Torment

Red Letter

After following Curtis to the last carriage in the tail section I took a deep breath as I ducked through a curtain leading to Gilliam's 'private' quarters. Gilliam was seated in his usual all-seeing position and Curtis had placed Timmy's protein block onto a crate, I stayed standing looming over him, as Edgar remained outside. Curtis unsheathed his knife and began gingerly cutting through the jelly. I kept my focus on Curtis's movements, intrigued as to where this was going. After cutting the block into two and carefully pulling the slab apart a tiny silver capsule fell out of the food source. I gasped causing Curtis and Gilliam to look at me. I'd never seen anything like this before. In all our years in the tail section, the protein blocks had contained nothing but disappointment. Curtis began to twist the capsule apart revealing an object inside. "Red letter" Gilliam breathed as I pulled away my stare and set eyes on the old man. He was obviously talking about the brightly coloured piece of rolled-up paper in Curtis's hand, but I was still none the wiser.

"Yeah, it's the one we've been waiting for," Curtis replied. "Wait, I'm sorry, what exactly is happening? How many of these things have you already got?" I questioned capturing the men's attention. "The informant gave us a name," Curtis stated as he passed the small red piece of paper to Gilliam before turning to me. "For a while now, someone has been sending us these red letters in the protein blocks." I looked passed Curtis and to the object in Gilliam's hand. "From the front?" I whispered not quite believing my eyes. Curtis shrugged his shoulders unknowingly. "Why didn't you tell me? You told Edgar!" I questioned; annoyance laced through my voice. Curtis sighed "We kept it between the three of us until we knew for certain this was something real, we didn't want to get hopes high." I nodded, still noticeably pissed, but I understood where he was coming from. Curtis went to say something, probably to apologise, but was cut off by Gilliam, who had only just stopped staring at the paper.

"N, A, M...." The elderly man sounded as if he was trying to spell something out. "Nam Koong Min Soo." Curtis cut in, pronouncing an Asian sounding name. I tilted my head like a lost puppy, what did that mean? "He's a security expert. He's in the prison section now." Curtis added, answering my unspoken query. I frowned, I knew little about the prison section, only that it was nothing like the prisons we'd once known offboard the Snowpiercer. Suddenly, Edgar's head popped through the curtains that were shielding Gilliam from the rest of the tail section. "Wait, your joking, right?" He exclaimed. "He's in prison?" The young man added in disbelief. "Hey out of here" Curtis ordered lowly to his friend.

"I'm just saying, what kind of chance do we have..." Edgar began, his thick Irish accent cutting through the chilly air. "Enough Edgar!" I whispered quickly, knowing if he didn't shut up I wouldn't find out any more. I looked to Curtis who was looking to the floor trying to rid himself of Edgar's loudness. "I just think if this guy says that he's such a great security expert, why can't he just break out himself?" Edgar rushed to get in before anyone could speak over him. "That's enough! Go" Curtis repeated. It was only now that I realised Timmy had also snuck into Gilliam's quarters alongside Edgar. He dropped the ball he had now begun to play with it at his feet as Edgar patted him on the shoulder. "Let's go, Tim. Come on, let's go." Edgar said to the young boy in defeat before walking through the ratty looking curtains. The small room stood silent, I looked between the men before me and pouted awkwardly, pointing at myself and then the curtain, silently asking if I too, should leave. Curtis shook his head, "No, you're okay Hazel, you've been kept in the dark long enough."

I slowly nodded, looking to Gilliam and smiling before leaning on a nearby box stack awaiting more information about the red letters. Curtis took a seat next to Gilliam as the elderly man began to talk. "Edgar just wants to help you know. He thinks the world of you." Gilliam finished looking over his dirty round glasses, Curtis lowered his head. "We all do," I spoke up pulling Curtis's gaze to my own. "Edgar shouldn't worship me the way he does. I'm not who he thinks I am." He said. I sighed, he really had no idea what we thought of him, hell, what I thought of him. "Few of us ever are," Gilliam replied looking to me. I smirked at the old man's wisdom as Curtis ignored the brief discussion about himself and began cutting protein blocks into smaller sizes. "Alright, we're here. Tail section, quarantine section, prison section. Gate, gate, gate." Curtis began to plan as he modelled our part of the train out of the food source. I had realised that I wasn't going to find out much more about the red letters, mainly because I doubted Curtis and Gilliam new any more than what they had already told me in the last 10 minutes.

"Four seconds when all three gates are open at once. We have four seconds to go through three gates and bust Nam out." Curtis explained as he scratched his beard, strained his voice and fiddled with his hat. It's something he does when he's concentrating really hard or thinking something through, it was one of the many things I'd come to adore about the man. After these bashful thoughts had rushed through my mind his actual words hit me. This was it, this was the plan for the beginning of the revolution. This is what the red letters had been preparing Curtis for. "Then Nam gets us the rest of the way," Gilliam responded. I stood dumbfounded. "Our fate depends on this man?" I questioned indicating the name on the paper and looking to Curtis who was now biting his thumbnail. All our lives were being placed in this unknown individuals' hands. "Yeah." he breathed removing his hand from his face and looking to me. "If we can get him to cooperate, he can take us all the way to the front of the train." Curtis continued.

I looked up from the floor "The very front section?" I almost whispered in disbelief, I had no idea who this Nam was, or how he would help us, but if Curtis was convinced, then so was I. "Yeah" Curtis began again, nodding to Gilliam and me before standing and moving towards me and pointing to the curtains. "From here right to the front of the train. Everything in one stroke. We control the engine; we control the world. Without that, we have nothing." Curtis explained in a determined deep voice.

"All past revolutions have failed because they couldn't take the engine." Curtis continued as he looked to me, I matched his stare, I hadn't seen that determination in his blue eyes since he stood up for me in front of the guards all those years ago. "What are you saying?" Gilliam asked warily. "This time we take the engine." Curtis dared as Gilliam rose his eyebrows in surprise. "Then what?" I breathed, slightly intimidated by Curtis's newfound direction. "We kill them" Curtis answered with a clenched jaw after a moment of silence. "Wilford?" Gilliam asked as I was still taking in Curtis's previous statement. I swallowed as I looked at the large engraved 'W' above Gilliam's head, Wilford, the owner and inventor of the train, the man that put us through hell. "You should run the train now, not Wilford," Curtis replied, I nodded in agreement, although still trying to comprehend the conversation I was just apart of. Gilliam smiled and waved his one remaining arm between us, "I'm a shadow of my former shadow. My day was decades ago." He answered to our proposition.