Chapter 67: Socrates Makes Friends

Everyone seems reluctant to get back on the train, even Chime, but no one complains outwardly when Ande heads for the locomotive and wakes the slumbering engine. Within a very short time we're ready to move on again, the boiler coals still hot enough to stoke some steam.

Beckett and Vander carry the last packets of cooked meat on board as the train begins to roll, leaving the carcass of the deer behind, bones sharply reflective in the light of the dying fire. I can't look, wish they left the flesh behind, but know I need to hold my tongue and my opinion to myself. If nothing else, the infusion of fresh food has brightened the crew's outlook.