Sodor: Left for Dead

The Final Hours of Peace

We awoke the next morning as if nothing had ever happened. I got dressed into my uniform and we left to get Thomas. Thankfully Percy was still asleep as we pulled out of the works shed. We pulled up to the water tower to top off Thomas' water tanks and as we did we saw Rheneas gathering some trucks.

Just before we could fill up Thomas' tanks Ted yelled that Thomas was all good and that we should go. I thought this was strange, but before I could argue with him the signal went green and we went off. I later found out that Ted overheard Thomas chatting with Rheneas and what he heard was somewhat concerning. Apparently Rheneas said the new water they had gotten felt strange and had been a lot weaker than normal. He tried laughing it off by saying he hoped he didn't have any little fishies in his tank, but proceeded to almost cough up a lung. Ted had grown concerned after hearing the EAS alert and didn't want to take any risks. I thought he was being paranoid, but the thought he may have been right lingered in the back of my mind.

We picked Annie and Clarabel from Elsbridge and traveled up to Tidmouth to begin our first run. At first it went great. We picked up our passengers and traveled up toward Knapford where we went onto the branch up to Elsbridge. There we exchanged some passengers with Molly then traveled down the Ffarquhar branch. As we pulled into Ffarquhar I jumped from the cab and went to Clarabel to get ready to use her to take us back up the line, however I noticed Clarabel's controls weren't working so we weren't able to travel backwards. So that took some time to get Thomas and his coaches flipped around for the return journey. As we waited Thomas grew impatient saying

"Oh where is that damn bus, he's going to make me late! The last thing I want is James bickering with me. I had enough teasing from Rheneas today!"

Ted and I just looked at each other and sighed. For an engine as old as Thomas he still was as feisty as a child. After several more minutes of waiting Tom Tipper rolled up in his mail van. He told us that he passed Bertie who was sitting on the side of the road facing a car laying in a ditch. He noticed a man, he assumed to be his driver, along with several others near the window trying to talk to the man in the car. We continued talking and soon I felt several taps on my shoulder. I turned and saw Ted staring off towards the nearby town. I looked to see a massive crowd of people. It was fucking huge I tell ya. A nearby workman went to investigate, but just he got close he screamed in utter terror and began to run. The crowd proceeded to chase after him and it was then when more screams and even several alarms echoed from the town. Before we knew it the workman tripped and was surrounded by the horde. We were horrified to hear his screams with what could only be described as the splattering of his blood. Just as one finished feasting on the man it looked towards us and let a blood curdling scream and began coming after us soon followed by the rest. The people at the platform scrambled into Annie and Clarabel; the nearby workmen pounded on the doors begging to be let inside. Tom jumped into the cab and told us to release the brake. I quickly followed and we began to exit the station just as those creatures reached the poor bastards still on the platform. We raced down the branch at speeds we had never gone before. We saw Daisy who was sitting in her shed. She seemed confused but as she looked behind us her face turned to one of fear. We thundered past and as we entered the tunnel we heard her screams echo out from behind. We also saw Terence sitting in a field. We whistled for him to get to safety, but we had already shot past. It was then we heard the frantic honking of a horn and there we saw Bertie being chased by his own horde of those creatures.

There was nothing we could do as he raced towards the horde that had been chasing us. We soon made it to Elsbridge where we finally had a chance to calm down. Just then a whistle echoed from the distance and then Emily raced by with her coaches. The first two held scared and worried people while the third shook and rattled. I would tell you what was happening within, but I couldn't tell due to the blood which coated the windows from within. We quickly backed Thomas into the goods shed and thankfully there was a truck full of coal and a few buckets of water so we were able to refill his bunker and tanks. At the time the fear of us coming off the rails was still fresh in my mind. I mean we got lucky traveling down the branch at those speeds. I guess that's what you call foreshadowing.