Infinity Train Book 5: The Odd Boy

The Insect Car

Orion and Flux ran out of the lava car and onto the bridge. Orion flinched in pain as he rubbed the slight burn that he received when running. Flux held out a tube, "Here, some healing ointment. It should help with the pain." Orion took the tube and applied some of the ointment onto his burn. After a few seconds, the pain started fading away. The boy smiled, "Thanks. That stuff's super effective." Flux smirked, "Of course. It's one of my products." Orion remarked, "We met because you were selling defective goods and were almost baked alive because of the same reason." Flux scoffed, "Th-th-that was just a bunch of misunderstandings. Let's just head to the next car." Orion chuckled slightly and walked onto the bridge.

Orion opened the door to the new car. The two of them entered and saw that the area was like a large jungle. There were enormous blades of grass everywhere and plants. Orion looked around in amazement. It reminded him of the grassy areas where he observed all types of insects. He started walking, with Flux trailing slightly behind him. After a few minutes, Flux spoke up, "There doesn't seem to be anything here. It's strange. You'd think that there would be a bunch of creatures in a grassland area." Orion hummed, "You're right. Maybe there's something in the area that got rid of all the other creatures. Or, maybe this car is just a bunch of plants. That makes as much sense as a lava car or cupcake car." Flux shrugged, "True." 

After a bit of more walking, the two of them stopped to take a break. Orion dug out a sandwich from his backpack and tore it in half. He gave one half to Flux and start eating the other for himself. Flux took a bite of the sandwich. He chewed a bit before asking, "What type of sandwich is this? I've never tasted anything like it." Orion said, "Peanut butter and banana with pickles. It's one of my experimental sandwiches. I love trying out new combinations to see how they taste." He took a bite of his own sandwich and groaned, "And I can safely say that this is not one of my better tasting ones. But still edible." He quickly ate the sandwich. 

The two of them continued walking before Flux heard something. His ears perked up, "What is that?" Orion asked, "What do you mean?" Flux said, "I heard something. But I don't know where it's coming from." Before he could look for the source of the noise, he was captured and forced. Orion cried out, "What?! Flux?!" The next thing he knew, he felt something sticky over his face. 

Orion woke up with a groan and opened his eyes. He was horrified by what he saw. There were a bunch of large insects wrapped around in webbing. There were butterflies and moths that were flapping their wings in hopes of escaping the capsules. Orion turned and saw that Flux was also unconscious in a web capsule. Orion called out, "Flux, what's going on? What happened?" "I can tell you what happened." He turned to see a cricket. The cricket said, "This stupid spider appeared one day and started attacking us, wrapping us up in capsules. And you know what spiders do to insects they captured." Orion gulped, "They eat them. But why so many of you. Spiders should only attack when their hungry and only as much as they need. This doesn't make any sense. Hey Flux, do you know anything about this?" The boy turned back to his partner, who was barely waking up. 

The fox started panicking, "What is going on? Where are we?" Orion quickly explained the situation. Flux hummed, "Well, looks like we need to think of a plan and fast." "I think it's a little too late for that."

Everyone turned to see a large tarantula crawling down towards them. The insects started panicking. Flux nervously chuckled, "Um, well, hi. Uh, what exactly are you planning to do with us?" The tarantula said, "I'm going to eat you of course. Not all at once. I'll keep enough of you alive for the trip back home." Orion spoke up, "Back home? You mean that you don't belong in this car?" The tarantula said, "No. A bunch of snot nose brats were messing with cars a few months back and I had to leave mine to avoid being attacked by them. After a while I ended up here." Orion said, "But, why do you need to everyone?" The tarantula yelled, "How else am I suppose to survive?" Orion said, "But think of what you're doing. If you eat all the insects here, the ecosystem of the car will be destroyed, just like yours was." The tarantula was stunned, "But, how else will I get home? I need to travel through a lot of cars and I don't even know if my car is still in the same place as when I left it." Orion said, "Well, maybe we can think of something."

"Maybe you don't need to."

Everyone turned to see a strange ship descending. Flux growled, "Samantha." The ship landed and opened its hood, revealing a white cat in a tuxedo. She climbed out and stretched her limbs, "Flux, always a pleasure." Orion asked, "You know each other." Flux responded, "Business rivals. She's Samantha, but she mostly goes by the Cat these days." Samantha hummed, "Indeed. Now, about your misplaced denizen. I happen to have an updated ship that can move this entire car to their original car." The tarantula climbed down to them, "Wait, really? I can really go home." Samantha nodded, "Yes, but first you must release all those you've captured. Especially the boy. I'll need him to connect to the car. No thumbs you see." Tarantula nodded, "Oh, of course."

After all the prisoners were freed, they gathered near the exit to watch Orion connect the ship to the car's controls. Orion hummed, "This is a bit tricky, but nothing I can't handle." Samantha chuckled to herself. Orion turned to her as he finished the connection, "What's so funny?" Samantha replied, "Nothing. You just remind me of a certain girl that I knew not too long ago. She was named after a perennial flower. But not horseradish, oh no." Orion was confused, but turned in order to activate the controls and send them to the tarantula's car. The train car they were in suddenly moved up and shot somewhere else. 

After a few minutes, it stopped and reattached to the train. The door opened. Samantha said, "There it is, the arachnid car. You're little friend should be alright here." The tarantula crawled out and crossed the bridge. Before he entered his car, he waved back to Orion and Flux, "Thank you. Sorry about before. I'll never forget this." He then entered his own car. With that done, Orion reprogrammed the ship to take them back to where the insect car originally was. After that was done, the insects thanked him. Orion opened the door to leave, but was stopped by the Cat, "Listen here kitten. You should really watch yourself while on the train. Things haven't been the same for a while. And that means that danger an be near." Orion was surprised, "What? What do you mean?" She just smirked and got in her ship, "You'll find out soon enough. Ta-ta." With that, the ship left. Orion was surprised, confused by her words. He decided to think about it later and crossed the bridge into another car.