She glared at him, “That wasn’t my fault.”
“I know. But it’s fun to tease you all the same.”
“I swear I wasn’t trying to break the rules.”
Carver paused at the defensive tone in her voice, “I know,” he emphasized. “That’s why it’s funny. If you were intentionally breaking the rules, we’d have adifferentconversation.”
15CLARA
Clara pulled her shirt down around her waist as she recovered from crashing into Carver. She could feel the heat in her face, and was further frustrated she looked as flustered as she felt. The blush deepened as she wondered what exactly Carver was implying with his emphasis ondifferent.
Fortunately, the door slid open before she had too long to ruminate. The boy’s eyes were wide, his face bright red and panicked. “There’s been a…” his voice trailed off, gaze darting between the two of them. “A malfunction. This is as far as we’re able to take you. We have to repair the train before we can keep moving.”
Clara almost looked at Carver to give the response, but instead stepped forward and said, “What do you mean this is as far as we can go? Where are we?”
The boy scratched the back of his head. “We’re approaching Hillcrest, the second to last town on the map. About 15 miles from the town we were supposed to leave you in.”
Carver jumped in, “So we have to walk an additional 15 miles?” The boy’s eyes widened at Carver’s tone, and he swallowed hard before nodding. “Can you tell us what kind of ‘malfunction’ occurred?”
The boy shook his head and walked away before Carver could ask additional questions. Carver looked at Clara questioningly, “Well, I guess we should get our stuff and start walking? Maybe we can make it before dark?”
She squinted at him, “15 miles? Before dark? Maybe. We’ll have to start soon though. I want to find the conductor and see if we can find out what’s happened and if this affects our mission, though.”
Carver nodded, “If you want to do that, I’ll go into town and get water and food for our now far more exhausting trip.”
“Sounds good.”
She jumped down from the train and walked to the front. The sun was out, and she was glad she had left her leather gear behind. It wouldn’t have fared well in the direct heat. Her boots crunched against the dirt and gravel, and she paused. There were no other sounds. This town should have been fully active. There should have been all of the usual noises.
She unsheathed her knife, holding it at her side. Though not immediately visible, it was immediately usable. She didn’t see the boy as she walked to the front. The conductor wasn’t there. She went car by car, searching for others. She couldn’t find a single person.
What the hell?
She picked up her pace, head spinning. There was no reason she could think of to explain this. She almost ran into Carver. He caught her, hands warm even through the fabric of her sleeves. She shrugged him off, and he quickly removed his hands like he’d been burned. “The weirdest thing,” he began.
She cut him off. “There’s no one. We’ve been abandoned.”
He nodded, eyes growing even more concerned as the reality of their situation set in. “But, why?”
Clara turned in a circle as she focused on the abandoned town. The windows of all the buildings were boarded over. Abreeze stirred up the dirt, and all of the porches, window frames, and other available surfaces had been coated in a layer of the light dust. “It wasn’t recently abandoned.”
“No, it’s been like this for a while.” Carver confirmed.
Clara closed her eyes taking deep breaths. She felt terrified. Yes, she had been involved in executions, but everything had been sterile. Planned. Expected. Even the assassinations. She knew every detail of every routine and was in and out before there was even a chance of suspicion.
She was supposed to be on the train for another day. They were supposed to have one more day to plan. What did they do now?
“My guess is the war reached farther than our intelligence showed.”
“Or, we’ve been sent into a trap.” She gnawed on her lip, not quite splitting it, but close.
“Or we’ve been sent into a trap.” Carver ran his hand through his hair, giving Clara another unhelpful detail to try not to focus on.
She took a deep breath. “Okay. Does this change anything? Aside from the amount of walking we have to do?”
He tilted his head side to side, his hair just long enough to fall towards his eyes before he pushed it back. “I’m going with no?”
She exhaled harshly, an attempt to push the stress for her body. A metallic taste filled her mouth, and she licked her lips trying not to let Carver see the blood blossoming on her lip. Her own fault. “You sound so confident.”
