifying...at first. But she didn't have much time to live that life. The freeze soon came and, her mother already gone, her father had arranged for both of them to be on the ark train, Snowpiercer.
But something went very wrong, and the train left the station earlier than it should have. Before Eliah arrived.
All she could think of in those first months aboard Big Alice was how worried her father must be. Ever resourceful, she had secured passage on the other train in a security detail. Nearly as well trained as her father, she quickly proved herself to be a force to be reckoned with. Through that position, Eliah came to know most of the Jackboots. Learned who was safe and who wasn't. But Eliah soon made her own way among their ranks, making friends and earning their respect. Soon she was Wilford's second-in-command of security on the train. From there she learned many of them knew her parents and had worked with them before the freeze. In short, within parts of Wilford's military ranks, she found a sort of pseudo-family. Aunts and uncles they became to her. Always telling her wild and exciting stories of the things they and her parents had done.
From certain members of this new family Eliah came to know about the rebels on Big Alice. At that time little more than a group of overly enthusiastic scavengers trying to stay alive, through her experiences she saw much more potential for the them. But they needed more organization. More purpose.
They needed a leader.
But to be that leader, she needed a better position on the train. A placement that kept her in more constant contact with Wilford and his mad schemes. Her parents had started her on the path of becoming an engineer. She had several years of schooling already, but was nowhere near Wilford's level. But still she managed to secure herself the position of an apprentice engineer and as the years progressed, was able to earn enough of the man's trust to become one of the senior engineers. A position that served her and her fellow rebels well in being able to help the less fortune on the train, while also keeping them safe as her insights into Wilford's plans always kept them one step ahead of any traps to capture them.
When she had first learned she could communicate with her father, she could hardly believe it. A short message sent via a small communication device he had given her years before if they ever got separated. She had held onto it like a talisman. Then one night, it the darkness of her room, the small cube had lit up. Elaih thought she was dreaming at first. But the lights flashed out in a code her father had taught only to her and her mother. Grabbing the cube, she sent back the response to let him know she had heard him.
Then nothing more.
She lived only for the next time she heard they were near the other train. She began sending her message as soon as she felt she could. Then waited.
This time they communicated for a few minutes. But he at least knew she was alive. They had one other again.
Now, with the trains connected, she swore she saw her father more than she had before the freeze. When she had first set eyes on him, she could hardly believe it. He looked so much older.
He had told her about his time in the Tail. Shortly after the train left he felt something wasn't right. The usually flamboyant Joseph Wilford was now an utter recluse? Communicating only through his head of hospitality?
Whatever the reasons for the change, he did not feel it boded well for him and his position on the train. And in uncertainty, he favored anonymity. So he abandoned his place in Second Class for the Tail, and had hid there for seven long years. Without his family, he didn't much seem to care what became of him. He simply existed, stayed to himself, and cared little for what happened around him. As long as the others left him be, he left them be. As far as he knew, his family perished in the freeze. Two treasured photos he carried in his tattered wallet were all he had to help him face each successive day.
Until a small cube in his hand one day answered his call.
Eliah sighed once more as she shook off her memories. Memories were fine if they stayed where they belonged, her father always told her. In the past. In the present, things were definitely getting more complicated. More dangerous. And at the heart of it all was someone who wasn't even aware yet of the role they were playing.
It was time for her and Josie Wellstead to sit down and have a nice, long talk.
As soon as the strange woman had left her room, Josie was quickly prowling around her cabin.
"Where are you?" She constantly called to the voice, each time waiting for it to answer her. "Are you there? I need to talk to you."
But no answer came.
Josie lost track of how long she continued the odd ritual. Asking, pausing, waiting for an answer that never came.
Finally she tried one last time, deciding if she didn't get an answer there was no point to keep trying.
"Listen to me! This is very important. I need to talk to you. I need to tel..."
"Shut up!"
Josie stopped in mid-sentence of calling out in her hushed tone to the voice.
The voice that answered her was not 'her' voice. This was a decidedly male voice. The only common points between it and her 'voice' was that it spoke in the same thick accent and, like the other voice, seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once in the confines of the cabin.
"Who are you?" She quickly asked. Accents and mannerisms aside, she had no real proof if this person had any connection to 'her' voice.
"The person telling you to 'shut up'!" Came the same hissed answer. "What if someone's walkin' by your cabin while you're talkin' to the walls?"
"You're quite rude." Josie stated, hands now on her hips as she addressed the air around her.
"And you're a stupid cow." Came the answer.
Josie huffed slightly at the comment. "Oh. It's you." She stated. "The one that likes to call me a 'cow'."
"Not a cow." Came the answer.
Josie stood in the center of the cabin, saying nothing.
"Say it right." Came the voice.
"I will not." She defiantly refused.
Silence answered her.
"Well?"
Silence.
Josie huffed again. She didn't like the game. Especially when only one player held most of the cards for the moment. She knew she held one trump, but she refused to use it. She wanted their trust. Threatening to go to Wilford wasn't the way to earn it.
Josie waited.
"Are you even still there?" She finally asked.
"Say it right." Came the same answer.
Josie gave a sigh of frustration. "Look. I just want to talk to...your leader...or whoever she is. It's important."
"Say it right then."
"Look, this is important and you're playing a stupid game."
"Almost there." Came the answer with a slight chuckle.
"What if someone's listening?"
"No one's listening, ducky. So go ahead and say it."
"I'll tell her the game you played."
"Go ahead. She'll only think it's funny." Came the same chuckled answer.
Josie fumed at the silence that followed.
"Fine!" She finally stated. "I'm not a 'stupid' cow."
"Doesn't make it so." Answered the new voice. "Daft woman. But have at it now. What's so blimey important?"
"Why are you so friendly?" Josie suddenly asked.
"What?"
"Why are you so friendly? The other one hardly talks at all. You're a regular chatter box."
"No harm in talkin'." The voice replied. "'Specially to a pretty little ducky. So why do you want to talk to 'E' so badly, pretty little duc..."
But the voice suddenly cut off in the midst of what to Josie sounded like a solid smack of someone's hand to an equally solid object.
She waited for a few moments to see what happened next, but the voice was silent again.
"Hello?" She asked to the empty cabin around her.
"Little ducky is very talkative suddenly." Came an all too familiar voice.
"What happened to the other one?" Josie asked curiously.
There was a long pause before the voice answered her. "He's busy." It answered. "What do you want, little ducky?"
"You have a problem." She quickly answered.
"Have lots of problems." Came the reply. "Most current one is laying on the ground next me unconscious. But I'm more interested in yours. What problem?"
"What do you know about Wilford's 'interrogator'?"
"Elson. His Second-In-Command." The voice sounded almost bored. "What of her?"
"She came to see me tonight."
The voice went silent.
"Did you hear me?"
"I heard you, ducky." Came the reply finally. "What did she want?"
"From everything I surmised, you."
The voice went silent again.
"Well?"
"And what did you tell her, ducky?" Came the question positively dripping with suspicion.
"Nothing. I told her I didn't even know what she was talking about."
"Tell me." Came the near command.
Josie was a bit surprised at the change in the tone of her voice. Before it had been almost pleasant. Even friendly. It had teased her to be sure, but it was never curt or short with her. Now it sounded more like the woman who had come to her cabin in it's manner. It was demanding, succinct, and to the point.
Josie relayed the conversation as best she could recall, trying not to leave out any pertinent information. When she finished, all the answered her at first was a pervasive silence.
"Why are you telling me this, ducky?" The voice finally asked.
Josie paused for a moment. "Because her description of you and your people didn't make sense."
"How so?"
"She said you were ruthless. And yet when you had a clear open opportunity, you didn't kill me. You even helped me escape. Told me what to say to the Jackboots."
"Smart ducky." Came the voice. "But she told you the truth." Came the unexpected statement.
Josie stood frozen in the center of her cabin, thinking she had just made a very bad mistake.
"Elson told you we were ruthless?" The voice asked.
"Yes."
"She spoke the truth. We are. It's how we stay alive. But no worries." It added in a lighter tone. "No plans to harm little ducky. Need you."
"For what?"
"My china plate said you were a daft woman."
"Well, your 'china plate' is wrong. And rude to boot."
The voice actually chuckled at her this time. "Don't be hard on him, Ducky. He's actually sweet on you a bit I think."
"That one!?"
"But I don't think Ducky is quite so daft. Think you know a thing or two. Especially about Wilford."
"Like what?"
"Know Wilford likes others to pay for things. Especially when he is being kind to them. Always a price for that."
"So what's my price going to be?"
The voice went silent for a few moments., making Josie think it had left.
"Well?"
"Will be going home soon, little Ducky." The voice answered.
"How do you know that?"
"People talk. I listen. Not so hard to find things out if you know how to do that."
"So what have you heard?"
"Wilford plans to send little Ducky back to her own pond in a week. Not much time."
"For what?"
"For Wilford. Ducky got him to commit to a time that was sooner than he wanted. Not much time to put his plans into place."
"What plans?"
"Price, Ducky. This is your 'price' you keep looking for."
"And that would be?"
"Not so hard to figure out, Ducky. Wilford wants to use you as his eyes and ears on Snowpiercer."
"But doesn't he already have spies on Snowpiercer?"
"Not like you, Ducky. Wilford doesn't have any spy nearly so close to one of the train's leaders as you."
"WIlford wants me as a spy because of my relationship with Andre?"
"More than spy, Ducky. Wants you completely under his control. Wants you to do what he says."
"For instance?"
"Wilford wants to use you, Ducky, to upset the power structure on Snowpiercer. Use you to put a wedge between the two leaders."
"Melanie and Andre."
"Smart Ducky."
Josie stopped talking, instead walking about the cabin now as she thought over what the voice was telling her.
"Ducky has gotten very quiet." The voice finally commented. "What is wrong?"
"My train's forgotten me." Josie replied in a lower tone after a brief, thoughtful pause.
"Why do you think that?"
"Where are they?" Came the sudden outburst. "Why has no one asked about me? Come to see me? Where are they?"
The voice didn't answer her.
"Well? Wilford can't answer that question. Can't you either? Where are they? Why haven't they come for me?"
"Come for who?" The voice finally asked softly. "Friends don't come for someone they don't know is alive."
Josie paused for a minute. "That was Wilford's answer."
"Spoke the truth, Ducky. So don't be so sad. Train has not forgotten you. Friends, lover, not forgotten Ducky. Don't know she is still alive."
"Wilford said...everyone's gone on with their lives. Especially Andre."
"How so?"
"Wilford said that Melanie and Andre...are quite close now."
"Seems so."
"How do you know?"
"Answered question before, Ducky. Have china plates on Snowpiercer. Keep me up-to-date on going on's. Two leaders work well together."
"Wilford...implied that they are...closer than just leaders of the train."
"And Wilford likes to play games." The voice answered.
"So he's lying?" Joie asked, a note of hope in her voice that was far too obvious.
"Not in the bedroom, Ducky, so don't know for sure what goes on behind a closed door. You take that one up with your man when you see him. But know Wilford, as do you. Likes to play his games. Sow dissention. Favorite game. Need to remember that."
Josie went quiet again. She was looking for answers, not the same cryptic statements she got from Wilford.
"Will find answers in a week." The voice offered. "But for now, need to prepare Ducky."
"Prepare for what?"
"Ducky is going home soon. Wilford wants to make sure Ducky goes with a leash."
"I won't be his spy!"
"Ducky wants to go home? Then Ducky needs to listen well and play the game right."
Josie walked over to the sofa and sat down. "All right. I'm listening."