Nothing but Me, Myself and the Mist

"The Late Evacuation"

"December 1st, 1976, Tidmouth"

"Do you think Thomas and Percy are okay?" asked Annie nervously.

"I'm sure they are." Clarabel assured. "Right Toby?...Toby?"

"Toby? Are you alright?"

"I wish I could say I was Henrietta. I'm worried. We still don't exactly know what's going on, engines are missing, people are missing, I just don't get it! Now we're holding an evacuation!"

"Now Toby calm down. I'm sure there's a very reasonable explanation for all of this. Besides, this evacuation is just a safety precaution."

"If you call breaking railway regulations a precaution then I guess so."

"Toby, can you at least try to remain optimistic?"

Toby sighed and looked away. How could he remain optimistic about something he didn't even understand?

"Toby we've got some good news." said Toby's driver. "Bulgy is on his way up from the Little Western with a bunch of people. They're running a bit behind due to the mist being thicker down there, but should be up within the next hour."

"Well that's a relief."

"Indeed it is old boy. The current plan is to make our sprint tomorrow. We'll send out a few more broadcasts till then-"

Toby's driver was caught off by the sound of a whistle.

"What was that?" asked Annie.

"Why it sounded like a whistle!" remarked Clarabel.

"That almost sounded like James." Toby mumbled.

Soon the whistles grew louder and louder, it eventually went intangent with fast, hurried chuffing.

"OH GET BACK!" called a voice.

James then thundered through Tidmouth faster than anyone had ever seen before.

"What's got him in such a hurry?" Henrietta wondered.

"It's almost as if he were running from something-"

"Yeah running from that..." Toby said looking on at the colossal beast which followed not too far from James.

The creature was nothing from this world. It had the legs of a spider, but the body of a lobster. Toby, the coaches and nearby people looked at the thing in aw and horror.

***

"December 2nd, 1976, Crosby"

Pain and discomfort. That was all Darrell could think of as he awoke tangled in the bushes. He looked around, vision still blurry from the impact, to see what looked to be a small orange bridge above him.

"Just my luck I had to bail out when we were on a bridge."

Darrell got up and cradled his arm against his chest.

"Hope to god I didn't break anything." he thought as he climbed up the embankment.

As pulled his way from the ditch Darrell noticed a large set of buildings barely visible through the mist, but that wasn't what got his attention. What did was the large locomotive slowly making its way towards him. Darrell ducked down to hide as the large tank engine passed overhead. He could just barely make out the look of concern on the engines' face. Just as soon as the engine appeared did it vanish into the mist. Darrell got up, dusted the dirt off his shirt and walked towards the large set of buildings which soon revealed themselves to be a station. He looked at a small green sign which read Crosby in big white lettering.