The Sprint of a Lifetime

5.2K 23 3
                                    

Just as the reanimated corpses left Harvey and Trevor rolled in. They were surprised by what had happened, but we managed to calm them down and Harvey got to work re-railing Gordon, Arthur, Donald and Thomas. While Harvey was re-railing the engines I went around Crovan's Gate to check for any zombies and I searched the narrow gauge engine shed and when I opened the doors I was shocked to see four scared and confused faces. Duke, Rusty, Peter Sam and Skarloey looked at me in pure confusion and terror. I looked around to find a blood covered Darrel sitting in the corner mumbling to himself. With the help of Ted, Jem Cole, and Mrs.Kyndley we managed to get him out of the shed and into the daylight where he explained everything.

Apparently I did in fact hear the sound of Rheneas' whistle when we last talked. Rheneas raced into the quarry with those same tendril-like appendages reaching out from behind his face. They urged the survivors into the coaches and told Rusty to take Peter Sam and wait outside Crovan's Gate for them. He agreed and raced off leaving Sir Handel, Duke and their passengers. Just as Rheneas neared, Darrel switched the points, sending Rheneas into an old quarry tunnel. They then raced down the line hoping to get away from their old friend, but then as they exited a tunnel they didn't see the buckled track and Sir Handel jumped off the track and hung dangerously over the cliff's edge.

They thought the situation couldn't get worse, but then they heard Rheneas' whistle in front of them

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

They thought the situation couldn't get worse, but then they heard Rheneas' whistle in front of them. Duke didn't understand how it was possible, but Sir Handel soon remembered that there was an old tunnel which looped out of the quarry. Duke pulled trying to re-rail Sir Handel as Rheneas' whistle got louder and louder. Soon Rheneas entered into view and Sir Handel told Duke to run, but he didn't give a damn he wasn't losing the oldest friend he had. Then to the horror of everyone Duke's coupling snapped and he shot backwards into the tunnel. Just as he came to a stop Sir Handel said goodbye to his old friend. Rheneas' breaks screeched as he crashed into the side of Sir Handel tipping them both off the ledge. The distorted whistle and shrieking scream of Rheneas echoed the valley till it was silenced by a loud crash. After a moment of silence they made their way towards Crovan's Gate to find it completely overrun by zombies. Sadly they couldn't escape in time as the zombies reached their coaches and began feasting on those within. He thought he was a goner, but thankfully Derek, Rusty's driver, jumped out from some bushes and shot the coupling connecting Duke to the coaches and they raced off where they saw Rusty, Peter Sam, and Skarloey all shouting for them to hurry up in a shed. Duke pumped his pistons and raced as fast as he could into the shed and Darrel just managed to shut the shed door with Derek entering from a window. They were all checking each other over and were horrified to find Derek had been bitten. There was nothing they could do for him and Darrel went to put him out of his misery, but he was out of bullets. He was forced to use a nearby hammer. I can't even begin to describe the scene. It was awful. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up.

After everything we re-railed all the engines and loaded the four remaining narrow gauge engines onto some flatbeds and we were ready to make our sprint to the mainland. From what the soldiers have told us the area from Crovan's Gate to Vicarstown was overrun with zombies, so we went with the same consist we had last time but this time with Douglas and Neville infront of Thomas, Oliver, and Percy. While we were setting up and preparing the engines Thomas did something that surprised us all. He asked Percy if he remembered the time he promised him that he would get the school children home safely with Annie and Clarabel during that massive storm. He responded saying that he remembered it like it was yesterday. Thomas chuckled and said he had another promise and that was Percy would take Annie and Clarabel and get them to the mainland where they would be safe. We were all shocked after everything Thomas went through to find Annie and Clarabel he was willing to give them to Percy. Thomas said that he had been rude to Percy for a long time and he wanted to show that he trusted him. We knew there was no changing his mind and Percy agreed. We coupled Percy up to Annie and Clarbel and Thomas to several vans. Once we began to leave I got this really bad feeling running down my back.

We dashed down the mainline and pushed the engines to go as fast as they possibly could. There were so many zombies. More than we had ever seen before. We shot at as many as we could but it wasn't enough. Toby was yelling back saying how there were too many zombies on the line and that we should retreat. We didn't listen and soon Thomas yelled out saying how he didn't know how much longer we could go on, but we didn't listen, we kept pushing through. That's when it happened. As we kept going I felt a massive bump and before we had time to react Thomas' wheels slipped from the track and we had been thrown off the line down the embankment. We went right through the horde and we soon crashed into an old barn. The last thing I heard before blacking out was the sound of Percy's frantic whistle and begging pleas to go back fading into the distance.

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sodor: Left for DeadWhere stories live. Discover now