Hunted|Haunted - Chapter 12 - Runaway Train 2: Electric Boogaloo

Even though Toma was met with his first big boy moral dilemma, and many complicated feelings in relation to that, he decided to find his father anyway. He had come so far already, and to be honest, the more people told him about dad, the more he wanted to find out what he was actually like, why he did what he did.
After all, why would he take opinions at face value? Everyone said the Tragač could kill them, but they ended up being a bunch of weird, cowardly restaurant people. Coyote said dad was pacifistic, but turned out he was a murderer. And Bond didn’t even have a single scary mug!

A couple of buns filled Toma with determination, which meant that the adults had to figure out how to get to Avonborough, and fast, for the mother is approaching.
For Neven, on the other hand, finding Krsto was a matter of principle. Even if Toma decided to stop, he would’ve continued on alone. He had to hunt him down one last time. And for Nexialist, it was a simple matter of “who is buying is ruling the parade”.

Anyhow, that’s how the group ended up at the railway station.

— You're sleeping or something?
— Studying.
— You've been looking at that thing for like half an hour.
…
— There's a place, there, look. The railway we're on and the one we need intersect.
— Man, it's a mosaic on a wall. I'm no geographist, but it doesn't seem like an accurate map.

Toma was under the bench, busy feeding ants crumbs from his bun.

— No, no, it makes sense for a technical stop to be there, see? There's flat land, gathering of railways from big mines, and near nothing over there. It's a great spot to check trains for defects before the long way.
— I swear, if I find a map of railways with those things included, and it's not there, I'll make you pay for leading the search astray.
Toma became the one and only God of the ant colony.
— Look for the schedule too, while you're at it.
— Can ants be a familiar?
— Didn’t you want a snake yesterday?

While the two were talking, Nex bought tickets, a map and a smoothie, and came back, sipping the drink through the straw under the mask and looking at the map. He finally noted.

— So. Our place is, like, five towns from here. This might be the furthest I’ve been from Nario in the last three years, so I don’t think I’ll be able to mansplain, manwhore or manipulate our way through this.
— It's okay, I haven't been to other places in a long time, too. If you count Kirski as a place, mum says it's an anomaly.
— Sure sounds like one. — Nexialist snorted. Then added, looking at them — I mean, the name, and also the fact that you two came out of there. And the looming threat of your mum. She sounds like she came out straight from some of those action movies Bond hates so much.
— Oh, I’m not from there. We used to live there when dad was with us. My home is.. Uh… I don’t really know. There isn’t much around it.
— Nowhereville, gotchu.
— No, it’s a couple of hours away by car.
— Carvington is also “couple hours by car” away from here, and it’s across half the country.
— No, it’s much more ridiculous. Brace yourself, the closest town is literally named that.
— Like… “That”?
— Exactly that. And over the mountain from there is Thenthers.

This seemed to make Nex’s brain stop working. He paused, standing without speaking and probably trying to comprehend the new information.

— When the population is around two hundred people, all sorts of idiocy are acceptable. It is quite uneventful there, after all.
— They have a chicken holiday.
— …Wh–
— Trust me, I wish I were joking.
— Why are you like that? Chicken Day is fun.
— For kids, yes.
— What would you even do for a “Chicken Day”... Eat a ton of chicken nuggets?
— Everyone draws straws, and whoever gets the short one dresses as a chicken, and the other one who gets a striped one is the fox, and the rest are dogs. The chicken has to run and hide, the fox chases the chicken, and the dogs search for the fox. If the dogs get the fox, there will be a lot of animal babies this year, and if the fox gets the chicken, the harvest will be good, but there won’t be a lot of animal babies. Like, there won’t be chicks and all.
— Oh. — Judging by the tone of Nex’s voice, he was both surprised and slightly nostalgic. — I thought it’s something like that Armlibran Thanksgiving stuff that one of my friends used to celebrate. When you fry a giant turkey and tell everyone what you’re grateful for this year… — Nex paused again. Then waved his hand dismissively, scoffing. — Some bloody nonsense, that is.
— … There is probably not much to be grateful for if they do it only once a year.
— Still better than walking in on them trying to celebrate Independence Day. — Nex actually shivered, remembering the said event. — They used so many fireworks, I thought they’d blow up half of the city... Also, it didn't make sense for them to celebrate it all the way here, but eh, whatever.
— I remember mum and her friends celebrating something to do with a TV show. That was very scary and loud. Aje Gira broke a table.

Neven knew what they were celebrating, and seeing a bunch of grown women being that engaged in whether two imaginary people kiss really was, very scary and loud. Especially when it turned out that they didn’t coordinate who they wanted to see kiss. Truly a sight to behold, and warn descendants of.

— Coyote, did you use to celebrate something weird?
— I’m not the type to celebrate. Been invited to a couple of weddings, seen some drunken fights. Nothing to write home about.

Especially not about the time his mother sent Neven’s older brother flying down the stairs.

— When’s the train?
— It’s in uhh… — Nexialist looked at the station clock, then at the ticket, and then abruptly looked back at the clock and swore. — FUCK!

And so Nex grabbed Toma, Toma grabbed Coyote, and Coyote held on to what remained of his calm. And they ran. Thankfully, the train didn’t depart before they boarded it.

The train ride became more and more boring with each passing hour, and having tired himself playing with children from the next wagon over, Toma fell asleep on Nex’s lap, curled up like a kitten.

Which, in fact, did not help Nexialist fight off grannies, who, upon seeing a male adult with a child, absolutely had to provide commentary. Be it commenting on his parental style, and how a child should not be sleeping on the dirty seat, or general cooing over a cute kid. Nex himself also got many stares, thanks to his outfit and general behaviour, and soon some of the more judgmental grannies began to discuss him and how irresponsible of a parent he was. The worst thing was that he couldn’t even correct them, because then they’d probably begin to think he kidnapped Toma from somewhere.
Eventually, Nex just gave up and resigned himself to being judged by a bunch of old cunts. At least, Bond with her ever-grim face wasn’t around, so he didn’t actually seem like a kidnapper – only like a freak show.

In the dead of night, the train stopped, and the rhythmical banging of a wheel-checking hammer could be heard. It’s time.
Toma sneaked out of the window, and was caught from falling by Nex, who “went out for a smoke”. The workers were busy, and didn’t give a damn about things they weren’t paid for, so the two disappearing behind the wagon weren’t given much attention.

Pouring rain made it hard to navigate the labyrinth of rail tracks, many of which lay abandoned for decades, slowly decomposing and covered in rust. There, in the distance, was the only other passenger train, undoubtedly, that had to be one going to Avonborough.

Since they had no way to tell how long the train had sat there, Nex had a bright idea to sprint towards it, dragging Toma behind.

— Wait!
— Run faster, it started moving.
— I can’t-
The witch tripped over the tracks, badly scraping his knees and the side of his face, as the train sped off.
— I can’t run so fast.
— Never mind, there’s nothing to run to- Holy shit, are you alright?
— It hurts a lot, if that’s what you’re asking.
Nex couldn’t tell if Toma was crying or not, as he was dripping wet, but the bleeding was noticeable, even in lighting as poor as this.
— Did we miss it?
— Yes, never mind, there probably will be another one, shit, that’s a lot of blood, lets uhh… Let’s wait the rain out somewhere…
— The train people probably have a place.
— No, no, we’re not supposed to be here, that’ll be a world of trouble.
His eyes happened upon some sort of closed-off tunnel.
— That seems like a nice spot.

Surely, there had to be a reason that tunnel was closed off, but how bad could it be? It probably just wasn’t needed anymore.

— Doesn’t your friend know some healing magic?
— You can’t wake him up, I’ve told you.

Well, if Toma wasn’t crying before, he definitely was now.

Just as Nex reached for the handle, the door slammed open. Bright green, shining eyes stared him down from the dark.

— You lost, mate?
Nex, upon seeing the practically glowing eyes where there wasn’t supposed to be anything, promptly freaked out and, being a seasoned criminal, decided it was very not worth it.
— Yes! Sorry! We’ll take our leave now!
— Nope, you ain’t.
A massive, dark red arm pulled Nex in by the shoulder.
— Let me go! — The next instinct of a seasoned criminal kicked in. Literally. Because Nex, despite more hissing than screaming, decided that kicking his way out was the best option.
— You weasel like that, you finna end up hurt. You, eeny shva, come in, too. — Toma hesitated. — Come, you’re gina catch sommen.

Not waiting for an answer, the hand grabbed Toma like a toy and took him inside.