" You know, I really do enjoy the mountain range at this time of year. Hardly any clouds in the sky, the tree's are a vibrant green and the blinding rays of sunlight bouncing off of the lakes surface warming me as the heat hits my face. It all just makes me feel at ease. As if all my worries could be swept away by the most gentle breeze. It would also be nice if I didn't have these iron's around my wrists and perhaps an actual seat next to a window to enjoy this little luxury ride you have me on."
A thick accent could be herd from the other side of the door.
"Oi! Will you please shut your damn trap! I've been hearing you yapp on for over an hour!"
The young man started shuffling his feet and kicking some near by wooden boxes, he shook his wrists rapidly, banged his shackles on the iron walls, he even went as far as to kick around some old tool box. The tools flew out of the box, clanging loudly against the walls and sliding across the wooden floor.
"Goddamnit, you little bastard!"
A large bald man with a thick beard and round stomach burst's through the metal door with an extremely annoyed look on his face. In his right hand, he held a very large knife and with his first step towards the young man came a thundering stomp. He grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and threw him up against the wall, holding the knife up to his neck.
"If I have to keep hearing anymore of this ruckus your making back here. Ima gonna lose it and I'll be givin ya smile from ear to ear."
The young man had a smug look on his face. he looked down at the large knife being held to his neck, his reflection showing his golden eyes and, his black hair and his short beard.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't hear you through the door over the, oh so loud, sounds of the tracks. I figured you couldn't hear me either so I had to find some alternate ways to get your attention. And here you are. Now you can hear me bitch at my fullest."
The large man pressed the knife harder against his throat. With a scowl on his face, he clenched his teeth and started to very slowly dig the knife into the young mans throat.
Heavy footsteps could be heard walking into the room. A rather slim but tall man, aged probably between thirty to forty years old, with a large round black hat and brown leather duster. His boots made a loud thump as he walked over to the large bald man. He placed his hand on his shoulder and flicked at the front of his hat.
" Now Hold on there Jimbo. We need the man alive if we want to get the best deal." The man said trying to calm him down.
"Mate to hell with it. let's just kill him and take that cut instead." Jimbo said lifting the young man up and slamming him against the wall again.
"Now Jimbo, you know we don't do things like that. The full pot is the only pot we go for, nothing less." The man said pulling jimbo way and brought him to the door on the side of the train. He opened the door to a loud howling as the train was speeding by the trees on the mountain side like a bullet.
"Look at all of this beautiful landscape. Imagine the massive property and territory you could buy with the full pot. Your family would be well off and you'd have no other worries in the world." The man told Jimbo throwing his arm over his shoulders.
"I wouldn't mind the full pot of course, but we could always do other jobs and on top of that bringing this bastard in dead still gives us a good deal. I mean, come on Dean, six million gold ain't nothin to scoff at." Jimbo said looking out to the open pastures and then back to Dean.
"I suppose you're right. Six mil ain't a really bad deal."
Dean looked out to the open fields passed the speeding tree line. Small clouds temporarily covered the suns warm rays of light. The vibrant valley they looked towards had fallen grey and dull.
In that moment Dean pushed Jimbo out of the speeding train. As Jimbo fell, his body hit a tree at such a velocity, it left nothing more than a a big crimson mist behind. He didn't even have a chance to scream. Dean walked away from the door and retrieved two small wooden crates. he placed them both across from each other, sat on one and looked at the young man.
"Feel free to have a seat if you'd like." Dean said reaching into his jacket pocket pulling out some cigarettes'.
The young man, nonchalant about what he just witnessed, obliges to the offer and takes a seat on the crate across from Dean. Dean reaches out his hand to offer the young man a cigarette. The young man, with a smirk on his face, takes and puts it in his mouth. Dean takes off his glove revealing a mechanical iron hand and raises his index finger to his cigarette. A small flame shoots from his finger lighting his tobacco then he light's the young mans.
"Thank you. It's good to know people still have manners." The young man said puffing at his cigarette.
"I've been hunting you long enough and you've given me enough trouble. I suppose you've earned some respect from me. At least enough to give you your last cigarette before we turn you in. I highly doubt they'll give anything too special before the trials."
"After all this effort, I would've figured you'd cut your losses and just take the six mill. You know, in case I escape again."
"Trust me I've thought about it. But I don't think I could pass up twelve million gold. Even then though, like I told Jimbo, we don't settle for less than the full pot."
"Then why throw him off the train?" The young man asked.
"Easy. He would've killed you and fucked up the plan and it's better because now we have one less person to cut the money with."
"Makes sense. It also explains why you change your crew like I change socks."
As the two spoke, panic could be heard from the front cars. A man burst through the doors winded and hysterical. Dean ran up to the man in a means to find out what's wrong.
"You have to come see this! There's a blockade on the tracks!" The man yelled out in panic.
Dean rushed out of the room to the next car, leaving the young man completely unattended. This was his chance. The young man took this moment of chaos as an opportunity to find a means of escape. He looked up and down, he scoured the whole car for any way out. He had to find a way to stop the train or at the very least slow it down. He looked out the side of the train where the big sliding door was open. It would've been too risky to jump out that way. He looked around closely at his surroundings and saw all the tools scattered about the car. The gears in his head started to turn. He collected all of the tools he could find and observed which ones could best help him in his situation. He looked the the tools and noticed a key shaped like a metal cylinder with an octagonal shape at the end of it.
"Sweet!"
The young man rushed to the front door of the car and squatted down to look at the magnets that connected the two cars. He used his hands to sweep and feel over the machine until he felt the octagonal indent on the side. He took the key, put it in the whole and twisted it. With a loud hiss, some steam and a small bit of electricity, the magnets released their pull on each other and the front cars sped away, leaving his car to slow down and eventually came to a stop.
"Should've left someone to watch the door. You'd figure he'd learn by now." The young man said talking to himself.
He hopped off the train onto the dirt and looked around for a bit. On his right a huge mountain and on his left a dense tree line heading downward. He then looked at his hands and the shackles around his wrists.
"I should probably find one of those tools that can help me get out of these. Or maybe I can go see if mister tree paste still has the keys." He thought to himself looking passed the train cars.
"Now that I think about it I'm just gonna find a saw or something, I think I saw one in there."
As he was about to hop on board the train again a huge explosion went off in the distance in the direction the train was headed. A giant cloud of smoke can be seen passed the curve through the tree line. The smoke blacked out the sun and a giant beam of green light shot up tearing through the darkness.
"What the hell is that?" The young man said as he shielded his eyes from the bright light.
Haunting howls and screams of men, women and even children emitted from the beam of green light over yonder. The light then slowly dissipated back down into the smoke only to be fallowed up by a loud explosion of epic proportions. The explotion was so powerful, the shockwave came from several miles away pushing the young man back, making him lose his balance and roll down the mountain side.
He tumbled down the mountain narrowly avoiding boulders and only hitting a few trees and bushes on the way down. He struggled to curl up as nature chose to ragdoll him down the mountain. However, nature was nice enough to give the young man soft dirt and soil to land on. As he passed one tree, he managed to get a good enough hold on it's branch for long enough to contort himself in to a ball shape.
His body bounded over one last rock as he reached the bottom of the mountain with a thud, the air escaping his lungs. As he lay there trying to catch his breath, beat up and bruised after his fall, his vision blurred in and out of focus as his head throbbed. He looked up to the blue sky as the golden sun pierced his retina. The sun's light was eventually blocked by a dark silhouette of what looked like a shapely woman.
"So... You're the Dog of Genova." The woman said as she looked down at him.