[Warbinger Returns Arc]
Chapter 14
Until the Dusk of the Day
The tram brought them through the bright tunnel into Processing, where square factories and plants processed and packed the foods produced in the Farming Car. The production lines were abandoned and the machines were cold; people were gathering around their managers already, preparing to retreat. They even passed a full tram going the opposite way.
Richard blinked and sheltered his eyes as they entered the second-to-last car. The Farming Car was crammed to the ceiling with greenhouses—illuminated with blinding artificial sunlight—or crop beds stacked like shelves. Machines did most of the work tilling, seeding, watering and harvesting. A quarter of the entire car was taken up by the meat lab, where they grew chicken, beef, and probably other things he didn’t know about.
The farmers were grouped near the meat lab, listening to someone holding a radio. They turned to watch as the tram sped by. It was a relief to see no dire issues plagued these cars. He found the light of the final tunnel comforting as they passed through.
Geoff said, “Finally,” with a tired sigh.
Richard’s head tilted as the tram entered the Locomotive and slowed to a stop. Tiled floors lined either side, with pillars up to a low—relatively— ceiling. There were benches by the pillars, vending machines… It was a train station. There were bathroom signs above a white-tiled corridor, but opposite them the mirroring corridor had… bedroom signs?
“This is weird.” Geoff said. “I hope we don’t have to smash it.”
They stepped off the train and walked towards the escalators leading to a higher level. The quiet, pristine place made him anxious. He couldn’t help but think of the station on Oval. He wasn’t home, not yet.
They jogged up the escalator. The upper floor could have been part of an office building. Tile gave way to carpet, and the open landing forked three ways.
“Middle,” Richard said. Geoff nodded.
To sate his curiosity they opened—or at least tried to—every door they came across. Supply closets, game rooms, another with heavy square tables just for jigsaw puzzles. The conductors here had everything. The doors lacked any signage; the conductors spent so much time in the Locomotive that none was necessary.
The unusual place made Richard feel like he had been taken out of his world again.
He was forced to focus as the final door of the corridor stood shut before them. It was a pair of double doors with no handle. A blocky terminal jutted from the wall beside them, covered in large buttons.
“Control room.” Geoff said. “Only Conductors with a capital C are allowed through here.” He touched something and the screen flickered on, casting a pale green light over his face.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Richard leaned over his shoulder to look. The screen had a list of commands on it. Geoff pushed a button on the keyboard, and a prompt appeared for a password.
“You bet I do. Gunhilda told me everything. Look. Capital G, capital H…” he muttered the entire thing as he punched it in. There didn’t seem to be any meaning to it, just an alpha-numeric sequence that Winding made him memorise.
A light flashed green on the terminal and the doors whooshed open. They walked through into the control room.
Dozens of screens lined the walls. Eight larger panels in the centre showed images from outside. The train was in the tunnel. Four Conductors lounged in swivel chairs wearing casual clothes in front of massive terminals full of colourful buttons. They all turned when they entered the room.
“You’re the HDF guys that have been running around.” a man said. He wore neither nametag nor pants. “Where did you even come from? No HDF are listed among the passengers.”
“Would they be, if they were off-duty?” Richard asked.
“Yes,” the man said. “We track these things. But you don’t look like you’re off duty, wearing… what’s left of your uniforms. How did you get here?”
“Irrelevant.” Geoff said. “I have orders to carry out.” He took a step forward.
Richard shook his head. Geoff was so close to completing his given task he was beginning to get tunnel vision.
“I’m the Prime Conductor. I decide what’s relevant.”
“Not pants, I guess?” Geoff taunted.
“I live here. I decide if I should wear pants. Now tell me what you’re doing here.”
“Gunhilda Winding sent me here to update the train so it can break the loop and return home. Needs a new algorithm, or whatever.”
The Prime Conductor shook his head. “None of that makes any sense to me. Why haven’t we been notified of your arrival, if this is truly from Mrs. Winding?”
“Because you’re not in Hometoll, you idiot!” he snapped. “Communications don’t reach here!”
“Look,” the Conductor said in a condescending tone. “If it was as simple as updating the computers, we’d be out of this by now. As far as we know, you might have caused this as part of some plot and are here to finish hijacking the train. I’m not letting you near the computers.”
“If I told you more, you’d believe me less. And everything from Gunhilda is protected information.” Geoff took a deep breath. Richard knew it was about to get out of hand, but he struggled to come up with another solution. He hoped Geoff would at least give the Conductor the full story before resorting to shooting him.
Geoff did. He told the Conductors everything about Central Hometoll and Warbinger. The brief version, but it was enough for the Conductor to scoff at them.
“Enough of this. I’m detaining you two.” The Prime Conductor said.
Geoff drew his pistol.
Richard drew the radio. Set to ‘STAFF 4’, he turned the radio on. “Jennifer?”
His friend and the Conductor hesitated, waiting to see what would happen.
“…”
“Jennifer? Anybody on this line?”
Nothing.
The other three Conductors stood up, and reached for guns on their hips. Richard’s arm snapped up and he seized one with the Grasping Glove. He yanked it towards him but let it go so it would fly through the air. The next pistol was in his hand as he caught the first with a twist of his wrist. He aimed with his right hand and pulled the trigger, blasting the gun away from the last Conductor.
Even Geoff’s eyes widened with surprise.
Richard’s hand was clammy on the pistol grip. He let it drop.
He moved his arm through the air to line his hand up with the Prime Conductor. His projected fingers curled around the man’s neck. A bead of sweat dripped down his nose. He could feel his face burning, his hands shaking. He took a wide stance for balance as he pulled the Conductor across the room to him.
“You don’t believe in magic and monsters, Conductor? Then explain how I can choke you from metres away.” His breath was hot. It steamed the Conductor’s glasses as he wheezed a response that couldn’t fit through his compressed neck. “I’m doing this for your safety,” Richard growled. “Geoff was going to shoot you. He still might, and if you get in our way after all the shit we’ve been through to get here, I’ll let him!”
He looked up, and Geoff had already pushed past the others. He slotted a thick card the size of his hand into the main terminal and thumbed a series of buttons. Richard dropped the Prime Conductor and picked up the other pistol. The man lay on the ground, choking on his breath while the three others stood with their hands up.
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A pulse rippled through the train, making the hair on his arms stand up. The chirping of Warbinger’s laughter returned to the back of his thoughts.
“That’s it.” Geoff said, his head tilted back to look at the monitors. They still showed the tunnel. “That’s all I was told to do,” he shrugged.
“What happened?” came a voice through the radio.
“It’s gone! Disappeared!” exclaimed another.
For a moment, everyone on the channel wanted to speak at once, but their voices only came through for a moment before they started to drown in static. It was a staticy cacophony of broken words that soon fell silent as Warbinger devoured this frequency as well. He gathered that the monster in The Multistadium was suddenly gone, but there was no point trying to speak over them even if they could make out what he was saying. He switched the channel to ‘MAINTENANCE 2’.
The monitors flashed with light as the Leviathan Train left the tunnel. Now it rushed up a slope of broken earth with half a train station hanging at the edge of the cliff. Warbinger’s colossal form towered towards the sky.
It was exactly what he’d feared.
Richard dropped the pistols, pulled the Prime Conductor to his feet, and ran. Geoff was right behind him. An alarm blared through the halls. Red warning lights flashed.
He yelled into the radio, “Evacuate! Reach Caboose Park, the way is clear! Evacuate, the train will crash! Inform all channels!”
A female voice spoke from an intercom somewhere. “The evacuation alarm has been triggered manually. Proceed to the tram station immediately. This is not a drill.” The message repeated on loop. The message gave no indication of where to go, so he assumed it was local to the Locomotive.
They soared down the escalator and bolted for the tram. The train was rumbling. Richard peeked over his shoulder to see if the others were following. They were, but they were slower. He dashed onto the tram, nearly bowling over a group of people in various states of dress. Another ran out of the bedroom area and boarded quickly.
“Hey! What the hell is going on?” called the man running towards the tram in a bathrobe.
Richard waved the man aboard but didn’t answer him. “How fast does this go?” he asked the crewman driving. He watched anxiously as the Conductors stumbled down the escalator.
“80,” he answered. The train began to tilt and the rumbling reached a nearly violent level that began to drown out their voices.
“Well… the HLRV is built for 120, but it’s never been run at that speed.” one of the undressed Conductors shouted.
The four Conductors reached the train and the crewman pulled the lever to set it in motion. “How fast do you want me to take this thing?”
The rumbling stopped. They shot through the Farming Car into Processing, and Richard didn’t see a single person. Then the rumbling resumed. The groaning of the train’s metal body bending echoed through the cars like the call of a dying whale.
“Faster than the train. It’s going off the cliff!” Geoff said fearfully. “That’s why the rumbling stopped. We have to stay ahead of it or I bet this thing comes off the rails when the train starts to turn in the air.” A metallic bang in the walls of the train shook the tram to punctuate his words.
Processing zipped by and they were in Storage.
“I have to slow down. We’re about to bank hard right through The Multistadium!”
Richard motioned everyone to the left side. “Stay on the left, the tram runs around the edge of this one and we're dead if we don't make those corners.”
In seconds Processing passed and darkness swallowed them. The power in The Multistadium was off. Only orange emergency lights lit their path until they rounded the corner and a spray of sparks showered the walls. Richard felt his chest tighten. There better not be anything in the way.
“Get on the right!” he ordered. Everyone moved, but he still felt the tram tilt as it rounded the next corner.
They had to shift their weight two more times but soon the light of the tunnel welcomed them as they passed into Little Hometoll, which was as deserted as he’d hoped. The tram had to slow where the rails curved, and every time it did the train stopped rumbling. They weren’t fast enough.
“Problem.” Geoff said. “Warbinger let your message through… word from Lamet is, they’re trying to decouple Caboose Park. It might not be there when we arrive.”
It was too late. Richard’s heart raced. He would make it back to Sparlyset no matter what.
Old Hotel Town was as empty as they’d left it, and the derailed tram in the Game Car was barely a blur as they rocketed past. The rumbling stopped. The Leviathan Train was in the air.
“It… will not be there when we arrive,” Geoff confirmed. “She’s trying to get them to re-open the tunnel at least. ‘I hope he has practised with that Grasping Glove’ she says.”
“Everyone, grab someone by the arms and hold on tightly.” Richard ordered. “Make as tight a chain as you can. Hold on with your legs if you need to but make sure you can get through the door.”
They scrambled to follow his directions as the crewman applied the brakes and the tram screeched through the tunnel. They flew out into open air. Central Hometoll stretched out around them. It was broken just as Geoff had described, a spiral of protruding wedges like the teeth of an underground monster. The Leviathan Train roared through the air behind them.
With Geoff holding tightly to his left arm, He nodded to the crewman to open the door. Caboose Park fell through the air before them, rotating slowly. He focused on the open edge and took hold of it with the Grasping Glove. The tram slipped away from them and the chain of people sailed across the expanse. The buffeting wind rushing past them was oddly serene compared to the metallic banging and grinding noises of the train.
An impact sounded behind them and Warbinger cried out. The raking dissonance of its voice tearing at his mind. He held his focus on that one spot, even as his vision blurred and he could barely see it. That spot held all their lives. He could see maintenance crew in the opening now, wearing tethers. They reached out to him.
His hand found the wall and the crewmen took hold of him, dragging him inside. As soon as Geoff was on the ground Richard turned around to help. He could see Warbinger, and the Leviathan Train embedded in its chest. Its body rippled like water, and a flash filled the horizon, forcing him to avert his eyes.
As they pulled the last man through, Richard looked back up. He stood and stared, mesmerised by the pillar of light that sprouted like a spear through the monster’s body, straight towards the sky. It branched near the top, the twin beams of light forming the shape of a cross. Its humanoid form sagged as eyes burst across its body and leaked dark blood. A skeletal arm took hold of the Leviathan Train in its chest as the cross intensified.
It was coming.
Crewmen slammed the tall doors shut.
“Thank you.” Richard said. Not that his manners mattered now. Nothing would matter in the white inferno of the Final Cross.
“Thank your blue friend,” he replied. Richard barely heard him. His mind was like an empty ball, spinning, with one thought only bouncing around inside. Sparlyset.
He and Geoff pushed through the crowd of staff, seeking their friends in the direction the man indicated to them. Caboose Park was tilting forward and he had trouble keeping his balance, but they eventually found Lamet with a dozen other purens dressed in leather armour. She was holding her arms in the air. Droplets of water began to form in the air above her, splashing together into a churning ball.
A sound unlike anything he’d heard before slashed the air. It was like the sound was torn. His ears rang. Words barely made it to his conscious thought. The air itself felt sharp in his nostrils.
“It’s over,” he told Lamet. “The Final Cross.”
Where was Sparlyset?
“Not yet,” she said.
The puren guardsmen thrust their hands out. Caboose Park shuddered. The cries of people around him drowned out Warbinger’s laughter.
Richard could still feel the heat as the fire of the bomb engulfed them, barely buffered by the invisible force of their spells. His legs left the ground. People reached for each other as they were tossed through the air.
Where was Sparlyset?
The world spun around him. He tried to slow the spinning, but it was the train car itself that spun. Lamet was waving her arms around. Her sphere of water grew even as people crashed through it. Geoff was bracing himself with his head low and his arms up protectively.
Where is she?
He tried to look through the masses of tumbling people whirling through the air. The heat was unbearable. People were losing consciousness around him. His eyes watered, and his tears fell from his face towards Lamet’s spell.
A flash of pastel pink caught his eye and he reached for it, but a rush of icy water knocked his arm away. Lamet. Lamet’s orb was spouting water. It came from all sides, increasing in volume as he watched. She pulled her hands apart and a torrent surged forth. He was submerged instantly.
The icy deluge stung his eyes but he forced them open. Sparlyset… whatever pain he was about to suffer, he would rather suffer it with her in his arms. He found her again, and this time his grasp found her arm. They floated towards each other. Flecks of ice formed on the back of his hand as the water grew colder.
His body was stiffening. As he wrapped his arms around her and held her close to his chest, the cold bit through to his bones and his body frosted over. Through the crystals of ice forming in the water around them, he saw Sparlyset’s eyes open. Light radiated from them like twin suns, and her warmth enveloped him.
/
Sparlyset was woken by the all-encompassing light. A white inferno that raged beyond the walls of Caboose Park like the fist of the sun. It burned life to ash, turned stone to glass. Naught would remain in its wake but the searing scrutiny of holy reflection.
But Warbinger would return.
His body was less than ash in the conflagration, and in this form he was weak. The light showed it to her as clearly as though she were out there, a titan looming above the city and facing it directly. She held out her arms. With Richard as her anchor, her heart was free of fear and doubt. She seized the frenzied furor of light in her hands.
She brought her hands together, compressing the light. It was volatile, thrashing against her, yearning to expand and obliterate. But Warbinger’s remains were trapped within. At this moment, they were no different. Destruction and death incarnate. Light and dark. As one, she dominated both. It was her light now.
When it was so compressed that her hands cupped together and she felt the power within bulging, threatening to overwhelm her, she extended her arms. She blessed the light with the power to Banish evil. Keeping her wrists together, she spread her hands to let the power fly free. It carved a brilliant arc across the sky, burning the air as it shot forth, and pierced open the veil between worlds.
Aboard this train, she thought, against all odds we have fought together, to reach the dusk of the day.
The torn sky frayed like cloth, and swallowed Sparlyset’s Final Cross. The sky stitched back together seamlessly, and then all was quiet in Hometoll City.