As the moon shone brightly. Papyrus finally ordered the engines to stop at last. He breathed heavily. "Excellent," he said, at last, "plenty of time to think of what to do next. Is everyone accounted for?"
The crew in his cab got down and began to count the engines. At last, they came back up to their engine. "We're missing four," said his driver.
"What?" said Papyrus, "who?"
"It looks like that H2 Atlantic, the T9, one of the LNER O2s," said the fireman, hesitant to say the last one for a brief period of time, "the other one is your brother though, Gordon."
Papyrus froze at this, and his brow furrowed. "That means we've lost their crews as well," he said, "at least what? Four of them as well? Leads us to eight missing in total."
"Yes," said the driver, "what shall we do?"
"What shall we do?" came a yell from behind the Pacific, "we go back for them!"
Hector came steaming up to Papyrus. "I thought we were meant to look after each other!" he growled, "but you all ran like cowards!"
"We took the chaos as an advantage," snapped Papyrus, "they most likely went off on their own. I did say if they did want to join us, they are allowed to leave."
"But they might not have!" snapped Hector, "they could've been caught! The Warclaws could have gotten to my brother! And yours too!"
"Even if that is the case," said Papyrus calmly, "we cannot simply go back, they would try and ambush us and kill us there."
"I refuse to leave my brother there!"
"WELL, YOU DID!" snapped Papyrus, "now shut up and follow me. There are no other options to keep your brother safe. He is either running to Thesang with Gordon and the other two or is captured or scrapped on sight. Go back if you want, but do not get me into this. Your brother chose to stay and you did not. Simple. As. That."
Hector went silent, his lips pursed, but his brow still low. "You cannot protect your brother any more than I can," snapped Papyrus, "so deal with it."
With that said, nothing came out of the O2's mouth. He just sat there, his eyes lowered to his buffers. Papyrus then puffed off, continuing to find another way to get to the engines. But Hector looked back up towards him, his face angered towards the Pacific and everyone surrounding him.
***
At last, Gordon came to a screeching stop, at a small station in the middle of the countryside with only a few small sidings. The night would be nearly ending soon, and they all would have to go and find a better hiding place than this station. The other three years all managed to catch up to the big engine at last. "You're fast," noted Eileen, trying to catch her breath, "just because you're a Pacific doesn't mean you have to show off."
"Better to be one and go ahead to scout if any Warclaws are nearby," replied Gordon briefly, "is this all four of us?"
"Yeah," cried Gregory, who was red in the face, "all of us, including the lads in the cabs."
Matt got out of the cab himself and walked up to Gordon on the platform, a few of the other crew members came up to him as well. "What now?" asked Matt, "we cannot just continue throughout the day, the diesels will see us clearly and we will eventually be caught by the Warclaws."
"I agree," said another member, "we need to draw a new plan on how to get there."
"There should be a map in the station," added another member, "we can use that to look at the available routes and then pick our yard to hide in."
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.
***
A diesel sat at a station, waiting impatiently for the signal to go green so he continued with his dirty goods train. It then looked over to see a steam engine clank up towards them.
"What do ya want ya old kettle?"
"A bargain," replied Hector, "me and my brother's preservation, for an entire fleet of engines."
The diesel's eyes narrowed. "Go on."
***
The morning was arriving, the four rogue engines were catching up on some rest and thankfully there had not been any diesels coming past for the past few hours. All was still and quiet. The crews then came out of the waiting room at last. "We got a plan," said Matt, hopping into the big engine's cab, "we will get to Horncastle, stay there for the day, and then leg it to Thesang."
"Very well," said Gordon, "it's best that we also tune up in the day as well, we cannot have any breakdowns during the..."
Gordon trailed off and his eyes looked down the line. He could hear something, a low growling sort of sound. "I can hear it too," said Lucy, from behind him, "that must be a diesel."
Narrowing his eyes, Gordon looked closely down the track and what came around the bend made his eyes widen. "That is any diesel," he said, "those are Warclaws!"
It was, two of them came lunging out of the darkness, red lights and red eyes glaring directly at Gordon, their claws ready to pounce at them. "Back! Back up!" yelled Gordon frantically.
The other three engines did so, charging back up the line, all crews swinging coal into their fireboxes madly. They took off as the Warclaws chased them. "How did they find us?" yelled Gregory.
"Lucky guess?" shouted Lucy.
"Too lucky," replied Eileen, "we have to get a junction where we can run forwards. I cannot see anything at this pace!"
Tender engines cannot go fast when going backward, but Gordon was having the worse time, he was the biggest of the four and was not having a good run. He was trying to go as fast as he could, but his tender shook violently and risked derailing. They then came to a bend. "You have to run Gordon!" shouted Gregory, he charged the bend as fast as he could. He raced around it he thankfully didn't topple over.
But he should've.
Gregory felt a pain shoot through him as a claw came from behind him and clawed at his tender, pushing him effortlessly off the line, he tipped over, breaking through a fence and then skidding along the mud of the field for a few yards before stopping. The claw then grabbed at Eileen, catching her cab and ripping it off her, making her wheels rise from the rails for a bit and causing her to derail. She wailed in agony, as ballast flew all over the place. The third Warclaw did not stop Lucy though, it did not have to, as she rammed into Eileen, derailing herself as well. Gordon slammed on the breaks, he did not go as fast around the bend and stopped right before the Warclaw. The other two Warclaws, who were on the two tracks came slowly up. Coming to a stop right in front of Gordon.
"Mission report: successful," said the Warclaw, directly in front of Gordon, its eyes scanning him all over. "Asset: Gordon, obtained."
"Mission status: kill all engines with him," said another, looking from Gordon to the Warclaw behind him.
"Identification: LNER O2, numbered 63980," said the third Warclaw, moving down the line to look at Gregory, "badly damaged, the bargain will not be suitable anymore."
"Negative," said the other, "number 63980, will be preserved, that is what LNER O2, numbered 63934, wanted."
"That's Hector's number," groaned Lucy.
It soon clicked together with Gordon, Hector had sold them all out, all because he feared for his brother's safety, and he used them to bargain with saving himself and Gregory. And now look what has happened, the Warclaws found them, and Gregory was now laying by the lineside, he was badly damaged, hissing steam from either side. His tender was beyond repair from the nasty hit, he did not say a word, he could not, he had passed out.
"What did you do to him?" said Eileen, her brow low and glaring at the Warclaws, "we only want to get Thesang in peace!"
But none of the Warclaws listened to her. "Objective: take LNER A0, numbered four to the designated yard," said one.
"Orders: accepted," said another, who moved directly towards Gordon and buffered up to him. Matt hid in his cab, trying his best not to be seen.
"Wait," said Gordon, "why me?"
"Answer: you are a valuable asset to British Railways," said a Warclaw, "they are not."
"But since 63980 has been heavily damaged, this makes the bargain more troublesome," Gordon said, "the ones here should be taken as well, as part of the treaty, helps with putting things at rest for us."
The Warclaw in front looked to the other beside him. "If you don't feel convinced," continued Gordon, "if you let these two engines come with me, I will come quietly, and won't be a nuisance for you. If I am as valuable to British Railways as they say, they would want you to keep me... unspoiled."
For the first time ever, Gordon saw a Warclaw actually think briefly, going into its mind to ponder what the big engine had said. A few seconds passed and the Warclaw looked back up. "Bargain: accepted," it said, "all engines present will be spared and taken to the designated yard."
Gordon breathed a sigh of relief, glad he was able to save Eileen and Lucy's lives. He then looked back to see in horror that the Warclaws were grabbing both engines roughly by their cabs and placing them back onto the rails in the most painful imaginable. Both engines screamed in pain as they felt stabbed by the claws as they roughly and quickly moved onto the rails. Then, out of nowhere, all the crew members got out of their cabs and ran. The Warclaws watch as they ran into the field and disappeared out of sight. But they did nothing. Gordon could only guess that they were not permitted to stop the crews, and how could they? They were still engines, stuck to their rails, they could not go after them even if they tried.
Even so, Matt ran to see if the crew member inside Gregory's cab was alright, but he closed his eyes instantly when seeing the scene inside the cab and then continued to run by himself into the field, helping the elderly member to quickly run. Gordon only guess what had happened in that cab and closed his eyes in mourning. But it wasn't even a brief moment when the Warclaw in front of him banged into him and pushed him roughly into Lucy and Eileen. All three of them groaned in sharp pain, but the Warclaws did not care. They just continued to take them to where they heading. To the designated yard which was unknown to the steam engines.