Chereads / Survive the last days / Chapter 7 - Chapter 6: The Serpent of the Atrium

Chapter 7 - Chapter 6: The Serpent of the Atrium

Old Turin is big, very big.

As the capital of Invergar, Old Turin had been slowly expanding throughout Invergar's history, and when steam power came along, this expansion reached its maximum speed.

Its built-up area reached a staggering degree, occupying the middle of the island of Invergar, but the first negative effect of such a huge city area was the huge transportation costs.

For a citizen of DC district to go to work at a factory in XC district, it would take half a day just to walk, and with the income of the average citizen they simply couldn't afford to pay for a steam automobile, let alone raise some damn horse and ride it to work.

In order to solve this problem, the Mechanic's Yard began a new round of renovations to Old Dunlin over a decade ago, they opened up the underground tunnels and built trains that could run across Old Dunlin, they called this thing the subway, it looked like a shrunken underground train, and on the ground it was covered in rails embedded into the ground, and steam trams called Iron Serpents ran on it.

With such a transportation system using Old Dunlin as a test point, expanding towards the country after its success, and in recent years they have attempted to add zeppelins to this vast transportation system as well, the skies will have the footprints of the Invergreens as well.

The Serpent of the Atrium.

The mechanics of the Mechanics' Institute call this transportation system the Python of Norse mythology, and this beautiful, rich world is the mythical Atrium, where everyone can become a member of the earthly serpent for a low price, surrounded by machinery and steam in an ever-smaller world.

The Victoria Central Hospital was also considered a famous stop, the steam trams passed by every ten minutes or so, and this time Lorenzo was just in time.

"Sorry my friend!"

The doors opened and Lorenzo, carrying the very dangerous popgun, headed straight for the cab.

After expelling the innocent passengers, the driver was thrown off the steam tram without much resistance, and then the iron serpent gulped steam as it gradually accelerated and sped along the tracks.

When had the law-abiding citizens of Old Dunlin ever seen such a sight, even Prez was a bit.

This is Old Turin, the heart of Invergar, where at least three zeppelins patrol the skies every hour, and on top of them are heavily-armed air marshals in red police uniforms, the strongest line of defense for order and security in Old Dunlin. a shot to the head.

The steam pipe explosion and fire, the gunfight followed by the hijacking of the steam tram, and at the moment it was hard to figure out what was going on, but it was inevitable that the trouble makers would be caught and locked up until they died.

This is considered to be the big event in the career of Prez, he afterward picked up the gun and ran in the direction of the steam tram, but immediately after he saw a figure hanging behind the steam tram.

Prez's heart immediately slowed down by half a beat.

...

"This ..... is at least a third-class honor!"

Despite the blazing wind in her ears, the girl continued to look unconcerned and muttered. Yi Guan dead grip on the handle on the steam tram, in the last moment it started she finally followed.1 this unlucky child has not realized what danger she is in, all she can think about is the next day's "Queen's Daily Newspaper" newspaper, the headline is the Suyalan Hall new police officer on the first day of duty to solve a large case, won the third degree of merit to be invited to the Platinum Palace to meet with the Queen, and on the way to the top of the peak of the life of the old Dunling police inspector! and all that kind of shit.

To think that he is on the peak of his life at less than thirty years old is really extraordinarily boring.

Above the Iron Snake Lorenzo doesn't have the same boring feeling as Iguan, at the moment he is in good shape. The siren sounded high all the way, like the god of death who rushes to kill people, and the pedestrians on the road have to give way.

Lorenzo is a very studious person, his room is full of books, he knows a little bit of everything, even this steam tram is no exception. Although he wasn't quite sure of the exact details of how this steam tram operated, looking at the simple console the basics were fine by him.

He had to catch up with the group, they were the only clue in this cloud of suspicion.

Soon the group came into sight of Lorenzo, the old Dunlin roads were crowded and not meant to go fast on horseback, unless you were a mounted policeman blowing his whistle all the way or an iron-snake like Lorenzo who was so desperate that even the most irascible of citizens would gladly give way to him under the law and under life.

Grabbing something to jam the lever, Lorenzo grabbed the steel on the edge and flipped straight up onto the roof.

The Mechanics' Yard bunch were a bit nutty, but their work was rigorous. The steam trams had been part of the Atrium Serpent system for many years now, and it had a set of safety contingencies in place, and under emergency braking they managed to make a quick and sharp stop.

His eyes slid down the barrel of the gun to the "suspect" not far away, Lorenzo didn't need to catch everyone, he just needed the slowest runner.

The trigger is pulled, and lightning strikes.

The bullet pierced the horse's leg, and the poor horse fell to the ground with the suspect, skidding for several meters. Lorenzo thought he had succeeded, but another shot rang out, and the suspect on the ground was shot dead.

No survivors were left alive.

At this moment Lorenzo finally felt the tricky state of affairs, he was not facing a group of simple thugs, ordinary thugs don't have such a stoic will, there must be someone in this group who acted as an insurance policy, who was responsible for killing all those who dropped out of the group, and deadlocked the secret of the Silverfish.

This was not something that the group of punks in the lower city could do, Lorenzo was at an impasse, but the way to break this impasse was also simple, kill the last man.

people were as resilient as they were fragile, and Lorenzo gambled on whether or not that person would have the courage to swallow the muzzle of a gun in his mouth when he grabbed the one acting as an insurance policy.

Forward and backward, a rare chase was staged in the old Dunlin.

The suspects began to adjust their direction, continuing forward would arrive in the inner city, where there were patrols everywhere, their aim was to make it to the lower city, as long as they arrived in that fishy lower city, even if Suaran Hall intervened they wouldn't be able to catch them out, it was a tumor that was growing on top of the old dunlins, and forcibly ripping it off would only result in a lose-lose situation, and that's why that dog Burrow was so cocky and still survived for so long.

They must be intercepted before they reach the lower city, or else Lorenzo may not be able to protect himself when he gets there. Move your witty brain, even though your morals act second rate your brain is first rate!

Trying to remember everything he could about himself, the countless lines that made up the floor plan of Old Dunlin, on top of which the blue line represented by Lorenzo chased the red line, which was about to reach its end - the Lower Town.

The blue line stretched on and on, but at the very next intersection, the blue line shattered into countless lines, crowding every street in Old Dunlin, and it came from all directions to chase the red line.

Finally, just as the red line was about to reach its end, a blue line stopped him.

Thanks to the map of the old Dunlin steam tramway hanging in the cab, Lorenzo had found the only way.

Iguan finally climbed into the steam tram's carriage with all his might, his instructor had said during his training at the police academy that Iguan was a very good detective, just not very strong physically, but it wasn't the old days anymore, with all kinds of transportation everywhere, detectives finally didn't have to run half to death just to chase people.

If she could see her instructor next time, Iguan would definitely have a word with him about that, but of course right now she had to get this damn steam tram stopped first.

"Stop it!"

Eve raised her pistol and aimed it at Lorenzo in the cab, the distance between the two wasn't too far, and despite the roaring of the machine, the sound still arrived clearly.

But Lorenzo didn't stop, instead he looked back with a kind face.

"I'm not your enemy, Detective, they are."

Iguan knew Lorenzo was referring to the group that had escaped, but she remained wary and refused to lower her gun.

"I'm a detective, a private investigator."

'A detective with a shotgun?"

"Most of my peers carry guns, it's just that the one I carry is a bit more unusual, so you can interpret me as a minority.

"Do you realize how much noise you've made? I even have the power to shoot you outright now!"

The second half of Iguan's sentence was a bluff, she wasn't really sure what exactly to shoot under, something that should have been done a few times in real life with Prez at the helm.

"All that commotion? Let's just say it's a personal trait of mine, I'm more of a man of action than a man of staged contemplation in place."

Lorenzo was very good at putting labels on himself, just one little label could make a lot of associations, something he had been taught by that cheap teacher when he was at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Not giving Iguan time to think, Lorenzo quickly changed the subject.

"You know, Detective, this thing could have run faster." IV He pointed to the steel creation at his feet, subdued as if he hadn't seen the muzzle of the gun.

"All technology in the history of mankind was first military before it gradually became close to civilian use, like the Zeppelin that was set to join the Atrium Serpent system in recent years, it was supposed to be a military zeppelin, ground based artillery couldn't even attack him at altitude, it would have been under the cover of cloud cover, dropping off troops with airstrikes."

"It is even said that in the beginning the Serpent of the Atrium was only a military system designed so that at the Queen's command we could bring the continent across the sea under artillery fire, with steam trains wherever the railroads went ready to send the soldiers of Invergar above the battlefield. The same is true of the steam trams beneath our feet, which were born in the worst of times for law and order in Old Turin."

With his hand on the lever, Lorenzo slowly stood up, the cartridge gun left on the console, and he made a point of holding up his other free hand in order to prove to Iguan that he was not a threat.

"This thing called the Iron Snake was supposed to really be an Iron Snake, the seats inside were filled with heavily armed soldiers, the exterior was covered in strong armor that even when shot at it merely left a dent, the zeppelin in the sky above was in charge of the command, wherever there was a riot, the Iron Snake came to that, the armor rose in unison, the barrels of the guns protruded out of the gaping holes that had risen, and the triggers were pulled. "

It was a time when Ingvig had just become the world's leader in steam technology, spy agents from various countries were everywhere,and Old Turin was in turmoil.

Lorenzo gulped, then said.

"What I'm trying to say is that this thing is far more powerful than it says on the specs, after all these years it's still using a Watt III steam engine, a few decades ago it was able to walk around carrying a wagonload of soldiers and a few tons of armor, now it won't be able to run with a few citizens on board."

"It's the mechanics who are being lazy, they've limited the power of this thing, cloaked in civilian garb it's actually still a blood-stained weapon, but as long as you know a little bit about mechanics and the construction of steam trams this limitation is easy to break through."

Iguan felt a twinge of foreboding, and it was clear that the intuition she had always relied on had not deserted her this time, as soon as the words were out of her mouth Lorenzo pulled down on the lever with a forceful motion, and at the same time Iguan instinctively pulled the trigger.

The bullet discharged and the steam tram swayed violently as if it was about to fall apart, the huge impact threw Iguan up and slammed her heavily against the iron wall aside while an endless gale rushed in with a sound of shattering glass.

Why?

Iguan looked up with difficulty, only to see the damned detective standing firmly in the cab, his own bullet missing and merely shattering the windshield.

She didn't understand where the strange movement came from, but immediately after she felt it, the entire carriage shook violently the steam tram called the Iron Serpent broke free of its original limitations, it climbed in speed and finally reached the light that it had when it was in all its glory. 

As if to answer Iguan's question the violent lurching Lorenzo pointed to her side, it was several cloth bags hanging from the iron walls.

Steam tram commutes can be long, and to make the long hours pass for the passengers, they are usually filled with today's newspaper, and a few other uninteresting books.

The mechanic would put the operating manuals for the steam trams in them for ease of maintenance as well as some publicly available drawings this was meant to be for the benefit of the general public, but it seemed that Lorenzo was the only one who would look through the boring books at a time, and today it worked.