𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 | 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 ✔️

↞ nine

bridge
{olivia's pov}

the five of us continued walking which consisted of more jokes, more laughs, and more singing. that was until we reached a bridge that stood about one hundred feet above a body of water. we stopped in front of it, looking at the opposite end.

"any of you guys know when the next train is due?" vern asked worriedly.

"we could go down to the route 136 bridge," chris suggested.

"what are you, crazy? that's five miles down the river," teddy started. "you walk five miles down the river, you gotta walk five miles back. that could take till dark. we go across here, we could get to the same place in ten minutes."

"i hate to say this, but teddy's right," i said. "we need to take this bridge if we wanna get to the royal river fast enough."

"yeah, but if a train comes, there's nowheres to go," vern said.

"the hell there isn't. you just jump," teddy said like it was nothing. my heart dropped as i looked down at the blue water.

"teddy, it's a hundred feet," chris said.

"well you guys can go around if you want to. i'm crossing here. while you guys are dragging your candy asses halfway across the state and back, i'll be waiting for you on the other side relaxing with my thoughts."

"you use your left hand or your right hand for that?" i asked, smirking. the boys chuckled except for teddy.

"you wish," teddy responded coolly. him and chris walked onto the bridge first, with vern and me following. i looked over my shoulder to see gordie's hand resting on the tracks to see if it was vibrating.

"gordie, there's no train. c'mon," i said. he stood up and followed behind me. as we were walking across the bridge, the wind breezed through my hair, causing it to flow behind me. it felt good to get a good breeze of wind in the hot sun.

i looked down, seeing the water below the tracks. my heart dropped once again and i looked back up quickly. what if a train did come? i didn't want to think about it, so i tried thinking of something else. as if he could read my mind, chris looked back at me and gave me a warm, reassuring smile. i smiled back and he turned to look forward again. suddenly, all my nerves disappeared.

there was something about chris that made me feel safe and happy. maybe it was the way the sunlight glistened perfectly on his face, complimenting his features. maybe it was his tall and slight built figure. maybe it was how he touched me and cared about me. maybe, just maybe i liked him, but i didn't know for sure. yet.

i was walking behind vern, who was crawling instead of walking. i was tired of walking so slow, but it's not like there was anything i could do about it. vern stopped abruptly and looked down, then he looked up at gordie and me.

"i lost the comb."

"maybe it was for the best, vern," i said. he began crawling again and i followed behind slowly. teddy and chris were so far ahead of us that they were almost to the other end of the bridge. i rolled my eyes and looked back at gordie. he shook his head and looked back to see if there was a train coming. i looked too, but there was no sign of one. or at least that's what i thought. we were obviously both paranoid about it and my nerves came back to me.

"you know that nervous feeling you get in your gut?" i asked gordie. he looked at me, squinting his eyes to prevent the bright sun from burning his eyes.

"yeah. why?"

"because that's what i'm feeling right now." gordie crouched down to feel the tracks again and i stared at him in the process. he looked back once more, and so did i. that was when my whole body froze. i saw the dark smoke of a train from behind the trees and my eyes widened.

"holy shit," i said under my breath, my voice filled with panic. gordie stood up.

"train!" he screamed. my ears started ringing, my palms started sweating, and i couldn't feel anything in my body as the train came into view fairly quickly. i turned around to see vern still crawling.

"vern, get up! damn it!" i yelled, attempting to pick him up. he got to his feet and fell.

"get up! move it!" gordie yelled from behind me. the train was getting louder.

"shit vern, get up!" i yelled.

"i don't wanna. we're gonna fall," he cried, holding onto the tracks. i looked back at the train and it was inching closer to us, getting louder and louder.

"get the fuck up!" i screamed.

"we're gonna die, damn it! get up!" gordie screamed at the top of his lungs. vern frantically got up and we started running.

"go faster!" i yelled to vern.

"i can't, olivia," he cried again. gordie had his hand on my back, trying to push us to go faster. chris and teddy made it to the end of the bridge and they looked back at the three of us. the train was so loud and my heart was racing faster than it ever had before. i looked at chris and teddy, and they were screaming at us, but i couldn't hear a thing they were saying. a look of worry was plastered on both of their faces. they knew we weren't gonna make it. i decided to do something i never thought i would have to do in my whole life. i grabbed vern and gordie by their shirts and jumped off of the bridge, dragging their bodies with mine.

i assumed that my body was going to hit against the water but instead, i landed on hard, solid rocks. pain flowed throughout my body as dust flew in our faces, and we all coughed. i made sure the two boys were ok, and they were. thank god. i looked up at the tracks and i saw chris and teddy staring at us, breathing heavily. they looked relieved to see us alive after the stunt we pulled.

"hey. at least now we know when the next train was due," chris said, trying to brighten the situation. and as you could imagine, it didn't work.

"oh, shut your trap, chris chambers," i shot back. he smirked.