Sodor Left for Dead [AU]: Alternative fate.

Unexpected reencounters

We spent the night at Elsbridge, once again, James told me he felt weird, like if someone was missing, someone that was supposed to show up here. But no one did, and i can't lie, i got a similar feeling.

I slept in a few old coaches, they weren't exactly comfortable, but they would do for now, i think.
We woke up in the morning, very early. I discussed a few things with the group, mainly Richard and Phil. We agreed we should look for our families, and then try to get out of this hell hole, hoping that the mainland was safer.

I don't have much family myself, and they all live in the mainland anyways, so i guess ill get to see them w̶h̶e̶n̶  if we get out of here, Phil said he lived in Knapford, all he wanted was to get his wife and kids, to which i agreed, and soon enough, we started making our way to the big station.

We got there eventually, spotting a few of those zombies, most of those distracted with the rolling stock. To our suprise, the station itself was completely deserted, Phil got out, armed with the gun i gave him, even if it had only two bullets, it still would be pretty useful. Meanwhile James and i looked for something so Phil's family could be in while we returned to Elsbridge, we should have brought one of the old coaches, now that i think of it.

We settled for a brake van.

We waited for a few moments there, until i spotted Topham's office. I decided to take a look in there, and the office was suprisingly in a decent state. Almost as if no one had entered at all. I searched the entire of the office, just in case there was something useful in there, but all i found was an old radio and letters sent by a "Burnett Stone"

Didn't ring any bells, so i just left them there.

When i got out, it only took about 15 minutes for Phil to come back with his wife, Edna, and his daughter, Susie. They got on, and we started to make our way to Elsbridge. However, about halfway there, James stopped. He told us he heard something, and yes, we soon heard what sounded like a faint whistle.

We heard Susie scream "Behind us!"

I took a look, and quickly we started moving, as Arthur was heading throwards us at high speeds. He was right behind us, pushing some vans, while groaning.

James ran almost as fast as the first time we ran away from those things, sure, there were vans in between us, but we didn't really wanted to be pushed by a zombified engine.

His own groaning seemed to alert nearby infected people, as we started seeing more and more of these, with James running over a few of these. We eventually got to Elsbridge, with Arthur still chasing us, someone must have heard us coming, as they got in a signal box, and changed the points to send Arthur down the Ffarquard branchline just as we changed tracks. We got rid of Arthur for now, we backed James back in the goodshed, and got Phil's family back to safety, i needed a few moments to relax, and im sure i dozed of quickly.

When i woke up, however, i heard arguing from outside, soon followed by Duck quickly reversing away, while Henry kept on yelling at him.

James, who had apparently also drifted to sleep soon after getting back here, asked what was happening.

According to Henry, Duck had admited he had left Donald for dead, after the first wave of the infected arrived, so it was better if he didn't stick around.

More arguing commenced, as James defended Duck, saying how he and his crew had saved his life two days ago, while Henry replied that "If he did that to Donald, what's stopping him from doing the same to us!?"

After a few moments, James growled, and said he we should look for Duck, and against Henry's wishes, that's what we did, i hopped on to James, and told Phil we would be back soon.

We went down the line for a short while, following the tracks Duck had gone by, eventually stopping at Wellsworth for water. It was then we heard an all too familiar whistle, and soon saw Douglas stopping right next to us.

He looked tired, we were about to ask him if he had seen Duck, when he begged for us to help him with Donald, of course, we agreed, thinking having both of the twins helping us find Duck would be great, even if he had abandoned one of them two days ago.

As we made out way down to the little western, i noiticed Douglas acting strange, and something specific caught my attention
He said that Donald had ran away last night, and he was barely even able to catch him after he went for Murdoch.

At first, i wondered why Donald would go after Murdoch, specially after he was being chased by an infected engine, i was too distracted at the time to noitice Douglas sneaking behind us, and as we were sent down a small yard, he began pushing James, umtil he was against a flatbed, James started screaming at the sight un front of him.

It was Donald, or at least, what remained of him.

Douglas apologized to us, but that he needed us to do this so Donald could "calm down" saying how his crew just wasn't enough, to then apologize to James directly, as the flatbed stared to break down, amd Donald began to growl