The weaponized Train

The wind blew the swings ever so slightly causing them to move back and forth and squeak, like there was an unseen being playing. I looked around the playground for any signs of the targets. So far it was all clear then again I was early. I liked to scope out my surroundings to find weak and strong points in the area. There were a few good places to hide so I made a mental note of them. Then I heard the sound. A low whistle sound, I’ve heard it before but couldn’t remember when or what it was. I looked around trying to find the source but then I faded into darkness.

“Wake up! Wake up! You need to get up now!” Someone shouted.

I awoke with a pounding in my head. “Where am I," I asked looking around to try and get my bearings.

“You’re on the train. We need to move before they come.” The stranger said pulling on my arm.

“What train? How did I get here?”

“No time for questions. They are coming.”

We walked towards the back of the train. We stopped in the car right before the caboose. The train was a passenger train, but no one else seemed to be on board. It wasn’t an old train but it wasn’t one of the newer bullet trains either. There was something odd about it, besides the lack of people, it was like I knew the train.

“Okay we should be good for a while here. If they catch you without a ticket you will be thrown out. But I need your help.” He said.

“Help with what? Who are you? How did I get here?” I asked getting frustrated.

“You really don’t remember? They must have hit you hard,” he said with a grin, “right… um… I’m Kyle. We’ve been speaking in coded messages. I asked for your help. You are Alex right?”

“Yes I’m Alex. Yes I remember sending you messages. But we weren’t supposed to meet in person yet. Last thing I remember is being at the park and waiting for the people to show up who I was supposed to follow. Ya know the people I was going to get the plans from for the train they were going to use as a weapon.” I said realizing why this train felt familiar. “Wait. Are we on the train?”

“Yes. They must of made you at the park or something because you called me frantic about them getting to you. I told you to meet me at the café where we drop off our messages but you didn’t show. So I back tracked your location and hacked the video feed from the park and seen them take you after you called me. I found them and followed them here to the train and saw them throw you on board. So I hopped on. I didn’t know there were guards walking around. They asked me for my ticket and when I didn’t show them they tried to throw me off. I got away and then found you unconscious.”

“Okay. So we just hide out until we slow down or stop and jump off.”

“The train isn’t stopping or slowing down. From the plans I seen they are running it straight into their target.”

“That explains the no people on board. But not the tickets or why the guards are here unless they are willing to sacrifice themselves. We have to stop this train.”

“That’s the plan. We have to figure out a way around the guards to get to the engine car.” Kyle said as he walked over to the map of the train on the wall. “Says here we are in the storage car and there are two more cars before the engine car. The guards will probably be in the passenger car where I found you. That’s also the closet car to the engine room.”

“Ok well according to this map there is a diner car. Did you see any chefs or workers there? If so we might be able to blend in with them. Act like we are taking food to the conductor.”

“No. Its right through there though,” He said pointing at the doors that connected the cars, “we passed through it coming here. Let’s look through the window and see if anyone is in there.”

They both walked to the door and peeked through the window. They didn’t see anyone but had a limited view of the area.

“Open the door slowly and I’ll peek through the bottom so we can get a better visual.” I said crouching down.

“Um okay but maybe I should peek through. If there is someone waiting on the other side it should be me that gets caught. We will need your skills to stop the train.”

“I’m smaller so the door wouldn’t have to be opened as much and it would be less suspicious.”

“I don’t know…”

“Just open the damn door Kyle”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied with a grin.

I kept my head even with the door at first and glanced around. I didn’t see anyone so far. I looked left and right to make sure no one was standing close to the door and still didn’t see anyone. So I started crawling through the door keeping my eyes and ears peeled for any sound that someone was coming. I got all the way through and looked behind the bartender’s counter and still no one. I slowly stood up and motioned for Kyle to join me. We looked around trying to find clues as to if there were any chefs or servers on board but found no list or signs of anyone working. There goes that plan I thought.

“Can you maybe use the computer and hack into the system to make the train stop?” I asked frustrated.

“No. I already thought of that and although the train is newer looking some aspects are still old. Like the controls and stuff.”

“So we don’t know where we are going or how long until we get there so we need to stop this train as soon as possible. Maybe we can climb on top of the train and walk to the front.”

“Like some old west movie? Haha, I like your style.”

Just then we heard footsteps. We knelt behind the counter just as the door opened. Two guards walked in. They didn’t have guns but they did look mean.

“Find the girl now. She is part of our plan. We need her front and center if we are going to put the blame on her and her government.” Guard one said.

“She has to be here somewhere. She doesn’t have a ticket to unlock the doors to jump off.” Guard two replied.

“I know that stupid. Check everywhere!” The guard said storming off back through the doors he came from.

The other guard stood there looking around. He walked over to the bartender counter and reached over without looking and grabbed a bottle. He took a drink then put it back and walked back through the door.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in and crawled around to the other side. They would start with this car first. We needed to get to the caboose so we could come up with a plan and fast.

Kyle tapped me on the shoulder and pointed towards the doors that led back to the storage car. We were on the same page. I nodded and started creeping towards the door. We made it through and went straight to the caboose after that. Kyle turned towards the door to make sure it was clear and that’s when I saw it. We didn’t need to make it to the front car. The problem was staring me right in the face. It was a bomb, a huge bomb.

“Uh Kyle…” I said pointing at it.

“Oh shit! Not only are they going to ram this thing they are going to explode it too. Damn!”

“Shh! They might hear you. I think I can disarm it but I still don’t know how to stop the train.”

“One problem at a time okay. What do you need me to do?”

“Stand watch. This is a simple diffusion.”

I got to work disarming the bomb and like I said it was pretty simple. The timer was connected to two wires and a snip of the correct one would deactivate it but I also had to make sure there wasn’t a secondary trigger. Once I knew there was just one trigger I cut the correct wire and the bomb was out of play.

“Okay that’s done. Now the guards said the doors are locked with a ticket of some kind. No way we could swipe one or make a copy is there?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t have all my equipment with me either. Maybe we could try and force the door open.”

“Wouldn’t it have an alarm or something?” I asked.

“Um… don’t know.” Kyle replied with a shrug.

“Let’s think about this. The timer had about 30 minutes on it so I assume that’s how long until the train reaches its destination. They want me front and center right? So what if I accidentally get caught by a guard that takes me front and center?” I said with a wink.

“I don’t follow.”

“You silly. You are the guard. There are extra uniforms in the storage car. I saw them when we passed through a second ago.”

“Ok cool.”

They walked back to the storage car and Kyle put on the guards uniform. He grabbed my arm and led me back through the train. We made it to the passenger car and he took a deep breath.

“Ready?” He asked.

“Yes. Let’s do this.”

“I have her! I found her!” Kyle shouted as he marched through the door. I pretended to struggle some to convince the other guards I was captured. The other guards looked at Kyle then back to me. The head guard looked suspicious.

“Go ahead put her up front. Good work.”

We walked through the door and saw no one was driving. It was rigged up with some type of device that held the controls.

“I can work with this. Just watch the door to make sure no one comes in.” I said.

“Ok. I can do that.” Kyle replied. “Wait looks like all the guards are leaving.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know. Let me ask.” Kyle said trying to open the door. “Uh the door is locked.”

“Thought you could fool us? Think again. You can go down with her.” The head guard said walking away.

“Guess they did have an exit strategy. They don’t know we disarmed the bomb though so as long as we stop the train it should be good.” Kyle said.

“Yes I’m working on it. The lever here seems to control the amount of power. The brake seems to be broken though so I don’t know if I can fix that. But if I could make the power slow down enough we could stop without the brake.”

“What can I do to help?” Kyle asked.

“I need you to pull the power lever as hard as you can towards me when I say so. I need to monitor the controls.” I said sitting down in the conductor’s seat. “Okay now! Pull!” I shouted.

Kyle pulled with all his might. The train squealed a little then started slowing down. Kyle pulled even harder and it started to stop.

“It’s working!” Kyle said with a laugh.

“Yes! Keep going its almost there!”

Just then a guard burst through the door.

“Think you are clever do you! Well I don’t! Get away from that!” He shouted and lunged for Kyle.

“Take over Alex!” Kyle shouted as he fought the guard. I wasn’t as strong as Kyle but was able to slow the train down and it made a complete stop. Kyle was able to subdue the guard and grabbed his phone.

“Let’s call the agency and get them to get clean up this mess” Kyle said.

“Yes, let’s,” I smiled glad it was over.