Commute - Camp NaNoWriMo April 2015

Chapter Thirty-Six - Emergency Exit

Everyone starts panicking. Jabbing random buttons on their phones, pressing their noses to the windows. "What are we going to do?" calls Headphones Girl, above all the hubbub. "Nobody's got any signal, and we're miles away from any other humans..."

"Let's start by getting out of the train," I say sensibly. "Can anyone see an emergency exit?"

"THERE!" shouts Thing One, pointing to the neon green 'Escaping Man' sign. We all scramble for it. I press the 'Open Door' button and it slides open easily. Except... it's opened against the grass. The train is lying on its side.

"Well, we can't get out this way," says Homer Simpson decisively. "What about through a window in the wall - or is it a roof now?"

I look over towards the window that Fat Kid smashed earlier with his iPad. If we made the gap a little bigger, we'd probably all be able to get through.

I climb up onto one of the discarded chairs and carefully start snapping pieces of glass off. They shatter to the floor around me, and slowly the hole gets bigger and bigger.

Everyone else stands back watching me work, wary of the falling glass, until I've got rid of the whole window. Now there is just a gap, letting a warm breeze through, lifting goosebumps on my arm.

"Have a look around, Maya!" Tired Mum calls up to me. I stick my head out of the gap. Nothing has changed - I'm still surrounded by grass, grass and more grass.

"Here, I'll give you a leg up," says Grandpa Cookie, coming over to me and lifting me up. I sprawl over the edge of the gap, onto the outside of the train - roof? Wall? I don't know. It's warm from the glare of the sun, and it burns my fingers.

I crawl to the edge and look down. It's not a huge drop, just a metre or two. "I can jump down," I tell my companions waiting below. "Do you want me to help the rest of you up first?"

Fat Kid jumps eagerly up onto Grandpa Cookie's shoulders, and I hold out my hand. He grabs it, and I hoist him up. Then I take him to the edge of the roof, and let him jump down. He lands easily on his feet. "Doesn't hurt," he calls back cheerfully.

I do the same thing for everyone else, then at last it's just me and Grandpa Cookie. I jump lightly down into the carriage again. "Want me to give you a leg up?"

"Will you be able to get up there by yourself?" he says, peering worriedly at me.

"Yeah, sure. I'll find a way."

"We should throw people's bags to them first, anyway." I pick up three bags, and he lifts me again, up to the roof. I drop them down to the waiting people.

When at last we've done everyone's bag, I stand beside him and hold out my hands insistently. "Come on, sir. Leg up."

Discontentedly, he hoists himself up with my help. Then, when he's on the roof, he holds out a hand. I climb up onto a seat and grab for his hand. I strain, he strains, and finally I'm up there. We jump down together, landing among the bags.

The others are standing a few metres away, staring at the train track. It's covered with debris, shattered glass, bits of broken train.

"Are we the only carriage who... came apart?" Thing Two asks delicately.

I nod. "I think so. I mean, you can't see anyone else, can you? And Carriage C was the last one. There were no other carriages attached to us."

"They'll notice, won't they? When they get to London? That we're missing?" asks her sister.

"Yeah," Fat Kid answers determinedly, "then they'll come looking for us. And find us."

We still stand, staring at the tracks.

"We should probably clear them," I suggest, "in case another train comes along. Then that one would crash too."

"Maybe that one would have a working phone," grumbles Fat Kid.

"If another train comes by, wouldn't they stop for us?" asks Headphones Girl.

"No. You saw how fast our one was going, right? When we looked out the window, all we saw were meadows zipping by. They'd only see us for a split second.

Thing One opens her mouth, and I shut her down. "And no, Kendall, a Railway Children red flag thing wouldn't work. That book was written way back when they had old trains that moved at snail's pace. We'd be in huge danger if we stood on the tracks."

She sighs. "Well, what's your idea?" she asks irritably.

"I think we should clear the tracks first," I say. "Then we should climb those hills and see if we can spot any houses from the peak. They'd probably have mobile signal or Wi-Fi there."

Batman looks at me in delight. "That is genius."