Terra Train

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space. Or so they say. Bonny’s euphoric scream ran through space, time and beyond as she rode her latest stallion, reverse cowgirl, clawing his thighs in ecstasy,

“Yee haw!”

She screamed again.

This time it was wholly different; the stallion had gone and so had the serene void of bliss about her. Her scream was raw reaction to waking into a body in pain.

She vibrated, her teeth chinked. She was clammy from heavy humidity, her throat dry, her head banged.

A large, cumbersome hand patted it in a sympathetic manner. She kept her eyes firmly shut, not ready to address any visuals just yet.

She was laying flat on her back, definitely not cowgirl, on something unceremoniously cold and hard. There was a slight cooling breeze across her body, and she couldn't remember a damn thing.

She vaguely knew who she was in a got my personality kind of way, but everything else was blank.

Wherever she was was insanely loud as though she was in an air duct, and it was sucking the air out not blowing it in.

“Bonny?”

“Bonny, your nose is twitching I know you're awake.”

A singsong voice came to her ears amidst the current cacophony. It sounded kind of familiar, comforting even.

And although singsong it was baritone deep. Definitely male. And it called her Bonny.

She decided to peek out intrepidly, using her eyelashes as curtains to hide behind.

She could make out, if she slightly millimetred her head to the left, a hefty silhouette with insanely broad shoulders leaning over her, at what appeared to be a bed side. And from what she could see with the tiny, tiny speck of vision she had, it looked like her bed was in a damned big bombshell.

Who the frick and where the fuck was she?

“Bonny, come on, I can see your eyes moving. It's okay, Doc did good.”

Doc? she could hear, as she focused, humming in the background that sounded like an old man concentrating joyfully on his latest retirement hobby.

She could smell blood too, the metallic tang was in the air as well as her mouth. Hang on something was missing...

Matias watched her with concerned eyes from his bedside perch. Her tight red curls clung sweatily to her tribalised porcelain skin. He wasn’t sure whether to let her carry on pretending to be asleep, pour iced water over her or to shake her violently.

How was he supposed to know? She always told him what to do. She was the boss.

And then his choice was made for him: She sat bolt upright.

“Where the fuck is my right leg!?”

“It's okay, Bonny, Doc did a really good job,” he soothed.

“What the Frick’re you on about? I have no idea who you are. I have no idea who I am. Stop calling me Bonny. Where the hell am I and why the hell haven’t I got my leg!?”

“You don't remember?”

“Oh, it's normal, quite normal,” reassured the humming man; scrawny, grey haired, unshaven, he smelt of chemicals and oil. His leather apron, also covered in chemicals and oil, but mostly in blood, carried a range of blades, saws and other instruments in it’s many loops and pockets. His goggles, with several magnifying lenses attached, were pushed atop his head, leaving large, red imprints around his manic eyes.

“She's got memory loss from the doozy of drugs I used on her-it can take a while for things to come back into focus,” He laughed.

The gentle giant, in all his hulking glory put himself between her and the Doc in one small move and gave the creepy little man a glare, “Your name is Bonny. My name’s Matias. We've been together, well you've been my boss, since the Last War.

“Well, Matias, I’m gonna repeat it nice and slow... Right now I don't know you!” She screeched.

“ I don't know me,” she continued, beating her chest, “I don't know why the fuck I am here and I want my fucking leg back!” She snapped, pointing at the bloody stapled stump below her knee.

He clearly was used to ‘Bonny tantrums’ and ignored it, “it's okay. Honestly. you were cool with it. I promise, I wouldn't lie to you;” he grinned.

“I offered myself up but you insisted at gun point, ‘cuz you've always wanted to have a pretty prosthetic. They’re damn cool, Bon;” his eyes widened and glazed like a little kid in a sweet shop.

“you said we’ll go to the nearest space station when we reach our ship and pick out the most modded, weaponised ding dang hooley of a leg they got.” He smiled sweetly.

She gave him a hard stare. What he was saying was familiar. It sounded convincingly like something her current vague self would do.

There was a long silence. He could see she was spinning those cogs, like she did, working out her next move.

“Aight.” She said.

“Does Bonny smoke or drink? ‘Cos while you fill me in on our escapades I feel like I'm gonna need a damn large something.”

His answer was cut short by a horn blaring through their bodies, ears near to bleeding.

The Doc approached at pace looming over and stabbing Bonny in the chest with a needle.

“whaaaaaa?!”

“Come on love birds, no time for chitchat! As you’ve no tickets your contract...”

He mumbled to himself, cluttering around the side of them, looking for something amongst the scummy rags, junk and weaponry clumsily sprawled and hung.

“aha!”

He waved a grubby piece of paper across at them, pulling his goggles and magnifiers down, and read:

“One edible limb plus your gun skills, in return for passage on the Terra Train. We’ve 100 clicks to go outa the 600, meaning you’re nearly at your ship and you owe us.”

“By the sound ‘o’ that horn driver’s dead, train’s a runaway,” he chucked a crutch at Bonny, “which means we got company?” He said in a slow and sarcastic drawl, “so get your pretty, adrenalined ass outa here and go sort it!”

Matias growled, fists clenched, and promptly punched him to the floor, bloody teeth ricocheting off the walls.

Stacked amongst meat hooks and leftover parts Matias found Bonny’s gun (a highend hybrid plasma ensemble called Winnie). He trod over the Doc and placed it, like a baby, in her arms.

Her eyes lit up.

She remembered.

She looked up at him and smiled.

“There she is,” Matias laughed, his shaved head and baby blue eyes sparkling.

“That’s my Bonny.”

“I hear we have some asswipes to kick Matias.”

“I believe that we do,”

“Well what you waitin’ for? YEE HAW!”

Dedicated, with love, to my oldest son, Kyle