9:29 AM
Well I'll be damned, we found Henry! He seems to be unaffected by any mutations, but he isn't in top condition either. His face is cut up, he's missing a buffer, and he's been mumbling to himself. Whatever happened before must have took a toll on the poor engine. I'll explain in further detail. We woke up about an hour ago getting ready to head to Callan. It was just Erick and I awake at the time, when we heard chuffing in the distance. Erick pulled out his pistol in case whatever was approaching meant harm. However, it was Henry approaching. We were overjoyed to see him and called for the others to wake up. Henry was happy to see us as well. Thomas puffed out of the sheds and greeted Henry. Then Duck pulled out, and Henry started crying at the sight of him. We asked what was wrong, but he wouldn't answer. How awful we feel for the poor engine, we aren't questioning him too much. These past few days must have really messed with his mentality. We spoke to his Driver, "Derrick," and his fireman, "Stephen," and them and Henry agreed to join us. We started up the engines, and headed to Callan.
9:52am
Damn... Henry has been through it, alright. He explained everything to us. I'll do my best to put it into my own words. The day when all hell broke lose, Henry was getting ready to take a goods train up to Brendam. While his trucks were being shunted, he met Stephany the bluebell engine. He stopped to chat with Henry for a bit before Henry departed to Brendam. He arrived at Brendam later with his goods train to find Bill and Ben leaving with some empty trucks. When Henry pulled to a halt he met Edward. Edward greeted Henry by chuckling and saying, "Those two little engines will never learn to stay out of trouble," referring to Bill and Ben. Henry laughed, and was uncoupled from his train. Him and Edward got to talking about the rediscovery of Great Waterton, when the sirens began going off. Henry and Edward both knew what that meant, and they sped out of Brendam at speeds Henry say they had never gone before. Their wheels pounded the rails as they made their escape onto the mainline, where they saw James rushing away as well, trying to escape too. Henry's driver looked back in fear as he saw the cloud approaching them quickly. Henry and Edward noticed James had gotten switched off the mainline and didn't know where he was heading. They just both hoped he'd escape as well. The two engines continued their escape. Henry soon got diverted off the mainline, and was heading for a goods yard, and was now away from Edward with no time to return to him. He soon arrived at the yard, with the cloud still tailing. There was a goods train half shunted into a siding and onto the line Henry was on. Henry gave it his all, and crashed through the goods train, destroying some cars. The front one burst into many wooden pieces, some splintering Henry's face, explaining the cuts on his face. They got back onto the mainline, with the cloud still right on their tail. There was a wash station up ahead with a shed, and their plan was to take refuge in that shed. They arrived there, exhausted, stressed, and anxious. But most importantly, unharmed for the most part. They had food and water already in the cab, and that's where they stayed for a couple days as they planned out their next move. We haven't told him about Edward and James yet. We're a few minutes out of Callan, so I'll update this journal when we arrive and find something... if we find something.
10:26 AM
We arrived at Callan. There was nothing much there apart from some corpses, but we found Bill and Ben! But the two engines rocketed off before we could say anything. We're gonna catch those engines and try to get them to join us.
11:03am
We caught up with the two engines, but before we could do anything two or three other engines we couldn't make out came to their aid, and they all escaped again. They're in our sights though, and we're gonna catch them.
11:05am
Well so much for that plan. The fuckers blocked the damn track. It's going to take a while to clear it, but I know this line. There's only one way they can possibly go, so we'll catch them. I wonder why Bill and Ben would speed off like that though?
11:48 AM
We've finally cleared the path, and we're giving chase again. I'm very anxious as to what we're going to find. A little up the line there was a plate, and it had three letters on it. It had more than that, but the rest was scratched and we couldn't make it out. But the three words we could make out were "ald." There was only one engine that fits that description, but... he was surely mutated or killed by the cloud? Nothing is making sense. We'll find out once we get there. I guess.
12:34 PM
We caught up to them. And holy shit, I am relived. Bill and Ben are just fine, but they're accompanied by Donald and Douglass! The twins are alright! They both had paint on their faces like Salty has, and they were holding out at an old station that Henry had helped restore to its former beauty in the past. And boy, were they armed to the teeth. They had pistols, shotguns, rifles, tomahawks, they even had fucking dynamite. But not only that, old Bailey was there as well! He was he stationmaster that once accidentally gave Henry a fright. He had an eye patch over his left eye, but other than that he seemed fine! We asked Bill and Ben why hey ran away, and they said they weren't sure if we were mutated or not. We also asked Donald and Douglass about themselves as well, and they said they'll explain later, so I'll be sure to write all about them. I'm still so happy that Donald is alright. Bailey then approached us, armed with two revolvers in the holsters he had equipped on him, and a rifle, and asked if we would join them. We actually explained how we gave chase to try to get them to join us. The sets of twins then took a vote on where to stay, and it was decided. They were coming back with us. Even though I'm happy they're alright, I'm still very nervous about Oliver and my brother. I pray that they're alright. We're about to head back once we load up all the supplies, I'll update this when needed as usual.
1:25 PM
Shit... we saw Percy, or whatever that thing is now. He didn't notice us, but we've stopped here for a bit just to be safe. Bill and Ben told us about their experience, so I'll take this time to write about it. Before the sirens went off, they passed Henry while they were exiting Brendam. They were heading back to the quarry with some empty trucks. About four minutes out of Brendam the sirens went off. Bill assumed it was just a false alarm, and Ben, who was nervous at first, believed him. They just kept rolling down the line casually. That's when Bill's driver, "William," looked back to see the cloud. They knew the alarms weren't false then. The engines and their crew were terrified, and picked up speed. However, they still had all those trucks they were hauling that were hindering them. Bill was in the back and Ben was in the front. They decided it was best to part ways with each other quickly. Bill, who luckily was never even coupled up to the train in first place for some reason, switched onto another line, leaving Ben to escape on his own with the train. Bill ended up finding himself on Toby's old line, where he and his crew took refuge in Toby's old shed. They stayed there all day and night. Ben on the other hand, even with the trucks, the little engine managed to escape into a goods yard, possibly the same one Henry was diverted off to, and quickly had his train uncoupled, and hid in a shed in the back of the yard. The cloud passed, and the little engines knew they had to find each other again. The day after the disaster, the two engines set off to find each other again. Ben headed to the quarry, and Bill headed to Tidmouth. On his way, Bill saw what that cloud caused. He saw Edward, screeching in pain, with his eyes on fire. Same with his wheels. Bill saw the old engine approaching him, and reversed rapidly. He did manage to get away, but he didn't know if Edward meant him any harm. Eventually, the two engines did find each other at the smelters yard, where they would agree on to meet up if they got separated again. They went out on a hunt for supplies, and met up with Douglass. They all ended up returning to the old station. That's their story. But, Henry did hear everything. The poor engine broke down when he heard about Edward. We decided to tell him about James as well as Emily. Henry just cried even more. Thomas tried to calm Henry down, but Henry broke out into a rage against the engine, blaming James' death on him. This made Thomas feel even more awful. Luckily, Salty was able to calm the two engines down. We're lucky to have Salty with us. I can't imagine where Henry or Thomas might have ended up if they didn't calm down. Oh, it turns out Donald and Douglass are ready to reveal their stories as well. Ill write about theirs once they tell us. We're heading off again back to Brendam first to check for any other survivors.
1:36 PM
While we were heading to Cronk, the Scottish twins spit out their story. Turns out, Douglas was resting in his shed in callan, and Donald was taking a goods train to Killdane. Turns out, Donald, after receiving Duck's warning, went back to Callan and hid with Douglas until the cloud passed. After the disaster, the twins decided to go further down the line to check on Arthur. And boy, what they found was brutal. Arthur's entire shed had collapsed right onto him, destroying Arthur's funnel, dome, and cab. He was also mutated, with his eyes being fully sea-blue, and his mouth just being covered with skin. The twins decided to leave, as the sight was unbearable. They decided to take shelter in the sheds at knapford, and occasionally go on supply runs to gather supplies. On one of Douglas' supply runs, he found Bill and Ben, so he decided to take them in. Donald and Douglas had to go on even more supply runs, as they now had to also take care of Bill and Ben since they were too young to go on a supply run. And then after a phew days, they met up with us. Henry asked one particular question, had they seen Gordon on one of their supply runs? Thomas, Duck, and the Scottish twins all glanced at each other. Duck fessed up that Gordon was dead, and Henry only stayed silent for 2 seconds before bursting into tears again. Poor Henry, majority of his friends are dead or mutated. We're still heading to Cronk, but might stop at Brendam, just to grab more supplies.
2:36 PM
We arrived at Brendam. I can barely write. I'm shaking awfully. It seems like this situation only gets worse and worse every passing minute. When we arrived at Brendam, we found Toby, a wooden tram engine that the controller of the railway once rode with him, his wife, and his grandchildren years ago that Topham would later acquire. Toby was overjoyed to see us, but not only that, a figure began emerging from Toby's cab. It was Lady Hatt, Topham's wife. She began crying tears of joy at the sight of us. Toby's driver, "Carl," and his fireman, "Lancelot," stepped out of the cab behind Lady Hatt. They all seemed to be okay. We asked Lady Hatt where Topham was, and she said she had no clue. Toby then asked us where Edward was... we couldn't bring ourselves to telling the poor engine Edward's fate, so we told him we didn't know. We asked Toby about his story, and he started crying. He tearfully said with constant stutters and voice cracks he hid out in the Iron Works. That was all he said. So we asked him what happened there, and what happened to Gordon. At this point Duck asked where did Toby's crew go, but we shushed him. Horrible mistake. Toby was bringing himself to tell us what truly happened in the Iron Works, but just as he began speaking about it, he started screaming in pain. We asked him what was wrong, but he couldn't answer. He was in too much pain. Lady Hatt began screaming, Henry and Thomas began panicking, Donald and Douglass were yelling at each other about something I couldn't make out, and Bill and Ben raced over to the tram engine. They got over there, and Lancelot said, "So long, motherfuckers," and Toby's eyes were sucked into his head, and then his boiler exploded, killing him, his crew, and Bill and Ben. His own crew murdered him. Along with two of our other great friends. All the engines said nothing as they were all in awe of what just happened. That's it. I can't hardly write anymore. I'm still horribly shook by this. We're staying at Brendam for a couple hours until we recuperate.
5:56 PM
We for sure haven't recovered from Toby, but we were heading to Crovan's Gate anyways. We reached Cronk, and then it happened. We got attacked. Percy or whatever the fuck that thing is now came charging at us with it's spiky tendril tongue. We all reversed in panic, but not Donald and Douglass. The twins told us this exactly, "get out of here, dont worry about us. We'll be fine, and if we aren't, what hope is there left anyways?" We reversed but not too far, we wanted to see what crazy bullshit the Scottish twins were about to pull. Donald charged towards Percy, and Douglass reversed onto a siding with a couple trucks. Douglass began getting those trucks coupled up to his front, and getting himself turned around. Donald on the other hand switched off onto the track beside it, and at his point we had hope. The fucking thing is blind, if it wasn't it would have seen us. The track down was straight. Percy reversed towards Donald, and when he passed him, Donald quickly switched into reverse and backed up. That's when we lost all hope. That fucking thing jumped off the tracks and started rolling wherever it wanted. Those wheels didn't lock to the rails anymore, they stick to things. This son of a bitch can climb. Just as we began to lose hope for the twins, Donald had stopped in one spot, luring Percy back onto the rails. Percy charged at him, and then Douglass, who had gotten himself turned around, charged as well at Percy, screaming the most glorious battle cry I've ever heard, slamming that mother fucker right off the tracks and onto its side. The twins yelled for us to come back and escape while it was down. We did just that. The twins saved us. We're now on our way to Crovan's gate. I hope the little engines are still alright.