Changes in the Wind - Part III: Gordon and the Extinct Ones

Chapter 4: Brother

"Took ya long enough!" he called.

"Shush," said a pannier engine, a brother of Duck's, "do you really want to be caught as we are about to escape?"

Jamison rolled his eyes. "Who's gonna notice? Them?" he peered over to the other three engines in the shed. "They're not gonna tell on us!"

"Yeah," said another steam engine, who looked like an LSWR T9, "because they're coming too."

Some of the engines looked hesitant, but men got down from their footplates and none protested one bit as the men began to steam up Gordon, Hector, and Gregory up. Hector growled crossly. "What on earth is going on?" he snapped, "I don't want to come!"

"Too bad!" said the T9, "because you will die here otherwise, and we wouldn't want that on our coupling hooks now!"

Hector continued to protest though, not agreeing to any of this whilst the mysterious man made his fire. Jamison rolled his eyes at him as he puffed off to the group of engines. Gregory didn't object though; he looked a little excited and a bit relieved. Gordon was glad that a group was getting Gregory out, but he knew he couldn't leave his crew here. It was perfectly safe for them but hated to leave them behind. "Excuse me," Gordon said to the man in his cab, lighting his fire, "but I cannot come with you, you see—"

"Hold on," interrupted the T9, "aren't you an A3 Pacific?"

"Well..." said Gordon, "I'm technically an A0, but my siblings are all A3s."

The T9's eyes widened excitedly. "Oh, thank heavens! He'll be so happy!" she looked to the pannier, "bring him over, he'd want to see him!"

The pannier did so without hesitation. Jamison followed, unintrigued by the whole situation. Gordon and the two brothers all sat there in the shed, curious and puzzled about what the T9 was talking about. But it wasn't long until Gordon got his answers, as he heard, deep, familiar puffing from behind the T9. Out from the darkness, came a familiar face. Gordon's eyes widen as Papyrus stopped in front of him. Papyrus raised an eyebrow in disbelief as he looked at his older brother.

"Gordon?" he said, "what are you doing here?"

"Papyrus," gasped Gordon, "I—I... what are you doing?"

Papyrus scoffed at the question. "What's it look like?" he replied, "I'm getting the remaining steam engines willing to leave London to come with me to Thesang. I can't stay here anymore, I've been compromised and the final trains of steam are happening next year and we must get the last ones out."

"Why is your brother here Papyrus?" asked the T9.

"I was going to say before you interrupted me," said Gordon, "that I was going to come for you Papyrus, to bring you back to Sodor with me."

Papyrus blinked, a little startled at the response. The other engines who were in earshot stopped and stared at the two brothers. Even Hector raised his brow. At last, Papyrus' brow furrowed. "I cannot do that," he said, "abandon all these engines all of a sudden and let fate give them a chance. No, I have a plan and I will see it to the end, Thesang is our best option. And it is for you as well."

Gordon blinked, stunned at what Papyrus was saying. "I am certainly not going with you," he huffed, "my crew is here! I have a train tomorrow!"

"I don't care," snapped Papyrus, blunt and harsh, "and neither does British Railways, they'll scrap you tomorrow for all I know. You'll be steamed up and be driven out by Matt."

Looking back, Gordon saw the young lad, mid-twenties steaming him up, the young man saluted him from the cab and went back to steaming him up. The big engine then turned to argue with Papyrus more, only to watch him head back to the rest of the group. Gordon then looked over to Hector and Gregory. The younger brother had steamed up and puffed cautiously out of the shed.