Different Setting

A Day Of Losses

The boxcar was relatively quiet for the most part as everyone sat around, or stood. Everyone kept taking glances of Katjaa and Duck, and by now, pretty much everyone knew of his situation. Nobody said anything about it though, because they knew, regardless of what measures were taken, what was going to happen to the little boy.

"Gotta be hard on ya, eh?" Chuck asked, breaking the silence between everyone. "Taking care of kids in all this," he added.

"There were more of us," Lee spoke, and then it was quiet again.

Meanwhile, Carlos and Sarah sat up against one of the boxcar walls, Sarah with her head in her dad's lap. Carlos didn't really want her to see what was happening to Duck, but what choice did he have? It's not like he could tell her to look away, especially when that was her friend.

He gently ran his fingers through her raven hair and sighed inaudibly. Although the boy was a tad annoying to him sometimes, he never did anything to deserve what he had coming to him.

The silence was broken when Duck began coughing again, but this time it was worse. He was coughing up blood. Carley looked at them sympathetically, then averted her gaze to the ground, massaging her temple.

"Lee. Lee! I need you, right now," Katjaa said, pulling the little boy closer to her. "I need you to go get Ken."

"What's-" Lee began, kneeling down beside them.

"Can you get that off his face, please?" Katjaa requested, referring to the bit of blood that had gotten onto Duck's face. "My hands are full here."

Lee picked up a small towel that was in front of them and wiped the blood off of Duck's face. Katjaa thanked him in a sad tone. Lee looked down at the towel that now stained Duck's blood.

"He's out of time," Katjaa informed him. "We need to stop this train."

"Okay," Lee nodded.

"Please," Katjaa begged him with sad eyes. Lee obliged, and opened up the boxcar door, and headed to the front of the train where Kenny was driving. He knew that this wasn't going to be easy, because Kenny was in denial in the first place.

"You need to stop the train," Lee said in a serious tone, looking at the back of Kenny's head while he drove. Kenny merely ignored him though. "Kenny," Lee spoke again, and pulled out the bloody rag only to show it to Kenny. "KEN!" Lee said again.

"What the hell's that?" Kenny asked a little too nonchalantly.

"Your son's blood," Lee said solemnly. He knew that Kenny was trying to delay the inevitable, and he couldn't delay any longer.

"Get out of here, Lee," Kenny warned.

"You KNOW he's dying," Lee said sadly.

Kenny sighed. "Nobody knows shit, he'll be fine!" he insisted.

"I'm sorry," Lee apologized, "I know I shouldn't be talking like that, but come on Ken. You know it's going to happen..." He trailed off.

Kenny turned around to look at Lee. "Go back there and tell my wife that he's going to be fine," he ordered. "Goddamn, what is the deal? He's a little sick, but still, it was just a scratch! He isn't like the others! Jesus, all y'all are just making it worse!" he yelled.

"Stop the train," Lee ordered slowly.

But Kenny ignored him, and pulled the throttle to make it go faster.

"STOP IT, GODDAMN IT!"

"Fuck you, Lee," Kenny snarled.

"You're gonna listen."