Chapter 53: S#9. Midnight Vegetable Train (2)
by fnovelpia
The serial killer boarded the train at dawn.
A dark train pierced through the deep underground.
There, two starving monsters resided.
These monsters gasped for oblivion, hunger, and hatred.
All they needed was reconciliation.
If reconciliation was achieved, the killer would come one step closer to the secrets of this world.
That dawn.
I met the new neighbors, the Hyper sisters.
I had accepted a suspiciously well-paying part-time job.
I couldn’t understand why we were transporting “groceries” at such a late hour.
Even though this was a wealthy neighborhood, being the 80s, it was definitely not a safe zone.
Moreover, Zelda was blind and Hilda was deaf-mute. Both were beautiful, making them easy targets for crime.
Yet, they worked in the dark dawn…
Something was fishy. It smelled like a trap.
But even smelling the trap, I, like a foolish deer, threw myself into it.
It was because of the narration.
So far, massacres and assassinations had been the main tasks, but this time the goal was unique.
Reconciliation.
Moreover, there was a definite reward: “You will come one step closer to the secrets of this world.”
Desperate for information about this crazy horror movie world, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.
Of course, there were personal motives beyond the promised rewards.
I wanted to help the disabled twins as much as I could.
…And I also wanted to earn money for Nancy’s birthday gift.
I saw the Hyper sisters standing in the next yard.
They were still wearing white gowns, as if it were their second skin.
Hilda Hyper tapped her sister Zelda’s shoulder.
She was letting her know I had arrived.
“Summer? Are you here?”
“Yes, I am here.”
“I’m really happy to be working with you. Shall we shake hands?”
Zelda reached out her hand in the wrong direction.
I grasped her hand.
Suddenly, I caught Hilda’s eye.
Hilda blushed slightly and hid behind Zelda.
Unlike her bold sister, she was a bit shy.
“The boxes to be moved are here.”
Zelda said, pointing to the lower right. The boxes were on the left.
Boxes full of green vegetables.
They weighed about 20kg.
Light for me, but a bit heavy for slender women like Zelda and Hilda.
“Zelda. Are we really going to take this on the subway at this time?”
“As I mentioned this morning, I’ll tell you the details when we get there…”
A guilt tinged her trailing voice. She must be weighed down by hiding the truth.
However, spoiled by the narration, I already knew the truth.
-A dark train pierced through the deep underground.
-There, two starving monsters resided.
-The monsters gasped for oblivion, hunger, and hatred.
It wasn’t some buy-one-get-one-free sale; there were actually two monsters on one train.
Perhaps the Hyper sisters themselves might be the monsters.
Ready to reveal their true nature as soon as we entered the subway, I decided to stay alert.
I recalled horror movies set on subways.
<Midnight Meat Train>, <The Crypt>, <Deathline>, <Lost Property>, and more…
While the subway is a common spice in many movies, movies primarily set in the subway are quite rare.
Probably because of the production difficulty.
It’s tough to film and challenging to create sets.
Before we knew it, we had arrived at the subway station.
The station was deserted. There was no one else around.
A train stretched out fast from the deep track end. A screeching metal noise spread.
The sharp noise was piercing, causing Zelda and me to furrow our brows.
Hilda, unable to hear, remained calm.
The train stopped in front of us, its doors opening to reveal a seriously degraded interior.
Expecting the usual Seoul subway, I was instead greeted by a can drowned in graffiti.
“Wow… the train is completely covered in graffiti.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, there’s colorful graffiti painted all over it.”
“It must be interesting to look at. I wish I could see it too,” Zelda remarked, her tone tinged with disappointment.
The train was as empty as the station itself; it was just us and no sign of the two monsters anywhere.
“Shall we go to the last car?”
Led by the twins, we carried the boxes of vegetables toward the last car, the likely moment for the ‘monsters’ to appear drawing near.
My hands were slightly sweaty, my axe ready at my belt.
We reached the final car, its door sealed with thick chains and locked with a padlock.
Hilda glanced at me, nervously pulling out the keys.
Her hands trembled as she unlocked the padlock.
Click-
“Summer… I’m sorry,” Zelda Hyper apologized.
Just then, the train shook slightly and the lights began to flicker.
Blink, blink, blink.
As we entered a tunnel, darkness engulfed us.
The twins held their breath.
A pungent smell of blood seeped through from beyond the door.
I quietly stared ahead, setting down the box of vegetables, and drew my axe.
The flickering of the lights stopped.
The scene in the last car was revealed as the door opened.
The blade of my axe, raised to slice through any monsters, hesitated.
“What in the world…”
I was speechless.
The car was composed entirely of meat.
Walls, ceiling, and even the floor were covered in ruddy raw meat—a veritable feast of flesh.
In the center of the car, a large mass of meat lay sprawled, appearing almost human in shape.
Moving closer, I realized it wasn’t the work of a butcher but rather a meat-human.
Its appearance was grotesquely bizarre, like someone’s skin had been peeled back to reveal raw, sloppily mashed meat underneath.
“Zelda, what on earth is that?”
“That’s our client. Don’t wake them; they’re sleeping.”
Hilda then took vegetables out of the box and laid them on the floor, pulling a broad bone saw from her pocket.
She began to saw off meat from the walls, packing it back into the box that had previously contained the vegetables.
What was she doing?
Hilda looked at me with pleading eyes, as desperate and pitiful as a rain-soaked puppy.
With no other choice, I picked up my axe.
I gently sliced the meat from the floor.
The meaty space undulated unpleasantly, almost as if alive.
“Grrrrr…”
A strange noise echoed.
Turning, I saw the meat-human beginning to rise.
It had awoken.
The meat human quickly devoured the vegetables laid out on the floor.
It seemed as hungry as if it hadn’t eaten in ten years.
It ate the vegetables cleanly but was clearly still hungry.
The meat-human then glared at Zelda.
“Grrr… Is this all you have today?”
“Yes, Meat Girl. It’s enough.”
“It’s far from enough! I’m so hungryyyyy!!!”
The meat-human suddenly roared and sprang up.
“I can’t stand this, I’ll have to eat you tooooooo!!!!!”
It charged at us.
Instinctively, my body reacted.
I elbowed it in the jaw, a blow strong enough to turn a head completely around.
The meat-human was catapulted against the meat walls as if struck by a cannon.
To prevent any further attacks, I swiftly severed its limbs with my axe.
Red blood sprayed, soaking into the meat-filled space.
The meat-human screamed and thrashed.
“Hic…”
A startled Hilda hiccuped and shivered.
Blind Zelda was at a loss.
“What’s happening? What’s going on, Summer…?”
“It seems our client had some complaints. I just took care of it.”
A box now filled with meat torn from the car.
After locking the door with a chain and padlock, both the Hyper sisters and I were covered in blood.
“I didn’t know transporting groceries was supposed to be like this.”
“I’m sorry for dragging you into this mess, Summer.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“We had no choice. If we had told you the truth, you wouldn’t have agreed to help…”
Zelda bowed her head.
“The Meat Girl in that compartment… it was our fault she turned out that way.”
“A mistake?”
“It was our drug that transformed her into that monstrous form.”
So, the person became a meat human after taking a drug created by the Hyper sisters.
The Hyper sisters were indeed mad scientists, the source of all evil in this horror movie…
I sent them a look of contempt, but naturally, Zelda didn’t notice.
Hilda, anxious, alternated her gaze between Zelda and me.
Being deaf, she couldn’t understand our conversation and was unable to intervene.
“Zelda, why did you hire me? Did you plan to turn me into another meat human, or throw me in as food?”
“No, we had no intention of harming you.”
“That’s hard to believe. Then tell me the reason.”
“Hilda thought… given Summer’s build, you’d never be overpowered by them… I’ve also felt it myself. Your body is incredibly strong…”
Zelda cautiously reached out her hand.
“Huh? Why does your body feel soft?”
“That’s your sister.”
“Oh… my mistake.”
She withdrew her hand from Hilda and then lightly pressed my chest.
“To put it plainly, Summer, you’re our bodyguard. You ensure we can safely procure food.”
“A bodyguard, huh? That doesn’t really appeal to me.”
“Please, we’re begging you… help us…”
Zelda was on the verge of tears as she clung to me.
Her sister Hilda also began to cry and clung to her.
Seeing the two delicate, identical twins crying together, my heart softened greatly.
The Hyper sisters didn’t seem evil, but I couldn’t blindly trust them.
“Please… we’ll pay you whatever it takes, Summer!!”
“It’s not about the money. It’s a matter of trust.”
Tears formed at the corners of Zelda’s eyes.
I sighed.
“Zelda, are there other monsters besides that meat human?”
“How did you know about that?”
She looked startled.
As the narration had said, there were two starving monsters on this train.
My goal was to reconcile these two monsters.
The train continued its relentless journey.
I carried the box filled with raw meat from the back of the train to the front.
“Now we’ll head to the front car.”
“Isn’t that the cockpit?”
“No, this train is custom-built.”
We arrived at the front car, which, like the back, was sealed with chains and a padlock.
Hilda unlocked it.
I prepared my axe, ready to confront another meat human.
The door opened.
The scene that unfolded was completely different from the back car.
“This is…”
Unlike the meat-filled red of the back car, this area was entirely green.
The walls, ceiling, and floor were made up of vegetables.
Broccoli, cabbage, spinach, leeks, celery, and more.
The space was adorned with a fresh array of vegetables.
In the middle of this jungle-like area lay something.
A human figure. But this was no meat human.
It was a vegetable human, made entirely of vegetables.
Hilda began to unpack the raw meat from the box and spread it on the floor, filling the now-empty box with vegetation from the walls and floor, just as she had done in the back car.
This time, it wasn’t meat but vegetables.
Suddenly, the Vegetable Man stood up.
He voraciously devoured the raw meat laid out on the floor.
“Is this all there is for today?”
“Yes, Vegetable Man. It’s sufficient.”
“It’s nowhere near enough! I’m so hungry!!!”
The scenario unfolded just as before.
The monster charged at us, and I intervened.
I chopped his vegetable limbs with my axe; it felt like slicing through cabbage.
After noticing, Hilda cautiously placed the severed limbs into a box, which quickly filled with green.
I realized the true nature of the vegetables that had been fed to the Meat Girl in the last car.
“…We are feeding them to each other.”
The vegetables in the box would serve as tomorrow’s meal for the Meat Girl.
Zelda nodded.
“Yes, they can only eat human flesh.”
“Human flesh? But these are vegetables?”
“They are a sort of human flesh, since they come from the Vegetable Man.”
The Meat Girl consumes the vegetables of the Vegetable Man.
The Vegetable Man consumes the meat of the Meat Girl.
They feed each other their own flesh…
It was extremely grotesque.
Zelda called the meat human ‘Meat Girl’ and the vegetable human ‘Vegetable Man.’
They resided at opposite ends of the train.
Both possessed remarkable regenerative abilities, recovering from any injury.
They even infused their surroundings with their flesh—meat and vegetables.
Even if slightly sliced, everything would regenerate by the next day.
Their diet was composed of human flesh.
However, since they could not be supplied with actual human flesh, they fed each other their own flesh.
“Look at us, Summer. My sister is blind, and I am deaf,” Zelda said.
“It’s not easy for us, with our disabilities, to shuttle back and forth on the train to care for Meat Girl and Vegetable Man. Last time, we almost fell victim to some dangerous thugs.”
“Why do you continue this work?”
“We created them, so we must take responsibility.”
They maintained a sense of responsibility.
“If we neglect them, Meat Girl and Vegetable Man would become so starved they might attack people.”
“…”
“Please, help us until we find a way to turn them back into humans.”
Before we knew it, the train had reached its final stop.
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