Suddenly his cheek became wet. He opened his eyes, but the tears had clouded his view. He rubbed it with his hand and looked straight into the face of a young woman. When he realized she had spit in his face he frowned.
'You're not welcome here,' she said boldly.
'What?" asked Jeff.
'You heard me, you're not welcome here. I find you crying on the floor, only sissies do that. And sissies aren't going to make it on this train.'
Jeff became angry. He collected a blob and then spit it back, on her shoe.
She kicked him in the stomach, which caused him a hellish pain in his side. 'You can think of me as the leader of the train. Tell you what, you can call me a tour guide. And you don't spit at the tour guide.' She kicked him again, this time in his lungs, forcing all the air out of his lungs and preventing him from breathing for a moment. 'I'd say breathe hard for a while longer because this is the last day you can.'
Jeff was dizzy. 'What do you mean?" he asked wearily.
By now the woman had almost reached the next carriage. She turned around. 'For tonight you are dead,' then she walked away. Jeff fainted.
'Mate, what are you doing here?" asked a deep male voice. A moment later, a foot prodded his thigh. 'Are you alive?'
'Somewhat,' Jeff replied. The foot continued. 'But that hurts,' he groaned.
The man chuckled. 'Here, take my hand.' He lifted Jeff, so they could now look each other in the eye. He was half a head taller than the man, but in a fight, he would probably lose out. He had a thick sweater on, but even in that, his muscles were visible.
He swallowed. "Hi.
The man had to chuckle again. 'I won't hurt you, don't be afraid. Come, let's go to my cabin, I think that's the only safe place for you right now,' he began to laugh again.
Jeff hesitated for a moment about whether he should walk behind him, but then thought that it was probably his only option.
The man's cabin was a long walk away because after a minute they weren't there. He let his fingers slide over the side of the train, those glazed brown tiles were cold and smooth, which felt nice.
Suddenly the train jerked. Jeff fell backward, the herringbone pattern in the wood of the floor felt rough on the back of his head. He sat up and rubbed the sore spot with his hand. "What was that?
The man looked at him mockingly. 'Have you never been on a train before? We just started driving!'
Now he recognized the feeling of moving forward. It gave him a light feeling in his stomach, something he found unpleasant at first, but now he could enjoy it. When he thought he was used to the movement of the train he stood up.
"How long is it to your cabin?" he asked. Surprised, he realized the man was gone. He turned around and then heard someone laughing loudly behind him. He turned back around again and just saw the man's head disappear back into a doorway. He slapped himself against his forehead and walked over to it, grinning.
A moment later they were talking to each other. The man's name turned out to be Simon. He was a Dutch smuggler, and as if that wasn't illegal enough already, he could often be found in fighting clubs as well. That last hobby couldn't be a greater contrast to how he was, he seemed to be in a constant good mood and laughed at anything even remotely funny. Sometimes Jeff wondered what there was to laugh about, but then he would be so turned on by Simon's laughter that a second later he too was in a fit of laughter. In turn, Jeff told his story as well.
'What do you know about this train? Of The Tommy Express?" asked Simon at one point.
Jeff thought for a moment. 'Not a whole lot, if I'm honest. Harold seemed to know about it, but I was planning to ask him more about it when we got here. That's going to be difficult now.'
Simon leaned back. The wooden chair he was sitting on creaked dangerously. 'I know anything but everything about it too, but clearly, more than you do. Here behind me,' he turned, pointing to a large map hanging on the wall, 'is a map of the route. As you can see, we're not going to China in a straight line, but criss-cross.'
Jeff frowned. 'Am I seeing it wrong or are we going through the sea there?'
Simon laughed. 'No, you're not seeing that wrong. We're going through the sea because at times that's a route that's less conspicuous than if we took a different route. The whole idea behind this train is that you don't stand out, so we all arrive in China without having to deal with the police.'
'Then can't the police just walk into the train? Then they'll have all these people on a silver platter, right?'
Simon thought for a moment. 'No, not really. The people standing guard at the doors are trained to know almost every police officer in the area by sight. Besides, most of them think this train is a myth, so they just don't waste their time on it.'
Jeff looked at the map again. 'And why are they taking all that detour through Africa? I get that we can't ride in a straight line, but that's a hell of a detour, isn't it?'
'I understand that the management can buy a lot of coal at that place for very little money, without the workers there telling anyone who has passed by, very favorable.'
Jeff nodded, he understood.
Suddenly the door of Simon's hut opened. A handsome young woman looked seriously inside.
'One of you two has been chosen for tonight's fight. My sister described him as 'the one lying on the ground crying'.'
Jeff looked thoughtful. 'That's me, but, what do you mean by "the fight"?'
The woman pointed at Simon. 'That handsome guy over there will explain it to you on the way.
Simon blushed, but he tried to get his face back into the fold as soon as he saw Jeff looking.
'The fight is something the Amarillo sisters have organized every day so far. Every night they pick one person to fight against their leader, Phebe. So far she has always won, and so far none of the losers have survived,' Simon said seriously.
'But why do they organize such a thing?" asked Jeff. He was beginning to despair at Simon's words.
'They say they do it so they can take out the weaklings among us, but it's just a display of power, to show they're inviolable. Normally I would say it would be compensatory behavior, but I don't know what there is to compensate with them...' Simon explained. At the end of his sentence, he became quieter.
'What do you mean?" asked Jeff, but Simon didn't respond again.
Suddenly, the sound became deafening. Simon held the door of the next carriage open for him, allowing him to enter. He stepped into a hectic world, where everyone was hyper and screaming their lungs out. In the middle stood a woman, she looked the same as the woman Simon had complimented moments before, but she had wider arms. Around her clenched fists was tape. The tape was already red.
It became dead silent as soon as he entered. How did they already know he was the one to fight her?
'So, are you ready to fight? Or are you going to cry again?" shouted Phebe.
Jeff wondered for a moment how so many people could fit into a wagon, but then the adrenaline rushed into his veins. He was pushed forward by a strong man, who put him across from Phebe. He was about a foot taller than her. She realized it too: she swallowed.
'I will destroy you,' she said. So softly that only he could hear. Jeff tried to laugh mockingly, but it didn't come out very convincingly.
'Are we ready? Jeff hadn't realized that Phebe's sister had come to stand beside them. The audience responded to her words by shouting even louder.
'Then I'll count down. Three, two, one, fight!" she shouted so loudly that gobs of spit came out of her mouth. With a hard slap, she hit Jeff in the back of the head, making him dizzy for a moment. He looked at Phebe, the fight had begun.