Last Train Home

I sat at a bench in the long-distance train terminal in Strait with Sarah’s sunglasses perched firmly on my head, staring vaguely off into the distance. During the train ride, the full situation had become apparent to me. In a fit of anger, I had essentially given up on saving myself. The blue patch group were definitely susceptible to proselytisation. If I had simply ignored the town’s attitude, there is a good chance that I would have been able to build faith.

I don’t want to die.

I began to grip the seat below me with increasing fervour. I could feel water beginning to build up in my eyes.

I can’t do this, Father.

Noah and Jude were likely in danger, considering how I had left that mob. Noah was already a target thanks to his stem cell treatment. Considering Drewville’s history of violence against outsiders, and that the blue patches seemed to act in some kind of organisation, it was likely that they would lash out against Noah and Jude now that I was gone. I had run away because I was selfish. I wanted to go back to die in Strait among those who were kind to me rather than face my own sins. There was a stubborn contradiction between my guilt and my desire to live.

Can I even truly call myself God the Son if I can’t face the consequences of my own actions?

“Oh, Ellie! I didn’t think I’d see you at this station.”

I jolted in surprise. When I twisted my head towards the voice that was calling out to me, I saw a man with a familiar anachronistic fashion sense and jet-black hair.

“… What are you doing here, Adam?”

“I’m heading off to Los Demonios. I have a meeting at the Fusion Policy Council.”

I heard he was doing that when I last talked to him….

“Why do you bother?”

“Hm?”

Adam tilted his head at my question, so I elaborated.

“Why do you bother with helping with the tritium crisis? Fixing the fusion power supply issues won’t even help you personally, considering how wealthy you are. Isn’t doing something like that just wasting the limited time you have before your death?”

“You said it yourself, right? It’d be hypocritical of me to chat up humans so much while not doing anything to help mankind.”

I returned my gaze to the sky.

“The East Coast won’t even bother with adopting fusion power plants in the first place.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Adam adopting a bitter smile.

“That’s our collective responsibility. If proper preventative measures were in place, the Great Flood wouldn’t have been so bad.”

I turned back to Adam, studying him carefully.

“You’ve changed, Adam. I preferred you when you were more selfish.”

“People change. Even back then, I knew I was being childish.”

I felt myself lightly smiling. It was hard work to maintain.

“I suppose that’s true.”

“Wow, look at that! You’re a lot prettier when you smile, y’know?”

Adam gave an exaggerated wink, and I forcibly erased the smile from my face, pushing myself into a glare. Adam chuckled for a moment, before his expression became more serious.

“What do you think a perfect world looks like, Ellie?”

I paused in consideration.

“… Everyone would be happy, I suppose?”

Adam pursed his lips.

“I don’t think so. Wouldn’t that be boring?”

“Well, what do you propose instead?”

Adam grinned.

“I don’t think there is a perfect world. Humans are just going to keep making mistakes and fixing them. I don’t think we’ll ever make it anywhere if we get too hung up on maintaining one particular state of things.”

“… Maybe.”

“If the East Coast won’t adopt fusion, then we’ll just have to keep working at it until they do. If we get hung up in guilt over the Great Flood and let that stop us, then it’ll only hurt them more. Even if the damage is partially due to the Merykan Council’s mismanagement, nobody can control natural disasters, right? That’s why they’re natural.”

“….”

We sat in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Adam waved goodbye as he caught the train west to Los Demonios.

Adam is right. I shouldn’t let guilt paralyse me into inaction. The fact that I was the one who endangered Jude and Noah, and the fact that ‘I’ caused the Great Flood is all the more reason for me to try to fix the damage I caused. I think it’s time for me to give up on gathering faith.

I felt a shiver go down my spine. The fear didn’t leave me. I knew what was going to happen to me if I gave up on faith… but I fought against that feeling. The next train back to Drewville wouldn’t be until the evening. I could only wait. I wiped the water from my eyes.

===

Jude was terrified. Just ask any of the mob surrounding her, they could tell you. With her shivering in fear, it wasn’t exactly subtle.

“You brought that Mod here, didn’t you?”

“I-I have nothing to do with her!”

A balding man with a blue patch approached her.

“You sent that brat of yours to be turned into a Mod, didn’t you? Maybe we should-”

“No! You can’t even-”

Jude’s voice trailed off at the escalating hostility in the stares of the crowd. Noah, who was quivering behind her, burst out crying. Jude lowered herself down to his level to comfort him. Noah looked at Jude teary-eyed.

“Will that nice lady help us, Mum?”

Jude’s expression stiffened as she had an idea. She stood and turned to the crowd.

“That woman – Elysia – she mentioned that she was coming back to… uh… spread her Mod technology…?”

Instantly, angry murmuring broke out among the crowd, while the balding man looked at her with narrowed eyes.

“Is that true?”

“… Yes?”

“I’ll have to discuss this with the others….”

Walton, the leader of the Drewville Protection Society, waved his hand and dispersed the crowd. He lead others with blue patches off into a nearby building, where they began to discuss the situation.

‘That worked? These guys are dumber than I thought, huh. Anyway, I’m sorry, Elysia. Please don’t come back here… I’ll use this time to escape with Noah.’

The Drewville Protection Society, as one might expect, was a cult-like group that thrived on propagating hatred of “Westies” and their technology. Similar organisations existed in many towns across the East Coast. Elysia, for her part, was more or less aware of what the Society was, save for its specific name, given how they had been interacting with her and her knowledge of the East Coast in general.

===

I knew that, in all likelihood, Jude and Noah wouldn’t be able to escape Drewville unless I was there as a ‘sacrifice’. The town’s anger would naturally turn to them without me, so the best way to turn it back would be for me to return.

The train ride was more peaceful than last time. I was resigned to my death and, now that I had made a resolution, I could finally relax. There was no reason for me to worry about building faith anymore.

… It still hurts a little.

===

“Are you ready, Noah?”

“Yeah….”

Jude and Noah were preparing to make a silent departure to the train station. Having checked the train schedule, Jude knew that the next train would be arriving in about an hour. Unfortunately, as they proceeded out of the hotel, they heard a voice.

“Where are you two going?”

Walton approached the pair. And Jude, thinking quickly, spewed out an answer.

“We’re just going out for dinner.”

“… Then why did you bring those suitcases?”

Jude and Noah had brought wheeled suitcases, which they were pulling behind them. Jude’s expression became strained.

“We’re moving some things back into my husband’s home….”

“I thought you sold that after he died?”

Jude flinched.

“We still own the storage shed near it.”

Walton stared at her blankly.

“We do!”

Surprisingly, she was actually telling the truth. Nonetheless, it was meaningless as Walton didn’t believe her.

“Jude, you know that this town can’t afford any of those outsiders to ruin us anymore, right? Their fancy gadgets brought us the Great Flood, after all.”

“R-right….”

There was a rather notorious conspiracy theory among East Coast residents that the Great Flood had been engineered by the government. Jude’s face turned ashen as Walton walked towards her. Walton put on a grotesque grimace.

“Then, you should know what happens to people like you who lie about these things.”

Elysia’s worst case prediction was coming to pass.