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Time on the pirate train seemed to be endless for the crew. It’s just a 10 car train, other than the Engine, the library, the hospitality office and Martin’s cabin there’s not much space. Privacy was worth more than anything, so as soon as the craziness of uncoupling the Engine finally settled everyone started marking their own territories. Layton and Josie claimed a storage car for themselves, Martin in his own cabin, Sykes protected the couch in the library for her own, and the two engineers in the Engine cabin.
“Where am I supposed to sleep then? Alone in a storage car? Fine.” Till gave an exasperated sigh when she packed her blanket and a jacket as her pillow. Audrey watched in silence while laying on her back in her comfortable cell, never missing a single glance Bess casted on her when she thought she wasn’t watching. She knew the only reason Till was projecting her thoughts out loud was because she wanted her to answer her, and to start a conversation without having to ask awkwardly.
“You can always sleep in the hallway, Bess.”
“Shut up, Audrey. You’re lucky you have a cell.”
The only way she could hide it was by being sarcastic, and Audrey noticed that a long time ago. It hasn’t been long since they uncoupled from the rest of Snowpiercer, and it takes a month to go back to the Rockies. The amount of time Bess spends in the library on prisoner watch was enough to prove Audrey’s theory of interest, but she wasn’t going to help her in any way. The awkwardness in Till when she’s asked a sensitive subject always tends to amuse her, and she wasn’t going to let her only source of entertainment slide.
The next day finally the thought of ‘lack of entertainment’ forced Layton to stand up during his prisoner duty. Sykes and Bess all looked at him like he was insane, only Josie allowed him to elaborate on his idea of ‘raiding the engine’.
“We need some other things to do. I mean those guys have got to have some sort of games or whatever stuffed hidden somewhere that they aren’t sharing with us. I say we go and take some, who vote yes?”
Literally everyone in the room had their hand up, but Audrey was left behind in the cell when they actually took action.
“Bess! Bring me something!” She called after them before the door closed.
“You can keep dreaming, Audrey!”
The only thing they need is some sort of weapon and they’ll look like a merry band of revolutionaries, again. Alex and Ben quickly stood up from their computer screens, seeing the hostile group of people marching towards them.
“Got anything fun for us, Ben? Alex?”
The two engineers looked both freaking out and on the verge of laughing out loud at Layton’s once in a lifetime request.
“Are we throwing a party in here now?” Ben tried to break the weird silence, but it only pushed it further. Alex shot him a look, they knew what they were up to. Ben walked past them wordlessly to the control panels, and started to search for something on the wall.
“Actually, I think Javi and I finished the blow already…Also Melanie took all the cigars somewhere…Either she smoked them all or used them to bribe people back then…”
Half of the control panel opened to the side, revealing all sorts of alcohol and substances packed in shelves. Ben turned around and saw the four ‘Engine raiders’, each one of them had a different facial expression. Layton had one of his brows up to his hairline, the other almost covering his eye. Josie rested her forehead on Layton’s shoulder, Sykes had a pure neutral face and Bess was staring wide eyed at the amount of stuff packed in there.
“Uh, Ben I think they’re just looking for some board games and cards to play with?” Alex hurried over and pushed the control panel closed before any of them could take anything from it. She opened a drawer and pulled out a small box of cards and stuffed it in Layton’s hand, then shoved them out of the Engine before they could complain.
“Layton, those engineers have been on drugs for the past 7 years. The last of humanity is in the hands of three drug addicts.” Josie said a while into playing their blackjack game with crackers as bids. An entire shelf of ‘stuff’ was a sight to see, and people are all nonetheless ambitious.
“Did I hear drugs?”
Miss Audrey’s melodic voice reached all of their ears as soon as Josie finished speaking. Bess looked at her briefly, the two meeting eyes right before Bess broke away.
“Yeah. Those engineers have a whole shelf packed of everything you could possibly think of.” Sykes shook her head, all of them knew it was probably Wilford who commissioned for that shelf to be constructed within the control panel. Audrey stood up and peaked interest in the conversation topic.
“Did you guys get some? I want it! Please give me whatever you have- I’ll love you guys forever! I’ll be a good prisoner and I’ll help you whatever you need. Bess? Please?” Audrey hung onto the bars and pleaded.
She was almost a hundred percent sure that Bess was considering it, from her reaction. A stiffening in her shoulders when she said her name, the unconscious motion of biting her lower lip and a pause in dealing cards.
Then the blonde woman proved her right that night. She was literally cursing herself mentally for being a little servant for Audrey, running her errand, being unconditionally-
“Where are you going Bess? It’s like past midnight.” Josie stopped her awkward chain of thoughts in the hallway. She wasn’t going to tell her that she was ‘on an errand for Audrey to steal weed from Ben’ or anything close to that.
“Ben wanted me to play cards with him.”
“Right now?”
“Yeah, he’s on drugs, remember? Ask him tomorrow.”
With a weird look received from Josie, she marched into the Engine without a single plan on what to say, what to do, how to get out or how to get that weed from the control panel. Ben was sitting at the helm, busy writing in his notebook, oblivious to the fact that Bess came in.
The control panel in front of her was just a regular control panel, the secret button wasn’t anywhere present in her view no matter how hard she searched for it. Her mind wasn’t running through plans or even ideas, they were just curses on Audrey and herself. Why did she even come here to get weed for the prisoner on the train? Anyone but her could’ve told her to steal something from the Engine, but for Audrey she couldn’t resist. Audrey was desperate for weed, and Bess was desperate to help her, it was unconditional-
She accidentally knocked over an empty steel mug from the counter beside the control panel.
It clattered against the engine floor, louder than a dynamite explosion. Ben dropped the notebook and sprung up, facing a terrified Bess while holding an orange crayon pointing at her, defending himself.
“So you’ve come to steal from me, yeah?”
“Well, not necessarily stealing, but yeah, not really… Why are you holding a crayon at me?” She literally had her hands up in the air when Ben jumped around facing her, not with a knife, not with a gun, but a crayon. The man scoffed and picked up his notebook, Bess caught a glimpse of vibrant drawings from the pages. Either Ben was embarrassed to be caught still drawing with crayons, or he was thinking of how to take advantage of Bess.
“Listen, I just want a little bit of it, just weed. I mean- you have lots, right? Sharing is caring, you know? That’s important seeing that we are all one train now?”
Bess hadn’t really had a real conversation with him, now she’s thought about it. Ben locks himself in the Engine 24/7, and she’s just an ex-brakeman roaming around going about her day. Ben approached her with his notebook, and opened the control panel without a word. A brief glance was casted at her.
She nodded thanks to him, inevitably awkward somehow. The weed was tied in bundles, each bundle has about ten rolls. Till couldn’t possibly imagine how many other secret drug vaults there were on the train, and how much Wilford was addicted to those. The Audrey insults finally shut up in her head after she closed the control panel. Her mind wandered back to why exactly she came for this small bundle of weed, was it because of Audrey? Why does Audrey have such influence over her?
Ben in front of her was focused on drawing again. Her interest shifted from her thoughts about Audrey to whatever Ben was drawing. Walking over and peeping at his art would probably get her banned from the Engine for a while, so just asking him would be a better choice.
“Ben? You draw?”
Insults were clashing in her head again. What kind of tone was that? Not even close to sarcastic. What if he gets mad? Did I invade his personal space? What if he kicks me out? What if it’s something private?
“Yeah. If you dare tell the others that I use crayons I will derail the train.” Ben spun around in his chair and showed Bess his little art projects, killing all of the doubts inside her brain. Some of them were actually not bad, but there was one that stood out to Bess.
Two people were there, one with blonde hair, the other had a piece of cloth to tie up their hair. Needless to say, that one was her, the other she was not so sure. The blonde was smiling like she was in a dream, while the other figure was either smirking or amused.
“What? It’s you and Audrey.” Ben said with a smile, kind of satisfied at the reaction he got from Bess. The woman was literally inches away from the paper, her eyes scanning every detail of the picture.
“It’s- It’s me and Audrey.” She asked that as a question and a statement.
“Yeah. Come on, the whole train knows that you fancy her.” Ben closed his notebook and leaned back in his chair, examining how much his sentence had done to Bess. Her face was a mix of shock, fear, disbelief, and perhaps joy. It can’t be true, can it? Bess pinched her palm, and realized that she was carrying the weed for Audrey.
“Does she know?” That was the response she carefully forged in her head after considering all of the possible outcomes and consequences from Ben.
“She’s on board. Don’t lose this chance, Bess.”
Ben winked at her and turned around to face the helm, leaving Bess terrified on the spot. Do I really have a thing for Audrey? She’s the damn prisoner of the train. Is this why you’re her little errand boy?
So this was what bothered her for the whole week. The way she couldn’t stop her head turning to Audrey when she was thinking randomly, the sarcastic remarks from Audrey when she tried to start a conversation with her, and doing whatever Audrey pleads her to do. It’s the unconditional love that’s developed in her, somehow.
Hey look, I love Audrey.
Now that she’s got what she came for, she was going to give it to her. Unlike the way she came, her mind was utterly silent and blank. No plan of confession, no pre-made script, just a bundle of weed and a socially awkward person.
“Oh hey Bess. What are you doing? It's literally the middle of the night.” Audrey was still stretching in her cell, not even close to being asleep when Bess entered the library. When Audrey looked at her it felt like her gaze could touch her heart, she could physically feel Audrey by just looking at her. Perhaps that’s why her subconscious literally tells her to turn her head, because she was just so…irresistible to her.
Step by step she approached Audrey in her cell, clutching the marijuana with her fingers. Should I propose to her? Weed as wedding ring? I mean hell yeah I got a lighter on me too? What if she says no? Oh my god what if she says no?
“Bess? Is everything okay? You’re staring at me.”
She stood gazing down at Audrey, almost directly above her if not for the cell bars. She knows that Audrey knows exactly what she’s thinking about right now. Perhaps Audrey will make a move before she does?
What if she says no? She’s still with Wilford. What if she’s not even into women? Is the truth more important or is the protection from the hard truth better? If Audrey has no feelings, then that’ll be another piece of her ripped away. Could she really afford that?
“Bess, stop staring at me. You’re creeping me out.”
No. I can’t afford another mid-life crisis on this 10 car pirate train.
“Ben wanted to give this to you.”
She dropped the weed right on top of her face, and silently prayed for Ben to play along with her lies. Not even waiting for Audrey's thanks, she just turned around and walked away.
“Wait Bess! I need a lighter!” Audrey called after her.
As she opened the library door, she waved her lighter in the air with a smirk.
“Then come and get it.”