Mr Wolf and the White Princess

Chapter Fourteen

The wolf looks around him at the crowded tube carriage. The seats are full and the aisles blocked with people holding onto the overhead handholds, all with blank unresponsive expressions. They are a cross-section of society, men and women of all ages and races; he could be on a normal commuter train at rush hour.

            He frantically pushes himself clear of the man next to him and peers up at the map of the Circle Line spread out along the head height panel. He counts the stations to Edgware Road.

Eleven.

He has got to get to the front of the train and stop it before the collision happens. He looks at the map and sees that Paddington station is the last stop before Edgware Road. He knows that the tube tracks at Paddington run alongside the large overland rail station, he could divert the train away from the oncoming one. Paddington will be his last chance to stop the crash.

The train is gathering speed down the platform. It enters the tunnel and the windows go black and show only a reflected vision of the crowded carriage.

Go.

He turns sideways, puts his shoulder down and starts shoving his way through the crowds. No one makes any effort to get out of his way or complains when he shoulders them aside, they are completely dead.

He squeezes against a fat man, feeling his spongy hot flesh scrape across his chest as he pushes between him and the plastic panels either side of the central doors of the carriage.

How many carriages are there in a tube train?

He has no idea – ten, fifteen?

Doesn’t matter, just keep going.

He ducks down under the armpit of a man holding on overhead, feeling his sweaty heat slide over the top of his head and smelling his strong body odour. 

He continues shoving, wriggling and pressing his way forwards. The effort makes him sweat and his back and shoulders ache from the twisting and pushing.

The train is speeding up.

They hurtle through Embankment station, the bright lights make him look round and he glimpses the empty platform flicker past and then disappear again into a wall of black as they shoot back into the tunnel.

Ten stations to go.

The train is at maximum speed, rattling and swaying on its tracks from side to side. They curve round a bend in the tunnel and the passengers are thrown to one side. Some lose their footing and flounder on the floor but no one says anything. Those who lost their footing silently clamber back up to their feet and regain their holds. 

The train crashes through Westminster station, its noise diminishing as they enter the platform and then suddenly booming back louder as they enter the tunnel again.