The Abandoned Island

The First Passengers

Zeph would take a much needed few days off during the start of spring. However, she wouldn't be completely idle. She went back and forth with Mr. Percival on setting up the first passengers for Sodor. Obviously, Mr. Percival and his family were coming, along with the Hatt family, which Zeph was most excited about. They were also bringing along all of the people who used to work on the island and their families and family friends that could be trusted. Zeph, meanwhile, began to do more teasing on the forums. People had asked her many times about which railway she was working on and when it would be in service and for pictures of the engines. So, with engines and rolling stock permission, she took pictures of them from the side and rear, purposely hiding their faces. She took pictures of all the working engines, captioning it as "Standard Gauge Engines" then taking photos of Annie, Clarabel, Victoria, Henrietta, and Maggie and captioning them "Coaches". Finally, she took a group picture of the Skarloey engines all sitting outside their shed, their paint and metal work shining in the sunshine next to several lines of coaches with the caption "Narrow Gauge Railway".

After posting these pictures and captions, there were many number of responses ranging from people identifying the engines and rolling stock in the photos to people asking where this railway was and everything in between. All she would say in response, was that there would be special tickets up for sale soon to the opening day of this railway, but added that there would be strict rules and a waiver that would need to be signed the day of the opening and that it was in Britain. This only fueled the enthusiasts more, which made Zeph smile, and she couldn't help but share the posts with the engines. They were confused, at first, until she explained how the forums worked. Once they understood, the engines were surprised by the response that was garnered from just their pictures. "Do people really want to see us that badly? Even when some of us could be considered failures." asked Derek, with him and Boco looking at each other. Zeph chuckled a bit, "it is a bit ironic, but they are so interested in engines like you two BECAUSE your classes were considered failures. I believe you each only have one of your class preserved, so being able to see rare engines or engines that were thought to have been all scrapped is a great talking point." The engines all found this slightly strange but didn't question it further and listened happily to the excitement brewing.

About halfway through her rest week, Mr. Percival got back to her on how many people would be coming. First, there was Mr. Percival, His wife, and their five children, then was the Hatt family with Stephen Topham Hatt, his wife, and their three children, the Kyndley family with Mr. and Mrs. Kyndley, plus their daughter and her husband. Add the thirty-five families that had lived here prior who were coming with their own children, which brought the total up to one hundred and fifty-six people. That left seventeen open seats that could be sold as tickets. With this information in hand, quite literally, she set about designing a ticket. Obviously, it would have a perforation on one end so she could claim part of the ticket to show it had been used. The border around the words would be two trains, one narrow gauge and the other standard gauge, both pulling coaches till they touched the rear of the other. As for writing, it said, "Opening Day Ticket. The ticket is valid for only one person. Thank you." She had these tickets made, adding a mark to the back of each one so she knew which ones were real in case someone tried to cheat their way in. Only then did she put them up for sale, but she smartly put them up as separate auctions and started them at half the price of a standard ticket. This way, she would get more revenue for these special tickets, and the people likely to win them would be more likely to listen to rules.

Speaking of rules, she created a waiver with the following writing, "This is a legally binding contract. If signed, you are consenting to all rules stated in the document, and every rule broken is a separate $50,000 fine. 1. You will only take pictures and videos if all parties consent. 2. Photos and videos can not be posted without consent from Zephyra, the current boss. 3. You will stay with the group at all times and will not wander off. 4. You will not leave or take anything, be it items, food, drinks, etc. 5. You will show respect to everyone involved. 6. You will not damage or break anything or attempt to damage or break anything. 7. You will listen to the leader of the group, Zephyra. By signing this, you agree to all terms listed above." She hoped this would be enough to deter anyone from doing anything malicious. She printed them out and had them ready. She would also have a camera watch the signing the day of, to have proof that a person signed it. Now she was ready for the day, although very tentative. Emailing Mr. Percival, she requested that him and the other families meet her at a different dock than normal, so she could both keep her transport of items a secret, but also so she could pick at least half of them up extra early so all hundred plus people weren't crammed onto one boat in a single trip. Adding that, obviously, she wouldn't be able to supply food, but she would have coolers full of ice with drinks inside. Looking over to the engines all excitedly talking, Zeph couldn't help but grin. She still hadn't told them of their guests, just that the majority of them would be previous island inhabitants and their families. Of course, the engines were excitedly talking about who they thought were coming and being able to catch up with them.