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Jasper Nichols took the lead and one of the lanterns, but he shuttered it before opening the door Cyrus Berry asked hiet us killed? We need to see, crossing that gap!"

The porter replied, "Just the opposite of that, sir It’s dark as hell out there, and they’ll shoot if they see a light You don’t want them to see you, do you?" he asked

Cyrus looked like he wanted to argue, which Mercy thought eird But Jasper Nichols continued, saying, "It’s only a couple of steps, and I’ll take ’em first, and help you two come over It won’t take a second, if we do it careful"

"He’s right," Mercy hissed "If we’re lucky, they won’t even see us opening and shutting the doors Now, come on"

Cyrus took third place in line and the porter opened the door, only to be greeted with a frigid flapping noise and a gust of wind that blew papers around in the compartment like a storm The captain said, "Goddammit! Who opened that box?" And so to stand on it!"

Mercy waved her hands to brush the papers away froht one in the process She tried to throw it away, but the inrushing air forced it against her fingers, so she wadded it up and stuffed it into her apron pocket "Let’s go, fellows," she said, and then she realized that Jasper Nichols was already across the gap, and opening the other door

Both doors opened out, so that when they were both open, they offered a s the area for so to shoot But when Mercy put her hands on the door to hold it as she passed, she felt how thin it was, and she ih it as easy as a curtain

But it was dark--devilishly dark She wished she hadn’t left her cloak in her own coave the February wind a keener edge, without the sun to dull its dae And this wind between the cars was a terror, a banshee, a weapon of its own The nurse stuck out her feet, reached out her hand for the next rail over, and was grasped instead by the porter, who braced her as she swung the rest of the way across He helped her to a firh the open door, and reached out his hand again to take the private first class in the sa all three of them into the bleak, tubular interior of the next car They stood somewhat dazed, rattled, and ruffled in the empty car, but then the porter rallied them

"Stay low!" he said

"They haven’t shot at any of the passengers yet, have they?" Mercy asked

Jasper Nichols said, "Not as far as I know, but that don’tany attention, they knoe’ve evacuated this car, and the last one If they see us ood"

Moving forward in single file, in a crouch that was graceful for no one, the three unlikely travelers swiftly found the end of that first passenger car and repeated their half-​blind charge across the gap until they were all safely inside the second passenger car

There, dozens of people--far ht to be--were barricaded, stuffed behind their luggage and between the sleeper coe bays All of them were silent as death, and all of them watched with eyes that were too horror-​struck to blink These shiny eyes flickered in thelike foxes from burrohile the hounds barked in circles outside

As a matter of professional duty, Mercy asked, in a hard whisper that only just carried above the sounds of the sht in here? Does anyone need any help with anything?"

No one answered, so she said, "Good Y’all stay put and stay low You’re doing it just right Nobody make a peep, you hear?"

They must have heard, because no one did make a peep, even in polite response

The three travelers received the sah the next few cars, until it felt to Mercy like soe circle of hell--where the floor never stopped , and she was never safe standing up straight Her back hurt fro, and her foreare in the dark, but eventually they reached the last car that ought to be filled with passengers, the sixth sleeper car, and encountered Jasper Nichols’s cousin and fellow porter, Cole Byron The two men nearly knocked heads as they stayed low in the aisle, and the conversation that followed told Mercy little of practical value except that the rearer car had not been wholly evacuated, which Mercy blan

Cyrus Berry said, "One more car, then," and convinced Jasper Nichols to lend hih to look "You stay here," he said to the nurse and to the porter, neither of whoirl underneath a fortress of suitcases began to cry about her nose, and the child’s hed and agreed, even though she was suddenly very curious about what precisely was going on in the next car over, since the warfare sounded much louder from where she crouched in the aisle than it had over in the first irl’s mother, but Cyrus said, "Ma’am, if I need you, I’ll call for you," and dashed out the door

As soon as the soldier was gone, Cole Byron told his cousin, "Soe is up in that car, man That crazy Union fellow, the one who ain’t the soldier, you know the one I mean?"