Back At The Village, Part 1

Luce could make sure that the brake wasn’t on, but there wasn’t much she or any of them could do to speed up their slow roll into the station. As soon as the reached the far end of the platform Bug and Cy were off and running towards the station building and Lumpy’s slowly-moving form.
“Don’t get too close if he’s sick.” Luce yelled after them. “Check first!”
The others had completely forgotten this in their panic, and had to suddenly slow down, coming to a stumbling skidding halt an arms-length from Lumpy, who was trying to drag himself up and onto a bench. Beg and Cy looked at each other, then at Lumpy, trying to figure out some way to help.
“Lumpy!” Cy asked. “What do we do? What do you need?”
Lumpy got an elbow onto the bench and levered himself into a slump against it, somewhere between sitting and lying down.
“Sick. Don’t get close.” He said, then added. “Water.”
Bug pointed at the slowly-approaching railcart convoy, and at Cy’s nod, ran back along the platform and jumped onto their railcart, digging around for one of the water jugs.
“He’s still speaking.” She reported to Luce. “But he looks sick, like the stranger but not as bad. Or grey.”
She waited for the railcart convoy to close the remaining gap, then jumped back onto the platform and headed back towards Lumpy while Luce applied the brake and came to a halt.
“I’m going to try to pour this in your mouth, OK?” Bug said, hoisting the jug.
“You’ll probably get pretty wet,” Cy added. “But …”
He paused and sniffed.
“But maybe it’ll wash away some of the vomit?” Lumpy asked, tipping his head back and opening wide. “That’s a good thing, believe me.”
Bypassing Lumpy’s coughing and spluttering, which Cy and Bug tried to avoid being sprayed by, Luce headed through the waiting room doors and into the building to look for Mister Station. She peered into the ticket office he used as a bedroom, finding it empty, and then stepped into the workshop where his machines sat and hummed. The table in there was covered with dozens of little jars and containers, all different sizes, arranged in groups and labelled with little scraps of paper. A chalkboard she vaguely recognised from outside the village hall was propped up on one of the benches, neat lists of names written upon it, each name with a mark against it. There were a lot of ticks, and only a few question marks.
She spotted Mister Station’s cables heading out through a side door, and followed them, stepping out onto the dusty gravel road in front of the station. In the area outside the waiting room, Mister Station was carefully lifting Doctor Erik off of a bicycle trailer and placing him gently on the ground, next to his wife.
The whole road was covered with people; Cy’s parents were there, and Bug’s father, and Doctor and Mrs Erik, and … Luce suddenly couldn’t breathe when she saw her mother lying there, just as still and grey-looking as all the others, but she must have made a noise of some sort, because Mister Station stood up and looked around, starting to speak.
“Mister Langst … Luce!?” He corrected himself, surging to his feet and taking a few steps towards her. “Luce, you’re OK? You got the message?”

Mister Station noticed Luce’s fixed stare, then grimaced as he tracked her gaze and saw who she was looking at.
“Don’t worry …” He said, then stopped himself and looked straight at Luce, who was still staring at her mother. “Luce? Luce, please look this way.”
After a long pause, Luce looked up.
“Is she … Are they all dead?” She asked.
“No.” Mister Station replied. “They’re sick; They’re very sick, but they’re not dead.”
He looked around.
“Did you see Mister Langston? He’s been helping me move everyone.”
“Lumpy’s out on the platform.” Bug called out from the doors to the waiting room. “He saw us arrive, then fell over.”
She looked around, spotted her father’s un-moving form, swallowed hard, and wiped at her eyes.
“He said to tell you that he needs another ‘booster’, whatever that is; Cy’s getting some water into him and trying to deal with the vomit.”
Mister Station nodded, adjusted Doctor Erik into a more comfortable position, and started making his way between the people, back to the station building.
“Please be careful not to touch anyone.” He warned. “I don’t know exactly what this thing is yet, so … Be careful?”
“Cy!” Bug called out, looking back over her shoulder. “Stay out on the platform with Lumpy, OK?”
She gestured around at the road full of motionless people.
“I heard you tell Luce that they’re not dead; Why aren’t they moving though? Our one moves and mumbles.”
She looked hard at Mister Station.
“And how come you’re not sick? Or worried about touching them?” She demanded. “And why isn’t Lumpy as sick as the rest?”
Mister Station pointed to his cables, then gestured at the workshop side of the station building.
“My immune system, most of it at least, is in there.” He said. “There’s not a lot it can’t handle.”
He continued working his way between the people, gathering up his cables as he went.
“And Mister Langston has some … Extra systems; They make him a fair bit more resistant to illness. The booster I gave him would probably kill most people.”
Bug stepped back into the waiting room as Mister Station made his way past Luce and through the side door into the workshop, reeling in his cables, then step out of the workshop again, into the waiting room this time, with Luce trailing behind.
They heard his steps falter and slow as he walked out onto the platform, and watched as he stopped just outside the doors, looking first at Cy and Lumpy, and then at the railcart convoy.
“Bug?” Mister Station asked, without turning around. “When you said that ‘your one’ moves and mumbles, what exactly did you mean?”