Inhumanity

Chapter 12

Javi's PoV
I don't know how Melanie put up with these people say after day. She must have had some great resolve just to block them out. Ive never been much of a people person myself, working in Wilford labs you rarely had to talk to anyone. I'm stood to the side watching it all like some helpless spectator "What's the holdup, Commander? Why aren't we advancing?" The foldger lady asks. Grey chuckles, "Our plan is on track.We go section by section. Mr. de la Torre will access the engine and override the doors, seal an area, and we'll flood it with gas. Then my men enter and mop up." He explains. I shiver, this man is too at ease out over the prospect of killing innocent civilians "If the gas gets in the ventilation system, it could spread train-wide." I warn. Another first class man looks horrified "How do you avoid gassing civilians?" He questions. Grey shakes his head "We won't." He doesn't seem to care. The carriage breaks out into a sea of murmurs as the passengers with a heart or at least a brain react to this statement. Mr foldger is pretty defensive "If they're sheltering rebels, they leave us no choice." He argues. I shake my head and step forward "We need a workforce. Our lives depend on it." I exclaim. The lady shrugs, "We'll train more.We're overpopulated as it is." I roll my eyes at her self absorbed stupidity.

Ruth is making herself a cup of tea "We should discuss Melanie Cavill's execution.
It should be a public dethroning." She declares tensely. My heart sinks, these people? LJ laughs "You don't dethrone pirates. You make them walk the plank." She mimics Ruth's accent. I've only spent and hour in her presence and she's already creeping me out, she's psychopathic. Ruth swallows thickly "The point is that there are guidelines for an orderly hand-over of power." She tries to reason. Mrs foldger snaps "Listen to you people. The Tailie horde is at the gate. Stamp them out. Crush every last spark
of this mutiny now forever, or there will be no train to hand over." She shouts.

LJ giggles "don't forget the robot" she teases, my heart stops at the mention of Eve "yes what are we to do about it?" Mrs foldger asks nervously. Grey shakes his head "I believe I may have witnessed this robot in action, a woman on the front lines. Looked far too well trained and healthy for a tailie." He says. I step back "Eve? She was on the front lines?" I question. Mr foldger ignores me "if it's working with the rebels then it's clear that it's time it was put out of commission. Clearly not working properly anymore" he states. Mrs foldger nods in agreement "it's a wonder that Wilford let her on board in the first place". I've had enough "Eve contributes to the running of the train, you can't just kill her" I argue. Grey laughs "I'm sure her parts will be of use, we won't damage the hardware too much" he says. He fixes me with a cold hard stare that warns me not to speak up again. I back away, but in my mind I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to assure Eve's survival. She is worth more than all these people around me combined. I just need to reach her before these ignorant people do.

Eves PoV
Being linked up to the train to power also hooks me up to its systems. The train is breaking down, I can see the power drainage, the reports from agriculture, and the water shortages. To see my sister so badly mistreated, it makes my head hurt. They don't have clear long term planning, no side does. I can predict how quickly this society will collapse just by judging the state of the systems. I open my eyes, the engines been locked down for 15 hours, I need to contact them and see who's holed up in there. Mel is definitely out of the picture so who's making the decisions. I unlink and do a quick internal scan, I'll be fine.

I stumbled to the nearest cage and let myself in, there's a small panel in the wall. An old fashion short range radio, they'll be listening in on the other systems. I start up the radio "Engine, come in engine" I wait a few seconds before trying again "engine, please let me know you're alright" my voice cracks. The radio crackles "hello? This is the engine" the voice is young, and scared. I connect the dots, the new engineer "Hi there, you must be new. My names Eve" I say carefully, the radio responds "my names miles". I shake my head, "how's things holding up there" I ask. There's a long silence "it's just Bennet and me, he's really angry with me cos of what I did but we're still locked down pretty good" he reports. I lean against the wall "how are you?" He asks suddenly, I wipe away a few tears "worn out, hungry, shit scared but we'll pull through". There's a few minutes of nothing and I think I've lost them, I go to put the handset back "Eve? Eve? Are you still there?" It's Ben, "yeah, thought you have hung up on me" I tease. He laughs "god it's so good to hear from you, you gave us quite a fright... don't think you're not going to be getting hell for this later but just good to make contact" he says. I nod slowly "yeah I know" I hear someone entering the carriage "gotta go". I hurriedly switch the radio off and exit the cage. It's till "you charged up" she asks. I nod "yeah, I'll be good for another 24 hours". I crick my neck from side to side, sat in one position for a few hours really stiffened me up. Till looks worried "Layton's seriously considering surrendering" she says. I shake my head "why? It's been less than 24 hours". She crossed her arms "first is going to gas us, carriage by carriage, if we don't surrender" she explains. I sigh and look up to the ceiling, the ventilation shafts of course, they're too cowardly to face us head on, god forbid they have to do some work.