ROTWOTA: Book 1 - The Beginning of Extinction

Reunion

It was only around 1 AM in the morning, but all around the camp, everyone was being woken up abruptly by the soldiers who were telling everyone to get inside the coaches.

Cody, Emma and the other humans were most certainly confused as to why they were being woken up like this.

"What is this? What's going on?" Asked Emma frantically. "I'm not sure, but it has to be important if these soldiers are being like this." Said Cody reassuringly.

Soon enough, once everyone was awake, the passengers were split up into single file lines that lead into each coach.

Cody and Emma were assigned to the second coach, and upon seeing Carter, Seth, and the other engine crew members rushing over to the locomotive sheds to start the engines up, Cody called out to Carter and Seth to ask what was going on.

"The military received a message from Sam's driver saying they're not only pretty close to our location, but that they've also found quite a few survivors." Explained Carter.

"Did they say who these survivors were?" Asked Cody. "We can't talk anymore, we have to get Eric out!" Said Seth before running off with Carter.

Eventually, everyone was loaded into the coaches and the order of the train was arranged. Eric was in front while Jerome and Nico were right behind him and two of the coaches were right behind Nico while Aiden was behind the two coaches while the last two coaches were coupled up behind him.

As for the coaches themselves, there was at least two soldiers in every coach to defend in case of an ambush. But Cody, Emma, and others were well aware that they weren't going to be attacked the entire trip thanks to a certain wolf.

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It had been nearly 30 minutes since the group had departed.

Some people like Ivan and Emma and other passengers took naps to pass the time while others such as Oliver and Cody and other strangers would just go ahead and play random games like I Spy purely out of boredom. Everyone else had been staying on guard.

Overall, nothing was even happening for the entire journey, but Cody had also drifted off to sleep a while ago and he was sure it was going to be nice when they arrived at their destination.

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"Is he in here?"

"Yeah, there he is over there."

"Guys, I think he's asleep."

"Let's check if he's still alive."

These were all the voices that Cody could hear while in his sleep. Some of them were ones that he knew were familiar while the rest were ones that he never heard before in his life.

He was overall still too tired, and it was only after someone slapped him across his face that he awoke from his deep sleep, albeit still groggy.

However, that didn't stop him from allowing a large smile to appear and spread across his face.

Two of the four boys standing infront of him had faces that, to Cody, were impossible to be considered as unrecognizable.

Arthur and Brian.

"Oh my god! Guys, how did you survive?" Asked Cody.

"Well, to put it in summary, Brian found Sid and I and we camped out and Arthur found us the day after the blast. And just a couple days ago, we were taken in by a group of soldiers and we were picked up by these trains. Oh and by the way, name's Jeff." Explained one of the other boys with them.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Jeff and Sid, I'm Cody." Said Cody as he shook hands with the two boys with Sid being extremely quiet compared to Jeff, Arthur, and Brian.

"Also, don't worry about Sid, he doesn't talk that much." Said Jeff.

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Meanwhile, more surviving engines had been found by Eric and the others at their destination.

The engines with Sam included a red LNER B12 named Jason, a green southern railway Q1 named Brandon, and a turquoise colored LMS 2P named Amanda.

As for their conditions, the worst for both Jason and Brandon was them both being covered in dirt, filth, and what could only be assumed as blood, but Jason also had a wooden shield made from an old truck put up on his running board. Unfortunately, Amanda wasn't as lucky as the other two as a large eyepatch was covering one of her eyes it's blood dripping out of it.

However, they hadn't been the only engines in the group. Aside from the three steam locomotives, there were two 08 diesel shunters, one purple and one green with the names Splatter and Dodge written on their sides.

But there was a third diesel with them, it was a Class 42 warship with brownish paint, yellowish stripes over the side, and a large metallic claw over its roof.

"I'm glad to see all of you are alright, but what is HE doing here?" Asked Eric crossly. "Yeah, he's Diesel freaking 10! The most dangerous diesel locomotive in all of Britain!" Said Nico. "He'll rip us all to bits if he stays around!" Exclaimed Jerome.

"Now before you guys make any more remarks like that, just know that he's on our side." Said Jason. "Well how can you confirm that?" Asked Jerome.

"I know Splodge and I have been quite troublesome over the years, but in these times, it's necessary to team up with anyone you can find, even steam engines." Explained Diesel 10 as he spoke up.

"Very true, with the size of the army these "anthros" as they call themselves, boss has decided we need to set aside our differences and work together for the benefit of winning this war." Stated Splatter.

"We've even seen how strong these rebels are as they've caused quite a large amount of destruction at where we were previously assigned to." Said Dodge.

"Well, I'll trust you for now. But if I see any sign of betrayal coming our way, I might as well ram you through those buffers behind you." Said Aiden as he shunted the rake of coaches into a shed.

"Also, if you want to know about anyone else. We haven't heard from the other engines since the blast, and a few days ago, we came across Dexter, in pieces. If anything, he had been caught by something mutated by the radiation." Said Amanda.

"I'm sorry about him Brandon." Said Eric comfortingly. "It's alright, it wasn't your fault, and he's in a better place now." Said Brandon sadly.

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Everything had actually been going really well for Cody as he very quickly got acquainted with some of the steam locomotives with him and the others.

Although to him, it was like things were being too easy. It was like things were leading up to something that was going to be anything but easy when they found the source of what was causing this entire war in the first place.

And while he was resting in one of the tents set up with Emma, Jenny, and a few other people , he suddenly heard staticky noises coming from Carter's radio.

FINAL CHAPTER COMING THIS SATURDAY!(it's already out so who cares)