ROTWOTA: Book 2 - The Falling City of Anthros

The Experiment of No. 7

March 23, 2005
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One night, an important goods train was being delivered down to the harbor. It was being handled by a dark blue 1400 tank engine named Rye. He also had a number 7 painted on his side. He was formerly owned by the South Carolina Railway but was now part of the North & South Carolina Railway. The engine had been built in 1994, and so was considered the youngest in relation to the rest of his class who had been built in the mid-late 30s.

While delivering the train, he had come across points to another line. "Hey Dominic? Do you know where this line goes?" Asked Rye. "I'm not sure, have any clue Camden?" Asked the driver. "I don't have any idea either, maybe we should check it out." Suggested the fireman.

There was no switch, so Dominic hiked down the trail and found a switch hidden in some overgrowth. And once flipping it, Rye uncoupled from the train and headed down the line by himself while his crew headed back down to the nearest signal box and telephone their discovery.

However, for Rye, this would be his biggest mistake. As he puffed along the track, we began to have a feeling that something, or someone was watching him from the trees. But nothing ever came at him from anywhere. But he did eventually come across a big gate which loomed over him. He managed to push it and open it up.

And once he opened the gate up, he was met with the sight of a large building up ahead. "Hello? He called out. "Is someone there?"

"I am."

The sound of another voice made him jump, but confused him at the same time as the voice sounded completely identical to his. But all of a sudden, several trucks were rushed towards him and crashed into him, knocking him out cold.

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"So let me get this straight. You two and Rye found a set of track that goes off into the forest and you came to tell me about it?" Asked the signalman.

"That would be accurate, George. None of us are sure what it actually is, for all we know, it might be an old overgrown siding, or it could be a line heading down to a secret building in the forest or something." Said Dominic.

Just then, a whistle was heard from outside the signal box. "Oh, he's back already?" Asked Camden. When the two men stepped out, they saw Rye sitting there with his lamp on and goods train in tow. "Don't worry you two, it was just track that just doesn't go anywhere, it's fine. Now come on, we have to deliver the train." He said.

The two men looked at each other and chuckled before looking back at the signalman. "Oh, we'd like to apologize for that, George, sorry to bother you, have a good night." Said the men before leaving the signal box. "Yeah, you too." Said George. 

Little did the men know, the 1400 tank engine they had just boarded wasn't even Rye.

And the real Rye would never be the same.

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Experiment 1476/Log 1:
So far, things have just been pretty simple as the engine's only woken up and majorly confused and scared on what's going on. We injected him with a sedative and he's beginning to rest comfortably. Other than that, engine 1477 has taken over for him so thankfully we can work this out in peace. And progress on building engine 1478 is almost complete so we should have him done by tomorrow morning at the minimum.

Experiment 1476/Log 2:
We've recently moved the engine into an underground cell, but we'll actually start the experiment tomorrow. In the meantime, we've also heard that some of the others are preparing to begin experiment 1006. One more thing, we've finally gotten 1478 built. We've decided to have him become the facility shunter and also have him take turns with 1477 as covering the role for Rye. Other than that, everything's just business as usual, except the real fun begins tomorrow.

Experiment 1476/Log 3:
We've just spent the last week on the experiment. And I believe we've done a fine job here for once. We first injected the engine with a serum that's turned his eyes completely black, then we spent the next few days controlling him with other serums and chemicals, creating these approx. 19 foot tall muscular, organic legs attached underneath the engine chassis as a result. We then injected him with another chemical which made his teeth grow sharper and much longer, and I think that frankly, he now has at least hundreds of teeth.

Experiment 1476/Log 4:
We've finally had our first escape attempt where the creature used its newfound tendrils to take out the camera in its room. Jacob and I were sent to investigate the issue and it turns out the beast was hiding in a corner of the room and began to make a break for it but thankfully, I managed to lockdown that section of the lab off so he wouldn't get far. As for Jacob, well we weren't able to find what was left of him until another team was sent in there to take care of the subject. This time, we put in a secret camera in the wall so nothing like this should happen again.

Experiment 1476/Log 5:
Quite a bit has gone on since Jacob's death which has affected some of his closer friends who actually work at this facility. Two husky kids by the names of Jake and Justine, or just June for short, have been reported to have been sneaking down in the lower levels of the building. In other words, they might've found out about our little creation down there, but we're also going to release him out into the wild as we've been given the call of doing so. We hope this operation goes well.

-Dr. Leroy Milton.