Stay...Alive

Chapter 24

The train looked like the future rolling in the fastest pace it could. It was sleek in the front but rusted in the caboose. It screeched to a stop in front of the station, the rails almost crippling under the pressure of the train. It only had about four carts, none of which looked like passenger cars. Despite all that, the crowd filled with hope at the sight of it.

That was, until, Horace questioned, "Wait, if the lady's dead, who's gonna let us on?"

The sentence sparked a thousand "Goddamnit's."

When the train door opened, everyone jumped back. Lyla maneuvered everyone behind the counter and whispered, "Here's the plan: we all climb out the window as quietly as we could, and sneak into the train cars while they search this place, okay?"

The doors of the station flew open, and everyone darted to the window. As everyone tried to hush up as they scrambled to open up the window without breaking it, Laura hissed, "Wait, they're on our side! They probably won't kill us for asking-"

"Shut up!" Victorine followed the crowd as it reluctantly surged towards the window and the people in the front tried to pry it open. She gripped Primus' hand, Yolanda, not too far behind them. Someone in the front stopped fiddling with the lock for a second, and everyone pushed for him to keep going.

When the man from the train entered, the room, everyone jumped down to hide the view of them underneath the counter. Victorine was shoved down the ground by someone next to her, banging her knee on the hardwood. Victorine cringed as the sound of everyone hitting the ground filled the air. She prayed that whoever was inside concluded it was something else. But apparently no one jumped down fast enough, as she heard a creak on the floorboards, and footsteps approaching.

The footsteps stopped right in front of the counter, and if Victorine listened in very closely, she could hear a quiet, panicked, anxious, "F***."

Victorine looked up and saw a timid young face with a crooked nose look over the counter at the crowd of frightened people, someone's hand still on the lock of the window.

"Uh..." he mumbled, his eyes darting around the room. His eyes fell on the window. "Uh..."

With one quick motion, the window was unlocked and opened, and everyone scrambled to climb out. Victorine was almost tackled as she tried to jump up, as the surge to the window carried her and nearly forced her up against the wall. She tried to avoid stepping over her own feet as she tried to get to the window while it was just clogged with people.

"Hey! Hey!" she heard the man (or realistically, boy) yell as the scrambling continuing. She was forced into the window, the edge of the pane painfully digging into her skin as she was hastily pushed out. She fell sideways but landed and on feet, and checked behind her to see Primus falling out after her. She grabbed his arm and yanked him off the ground, following the people who started to hack into the train doors.

"Hey! Guys! Wait!" the boy continued to yell to nearly no avail. The train doors were ripped open, and people filed inside. Victorine honestly pitied him. If would scratch the walls of the train to get everyone's attention if she could. With no other choice, the boy ran to the train. Victorine couldn't see what he was doing; the crowd was shoving her to get to the train. The constant nudging made her want to punch someone, and she could've sworn Primus was about to.

But the sound of the train whistle cut through the air.

Victorine jumped at the sound. Hands flew to their owner's ears. Someone fell off of the train platform from fright and pain. When the noise subsided, the boy yelled, "Now who the hell are you?"

Laura and Lyla stepped forward and tried to blurt out their story to him as best he could. He got confused a few minutes in.

"Wait, so you got out of jail...are you fugitives?" he questioned, trying his hardest to comprehend the people and the scramble and the story all at once.