Triple T Railroad

The unclear and indiscernible mumbling of words above her and the sound coming from under her "da-shsshsop, da-shsshsop, da-shsshsop, da-shsshsop," as the train moved down the tracks. Her body tried to get up and she yelled inside herself but there was no movement, and no audible voice escaped her mouth. Eyes shut while only her mouth opened and snapped closed with the bumps of the train. she was locked inside herself and in-between deep sleep and sub-consciousness. It was only a brief moment of energy, and she was back into a deep sleep. A man with a long coat grabbed the doorknob to exit the roomette, as he opened the door another person brought in a man's unconscious body and laid him on the bench across from the woman. "Everything is fine. It's going to work out well." The two men spoke as they left the train car. Da-shsshop,da-shsshsop.

The blinds in the window of the railcar were half raised and the sun was setting. The orange-yellow glow was seeping into the window and landing on the woman's face. Her body had rattled onto the edge of the place where she lay. "THUURMP". She landed on the floor and her body flattened out, but her eyes blinked and they blinked more violently as her body convulsed and twitched slightly. SUDDENLY they opened…. and she was staring up at the ceiling. The train sounds still under her as it chugged along the rugged tracks. "da-shsshsop." She continued to blankly stare at the ceiling and listen as she gathered her thoughts, what she could gather of them anyway, and the feelings in her body began to come back.

Stuttering in her softly spoken voice, "Wh.... whaa…what in the world ..o my…my..my head is so numb." She grabbed the cushion of the bench with her right arm and pulled up and was now sitting on her bottom with her back against the bench looking at the other bench, " who is that?? I can't remember..where,... who,... what… or why!?" She tried to recollect but it was emptiness. She tried to piece together anything about the situation and regained no memory. She stood up and slanted slightly and hobbled to look out the window. There were a few hills, desert cactus , and she saw a dog or coyote running in a zig zag out away from the train seemingly chasing something the train had spooked. Half of the sun still peaking over the desert Hill. She continued trying to get her brain to work. But nothing…she lifted her eyebrow… Nothing…. She spun around and looked at the man who was passed out. She stared for a minute and Nothing.

She saw a mirror on the wall over by the coat rack beside the door and moved to look into it. She even pondered who she was herself. Her head was numb and her voice crackled behind its gentleness "who am I ?" She gazed upon her blonde hair and the makeup around her green eyes, and took note of the fact that neither were a complete mess. "huhm, surprise, I don't know how I managed that." She then felt a sharp pain on the side of her head and reached for the spot and turned to get its reflection in the mirror. It was a small wound. It looked as if it were a burn. The size of the end of a cigarette. Right above and behind her temple. "Oww, that doesn't feel nice." As she spoke she had a flashback reminding her of hearing the train under her and then her body felt the memory of someone laying her on the padded bench. She looked down at her sundress and felt herself, fear came over her body and The indiscernible words that were spoken when she awoke for that moment repeated in her head but kept their mumble sound. She tried to hear it and understand, but she couldn't. She knew now that she didn't willingly get on this train but she didn't know where she boarded it or where it was heading. The fear subsided as her failure to remember was Faithful.

The Man began to move and twitch a little over on his side of the roomette. She looked and saw that he too had a mark on his head. She began to grab the door knob to leave the room before he woke up and when she tried to twist it, the knob and door didn't budge. "O no, no, no " panicked she wiggled the door knob harder and pressed on it but tried not to create a great noise, "come on, come on." By this time she was audibly louder and the man OPENED HIS EYES completely. She looked back at him and kept wondering if he had anything to do with this , what happened to her, and where is this train going? He groaned and ask the question " What the HELL IS GOING ON?? WHY DOES MY HEAD FEEL LIKE THIS??" She stopped panicking. She paused and thought. " Ok. He isn't the one that put you here." Simultaneously she flashbacked and could remember hearing the other man walk in and drop this man's body on that bench. She told him " Two men dropped us off here, I can't remember anything else and this door won't open. I was here, barely conscious and then someone brought you in, unconscious." She paused another second, "We both have the same wound on our temple and we both don't…obviously don't know what's going on here." The Man lay there blinking his eyes and trying to remember who he was, what happened, and where he was heading but quickly realized she was right and must have been telling the truth.

The Man spun his legs around and set His feet on the floor. A brief moment to steady himself and he went to the mirror to see if he could remember anything and check the scar she was referring to. "Excuse me miss, let me see." He looked into the mirror and stared into his own eyes perplexed. The Man tried to remember "anything…anything…. Nothing!" He thought to himself and then turning to her spoke aloud "NOTHING", he then turned back to the mirror to feel the scar on his head and looked back at hers, " They are the same. What has happened to us?" He began pulling on the door and it didn't budge for him either. He beat on the door wanting to get someone's attention. He started huffing and puffing and the room began to spin. The more energy he spent the faster the room would spin. " OoowooOo , I feel sick now." The Man went and sat down to catch his breath. " Bluuhhgg!!" He puked up some green nasty slime and dry heaved a few times. The woman reacted " O my, you should relax, let me find something to clean this up with." She looked around and found a newspaper and dropped it on the mess in the floor. As she looked down at it she saw the headline.

SKY ON FIRE, Telegraphs Fail, IS IT THE END?? Scientist report Solar activity. The Weekly Arizonian SEPTEMBER 3 1859. She noticed the first page photo of the sky brightly lit up behind a settlement. She pondered for a moment and none of that rang a bell but she was happy to know the year. "It's 1859" she told the man, "and this newspaper doesn't look too old and surely they've had cleaned this roomette, so I believe it's September 4th 1859." He opened his eyes while laying on his back and a memory tried to invade his thoughts, he wanted to hang onto it and totally recall what it was about hearing her say the date but it slipped away as fast as it arose in his mind. "Dammit I wish I could remember one thing, I keep wanting to ask you your name and then I remember we don't know NOTHING." The Man got up and lifted the blind on the window. He slid open the window "da-shsshsop, da-shsshsop, da-shsshsop!" The train barreled down the tracks and he stuck his head out and looked around to see if there was a way to climb out of the room. " Get your head back in here!!" The woman grabbed him and pulled him into the car and she fell and he came with her to the ground. He quickly shuffled his knees so that they wouldn't land on her body and she and He were face to face on the ground. " Whoa!" He said. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment. Hers were lit up with excitement and a little embarrassment. His were a darker color and his face rough. His left hand holding him up and his right hand grasping her arm so that she knew he wasn't falling completely. Their bodies pushed into each other instinctively and beyond their control, Something felt familiar for a moment. The warmth and pressure of the touch was settling and comfortable. Something internal between them resonated and they both allowed themselves to stay there a little while.

" Forgive me miss, I was lost" the man finally broke the trance between them. She softly responded " yes, it's alright, I was also somewhere else. Not exactly sure where." He stood up and gently pulled her up with him, as he had not let her go since they fell. They both cleared their throats at the same time and walked to the door. To their surprise it opened freely. Looking at each other puzzled, they peaked down each direction of the hallway of the train. "Hmm, let's find someone to tell us where this train is heading." He told her as they exited the roomette and went toward the back of the train first. The woman noticed he had two pockets in his slacks. " Make sure You don't have a ticket in your pocket." The Man reached into his pockets and said " Nothing, but good thinking." They both gave a smirk of approval as their fortune thus far remained on par with each other. Continuing through the train they came upon a parlor car and entered in and unwilling to cause a scene took seats at the bar.

There was music playing and chatter filled the room. No one really turned to see them as their nervousness had suggested would happen. They looked to be a traveling couple to the bartender and he asked, "what'll it be?". They looked at each other blankly, not remembering what they drink or even if they drink. " We will both have the house special." The Man answered. He glanced over and nodded to the woman. The bartender began to pour them a drink. Afraid to ask where the train is heading because they had no ticket for proof of purchase. The woman asked cleverly, " what's the next stop?" The bartender could've burned a cold hole through her as he blinked twice, didn't answer and turned and walked away after setting down their drinks. " I know He heard me,'' she said to the man. The Man nodded, "yeah, but don't push it too hard, we don't need the conductor asking for our tickets." She agreed and took a sip of her drink. Looking around and seeing two people dancing. Another memory tried to intrude, it was music, and some glass breaking, but the visuals were complete blurs of colors like looking through a waterfall with shadows and multi-colored auroras of lights behind it. Several crashes and thuds and some indistinguishable yelling. She strained to keep it going and have it clear up but the memory vanished. He took a sip of his drink and stood up and asked the woman for a dance. She approved and let him take her hand and they danced.

As the two swirled around the floor, a pair of gentlemen at a table in the corner watched. The woman noticed their stares and whispered to her amnesiac dance partner, "whoever did this to us , or left us here, they must still be on the train, I don't believe it has stopped since someone put us in that room." The Man leaned back to look at her face and replied " you may be right !" He looked around to see if she was implying someone in the room was responsible. He made eye contact with the two men in the corner and then quickly spun around in the dance. The two men got up and left the parlor. This only seemed to confirm their suspicion. Once the song was over they went back to the bar and the bartender gave them a compliment, " nice moves , here's one on the house." He looked at the woman as he served her the drink and said "Do I know you ? You look very familiar?" The woman didn't know how to respond since she didn't know herself at the moment. The bartender continued, ," I guess that's fair enough, I didn't answer you earlier when you asked when's the next stop. Honestly I've been doing this train-car bar stuff so long I don't even know where we've been or where we are going. But I feel like I saw you working at a saloon before and not on the bottom floor. I would recognize those lips and your legs anywhere. I don't see a ring on your hand or this man's hand, so I suppose this isn't your husband." The Man slammed his drink down on the bar and gave a stern look at the bartender, " Now that's no way to talk to a lady." He shoved his cup into the bartender's hand that was rested on the bar. The woman blanked out thinking of what he was insinuating and the memories she had so far remembered re-entered her mind. Feeling a person laying her on the bench. The sound of the train coming from under her. Da-Shsshsop, da-shsshsop, da-shsshsop. The way it felt to scream inside and have no power to move or audibly speak. Was it a saloon brawl memory with shouting, glass breaking, and people crashing through tables and chairs. This bartender was possibly right. But all she could remember is this little bit, and nothing else became clear.

The Man grabbed her hand and ushered them on to the next train car telling her " Maybe we should find those men that were sitting in there. They did seem suspicious." The woman didn't speak and was quietly following his lead. She was frozen in some of the thoughts she was having and trying to recollect and understand. " Yes, something is happening here." She finally answered the Man and she spoke some more. " Yes, we should find them or anyone that is talking about where we are going. Or where we left. How long is this train ride. I want to know why I have this mark on my head and can't remember who I am." She hurled out all of her worries at once and the man nodded and kept her hand as they began searching through the train. They came upon a private car and knocked on the entry. They waited for a response and entered into it. This was a luxury rail-car with a gold chandelier and gold plated mantels over the fireplace. Paintings hung on the wall and candles created a beautiful glow throughout. There was a table with cards on it but it looked as if the occupiers had fled with haste. There were glasses of whiskey at the table. Over on another table was a map of the railroad and some writings. The two walked over to the map and searched it for clues to where they were. Little gold nuggets Mark what could be interpreted as stops. There were seven nuggets on the map.

The Man began to calculate the miles of track based upon the map and the time to get from one end of the track to the other. This was an effort to calculate where they may be, as they had been traveling for a couple of hours at least and with the train's speed thrown in the equation, maybe he could take an educated guess. He looked at the distance between a few of the gold markers. Through a process of elimination, he found that only about 3 of those distances would accommodate their travel time. The Woman in the meantime was reading the papers that accompanied the map. As far as she could tell, there were some instructions on safe banks for depositing gold and even some places to find gold stashes that had not been moved from the dig site yet. But only put into bear caves for guard and safe keeping. She continued to study the papers and it seemed the last date on one of the ledgers lined up with her beliefs about it being September 4 1859, and when she read what was on the train she exclaimed " There is tons of gold on this train!!" The Man stopped his calculations and went to see what she was reading. They looked upon the papers and ledgers together. She showed him everything she had just read and then the date on the ledger and the numbers and the symbol G at the end. " This isn't answering our questions but it's sure enough interesting!" The Man told the woman. They both laughed a short-lived giggle mixed with their current perplexities. They kept looking through the papers and the entryway door began to rattle as someone was coming in. " Someone's coming, here get in this wardrobe." The Man put the woman in the wardrobe and ran to hide behind the poker table where the dealer would stand. The door to the private car was pushed open as he barely made it out of sight.

A person was conversing as they walked in, "Clevon, the world is not enough, and all the gold with it. This burning of the sky is just the beginning of a fiery ending. " Clevon responded, " This is true Noah but we can have some fun while we watch it come undone." The two men stumbled in the room and walked over to the liquor cabinet and poured themselves some scotch. They toasted " Fire and Brimstone". They walked over to the map and Clevon spoke " Here is when the train will slow, around this bend and our stagecoach will catch the speed to get us off this train. There will only be a half hour left before it crashes into the depot. I sent out the word and let several bands of thieves think this is a job that some wild gang is pulling off. No one knows that there's only one ton of gold on here, not 13. The real jackpot is in the bear caves. By the time the smoke settles, after the gangs gather what they can while having a shootout with the town and the people start digging for rescue and clean up. No one will know how much gold was on this train. How much the people pocketed. How much is buried under the rubble. The nights will come and so will the thieves, bandits, and foragers looking for a piece of the pie. There will be gunfights daily for control of the wreckage. Meanwhile we will be well on our way, the opposite direction. The rich men that dug this gold off the backs off the poor, the penniless, the slaves, and the immigrants will hopefully get caught in this crossfire also. We were just the worker bees. We have the two bodies, the Man that was caught stealing the gold while digging and the brothel working woman he fell in love with. They will represent you and your wife dying here, and you and yours can find a new life. As for me, I'll be the ghost they never found. With the rumors that the train was hi-jacked, they'll think I was executed first as an Engineer that wouldn't cooperate and was thrown off the train and eaten by coyotes."

Noah gathered the papers concerning the whereabouts of the caves and left the ledgers and other information to convince the investors and People that would investigate. They got ready to go up to the front of the train and planned on jumping from the roof into a hay-filled carriage. "We will need a coat for the ride out to the caves." Noah told Clevon. And Clevon reached to open the wardrobe. The Man was watching from under the table and slapped the wood to make a loud noise. Clevon and Noah turned to where the noise came from. And He jumped up from behind the poker table. The woman slung open the wardrobe and knocked Clevon down. The Man slung the deck of cards into Noah's face and came running to kick him down onto the ground. He knocked Noah out with one punch and began to scuffle with Clevon as he had grabbed the Man into a bear hug. He told the woman " Run, go back to our room. I'll be right behind you." She ran and made it to the door and looked back and saw they were wrestling for a pistol. The Man was on top of Clevon but Clevon was pointing the gun to the man's chest, simultaneously a bottle of alcohol had been knocked over and was running on the ground and had soaked the back of Clevon and "POw" the gun went off as the woman threw a candle into the liquid and it caught fire, the fire traced the alcohol to Clevons back and the Man jumped up as the shot went off and the fire blazed.

Clevon rolled around terribly trying to put the fire out and only soaked up more of the liquid. Intensifying the fire and setting other things aflame. The Man was shot in the leg but it had entered and exited. He held it for a moment and groaned with pain. He grabbed something out of the wardrobe and quickly wrapped it around his leg. And threw other articles of clothing on top of Clevon to put the fire out, but the room was burning fast and he didn't have time to pull him out and Noah began to wake up so they headed out and through the parlor where they had danced. The bartender was busy cleaning glasses while the music continued to play and only turned to see their backs as they exited the door of the car that led to the train car of their roomette. They entered the roomette and the man spoke" Shoo..umm..is this really happening ?" He asked the woman. She was holding his shirt tight and staring at the door afraid Noah or the bartender would soon be there to pay them back. She responded " I don't feel like I've ever worked at a brothel. Or like you are a gold thief… So I know what you mean when you say is this real." She continued, "We have to try to stop this train, otherwise it's a bloodbath when it crashes and it'll be a historical tragedy what happens in the next town. " They checked his wound and rearranged the tourniquet to apply pressure on the entrance and exit hole in his skin. He looked at her as she was tightening up the tourniquet and said " They say we were in love.." she looked up and smiled a bit and remembered how it felt when he fell on top of her earlier. She thought to herself, that could explain those feelings. Her only memories cycled through again. The Man laid her down. The sound of the train. The words they spoke. The breaking glass. The crashing of furniture. The burn on the side of their heads. She then responded to his statement about being in love" Yeah, but what happened to us and why this bizarre luck of a runaway train and gold diggers and amnesia." He laughed through the pain when she pulled the final tug on the tourniquet. He spoke " Let's go to the front of the train and try to stop this thing."

They rushed out of the roomette and there was the bartender and Noah entering their car. " Hey STOP!!" The bartender yelled. They chased them as they ran to the next car. Running through as people were sleeping in their seats. They kept going, yelling " These people are going to hi-Jack the train." The Man told people and the people would stand up and step out and slow down Noah and the bartender. They came to a flat railcar and walked out on it. Da-shsshsop, Da-shsshsop, Da-shsshsop. The Bend in the rail-road had come and the train was bent around the curve and they could see down the train forward and backwards. The private car was still blazing and smoking. It was close to midnight now. The stars were brightly shining. They began to climb up on the next rail-car. The woman got up and lay low on the roof. His leg was becoming numb and the man had to muster the strength to get up the ladder and through the windforce. He made it with her and looked down to see the bartender and Noah walking out onto the flat car. He dove down next to her and they watched them enter the car under them. The woman told him " Don't move, they'll hear us up here. Wait… Just wait." There were about 3 more cars to get to the engine of the train. She looked over the edge and down the train and saw the stagecoach coming up now to the side of the train on the convex side of the curve.

"Thirty minutes to midnight." The woman told the man. She looked at him and noticed he wasn't responding. She shook him and grabbed his face to look into his eyes. He groaned and slurred some words. She kissed his lips and whispered " I am in love with you." She stood up and walked up the train, heading to the Engine. About that time Noah popped up from the ladder of the engine car and when he stood on top and turned around to head down the train toward her to jump off into the stagecoach, they locked eyes. The woman gasped. And turned back to get to the man. Noah started walking toward them and kept a crazy look in his eyes. He pulled out a soldier's bayonet and when he was on the car they were on began running toward them. The woman crouched down and shielded the Man and held him in her arms. Noah came closer and closer and she bowed her head to the man's chest and prayed, expecting death. "yaahhh " Noah yelled and the woman heard horses neighing loudly. She listened as the train continued under them da-shsshsop, da-shsshsop and nothing struck them. She lifted her eyes & Noah was gone. She hurried to her feet and witnessed the hay laden stagecoach pulling away from the train as it was now back on the straight away. She looked down to the flat car and saw the bartender hobbling as if he had been hit in the head by Noah. The bartender looked up and saw her. He yelled out and asked if she needed some help. She nodded and he climbed up to see, and they lowered the Man down onto the flat car. The bartender told her that some men were trying to get the train stopped. Trying to save everyone. And if nothing else detach the Engine from the rest of the cars. He helped them back to the roomette where she opened the window and gave the Man a drink of water. She got him to wake up and gave him more kisses. A few minutes went by and she heard people running by their roomette. So she got up and opened the door. "What's happening ??" She asked the men who were trying to stop the train or detach the Engine. One person responded to her inquisition, " This train was never going to stop. There's no breaks. The Engine room was destroyed so no one could do anything. And at top speed. The Engine is detached but we only have a mile or so left. Our only hope is to be as far back on the train as possible." The person then fled to the parlor. The woman went back in and lay with the Man , who had heard everything, and grabbed her hand and wrapped his arms around her. It was midnight and they could hear outside the window screaming mixed with shouting from the town and the people onboard. Crashing and thunderous sounds of metal sounded all around them. An intense explosion ignited and a bright light surrounded the two in there roomette as the train mangled itself into a catastrophic derail.

A man and a woman awoke to people standing over them. "Are you two ok?" an office of the telegraph worker inquired. "You were struck by electricity that came through the wire. The Sky looks like it's on fire and you guys took at zap right to the side of the head." The two rolled their heads to look at each other and made eye contact. They both asked at the same time" what day is it?" The person responded, "September 1st 1859." "Y'all have been out a good 30 minutes, you're lucky. You are not dead." A telegraph began coming in and someone read it out, ***To all bankers on the Triple T Railroad route, beware of possible bandits and hi-jackers, over the next few days. Signed. Clevon Likes. Chief Engineer and Gold Rush enthusiast.*** The Man and woman both began convulsing with memories.

TO BE CONTINUED....