The Abandoned Island

Hurried Help

The small cavalcade slithered along the tracks towards the Anopha Quarry. The sky's oranges slowly faded and gave way to darkness, and swirling between the trains wheels was the beginning of the thick fog. As the fog grew large and thicker, Rosie mumbled under her breath, "I hate that bird." Her passenger and the coal truck had to agree. The owl had hooted a couple of times while she was here, and every time, a mist rolled in, and it was always incredibly thick.

Once the mist was as thick as it could get, the train crawled forward at a walking pace. The group then began to hear running water, and with nothing better to do, Zeph checked the map on her phone to see about any nearby water. According to the map, there was no major river, but there was a smaller river that ran down from the mountains. As she put her phone away, the sound of rushing water grew louder, accompanied soon after by metal and wooden creaking. Curious, she peered outside of the cab, just to dive back in. From a glance, they were on a thin wooden bridge that was rotted and could easily give way, but Rosie continued on with confidence. "R-Rosie! Are you crazy?! The bridge will collapse!"

The lavander tank engine chuckled softly as she puffed across the rickety looking bridge. "It hasn't collapsed since Toby was on it way before I came to the island. He told me that his driver began calling it 'Toby's Tightrope' since he was dangling above the rushing water. Thankfully, Mavis pulled him back onto solid ground." "Yeah, that doesn't fill me with confidence of its strength! I couldn't even see the river!" "Oh, don't worry. Toby told me the bridge was rebuilt with metal and concrete, with wood built around it to resemble its old look. They have to run quarry trains down this track after all." That did make sense, but even still, with the thick fog and only being able to see the old, rotted wood right beside the rails, on top of hearing rushing water; it was absolutely terrifying. Thankfully, they made it across with no issues at all, except Zeph was sure the whole island could hear her heartbeat racing.

As they progressed further, they knew they were nearing the entrance to the mine. Not wanting to risk their safety, Zeph soon had Rosie stop and dropped her fire. "Why are we stopping here," she asked Zeph, who started to unpack her sleeping bag. "It would be both unsafe and unwise to continue any further. I can't even see to the front of your boiler, so I know you also can't see anything. I know we have been traveling in these conditions, but going off what Daisy and the others said about a possible collapse at the quarry, I don't want us to continue and you derailing or crashing into a landslide." "If that is the case, shouldn't we have stayed at the sheds at Ffarquhar?" "We could have, but I wanted to be at the quarry as soon as possible to make sure this Mavis is ok." Before Rosie could respond, the three of them heard pained groaning in the distance. It was faint and barely heard over the light wind, and it added a creepiness to the already spooky atmosphere.

"Rosie... Do you know what that sound is?" The lavander tank engine gulped, "N-no, I don't. Do you?" The young girl shuddered, " N-no, I don't either. But, considering that fog conjuring owl, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if ghosts inhabited this island." The three of them look around, trying to find the source of the eerie groaning. "Should we stay here if it is a ghost?" asked the coal truck worriedly. The tank engine agreed, but Zeph tried to sound confident, "Well, I doubt a ghost could move either of you. And it sounds like there is only one, so if it somehow could move one of you, the other two of us could save you." Despite her best efforts, the other two weren't convinced, but the trio eventually found themselves into an uneasy sleep.

When they eventually woke up, the thick fog was still present, but the sunlight helped burn some of it off and helped them see further. At least Zeph could see a few feet in front of Rosie, but not any further past that point. With a few heaping shovel fulls of coal tossed into Rosie's firebox and a quick light of her lighter, the tank engine was building steam and soon began to puff down the tracks again. Despite the improved vision, Zeph made sure they didn't go any faster than they did the prior day, as there was still safety concerns. At said speed, it would take an hour till they reached what was clearly the entrance to the quarry, and thankfully, it was not buried in much stone. She was able to take the coal shovel and unbury the tracks with relative ease.