11 Chapter 11 - In Which There Should Have At Least Been A Decent Tip

"Lozen?" Judas asked in as drained of a voice as she expected a deadman to have. "Yes?" She answered.

"Did any part of that legend talk about a way to kill the chin wa wa guy?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard it since I was a child."

"Can you make a guess?"

"About what?"

"For the love of god, woman! Can you just kill me?!"

"How many times have you been shot?"

"I don't know. But who keeps track of that kind of thing?"

"I think you just answered your own question. Why do you want to die anyways? Isn't it just...what was the word you used?"

"Oblivion. And that would still be better than this!!!" He cried out as he swiped an arm in front of him, gesturing to the rest of the train compartment. It wasn't anything fancy and was essentially a wooden box with benches lining either side of it and a series of windows making up the walls. The tracks wasn't the best constructed either and caused the entire compartment to bounce almost off the railing. All they had for comfort was the fact that they were alone in the car, but Lozen actually found the rundown and general lack of activity in the area to be comforting. It was peaceful in a way. There was no one to worry about attacking them or seeing Judas. It was just her, the car, and the endless expanse of desert that flew by outside the windows.

Judas on their other hand must have been living in his own personal hell because when he wasn't lying flat on the ground like a pouting child, he was moaning like he was dying all over again. "Seriously!! Aren't trains supposed to have bandits invading them or something?!! Not this!! What're we supposed to do!!?" He cried out as he banged his head against the floor. Lozen readjusted the hat she had put over her eyes to block out the light as she said "Wait."

"Well I hate it!! Waiting is for the boring!! Not me!"

"You seemed to have no problem doing so when we rode Beatrice."

"That's different! That was us riding atop a stallion cast from death, a fearsome beast that has broken free from hell itself with hellfire in its wake!! Now it marches across the earth, ridden by a demon who searches this accursed land for the next lonely soul to accompany it on the way back to the inferno!! Speaking of which, where is she?"

"I told her to keep herself five miles behind the train at all times."

"What happens if we switch trains?"

I believe your horse will be able to...." Lozen stifled a shudder at the thought "Sniff us out." Judas let out a small ,disturbed his as he heard that and shuffled around on the ground as he said "Yeeeeeeaaaaah. Right. My god, the things she did to that gopher."

"What was that?"

" I said, why could we not have just ridden her to this station instead?! Yes!! That's it!! That's what I said!!" He sounded desperate and disturbed which on any other day would have prompted Lozen to press for answers, but considering what she had seen of Beatrice, she figured not knowing was better. So she played along with Judas's desperate change in subject and said "Do you know where it is?"

"Can't we just follow the tracks?"

"And if we reach an intersection?"

Judas paused for a moment. "Then we guess?"

"Which is why you're not the tracker."

All he did was moan after that before finally shutting up. Lozen shuffled around in her seat and closing her eyes under the hat. The bouncing of the train was quite relaxing in a way, but her mind didn't settle just yet. Judas was right to stay on edge even if f was for the wrong reasons. There was a reason she tried to avoid major populations. Too many eyes and guns for safety and if the upcoming station was anything like that, she was going to need a plan. If there was enough of a crowd, she could probably blend into them without much attention being drawn to her, but that idea didn't sit well with her. She knew nothing about this Alberta character, how connected or intelligent she was and she didn't like the idea of stepping into stranger territory without at least a sense of what to expect.

"Judas, what can you tell me about this Alberta Finch. Is she going to be more of a problem than Moore?"

"That's......complicated."

"How so?"

"Well.....she's definitely got a good head on her neck."

"I refer you to my previous question."

"Well, she was really, really good with people. And by that I mean she knew how to hoist them up by strings and play them like toys. I swear she could rob a bank with a tube of lipstick. Hell, she once literally talked a guy down into his own grave before shooting him with a smile on her face."

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem. Is there anything dangerous I should know about?"

"Oh yeah. So was also pretty connected. Knew everyone someone needed to out here. Honestly, it's thee only reason we kept her around. Bank owners, sheriffs, Pinkertons, preachers, you name it."

Now that caught Lozen's attention. She pushed herself up as her mind started working out every horrible situation that could arise from a well connected criminal and then asked "Connected enough to know when someone's coming after her?"

"Probably. Oh, and maybe bodyguards. I swear about half of the guys in our gang where just people she payed. It was about the only reason Iscariot let her stay."

"And intelligence wise?"

"Unnaturally so. And she loved to flaunt it. She always had a back up plan whenever Lorenzo's eventually failed. They were pretty damn good ones too. Painful, but they did the job. And in answer to your previous question, she was a lot smarter than Moore. Though we didn't really pay her much attention for obvious reasons."

Lozen made a quick note of that. Well connected, intelligent, and underestimated. This was going to be difficult. It was often the underestimated ones that had the easiest time hiding. Rarely were they ever remembered or given credit, so finding people to point her in their direction would be difficult. And a hidden man almost always took advantage of that fact, especially an intelligent one. Lozen had been down this road before. They'd hide behind the biggest name around, use that names resources to build their own tiny army, and would keep a close eye on her as she approached. Being careful wasn't going to cut it. She was going to have to be smart. Though that was going to be difficult with her companion.

"Did she ever have any faults? Addiction, prized possession, or cultural significance?" She asked, trying to come up with a few contingency plans, and Judas answered "Not really. She was kind of a bitch though. Never let us forget she was the smartest person in the room and I mean never."

"Do you consider that a fault?"

"Not if you are. It's one thing to say you're the greatest and not be. That's just pathetic. It's another to say you're the greatest and actually be it. If people got a problem that, too bad."

For Lozen, that explained a lot, but it also didn't help her much.

"So if you wanted to kill her, what would you do?"

"I'd stay out of her way and let the reaper do his work. But that was before I did the whole sinning against nature thing. Now, just point me in the right direction and give me two minutes."

"I'm aware of that. But I wouldn't be so certain."

"Hah!!! And why's that?!"

"Think about it. What's the difference between your gun and a normal one?"

"Aren't you supposed to be smart?"

"Point being, your one hit kill tactic is rather redundant. Most people already treat weapons in such a way, so it's safe to say Alberta is prepared for it if she'd as smart as you say."

"Okay, but I'm still immortal!"

"You also absorb shock. If I hit you in the head, you'd fall to the ground."

"No I-"

"That is literally what happened the first time we meet."

"Yeah, but it still won't kill me!!"

"It could still incapacitate you."

"Yeah....well....."

Lozen continued when she heard his voice sputter into nothing "I'm just saying we'll have to play things a little differently than that nightmare with Moore."

"But...." Judas sighed. "Fine. Whatever will get this over with quicker."

Lozen rolled her eyes under her eyelids and hat before slouching back into her seat. She still had a few things she needed to think about which the train ride gave her more than enough time to do so. Through the hat over her head, she could see that the sun was drifting closer and closer to the horizon as the train continued nonstop across the state. They really must have been in the middle of nowhere considering how much time there was between the station and this supposed junction. Her concern that it was in a major area like a city was growing more and more with every second they spent on the desolate car. She could feel her fingers twitch as the urge to arm herself grew, but it was nothing compared to the alarm that came when she felt the train start to slow down.

At first it was minute and couldn't be felt by someone as unfamiliar with locomotive travel as her, but she started to notice very quickly. Not because of the motion. The sound have it away. She heard what sounded like a muttering right outside the window that started to grow into a dull roar of chatter. Lozen perked up as she heard that and slid her hat back onto her head before peering out the window. What she saw was somehow worse than coming to a stop in some city.

It was a private junction. Not the kind that would be parked next to some public gathering space for everyone to use. She heard about them. A bunch of rich colonizers came out somewhere just outside city limits and built up a fancy platform so they could board their compartments without having to mingle with unscrupulous characters. Most of the ones she had heard about were.....she thought they were called English and somehow they were supposed to be different than the other colonizers. Either way, many of them had large shares in some of the railroad companies around and had instanced their only networks so they could travel the country in peace. It was also an easy way for them to carry some sketchy activities.

And this platform didn't seem to be an exception. There were at least six different stripes of stone with intricate covers propped up by pillars in turn covered by dozens of electric lamps. Each of the platforms were illuminated by a dim, almost haunting light that seemed to compliment the figures standing under them. All of them wore incricate clothes only colored black, fabric flowing off them like water from falls and either top hats or bonnets strangling their hair as well as reflecting back the amber lights illuminating them. Their faces were too pale even for colonizers and looked more akin to corpses than even Judas.

Considering everything else she had seen since bumping into the deadman, Lozen for a second almost thought that she had arrived in Hell judging from all the gothic visages she saw in front of her. Judas seemed to share the sentiment because when he crawled off the ground and looked out the window in the left of their benches, he said "Did we arrive at a wake or something? Everybody looks as dead as me."

Lozen gave a small nod at that as she glanced through the platforms and said "It's just how these people dress."

"No it's not. I've robbed enough of these people to know they don't like sharing similarities for corpses."

"That's an odd thing to take note of."

"And that's my life in a nutshell. So, any ideas?"

Lozen readjusted the bandana over her mouth as she peered out over the platforms and started making as many observations as she could. It wasn't too much of a surprise that the passengers looked so decrepit. The sun was close to setting and the stars were starting to peer through the sky, so wearing that clothing made it easier for them to blend into the background. They didn't want to ruin their good clothing just yet. She suspected that they would change into something more presentable and therefore fragile when they boarded their luxury train cars. Why else would they be dragging around all that luggage around. Or more precisely, why were they making other people drag all that luggage around.

There were a few other trains pulled into the platforms, all of which were much more decorated than the raggedy death box she and Judas had taken. Fine red wood made up the exterior with golden patterns outlining the windows and velvet curtains inside. She couldn't see the cars interiors, but it was blatantly obvious what was inside. The problem was that there was a massive crowd of highly successful colonizers, all of which weren't too keen on seeing someone like her walking around wearing what she was.

She sighed as an idea started to sprout in her mind and tried forcing down all the rage she felt boiling up at the mere prospect. "Goddamnit." She muttered into her check as she reached behind her head and undid the knot keeping her bandana in place. "Alright. Judas, here's the plan. You're going to take the lead, present yourself to whoever we need to talk to, and find our way to the Rita Line."

"Oh honey, I was gonna do that from the start. These rich snobs are all the same. Bloated on their own sense of self worth and overly confident of their social standings. All it takes for a knowitall, mysterious, socially skilled young man who doesn't give a fuck about their fragile little inner circles to bring them crumbling down. Their relationships they derive their self worth and confidence from only give them value because of a fragile system of Yes men, leaving them hollow shells of people with no real value to them at all. And they are painfully aware of this. So if just one person says otherwise, they'll be putty in that person's hands, desperately trying to make them take back what they know deep down is the truth."

Lozen's eyes were wide by the end of her partners like tirade, shocked at how articulate all seemed to be and even thinking she was dreaming all this for a moment. "That's...surprisingly very well thought. How did you know all that?" He said, still not believing what she was hearing, and Judas answering "Thank you. It was actually job back in the gag. I had to scout these sort of gatherings in case we ever had to rob them and know all the fancy words and customs this crowd used. So you wanna go out there now or-"

"No. Tell me what you're going to tell them first?"

"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. My oh my, that is a fine dress you've got there. Where'd you get it? A gutter? Old girl your really need to fire your-"

"I mean what story are you going to tell them? Now how you plan on...would you call that insulting them?"

"Of course not!! This is not mere insulting!! It is an art!! It is peeling back the folds of a person's mind and exposing their true nature, much to the horror of their friends, family, and most importantly, themselves!"

Lozen stared at him for a moment, still shocked at how much thought he seemed to be putting into this before saying "Sure. Do you have a backstory they're going to believe?"

Judas cleared his throat, a sign that made Lozen instinctively say "Oh great.", but she was too late to stop him "I am the roaming gunslinger who had bested the legions of Judas Iscariot, back from the dead, and-"

Thankfully, Lozen managed to cut him off before he could go very far "Okay, stop. This is not one of your little legends. We need to an actual plan. So here is what you're going to say."

"Fuck you. I make my own-"

"Whatever you're about to say, know this. The last time you tried to deliver one of your stories, I was almost crushed to death."

"...Yeah, that's fair."

"I'm aware. Here's what you're going to tell them. You are a traveling mercenary who has been called to this situation for a job. Your employer told you to meet them in the Rita line. I am your Injun companion whom you have decided to disguise as a man in the hopes that it wouldn't prompt anyone to try and rape me. I am unable to understand the English language or how a firearm works. The one I carry isn't loaded and I am too stupid to understand that, but you let me carry out of some sick form of pleasure similar to how one dressed a dog."

"Wow. After that god awful performance, I didn't think you'd have a knack for the arts."

"You're not the only one who's had to wear a mask. Does all of that sound possible for you?"

Judas let out a quick laugh before standing back up and proclaiming "Please!! This'll be a breeze! Let's get this train wreck on the road!"

"I hope you don't think that was clever."

She didn't need to see him go know he was grinning at that. He started marching out of the car as Lozen shoved her bandana down into her pocket and followed close behind him. The train's floor creaked with every step they took, clearly not used to passengers of any shape or size and the platform outside didn't seem to fair much better. While the stone they stepped out on as held fine, the people that noticed them were a little less stable. At worst they drew a few stifled gasps which Judas undoubtedly enjoyed and at best, they were sent a few condescending looks. Lozen didn't mind much though. There were always looks, but this time none of them had any weapons to make their stares worth while. Although Judas still wasn't helping in that regard.

He kept running right in front of between people like he was a moody child seeking attention and the other people on the platform didn't seem too keen on that. It wasn't until he started walking across the railing to get between platforms that Lozen spoke up. "Jebediah, what are you-"

"Okay, I tolerated that back at the station. I will not stand for it here!!"

"And I guarantee you these people won't stand for having someone named Judas wandering among them. Now what are you doing?"

"Trying to find the creme de ja peris."

"And what is-You just made that up, didn't you?"

"Yup. I'm theatric, not pretentious."

"I beg to differ."

"To hell with you too. Anyway's there's usually a station manager around here. He'll point us to this Ralia-"

"Rita. Do you have a problem with names or something?"

"Whatever." He said as they climbed up onto the next platform. "Point is, we'll just ask where the line is, do all the things you said, and boom. We'll be home free."

"We'll be the exact opposite of that, but alright. What exactly should I be looking-"

Before she could finish, Judas leaped up and exclaimed "Ah hah!! Found you!!" She would have asked, but she just opened her mouth by the time the deadman started rushing through down the platform. Unsurprised and lacking any meaningful form of discontent, Lozen simply groaned before running off after her companion, praying he had found something useful. It wasn't hard following him given how even his ragged outfit had more color than everyone else in eyeshot, but he was still rather fast for someone without any muscles, so keeping pace was difficult. Though he did stop in the middle of the platform all of the sudden, given Lozen a chance to catch up before someone decided to notice the Injun woman running around the station with a gun.

She was huffing and puffing by the time she arrived, but not enough to lose focus of the situation. Planted up against one of the support beams appeared to be a tall stand she would have expected to have a politician behind it at first glance and was surprised to see a servant looking man instead. His posture was straight and clothes boarding on luxury or cheap luxury, but was still presentable enough to the crowd around him. "Sir, are you lost?" The servant asked to which Judas replied "How dare you good sir!! I am a well meaning man of esteem who has come to you expecting some minutity of decent service!" He was doing a voice again and Lozen was pretty just invented the word "minutity". It seemed to be working though, so she decided it was probably best to stay quiet for now.

"Sir, I think you best be going. There's a public platform over in-"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you, buddy. Just go along with it for now. You see, I'm a man with certain....talents, let's say. Of the more fatal leaning and I've been hired by some very wealthy individuals."

The man raised an eyebrow at that, but otherwise seemed unsurprised. No. Unimpressed.

"Sir, we are a respectable establishment and do not-"

"Sure, sure. A respectable establishment, but that don't mean you serve respectable clients now does it?"

"I bet your pardon?"

"Look, my good sir, would you consider yourself and intelligent man?"

"I fail to see how-"

"Oh well then let me clarify the question for you. Would you say that you are a clever man?"

"I...suppose so, but-"

"Then as a clever man I'm sure you would have noticed that the people who come through this here station can get up to some mischief and that they take that sort of thing very seriously. You must also have realized that your particular profession isn't exactly the most specialized. So tell me, as a clever man, what do you think these people would do if they found out a mere sign holder was interfering in their ability to go about their...let's say their undergoings of unique legal standings? Would they just give you a slap on the wrist or might they simply go to the gutters and find a replacement for the poor little bellhop who mysteriously vanished without a trace one dark and quiet night."

Lozen had an eyebrow raised by the end of it and the servant had his eyes wide with a level of fear that she more or less expected. Though the fact that Judas had incited it without showing his face did impress her just a bit. It also helped that they weren't being crushed to death. Judas must have been smiling after his performance because the next words he spoke were drenched in jubilance "Now that there's a clever decision. So, mind pointing us to the Rita station?" The servant stayed frozen in place before nodding his head like that of a scared child. "Good. Oh, and maybe a few tickets. First class if you don't mind." Judas then turned around to Lozen and asked "You want your own car." She stared for a moment, expecting him to shook her head without hesitation.

"Alright. Two tickets then." He said before the servant rummaged around on the desk and then raise a shaking hand holding two passengers passes. "Platform 6. The train should be arriving any minute now." The servant hastily said as Judas snatched up the tickets. "Thank you, good sir." He said before rushing off the platform once again, forcing Lozen to follow him and leave the terrified worker shaking in his boots.

"Was that necessary?" She asked.

"Hell yes it was!! That is how you get first class tickets while also stealing a man's wallet!"

She didn't waste words on that and just waited for him to say "Okay, so I didn't steal anyone's wallet, but I could've."

Lozen waited another moment. "Well, if I really tried, I could've. Point is, I'm awesome."

She still waited.

"To hell with you too!!" He cried out as they both climbed up onto another platform. Cross right across it, they stopped at the edge of what a few signs indicated was platform 6. It was covered in passengers by

the time they arrived and Judas shoved his way past most of them until they arrived at the edge of the platform. Judging from the size of the crowd, Lozen guesses the train must have been arriving soon much to their luck, but not soon enough. By that, she meant not before Judas decided he wanted to hear his own voice again.

"So I was thinking of something."

"Does it involve gold, silver, one of your former comrades, or your delusions of grandeur?"

He paused for a moment before answering as more of a question "No?"

She sighed, glanced around her to make sure no one was hearing and then said "Proceed."

"Why the hell did they send you?"

"Pardon?"

"I mean, were there no hunters around that could do all this?"

Lozen flinched for a moment and shoveled more dirt over the memories that sprung from the question before saying "I am a hunter."

"Really?"

"Is that surprising to you?"

"Well, no. It's just I thought your people only gave the men the important jobs"

"If by important you mean hunting, not entirely. I'm sure there are some people who still do that, but....." She thought for the best way to put it before saying "Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose. We can't stick to traditions anymore. We've got more pressing matters now."

"Now? What happened-"

"What do you think?"

"Voodoo spell gone wrong?"

"Voodoo? What on earth is...nevermind. You know what I'm talking about."

"I honestly don't. Did a plague hit or something?"

Lozen stopped at that, again trying to bury a few more recollections that crawls up from her mind. Though, she thankfully had a few external events to keep her mind occupied enough to forget what came rising up. A sound that started as just a horn that started blaring across the desert and quickly turned into the familiar screams of pounding pistons. The smell of burning coal filled her nostrils before the wind started panicking up all around her and sent the air tossing itself up into a small cyclone right before the train came rushing right in front of them.

"Judas, do you not know about us?"

"Nope."

"Have you ever wondered why we live on reserves?"

"Not really."

"Not once have you heard about some story about what's been done to us?"

"Mustn't have been a story worth telling, because I've never heard anything about this."

Lozen felt a rage start to rise up as she started grasping the true scale of her partners arrogance, but once again snuffed it out. Getting angry wasn't going to get her anywhere and it certainly wasn't going to help her village. People didn't know and people didn't...people didn't need...she could stop thinking about it. She could still remember the smell of blood and smoke, how soul felt when it was fertilized by blood, and the first time she saw what dead eyes looked like. Forests toppled and people screamed, but no one needed to hear it for them to keep surviving. They were still alive and she could keep it that was. She just needed to make sure they kept making it from one sunset to the next.

"Yeah. Must've been." She said as the train came to a grinding halt with the fronts of a car stopping right in their faces.

"Is it boring?" Judas asked.

"It's not the most original."

"Did the men all just up an leave after some crop failure or something like that?"

"Something like that."

"Huh. Well, you were definitely right. Sounds boring as oblivion." Judas finished as they both stepped up onto the train and shoved the fists of tickets into the ticketmaster standing in the doorway. The man jumped at the boarding act, but didn't get a word out before saying "Two seats, my good man. And ignore the savage. She's moronic."

Lozen didn't feel anything when she heard that and ignore the glance the man gave her. "She won't be much of a problem." Judas assured her with the man glancing back and forth between him and Lozen before letting out a tiny huff. "Very well, sir. But you do understand if she gets into any trouble, you will be held accountable for it, correct?"

"Yeah, sure. You gonna let us in or what?"

"Of course, sir." The man said as he stepped aside and swiped a hand out to gesture inside the car. "Welcome to the Ruby Rita."

avataravatar
Next chapter