Chapter 34 Chapter 34
The light outside turned to copper as the train rolled through the lowlands.
The cars rocked gently, each sway making the shadows inside shift across the walls. Through the cracks in the metal, Nina could see flashes of wheat fields, river bends, and the dark silhouettes of trees rushing past. The air inside smelled of rain and iron.
Adrian sat opposite her, head tipped back against the wall, eyes half closed. The fading sun turned his skin to bronze, the curve of his jaw sharp against the light. He looked like he hadn’t moved in hours, but she could tell he was awake — his hand never strayed far from the pistol at his side.
“Still bleeding?” she asked quietly.
He opened his eyes. “Barely.”
“Let me see.”
He didn’t argue this time. He unwrapped the torn sleeve, revealing the graze along his arm. It wasn’t deep, but the skin around it was raw. She poured a little water from her flask and dabbed at it with a piece of cloth. He didn’t flinch, though his jaw tightened.
“Next time,” she said, “you don’t walk into bullets for fun.”
He smiled faintly. “It’s a bad habit.”
“So is not listening.”
“That one’s harder to break.”
She tied the new bandage in silence, her fingers brushing his skin only briefly. It felt strange — caring for someone she was still trying to understand.
Outside, the first stars began to show through a break in the clouds. The rhythm of the wheels against the rails was hypnotic, steady and endless. For the first time since she’d met him, the sound didn’t feel like a chase. It felt like breathing.
She leaned back against the wall. “Where do you think this train’s going?”
“East,” he said simply.
“East where?”
“Does it matter?”
She smiled. “It might, if we ever want to get off.”
He looked at her then, eyes dark in the dim light. “You’d get off if you could?”
“I don’t know.” She glanced at the blur of fields. “There’s something about moving that feels safer than stopping.”
He nodded slowly. “That’s how it starts.”
“How what starts?”
“Running. You tell yourself it’s safer, until you forget what stillness feels like.”
She studied him, the faint scar that ran from his temple into his hairline. “You sound like you miss it.”
“I miss what it used to mean.”
“And what was that?”
“Choice.”
The train slowed as it climbed a hill. The wheels screeched softly, sparks flying beneath them. Adrian reached for his pack, took out a map, and spread it across the floor. The paper was worn thin, creased from use.
“There’s a signal yard thirty kilometres ahead,” he said. “We can jump there, follow the freight line north. Raske’s network runs supplies through that corridor.”
“And you think he’ll be waiting?”
“I think he’s always waiting.”
She watched him trace the route with his fingertip, the movement precise despite the dim light. “You could walk away,” she said. “Disappear somewhere no one would ever find you.”
“I tried that once.”
“And?”
“It didn’t work.” His eyes met hers. “The past doesn’t lose your scent that easily.”
For a while, neither spoke. The train plunged into a tunnel, darkness swallowing them whole. Nina could hear the echo of her heartbeat, the hiss of air rushing past the walls. When they emerged again, the world outside was deep blue, the last of the light fading over the horizon.
She broke the silence. “You never told me how Viktor found you.”
Adrian’s expression shifted, the faintest flicker of memory. “I was a courier. Small jobs — documents, information, nothing heavy. One day, I delivered a message I wasn’t supposed to read. But I did.”
“And?”
“He offered me a choice — work for him, or disappear. I said yes before I understood what that meant.”
“And you stayed.”
“For a while,” he said. “Then I saw what he did to people who said no.”
“Is Raske worse?”
Adrian’s gaze darkened. “Raske doesn’t want power. He wants proof that he’s already won. That’s what makes him dangerous.”
The train crossed a bridge. The sound of water rushed beneath them, thunderous and constant. Moonlight spilt through the slats, painting pale bars across the floor. For a moment, the world looked almost unreal — motion and light and silence woven together.
Nina watched the reflections move over his face. “When this is over,” she said softly, “what will you do?”
He gave a quiet laugh. “You still think there’s an after?”
“There has to be.”
He didn’t answer right away. “Maybe I’ll build that boat,” he said finally. “Find a quiet place. Teach myself to forget.”
“And me?”
His eyes met hers again, steady and unreadable. “You’d tell me not to.”
She smiled. “You learn fast.”
“I’ve had a good teacher.”
The words lingered in the air, warm against the cold rush of wind through the cracks. For a moment, they just looked at each other, the space between them filled with everything neither dared to say.
The train began to slow again, the rhythm changing. Adrian moved to the open door and peered out. Lights glowed faintly in the distance — the edge of another yard, signal towers blinking red against the dark.
“We’ll have to jump soon,” he said.
Nina joined him, the wind cool on her face. Below, the ground moved in a blur, shadows and gravel merging into one. “It doesn’t look safe.”
“It never is.”
She looked up at him, the sharp profile against the twilight. “You ready?”
He nodded once. “Always.”
The moment stretched — the night, the hum of the rails, the smell of rain and oil and fear. For the first time, she reached for his hand without hesitation. He didn’t pull away.
“Together,” she said.
He squeezed her fingers. “Always.”
The train thundered into the dark, two silhouettes framed by the open door, heading east toward a horizon neither could yet see.
The night wind tore at her face.
The freight car’s open door blurred the world into streaks of black and copper. The train was slowing, but not enough. Gravel and steel flashed beneath them, relentless, alive.
Adrian leaned out, judging the distance. “Now,” he said.
Nina stared down at the moving ground. Her pulse hammered. “That’s insane.”
“Most things that work are,” he said, and jumped.
For a heartbeat, he was gone — swallowed by the dark. The emptiness he left behind yawned like a void.
Nina swore under her breath and followed.