West Fall (part 1)

by Reuben Herfindahl

Blake had never felt so low in his life. The trial had been a joke. The judge refused to hear his side of the story. Now he was on his way to San Antonio prison. He doubted he would make it. Like everyone else on the train he had heard stories about the prison transports. The company got paid if the prisoners were delivered alive or dead. All they cared about in St. Louis was that the guilty were shipped as far away from the territory as possible. Blake supposed the lawmakers might even consider themselves civilized. Other western territories simply shot people accused of crimes as terrible as the one he had been convicted for.

From one corner of the car came a low moaning. "I suppose this wouldn't be a good time to tell them I suffer from motion sickness?", whined the voice.

Blake recognized the voice as belonging to Villa, a cattle thief. It was also rumored that he had robbed a few banks, but Blake doubted he was capable of it. It took much more steel than Villa had to rob a bank.

The reply to Villa's question came from someone that did have the steel to carry of the job by Blake's estimation. "I suspect they'll find a cure for it, a permanent one." Jenna Stannis. It was very unusual for a woman to be arrested for anything, much less be deported to the Republic. Most women wouldn't have lasted an hour locked in a train car with 15 criminals. The first attempt on her had come less than a minute after the guards closed the door to the car. It had been the last. Blake doubted the man would ever be able to do anything with a woman again. He flinched involuntarily just thinking about what Jenna had done to the poor fellow's testicles. He had no idea a woman could have that tight of a grip.

Blake walked over to join the small group of prisoners, who were now examining the locked door to the car.

Jenna was asking Villa if he knew anyway to disassemble the mechanism. "Impossible, without the proper tools.", came the reply to her question from behind the assembled group.

"Kerr Avon." came the reply to Blake's unanswered question. "He's the number 2 guy in the whole territories for safe cracking.", Villa finished.

"Who is number one?", enquired Blake. Villa grinned. "That would be telling." Avon rolled his eyes.

"What went wrong?" Blake asked.

"I relied on other people" Avon quickly replied as he turned and walked away.

"I don't like him. Seems like the type that would throw you out an airlock if it suited his needs." Villa judged.

Blake and Jenna started at him blankly. "What's an airlock?", Jenna asked in puzzlement.

Villa looked at her with equal puzzlement. "An airlock?"

"Nevermind that, we need to figure out a way to get out of here.", Blake refocused the conversation.

Just then, the train shook violently. It skidded to one side and started to roll. The prisoners were tossed like yesterday's trash around inside the train. When it finally came to a halt, the prisoners had very little time to adjust before smoke came seeping though the cracks between the boards on the right side of the car.