Arlo Pike looked up and down the station. He wondered what he was doing. He found

things. Killing monsters was something he would love to pawn off on the city guard.

His partner didn’t agree.

Jason stood still as he observed the station. He frowned at what he saw.

“I thought we were looking for the train tomorrow,” said Tilda. She stood by the steps

leading to the street.

“We’re looking the ground over,” said Jason. He didn’t quite frown, or resort to an

active defense for trying to send her out of harm’s way.

“Don’t kid a kidder,” said Tilda. She smiled. “You project the lie too much.”

Pike felt a nagging strike his spine. He looked down the tracks. He concentrated. He

decided this was the train they were looking to board.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Tilda?,” asked Pike. He watched the tracks. They

vibrated with the weight of the thing coming toward them. “There’s some real danger

involved in this.”

“I’m ready if you two are,” said Tilda.

“All right,” said Pike. He stepped back from the edge of the platform. He didn’t want

to fall on the tracks at the worse possible time.

Jason let his hand fall down to the hilt of his sword. He looked down the tracks. He

nodded to himself.

“How do you guys want to handle things?,” asked Tilda. She frowned at the false

train approaching.

“We board, look for the brain, cut it apart,” said Jason. “We deal with anything in our

way trying to stop us.”

“Sounds simple,” said Tilda. She flexed her hands.

“We’ll see,” said Jason. He stared at the train, taking in details he might have to use

later.

The train slid to a stop in front of the trio. It looked close enough to the real thing to

fool anyone not paying attention. Pike didn’t like the windows that looked like they

were lit from within but weren’t glass, the gray metal skin looked more like scales

than paint, and the front cowcatcher looked more like a jaw of sharp teeth than

anything meant to push obstacles off the tracks.

“Definitely a monster,” said Jason. He rubbed the fingers of his free hand together.

“We’re going to have to do something about this.”

“We could just walk away,” said Tilda. She looked around. No one else was on the

platform. “Let someone at the next station handle this.”

“There’s no one at the next station who can handle this,” said Jason. “Besides it’s my

job to deal with things like this.”

“You can walk away, Tilda,” said Pike. He walked up to the fake door. They opened

for him. “This isn’t your problem.”

He tried not to think of how much the door looked like a mouth. He regretted taking

Jason as his partner for the hundredth time as he stepped inside the dark interior. He

wasn’t surprised that it didn’t match the exterior it showed its victims.

Jason and Tilda boarded behind him. He didn’t spare them a glance. They needed to

take care of themselves while he called up his talent. He needed to find the weak spot

to attack so they could survive the death trap they were in.

“This looks like a giant stomach,” said Jason. He pulled his sword. The blade burned

the air around it. “I wonder how many got on the train and never made it to their

destination.”

“I think this stomach has teeth,” said Tilda. She pointed at triangular protrusions

emerging from the walls, ceiling, and floor. “I knew this was a bad idea.”

“We want to go this way,” said Pike. He pointed down the inside of the fake train.

“We’re going to have to cut through anything in our way as we go.”

“Follow me,” said Jason. He slashed the closing walls with his sword. It burned the

interior lining of the esophagus as the flesh split on impact. Something screamed

around them, but the swordsman paid no heed.

“I think it’s dropping stomach acid on top of us,” said Tilda. She raised a hand. The

ceiling compressed under an unseen punch.

“Keep moving,” said Pike. “It’ll finish eating us as soon as it can crush us into paste.

This is what happened to the girl we were hired to find.”

“It looks like we have some kind of barrier in the way ahead,” said Jason. “I’m going

to cut through it.”

Jason brought his sword down in a diagonal slash. The bone he had sliced into split

apart, letting tissue and bodily fluid fly back from its cavity. Something knocked the

waste out of the way so it didn’t bury them.

“That smell is awful,” said Tilda. She covered her face with one hand.

“Keep moving,” said Pike. He covered his face with a rag from his bag. “We’ll die

if we stop now.”

Jason sliced his way through to the front of the train. Every place his sword blade

touched turned black and curled away from the glowing metal. He didn’t seem

bothered by the stench and the liquid underfoot.

“Get out of the way!,” shouted Tilda. “I want to do something before the smell kills

me.”

Jason stepped out of the tunnel he had been cutting. He kept an eye on the closing

walls. If things got closer, he would just cut through the walls and hope they survived

jumping from the false train.

Tilda stepped forward and punched the air. A channel exploded in front of her fist.

She swayed on her feet. The partners could see starlight streaming in from the other

end of the tunnel.

“She missed the brain!,” shouted Pike. He grabbed Tilda to keep her from falling in

the filth.

“It’s all right,” said Jason. He cut at the healing channel. The burned away tissue

stopped regenerating as the sword cursed the monster flesh. “I think I can handle the

rest of the job.”

Jason forced himself forward. Every wound he caused dropped more of the flesh

away, widening the tunnel punched out by Tilda. Pike followed, keeping Tilda on her

feet as he looked behind them. He shook his head. They had to do something, or they

would be crushed by the parts of the train that were still working.

“It’s still trying to seal everything behind us so we can’t go back,” said Pike. “It looks

like it’s having problems healing over where you cut it.”

“It should,” said Jason. He sliced along the top of the ceiling, trying to find the brain

of the thing.

“It’s a cluster above and to your right,” said Pike, glancing at the ruined braincase of

the monster. “You and Tilda have already done a lot of damage to its thinking

capacity. The part where it quits moving is up there. Ruin that and the train will quit

moving.”

Jason stabbed as directed. The ceiling burned away from his sword’s touch. He found

a series of connectors that almost looked like a wide spinal cord. He sliced through

them several times. The burned material came apart and seemed unable to heal up

from the wounding.

“It looks like we’ve done for the death train,” said Jason. “Now we have to get out of

here before we meet a real train on the tracks.”

“What happens if a train hits this?,” Pike asked.

“It might smash this corpse apart,” said Jason. “How long do we have before the next

train comes along?”

“I have no idea,” said Pike.

“Twenty five minutes,” said Tilda. She flexed her hand. “Let’s get off the tracks

before it gets here.”

“It’s simple enough to do,” said Jason.

He started slicing through the wall to his side. He pushed the material out of the way

as he kept chopping. The opening widened as he hacked away. The city slowly

walked by he cut more of the wall out of the way. He finally had a hole so they could

jump through one at a time.

“It’s time for us to go,” said Jason. “Arlo?”

“Got it,” Pike said. He handed Tilda to his partner. He waited until his talent told him

he should jump. Then he did. He landed and rolled to save his legs from being

broken.

He ran after the slowing monster. He doubted Jason would just leave Tilda on the

train. So he had to be in a position to catch her if Jason threw her off before he

jumped.

Jason had Tilda in his arms. He jumped from the train, walking on landing to ease the

shock. He came to a stop as the monster kept rolling along the track.

“Are you sure it’s dead?,” asked Pike.

“If it isn’t, it will be when the real train catches up to it,” said Jason.

“I think we should warn the train officials,” said Pike. “They should at least know

there’s something on the track.”

“The station is that way,” Jason pointed. “Let’s see if we can rouse someone to take

care of the rest of this.”

“The train might derail when it hits that thing,” said Pike. He started jogging for the

station. “That might kill someone.”

“I hadn’t considered that,” said Jason. He started after Pike, Tilda on his shoulder. He

didn’t show any effort in carrying her weight as he ran.

Pike reached the station. He looked around for any way to reach the train officials. He

found an emergency push button near the kiosk for tickets.

Pike leaned on the button as Jason hopped on the platform from the ground. He

placed Tilda on the ground. She looked as weak as a kitten to him.

“This is the Bern Train System,” said a voice from the air. “How can I direct your

call?”

“There’s a dead monster on the tracks in the North Side,” said Pike. “You might want

to warn the Express so it doesn’t derail.”

“Is this some kind of prank?,” said the voice.

“No, ma’am,” said Pike. “I am Arlo Pike, a registered Finder. My partner and I

stepped on this thing we thought was a train, but it was some kind of monster. My

partner used his weapon and skills on it and we escaped. It’s on the track heading

north from...”

Pike realized he didn’t know where they were. He looked around for a sign.

“Pentacle Street,” said Jason.

“Pentacle Street,” said Pike. “We also have a third person who might need medical

care.”

“Are you, or your partner, hurt?,” asked the voice.

“I have what looks like an acid burn,” said Pike. “Jason?”

Jason shook his head.

“Jason says he wasn’t touched,” said Pike.

“All right,” said the operator. “Crews are on their way. Someone will be with them

to look at you. I’m going to need you to stay at the station until they get there.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” said Pike. “You might want to hurry.”

“You two wouldn’t have lasted two minutes without me,” said Tilda. She looked up

from her spot next to the station wall.

“The Rheim teach you that trick you pulled?,” asked Jason. “It was very impressive.”

“Flattery gets you nothing, fibber,” said Tilda.

“That’s so true,” said Jason. He bent down and checked her forehead with the back

of his hand. “You don’t have a fever. The emergency call people said there will be

people here to clear the track. You want to take most of the credit for the killing?”

“No way,” said Tilda. “Everyone will know my name. There will be problems.”

“So it’s best if we say Pike did most of the work?,” said Jason.

“Hold on,” said Pike. “I already said you did most of the work. And they are going

to see the sword cuts you committed. There’s no way we can get out of this. And

Tilda blew a hole in the thing. That’s something neither of us can do.”

“Maybe we should leave,” said Jason.

“We can’t do that either,” said Pike. “I already gave my name. Just leaving is just

going to cause problems down the road.”

“So we’re stuck for this,” said Jason. He waved at the hulk down the tracks. Some of

it twitched, but none of it moved like it was going to start riding the tracks again.

“It was bound to happen,” said Pike. “You’ve killed a lot of monsters. One of them

was bound to leave something behind for the city to clean up.”

“Are we sure that thing killed Rowena?,” said Jason. “If it didn’t, we’ll have to keep

looking.”

“We got the right monster,” said Pike. He faced the bulk. “I’ll have to tell her father

that she was randomly killed while trying to go around with her friends. That

shouldn’t be too hard.”

“At least I get to act like I was just a victim,” said Tilda. “That’ll let me stay under the

radar.”

“Is that what you really want?,” asked Jason. “Here’s your chance for fortune and

glory.”

“What’s that going to do for me?,” asked Tilda. “Not getting involved in this was

better than having my name pasted everywhere. People are going to want their money

if I get famous.”

“Act like you don’t know what’s going on,” said Jason. “Here come the Guard.”

Men in city livery walked on the platform. They held long rifles and halberds ready

for action. They paused at the two men pointing down the tracks. A senior sergeant

went to the end of the platform and stared at the monster corpse blocking the tracks.

“How did you two kill that?,” asked the sergeant.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Jason.