Red West II.

Chapter fourteen - Killing time

Puffing out the heavy black smoke, the red locomotive was hurtling forward with rumble that could be heard far and wide on the prairie. Following its iron road, the amazing human creation was heading restlessly to its final destination, and to their first transfer in Nebraska – Omaha.

Koki was only partially right in his statement that their journey would be boring. Watching the quickly passing wild scenery outside the small windows was not so bad after all, and it was even better, when Leo improved the atmosphere with a bottle of whiskey, which he fished out of his backpack. Ryo stared at it in disbelief that their leader would have given in to the blonde Rider's pleading requests, whereupon Leo assured him the alcohol for the trip was bought long before Koki even mentioned it.

After everybody took a good gulp, they talked a lot – a bit about the blacksmith's family, about the others they left back in Leadville, also about Tabor and the necessity to avoid the direct confrontation with the man. Oswald even explained to them a little bit more about his sister's condition, which had been gradually worsening for years.

Naturally, they were careful enough to mute their voices during the conversation, but in general, they could talk freely, without worrying that somebody might listen to them. They sat in the middle part of the whole train, in the third wagon, which could take in many passengers, as it was equipped with long benches with soft high backrests. The wagon was packed to the last place and almost everybody was chatting excitedly, while raising their voices to talk over the noise of the train's movement on the rails. As it was, it was almost impossible to catch the exact words of other passengers.

With more passed hours, the travelling became much less fun. Despite being faster than riding a horse, the possibilities of the machine were also limited, and there was a long way to go for the gang.

The evening came; the small gaslights hanging from the wagon's ceiling were brought to life and the view outside became nothing more than darkness. Late in the evening, the train stopped at the North Platte station, already somewhere in Nebraska, where two families with quite loud children got off, along with a few more passengers and the wagon turned very quiet within a few minutes.

*

Jin tore his look off the window, which reflected nothing more than his own face, after the lights of the station disappeared in the darkness. Leo was settled opposite to him, with a half of his face covered with white bandages, so that only one of his eyes, which were closed at that moment, was visible. It was Ryo's idea, since Leo refused to let Koki bleach his hair, to pretend he had some injury on his head, so that he was quite hard to recognize now. Jin was sure that his brother was not sleeping even if he pretended so. He saw the younger's hands placed on his thighs firmly, and ready to grasp the revolvers under the coat. It was too soon for Leo to be tired so much to relent in his focus.

Next to the Riders' leader, there was Ryo talking with Oswald quietly, asking questions about Hamilton in Ohio, which was their final destination. Kazuya was sitting next to Jin, with his head leant back over the seat and his eyes closed as well. Koki was already asleep, snoring lightly and leaning to the side so heavily it looked like he would fall out in the aisle soon.

With a short sigh, Jin let his head rest back too. Nevertheless, it didn't matter that he didn't see the younger one's face anymore, he still felt Kame's leg pressed against his, he could still hear his slow breathing. All six of them managed to fit on those two benches quite comfortably, but the seats were not big enough to be seated with some space between each other. Not that Jin would have any complaints about this positioning, when the train set off from Denver, but with the passing time, it turned out to be a sweet torture for him.