Runaway Train

By KSG

Last Summer, I was vacationing with my family at an ocean side resort in South Carolina. Having had a fairly busy day of sight-seeing, sunbathing, swimming, and bar-b-quing, my room and bed never looked so inviting. After a shower and some channel surfing, I settled back in bed to enjoy a movie I hadn’t seen yet.

Before long, I realized the room was swaying in a gentle movement and rhythm that hadn’t been there when I first stretched out on my bed. Realizing I must have fallen asleep, I slowly sat up rubbing my eyes. Once I started to focus, I thought, “This isn’t the room I checked into last night!” Looking around, I saw that I was sitting on a narrow bed with a wall behind me and chains on either side of me holding the bed up. The room itself was small with a couple of chairs and a sink.

Reaching over to a curtained window, I pulled up the shade to see if I could figure out where I was. Scenery rushed by at a fast pace making me realize that I was in some sort of vehicle and, obviously, moving. Listening, I heard a consistent, soft clackety-clack sound. Looking around further, I saw no evidence of my backpack or luggage, let alone the TV I had been watching.

Walking over to the door, I quickly looked down at myself and saw my usual nightwear of sweat pants and a T-shirt. Shrugging, knowing I was adequately covered, I opened the door and immediately saw more windows and scenery beyond the windows continuing to move past quickly. I took a step out into the corridor and looked both right and left trying to figure out where I was, and what was going on.

Hearing what sounded like a scream, then some yelling a few seconds later, I turned and slowly began walking in the direction I thought the scream came from. I noticed several doors opening and heads popping out along the corridor as I continued walking. I didn’t really hear what people might have been saying to me, or if they were even talking to me at all, I was more concerned about what had caused someone to scream.

As I got closer to the end of the corridor, I heard another scream, much louder and more terrified then the first. Quickening my pace, and turning toward the door and room that had a small gathering of people at it, I stopped abruptly. There I saw two huge animals hunched and baring their teeth in a snarl. They growled what sound like a warning to the people gathering outside the door in the corridor as well as to the person looking like he wanted to disappear into the wall he was standing against inside the room.

Despite appearances, the man in the room spoke calmly asking people to move away from the door and not to make any loud noises as the animals were already scared. “I don’t want anybody to get hurt.” He said, slowly walking toward the door, speaking quietly and gently to the animals. Once he got to the door, he began to repeat, “Stay!” in a firm voice until he was finally able to close the room door trapping the animals on the other side.

Wiping his face, and with a huge sigh of relief, the man leaned against a window in the corridor. Responding to one of the people close by, he stated as though very frustrated, “I don’t know how they got out of their cages, let alone into my room. It’s just as much of a mystery as the train not even slowing down for its regular stops. Or why there’s no conductor. Or why the emergency brake doesn’t work. Or why we can’t even get through to the engineer on this God forsaken train!”

Well, that answered some of my questions.

“Excuse me! Can anyone tell me roughly where we are right now?” I asked, “My name is Terry, and I’m not sure how I got here, or even where here is!”

The man who had just spoken looked at me strangely. Then in a resigned tone stated, “Great, another mystery.” Then running a hand through his hair, he said, “Sorry, it’s been a really rough day so far. My name is Paul, and I’m the manager of this carnival. Literally. I work for the Day Brothers Carnival. That (indicating the room he had just come out of) was part of one of our acts. Our crew (indicating the people standing in the corridor) were on our way to Cameron, West Virginia for a show. That would have been a few stops ago, but this train hasn’t stopped since we boarded! As near as we can figure, we are currently somewhere in northern West Virginia, or southern Ohio.”

Just then, the whole train shuddered, then jerked. I was thrown out of the corridor and into one of the rooms.

My heart practically beating out of my chest, body covered in sweat, I jerked up in my bed.

The bed I had gone to sleep in the night before.

As I slowly began to calm down, my attention was caught by an announcer on the TV. “…derailed. The train was carrying a crew from the Day Brothers Carnival who were on there way to an engagement in West Virginia. It is not yet known why the train missed its stop ending up in southern Ohio. The extent of the damage, or if any lifes were lost are still not known at this time. Stay tuned for further updates on this tragic story.”

As I sat there, mouth hanging open, I heard the theme song from The Twilight Zone playing in my head.