7 Days Away

Story 2: Freight Train Fright

Back story: When I was 5-ish, I went to Boston, Maine on a train. On the way there, a freight train came on the wrong rail and almost rammed into our train, luckily, we pulled to a side rail in time.

Alvin boarded the sleek new train called "Quicksilver". It's top speed was 100 mph and ran from Bathurst, Canada, to Atlanta, Georgia. He chose a seat next to the window hoping to get a good view of the trees. He was going from New York, New York, to Richmond, Virginia. A few miles down the track they had left the city and Alvin saw more and more trees with a occasional farm here and there. Almost 37 miles away from where he started and they entered the first long tunnel. The tunnel was dark and echoed loudly. He heard a freight train go by the other way, it sounded quite long. When they got to the first stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he noticed something weird about the train. Every 4 minutes or so, the lights flashed on and off in all of the cars, so the train turned pitch black. Alvin's mom told him it was nothing, but he thought it was so weird that the lights flickered off for exactly 1 second, all at the same time every four minutes. The train left the station right on time and kept heading south. Alvin decided to pull out his phone to see if they were going southwest, south, or southeast. He opened his GPS app, calibrated it and then he went white. The train was going north on the south track. Alvin showed his mom and she, too, got a distressed look in her eye. They had never turned around, but they had just crossed back into New York! Alvin quickly walked up to the service button and pressed it. The conductor picked it up. "What's the problem?" He said in a low voice. "The train is heading north on the south track!!!" Alvin yelled in distress. The conductor immediately turned the speaker off and the train speed up. "Oh no..." Alvin thought to himself. "If that freight train turns around, were gonna get hit head on!". The freight train that had passed earlier was the only other train on the Quicksilver track, taking ores from Georgia and bringing them to factories across the east coast. One of the assistants on the train came over and asked Alvin's mom what was wrong. It's obvious what she said. When she took out her phone to show him, he backed up and ran to the front of the train. From their car, they could here yelling, and a scream. Then, the train rocked severely and the man never came back. That's when things got really bad for Alvin. He heard a a horn blast, and a squeal of wheels... But it wasn't the Quicksilver that had slowed down. A loud "THUNK" sounded, and then the car in front of then crippled and pushed into theirs. Alvin and his mom quickly ran to the back of the car, and crossed into the next one. It got worse. The cars erupted into a fiery blaze, and cries could be heard all around. A charred human body fell onto the floor by there feet, and Alvin lost it. He ran through the fire, and pulled the doors apart. He leaped out, and fell to the ground. He waited for a few moments for his mom, but she never came. Finally, coughing, she crawled out, barley able to move. Her arm bleed heavily, and her finger was twisted oddly. Alvin pulled her away from the fire and waited for it to be over. 500 people dead later, Alvin, his mom, and a few other passengers had mad it out. 3 were critically wounded, and many emergency vehicles arrived. The blaze continued for hours more. Alvin didn't go on a train EVER AGAIN. The firemen pulled out burnt bodies of adults and children, and a few were still moving so they went to the hospital too. Alvin new that was the last time it would happen.