I, Peter: The Sodor Tales

Chapter 18: Finding the Slaughter Escaper

"Great", I told everyone "We killed Kathleen! Now we have to find some good coal for Rheneas and all of the other engines!" 

"I bet I could be of assistance.", Pigling Bland told us. "I heard that there is an engine on the island that knows all of the coal mine on Sodor by heart. He also narrowly escaped from untimely death without any consequences. I'll take you to him! Oh, Rusty!" But Rusty didn't come. We were so worried. 

"Maybe Rusty was delayed by a faulty signal.", Flopsy suggested.

"Or he probably b-broke d-down because of the coal shortage.", whimpered Benjamin. That was it! We went back to the engine sheds to see if it was true. Rusty was standing a few feet away from the sheds. He was coughing, wheezing, sneezing, and spewing black smoke out of his funnel. 

"The bad coal has gotten me.", he spluttered. 

"What about the other engines?", asked Mopsy.

"They have been poisoned by the bad coal too, unfortunately.", Rusty told us. He showed us the sheds, where all the engines on the Skarloey Railway were coughing, spluttering, sneezing and wheezing. Black smoke was smoking out of their funnels and coming out all over their bodies. Some of the engines looked really bad, like they were about to crash and break down forever and never be able to pull trains again.

"Go! Run! To the mines! Find the coal! Save the island!", yelled Rusty hoarsely as we were backing out of the engine shed. 

"I have an idea!", piped up Pigling Bland suddenly. "What if we called out for the engine who was saved from untimely slaughter without any karma and knows all the coal mines on the island, just like we did for Rusty."

"OH OLIVER!", we called out. "WE NEED YOU!" But Oliver didn't come.

"Let me guess", snarked Cottontail. "He was delayed by a faulty signal."

"Hey, I have an idea!", exclaimed Squirrel Nutkin. "Steam engines whistle to each other to communicate, so how about if we whistle to get Oliver to come." So we tried it. We whistled loud and long and high like a giant chorus of birds, steaming teakettles and steam engines. Finally, we heard a long, loud, low whistle and a green engine chuffed into view.

"That's Oliver!", squealed Pigling. "My hero!"