Adra

Having to recall what just happened made me black out I think. I was brought back by a loud, mournful wail. It was coming from the man that had just been through and talked to Eric, as I had learned his name was. The other man was carrying a body. My stomach turned when I realized it was the man that had saved my life.

“That's him” I gasped quietly, “that's the man that protected me.”

The man looked up at me when I spoke. Even as far away as I was, I could see the tears in his eyes. Sadness wasn't the only emotion I saw in his eyes though, there was anger too. He was careful in setting the body down, but he ran to me and grabbed my shoulders very roughly.

“Why? What makes your life more valuable than his?” he yelled, shaking me violently by my shoulders. “Tell me!”

“Jiho stop! You're scaring her” Eric said, trying to pull him away from me. He let go of my one shoulder to push Eric away.

“Jiseok is dead because of her” he said as he shook the shoulder he was still holding onto. He added something else in that other language they had been speaking. The foreign words almost scared me more than the ones that I could understand.

Eric replied in that calming tone that he seemed to naturally speak with. I felt Jiho slowly loosen his grip until his hand was completely off of my shoulder. He broke down and started full out crying as Eric pulled him into a hug.

“What connection did they have?” I asked no one in particular. There clearly had to be some sort of deep connection, he wouldn't have reacted like that otherwise.

“They were brothers” answered the boy who had asked me those questions earlier. “Jiseok was Jiho's older brother.”

“Brothers? Like, actual brothers, or just really close friends who called themselves brothers?” I said. It wasn't often you heard of any siblings on board.

“Actual brothers” he confirmed with a nod. It felt like the bottom of my stomach dropped out and I wanted to throw up. I felt guilty like it was my fault that they had been separated.

“It's not your fault, there was nothing you could have done” he said. I wasn't convinced, his voice was deadpanned. When I thought about it, this boy seemed rather unfazed by everything that had just happened.

“Is there something wrong with you?” I asked without thinking.

He looked at me curiously and cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, it's just that you don't seem to be bothered by any of this, and everything you say is devoid of emotion. It's like you're emotionally detached or something” I explained.

He shrugged. “I've always been like this. None of us know why, I just am, it happens I guess” he answered simply.

He stood up to walk away and I thought of something else to ask him. “Wait” I said as I grabbed his arm. He stopped, looked down at my hand on his arm, then looked up at my face. “What's your name?”

“Junhong” he replied. He added a smile after, but there was no emotion in it. It was like he didn't know how to feel anything. After that he pulled away from me and walked to somewhere else in the car.

As I sat there, a few more people gathered around. It was like they all gravitated toward Eric. He looked up from hugging Jiho at the small handful of survivors gathering. “I suppose I should say something” he muttered.

Assuring that Jiho was alright for the moment, Eric stood up and cleared his throat. Everyone watched him intently.

“This past while has been hard for all of us. We've lost many friends and family members, in both travelling up the train and that fall. As tempting as it may seem to stay here, although not that tempting, there's not enough here for us to survive. The only way for survival is to keep moving forward. Survival lies out there. This isn't the eighteenth year of the train, this is the first year into the snow.”

“Well said” Jackson said as he clapped Eric on the back. The others didn't seem sure of what to do after that speech, myself included. Jackson looked around at us and said, “you heard the man, bundle up.”

~

So this is chapter two, I hope you enjoy. I get the feeling that these characters are going to be lots of fun to develop and I hope you enjoy it too. So after the first chapter I debated with myself for a bit on whether I should use single perspective for the chapters or do the multi-perspective like last chapter, clearly I decided on single perspective. I may still do the occassional chapter with the multi-perspective but I suspect they'll be few and far between. As always, please subscribe and comment^^