Lucy could never remember what happened after the man reached her on the stairs, but shortly after that she had to keep going to the hospital every other week. One time her body was shaking so badly that she had stay in the hospital for up to a week until the doctors could find the proper medicine to make her feel better again. If the man who was supposed to be her father had hurt her, there was no memory there to prove it. What Lucy did know was that he really did hurt her mother. When she eventually woke up in the hospital, her mother was standing at her bedside like she always did whenever she was unwell.
She could remember seeing the mass of blueish grey skin around her eyes, one of which was swollen shut, it had been hit so hard.
‘I’m not sure I can listen too much more of this,’ it was Malcom’s voice who brought Lucy back to the world of snow once again. ‘How any man could hurt a woman and her child is beyond disgusting to me.’
Jason nodded and there was a look of sympathy in his eyes as he turned his attention back on the little girl. He could see the blood was still trickling from her ear and her broken hand was beginning to turn blue from both the lack of blood circulation and the freezing weather.
He also noted that her eyes where becoming lazy. Tiredness was setting in and hypothermia probably wasn’t far behind that. They needed to get her to safety. Back to a place where she could rest and be looked after. But before that could happen they were going to have to pass through the place that brought the three of them together.
He couldn’t help but wonder if it would be too much for the little one.
‘We should get moving. I'm not sure how much longer we have until the light begins to go,’ said Jason, trying to distract himself more than anyone else.
Malcom said nothing as they started to walk away from the workmen’s shack. There was a solemn feel to their journey. There was a definite end but it may not be the one either one of them was hoping for.
No, the best thing they could do for now was to keep moving.
The blank white landscape suddenly changed as the trio crested a hill about a mile further into their journey.
What they saw instead of endless pristine snow, was a large building with an equally large concrete platform.
Next to the platform Lucy could see railway tracks. There was something wrong though. The train seemed to be spread across the tracks like a giant hand had taken a swipe at it.
The building which would have housed passengers leaving and entering the station seemed to be the source of the black plume of smoke.
‘Looks even worse from up here,’ said Malcom glumly as he surveyed the destruction. What both his and Jason's eyes could see, but the little girls couldn't, was the body parts strewn across the blood stained concrete of the platform.
‘Is that where we're going?’ Asked Lucy. She was having to try harder now to keep her eyes open.
‘Yes and if you feel scared at any time just hold on tight to me,’ said Malcom, trying his best to reassure the little girl clinging to his back.
‘Okay,’ muttered Lucy, and with that they started downhill towards the railway tracks.
She couldn't help but think what a strange and bewildering dream this was all becoming. Why on earth would she be dreaming about a railway station that has obviously been damaged? Or a train that seems to have been knocked off its tracks.
Dreams where supposed to be fun and happy but this one was rapidly descending into a nightmare and as they approached the steel tracks it didn't look like it was going to get any better.
Jason spotted the severed leg laying near the tracks first and before he could warn Malcom Lucy too had seen it and the look on her face was one of a child who looked completely bewildered by what she was witnessing.
‘What’s that?’ She asked inquisitively, her eyes falling on the ragged and bloodied skin where it had once been connected to someone’s body.
The two big cats looked at each other, unsure whether they should try and lie their way out of the situation or just be honest. Eventually they decided that for now it was best just to lie. Jason especially didn’t want the little one to become upset which could speed up the onset of hypothermia.
‘It’s a dummy leg,’ he said, his brain trying to think fast for a believable lie. ‘They use them when making TV shows and movies, so I guess they must have been filming near here at some point.’
There was silence as Jason watched the little girl process what he had just told her. She looked incredibly tired and felt guilty that he making her strain.
‘I didn’t think it looked real anyway,’ said Lucy, finding it impossible to keep her eyes open now.
‘Yeah, it does look pretty false,’ said Malcom, chiming in as they carried on walking, following the tracks that where just visible in the snow.
‘I think we better move as fast as we can now mate. She’s slipping,’ said Jason picking up the pace.
It took Malcom a second to realize what he meant as he felt the girl’s body grow more and more limp. She was losing consciousness and that wasn’t good at all.
Mustering what energy he had left, he began to walk faster until they were quickly padding through the snow like a couple of lost explorers.
It took them almost another half hour before they finally reached the carnage they had looked down upon from the hill. Lucy was doing her best to stay awake, but her whole body just seemed so incredibly tired.
‘Lucy you need to try and stay awake honey. We’re nearly at a safe place where you can get some rest,’ said Jason.
Lucy turned her head away from the big cat. It was not because she did not want to see or hear him, but more because her neck was starting to ache as badly as the rest of her body.
They were now passing alongside the remains of the train, which looked like some giant hand had picked it up off the steel tracks and let it drop from a great height. The windows on all the carriages had shattered outwards, the fragments of glass quickly made safe by the unrelenting snow.
Inside the carriages all the walls, seats and fixtures had been blackened and burned by some kind of intense heat. Lucy couldn’t imagine anything which could cause that kind of damage to a train.
Then something popped into her head. It was the red balloon again. This time she remembered looking at her reflection on its shiny surface as she sat next to her mother in a train carriage just like the battered ones she was passing.
She remembered her mother scolding her for taking it from a stranger, but she also got a kiss because…Well, just because her mother loved her.
‘I’m sorry mummy,’ Lucy had said. ‘I promise I won’t take anything from a stranger again.’
Her mother looked at her and smiled. The love in her eyes was unmistakable, even to a six year old, but so was the sadness that always seemed to be with her.
‘Just remember that when I tell you not to do something, it isn’t because I’m being mean. It’s because I’m trying to protect you,’ she had said as she removed her lips from her daughters’ forehead.
‘I know mummy,’ those where the last words Lucy could recall telling her mother before she turned her attention to the window and the snow laden landscape which was beginning to roll by as the train creeped away from the platform.
When she thought about it, Lucy could remember her mother crying out and then the feeling of her arms wrapping around her before there was a huge bang which sent her flying towards the window and out of her mother’s reach.
Tears welled in her eyes as her memory slowly returned and both of the big cats could hear her sobbing. A sudden emptiness, a feeling she had never really experienced before, filled her heart. She could not fully understand why, but Lucy was certain that she would not get to see her mother again.
‘What’s wrong Lucy?’ Asked Malcom, his voice full of worry.
‘I miss my mummy,’ she sobbed into the big cats’ silky black fur.
‘Don’t worry honey, I’m sure your mummy will be waiting for you when we get back,’ said Jason, but he found it incredibly hard to sound convincing because as he surveyed the ruined train, he wasn’t sure if there was going to be anyone who got away from it.
The words had just escaped from his mouth as they passed the third carriage. Jason was the first to spot the red balloon bobbing against the ceiling inside near the shattered frame of the window.
He hoped Lucy would keep her head down as what he saw next both broke his heart and made his stomach lurch with horror.
‘My balloon!’ Came the little girls’ voice as she looked up from the safety of the Panthers back. Her excitement quickly disappeared however when her gaze moved from the balloon to the woman who was still sitting in the carriage.
Her long blonde hair was hanging draped over her face, just as Lucy had remembered it when she saw her sitting on the edge of the bed that day crying about her make up. Her arms where outstretched like she had been holding something precious that she had been trying with all her strength to hold on to.
Lucy felt her tears come thick and fast as she realized the woman who had loved her unconditionally for her entire life was not moving. Her clothes where badly burned and torn in places. The once delicate and soft skin was a wrinkled black mess.
‘Lucy look at me honey,’ Jason was desperate to break her attention away from the horrific site.
‘Why is my mummy not moving?’ Lucy cried as she turned to face the Cheetah. ‘Why is she not coming to get me?’
Not one of the big cats where prepared for the sheer volume of hurt and despair which came from someone so young and they simply did not know how to deal with it.
‘She needs someone to come and help her first honey,’ lied Jason, grateful that they had not stopped and lingered near the horrific scene. He could not begin to imagine how devastated the little girl must be feeling.
‘I want to wake up. This is a horrible dream,’ said Lucy flatly. Her tears kept on rolling down her flushed cheeks.
A small concrete ramp situated near the end of the platform was where they headed. Lucy looked up through tear filled eyes at the building where she and her mother had bought their tickets and she had gotten a red balloon.
All of the windows had been shattered and snow was making its way inside. Black, toxic smoke continued to billow from its roof but she could see no fire.
Then as she changed her gaze to the small set of stairs which led to the car park out near the street she could see a group of four people come rushing towards them. Lucy noticed that two of them wore bright green overalls which reflected in the same way as Jason’s fur. The other two, both men, wore all black and their hats had the same reflective greyish white stripes on them just like Malcom’s eyebrows.
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