Empathy Goes

Chapter 7

                                                                                      Chapter 7

The group of three stood staring at the jump-suited woman who'd accused them. Simon confusedly asked her a question. "What are you talking about?" the woman responded in kind.

"The train car's genius. I scanned this car for abnormalities and found nothing. You three are here for all of one minute and I get an alert that there are lines of code that don't match the reality of the car." she said tapping on her wristwatch seemingly trying to pinpoint the anomaly. Simon spoke again.

"Listen, we barely escaped the ejection of the train cars, we have just as little information as you do." he offered. This woman was strange and her being so quick with an accusation did nothing to endear her to the group.

"The ejection-" she shook her head in frustration putting her fingers on her temples "There is a glitch on the train. One sent me from the engine to resolve it." Now that was a clue. Grace and Simon shared a quick look. Grace turned back to the woman, her accusation prepared.

"One? One-One sent you?" she questioned bluntly. Hazel, desperate to keep up with the numbers, began counting on her fingers.

"One, one, one?" she counted.

"That's three Hazel." Simon offered turning to the little girl.

"Thank you." she responded. Simon now turned back to the woman. One-One had been trying to eject them this entire trip and they'd all almost died, Tuba had died. Now this woman who worked for One-One had the gaul to accuse them of something. Simon scoffed.

"You work for One-One?" He confirmed. The woman nodded. "He's been trying to kill us since he took over from the real conductor." Simon explained. The woman's brow wrinkled in amusement. These children were absolutely ridiculous.

"He's been-" the woman stopped to let out a hearty laugh at their expense. "One-One has no idea you exist, ponytail." she said matter of factly. "At least not anymore than any other passenger. In a very literal sense we are just numbers to him." she explained. Simon and Grace shared a look of confusion and distrust. That wasn't true, it couldn't be. The Apex was One-One's greatest enemy, the only threat to his false way of life on the train. There was no way he hadn't heard of them, right? Noticing their disbelief in her words the woman sighed and spoke again. "Ugh, hang on." she said as she took a card from her bag and began reading what was written on it. "Every passenger is important. Their well-being and progress is what the train is all about. All aboard the growth train toot toot weee. Sincerely your conductor One-One." she said in her most wooden voice. Clearly annoyed at having to have read that the woman crossed her arms. Hazel let out a giggle.

"You're really weird." she said still holding on to Grace and Simon. The woman rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I am. Good heavens," she said putting her head in her hand out of frustration. "You three really have no idea what's been happening. Ugh, this is so tedious," she said, the annoyance and frustration in her voice quite clear. Grace and Simon again shared a look. Of course they had no idea what was happening, that's what they'd already told her. The woman took off her backpack and began rummaging through it as she continued her speech. "Some of the cars on the train have corrupted code, I created a pulse that scans for that code, and it was working fine until three weeks ago when cars started ejecting one after the other." she continued as she unzipped the top of her jumpsuit and let her hair down. "And you say you keep getting ejected along with them so you're the only lead I have as to what's gone wrong so start talking." The woman turned around and held a computerized device in her hand. With the top of her jumpsuit unzipped the group could see the woman's arms and neck in their entirety. From the palm of her left hand almost to the palm of her right the woman was entirely covered in numbers. Grace and Simon stared at her in awe. Simon was the first to speak up.