Infinity Train Book 5: The Odd Boy

The Shell Car

Orion opened the new car's door, "I hope this isn't like the last car. Having to fight off a giant glob of dough wasn't as fun as I expected." Flux groaned as he tried to remove the dough from his fur, "You said it cupcake. We need to be careful. I don't want to deal with disgusting food monsters again." The two of them entered the car and saw that it was filled with shells. Giant shells and small shells of all different colors, shapes, and patterns were scattered on the floor and covered the area. Orion let out a whistle, "Wonder what this car is about." Flux stared at the shells and smirked, "Oh, these can be valuable." Orion frowned, "I don't think you should take those. Remember the can car a few cars back." Flux turned to him, "How was I supposed to know that the cans had intelligence? But this is different. Shells serve no purpose except to look pretty. We have nothing to worry about." He began grabbing a bunch shells, but stopped when they jumped out of his bag.

Flux frowned, "Huh, guess they do have intelligence. Where are they going?" The shells started moving away from them. Orion and Flux followed after them. After a few minutes, they lost the shells. Orion stopped to catch his breathe, "We lost them. Man, I need to exercise more." Flux gasped before collapsing, "Exercise was not something that I learned in business school." Orion raised a brow, "You went to business school?" Flux waved a paw, "Not important. Anyway, we need to find a way out of here." Orion looked around. He then saw something, "Hey, there's a banner over there. Maybe there's someone we can ask about the exit." The two of them started running to where the banner was. Orion slowed down as the banner came into sight. He read what was on the banner, "Shell beauty competition? What is that?" "I'm glad you asked." 

The two of them jumped in surprise at the new voice. They turned to see a large orange shell behind them. The orange shell began talking, "Nice to meet you. Shelbert's the name, judging shells is my game. We haven't had visitors in a long time. You're just in time for our annual shell beauty competition. A bunch of new shells are coming out to show off how beautiful they are. Please, join us." Orion was nervous, "Uh, sure." The two of them followed Shellbert. The two of them took their seats with other shells in the audience.

Shellbert got on the stage, "Alright everyone Are you ready for the shell beauty competition?" The audience started cheering. Suddenly, a small shell came up to him and seemed to whisper something. Shellbert turned to them, "Oh, I'm sorry to say that one of our judges is unable to come today. Is there anyone who can fill in their spot? You, passenger." Orion looked around before pointing to himself. Shellbert said, "Yes, you. Can you be a judge please?" Orion was unsure, "Um, I'm not sure. I've never been the judge of something before. Most of the time I'm the one being judged." Flux tugged at his arm and whispered, "Do it. It might help us get to the exit faster." Orion nodded in understanding, "Alright. I'll do it. How hard can it be?"

Orion let out a groan as the twelfth contestant got onto stage and began moving around. Shellbert said, "And that was Shelly, our twelfth and final contestant. Now, let's have all our contestants line back up for the next stage of the competition." Orion looked up, "Uh, there's more. Why is there more?" Flux said, "Just go with it. It can't be that hard to pick one. Just watch and pick some random shell." Orion groaned and put his face on the table, "Fine. Let's just get this over with."

Three hours passed. Orion was still pounded his head into the table as Shellbert continued the number of contests for the competition. Orion asked, "Why is this competition taking so long? The shells aren't even that pretty." Gasps came from the audience. Shellbert yelled, "How dare you? Don't you know that everyone is beautiful on the inside? It's what's on the inside that's important!" Orion scoffed, "Yeah right. That's just something pretty people say to make ugly people feel better about themselves and to stop their complaining. The very definition of beautiful is that something is pleasing to the senses. It means that only your physical appearance matters." The contestant shells yelped and started crying. Shellbert turned to them. He gasped and turned to Orion, "See what you've done? You made them all start crying." Orion said, "The truth hurts. So if they're crying, it's because they know that it's the truth." The audience started clamoring around him, "This guy's super mean. Let's get him!" The shells started approaching and yelling. Flux grabbed Orion's sleeve and said, "We should get going." The two of them started running as fast as they could.

"Why are they so fast?!" Flux called out as they continued running. The two of them were still running away from the angry crowd of shells. Orion looked ahead and saw a large shell in their path. He came up with an idea, "Quick, hide behind that giant shell. I've got an idea." The two of them hid behind the shell and waited. The angry mob of shells approached. Shellbert asked, "Where did they go?!" Orion disguised his voice from behind the shell, "Are you looking for a red fox and a passenger?" Shellbert turned to the large shell, "Yes we are. Have you seen them?" Orion replied, "They went around and headed back the way you just came." Shellbert gasped, "Oh my goodness. They tricked us. Oh, we'll get them good when we find them. They won't escape. Come on everybody." The mob soon turned back. Flux and Orion came out from their hiding place behind the large shell. Flux smiled, "Nice trick." Orion chuckled slightly, "Thanks. Helps to escape from stupid bullies. Now, let's go find that exit." 

The two of them continued walking. Flux asked, "Cupcake, has your number gone up?" Orion was surprised by his question and looked at his number, "No, it's still at 97. Why? Isn't it suppose to go down?" Flux said, "Well, numbers can also go up when you do worse. Saying that beauty is something that's based on your appearance is a bit...unsettling." Orion shrugged in confusion, "Why? People tell me that sort of stuff all the time." Flux frowned, "Guess that's why. I guess you have to learn about stuff like that the hard way. Well, that's what the train is for anyways." Orion said, "You're sort of weird, you know that?" Flux chuckled as they continued, "I know."

After a few more minutes of walking, the two of them came across the exit. Orion smiled, "Well, there it is. Glad we managed to find it before the shells found us." "Not so fast!" The two of them turned and were surprised to see Shellbert and the rest of the mob standing behind them. Orion asked, "How did you find us?" Shellbert said, "We'd figured that you'd go for the exit. We just had to cut you off. Figured it out when we returned to our town square." Orion raised an eyebrow, "Wait, this place has a town? Never mind about that. Just let us go." Shellbert said, "No way. You're going to pay for what you said." Orion growled, "I just said what I thought was the truth. Why does that bother you so much?" Shellbert said, "Because you're one of the judges. Saying something like that makes it difficult for the rest of us shells." Orion grabbed the door handle, "Well then, I quit." He turned the handle, grabbed Flux, and went through before shutting it. The shells were too surprised to be able to react, giving them the chance to escape. Orion said, "Let's go." Flux asked, "Aren't you afraid that they'll follow us?" Orion shook his head, "Nah. They're shells. They don't have hands to turn the door handle." The two started walking on the boardwalk when Orion stopped. He turned to Flux, "Hey, am I...a bad person?" Flux was surprised, "No, not really. You've just...got you're own understanding of how things are. You've had different experiences than other people and that's given you different views of how the world is. But that doesn't make you bad." Orion thought for a moment before continuing to walk to the next train car.