Helplessly, Phil inhaled the sharp, salty air around him, clutching tightly to his soft toy. He shivered, not from the cold, but from the fear of the inevitable. His pet dog, Rabbert, whimpered, while Phil stared into the moon, as if it would be any help to him. Deserted in the middle of nowhere. All it took was a crack in the ground to haunt them. There was nothing they could do, except wait. Wait and hope that they would be found. Yet, this was unlikely. The wind whistled past Phil’s cheek, piercing like a fine knife. Phil heard a rumble echo across the sky. A snowy storm was headed this way. The train tracks beside them lay subtle, as if they hadn’t been used for decades. Surely no one would use it anymore. Just then, a flicker of light appeared on the horizon. Phil turned to it and watched intently. Soon, he could hear a familiar puffing noise. Roughly following the tracks, it made its way over to Phil, getting louder and louder by the second. Rabbert hung his head above his shoulder, wondering why a soot-covered train would be travelling in the middle of the night. But Phil didn’t care. He just wanted to go back home. And he knew that this was the only way to do so.
There was a cough. A coarse cough. The carriage echoed with the sound of a sickly man’s cough. When Phil and Rabbert entered, they saw a poor and frail man sitting on one of the precariously manufactured benches. He greeted them with a weak nod, while Rabbert eagerly pounced towards the man to play. Rabbert gave him a compassionate look. His reaction seemed as if he was asking the man why he was in this state, and why he looked like someone who had come out of a trash can from the back of a posh restaurant. The man patted the dog as it licked his fingers and finally laughed. A hoarse laugh.
“Are you okay?” asked Phil, sitting down beside him.
The man stopped laughing and hung his head.
“I’ve been staying on this rickety train for nearly two weeks now,” he murmured. “I ain’t known wherever this train goes without a damn driver.”
It was true, and when Phil peered through the blurry lenses of the window leading to the front of the train. Indeed, there was no driver.
“How is it possible, then?”
“Simple technology. Somehow controlled by a ridiculously rich person who lives in the Maldives. The brainiac is unknown, though.”
Phil shrugged, as he readjusted his posture beside the man on the bench.
“I’ve lost all me family for nearly 3 years. And now, I’m due to die soon. I don’t have much food left to spare for me anyway. Only a few stale slices of bread and a few packs of canned foods is all I have left to eat off. It’s not the least of my worries, though; at least I’ll be with my family again.”
The man pulled out a tin of tuna and began to savour every spoonful. Phil looked at the man with pity. A wild creature barely making his way through the jungle. No friends and no family. But he didn’t have much to give to him for support. So, Phil dug through his luggage, like a stray dog in a wasteland, and pulled out a bottle of water.
“You keep it,” the man said, “You’re still young. Unlike me. You need it. What’s your name, kid?”
“Phil, and this is Rabbert.” Phil replied, pointing to the dog beside him. “You?”
“My name’s Steven, but you can call me Stef. Everyone does… Well, used to. Where you heading off to?”
“I dunno. Just wanted to try to get back home. Got lost in the middle of nowhere. I really hope my family misses me. Sometimes I feel that I could have done better to avoid this from happening.”
“Everyone says that. Just believe in yourself, kiddo. Not everyone’s perfect. Besides, what happened? How did you get lost?”
“We were on a train to Cairns from Melbourne, and then the train broke down near Uluru. Rabbert and I ventured off to find a shady spot to avoid the sun, but we forgot about the train and my family left without us. We were lost for four days in that cave, until we tried to walk our way out of the outback. Found another cave, and could finally sleep in peace. For one thing, it was fortunate that my baby brother, Alex, wasn’t with me, and wasn’t there to disturb me during my sleep. Before we left, when we were packing our bags, I overheard my dad tell my mum that he had gotten into some tricky business with a billionaire called Gill Bates. Apparently, he owed them a ton of money, but didn’t have the money or the guts to give it back. But I really hope that I find my family again. It is kinda lonely without them, even though Alex is a pest.”
“I understand. The urge of family is really powerful. It just always clings onto you whenever. That’s how I survived: with entertainment, even when my family and I were deep in poverty.”
“Yeah.”
For once, there was silence throughout the entire carriage, and the heavy, but constant breath of the train could be heard puffing in intermittent rhythms.
But that silence was broken, when the carriage’s door shook with a BANG. Violently, the train hauled itself from forward to back, left to right, before it stopped. Like a candy wrapper in the middle of a vast room, they were lost, and unlikely to be found. Another dangerous knock shook the carriage wildly as Phil tried his best to remain balanced. Steven also seemed suspicious.
“Has this ever happened?” Phil whispered to Steven.
“No,” he replied, “Well, not yet.”
Suddenly, the entire carriage door flung off its hinges and hurtled inside.
“Watch out!”
The door slammed down onto the timber floor with a THUD. Something definitely was not right.
“Wait here for me, kid.” Steven said.
The tuna seemed to strengthen him, so he quickly finished another before looking back at him.
“Nice to meet you, but this might be the end. Stay safe, kid.”
He raced out of the carriage, and before Phil could realise, he was alone again.
Anxious, Phil watched Steven approach a trio of men that were all armed with advanced gadgets and devices. But Steven didn’t look afraid, he had been through worse, and this was his moment to show it. As soon as one of the armed men made a reaction, Steven dodged the attacks that they made and guided them into a maze of complicated obstacles. With excellent reflex ability, he was able to avoid all attacks. Well, most of them. Soon, Phil heard a cry. A roar, filled with pain and anger. It looked like one of the men had caught Steven’s foot into a rope and knotted it tightly. A little too tightly, twisting his ankle. But Steven didn’t step down, even though he could only hobble.
“You want the kid? Well, you gotta get past me!” he cried as he launched his way to the trio and knocked one of the men down with a one-legged kick.
The man fell down onto his back. Handfuls of weaponry fell out of the enemy’s pockets as Steven quickly hoarded them into his jacket. Soon, another one came running towards Steven with what seemed like a sword that could tase someone. But Steven pulled out several metallic spheres and rolled them around his enemy. Flames shot out of them and into the sky, like a wall of fire. He then found what looked like a boxy set of jetpacks that were to be attached onto his torso like a chest plate. Thrusters popped out of the metal armour and rocketed Steven up into the air. As he flew up into the sky, over the raging, fiery wall, he easily spotted the man engulfed in the fire, and simply threw down an explosive. The explosion sent a shockwave of a 3 metres radius. It was so powerful that a nearby tree was ripped off from its roots. There was only one left, and Steven was feeling quite confident. But then, the remaining man pulled out a high-tech pad, which he neatly threw at Steven. Once it came into contact with the set of jetpack devices, it instantly got deactivated. Steven was soon hurtling down towards the ground while screaming like an injured piglet. He fortunately landed in a bushy tree, but was still severely injured. The man advanced nearer towards Steven as he limped away from the armed troop. Phil knew that there wasn’t much he could do, but he didn’t want to watch his only friend die because of him. So, he picked up his heavy suitcase and quietly snuck up to the enemy. Soon, Phil was directly behind him. But he was already about to slay Steven. His weapons were raised high in the air. Before Phil could think about making a decision, he swung his suitcase on top of the enemy’s head, just before he was about to murder his friend. The enemy was knocked out, and as if he was dead, fell limp and was sprawled across the ground. Steven couldn’t believe it. His eyes had turned wide, and his mouth turned into a giant O. But Phil was more grateful. He embraced the wounded man and tears began to well up in his eyes.
“Thank you!” he cried through tears, “Thank you for saving my life!”
Steven hugged back.
“You too.” he said. “Come on, let’s jump start this train and get you back home.”
Peace ✌
Very cool :))))
yes cool