Tear A Path

Zhao Wei sat on the roof of his cabin, a block of wood in his hand. It was gradual, but his fingers would slide over the surface, pulling out the rough edges and slowly piling up the shavings around him. An indistinguishable shape was steadily unveiling itself from what was left behind.

It wasn"t clear the last time he did something so needless. Since his world crumbled around him, all his efforts were directed towards fitting one part of his life or another, each step was made with clear purpose of his target. Right now, the relaxed nature of the activity was almost unsettling to him.

But he felt a steady yet uncertain nature of the act very calming. At this point he wasn"t even sure what would come out, his fingers just moved as if they knew where they wanted to go but decided to keep it a secret from him. While the winds blew a chill that seeped even into the floor under him, his body was too entranced by the activity to give it any heed.

But the slight tapping of flesh against the wooden deck caused his ears to twitch in acknowledgement of the sound that had reached his area. His pupils darted to the edge of the carriage for a mere second after it spotted the emergence of dark hair, as if only to confirm his deduction of their ident.i.ty.

The lady climbed up to him and stood by him for a while, watching him go about his activity. After some time without a response, she decided it easier to sit next to him. "You didn"t come for dinner." She leaned her body back on her outstretched arms and looked up at frighteningly large moon glowing in the night sky.

"...I wasn"t hungry." Zhao Wei responded indifferently. "Why are you here?"

"You sound surprised..." She grinned as she prodded him. "And here I thought you were always good at being one step ahead."

"..." Zhao Wei wasn"t sure how to respond to the jab.

"That"s a good question though, why am I here?" she said in melancholy.

"Shouldn"t you be the one to know that?" He replied.

"Maybe.. I"m not so sure myself." For the first time he raised his head from his hands and saw her figure, bathed in the serene moonlight. The glimmer of it"s light reflected from the little drips of moisture in her eyes.

It took her awhile to notice he"d seen her, causing her to frantically wipe her face with her sleeves. "Why"d you turn, idiot." She said, her breath a little ragged. "Look away." She commanded, and so he complied.

The air had suddenly turned quiet as neither was sure how they should respond in these circ.u.mstances. She knew how he was always absorbed in his work and was hoping he would do the same so she could cry without feeling so lonely while he wouldn"t look at her, the fact that he did threw her for a loop while the water works were already turned on.

Then she felt him stand up and walk behind her, heading for the stairs. In a way she felt thankful, he was giving her the courtesy of pretending he didn"t see anything. This way they could go on without acting like something had happened.

But he"d stopped behind her, causing her eyes to open wide in surprise. A small thump echoed through the night.

He"d dropped to the ground, facing the other way. His back pushing her forward a little, her back now resting on his. Fl.u.s.tered, she wanted to say something or push away before she heard the sc.r.a.pping of wood behind her, his body would shift just a little in symmetry with that noise.

At this point, she simply gave in and leaned into it, feeling his steady breath heave his st.u.r.dy back up and down, gently rocking her to the rhythm of the night"s breeze. "Idiot" she thought to herself as she smiled a little and she continued to cry.

She"d actually come up here to ask how he was doing. It didn"t take long into dinner for the new group to talk about how the world was treating them, there wasn"t much else to talk about when they met new people, especially with the change still so fresh within all their minds.

In a way, she understood the yearning of wanting to meet his own people. Learning that they probably weren"t going to be so nice must have thrown him off. But as she walked up and saw him, her mind went back to when she was spending most of her time alone in her lab fiddling with her own devices. How she wished to see her family and friends.

If she was honest, she knew when everything was going on, down to the second all those Grens started becoming their own individuals. But she didn"t stop them. She couldn"t stop them.

She"d nearly gone crazy from the loneliness. Even while they moved and talked like people, they were still puppets. When she was on the verge of snapping, Gren1 started to speak outside the lines of her commanded responses and that saved her from going down the deep end.

Even as it got out of hand, she didn"t want to erase them. Maybe a part of it was the morality of simply taking a life just because she could. But maybe, just maybe deep inside she didn"t want to have to take that path, because the moment she did, they would return to being puppets again and the string that was holding her intact would crumble under the weight of that fact.

In reality she could"ve ended Gren9 at any time, but she let the hits rain on her without retaliating. Because with the waves of pain each hit brought upon her, she could feel Gren9s emotions. Her ambitions, her anger and her discontent felt like they reached her.

At the end, she was met with the truth only when they saw into each other. When Gren9 saw her soul and she saw it"s. It finally became clear to her, Gren9 wasn"t a person, just a broken puppet. And like that, her own strings snapped. For some reason, it took her this long to finally fall and by some chance, she had someone to fall on.

"You know, I always thought I"d like a muscular boyfriend." Grendolyn said sweetly from behind him, for a moment Zhao Wei almost couldn"t help but turn to look at the woman behind him. She was beautiful and her body gave off the air of a mature lady, and she was without a doubt one of the most resourceful and intelligent women he"d ever seen evident by the iron horse they were currently sitting on... It was a lie if he said he hadn"t thought about her, and what young man wouldn"t after living in close proximity to such a beauty, for a moment his mind was about to run wild.

Bam! from behind Grendolyn, Zhao Wei suddenly jolted up, shocking her a little bit. "What happened!?" She asked, wanting to turn to check n him.

"Nothing! I just... slipped!" He shouted, stopping her in her tracks. In an instant she found it absolutely impossible that he slipped while they were both sitting down. If she saw his face right now, she"d be surprised to see his nose bleeding while his right hand knuckles looked a little red.

"But you know, I think I wouldn"t like it that much." She continued, ignoring his actions before. "You might look nice, but your body is hard as a rock, it"s not very comfortable to rest on."

Zhao Wei who was still holding his b.l.o.o.d.y nose while his eyes were tearing up almost wanted to turn around to give her a piece of his mind. Was teasing him fun!?

Suddenly a head popped up from the side of the carriage, and both of them turned to see Thirteen peek at them silently before inviting herself into the conversation and snuggling into a spot by Zhao Wei"s side. Before long, Jeff came up with some cups of warm tea and began to pester Zhao Wei about his work with the log and with Gwen"s voice coming from the train itself.

Finally, after hearing the commotion from below the two furry beasts joined the fray with Myra deciding that her overgrown body fit on Zhao Wei"s lap while Panda played with Thirteen. At this point he could only put down the carving and enjoy the increasingly crowded roof.

It was funny how the estranged found each other, gathered together by a strange twist of fate. They were those isolated and forgotten. Some, far before even the earth deemed to separate them with miles of treacherous terrain. Maybe, in days before and many days to come they may feel abandoned and alone, but for right now... maybe it was fine to be alone together.