Infinity Train Book 0: Infinite Beyond ch.3
Chapter 3: The Cat“You’ve known about this train all this time,” said Juri, “and you didn’t tell me?”“I never thought there was anything to it. There wasn’t enough evidence,” Drakul began scratching his chin. “Though I suppose… the church’s older archives may have more information on the matter. But those are only available to the archbishops.”“Wow… who would’ve thought. A source of infinite power.”“Potentially infinite,” he corrected her.“Either way… shouldn’t that be our new priority then? Instead of looking for a needle in a haystack, we can just bypass this whole thing entirely. I’m honestly a little sick of hunting vampires.”“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Drakul got off his horse.It was just as the mechanic said, the South Train Station was here. Difficult to miss the large ticket booth and the elevated wooden platform built next to it in the middle of the desert. There were wooden benches placed there on the platform, likely for passengers waiting to catch a ride. What was peculiar however was that there were no trains in sight and nobody manning the ticket booth.This place looked as if it hadn’t been populated in months, probably years. Which was strange because of how bustling South Falls was back the other direction.“What exactly are we looking for?” Juri asked.Drakul spun his head around, looking back and forth in all four directions – and nothing but endless stretches of sandy land was in sight.“We’re looking for the train,” Drakul explained. “Or rather we’re here to confirm whether that number on your hand really means what I think it means.”“So… the train is going to show up because I have this number?”“No. If anything it won’t show up.”“Why?”“Because if that number really is what I think it is, then that means – we are already on the train.”Juri sat there on her horse, pulling off her goggles to look at the priest in her dumbfounded eyes. Letting out a sharp cry:“What?”8 hours later…“57,892 bottles of rum on the wall… 57,892 bottles of rum. Take one down… pass it around… give me a bottle of beer on the wall…”“Want a drink?” Drakul wiped his lips as he held up a bottle in his hand, halfway empty.“No.”“Can’t handle your liquor, eh? Figures.”“What’s that supposed to mean?”“I’m just saying, a pampered princess…”“I swear I will shoot you in the face if you finish that sentence.”“That’ll be a sight to see, you hitting anything with a gun,” Drakul laughed.“I hate that you’re right,” Juri chuckled, pushing the priest off the wooden platform for him to faceplant onto the old rusty railroad. “How much longer are we going to wait?”“Look at the schedule,” Drakul pointed to a piece of paper printed on the side of the ticket booth. “Says there the next train will arrive at 11 in the morning. And that ain’t no schedule printed out years ago either. That’s fresh, just posted there not long ago.”“Then why’s there nobody here?”“Beats me. Maybe they went home early,” Drakul shrugged. “What I do know is that if the train doesn’t show up by 11 in the morning, then we have our confirmation.”Juri began shaking her right hand, bored out of her mind. Twisting her fingers into weird positions and hand signs to see if anything would magically appear out of thin air. She even tried finger gunning a cactus nearby to see if it would explode into a thousand pieces. When that didn’t work, she tried setting it on fire with her mind, gritting her teeth vigorously.“So what exactly does this number here mean?” Juri asked, still waving her hand around.“Don’t know.”“Then how do you even know about the train?”“My father used to tell me these stories when I was a kid. We all knew about the legend of the snakes, but nobody really knew that it was really a train.”“How did he know about it?”“Don’t know.”“How come you don’t have a number?”“Maybe because I’m a priest?”“Ha, good one.”2 hours later…Being bored to death was a fate Juri desperately tried not to meet, but there wasn’t much they could do outside waiting. She had already gotten bored with tinkering her horse, her gadgets, and her bear traps. There wasn’t much else to do so taking a little nap seemed like a good idea at the time. Big emphasis on ‘at the time’ in retrospect.Drakul was still asleep when Juri woke up; fortunately, they didn’t really need to take shifts and keep watch because Juri programmed her horse to make some noise and movement once a foreign entity approached them within a 30-yard radius. So essentially a makeshift alarm clock. The plasma cores inside the horse even worked as a heat and light source, effectively eliminating the need to build a campfire.But what was disturbing to her was seeing far in the distance a figure approaching their campsite, walking from the railroad far away. It was too dark to make out the details, all of it seemed like a blurry black blob. But no doubt, it was a person, and with every step the jingle of the spurs on their boots could be heard growing louder. Juri even tried rubbing her eyes to clear them of all the dust and sand she got from her nap. And yet when she looked back up to the empty railroad, the figure was still walking towards the two of them.“Father, Father,” Juri nudged the priest. “Wake up!”“Oh… yes… baby, show me the goods,” Drakul mumbled in his sleep.“Wake your ass up, you pervert!” Cried Juri as she kicked his rear.“OW! Alright, alright, I’m up, I’m up! What’s happening.”“Enemy approaching, 12 o’clock.”“12?” Drakul raised an eyebrow, “what are you talking about? There’s somebody coming from over there,” he pointed his finger in the opposite direction where Juri was looking.And lo and behold, Drakul was right, there was indeed another shadowy figure approaching from afar. Trailing the railroad, with every step jingling their spurs.But that did not mean Juri was wrong about what she saw. Because the moment she spun her head around again, the same figure she saw earlier was still there, walking towards them.There were two of them…“Vampires, most likely,” Drakul said, as he instantly conjured up his minigun. But was unsure which of the two figures to target.“I’ll take the one in front there,” said Juri, rummaging through her gears and pockets. “You cover my back. How’s that sound?”“That… might not be enough I’m afraid,” Drakul pointed his finger to his right.And to Juri’s shock – was yet again another shadowy figure approaching the two of them.Instinctively she spun her head to her left in the opposite direction on a gut feeling, and it turned out her gut was indeed correct – when she spotted in the distance just over the wooden platform a fourth shadowy figure.They were cornered from all four directions. This must have been an ambush, Juri thought. Wondering to herself if she should’ve spent the effort to tear down all those wanted posters throughout their journey. So far, she and Father Drakul had been able to make do, eliminating one assassin at a time. But when facing a group as big as this in the middle of the night, they began to wonder if they could make out of this alive.“Remember,” Drakul spun his head around as he started to sweat, “keep your hand covered.”“I got it, I got it. Where did my deck of cards go?”“Did you leave it in your toolbox again?”“Maybe.”Juri darted off to her horse, opening up the lid of the box mounted on the side of her saddle, and just as he predicted – swimming underneath a pile of screws and cogs was her deck of cards, tied together with a small rubber band.“I should’ve sharpened these a little more,” she mumbled to herself.LOOK DOWN.Something strange echoed by Juri’s ears, prompting her to glance down her feet. Scanning the dark dirt and the mechanical hooves of her horse. She spun her head around, looking for the source of the voice.“Did you say something?” Juri turned back to Drakul.“What?”“Just now. Did you just say something?”“No? GET ON the goddamn horse, Van Helsing!”Father Drakul rarely shouted when he was sober, so it was quite tense to see him on edge like this with the enemy surrounding them. Juri of course had no intention of angering him any longer so she did as he said. Hopping on her saddle, while brandishing the cards in the palms of her hands, and immediately slipping them into her green sleeves.“Okay, boy,” Juri whispered to the horse, grabbing the leash, “LET’S GO!”The plasma cores inside instantly lit up like a luscious blue moon, sparkling with powerful electrical energy. Enough for the eyes of the steed to light up a path in front of them, and for its snout to violently exhale through its steam valve. The power and speed of this contraption was unlike anything on the planet. Apparently some German nutjob of an engineer Karl Benz somewhere on the other side of the globe was working on early models of what he referred to as an automobile. Juri read about it in one of the British newspapers her father brought over once after an oversea trip, but she doubted the power of such a machine could be a match for the plasma cores of this animal.Because the roaring of the engine deep inside was nothing short of breathtaking. Brimming with energy so potent one could feasibly mistake it for life energy – that of a living breathing creature made of flesh and blood.And yet, the power of the steam valves and the crackling electricity did not sway the shadowy figure in front of Juri. Approaching closer, she could make out the silhouette of a well-built man. One who was peculiarly familiar for some reason.And that was when she realized – there on his hip was the holster holding that impossibly long revolver. A revolver that was already magically conjured into the palm of his hand, already aiming straight towards the horse racing towards him.Juri, of course, did not even wait for the man to pull the trigger for her to start winding up her arm, with three cards slotted between her fingers, before flicking violently in the direction of where he stood.“TADA!” She cried fiercely, as the razor-sharp cards spun in midair, guided by the powerful windy vortex it created with the magic of centrifugal force. There in the center of each three cards – an ace of diamonds, a two of hearts, and a seven of spades – all beginning to glow with the crackling of electrical discharge. Shining above the thin but firm polymer layer woven together in a way only Juri knew how. One slice of this could potentially cut a finger clean off.And yet, despite that power…None of the three cards made contact with their target.Instead, they were inexplicably stopped dead it their paths, floating in midair. As if lodged on a hard, flat surface of some kind. And that was the moment Juri pulled her horse back in absolute shock, and upon closer inspection of where the cards landed – she noticed there, on the edges where they were stuck on, were cracks forming in midair like that on a glass surface.And that was when the revelation hit her like a wagon, the moment the shadowy figure came into full view to reveal that same familiar face – the assassin with the brown vest worn over his bare chest.Juri swiftly turned her horse around to speed right off into the opposite direction where she came from. Muttering under her breath:“Son of a… bastard stole my trick!”To her dismay, the priest had his attention directed to the figure approaching him to his left, instead of the one on the right and the one far down the railroad, coming at him straight ahead with his long revolver ready to fire.“FATHER!” Juri shouted from afar, “WATCH OUT! It’s the mirror trick! Enemy coming straight ahead, 12 o’clock!”Drakul revved up his gun, beginning to panic. Yet his trust in Juri remained strong – thus, he diverted his attention back to the one assassin aiming his revolver at the priest, locking the two of them in a standoff. It was that moment when Drakul finally realized the reason why this man was so familiar to him when they first met back in that town.“You… you’re a priest!” Drakul cried.Just as the loud bang of the revolver echoed across the night, and the roaring of the minigun tore through the silence. Burning with holy righteous bullet fire.The rain of holy projectiles knocked the revolver off the assassin’s hand, as the rest of the rounds began piercing his skin. Eventually melting the flesh off the bones of his right arm. The smell of cooked flesh and burning blood was overwhelming as it burst open from his innards and his veins like a punctured barrel of wine.And yet, despite the devastating damage, it was still a shocking scene for Juri to see, Drakul missing his shots, not finishing the assassin off in one swift motion. And it was easy to see why once Juri noticed the big gaping wound bursting forth from his right shoulder. It must have thrown off his aim. What was alarming however was the size of the wound. A hole that big caused by a bullet from handgun? Was the revolver firing sniper rifle rounds? Was that the reason why its barrel was so long?“Are you alright?” Juri arrived, sliding a couple more cards in between her fingers.“Yeah… just a flesh wound.”“That’s the guy we saw earlier in South Falls, the one who tried to kill us,” Juri pointed her finger.“I’ve definitely seen him before in our church. I don’t know his name, but I know he’s a priest. I just couldn’t recognize him without his robe.”Then, as if by some miracles, the revolver that was knocked down to the ground off the assassin’s right hand had instantaneously reappeared back on his one remaining hand. There was no doubt about it anymore. He really was a priest, and that was his holy weapon of choice.“Heads up, two more enemies approaching on the side. There’s three of them in total.”“What? No, Father. There’s only two of them. That bastard there pulled the mirror trick I used a while back. It was dark, so I didn’t notice the mirror at first when I was running towards it.”“No, no. You don’t understand… the other two – the ones approaching on our sides, they’re not humans, they’re vampires.”Juri’s eyes began to light up with a mix of enthusiastic bloodlust and caution. Putting two and two together, she understood that since the vampires didn’t have reflections, the only one who could’ve pulled off the trick was the human priest assassin himself.But why would a priest of all people team up with two monsters? The demons, the spawns of the Devil no less.There was little time for Juri to ponder these questions on the account of the assassin already having his finger on the trigger of his gun, while Drakul was still struggling to his feet from the injury, struggling to realign the aim of his minigun back on the enemy priest. Which was why she was quick to act, and swift with her fingers.Before the assassin could even fire off his shot, the flesh and skin of his forearm was cruelly met with the razor-sharp edge of the electrifying plasma cards, which then proceeded to instantly fry the nerves and veins underneath his arm, thus throwing off his aim. He didn’t even see Juri move, much less throw the cards. The man was indeed thoroughly bested, and he didn’t even have time to process this loss before Drakul swiftly rent the remaining flesh off his skeleton. Tearing the skin and muscle fibers one by one with the furious burning storm of bullets.And before long – there was nothing that remained but a silent melted corpse.Still not finished.For over yonder on the two sides came the two pale skin monsters dashing at a demonic speed towards Juri and Drakul. Upon closer inspection, Juri came to an important realization about the nature of this enemy.And that was the fact that this wasn’t two enemies at all, like Drakul had said. No, the two of them looked absolutely identical. The truth was this was one singular vampire who, by some power neither Juri nor Drakul fully understood, had split himself into two separate bodies, effectively making a clone of himself. This was a known ability of the vampire race, Juri had dealt with this before. And it was incredibly annoying, depending on the skill and strength of the individual vampire.So only one option for offense remained, as she could not let herself and Drakul be surrounded, what she would then need to do was charge straight ahead with her horse and immediately eliminate one of them, ramming into the monster like a battering ram. And that was exactly what she was about to do if not for a peculiar sound echoing by the side of her ears once more.LOOK DOWN.In just a singular moment of distraction, Juri lowered her head to glance down beneath her horse to see there the peculiar inscription of that bizarre phrase being inexplicably printed on the ground in a green glowing ink – the exact same green glow of the number on her palm. A sudden whooshing noise then inexplicably passed above her head, like a razor-sharp knife barely slicing off the tip of her hat as if it were slicing butter. Something had just jumped over her head. A machine? An animal?Whatever it was, it wasn’t very big itself. No larger than a small dog, and yet it was as swift as the wind. So fast in fact, Juri didn’t even notice the two monsters already lying unconscious on the ground, both apparently not breathing anymore. But more importantly were the two strange rectangular holes that seemed to have magically appeared on both of the vampires’ skull, dead center of their foreheads. No black blood was oozing out on either of these holes, and both looked to have been carved out a little too perfect. As if it was shaped by a factory-made mold of some kind, or at least very meticulously measured beforehand.“What in God’s name just happened?” Drakul cried, still reeling from his wound.And swiftly, the question was answered by a strange soft voice of a woman:“A little show of gratitude would be nice… Kitten.”Both Juri and Drakul spun their heads to their left, just a few yards away from the vampire’s two corpses. The voice was oddly soothing, and yet there was this sharp quality beneath it that made it hard to fully comprehend, difficult to tell if the source of the voice was that of a friend or foe.All they saw before them was this small cat with white fur and striking yellow eyes. The strangest thing about this creature, however, was the fact that it was wearing a dark blue vest with a red tie around its neck. But even more disturbing was the smile it wore on its devilish expression.“A… cat?” Drakul looked on, squinting his eyes.“It is THE Cat to you, thank you very much,” she introduced herself, to both Juri’s and Drakul’s shock.“What in the world…”“I’ve finally found you, Kitten,” she meowed. “Where have you been all this time, Lake?”“Who?”“What did you do to the vampire?” Drakul cried. “Who are you?”“Wait a minute…” the Cat squinted her eyes, before dashing towards the girl at an amazing speed.Before Juri realized it, her hat was blown off the top off her head and her goggles were snatched away, revealing her bright green eyes. The Cat was all over her face, stretching out Juri’s eyelids with her fluffy little paws, poking at the skin on her face, before pulling out Juri’s tongue to look inside her mouth.“What the… you’re not Lake!” The Cat hissed. “But you look just like her. Oh my, c'est intéressant…”“Ow, ow, claws, claws, get off of me you weirdo!” Juri pushed the Cat onto the ground.“Alright, that’s enough,” Drakul revved up his gun, “you better start talking now or so help me God, I will turn you into a fine red mist.”“WHOA, WHOA,” the Cat raised her paws up in surrender, “easy there, Reverend Trigger Finger. I shan’t waste any more of your time. I’ll talk, I’ll talk! That girl there with you, she looks exactly like someone I’m looking for. Her name is Lake, she has gorgeous hair so shiny you could see your own reflection in them. Here, I even have a photo of her.”The Cat pulled out a large wooden framed picture from the inside of her vest. The photo frame was bulky and quite large, making Juri wonder how she managed to fit it inside her little pocket.The picture was quite old, with a few burned edges here and there, but somehow surprisingly modern and high tech by the mere fact that it was in color. Juri thought it was a painting at first, but upon closer inspection she realized that it was in fact a photograph – one of a young girl in a simple plain black dress standing bare feet over a grassy hill with her beautiful locks of hair flowing with the wind.Juri realized what the Cat said was true. The girl bore a striking resemblance to Juri herself, in both physique and facial features. There were minor differences here and there that would be apparent if one were to look closely, but it wouldn’t be farfetched for ordinary people to mistake the two of them for twins. The only major difference, and the most striking one, was the fact that the girl’s skin and hair looked as if they were coated in a thin layer of chrome, or perhaps silver, making her facial features seem almost metallic. The Cat must be colorblind, Juri thought to herself, otherwise she would’ve been able to tell immediately that the hair color was different.“I don’t remember anybody else in my life,” said the Cat, “that’s why I want to find this girl. She’s the only person I remember. That means she must be the puzzle I need to solve to uncover my past.”“Who… what are you?”The Cat explained:“All I know… is that I am a citizen of something called the Infinity Train.”A bolt of lightning struck both Juri’s and Drakul’s nerves the moment they heard the term. One step closer to the truth of this mystery, they both told themselves in their guts. The Cat continued:“I don’t remember much, but all I know is that it is a place where people go to sort out their problems. Either personal problems, psychological problems, and so on… or so the legend says, I am not entirely sure anymore. I’m not sure what to believe. So many things are just… a blur. And the only exception is the memory of this girl in the photo. I don’t know who she is, but she shows up in my Dreams. She never speaks, but she is there, always a constant.”“Are we… on the train?” Drakul asked, putting his minigun away.“Don’t know,” the Cat shrugged. “It’s hard to tell these days. The train would often be attended by the Conductor, making it obvious if one were already onboard. But nowadays the Conductor has been awfully quiet. Nobody’s seen him around anymore. One thing led to another, and here I am. Your facial features do intrigue me, Kitten. I couldn’t possibly let such a cute face be clawed out by these hideous vampires, these abominations or whatever they are.”“I still don’t understand what you did to the vampire,” Juri pointed her finger. “Why are there these rectangular holes on his foreheads?”“It’s a special skill I have, Kitten. I can take video tapes out people’s minds. Doesn’t work on dead people, though.”“What the hell are video tapes?” Drakul asked.“Oh, that’s right, it was before your time,” said the Cat. “It’s a series of moving pictures. I’m kind of spoiling the future a little here, but that’s going to be the next evolution of the camera. Be on the lookout for that. Anyway, my special ability allows me to take out these tapes,” she held up a thin rectangular black cube of some kind for them to see, “they represent a person’s memories. That vampire monster over there for example, his name is Jason McCarthy, says so right here on the tape. Every passenger on the Infinity Train has a number, and that number grants people unique abilities. Citizens of the train like myself don’t have numbers, however. So I had to steal one from a passenger.”“Unique abilities… you say…” Juri pulled off the glove covering her right hand, letting her idle number 40 glow in the darkness of the night. “You mean this number?”The Cat’s eyes lit up.“Yes,” she said. “It appears you have an ability, as well.” She then pointed her paw towards the dirt underneath Juri’s horse, where the glowing phrase ‘LOOK DOWN’ still remained.“I… made that?” Juri asked.“You may have activated your ability subconsciously without realizing it, Kitten. Not to worry, it’s very common for passengers to feel a little disoriented. But this is good, because this is confirmation. We are definitely aboard the Infinity Train.”“What about Father Drakul? Why doesn’t he have a number?”“And the human assassin over there,” said Drakul, “alongside the vampire. What about them?”“Huh…” the Cat scratched her chin, “I… do not know. That is very strange, indeed. I’m sure we can find out the truth about the matter, though.”“We?”“Yeah, don’t you want to team up on this little… adventure?” The Cat grinned, “You have my interest, Kitten. Your resemblance to the girl I seek is something I simply cannot ignore. And I’ll get to the bottom of it even if I have to stalk you to the edge of the world. So we might as well travel togeth… what on earth is this thing on my legs?”The Cat didn’t even notice the massive bear trap strapping around her ankles as she mused on. Though the contraption was a lot less like that of the traditional bear trap, rather it was a modified version meant to restrain rather than pierce the flesh with any spikes. Once the mouth of the trap closed, a human target would be locked down as if they were being cuffed. The trap was usually made for a human sized ankle. But in this case, it was still strong enough to hold all of the Cat’s limbs in her place, preventing her from even fidgeting ever so slightly.“You really think we’re just going to let you freely join us on our journey after you told us about your ability to take people’s memories?” Juri miraculously appeared behind the Cat, casting a tall shadow over her.“How did you…” the Cat glanced back and forth, “I didn’t even hear any footsteps.”“You’re going to have to earn our trust before I even consider letting you out of this trap. So buckle up little lady, we’re going for a ride. I hear there’s a nice pet shop in the next town. Maybe even a barn somewhere, makes no difference really. As long as they can… ‘babysit’ a kitty.”“Hey, come on now,” the Cat laughed nervously, “that’s a little excessive, don’t you think?”“She’s just messing with you, Cat,” said Drakul, “obviously you have experience with this so-called Infinity Train, so we’re going to need you around to guide us through this. She’s not going to follow through with that threat… probably.”Drakul took out a flask of whiskey from his inner pocket, opened the cap off with his teeth and proceeded to pour it all over the wound on his shoulder, he of course did not hesitate to take a sip himself. All while the Cat trembled within the trap as she watched, anxious to see what these two bizarre travelers would do to her next.
S-P-O-D-E
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