Riddle Me This?

Chapter 13

Hours had passed since we'd embarked on the train. I couldn't shake the oddness that spread through my body. Sort of tired, but not quite there. Still wanting to do something, but still too tired. Restless, I guess. That was a close word. Maybe it wouldn't take so long to adjust to this world, then, if I wasn't going to sleep much now. I'd bumped my head too many times on the wall to really sleep anyway, so looking out the window was a better option.

The moon wasn't visible through the treetops, so maybe it set already. Creepy thing. The patches of twinkling lights that we passed were bright, though, or as much as they could be through the dirt.

Something behind me shuffled, and Matt knelt by me at the window, his face just visible.

"I can't sleep," he said.

"So I didn't wake you?"

"Nope."

For some reason, a laugh popped out of my mouth. Maybe I really was tired. "I've never tried to sleep on a dilapidated train before."

"Me either."

My finger moved in a circle over the window, cleaning a tiny area. "Do you know what those lights we keep passing are?"

He peered through the hole in the grime. "Those things on the ground?"

"Yeah."

He was quiet for a few moments. "My Gramma calls them pixie light bulbs."

"Kind of a mouthful."

He smiled. "Yeah."

"Which Gramma?"

"Mom's mom."

"Oh." I watched another clump of them pass. "She knows about them."

"Yeah." He paused. "My Pop calls them moss lamps."

"I like that better." This is new. "Do they grow on Earth somewhere?"

"You mean without help?"

"Well, yeah."

"I don't think so."

I stared at him, and his face changed to some expression I didn't recognize, as if he'd had some realization. He opened his mouth.

The train bumped under us, once, hard, making me lean back.

Another bump, and the world pitched sideways, throwing me against another seat before it stopped.

I stayed still for a second. My lungs felt empty, and my back ached sharply where I'd hit the seat. I just waited. No panicking. Just got the wind knocked out of you. I relaxed just enough to suck in a piece of a breath. Where was Matt? The ache traveled up my back again.

That's gonna bruise.

The windows across the car looked oddly toward the tops of the trees. Below me, one of the windows gave a close up view of some nicely scarred bark as the train pressed on the tree. Metal groaned. I pushed myself up, forcing air into my chest. "Matt?"

He coughed. He was close, just beside me. "I'm okay. You?"

"Ow." Meris' voice broke through. "What..."

"Did we jump the tracks?" Noam said.

"I think so." Matt leaned back against a seat.

Panic hit me. What now? How were we going to get north? What if the train was on fire or something? "We need to get out of here."

"Yes, we do," Meris said. She tossed the pack I'd left in the corner at me. It plunked to the floor at my feet, my hands trembling too hard to catch it. I took a shaky breath and pulled the bag onto my shoulders. It brushed the brand new bruise on my back.