Azure Chronicle

Little Girl in a Skirt

Lore had let me switch seats with her. Now I rested my head on the bumping window. Through the slits of armor, I watched the desert world pass by. Nothing had really changed, the mountains still loomed quietly in the far distance and sand and cacti still flew past my vision.

The train was very quiet, the air lulled by the rhythm of the rocking train and clanking rails. Only the occasional rip of gunfire would disrupt this harmonious pattern. I hoped we wouldn't have to stop at Titum, but I realized I'd have to face my reality.

 The train started to slow, making high pitch grinding sounds as the worn brakes struggled to slow the massive behemoth.

"Why are we stopping?"

"Apparently something is wrong with the rails." Lore said, gathering her things. 

The brakes finally overcame the trains speed and slowed it to stop. It halted with a jerk and sounds of releasing steam and small honks.

The dirty zombified men came to life and filed out of the train in a long wobbling line. I felt a dark presence overcome me. The smell of burnt stone and charred flesh swept through the car. All that was left of Accord, darkened sandstone tombs covering the rotting flesh beneath.

"Good god" Hack coughed pulling his scarf around his mouth.

My shirt did nothing to block the stench.

"The rail is crushed, got snagged under em pillars." said a man wearing a cowboy hat and handkerchief, his clothes surprisingly clean.

Budoom!

A mech lept off a train car and landed crushing a sandstone pylon and stirring up a cloud of dust and stench.

"How long is this gunna take?" Hack mumbled.

"Anyare from 10 tah 20 minutes."

Hack silenty shook his head then took off walking.

A gust of wind started a coughing spree.

Lore walked up wearing a piece of leather across her mouth.

"How are you doing?" she scanned the horizon with careful eyes.

"This is disgusting" 

And as if on queue a man across the way began hurling in sickly throes.

"Looks like we got problems" Hack appeared in the distance holding a large piece of metal. "Someones tryna stir up trouble."

It was a flap off Hacks old mech. Someone had spray painted across it the line "Think an alliance will protect you? These people did."

Hack gave Lore a disgusted look and threw the metal down at her feet and kept walking.

"Asshole" Lore mumbled under her breath.

"What happened?"

"Nothing happened" Lore commanded before also walking away.

I was now left standing alone in a field of corpses.

A slab in my peripheral moved and I quickly looked toward it to see a dark figure dart behind a half-destroyed wall.

"Hello?" I kept my eyes on the wall as I reached down to pick up a stone. My fingers found something hard and curled around to find its edge when it found something soft and gushy.

I ripped my eyes from the wall to see what I had touched, I found a lifeless hand reaching back out, covered with blood and dirt.

I quickly grabbed the stone and moved away from the hand, refocusing on the wall.