1. The End Of The Line
I’m so excited! Two days ago I won a competition. To go on a two day train ride to a seaside resort!
Seven other children won it, including one of my friends, Louie. The train leaves at quarter to four this afternoon. It will stop at the nearest station to us, and will already have stopped at six other places, for everyone to board. My mum was meant to be going with me, but now I have to go alone because she’s sick. I’m sort of glad, she’d probably spoil it with her ‘Lucy, oh, Luce come, stop running everywhere! Lucy, oh, Luce, blah blah blah.’ You get the idea.
Honestly, I’m so glad it’s just going to be me and Louie.
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We’re at the station, my dad and me. He’s just dropping me off, and then going to the shop round the corner. The empty, oddly modernistic station stinks like old socks and puke, which makes me gag a lot. But the train’ll be here in a minute, so I get my stuff ready. It’s a high-speed module train from the city, averaging around 200 mph, although when we’re on the viaduct it’ll go just 5mph, because the view’s amazing. Hope fully, Louie will get here soon, so we can get in the same car and all that. Suddenly, I hear a long HONNNNK! The train’s here! As it slows I hear a ‘Lucy!’ I turn to find Louie sprinting across the dinky car park at me. I grin at him and he flashes his perfect teeth at me. We board the train and it pulls away from the station. There are only about 25 other people on the 12 car train, and when it gets up to speed it takes mine and Louie’s breath away. We stumble backwards, just as an escort comes to show us to our rooms. She smirks slightly and says ‘you ain’t bin’ on one before? You’ll see.’ this time she grins. ‘c’mon, then.’ We follow her through the cars, into a spectacular dining cabin, which smells amazing, and looks even better, where everyone else is. Three girls and three boys. We look around in wonder, before sitting down next to a girl with shoulder length brown hair, clipped back just under her parting. ‘Hi.’ She says in a voice not that dissimilar to my own. I answer back, and she smiles. ‘I’m Beth, what’s your name.’ ‘Err... Lucy…’ I say, rather awkwardly.
‘And you’ she asks, pointing at Louie.
‘Oh, err, Louie.’ He says, looking slightly scared.
I like her. She seems nice, and very social...
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Once I get into bed, I fall instantly to sleep. The bed is sooo soft. The air smells of lavender and lemongrass…The rocking of the carriage pulls me deeper and deeper…
‘Lucy…oh Lucy… come out and plaayyy...’ a voice sings. I run towards it and everything fades…
When I wake, I have no recollection of my dreams, and now I can tell we’re nearing the viaduct, as the train is slowing. I rum to the window, but am disappointed. The train’s slowing, but only for a fuel break. Louie enters my room silently, so I don’t notice him until he speaks.
‘Odd, isn’t it?’
I jump. He grins.
‘I mean, how this... well…thing…works’ he says, gesturing around the train. It’s not me who answers.
‘Using Maglev technology to propel the train by using magnets, and it's one of the few trains on Earth to use it. While the train usually operates at a slower average speed of 139 mph, it can travel as fast as 268 mph during certain times of the day – and can be operated even faster.’ Beth stands in the doorway. We gape at her and she shrugs, ‘it’s all in the manual. I was bored.’
She turns and leaves. We hear her voice coming from the corridor ‘we’ll be arriving at the Samson’s viaduct soon.’
I’m suddenly aware of how hot it is.
We run towards the window and stay there, feet planted for about five minutes before Beth rejoins us, just as the viaduct comes into view. The view is amazing, the river long and winding, coming out in a beautiful, and crystal clear bay. I can smell fresh, salty air. One side of the river is a lush green forest, birds of all colors cackling and shrieking, flying, before swooping down into the forests depths. On the other side, there is an amazingly tall, rocky cliff, perfectly contrasted in the already beautiful area.
But as soon as we’re on the viaduct, I know something’s wrong.
Very wrong.
Beth and Louie gasp.
The viaduct shakes again, trembling under the weight of the train. The train shudders, and stops. Acrid smoke fills my lungs, burning, stinging. Someone vomits. I gasp for breath. It gets thicker. I can’t breathe. Can’t breathe. Can’t breathe.
‘What the hell are they stopping it for!’ someone yells, their voice is slightly dry, and cracked. ‘Look! The rest of the bridge has…well…gone!’
They are right. The rest of the viaduct has fallen, crumbled into nothing but rubble heaps, in the water.
The deep river below us looks welcoming right now. I can just make out the shape of a barge, smashed in. no survivors; the water around it tinted red with blood. The train lurches sideways slightly. I look up the carriage, as someone slips out the window. I gasp as they fall into the deep murky waters. They don’t resurface. I grab Beth’s and Louie’s hands and smash the glass on the window. I shut my eyes.
I jump.
Beth and Louie are still holding me. ‘Let go!’ I yell.
Otherwise we’ll collide, and possibly die.
They do as I said, just before we hit the water. Salty water fills my mouth. The pressure is crushing me. I swim for the surface, my lungs burning. As I reach the surface, I glimpse a body of one of the boys, William, float past. He did as we did. Jumped.
But wasn’t so lucky.
We swim for the shore, and make just as the train falls. We are the only survivors.
Beth and Louie are crying. So am I.
It’s all a blur, moving so fast, yet I know it must have been an hour, or more…
We see more bodies, bloody, swollen with water. They smell horrible, like salt mixed with rotting fungi, and a slight hint of metallic blood. Beth’s slumped against a rock, singing very slightly under her breath, rocking back and forth. Louie is sprawled out, apparently asleep, his chest rising and falling with mine. Then I hear it. The whirring blades of a helicopter. We wave up, and it sees us. The last thing I remember is someone putting safety straps on me before I lose consciousness…Only…survivors…
The end
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