NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: Train Robbery
Victoria and I nestled into the high-tech train car. It's design and technology were decades ahead of anything humans used above ground. There was a train station on floor B15 of the Sanguis Fluid Dynamics building.
Victoria was explaining non human travel to me. "Through a series of trains, tunnels, and underground caverns, non humans travel from place to place. Most nonhumans can't blend into human society like we can, so they have to stay completely out of sight of humans to survive."
"Otherwise, they could get experimented on, hunted down, or worse, enslaved. That's what happened with freak shows during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A lot of cast members were captured nonhumans."
"Why am I not surprised that humans in the past sucked? Hell, I know a lot of humans who suck now," I said.
"Well, said," she said.
"So we're supposed to steal a book, an amulet, and a key? From dragons?" I said.
"That's what he said," she said.
"How are we supposed to do that exactly? I'm exactly a thief or a burglar. Well, not anymore," I said.
"You were a burglar?" Victoria said.
"At one point. I never broke into anyone's homes, though. Just stores," I said.
"What for?" She said.
"Food, mostly," I said.
"Oh. That's depressing," she said.
"Yeah, being homeless and penniless can be pretty depressing," I said. "Things got better though."
"Good. So we're going as a married couple that works at the school or two teachers?" She said.
"I was thinking a married couple would be fun, but I feel like just two teachers should be enough. Let's just be boyfriend and girlfriend," I said. "We could probably pull that off pretty easy."
"Why don't we just be boyfriend and girlfriend in real life? Then we won't have to fake it," she said flirtatiously.
"Really?" I said. "So soon?"
"You've seen me naked, and you're saying it's too soon to be in a relationship?" She said, glaring at me.
"No, no! Not too soon. I was just surprised you wanted to. You seem like a lone ranger type to me," I said.
"I usually am. This is an exception for me," she said.
"Let's be boyfriend and girlfriend then. Officially," I said.
"Yay!" She said and kissed me on the mouth. "I have a boyfriend and you don't!" She said, looking at me and sticking out her tongue.
"I'm glad you're in a good mood, but maybe we should settle down. We don't want to disturb the other passengers." I said as I heard the sounds of gunshots going off. Some people might not know what they sounded like, but I did. I'd been shot at enough times to tell.
"Did you hear that?" I said.
"Yeah. Gunshots," she said.
"I'm going to check it out," I said and scrambled out of the booth we were in, keeping my head low.
"Not without me, you won't," she said. She scrambled out of the booth and followed after me, keeping her head low.
The door joining the train cars had glass windows. I peeked over the edge of the window and saw something I had never seen before. A group of zombies dressed like they were from the Wild West were robbing the train car. With six shooters, no less. It was ridiculous.
They had light blue skin, and some of them had open wounds and bones showing. I carefully opened the door to the outside and crossed the space to the other car. Then I carefully waited for a bout of screaming from the passengers to open the door. Victoria slipped inside after me.
"Now, folks," the leader of the gang said, "this can be simple and easy, or complicated and hard. Just put your valuables in the bags my compatriots are so gracefully holding out for you to fill, and we'll be on our way."
"What's the rush?" I said standing up.
He shot me in the chest before responding. When he saw I wasn't going down, he said. "Vampire, huh? You guys are pesky little rodents ain't you?" He emptied the bullets from his gun and started reloading it.
As my chest wound healed itself, thanks to a combination of my vampiric regeneration and troll regeneration, I said to the system, 'How do I use my ink generation ability?'
[Make a fist. Then aim the top of your fist at your target and squeeze. I'll provide you with a targeting reticle so you can determine where you're aiming]
Two targeting reticles appeared in my view as I made fists at my sides. I aimed them at the lead zombie and fired one off. As I squeezed my fist, a jet of black liquid sprayed across the room into the zombies eyes.
The ink blinded him but he still fired off a few shots at me blindly. One of them hit me in the gut. It hurt. A lot. It burned. I put my fingers into the wound to get the bullet out. I fell to my knees and then onto my side as I continued to fish in my guts for the bullet.
I could feel where it was from the burning sensation. I finally got it out and brought it up to my eyes. Silver. A silver bullet. So wood didn't work, but silver did. I dropped the bullet on the ground because it was burning my finger tips.
I convulsed on the ground for a bit while the wound in my stomach healed. After about thirty seconds, I was good as new and got back up. The zombie was still blinded by my ink. I kicked the gun away from him and punched him in the face, knocking him out.
"Boss!" One of the other zombies came over to him.
"Get him and the rest of you out of here before I turn his gun on you!" I said.
One of them grabbed their leader. They opened the train car side door and jumped out. I made sure they left the valuables.
Victoria and I distributed the valuables back to their owners. One of the train security guards came into the car afterwards, and we gave a brief incident report before getting off at our stop.
I grabbed the bullet that pierced me with a cloth napkin and put it in my pocket. I was thinking of keeping it as a reminder that I can still be hurt. I'm not invincible.