Chapter 15
“Janice…Janice, please wake up.”
Janice hears a voice calling to her through the misty confusion of her blank mind. She reaches for it until she can open her eyes and gain consciousness. Her eyes squint against the light as she looks around the dusty old train that they sit in, evidence of foul play all around them.
“Janice…”
The voice comes again and she lifts her head to see Elizabeth tied up in a chair across from her. “Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth nods her head, struggling against her rope that holds her fast against the chair, “We have to get out of here. He left but he will be back soon.”
“Zane?”
“Yes.”
Without another word, the girls begin to struggle against their bindings, twisting the wrists this way and that as they try to loosen the ropes grips on them. They also struggle with the ropes around their ankles and moving the chairs this way and that to get the legs to lift enough to be able to slip the ropes off of the ends. Outside of the train, they hear someone walking towards them, the crunching of their shoes on fallen rock and debris ringing in their ears as whoever outside comes closer.
“Oh no…he’s back and he is going to kill us.”
Janice shushes Elizabeth as she strains to look past the woman towards the door since she is facing the front door, where Elizabeth is situated to face the door in the back of the old train. The footsteps stop then begin to shuffle towards the back of the train. Elizabeth gasps and does her best to watch the other door as the steps get closer to the back door. Janice tries to look over her shoulder as the door slowly creaks open and an eye looks inside with the gleam of a gun appearing besides it.
“Janice? Elizabeth?”
Both girls look at each other and sigh in relief when they hear a familiar voice, “Simon!”
The door opens fully and Simon puts his gun away as he walks into the train, “You two okay?”
“We are but where is Jock and Jarred?” Elizabeth asks anxiously.
“They will be here soon. They saw Zane, or whoever that is, running away from the train station. They are going to try and catch up with him and Jarred sent me to get you guys out of here.” Simon hurries over to the girls so that he can untie them. Once he reaches Janice’s chair, he stops because the sounds of rushing feet coming towards them startles him for a moment.
“I guess they didn’t catch up to him,” Janice says as she looks down at Simon.
He looks up at her, “Or…” He scrawls over to the window and slowly gets on his knees before he raises himself up until he can see over the window sill. He rolls his eyes and quickly wipes away some of the dust from the window, looking out through the small hole, looking for the one running towards them. “That isn’t Jarred or Jock. It’s Zane.”
“Oh no, hurry up and untie us so we can help you fight him,” Janice says while Simon turns back to her, hiding.
He nods and crawls back over to her, grabbing onto the knots in her feet first, undoing it quickly as the feet outside stop running and begin to walk closer to the train car. Simon hisses and quickens his efforts to free Janice, getting her legs and hands untied. He hands her the gun before moving over to free Elizabeth, “Shoot and ask questions later.”
Janice nods and moves over to the window, leaning her back up against the wall under the window where Simon had made a peephole. She slowly raises herself up to look outside when she hears Elizabeth sigh in relief. She turns to see Elizabeth is free now.
“Thanks Simon,” she says as she moves over to sit beside Janice.
“No problem but now we have to figure out how to get Zane and get you two out of here safely,” Simon says as he pulls out another gun from his jacket before he joins the girls against the wall. “I don’t want you two involved in this fight.”
Janice and Elizabeth watch as Simon sneaks a peek before he looks around the room, “Can you hear the footsteps? He is gone!”
“The front door?”
Simon crawls around the girls and heads for the front door, gun ready to be used if a head pops into the door. He is almost there when the door creaks open and a head pops in to take a look at the occupants. The head belonging to Simon??
Janice points her gun towards the Simon that is on the train with them as he shoots at the other Simon. He glances over his shoulder, “He is a shapeshifter! Don’t let that fool you, Janice. That is Zane and I am the real Simon.” He holds up his hands when he sees Janice is aiming her gun at him. “Jeez Janice, put that gun down! Or at least point it at the right person.”
Janice moves so that she has her body in front of Elizabeth so if someone sneaks up behind them or if this Simon shoots, she will get hit and not her friend. She keeps her gun balanced and aimed for the Simon in front of them just as the other Simon rolls across the floor so that he is positioned at the door but on the opposite side. Jarred pokes his head in and looks at Janice, showing her that the Simon that had rolled to the other side is the real Simon. The fake Simon hasn’t noticed and slowly puts his hands down, turning his attention back to the door before he starts to shoot again, trying to hit Jarred.
Janice stands up and moves closer to the fake Simon, her eyes narrowed and the gun ready in her hand to shoot the fiend. “Simon, do you remember our first date? How I took you to my favorite Mexican restaurant? And how we shared those amazing nachos?”
“Yea I remember, but now isn’t the time to talk about our Mexican food date, Janice,” Simon says over his shoulder, taking another shot at his double.
Simon’s hands go up as the click of a gun rings in his ears and a cold gun tip presses against his head. “We went for Chinese food not Mexican.”
Jarred and Simon step into the car train in front of them while Jock helps Elizabeth to her feet, having entered through the back. Elizabeth hides behind Jock as Jock points his gun at the fake Simon while Janice steps back, giving them room to capture the memory thief. The memory thief spins around and fires one last time just as two other guns fire into the train car.