⌜ chapter seven ⌟

"We're almost there." Arken says as he leads the way to their transport across the Fold. It's pitch black out, and the only light they have is coming from the torch in his hand.

"Where the hell is Jesper?" Kaz questions.

"You gave him money and then left him unsupervised." Arya says from where she's walking behind him. "Did you really expect him to be responsible?"

"Just a little further." Arken mutters.

"Landmines." Inej says when she sees a sign with a guy getting his leg blown off.

"I don't like explosives." Arya stops walking.

"We'll wait." Kaz calls as Arken passes the sign, and he turns back to look at them. The goat starts bleating, and the brunette crouches down to pet him.

"What?" Arken questions as she whispers to the goat that's connected to the leash in Kaz's hand.

"We'll follow the path that you carve."

"Oh, that sign — that was my idea to keep people away. Can't be too careful." He explains. "You're fine. Come on."

"Uh..." Arya looks at his retreating form as she stands up straight. "If we get blown up, I'm coming back and killing him." She says as Inej follows after him.

Kaz looks over at her, then he starts after them as well. She takes a deep breath before she starts walking, quickly catching up to him.

"Just so you know — if the goat is meant to be some kind of distraction that we sacrifice to the creatures inside the Fold, I'm keeping the goat and throwing Arken out instead." The brunette whispers, and Kaz smirks, knowing that she can't see his face in the darkness, but he doesn't respond.

"It's one thing hearing about it," Inej starts, looking up at the black cloud that has flashes of lightning coming from inside. "But this is-"

"Nothing compared to what lies within." Arken cuts her off as he looks at her, then he passes the torch over to her.

"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine." Arya mutters before looking back at the Fold.

"Scared?" Kaz asks as he looks down at her.

"Not of that." She says, and he finds it strange that he believes her.

Arken pulls something out of the black fog, and they both look over to see what's squeaking as he drags it back on the tracks that it's sitting on. "There." He mutters as he turns back to face the three of them. "So, goat, jurda. Thank you. Now we're just waiting on..."

A gunshot catches their attention, and they all turn to see what the commotion is about.

"Wait for me!" Jesper yells, running from a group of men who are shooting at him.

"They can't see the train." Arken snatches the torch from Inej and quickly puts it out.

"Jesper, get here now!" Kaz yells.

"Leave the lantern!" Inej tells him.

"Landmines!"

"Jesper, come on!" Arya yells, and then Kaz grabs the sleeve of her shirt to pull her toward the train so they can climb in.

"Wait for me!" He drops the lantern in his hand and starts running across the field. "Don't you go without me!"

"Come on!" Kaz yells, and then Jesper jumps up to get into the train.

Inej closes the door behind him, and he bumps into Arya, making her stumble forward. She feels a hand on her waist, steadying her, but it doesn't immediately register in her mind with everyone moving and trying to fit together inside the tight space of the train car.

"Watch it." Arya grumbles as she looks over her shoulder at Jesper; he bumped into her again.

"Sorry." He mutters, and she takes a deep breath as she turns her head to look forward.

The lanterns that are being turned on illuminate the inside of the train, and she sees the black fabric that's right in front of her face. She then looks up and finds Kaz already staring down at her, which then makes her very aware of his glove-clad hand that's still on her waist.

"Please tell me you have twenty pounds of alabaster coal." Arken says as he rushes past them, knocking Arya into him again, and Kaz's back hits the wall of the train, still holding onto her.

"Slight snag in the plan." Jesper tells him, but then he sees Arya and Kaz. "You two look cozy."

"You knocked me into him, you spaz." Arya tears her eyes from Kaz's as she then pulls away from him. "What happened to the coal?"

"Oh, turns out that the kid who was helping me buy the coal didn't exactly know how to, uh, buy coal."

"I told you you should've sent him with me to get the goat." Arya says as she looks back at Kaz.

"We know you gambled it away." The leader tells him.

"I lost a little bit of the money." Jesper says, and he cocks his head as she chuckles. "I lost all of the money. Uh, but I managed to steal twenty pounds of alabaster coal." He holds up the bag, and Arken takes it.

"No, no, no. Sixteen pounds." The older man says.

"Sixteen pounds of alabaster coal."

"Can we do it on sixteen?" Kaz asks.

"Never been done before." Arken tells him.

"Oh, sh-" Arya ducks her head when bullets start hitting the train car again.

"Sit here." He has Jesper sit by the door, and then moves Inej across from Arya. "Never shift your weight."

"Is it just me, or is it...crowded in here?" She asks as Kaz shrugs out of his coat, and Inej takes her seat.

"You've crossed that many times?" Inej asks when she sees the numerous tally scars on Arken's arm.

"It's a numbers game." He tells her as he walks to the front of the train. "Cross this often and you'll get nightmares."

There's an explosion outside, and Jesper looks out a thin slot. "Landmines."

"I thought you said they weren't real." Kaz says as he looks at Arken, and Arya's jaw tightens.

"I said nothing of the sort. I just said I put up the sign myself." The older man argues.

"If we make it off this train alive, I'm gonna kill him." Arya says through clenched teeth.

"Landmines bother you that much?" Inej asks.

"Bombs would bother you too if you watched a building explode with two of your only friends trapped inside." She tells her, and Kaz turns his head to look at the brunette sitting to his right.

"Are you alright?" Jesper asks her as Arken gets the train going.

"No. There are bombs going off outside, and I'm stuck in a shoebox."

"Are you claustrophobic?" Inej realizes.

"Monsters don't scare you, but small spaces do?" Kaz questions.

"So what? Nothing scares you?" Arya looks at him, her jaw tight when her green eyes meet his blue ones.

"Is there any way we can help?" Inej asks.

"Talk about something else."

"Tell me more about your world." Jesper says.

"Doesn't really seem much different from this one, honestly. Good and evil should probably be weighed a little differently." She glances over at him. "But... People are people."

"What about your parents?" He asks. "Your mom?"

"Died when I was twelve."

"Your father?"

She pauses for a moment. "I don't know. Even if I make it back to my world, I'll never see him again." She tells him. "I miss him."

"Even after what you said about him when we were with Poppy?" Kaz questions, confused.

"No, uh..." She takes a deep breath as she looks over at him. "The one I told you about the night that Pekka threatened us — he's my father. The one I was talking about to Poppy was my mother's husband, my brothers' father. I grew up in his house as an...unwelcome nuisance. I hope that he's dead by the time I make it back to my own world."

"We need a better subject." Jesper says. "Not parents, not friends... What about your brothers?"

"My older brother basically raised me and my twin." She says. "And he took the fall for us whenever we got in trouble... Until he signed up for a war that he wanted no part in. I never understood why he wanted to make our father proud, but maybe that's just how sons are."

"Boyfriends?" He smirks.

"Never had one."

"Girlfriends?" He quirks an eyebrow, and she chuckles.

"Not my type."

"Special friends?"

"Jesper." Kaz groans.

"What?" He furrows his brow. "It's just an innocent question."

"From you? I doubt that." Arya says, and he smiles brightly.

A sudden clang makes everyone but Arken look up.

"What was that?" Arya asks, and he glances at her.

"I've erected a system of timers along the line." He explains. "Bits of metal hung on poles to keep me apprised of the pace we're keeping."

"How did you know where to put the poles?" Kaz asks.

"Physics and engineering account for...most of my success."

"And the rest?" Inej questions.

"What we might call divine intervention." He says as he looks at her, and Arya scoffs. "What others might call luck."

"Dumb luck." Arya mutters.

"And after all, the Fold is thick with volcra, and the tracks...are not complete." He tells them before glancing at Kaz. "Coal, please."

"What?"

"I'm sorry." Jesper's eyebrows furrow. "Did you say the tracks weren't complete?"

"I said they aren't complete." Arken corrects.

"What- What-"

"Ah, ah, ah. No moving." He wags his finger at him when he leans forward. "And we're a tad late. More coal."

"I'm gonna kill him." Arya exhales.

"Back to the real issue." Jesper says as Kaz does as he was asked. "We're on tracks...that don't connect to other tracks?"

"Yes, there's a gap, but-"

"You said you could get us through." Kaz cuts Arken off.

"How much of a gap?" Jesper questions.

"I built slats on the car." Arken says. "There's- They roll into place under the wheels. The turbine generates enough wind to push us all the way to the eastern track. As long as we don't shift our weight." He tells them as another clang sounds. "Now, the noise may attract volcra, but it's the only way across."

He pulls a lever, and then there's the sound of metal scraping on metal. Arya grinds her teeth as both of her hands reach for something to help her feel more grounded; she's trying not to panic from being in such close quarters in a train car that things can go very, very wrong in.

Kaz feels her hand on his back, and then her fingers curl around the fabric of his clothes. His head turns toward her, the movement catching Jesper's attention as he looks around at each of them. He doesn't have much time to dwell on how strange the behavior Kaz and Arya is before they're all listening to Arken again.

"Now, there's a nest nearby." He continues, further freaking them out. "But- But we'll be fine. If they haven't attacked us in-"

The screeching of a creature outside gets the attention of all five in the car.

"Son of a bitch." Arya hisses.

"Well, now we've got a problem." Arken tells them. The younger members in the group all look over at him as he starts moving, getting ready to do whatever the next part of his plan is.

"How do you fight them off?" Kaz asks.

"I outrun them." He says as he glances at him. "Open the throttle and toss in all the coal, which works when, you know, there's twenty pounds of it." He turns and looks at Jesper.

The volcra are still swarming around them, and then one of them lets out a blood curdling scream. Arya quickly lets go of Kaz and pulls her hand back when a warm liquid pours in from above them and coats her arm.

"Damn it!" Arken looks through a scope that allows him to see outside the car. "Stupid thing has impaled itself on a spike." He tells them.

"Well, we need to get it off!" Kaz says. "The others are gonna stand on it."

"More coal!"

"We're down to fumes!" He tells him as he throws the empty bag onto the flames. "We'll never make it with this extra weight."

"Give me a second."

"This is how we die?" Jesper says, freaking out.

"Jesper, grab the goat." Arken tells him.

"I'm not throwing out the goat!"

"Grab the damn goat!" He snaps. "It's not bait! It's for you. I need you to calm down. Hug the goat. Shut the hell up."

Arya looks at Jesper as he picks up the goat and wraps his arms around it, hugging it to his chest. Then she sees Inej praying as she clutches a knife between her palms. They hear another clang, and Kaz sits back down as he looks up.

"We should have hit that twenty seconds ago." Arken mutters.

"And twenty seconds is?" Kaz questions as he looks over at him.

"My timings are precise to get us outside." He explains. "Even twenty second behind means the train stops inside the Fold and that...that means we die."

"You don't leave yourself any cushion room?" Arya questions, and Kaz looks over at her. "How stupid are you?!"

He looks through the scope again as they hear more screeching from the creatures flying around outside. "There's more coming." He tells them.

"So soft." Jesper mutters as he hugs the goat again.

"Okay. I've killed plenty of monsters, I can kill a few more." Arya closes her eyes as she lets her head hang. "I need more room to breathe. I can't concentrate."

"You may want to make your peace." Arken says after collapsing to the floor.

"Shut up!"

"Inej, give me your knife." Kaz says as he gets to his feet, holding his hand out toward her, and she places the handle in the palm of his hand. "Stand up, come here." He grabs Arya's arm, and her eyebrows furrow as she looks up at him.

"What are you..." She trails off as she rises to her feet.

He's careful as he slips the blade between the two ends of the corset, slicing through the ribbon keeping it tied together as he jerks the knife down. Arya sighs in relief before inhaling deeply, filling her lungs with air.

"Better?" Kaz asks, and she looks up into his bright blue eyes a moment longer before she takes a step back.

He watches her as she grabs the side of the skirt she's wearing and then moves her leg through the slit that's running up the material. She quickly pulls a gun that she has strapped to the outside of her thigh, and cocks it as she looks up, concentrating on where she hears the screeches of the creatures coming from.

Arya raises the gun and starts firing, putting holes in the roof of the train. She fires five shots from the revolver, resulting in the screams of five volcra. She takes a step forward when she hears footsteps behind her, and then Jesper fires off five shots as well.

"Are they all dead?" Inej asks when there doesn't seem to be any more noises apart from those coming from the train.

A thud above them makes them all look up, and Arya quickly leans down and pulls a knife from a different strap on her other leg. The volcra breaks through the top of the train, and Arken screams when it shoves its head through the hole that it created in the iron. It lets out a loud screech, and Arya's hand jerks upward, launching a knife right into its throat. It then falls off of the train, no longer able to hold on once it's dead.

There's another clang, and Arken looks down at his watch. And then light comes in through the holes that Arya created, telling them that they're outside the Fold.

Jesper smiles as he wraps his arm around Arya's shoulders. "It is going to be a sad, sad day when we figure out how to get you back to your own world." He says, and she chuckles as she looks up at him. "You...are one hell of a woman."

Arya's still smiling as she looks over at Kaz. "I told you I wasn't afraid of the monsters." She says, and he takes a deep breath as he looks at her. "Human stupidity, on the other hand..." Her green eyes move to Arken, and Jesper laughs as he hugs her a little tighter.

"I love this woman."

"Can we get out of the shoebox now?" She asks, and the others all seem amused.