A Tale of Rust and Flesh ~ Part 5

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	Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the train was a passenger train. Seats were visible in the windows, and there were several doors on each of the train's walls. Neither of the teenagers were in any position to pay much attention to the train itself, but now that Kris was bandaged up and he had mentioned wanting to get the train working, the details of the large vehicle in in front of them were suddenly much more noticeable.

	It was painted red on every single car, but much of the paint seemed to have been chipped away as it was replaced by a cold gray, speckled with rust. Many of the windows were cracked or otherwise damaged, but none of the windows were smashed open. Every single door on each side of the train was closed, except for one, but only slightly. It looked to be jammed open.

	Susie helped a drunken, still-recovering-from-shock Kris to his feet. "Can you walk?" Susie asked. Kris was wobbling and struggling to keep his balance even while holding onto Susie's arm. He was already struggling to keep his balance while sober, but the recent intoxication kept him grounded.

	Without hesitation, the strong purple monster picked the weakened human up and carried him on her back, piggyback style. Susie thought it made her look a little bit silly, but she pushed that thought out almost immediately. There wasn't anyone around to laugh at her or ridicule her, and she was helping her friend stay alive.

	Even if he didn't need to, Kris held onto Susie for dear life as she picked her crowbar up from the ground and walked towards the jammed train car door. "...Kris?" The human perked his head up from her shoulder. "Y-yeah?" Susie fumbled with her words in her mind before managing to stitch them together. "...How do you feel right now?" Kris paused for a moment and took his time to fully process the question. "...Hungry." There was a noticeable slur as Kris spoke.
	"Yeah, me too." Susie replied.
	"You... you think we might find something on the train?"
	"...*sigh*, I don't think so, Kris. I hope we do. I'm fucking starving."

	The teenaged duo reached the jammed door within seconds. Susie slowly lowered Kris to the ground and readied her crowbar. Kris watched as Susie pushed the door open with her metal tool just enough for her to fit through. "Hey, Kris, stay right there for a sec. I'm gonna check this train out a bit. I don't know if anything lives in here." One weary thumbs up from the human later, Susie crawled inside, mentally preparing herself for anything.

	The dragon girl shot up straight as soon as she was inside, brandishing her weapon. However, there didn't seem to be anything in this car that could possibly pose a threat. There were only rows and rows of passenger-less seats. They were all padded and looked quite comfortable, but many of seats had strange stains on them that Susie didn't even want to get near out of instictual revulsion.

	There was one seat, however, that held a small backpack. Susie approached the bag and carefully unzipped it before slightly opening it with her crowbar. There didn't seem to be anything dangerous inside as far as Susie could tell. As the draconic monster peered inside, she saw two unopened water bottles, a hand towel, several train tickets, an unopened bag of pizza flavored chips, an unlabeled cassette tape, a few chocolate kisses, and... "Fuck yes, painkillers!... Kris'll need these." She didn't strike a goldmine, but it was something.

	Meanwhile...

	Kris examined his left arm. The makeshift bandage already started to feel wet a tad quicker than Kris expected. Did the alcohol he ingested have something to do with it? He didn't know, but he had already lost so much blood. The sound of the creature screeching at him still reverberated within his rattled mind as if it just happened only moments prior, but it's been quite a while since he came face to face with a creature that almost ripped his arm apart.

	If he hadn't done what he did, he might have been dead now. Maybe his arm was only an appetizer, and maybe his jugular was the main course. Maybe if that fucking floorboard didn't creak, he might have eventually killed it from behind or something. Or not. When Kris killed the creature, he was acting on pure instinct. Kris had never considered himself prone to violence before, but knowing what he knew now, he wouldn't hesitate to start swinging if something shambled his way with malicious intent.

	Then again, maybe he wouldn't have to be the one to start swinging at all. He had Susie, and she was armed with a crowbar. She must have already proven capable of defending herself, considering that part of the crowbar was stained with blood that he knew didn't belong to the yellow creature. Maybe if he didn't forget about it, he might ask her about it. Susie already knew about what happened to him, so it's only fair that she-

	"Fuck yes, painkillers!"

	Before Kris could finish his thought, a backpack was tossed out of the door as a water bottle tumbled out of it. An excited dragon loosely holding onto a crowbar hopped out after it before picking up the water bottle. "Hey, Kris I found some stuff to help you out with the pain better than booze can." Susie yanked out a small, yellow bottle of pills, rattling it in her hand with a smirk. Kris held out his hand, prompting Susie to drop two small pills into his awaiting palm.

	Kris slowly popped them into his mouth as Susie handed him a water bottle. With a twist of the cap, Kris greedily chugged the water until it was mostly empty before letting out a satisfied sigh. He would have used the last of it to clean his face, but Kris wasn't in any position to remember something like that. Kris looked up at Susie to thank her only to find a worried expression on her face. "...Hey, Kris?... How, uh... How long were you out here looking for me?"
	"...I dunno... A while..."
	"...A while? Yeah, I mean... You seemed pretty damn thirsty."
	"It h-happens..."
	"......Hey, there's some chips in here. You said you were hungry, right?"
	A small smile curled onto Kris' lips. "Yeah..."

	The dragon girl sat next to her human companion, pulled out the bag of pizza flavored chips, pulled it open, and sat down. As the teenagers dug in, Kris couldn't help but laugh. "*crunch* Hm? *munch* Whert's sho phunny? *crunch*."
	"Heh... It's just... kinda... funny... I've... had these before. Same brand, even..."
	"Huh..."

	The teenagers didn't speak another word before entire bag was quickly consumed. Kris let Susie have the last chip, but he got to dump the dust at the bottom of the bag into his mouth. Or so he tried. Susie struggled to suppress a giggle as a disappointed Kris looked at her with chip dust falling off of his eyebrows. Her somewhat happy expression turned very serious when she realized something. "Shit, Kris, we didn't disinfect your face!"
	"Oh... shit... Yeah, uh, my face still kinda hurts." Without another word, Susie fetched the bottle of liquor, poured a small of of it onto the hand towel in the bag, and approached Kris. "Hold still..." Susie practically smothered Kris with the rag covered with stinging liquid, but he grit his teeth through all of it without a single peep escaping his throat. After a while of reapplying liquor to the hand towel and more smothering, Susie finally finished cleaning his face the best she could.

	"Okay, that should be better. Your face looks less... uh... shitty?"
	"...Thanks."
	"Yeah... and you didn't cry a single time! I got a special little reward for you for being a big boy..."

	Susie pulled the chocolate kisses out of the bag with a chuckle and presented them to Kris. His eyes widened at such a delectable sight. Kris grabbed the chocolate kisses, peeled the aluminum off, and stuffed them into his face one at a time, making sure to savor every one. "Mnh... Tha-th-uh... Th-thank you."
	"No prob. I knew you'd like em." Susie said with a grin.
	"*hic* Hey, er... Susie..." Kris continued to slur his words.
	"What's up?"
	"I just... uh... I think... I think y-y-you're pretty u-uh... p-pretty cool."
	"Uh... Thanks..."
	"I... I mean it..."
	"...Heh, you're, uh, pretty cool, too, Kris."

	The two teenagers sat and peered into each other's faces, hair still obscuring their eyes for several moments before Susie decided to break the silence again.

	"...Wanna check this train out?" Kris replied with a slow yet somehow clumsy nod. Susie got up, dusted herself off, placed everything including the empty chip bag into the backpack, and lifted Kris up piggyback style. The dragon girl tossed the backpack into the train car and squeezed herself and Kris inside. Susie stood up and made sure that Kris was still clinging into her before she opened the door into the next car.

	The car was very much the same as the one she had just exited, but there was a noticeable lack of dirty, stained seats. There weren't any other backpacks to loot, so Susie proceeded forward. The next two train cars were pretty much the same with the only difference being an odd piece of trash here and there. Susie opened one last door before she froze in place.

	There was another tall, gangly yellow creature. The differences between this one and the one that attacked Kris were that its hands were slightly smaller, its hands and face weren't slathered with thick black liquid, and there where black flowers growing out of its two eye sockets. The teeth, however, looked much sharper. It was just standing there, head tilted upwards. Its arms and its head occasionally twitched and shuddered.

	The creature slowly tilted its head towards Susie and sniffed the air like a dog. It hungrily gnashed its teeth as its mouth began to water. It smelled something. It smelled BLOOD. The yellow creature leaned into a step towards Susie and Kris as it began that same gurgling snarl that caused Kris to recoil. Susie could feel Kris fidgeting as his heart began beating loudly against her back. He was looking at the abomination in front of him and he couldn't force himself to look away.

	"S-Susie...!"
	"It's alright, Kris, I'll make sure this freak doesn't even get the chance!"

	Susie readied herself and raised the crowbar into the air, ready to strike. As the creature stumbled towards Susie, still gurgling, the faint sound of static began to fill the air, growing louder, yet louder by the second. It sounded like it was coming from the car behind the creature. "...Wait... Kris, do you hear tha-" The door behind the gurgling monstrosity slammed open.

	An unidentifiable, gray silhouette quickly approached the figure from behind. It seemed to be constantly changing shape, but also always looked the same. It was as if it was cycling through various different forms that overlapped each other, all with different heights, weights, shapes, but all vaguely similar. Darkness enveloped the edges of the shifting figure as if it was casting shadows onto the very air itself.

	Before Susie could even register what was happening, the sound of crunching bones, animalistic screeching, the sound of a liquid being slurped up and splattering on the floor, and a now deafening static filled Susie and Kris' ears. The figure had changed shape into a large incomprehensible blob and latched itself into the yellow creature.

	Most of the shifting blob focused on the creature's center of mass, but several blurry tendrils wrapped themselves around the creature to keep it in place. Dark red blood began to pour from the creature's various orifices, almost spewing as if someone squeezed a bag of sauce with a hole poked through it.

	The creature just flailed and screamed, but every movement became more strained and weak with every crunch. The ribs on the creature's torso visibly broke in half and jutted out of its skin as it failed to wriggle free of the figure's grasp.  The screams and screeches grew shrill as it quickly ran out of breath.

	"W-w-wha-wh-what the f-f-fuuuuck...?" finally surfaced from Susie's throat as she couldn't being herself to look away. With one final meaty CRACK, the creature's muscles relaxed and it stopped screeching. Most of its mass had already been consumed at this point, leaving the broken upper torso, half of an arm, and most of the head left in view before they too were ear-piercingly consumed.

	The creature's skull cracked open as it spilled blood, skull fragments, and bits of brain onto the floor. The flowers growing out of the creature's skull were the last things to be swallowed before the silhouette moved back and reformed its previous shifting shape. Susie visibly shuddered at the sound of the flower being slurped followed by a small crunch.

	The figure consumed the rest of the bodily fluids left behind during its sloppy meal and left no trace. Susie shook in her boots, eyes wide with fear for both herself and Kris. What appeared to the the head of the figure looked up at Susie with a jolt. As it stared at Susie and the human riding on her back, the static faded away until it was barely audible.

	"T̶ick̢ets, ̧pl͘ea͡se."

	The figure spoke. Its voice was strange and garbled, but it was understandable. It sounded like several voices all speaking at once. The voices ranged from that of a weary old man on his death bed, to a sassy teenager, a small child, a stern adult, and even a baby if a baby could talk. And yet, they all sounded distinctly male.

	"U-u-uhm, uhh... O-ok-kay..." Susie snatched the bag hanging off of her shoulder, opened it, and frantically searched it for the train tickets inside. Susie managed to find two and grabbed them before she quickly presented the tickets to the shifting mass in front of her. Instead of a tendril, a blurry arm politely took the tickets from Susie's shaky hand.

	"Th̷a͏nk you͞.́ O̵h, a͝nd͡ b͞y̧ th̴e ͜way...͘"

	Kris' knife erupted from the chest of the figure. The same arm caught it in the air and presented it to the confused human riding on the purple monster's back.

	"Yo̸u dr͡op̷ped t͡h̢is̡ ͏outsid̨e."

	The formerly cracked pommel was seemingly repaired, and all traces of rust on the blade was gone. There was not a single drop of blood coating it, either. With his uninjured arm, Kris hesitantly took the knife from the figure's hand.

	"Uh... Th-thanks...?" Susie replied.
	"...Y͜ou o͝w͜e m̧é ̴a bag of ch͠i͢ps. Y͝ou ̛c͞a͠n ͘k̀eep̛ ̕the̴ p͏ills, ̶though͏.̕"

	The creature said in what sounded like a joking manner. Strangely, the shifting silhouette was relaxed and calm. It had just sadistically consumed an entire human-like creature and left no trace of its existence, seemingly repaired Kris' knife and gave it back to him, and jokingly said that Susie owed it a bag of chips and that she could keep the painkillers. Neither Kris nor Susie knew what to make of any of it. It seemed oddly friendly, so it was probably a good idea to stay on its good side.

	"D-does... does this bag... belong to you?" Susie asked.
	"Y̕es.̕ Yo̕u ca̷n̛ hav͢e̢ it̨.̕"
	"...Um... Sorry about the chips?"

	The figure let out a small chuckle as it retracted its arm back into its shifting mass.

	"R̡est͟,̕ ͢now. ͝I sh͞a̧ll͟ s͠t̢art t͟he tr̨ai͝n͜ iǹ a moment̨. ͏We̴'́ll ̵be̶ ̸off i͘n͜ about 1̕5̢ ͞m͠in͘ùtes."

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