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

Chapter 7: Bargain

Matt nodded in confirmation. "We might have to stay here for a while," he said, "so we must be quick when choosing our next location to hide in, we cannot hide the engines here."

"Can one of you also call the other group?" asked Gregory, "just tell them we are fine and we are traveling by ourselves now."

"Yeah sure," said Matt, "I can do that, we should know where they are by now."

"Very well," said a third member, who was the oldest of the lot, "best get to work lads! And girl of course."

The last member shook her head as she quickly walked to the station and grabbed a map near the ticket office and they all went into the waiting room, whilst Matt walked to a telephone to talk to the other group. Gordon, Lucy, Gregory, and Eileen could only sit and wait now and hope no train comes by. The signalman had been told they were on a single mainline track, all in a row, but diesels can still see on the other track. It was not called a mainline for a reason.

***

Papyrus sat silently to himself, pondering what his older brother had said to him a few hours ago. He thought of what Jamison had done, he killed all those diesels, but he was right to do so, he was sure of it. At least one of those diesels would have called out for a Warclaw to massacre them all if they had seen them, but Jamison would not have known which one was a perceived threat. He did what was right and Papyrus was sure. Besides, diesels were not to be trusted, no diesel would risk their own life for a steam engine, they sealed the steam engines fate, so why should he care anyway?

"Papyrus."

The Pacific A3's thoughts stopped and he looked down to see his crew looking back up at him. "You should not be here," he whispered, "we said we'd talk the next evening."

"I know," replied the driver, "but one of the crews got a call from the pub and it was Matt Lanch, Gordon's crew member for the trip to Thesang."

Papyrus' eyebrow raised. "Go on," he said.

"They have not been caught yet," said the driver, "and they are planning their own way to Thesang as we speak, but... they will be having difficulty in finding places to hide, so they might have to run it to Thesang in the evening."

"Do they know where they are?"

"They say they're near Coningsby," replied the fireman, "so they can make it through the evening."

"And we're at Spilsby," replied Papyrus, "they will be taking a much bigger risk than us."

He thought for a moment, they were further away, and the Warclaws were bound to get closer to them. But he and this group of engines were so close to Skegness, the connection between them and Thesang. They were so close, roughly forty minutes to the destination and Gordon chose not to follow him.

"We must continue on," he said, "hope they get to Thesang after us."

"But they might get caught," said the driver.

"If they do, then that's their fault," retorted Papyrus, in a dismissive manner, "the only way we can help is bargaining with British Railways and I do not think that is the right way to go. Don't you think?"

The driver and fireman looked at each other knowingly, then back up at their engine. "We know you are mad with your brother right now," said the driver, "but he is still your brother, and despite the world trying to make you believe it, not all diesels are bad. Just... try and not lose more from this world."

At first, Papyrus pondered what his driver had said, but then rolled his eyes and looked away, in a manner which could only be sulking like a child. The driver and fireman both shook their heads and walked off. Unaware of another engine who had listened to their whole conversation. Hector moved off, an idea coming to him as he exited the small yard.