"Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar! And you'll live as you've never lived before." ~Music of the Night (The Phantom of the Opera)
My mind begins to rush at the speed of our train. Explode? I think. Does every mode of transportation in South America want me dead?
Nothing about the train has changed since the news of demise in our future has been delivered, but the atmosphere within the group has been altered greatly. Eye contact with anyone is impossible now that every member of the squad bows their head in fear. I find it rather ironic how I'm holding my breath in shock because a death sentence has been given. If you don't breathe and act now, I tell myself, you won't be able to do either in about 10 minutes.
"What's our plan?" I ask, trying to sound confident.
I expect my peers to be on the same page as me, but the glares of confusion I receive tell me to think again. Ashton is the only one who seems unfazed by my words, but doesn't step in to back me up either. True loneliness envelopes me for the first time since the crash; until now at least one member of the squad has always had my back.
Glancing from person to person, I look for any sign of loyalty. I watch in despair as Diana, my own sister, cannot even meet my gaze. The silence drags on like the end of a school day, every student waiting in anticipation for the bell to ring.
"We should think about informing the train conductor of Delgato's parked cars," Ashton shatters the silence like it's glass. "The question for you, Perry, is how you are going to get to him."
"No, how we are going to get to him," Guad's voice starts as a whisper, but grows louder as he continues to speak. "Helping each other should be the top priority, right?" A small smile grows on his face, and he even laughs lightly. "Besides, I would rather die by White's crazy plan than at Delgato's hand."
I quickly flash a smile to Guad, and for the first time since the crash, I hate him a little less than before. "We will need to first get out of this cargo car and make our way up to where the actual passengers sit. The conductor will be near their cars."
"There are doors on the side and top of our car," Alice points to each exit as she names them.
"I would suggest you travel along the upper path," Ashton suggests. "It shall be a bit windy, but surely easier than the other route that has no foot holes."
Guad and I say a quick farewell to the squad before climbing atop various crates to make our escape out the top of the car. Wind hits my face with a forceful speed the instant it's out of the shelter of the car.
Standing up proves to be a challenge of its own. The higher I rise off the car's roof, the harder it becomes to balance. Even opening my eyes a normal amount hurts, for it allows for wind burn to strike.
I discover that the only way to walk up here is to lean forward, otherwise, the wind has a chance to knock you down. My feet feel like they are made of cement, each step seeming harder than the one before. Guad shouts something from behind me, but I don't catch a word of it.
I step shakily from the car I'm onto the one in front of me, and continue my journey. Whether it be adrenalin or my sharp realization that we're on a time crunch, I pick up speed, and can only hope Guad follows my example.
Before I know it, I've reached the passenger cars.
"How do we get inside?" Guad shouts in my ear. I almost lose my balance leaning over to hear him speak.
Rather than shouting back, I fashion my best "I wish you had the answer" face, and begin to rack my brain for ideas on our entry. Windows line the cars, but people line the windows, so that's not an option. There isn't a door on the top of these cars like there are on the cargo cars, so there must be one on the side or back.
Guad seems to make the discovery before I do, and starts lowering himself over the edge and into the alley between the passenger car in front of us and the car below my feet. There is a ladder on the side of the car, and I watch in amazement as, in one swift movement, he swings himself from the ladder around the corner of the car and opens the door, flinging himself into the car with such force that he has to do a roll.
How is Guad more graceful than me? I think as I try to copy his finesse, but I crack a ladder rung as I climb down (the rust having not been strong enough to endure both Guad's and my weight), hit my elbow on the corner of the train when I swing around, and land flat on my hands and knees inside the car. Guad helps me to my feet, and it's the second time today I find it hard to hate him.
I keep pace with Guad as we sprint from car to car towards the engine car, where the conductor is to be found. Why are you staring at me like that? I ask myself as I try to block out the odd glares from paying passengers. I'm saving your lives!
A small black door leads the way to our final destination. I expect it to be locked, but then I remember where we are: on a homeless-filled train in South America.
Guad leads the way as we enter the car. The conductor is seated on a small wooden stool that looks older than I am with a set of diverse levers on his left and a bag of coal accompanied by a small wood pile on his right. There is a sign in Spanish with what I'm assuming are instructions or safety precautions, but I don't care enough to ask Guad.
Focus when you're in a crisis situation! I yell at myself, but fail to follow orders almost immediately when I see a calendar on the wall. At the top, it reads "Noviembre," and even with not knowing any Spanish, I know it translates to November.
Can it really be November already? Surely it's been less than three months since I have sat in the comfort of the my room back home in Sacramento. It was the beginning of August when Diana asked me to be her bodyguard for this trip, and it was the middle of the month when we were supposed to have returned home. Dang, I can't believe you've survived two and a half months trekking across South America...
Guad wildly waving his hands in front of my face is what brings be back to the task at hand. He looks frustrated with me, and I can't help but wonder how long I stood engrossed in my thoughts.
"We need to go, and quickly," I can hear the fear laces throughout his voice as he speaks.
"What about the conductor?" I point to the man controlling the train as I talk. "Isn't he supposed to-"
"He doesn't believe me," he utters in almost a whisper, and looks at the ground as he talks, as if he is taking it personally. "He said there isn't another train scheduled on to be on this course until next Wednesday."
Not wanting to die within the next five minutes, Guad and I rush back to the cargo cart that hosts the squad. As I rush through the passenger cars, I try to warn as many of them as I can about what is to come, but after receiving one too many odd glances, I decide to give up.
They're no better than that crap conductor, I tell myself, and notice that I'm gaining speed the more I think about how oblivious he was.
I have more coordination as I climb up the small ladder to the top of the cars than I did when I came down. Even though I am expecting the rush of wind as I come to the top, it still almost knocks me down. I watch Guad stifle a yelp as he makes the exact same mistake that I did, and even in the midst of escaping death, I laugh to myself.
The run across the rooftops of the cargo cars is slightly easier this time, with the wind not blowing with such force that it hurts to open your eyes. Either time is stopping, or we run much faster than before, but it takes roughly only three minutes to reach the small opening of our cargo car.
I slip through the door first, and find myself being swarmed by the squad before my feet even hit the ground. Poor Guad, I think as I watch him fall from the hole onto a large wooden crate, and then from the crate onto the ground.
I am overwhelmed with questions, but eventually succeed in redirecting them to Guad, since he is the one that had the conversation with the conductor. It takes Guad about 10 seconds to explain, and I can honestly say that I have never seen him talk nearly that fast.
"We need to get out of here, and now," Ashton says in conclusion to Guad's rapid speech.
The girls are quickly assigned to gathering up all of our belongings, and the guys to opening the door on the side of the car to make our escape. My mind forgets the other refugees in the car and what they will think (or grunt) about us opening the door. The latch on the door takes Bob and me to open, and it takes all four of us to slide the door open; not only is it heavy, but it doesn't slide smoothly anymore due to the immense amounts of rust.
Hair blows into my eyes as I peek my head out our door to try to find a good place to jump off. The other train is in view now, and I can't help but wonder what chaos is unfolding in the frontal cars of our train.
Up ahead, I notice that the ground begins to slope downwards, so much so that I can no longer see the ground. As we get closer, I notice that it's because we are approaching a river.
"Guys, we could jump into the water!" Bob says excitedly, having noticed the same thing I did.
I look down, and even without a fear of heights, vertigo envelopes me. We must be about 40 or 50 feet above the water, but with the speed we're moving, it feels much higher.
"I think we watched a documentary about cliff diving when Faye was in town last winter, didn't we?" Janis asks her twin while the rest of us stand slightly confused as to who Faye is. "I think it said something about how you shouldn't do a pencil jump in if you don't want to mess up your spinal cord. And also-"
"I really hate to cut our safety lesson short, but we need to jump off in the next minute or so," I say, having not taken my eyes off the train approaching us. "Once we're in the water, everyone swim to the left, well, the left if you face away from the railroad track. Sound good?"
No one nods in return, but I know they have no choice but to agree. The twins decide that they want to go first, but the rest of us will jump out just seconds after they do; the longer we wait, the more we'll be separated in the river. Diana and I will be going second, so we line up behind the twins. I watch as Ashton, Bob, and Guad get behind us.
"On the count of three," Ashton says. "One..."
Alice grabs Janis' hand.
"Two..."
Janis smiles nervously to Alice, and I watch as her twin returns the gesture.
"Three!"
Alice lets go of the side of the car that she was gripping to for stability, and together, the Bradshaws jump out of the train. One of them screams and the other one laughs, but I don't have time to figure out which one was which, for Diana and I are already making our jump.
It's a horrifying feeling: free-falling while watching the ground, or water, grow close at unimaginable speeds, and knowing there is nothing you can do to prevent landing on it.
I look down, and see two heads in the river, each cheering like they are at a sporting event. Looking up, I see the other guys make their jump, Bob flailing his arms like a bird trying to fly.
Seconds before I submerge, I watch the sky fill with smoke as the train cars collide on the bridge, sealing their fate with a great boom almost as shattering as the one I hear when I hit the water.