"The Engineer" by Twisted Zero
*************************************************************************** The Engineer (#4)
"Javian! Javian, God, I'm so glad you're O.K.!"
My eyes had just barely begun to open, and wham--my father damn near squeezes the life out of me. I wasn't in anycondition to have a single clue where I was. Everything cleared up, my periferral vision returned, and I saw what I assumed to be Sheila's bedroom around us.
"Dad," I started, my voice very hoarse. "When did you get here?"
I could tell he'd come right from work; he had on these brown slacks, a yellow shirt, black and gray striped tie and his tan trench coat. Yeah, he's never been much of a stylist, but so what, huh?
"About five minutes after you passed out," he said, leaning back enough to look at me. He'd been crying for a long time, anybody could tell. Then I remembered why. I hugged my father tighter than ever before, and we both started crying, mourning for his wife and my mother.
"This is getting worse by the minute," said Bluestreak, leaning against a wall down the hall aways from Sheila's bedroom door.
"Javian said that it was up to us to stop that...thing." said Tin. "And now he may not have the courage. Or the will power." His eyes watered beyond repair. He blinked a few times, but a couple tears still managed to escape down his cheeks.
"Hey, I know I haven't known Javian as long as you guys have, but since I got here if there's one thing I know about that guy, it's that this kinda thing will only make him more determined to go after the cause of all this...stuff."
Tin closed his eyes, more tears silently escaping him.
"Hey, man," Bluestreak said softly, and pulled Tin into a firm but gentle embrace. "It's O.K. We'll get through this O.K."
They were standing by the wall of the hallway on the left side of the staircase. Sheila made her way up and saw them.
"Is he awake yet?" she asked softly.
"Yeah," said Bluestreak, "but he's having a terrible time right now. Him and his dad, both."
She nodded. "Anything you guys need, just come downstairs. My dad just got home, and we're all in the living room or the kitchen."
Tin didn't say anything, but Bluestreak nodded and thanked her. She nodded back, then went back down to her family.
Becky was driving as fast as she was comfortable with. She'd been at work, but when the second report on the 'mysterious train accident' came over the radio exactly 13 minutes after the first and it was declared that six people were killed and eleven injured, and that school board president Lisa Verreaux was amongst the lost, she quickly had a coworker cover her register and skipped out early to rush to her best male friend. There were two railroad crossings between the mall where she worked and my house. The first was right in town, a few minutes from the mall. The second was across a road that served as a bit of a shortcut. Galliberry Road. Ah, Gal-li-ber-ry Road. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
See, Galliberry wasn't IN town, per se. There were a few wooded areas that didn't really belong to any of the parks, but also weren't on anybody's private property. Galliberry was surrounded by one of these wooded areas. It was about a seventh of a mile long -- yes, I said a "seventh" -- and it was totally unlined. However, going through town instead of taking Galliberry from the area where she worked took an extra five roads and an extra ten minutes.
She arrived at the crossing on Galliberry Road and stopped, checking both ways even though the signals weren't moving. This was normal here because nobody knew how often this road's signals were maintained, and she was very upset, as well, about the two unexplainable and morbid accidents on the tracks in the past three days.
Oh, yeah--the other interesting thing about the tracks at the Galliberry crossing, is that there's two sets.
She took in her pereceptions of a lack of trains and proceeded to cross the tracks. Now, she was already very upset about Javian's loss, she was exceedingly worried about her friend, as well as his father, the train situation of the past few days had her very rattled about crossing the tracks, even though she'd checked for herself that they were unused, and now she'd heard a sudden and short sizzling noise followed by a very loud pop--more like a bang, even. Then the car seemed to fall about four inches.
She was driving a Ford Tempo, and opened the driver door, her automatic seat belt undoing itself, allowing her to look down. Her tires, front and back on their respective tracks, were all half gone, melting on the red, illuminated rails. She screamed, quickly and shortly. She shut the door hard, then faced forward. She sat there for a moment, stunned entirely, thinking only "Oh, my God," over and over.
She collected her mind, and decided to get out of the car, step over the rails and walk the rest of the way into town. This was good on her part. She shut off the car, opened the driver door, and stepped out into the area between the two railroads. She pushed the car door shut and carefully examined the obsticle before her. She could feel the heat radiating from the inflamed rails.
"Freaky, situation, huh?" came a soft but deep voice from behind, startling her enough for another scream of surprise. She spun a one-eighty and looked right into the face of a handsome, twenty-something looking guy. He was wearing jeans, dark brown work boots, a puce dress shirt, a purple bandana around his neck, kinda sideways, and, in both hands, he held a big brown hat in front of himself. He almost looked shy...timid, maybe.
"Jesus!" she exclaimed, putting a hand on her heart and closing her eyes to calm herself. "You scared the hell outta me."
"Well then," he said, as she opened her eyes to look at him. He looked down the tracks to his left, hinting with his glance, then looked back to her and stated, his voice now darkened and gravelly, "this oughtta send you straight to Heaven."
She instinctively looked where he had implied, and saw a large, dark steam engine-looking train coming fast down the tracks closer to the front of her car. Her mouth dropped open. She sensed movement and looked back to the man. He was putting his hat on. When he'd adjusted it where he liked it, he looked her in the eye again, and she screamed in actual fear this time at the dead, lavender skin that only half-covered his face. He smirked, as best a man with half a face can.
"Nothin' personal, Baby," he said, holding his hands out to his sides and leaning forward a bit. "You just live in the wrooong tooown."
She started to step back from him, but forgot where she was; her left shoe lit up the minute her heel touched the rail. A loud screech was heard as she shreiked and lifted her leg up to swat at the fire on her foot. The train's whistle screamed as it neared her, only about fifteen feet away.
"Mother--" started the Engineer, but he didn't finish. He only flinched and appearntly braced himself, ducking and holding his arms up in a cross form in front of him. Becky was hit with a powerful blow from behind that carried her across the rails and right through the spectre of the Engineer. Instantly, the train bashed right into the front of the Tempo, which swung a mere 90 degrees and lined itself along the first set of rails. It was already half molten, and as such was nearly immovable, though there was hardly a front end left on it. The train continued on, at top speed, and the Engineer spun to face the two bodies on the ground.
"You stupid son of a bitch," he said, rage forming in his voice. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"
"My name's Charlie," said Becky's savior, making his way to his feet, scowling at the Engineer. Then, in a cocky voice he asked, "What's your name?"
Becky looked up from the ground, supporting herself on her elbow. All she could do was stare.
"My name is not important, Hook," he snarled, making a nickname out of Charlie's handicap. "And neither is yours. Soon enough, this whole town will be as dead as me, but much less lively. Maybe then people will know who I am--fucking two and two, brother."
"What are you talking about?" asked Charlie in total bewilderment.
"That overwhelming state of ignorance is exactly why I'm here, Lobster Boy!" exclaimed the Engineer, pointing directly at Charlie. A rhythmic chugging sound started up in the distance--the train was coming back. "Now I'm gonna go, and I admit, that was pretty groovy the way you saved your girlfriend from the clutches of evil..." The train appeared on the tracks, making it's way closer, "...but it won't happen again."
He jumped up as the engine was parallel with him and grabbed a big ol' bar on the side of the cab, then was swept away with the rest of the train.
Charlie reached down with his good hand and helped Becky to her feet. They watched as the entirety of the train drove down the tracks and out of sight.
"What... was that?" asked Becky, getting control of her senses.
"I can't really say," said Charlie, still looking down the tracks. "But I think Javian can tell us."
"You know Javian?!" she asked, completely taken and shaking her head.
"YOU know Javian?" he asked, disbelief in his voice. There was a slight pause in which they only stared at each other, until they both asked in unison, "Who are you?!"
After a bit of a mental lapse on both parts, Charlie stuck out his hand.
"I'm Charlie," he said. "I helped Javian and his friends last night. They're at...uh...Bluestreak's house! It's 'Bluestreak', right?"
"Yeah, that's right." said Becky. "I'm Becky," she said, looking beyond the tracks at the empty car with the driver door open. "That your car?" she asked.
Charlie gave up and let his hand drop back to his side. "Yup," he said, then cracked a smile. "That's my Python--come on."
The tracks were perfectly fine now, making travel across them to Charlie's car very easy, though Becky's tempo was a half-molten chunk of steel and plastic, most likely stuck where it was.
She opened her door and they entered the car.
"Why do you call it the Python?" she asked, confused.
"Because," said Charlie, starting the car, "It's a Monte Carlo. Kind of a play on words?" he explained, turning the car around.
"I don't get it," she said.
"You've never heard of Python Carlo?!" he asked, putting on an amazed face, but seconds later he busted out laughing. Becky still didn't get it, but that's O.K. She wasn't all that into British comedy, anyway. That, and, of course, she was still very upset and mentally preoccupied with what just happened. Charlie had tried to lighten her up a bit, but after he noticed that she wasn't going to, he gave up and the ride to Bluestreak's house was silent.
"Uh oh," muttered Charlie, pulling to the side of the road across from Bluestreak's place.
"What?" asked Becky, coming out of a self-induced trance.
"Nobody's home," Charlie explained.
Reggie stood on the tracks, staring down into the distance. He'd left his driver rood open, and Paul was left in the passenger seat. The bars had gone down and Reggie had thought he heard a train whistle, but Paul had heard nothing. No lights...no bells...appearnatly no train...but the bars were down. Reggie had gotten out to get a decent look and see if anything was in fact on its way, but when he looked toward the east he'd frozen. He'd stood there for about five seconds, completely motionless.
"Well?" asked Paul, leaning out the window. His brother said nothing. "Do you see anything or not, man?" he asked, getting irritated. No response. With an exaggerated sigh, Paul got out and shut the door, not slamming it, but hitting it harder than neccessary. "Dude!" he said loudly, but halted, almost tripping, petrifyed by what he saw.
It was dusk; the sun had just about gone half past the horizon, allowing for a half black sky, large shadows, and an orange shimmer to anything the sun could touch. However, amidst this darkened world was a bluish-white light, casting itself upon the front half of Reggie. Subconciously, Paul noted that Reggie cast no shadow in this light and that the light was on only him; it didn't touch anything else, not even the rails or boards at his feet. Snapping his head to the left, Paul then saw what scared him the most: nothing. There was no blinding blue or white light to have to sheild his eyes from. There was no light source at all. Only shadows and sunset glow. Paul ran up to his brother and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him from his position. His brother was very cold, even his shirt.
"Reggie, dude, let's go," he insisted, but Reggie didn't move, not at all. Not even a wobble from Paul's tugs. Paul was having the same effect on his brother as he would trying to pull a redwood. There was absolutely no movement. A slight breeze swept through, ruffling Paul's tee shirt; it didn't even tussle Reggie's hair. "What the fuck, man? What the hell're you doing?!"
"Big brother's with me now, palsy boy," said a deep, gravelly voice. Paul turned at lightspeed and saw the Engineer, his right leg casually crossing his left and leaning with his right elbow on Reggie's shoulder. Paul let out a gasp of surprise, then started to stutter and mumble at the same time.
"w-w-wuh-w-w-w-wuh-What's g-going on?!" the Engineer asked, mocking Paul's obvious question. "Jeez, kid, lighten up. You're almost as bad as you're brother when you're scared. Then again, at least you can move. Reggie here just stopped dead in his tracks."
With that, the train sped right through them both, the Engineer laughing his ass off. He stood there, the train perfectly phasing through him. He was shaking, but only with laughter, while Reggie's frozen form seemed to be shaking ever so slightly to and fro. The train, which had come from nowhere, was now gone to nowhere, completely disappearing, as if it had never shown up in the first place. Paul was stunned.
Reggie's left hand fell off, severed at the wrist, but there was no bleeding. Paul screamed and backed up, almost tripping again. Reggie's entire body started to come apart at different places, each piece no more than one cubic foot.
In total shock, Paul backed up, slowly now, shaking his head side to side, just as slowly, and quietly whispering the word "no," over and over. The Engineer looked down to the pile of Reggie, appeanrantly surprised that he'd fallen apart.
"Or, uh, I guess he kinda /dropped/ dead on /my/ tracks," the Engineer restated, trying to fix his witty phrase for the situation. But Paul wasn't about to listen to whatever that thing was. He was fixated on home. And there he ran.
We made it home when my dad felt composed enough to drive. Tin took Bluestreak home and said he might stop by, but that he knew he'd have to at the very least check in at his house. My dad and I got in his dark green Jeep Gran Cherokee and made the ride home in silence, but it was only a few minutes anyway. We pulled into the driveway beside our house and exitted the vehicle. I heard another car door shut, but it didn't really register.
"Javian!" came a familiar voice. I looked up and saw Becky running across the street to me. Before I could muster up any response, she had me in a deathgrip of an embrace, crying her eyes out. I hugged her back, swinging slightly side to side.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she said into my shoulder. I'd stopped crying about an hour ago, though still in an exuberant amount of pain, but when I heard one of my best friends crying, let alone for me, the dam broke again.
"Hey, man. I'm really sorry 'bout what happened. I mean--well.... What can I say, y'know?"
Charlie was great. I reached over and pulled him in to our hug too, no matter how little I knew about him. At that point I really didn't care.
"Javian," he said softly, "we gotta talk." My father had been watching all this, and after hearing Charlie's words, he got out his house key.
"C'mon in, guys. I'll make us all some tea."
Becky and Charlie and I sat down in my living room, my dad headed straight for the kitchen. Becky had an arm over my shoulder, Charlie was straight across from me.
"What's going on, Jay?" she asked. I was immediately lost.
"What's going on with what?" I asked.
"Charlie just saved my life today," she informed me. "I don't really know what happened, but my car is on the train tracks on Galliberry Road in a mess of melted steel." I looked at her, a little surprised.
"What?!"
"That Engineer guy you told me about," Charlie started, getting the attention of both Becky and I, "does he have a pink shirt?"
I thought for a minute. "Yeah," I said.
"Then he started to melt Becky's car and tried to hit her with a train at the same time." said Charlie. "I showed up just in time to knock her outta the way, but the train still nailed her car."
This was too much.
"Wait--what?!" I asked. I'd held my head, at first, but when I asked for them to restate their incident, I'd thrown my hands out and looked up at both of them. My dad walked in, a cup in each hand. He gave one to Becky and one to me, then asked Charlie if he liked cream or sugar in his tea. Charlie gave his specifications, and dad left, only to reappear in under thirty seconds, a cup for himself and one for Charlie. He than sat down and joined us.
"So, what's up, guys?" he asked of Becky and Charlie, trying to maintain his stability. We all looked at each other quickly, then I just sighed and looked at the floor.
"You don't wanna know, dad." I said.
"Are you sure?" he asked, concern in his voice.
"Actually, Jay, it may be good to tell him," Becky suggested.
"No, Becky, I don't think it would," I said, coldly.
"But if he knew--" started Charlie, but I didn't want to hear it. I stood up.
"So what if he DID know, Charlie? Huh? What's that gonna do? It's just one more person to feel useless and helpless, because there's nothing we can do to stop it!"
"Whoa, Jay--" my dad started, but I cut him off.
"Becky," I said turning to her, "I'm sorry about what happened, O.K.? I really am, and I'm glad you're O.K. And Charlie," I said, turning to him, "I'm very, very happy that you were in the right place at the right time, and I am forever at your service for saving Becky the way you did. But I've come to the realization that nothing that any of us can do will have any effect on this...this situation. Now please, I'm asking both of you: just forget about it."
"Forget about it?!" Becky asked, loudly and angrily.
"Dude!" shouted Charlie, shocked at my proposition.
"Yes! Forget about it. There's nothing anybody can do except sit back and watch everybody else get hurt while we wait for our turn to come. Now I'm sorry, but I'm feeling very...very tired. So if you don't mind...?" I asked, suggestively swaying my arm towards the front door.
"No, trust me, Jay," said Charlie, standing up and taking Becky's hand with no protest from her. They took the few steps to the door an opened it, looking back over their shoulders. "We don't mind at all." And with that, they left.
I tried to sleep that night, and although I kept drifting off due to my excessive sleepiness, every sleep I got was disrupted by images of my mother, then Becky and how her car must have looked. Charlie also came into my head a lot that night, and his bravery of saving a total stranger and standing up to the Engineer. Oh, yeah. That lead to a lot of scarey fucking images. First just his face, then he started laughing. My mind's camera, if you will, sort of zoomed out and saw he was driving his train top speed down the tracks. I zoomed farther away from him and saw Floyd, Tin and Bluestreak all tied up on the tracks, screaming for me to come save them. The train came up right where it was about to crush them all, and then nothing. Instantly, the Engineer's face appeared in full veiw again.
"Thank's for givin' up, kiddo!" he said. "Now I get to kill everybody in this whole fucking town! All because you...gave...up!!"
I sat up straight in bed after that last dream. I suddenly found myself out of a slump. I jumped out of bed and rifled through the stuff that cluttered my desk. I found the number and ran across my room and grabbed my phone, dialing the number in my hand. I quickly glanced at the clock. 5:44 am. I made a mental note to check the time before calling people after my revelations from now on. Some one answered.
"Hello?" came a tired voice.
"Charlie?" I asked, overexcited.
"Yeah?" he answered, slowly and suspiciously.
"It's Jay," I said. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said yesterday, I just wasn't at my best, and I couldn't take anything to do with trains. But I gotta tell ya, if you're serious about stopping this guy, I need to know now. I don't wanna sound like a dick, especially after last night, but I need to know, are you in or are you out?"
There was a slight pause.
"Javian, are you O.K.?" asked Charlie, both concerned and confused.
"No way," I said, sternly. "I'm fucking pissed."
**************************************************************************** Ha ha, hope this had enough action in it to make up for #3. :)
--Twisted Zero (TwistedZero@thevortex.com)