Runaway Train

Act III - Scene 3

"Sh... sh-sh... she's dea—!"

Before Johnny could quite finish that horrible thought, he was slapped across the cheek by a wisp of Lillian's pink force. From under her mask, she glared daggers out at him. He didn't dare say a word after that look. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place now, and both had the look of death, though in very different ways. All he could do was force that knot of terror in his throat down and blink clear his poor eyes. He was still barely sure of what he was seeing, anyway. He'd seen plenty of dead, but... they never came back.

On receiving his silence, Lillian raised her chin in satisfaction before turning back around to the corpse thing, which was called BB apparently. "Babs, could you do me a favour?" she said, her voice saccharine once more.

BB let out an "ugh" which rivalled Lillian's own in the way of exaggerated exasperation. Guess I can see why Lillian likes her so much. "What? If one of those funny trolleys is missing a wheel again, it's cause I took it. You copy, bunny girl?"

"No no, it's not that," Lillian said, utterly unmoved by her obvious annoyance and apparent mischief. "I need your help fixing something. I'm sure you can do it fast!"

She rolled her dead eyes. "Fine," she sighed. "Just as long as it won't take long. I gotta skitty, I got things to do."

"It's not hard! Probably." In the same fashion that she'd whirled over to BB, Lillian spun back away and over to Johnny and the others. He held his breath in fear as she drew close. "Don't mention the dead thing!" she whisper-snapped at them all. "She doesn't know and she shouldn't have to. Besides, she's not like... really dead. It's soul stuff, it's- basically, her soul held onto her body. It didn't leave properly after she broke her neck or something. So just be quiet about it, okay?"

Everyone was either disturbed or in awe, as was coming to be the usual. Sally's nose was wrinkled in disgust, but her eyes were as sharp as ever. Orla was keen and bright looking of course, though in this case, it seemed especially unusual to be. Curtis' face was hard as stone, keeping back something or other. Ed grumbled something under his breath while Anne looked to be in wonder about this. No one was more in wonder, though, than Salem. They gasped, their mouth ridiculously wide. "COOL!! So she's, like, a ZOMB—"

"SHHHH! God, did you not just hear me?" Lillian hissed, followed by a sigh. "Sort of, yes, if you want to put it that way." Johnny shivered. Zombies... it was like something out of a cartoon. Then again, there's been lots of other even more awful things... this whole place is like something out of Fleischer Studios' Hell.

Speaking of that zombie, her voice suddenly spoke from just behind Lillian: "Uhhh, what's everyone squeaking about? I got my stuff all ready. What do you want me for again, Lil?" It'd be lying to say that Johnny's skin didn't crawl at the way her terribly blunt gaze sort of loomed down on them all from over the reaper girl's shoulder, even though she was about the same height as himself and therefore shorter than most of the others. He shivered just a little under those dead eyes.

"Well, it's about time," Sally suddenly said, going before Lillian could answer. Her arm reached under Johnny's, her shoulder making a crutch. Before he knew it, she'd taken him over and set him down on one of the seats (one that was less torn up than the others). She motioned for BB to come near, which she did, looking kind of puzzled. "It's Johnny's leg you've got to fix. See here." She drew the sleeve of his pant leg up just to the knee. Though his ears instinctively went a little red with embarrassment, the sight revealed was more grim than scandalous: laid bare was the mangled mechanism between the yellowed plates of the shin and the cup that surrounded the stump of the thigh, the flexible folding plastic covering the joint having been torn in the process of the destruction. BB visibly winced, which was ironic seeing as the state her own knees were in was not pristine. "Someone ripped his leg apart in a little scuffle," Sally added rather sharply. "He can't very well walk like this; would you fix it up?"