Many situations hold the possibility of being great
for driving. A scenic highway, a long
flat straightaway, a snowy mountain pass, or a crowded city street, among
others. All that is necessary in order
for that situation to be great for driving is the right automobile. For a scenic highway, a velvety smooth luxury
automobile is preferred. For a long flat
straightaway, a high powered sports car is preferred. For a snowy mountain pass, a big beefy sports
utility vehicle is preferred. For a
crowded city street, clearly an armored military vehicle is preferred, because,
in a vehicle like that, you can run on, over, and through all the obstacles in
front of you. Needless to say, I had fun
driving in between The Redford and the train station. Ushtar kept on telling me not to run into
things on purpose. I ignored him. Rinoa looked like she was enjoying the ride,
except when I took a corner sharply and she whacked her head on the inside of
the vehicle. I feel sorry about
that. Slightly.
The train station was deserted when we got to
it. Much more so than normal. I brought the armored military vehicle to a
stop just inside the main platform, which was practically the first time I had
touched the brakes on that vehicle.
Ushtar was much more aware of the layout of the train station than Rinoa
and I, so he lead us over to where the locomotive was sitting. Rather than the stereotypical old style
locomotive you see in Westerns and in train museums, the locomotive sitting in
the station was a modern style one with large windows on the front. Ushtar told us to uncouple the rest of the
cars from the locomotive while he got it started. He assumed this would be a difficult task for
us. It wasn't. Flip a switch, move a lever aside, and it was
done. Of course, I haven't told Ushtar
it was that easy. If he reads this, he's
gonna be pissed.
The armed groups of verbrechers didn't notice us in
the train station, or anything at all in the train station, untill the
locomotive started moving. It started
slowly at first, but once the locomotive started picking up steam and started
making noise, it caught the attention of verbrechers. This is when they turned their guns on us
again. Ushtar, Rinoa, and I huddled down
out of sight but they shot at us anyway.
The front windows got shot out quickly, followed by the little window on
the door we used to enter the locomotive.
Glass showered down on us, adding to the debris in my at this point not
flowing headwound. Rinoa seemed
particularly unnerved by this, closing her eyes and covering her ears as the
verbrechers continued to hit the locomotive.
Ushtar would get up every so often to check the gauges or
something. I just sat there, next to
Rinoa with my arm around her, in an odd state of calm. I wasn't calm because the situation was
calm. I was calm because I knew that
Rinoa ad I were going someplace safe.
Once the locomotive started pulling away from the
city, the shooting started to let up.
After a moment of calm, Rinoa removed her hands from her ears and opened
her eyes. She looked around for a
moment, then looked at me. "Are we
out of Vierdestad?"
I stood up and stuck my head out the window. Smoke from the many fires buring in
Vierdestad combined into a black plume which got smaller as we raced away from
it. "Yeah. We are out of Vierdestad."
"Where are we going?"
Rinoa asking me this question sincerely puzzled
me. "You didn't know where we were
going?"
"No. I
mean you said Velas but you didn't say where in Velas we are going."
"Why didn't you ask?"
"You said you needed me to trust you, so I
did."
Rinoa trusts me.
Rinoa, a woman I love, who also loves me, trusts me. This is something that I held up as a dream,
a dream I didn't realistically think would happen. While I was trying to hold back tears, Ushtar
entered the conversation to say, "We're on our way to Amcan."
Rinoa looked at Ushtar and asked, "How long
untill we get there?"
Ushtar, looking over the dials and gauges of the
train, pulled out his phone and opened up the map program. This is when I learned that Ushtar's phone
had a map program on it. He fiddled
around with it for a while, then said, "About seven hours. We probably won't reach Amcan untill after
nightfall."
The smile that came to Rinoa's face when she heard
that was simply beautiful. It warmed my
heart to see it. The three of us talked
for a while before Rinoa put her head down to sleep. I'm watching her as I type this. Watching her like this is how my day
began. I thought it might end like this,
obviously not under these circumstances.
The wind is blowing through the cabin of the locomotive, causing Rinoa's
hair to move like a branch on a tree with many leaves. I am memorized by this woman and I hope that
is always the case.
Goodnight my ebony queen.
Hato Shurtleff
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