1931 The Grand Punk Railroad: Local (16 page)

At first Nick thought a barrel of bootleg wine had tipped over in transit.

Meanwhile, Jacuzzi and the others had already witnessed these conditions in the conductors’ room. As a result, they understood the situation in this room immediately.

Red. What an absolutely brilliant red. A truly warm red spread across the floor, reflecting the light of the incandescent lamps. However, the instant they saw the object in the middle, that warmth was transformed into a chilling nausea.

The thing that lay in the center of the room wore a black tuxedo.

They knew right away that it was a “thing,” not a person. They didn’t even have to make guesses regarding the profuse amount of blood. There was a much easier way to tell.

The lower half of the black-clad corpse didn’t exist.

The cross section certainly wasn’t a clean one. The closest term for it was
torn off
. That was what it seemed like. After a short silence, Nick made a sudden dash for the corridor window.

They heard the sound of the window being opened, followed by violent retching. Jacuzzi and Donny just gazed at the corpse, while Nice’s lone eye observed the area in meticulous detail. Lots of luggage from the orchestra was lined up on either side of the room, and several of the boxes had already had their seals broken. One of the boxes held some kind of machine, but they couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be used for.

Then Nice looked up, and her gaze fixed there.

“Say, Jacuzzi…?”

When Nice tapped his shoulder and he turned, she was staring up at the ceiling.

As if her eyes had drawn his, Jacuzzi looked up, too, and gulped.

The only things there were simple bloodstains. Compared to the horrible scene on the floor, they were nothing.

The problem was, what would have had to be done in order to get such a huge number of bloodstains onto the ceiling?

There was a massive spray of blood on the ceiling. However, it didn’t seem as if it could possibly have spurted up from the corpse below.

Jacuzzi was crying, but he wasn’t afraid of the Rail Tracer anymore. Still, he had to be even warier than before about what sort of monster they were dealing with.

That wasn’t the only abnormal thing about the room.

There was a door on the opposite side of the corridor, a big cargo opening used for loading freight from the outside while the train was stopped. It was a sliding door, and it stood half open. The scenery they could see through it was steeped in darkness, and it looked as though a big pit yawned in the wall.

The train seemed to be traveling through a wood at the moment, and the faint moonlight cast an eerie illumination over the passing trees. They seemed almost like the arms of someone beckoning from the hole.

Even stranger were the footprints on the floor.

The blood hadn’t covered the entire floor; there were places where its original color was still visible. However, those places were dotted with red, shoe-shaped footprints.

When he saw them, Jacuzzi thought that Ladd’s group must have come in and walked around. However, that idea was disproved almost immediately.

The footprints clearly indicated their destination.

After walking here and there around the room, the owner of the footprints had walked away from the scene with no hesitation whatsoever.

…Through the door in the wall that opened onto darkness.

Having emptied his stomach of all its contents, Nick finally regained his composure.

Then, just as he was turning back to Jacuzzi’s group, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something odd. He felt as if there was something beyond the door at the very front of the corridor, the one that led to the connecting platform. Something bright red.

“Hey, guys. C’mere a second.”

Nick’s voice was tense. On seeing his expression, Jacuzzi and the others realized that something was up.

Cautiously, they came into the corridor. Nick spoke; he’d broken out in a cold sweat.

“There’s something on the forward platform.”

Just then, an eerie feeling settled over the group. They could feel an intense gaze from the connecting platform Nick had just mentioned.

“Jacuzzi, let’s all turn that way on three. One, two……three!”

Except for Jack, who was slung over Donny’s shoulder, everyone’s eyes turned to the forward connecting platform.

And they saw it. Unfortunately, they saw it.

A red shape, sliding away to the side of the platform.

The thing had gone sideways, and this put it in their blind spot. It had moved quickly, so they hadn’t been able to make out its form, but something red had most definitely been there.

Cautiously, Jacuzzi and the others made their way over to the platform, but already there was nothing to see.

The next carriage held a row of third-class passenger compartments. They couldn’t see a red shadow in there, either.

“It might have climbed up onto the roof.”

Jacuzzi’s group looked at each other and nodded, then climbed up after it.

“Donny, you can’t do it carrying Jack, so you go through the corridor. Keep a real careful eye out for black suits.”

“Roger. I handle it.”

Donny nodded firmly, then made his way down the corridor; Jack was still slung over his shoulder.

“Okay, Donny. Wait for us at the next connector.”

Jacuzzi told him this from up on the roof, then began making his way through the ferocious wind pressure with Nice and Nick.

What on earth had that gunfire a minute ago been about?

Isaac and Miria were carefully making their way along the train’s long hallway.

The third-class carriage, the only one in this long train: The moment they opened the door to enter that car, a huge shadow blocked their way.

It was a big, brown-skinned man more than six feet tall, carrying a bloody man over his shoulder.

Donny was moving through the corridor of the third-class carriage. At this point, nothing was happening, but he really couldn’t let his guard down.

Just as he reached the door that led to the car in front, it suddenly opened.

Through the door appeared a man who looked like a gunman and a woman who looked like a dancer.

The woman’s clothes were a brilliant red, as if they’d been dyed with blood.

The couple and the man looked at each other. An awkward silence ensued.

“……Excuse us.”

Slowly, Isaac closed the door.

“Wh-wh-wh…What was that man?! C-c-c-could that have been the Rail Tracer?!”

“Eeeeeeeeek! We’re gonna get erased!”

“Uwaaah, those red clothes, that woman, was she maybe, the Rail Tracer?”

Leaning against both sides of the door, the two groups broke out into simultaneous cold sweats.

Each heard the other’s voices, and silence fell again. Only the wind and the noise of the train rattled the door of the car.

Before long, having made up his mind, Isaac timidly spoke to him:

“Erm… Hello?”

“Please answer us!”

“Aah.”

After Miria chimed in, they heard a low voice. From the way it sounded, it had to be the voice of the big man.

“Um, are you the Rail Tracer? …Uh, sir?”

“You’re a monster! ……No, I mean, are you a monster, mister?”

“
Mrk
, woman over there not Rail Tracer?”

Silence again.

“Hey, Miria. Are you the Rail Tracer?”

“No, I don’t think so! Probably not!”

“All right, I believe you! …For which reason, mister, that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

“Yaaay, Isaac believed me!”

“Aah, I see. That good.”

They heard a relieved sigh from beyond the door.

“By the way, you aren’t the Rail Tracer, then?”

“You’re not?”

“Aah, no.”

“Then who’s the person on your shoulder?”

“Are you going to eat him?”

“Guah, this guy my friend. He hurt, we save, I carrying.”

At that, Isaac and Miria rattled the door open, and their tones changed just as drastically.

“Oh, is
that
all! So you aren’t a monster! And here I went and acted all respectful! Sorry about that, guy!”

“Yes, so you weren’t a monster!”

“On the contrary, you’re a good guy who looks out for his friends!”

“Aah, what you two?”

Donny finally seemed to have let his guard down as well: He questioned the two, a little shyly.

“Me and Miria? Ho-hoh, we pretend to be nothing more than a gunman and Miria, but we’re actually—you guessed it—Isaac and Miria!”

“Isaac, you’re so cool!”

“Muh, mu-muah?”

Confusion was born inside Donny’s head.

“Uh, what you two doing?”

“We’re looking for a friend of ours.”

“’Cos, you see, we have to find that friend before he gets eaten by the Rail Tracer!”

On hearing this, Donny was convinced that these two weren’t enemies. At the same time, he realized that the story of the Rail Tracer was more widespread on this train than he’d thought.

Donny didn’t know that the two in front of him were the culprits behind the the Rail Tracer commotion. In addition, he didn’t have the slightest inkling that the “friend” the couple was looking for was his own boss.

“
Aah
, I see, you two, good guys.”

At that, conversely, Isaac’s face clouded.

“Good guys, hmm? That’s a huge misunderstanding. Still, someday, I’d like to be called that.”

“So we’ll do more good things! It doesn’t matter if nobody acknowledges us until we’re dead! We’ll do good things forever and ever, until we’re satisfied! We’ll do bad things, too, but we’ll do even more good things!”

“Mwuh?”

At the sight of Miria’s smile, which seemed to contrast with Isaac, Donny felt embarrassed for no reason. He didn’t understand what Isaac and Miria were saying, but in his heart, Donny was convinced that they really were “good guys.”

“Aah, I see. Well, hope you find friend.”

“Yeah, thanks! I hope the fella on your shoulder feels better soon!”

“Yes, ‘pain, pain, go away!’”

With that, Isaac and Miria started for the rear cars.

“Muah, white-suit guys, dangerous guys. If you go near, bad.”

When he bellowed at their receding backs, urging caution, they yelled back, “Thanks!” “Yes, thank you!” and waved.

Donny waved back, watching the pair go, then went out onto the connecting platform and waited quietly for Jacuzzi and the others to arrive.

At the same time, separated by a single door from the corridor where Donny, Isaac, and Miria were

“Hey, did you just hear voices out there?”

A guy in a white suit—one of Ladd’s men—spoke.

One of the third-class passenger compartments. Inside, the slaughter game had already reached its end.

There were five figures in the room. Three of them were on the floor, one was crouched in front of them, and the last one was standing beside the door.

As the crouching figure looked down at the three perfectly still shapes, it was emitting crazed, derisive laughter.

The moving figures were white suits.

The figures that were no longer moving were black suits.

“Hey, are you listening to me?”

“Hee-hya, hee-hya-hya-hya-hya-hya-haaaa-ha-hya-ha-heeee-hya—hya—hya—!”