LJ Idol 10: Week 9: The Trolley Problem
The Train Test
Sonia Terra grips the ladder and gives in to the temptation to look down at the track rushing away beneath her. She pulls herself up another rung. She has to keep going.
She hears Lynessa’s cries in her head again when she is violently jerked sideways as the train approaches a bend in the track. Sonia is granted an expansive view of the landscape ahead; squinting through the night.
There’s still twenty miles to the bridge she knows is no longer there.
Sonia swings herself onto the roof of the rear car and starts moving along the train as fast as she dares.
A Protector in love with a mortal, how adorable. I mean really, they are just so very fragile.
Elias could have just turned her in to The Authority but instead he had taken Lynessa, had tortured her.
Sonia doesn’t have a plan but if she can warn the operator she might be able to save Lynessa and keep the train from plummeting into the canyon.
A sharp pain shoots through her head and Sonia drops to her knees on the corrugated metal. Her lover’s screams call out to her again and Sonia cries out in harmony gripping her temples.
I’m coming my love, I will save you, don’t give up, she begs silently hoping Lynessa can hear her through their blasphemous psychic bond.
The whistle of the train brings Sonia back to the present and she pushes herself to her feet.
Elias had removed the bridge with a wave of his hand. Said she couldn’t save the train, as she was bound by creed to do, and save the woman she loved. Told her she would have to choose.
Love makes you weak Sonia Terra.
You’re wrong Elias Dorran. I will save them and then, I will come for you. That is a solemn vow.
Sonia walks down a darkened passenger car. Most of the riders are sleeping but she pulls up her hood in an attempt to hide the markings on her face that might give her away.
She’s walked the length of two cars before she sees a patrolman approaching.
She sidesteps into an open seat and sits down waiting for him to pass on to the next car.
“You’re a protector aren’t you?” comes a female voice from across the aisle.
“I am that which you have named. How can I aid you believer?”
“Please, I need healing.”
The woman’s hand is hovering in the air covered in the pockmark scars of the wasting illness that has been turning mortals into something inhuman.
Sonia can’t afford the strength it would take to help this woman, she has to get them to stop the train without exposing herself and hope that she will be allowed to return to her beloved.
Sonia reaches into her pocket and offers the woman a string of beads.
“Take these to the Oracle in Vohpolis, you will find the help you seek there.”
Sonia continues her quest to the engine car. The clock is ticking and she has promises to keep.
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510 words
Edit: here's the link to the poll for this round - http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=2063445