The Engineer

"The Engineer" by Twisted Zero

*************************************************************************** The Engineer (#6)

BAM, Father Breaker went straight down on his back.

"Get UP!" yelled the Engineer, quickly jerking his arms upward. In an almost unreal move, Harry rose to his feet. "Thank you," said the Engineer, and swung another fist at the Father's face, knocking him down again. The Engineer lifted his arms again and Father Breaker rose to his feet accordingly. Instead of punching him again, the Engineer reached behind the small of his back and pulled out, from appearntly nowhere, a dark, dusty spade. His coal shovel. Harry turned, and took one step to start to run with, but fell instantly after a 'wham' in the back.

Tin's car made it about halfway to Warren Street when they got stopped by an accident. A minivan had collided with some kind of compact car, and there was a cop car on either side and an ambulance on the side farther from them. They came to a halt and waited impatiently for an officer to give them the signal to pass. Derrek's truck came up right behind them.

"Shit, shit, shit," said Tin, bouncing up and down in his seat, drumming nervously on the steering wheel. "O.K., we can't wait for this." Tin took off around the accident, and a cop yelled at him, but when Derrek tried to follow, the cop jumped in front of his pick-up forcing him to stop, and a second ran to the passenger door.

"Come on, we gotta go!" shouted Derrek. "Damn it!"

Holding the priest by the collar and belt buckle, the Engineer held him over his head and then swung him down onto the pavement, slamming him onto his back. The Engineer leaned over him, so that he appeared upside-down.

"This is what happens when you don't know what you're doing, Pops." he said. "A ghost from realms outside of God's territory will kick your ass."

He then forcefully jutted out his arms and grabbed Harry by the neck.

"Oh, fuck!" shouted Floyd, facing forward in his seat again.

"Now what?" asked Bluestreak.

"One of those cops is following us, that's what. This is all I need, two police encounters in one weekend, and neither of them very explainable." Floyd said.

"Well, don't worry, Floyd, we're not stoppin' for him," said Tin, as they swerved around a corner and headed straight for the tracks, the cop following about thirty seconds behind.

With too many abrasions to count on his face alone, Harry Breaker was knocked over again, a swift blow to the forehead causing him to fall.

"You know, Pops," started the Engineer, "I've been thinkin' while I've been kickin' your ass." He paused and stood up straight, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "I'm not gonna kill you. Wanna know why?"

Father Breaker tried to move, but felt a sudden pain in his chest and moaned sharply.

"Good," said the Engineer. "See, the way I figure it, it'd be a lot meaner to let you live, knowing that no matter how strong your faith is and no matter how powerful your God may be, that he wouldn't save you from a monster like me. Now, I know you could gimme a buncha crap like 'oh, the Good Lord turned your heart, Engineer, really he did,' but you and I both know that'd be bullshit. Just sit there, in all your physical pain, and let your faith fall to pieces as you realise...." and here the Engineer knelt down and got in Harry's face. "God can't stop me."

At this point, Tin's car came to a screeching halt not twenty feet away. The Engineer's head snapped up, glaring in their direction. He rose as Tin, Bluestreak, Floyd and Paul all got out of the car, almost in unison.

"Ah, Bat Boy brings the cavalry," said the Engineer.

"Leave him alone," said Bluestreak.

"You're startin' to sound like a broken record, Track Star," the Engineer retorted.

"Yeah, and you're gettin' kinda tedious, too, Skullgrin," snarled Bluestreak.

"Yeah, that may be, but I'm not your problem right now, kids," he said, a half smile sort of forming on his face. The police car that had been following them came to a stop behind and to the right of Tin's car. The officer got out and slammed his door.

"O.K., kids, everybody stay where you are," he ordered. He then happened to look over at the Engineer. He picked up his flashlight and aimed it at him. The Engineer waved.

"Evenin', Officer," he said.

"You think this is fuckin' Halloween, son?" asked the officer.

"No, sir, officer," said the Engineer. "Just 'Kick A Preacher's Ass Day'."

At this, the policeman looked down and saw Father Breaker lying on the ground, mostly covered in blood. He snapped his head up at the Engineer.

"O.K., pal, put your hands on your head and get down on the ground, now!" he said, then pulled his gun.

"Officer--" started Bluestreak.

"Quiet, kid," he shot, and Bluestreak shut up. The policeman stepped toward the Engineer. "Put your hands on your head, and get down on the ground!" he shouted. The Engineer slowly put his hands on his head, and with an almost ethereal motion, lowered himself to his knees, both legs bending at once, his upper body never shaking the slightest as if followed his lower body. He seemed to sneer a bit, but the cop didn't notice, although you could tell he was confused and kinda nervous about the Engineer's "mask". The Engineer layed down on the pavement and right as the cop took three more steps toward him, the Engineer burst back onto his knees, but it was terrifying as all hell. His whole body didn't sit up; only his backside and his insides did. His entire front still layed on the street. He flailed his arms around, what he had moving, anyway, and screamed and heart-stopping scream.

"What the fuck?!" yelled the cop, backing up quickly and bumping into the front of Tin's car, dropping his gun in the process. Each one of the guys also yelped, but nothing like the cop, and also staggered back about a step or two. Father Breaker's eyes kinda rolled back and he blacked out.

"Boo!" yelled the Engineer, and he rose to his feet, the front of his body rejoining the rest of him. The cop just stared at him, his mouth hung wide open. "Oh, I'm sorry, was I under arrest?" the Engineer quickly asked. The cop panicked and ran back to his car. He didn't quite realise that he'd shut his driver door, but it was open and he dove into the car, grabbing the c.b..

"Dispatch!" he shouted into the receiver, "Dispatch, this is m-Murphy!"

"This is dispatch, we read you, Murphy," said a staticky, slightly muffled, nasally kinda voice from a woman.

"Guys--ghost at the tracks--w-w-Warren Street!" he stammered.

"Then I guess you're fucked, Murphy. Sorry." came the voice.

It was then that Murphy looked up and saw the Engineer sitting in the passenger seat, the wire from the c.b. receiver held in front of his mouth. Murphy screamed again. He backed out of the car and was about to run for it, but the Engineer appeared behind him and grabbed him by the collar and the belt buckle.

"Sorry, Officer Murphy," he said, snarling. He then leaned over Murphy's shoulder and said right into his ear, "but you've got a train to catch."

He took a few quick steps toward the tracks and then reared back, ready to swing with Murphy.

"Or then again..." he started, and then spun and threw Murphy at least twelve feet into the air and seven acrossr the ground and to the tracks, "...maybe the train..." he continued, while Murphy shreiked in fear. The train appeared from its blazing arc of light and smashed into Murphy, then disappeared into another arc of light, taking Murphy with it. "...is gonna catch you."

The train disappeared entirely and the light vanished. Murphy's left wrist and hand dropped from the air and hit the tracks. The Engineer was looking on, but came back to the here and now when he heard a car start up. He spun on his heel and saw Tin's car peel out and blast off in reverse, then pull a J-maneuver about fifty yards away.

"Dammit!" he cursed to himself, as he saw them speed down a street. He then looked over to where the preacher had been laying, and saw he was gone as well. "DAMMIT dammit!!" he shouted, stomping his foot.

They all either stood or sat in one of the waiting rooms. Harry had a few broken bones and plenty of cuts and bruises, but none of us were allowed to see him yet. Bluestreak had just gotten back from calling Mrs. Breaker, and she was on her way. Nobody was answering at Becky's place, and nobody felt at all like calling me, but I guess that's understandable.

Mrs. Breaker got there in about twenty minutes, and thanked them all for helping her husband, even though she admittedly didn't understand exactly what happened. They offered to explain as best they could, but she said that she'd just have Harry explain it all when he woke up and that we should go see Sheila and Derrek at her house. She mentioned that they'd lost us on the way to get Father Breaker and had turned around and gone back home. We thanked her profusely for telling us where they were, and left her to wait on her husband.

About ten minutes later, we were at the Houshold Breaker, but Derrek's truck was gone. We pulled to a stop and Derrek came running out the door, a peice of paper clenched in his hand. He got to the driver door and Tin had the window down. The look on Derrek's face was one of dread.

"Guys!" he said, catching his breath. "We gotta go back to where you found Mr. Breaker," he said, quickly and in one big breath.

"What the hell for?" asked Tin.

"I really don't think that's at all neccessary," said Floyd, calmly as possible. "I've had just about enough undead engineer antics for one night."

Derrek looked at him, about as lost as he could get.

"What the fuck are you talkin' about, man?" asked Derrek. Then, without waiting for an answer, he shoved the note toward Tin. "Dude, she went to go find out what he was doing. I dozed off for like, two minutes, and I woke up to my tires squealing as she drove down the road like a bat outta hell!"

"Alright, get in!" said Tin, dismissing the note entirely. Derrek got in and Paul squeezed into the middle of the backseat. Without a word, Tin drove back to Warren Street, the accident having already been cleared away. They pulled up to about twenty feet away from the tracks, a few feet away from Derrek's red and black pick-up, and got out in time to see Sheila standing right next to the railroad, facing away from the guys.

"Sheila--" Derrek started to call, but the Engineer stepped in from nowhere and Derrek's tone went from concerned to a disgusted "uuuAAaaaa!"

"Hey guys," he said. "Glad you could make it." He eyed each one of us, very studyingly. "Y'know, I was just talkin' with Sheila here," he said, thumbing at her over his shoulder. "She's a very nice young lady."

"You touch her, and you're dead, freak!" shouted Derrek, but Tin put and arm out across his chest to hold him back.

"I already AM dead, you ignorant pus monkey! And you know what? I had a really cool speech all planned out, but now I'm just gonna have the preacher's daughter walk herself into the path of an oncoming locomotive, how's that?"

"What?!" shouted Derrek.

"Sheila," snarled the Engineer, half turning in her direction, "get on the tracks."

Without hesitation, Sheila stepped up onto the railroad and a whistle was heard. Derrek screamed some kind of obscenity, or something and pushed past Tin. He ran straight for the Engineer, and Bluestreak charged at the same time. The Engineer was suddenly hit by two beams of red light, each one emitting from the lights on the train signals. He then leaned over a bit and flipped out his right hand. A bolt of some kind of staticy lightning came from his arm and hit Derrek right in the chest. It knocked him into the air and he landed right on Tin's car's hood.

As bluestreak was almost right beside the Engineer, Floyd did some quick thinking and picked up a rock by his foot and hurled it right at the Engineer, getting his attention off of Streak. He hit him in the shoulder, and the Engineer snapped his attention right at Floyd.

"Shit," said Floyd.

The whistle blew again, inconceivably louder than before and the rushing noise of the train itself had grown immensely. Bluestreak knocked Sheila off the tracks just as the train got there. That's, like, the hundredth near hit in this story, right? Well, that may be. That is, Sheila was nearly hit. Bluestreak, on the other hand, was snagged at the knees and dragged about ten feet before he rolled away from the tracks. Sheila was on her hands and knees, shaking the fog from her head.

I wasn't there, but from what I've been told, Bluestreak let out a scream of pain that was so loud, so resonate, that the Engineer stopped walking toward Floyd. He covered his ears and winced in pain, thrashing a bit with his upper body, then he stumbled toward the tracks and vanished.

"Streak--!" started Derrek, as he sat up on the hood of Tin's car. Tin ran to him, and gave a very loud "Oh, dear God!" then showed up carrying Bluestreak to Derrek's truck.

"Floyd, take my car to the hospital," he ordered, putting Bluestreak in the bed of the truck. "Derrek," he said, asking a question at the same time.

"I'm on it," said Derrek, climbing, though stiffly, into the cab. He sped off toward the hospital as fast as his truck would move.

"What's going on?" asked Sheila, in the waiting room near Bluestreak, inhabbited by she, Floyd, Paul and Derrek. Tin walked back in with a can of Pepsi and flopped back down in his chair. Nobody had spoken since they congregated in the waiting room. Nobody, that is, except for Sheila. She was completely in the dark. Derrek was, too, for the most part, but for his sake, he didn't want to know anything about what just happened. He was still a bit stiff from the zap from the Engineer, but he wasn't dying, so he was willing to ignore it. Sheila, however, was a different story.

"Somebody better start talking," she demanded.

After a moment's pause, Floyd looked up at her, rubbing the entirety of his face with his hand, as if trying to wipe away his sleepiness.

"O.K., Princess, here's the deal: we, along with Javian, believe that a supernatural being, specifically the immortal ghost of a deceased train engineer, has come to the city of Riverwind to basically wreak overall havok on anyone and/or anything that dares to come within the vicinity of the rails that he, himself, is closest to at that time."

Sheila just kinda stared at him, all blank and stuff.

"Why?" she asked simply.

"Well, mainly because that's the only logical explanation," said Floyd.

Sheila sighed and regrouped.

"No," she said, a frustrated smile on her face. "I mean, why is this allegedly happening?"

Silence. For, like, five minutes. Sheila kept an intent stare at Floyd, who was switching between casually looking at the floor and patiently looking at the others in their seats. He then looked up and saw Sheila staring right at him.

"Oh, you're asking me?" he asked, a bit surprised. "I got nothin' on that, sister, I was waitin' on one of these geniuses to answer that one, because I'd really like to know myself."

Nobody said anything. It had been hours since they'd gotten back to the hospital and had Bluestreak taken into the ER. Sheila had stopped prodding everybody for information and had curled up, as best she could, in the seat next to Derrek, leaning against him, his arm draped around her. She was asleep and he was pretty close. He couldn't get comfortable, though; his muscles were all still stiff and sore.

Floyd was slumped down in his chair, all splayed out, like he was a big glob of slime that was thrown at the chair and splattered more than a solid thing that sat down.

Paul was sitting upright. He didn't look tired at all. He was staring blankly but widely at the wall across from him. He virtually hadn't moved since they got there, and he hadn't spoken a word since he saw them put Bluestreak on the guerney.

Tin was pacing from wall to wall, coffee in hand now, as he'd already had his three can fill of Pepsi for one night. Besides, 3:00 am is practically morning anyway, right? They'd asked him a couple times to stop walking around and just sit still, but he couldn't. With Javian and his father on his mind, along with almost having Sheila's father beaten to death, then having to get Sheila before she, herself was smashed by a train, then Bluestreak gets hit instead--all that in one night, and in under an hour? That's a lot of brain fotter. That, and it's understandible that nobody was answering at Javian's house, but where was Becky? She always had her cell phone with her, no matter where she was, so why didn't she answer? And he couldn't remember that Charlie guy's number, either. He was very unhappy, to say the ultimate least. Oh, yeah. And for all intents and purposes, they've all pretty much kidnapped Paul. Yay.

After another fifteen minutes or so, a doctor walked into the room. They all looked up at him, Floyd sitting up and turning to face him, and Derrek arching his neck enough to look over Sheila to see the man.

"You guys brought in Mr. Tyren, right?" he asked, nervously. They all nodded.

"Yeah, that's us," said Tin, who'd stopped pacing. The doctor took off his little cap thing and held it in both hands in front of him, twisting it a little.

"O.K....uh...well, there's a bit of a situation..." he started. Tin kinda lost his balance and nearly fell into the seat beside him, a quiet "Oh my God," escaping his mouth. "No, no!" said the doctor, realising what they all thought he meant. "No, he's not dead, nothing like that!" They all sighed, relief overwhelming them.

"Then what's wrong?" asked Derrek, quietly.

"Well, ah..." he started, "you guys did see him when you brought him in, so I'm not going to try to use any big words and bullshit around it. When that train hit him, it got him right along the knees, and to be honest, I don't know how you got his lower legs here with the rest of him. All I can figure is that the jeans he was wearing were tight enough that when he was picked up, they kept them in there. When we got his jeans off to see how bad he was, his legs had already been severed."

There were several gasps and an "Oh, shit" out of Floyd.

"He's los a lot of blood, as I'm sure you can imagine," he stated, slightly nodding to Tin's shirt, "but he will be O.K. Unfortunately, he'll be either confined to a wheelchair, or, if he's got the stamina, he can start with a physical therapy program and learn to use a set of prosthetics."

"Isn't that a gland?" asked Paul, piping up from the corner. Everyone looked at him.

"Heh," started Floyd, "No, Paul, he means fake legs."

"Oh," said Paul.

"His parents finally answered the phone about half an hour ago, and they got here about twenty minutes after that. They're in with him right now, and that's really all we can allow. As soon as we're sure he's up to it, we'll let you each go see him, if you wish."

He got a beep on his belt and looked down to read it. He looked up to them again.

"I gotta go, guys. Don't worry, someone will be in soon." and with that, he opened the door to go, but then stopped and turned again. "Hey--is that the preacher's daughter?" he asked, pointing to Sheila.

"Yeah," said Tin.

"Well, as soon as she wakes up, tell her that he's O.K., and she can go in and see him anytime she likes."

"No problem--and thanks." said Tin. The doctor smiled, and walked away, shutting the door behind him.

About an hour later, a nurse with one of those papery-looking hairnet things came into the room, holding a clipboard in one arm. She announced that Bluestreak was feeling awake enough to see one of us, and Floyd jumped up, nominating himself to be the first to go.

As he left, Tin saw that Derrek had finally fallen asleep, and was now resting the side of his head on the top of Sheila's. Paul had curled up in his chair, too, but wasn't quite ready to give in to sleep. Tin got up and grabbed the remote from the small shelf under the stand at the end of the row of chairs he was in and got back to his seat. He flipped on the tv that hung from a corner of the ceiling and started sifting through the channels.

He got to CNN, or some kind of 24/7 news channel. He passed it, but then flipped back to it really fast.

"....er random accident, and with the accident Saturday morning involving an empty car," the woman said, as a picture of Floyd's car appeared on the screen.

"Hey, that's Floyd's celebrity..." said Tin, pointing to the screen.

"...the first accident, which occurred Thursday night and took the lives of a pair of college students, the total of seven unexplainable railroad related accidents for Sunday alone brings it to nine since these mysterious events began. The latest of which was at Galliberry Road, where 36-year-old Johnathon Samuels was in his yellow Toyota pick-up truck. Appearantly, Samuels drove the truck onto the tracks and simply had not seen the train coming. His truck now lays in ruin, but, as in the case of the Floyd Gebrik accident, none of the gasoline caught fire."

"Whoa," whispered Tin.

"Pretty heavy shit, huh?" asked Charlie from the doorway. Tin looked up quickly and saw him. He rose and went to him.

"Oh, hey man, I was gonna call you, but I lost your number, I'm really sorry!"

"Don't worry about it," said Charlie, as he walked and sat next to where Tin had been, the latter following his lead. They looked back to the screen.

"Our buddy's been one busy little beelzebub," said Charlie.

"So I've heard," said Tin.

"Yeah," continued Charlie. "I took Becky home--"

"You were with Becky??" asked Tin, surprised.

"Yeah, dude, but different story," said Charlie. "Anyway, I just got home and went straight to bed. I sleep with my radio on, always, and it never bothers me. It's actually very soothing. But, when I heard the name 'Riley', I sat up, wide awake. When I heard what, when, all that crap...I came here."

"Wow," said Tin. The news had moved on to something bigger than Riverwind, but they continued anyway.

"Did you hear what they're doin'?" asked Charlie.

"Naw, I just turned it on and you showed up." Tin said.

"They're shutting down both depots and the train station." said Charlie, a hint of irritation in his voice. Tin's jaw dropped.

"What??" he asked, taken aback. "That's what this town lives on!"

"O.K., you're getting excited, and making this sound like a bad plot to a worse movie." said Charlie. "We need to figure out what exactly this guy wants, and he seems very neglegent to tell us. I've got a friend in town, and his little brother is kind of a web nut genius person, so he might be able to hook us up with gettin' some info on, like, dead engineers of Riverwind, or whatever."

"That's a start, at least," said Tin, nodding his head. "We have figured out that you can touch him when he's not on the tracks. It's weird like that; he's a ghost on the tracks, just like his train. Yet, he'll pass through you, and his train won't. I don't really get that part. But, when he comes /off/ the tracks, he gets...like...solid. And you can hit him and he'll feel it. Well, I guess he can feel it; I knocked him down twice today with a baseball bat." Tin finished with a smile. Charlie grinned.

"Yeah, that's proof enough of that," he said.

"Well, he does get right back up." said Tin, his smile fading. "However, after those two swings, Bluestreak ran at him and plowed him over, and he seemed to have a little trouble getting back up. We don't know, though, because we sped on outta there."

"I see." said Charlie, and rubbed his eyes. "Look," he said, "I'm gonna have to go."

"You just got here, man," said Tin, a little confused.

"I know, but I guess I'm a lot sleepier than I thought. If you get the chance, tell Bluestreak I was here, and that I'll try to stop by during actual daytime hours."

"O.K.," said Tin, patting him on the shoulder as he got to his feet.

"I'll call my buddy when I get up in the morning," said Charlie, as he got to the door. "See what his little bro can do," he finished in a yawn.

"Goodnight, Charlie," Tin said with a smile, and Charlie left the room. He shut the door, a bit harder than neccessary, but it was accidental. Sheila opened her eyes and picked her head up enough to get a blurry look at Tin.

"Who was that?" she asked in a tired voice.

"Just another concerned citizen," said Tin. "They said your dad's O.K., and if you're awake enough, you can go see him."

She nodded a bit, groggily, then stood up and stretched.

"I'll be back in a little bit," she said, and with that she too left the room.

Tin looked back up at the t.v., but the screen was darker. Come to think of it, the whole room was darker. Then he woke up to Derrek shaking him, a nice, tight grip on either shoulder. His eyes blew open and he heard Derrek saying something about Charlie and me and Bluestreak.... Just lotsa names and jibberish.

"Come on, man, we gotta go!" Derrek said. Tin muttered something. "Because," continued Derrek, "Javian said so, and Charlie is with him already. Now get up, we gotta go."

Tin opened his eyes enough to see Paul and Floyd standing behind Derrek. As he rose, his brain started working again.

"Where's Sheila?" he asked, rubbing his hand across his face.

"She's up with her mom and dad," said Derrek. "Now please, we gotta get to the diner."

Without another word, Tin followed the three of them out of the waiting room and through the halls of the hospital.

"Um...what about Bluestreak?" he asked.

"He's fine," said Floyd, and they continued walking.

"What?!" asked Tin.

"Yeah, that sucker cut his legs clean off, right at the knees." Derrek informed him.

"Oh, my God," said Tin. "And I can't go see him?"

"Well, if you'd stayed awake another ten minutes, yeah, but you zonked out, and we couldn't get you to move. Then when Javian and Charlie called Sheila's mom's cell number and told us to meet them at Katzky's, we damn near throttled you 'til you woke up."

Derrek finished right as he came to the automatic doors of the hospital and they opened, allowing them all passage as they came near. They walked out into the parking lot, the sky still mostly dark, and Tin looked down at Paul, curiously.

"Aren't we supposed to be getting you home?" he asked.

"Probably," said Paul, "but what the hell am I supposed to tell everybody?"

"Besides," said Floyd, "by now they've found the car and Reggie's body, so I'm sure we've officially kidnapped him anyway."

They got to Tin's car, Derrek's truck parked right beside it. It wasn't there before, but Tin didn't want or need to know when it was moved. Instinctively, though, he started to open the driverside door of his car.

'Oh, no, Sleepyhead," said Floyd, coming up behind him. "I fell asleep in Bluestreaks room, so I got a decent rest last night--didn't even hear when Derrek was in talkin' to him. I'm not trusting you to drive."

Not able to care, Tin tossed him the keys. He got in the passenger side and Derrek nad Paul got in the truck. In no time, the quartet had made the journey to the smalltime diner and pulled up beside Charlie's "Python". They entered the diner and saw, sitting at a table to their left, me, Chris and Peter. Peter was very, very tired.

"They're here," I said to Peter, who was basically asleep.

"About time," said Peter, trying to sit up and look awake.

The others sat down with us and we all looked at each other.

"So, what's going on now?" asked Tin.

"Well, remember how I was gonna try to get my buddy's little brother to help us out?" asked Charlie.

"Yeah," said Tin.

"Well, it just so happens that Peter here is also one of Javian's friends." he finished. They all looked at Peter.

"My dad was about to kill you when you called, you do realize that?" he asked.

"How did you get here, anyway?" asked Tin. "Isn't this a school day?"

"Yeah, well," I started, "I kinda said that Peter was a really good friend, and then told him who I was, and he recognized my last name from the news, so he kinda...let him come...'console' me."

"I see," said Tin. "And how are you?"

I sighed. "Been better. But we can't worry 'bout that right now. I'm taking Peter back to my house and setting him up in the basement." In case you're wondering, there was a certain stinging tone in his voice when he asked me that simple little question, and I knew what he meant. It was Friday night slash Saturday morning when he gave me my first kiss, and now it was Monday morning. And nothing between us since then. Well, nothing "us-y" between us, if you know what I mean.

"Ooo, Petey gets to work in the lab!" said Derrek with a big smile.

"What?" asked Peter, a bit wary.

"Nothin', Pete, you'll see when you get there," I said. "Charlie is going to Becky's house and once he finds her he doesn't leave her side. Floyd, I want you back at the hospital. Keep and eye on Sheila and Bluestreak both--and don't let her father do anything stupid like that again, O.K.?" Floyd nodded.

"Gotcha."

"Good. Derrek, I need you to do something, too." I said.

"Fire away," he ordered. I guess he was getting used to it by now.

"O.K., this is kinda tricky," I said. "You go to the Silver Park Mall, but stop half way--just pull into a gas station, or whatever, and turn around. Take Paul, here, with you, and then take him home. In order to keep everybody out of trouble, we say this: some lunatic in a van cut you and your brother off at the tracks. Your brother tried to fight them off, but two more came out and tackled him. You didn't see anything after that, and didn't have a chance to help him, because another one pulled you outta the car before you could think to do anything. You just managed to get away and found the highway. That's where a total stranger offered to help and give you a ride home. If they ask for any more details, just tell 'em you can't remember."

Derrek was a bit surprised, but Paul's face was total shock.

"How did you come up with that?" he asked.

"Charlie and I been talkin' for a while, stud," I said. "I didn't even know we had another partner 'til Chralie told me about ya this morning. But anyway, do you think you can do that? I know it's an awful big story, and it is an out-right lie."

Paul looked down at the menu that was laying in front of him, then looked up, nodding slowly.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I can do that."

"Cool," I said. "It means a lot, to everybody."

"O.K., so what about me?" asked Tin. I looked right at him.

"You're with me," I said.

The late arrivals all ordered breakfast, though Charlie, Peter and I had already finished, and afterward we split up. Charlie headed straight for Becky's house, Derrek took Paul and Floyd back to the hospital in his truck, and Peter, Tin and I got into Tin's car.

"I hear you guys had quite an adventure yesterday," I said, as we pulled out of the parking lot.

"Oh, and what an adventure it was," started Tin, and he explained most of the activities on the way to my house. I'm not sure, but the one time I looked into the back seat, Peter appeared to be asleep.

We pulled into my driveway and my dad's car was gone. I poked Peter in the ribs and he sat straight up, and we exited the car. Upon arrival at my front door, I read the note taped at eye-level on the entrance to my house.

"Gone to see Father Breaker. Got my pager if you need me. Love, Dad." I read.

"You think he's O.K.?" asked Tin.

"Not at all," I said, folding up the note and opening the door. "My dad likes Mr. Breaker, but he's not a very religious person."

"Well then, perhaps we should do what we can and go find him," said Tin, as he and Peter followed me in.

"That may take a while," I said, then quickly placed a hand on Peter's back and extended the other toward the door to the basement. "This way to the lab, doctor," I said. I lead Peter down the stairs and turned on the lights. He gave an inspired "Whoa," when the junkyard appeared before him.

"O.K., Petey-boy, here's what you do," I started, leading him to the chair in front of my computer. "Get online, do whatever you do, and find out anything and/or everything you can about engineers from Riverwind that died, accidentally or intentionally."

"Uh...isn't that kind of broad?" he asked, looking up from his seat.

"Well...yeah. But look for one strange event--the kind of thing that sticks out, for whatever reason. O.K.? Take all the time you need."

"O.K.," he said, in an 'I'm warning you' or 'whatever you say' tone of voice.

"Cool," I said, slapping his shoulder. "Kitchen's right upstairs, help yourself to whatever you can find," I said, and bolted up the stairs. Tin was leaning against the counter, totally minding his own business. I grabbed his wrist and he got this really surprised look on his face, like he was about to say something. I shut the door to the basement and said "Come on," and he let me drag him up to my room without another word. I pulled him into my room and shut the door behind him, then pushed him up against it, following that with what I pride myself on being a fairly decent kiss. I let go and leaned back, looking him right in the eye.

"What was that for?" he asked, a smile growing on his face while he spoke.

"That was for three days of nothingness," I said, and wrapped my arms loosely around his waist, letting my forehead rest against his.

"Well, for three days of nothingness, I think we can do a little better than that," he said, flaunting his eyebrows at his suggestion. He sorta forced me to backwalk, partly because I didn't want to let go of him, and when I felt the backs of my knees touch the foot of my bed, we let go long enough so that we wouldn't just topple over. I laid down on on my back, and he right on top of me. His hands were at my sides, mine on his back when we started slowly making out. Eventually, I can't say exactly when, but at some point he started sliding his hands, ever so gently, up and down my sides. After a while, he'd managed to fanangle his hands up into my shirt, so that his hands were caressing my skin, which was something altogether new to me, let me tell ya. I kinda jumped at first, which made him smile a bit, and it's a little difficult to kiss somebody who's smiling. But I followed his lead, and pulled his shirt up in back, allowing my hands to slide underneath and rub his back, exploring the muscles that he hid so well. He smiled again, which was getting bothersome, but soon we were back to normal. We must have been at this for quite some time, though it didn't really feel long enough. Anyway, there was a sudden thumping on the door and I sat up so fast that Tin actually got...kina.... tossed to the floor.

Peter let himself in, rather quickly, and stopped right away when he heard the thud of Tin hitting the floor. He looked right at him, and said, "Dude, are you O.K.?"

"Yeah," said Tin, from the floor. As he helped himself up, I saw a very odd look overtake Peter's face, and instead of letting him go anywhere with whatever he was thinking, I changed the subject right away.

"So," I said, "any news?"

Pete's face lit up with pride.

"I found your strange train-related event," he announced.

"That's good," said Tin, a hint of relief in his voice.

"Yeah, but I did ya one better," said Peter, getting very interested looks from both of us. He smiled widely. "I got a name."

**************************************************************************** See? Just the very, VERY beginning of starting to know what the hell is going on. Number 7 will actually explain a few tiny things, if you're lucky, and shouldn't take as long as this one did. 'Til then.

--Twisted Zero (TwistedZero@thevortex.com)