Zero

Chapter 10: Growing Pains

Emira was at her wit's end. It had been just over a week since she and Edric had boarded the train (big mistake) and things were not going well.

At all.

Nearly every train car they had come across had resulted in a near death experience, where they had to rely on their quick thinking and, more often than not, sheer luck just to make it out alive. To make matters worse, they had yet to find any clues of Amity being on the train. Coupled with the fact that neither of their numbers had decreased, Emira felt that everything that they had been through in the past several days was for nothing.

And then there was Edric.

As much as she loved her brother, spending every single moment of each day with him, without anyone else around, was beginning to grate on her nerves. At school, she had her friends and at home, Mittens was there to act as a buffer. But here in the train, it was just them. And, under normal circumstances, Emira would be fine. They got along pretty well, and had similar senses of humor to boot.

But these were far from normal circumstances, and every time Edric got himself into trouble, she had to be the one to pull him out of it.

Like right now.

"I told you that was a bad idea!" Emira scolded Edric, jabbing him in the chest with her finger.

"How was I supposed to know that would happen?" Edric protested.

"Look, I didn't expect it either but it's common sense to be polite to royalty!" Emira massaged her temple. "It's no wonder we were both chased out after you ridiculed King Atticus in front of his court, especially since you refused to apologize!"

"It's not my fault the Corginians can't take a joke!" Edric crossed his arms and huffed.

Emira groaned. Her brother could be so obnoxious sometimes.

"Well you're lucky I was paying attention to where the exit door was during their introduction to the train car, otherwise we'd both be dog food right now."

"Yeah, whatever." Edric rolled his eyes.

Edric and Emira crossed the bridge to the next car and Emira opened the door. They stepped onto a large grassy field and took in the view. Puffy white clouds dotted the sky and grey mountains could be seen far in the distance. Edric and Emira started making their way through the car and at the top of a hill, they found the center of the train car in a valley below them.

Emira had no idea what to make of their surroundings. Next to them was a dark blue telephone booth half submerged into the ground. There were buildings spread haphazardly, most missing entire parts that would normally be fundamental to their structure. There was a large library without a roof, an arched staircase leading to nowhere, and houses with missing pieces of walls and roofs. Some things were completely misplaced, like a yellow fire hydrant sticking out of a chimney.

Edric was walking a little ahead of Emira when he was swept off his feet and landed on an upside down staircase. He stretched out his hands to regain his balance and gave Em a goofy grin.

"Woah! Is this an anti-gravity car?"

Emira's eyebrows furrowed, taking in the car around them with a hum. Usually, the theme of the train cars they passed through were pretty obvious, but this one seemed... unfinished. She watched as Edric managed to get down from the staircase and shrugged.

"I have no idea."

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed three turtle denizens approaching. Two looked like guards, standing tall on their hind legs, outfitted with a large spoon and spork respectively as their weapons. Unlike the guards, the turtle in the middle walked on all four legs, and wore a red and grey crown. He wore thick rimmed glasses and had bushy eyebrows. Emira gave her brother a sideways glance.