Nathan Hystad - The Event

“You ever driven a train before?” I asked the big Swede.

He shook his head. “Nope. I’ve driven a lot of things, but not a train. How hard can it be? You don’t even have to steer,” he said with a laugh.

“You have me there. If anything, we’ll show up in style.”

We approached the front cab of the train, and saw that Natalia was inside it.

“She doesn’t waste any time,” I said.

“Never has,” he replied and climbed up the steps to the doorway. The train was bright blue. I hadn’t been able to tell until we were right up close and I saw it in the flashlight beam.

“Nice looking train too. Looks brand new. Check out the cow catcher on this thing,” I said, nodding my approval.

“You’re some sort of train expert too, I take it?” Magnus asked.

“No. Grew up in farm country, and we had a lot of trains passing through when I grew up. My dad loved train sets and took me to a couple museums about them when I was little. I always laughed at that name. Cow catcher. I was sure they didn’t catch cows as much as kill them and toss them to the side. Probably more wild animals than cows too. I knew two people that were killed walking the tracks. Murray Lindberg died when I was in high school. He’d been listening to Guns N’ Roses on his Walkman at the time. My parents didn’t let me listen to Axl in the house after that, because the town called it devil worship. Sorry, I’m rambling.” I had no idea what drove me to go on like that, but maybe it was just the pent-up nervous energy I was harnessing.

We were in the cab now, and I was surprised by the amount of room in it. Natalia was looking around, and in a moment, she hit something, waited for the light to come on, and started the engine.

“Diesel, I guess,” Magnus commented.

“Think so. These days most are a hybrid of diesel and electric, and this thing looks new.”

When the train came to life, so did some small lights in the cab, and we could see around. Carey barked outside and I went back out into the rain, and we entered together on the car behind. The door pried open easily, and we got in to see leather seats. There were even a few bottles of champagne sitting warm at a serving area. First class train ride in Peru. Things could have been worse, like me flying around the passenger seat of a Jeep in a storm.

The cars connected, and I knocked on the window when I found it locked. Magnus hit some lever and it opened. Carey ran right to Natalia and licked her hand.

“Nice arrangement back there,” I told them. “Nat, you think you can drive this thing?”

She looked back at me and smiled. Soon we were starting to move along, lights showing our path on the tracks.

“I guess that answers that,” I muttered, and Magnus slapped me on the back.

“You should see her fly a helicopter!” he barked, and had a good laugh at his own joke.

I was sure that Mary would have a fast friend in this Natalia if they got the chance to meet. I really hoped they would, and soon. Time was running out on us, if what Vanessa said was true. A week before they were to dispose of most humans, the rest to be slaves for eternity.

We were cruising down the line on our way to Aguas Calientes. Lightning still flashed occasionally and I kept a watchful eye out the window, trying to see if I could spot a ship among the dark clouds. The train was moving at a good pace, and I was thankful we were almost at our destination. I walked toward the engineer’s room exit, the door sliding open as I moved in front of it. Carey trotted along beside me and we moved down the hall to a washroom. The lights came on automatically as I entered the single restroom. Carey stayed outside the door like a little police guard dog. I appreciated the love.

I looked in the mirror and saw myself more disheveled than I’d been in a long time. It brought back flashes of myself a week after Janny had died: me not showering, not shaving, and hardly eating. The similarities were there, but now I felt more alive than I’d ever felt before. I’d survived the loss of my wife, the loss of the whole world basically, and now I had a mission.

After scrubbing my face in the sink, I lathered up and did the best job I could to bathe in the sink. It wasn’t pretty, but in a couple minutes, I was smelling a lot better, and felt ready to make the trek. The deep bags under my eyes were still there, but I saw a little extra sparkle in them that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

“Come on, Carey. Let’s find some food.” His ears perked up at this, and he had a little more jump in his tired step. We made our way down a couple cars, and there was a lounge. Behind the bar, I found some trays of food in the cooler. The temperature was still fairly cool in there. This state-of-the-art train had some good backup power. I found a still slightly chilled cheese and cracker tray, and grabbed a couple of apples. I filled my bag with some more miscellaneous foodstuffs: granola bars, potato chips, and the ever popular peanuts and pretzel mix. I tore a bag open and gave Carey’s drooling mouth a few pretzels before finding a bowl and filling it with “mountain fresh” water. He slurped it up, and I loaded a few of those bottles into my now heavy pack.

“Come on, buddy. Let’s go share with the others,” I said.

As the door opened, I heard Magnus talking to Natalia. “Uhm, Nat, do you know how to stop this thing?” Magnus asked her.

I looked out the windshield and was shocked to see us already approaching the station ahead.

She just shrugged and pulled the throttle back in an attempt to begin slowing down. It wasn’t slowing us down fast enough. We were still cruising at twenty with the station coming up fast.

“Dean, any clue?”

I scanned for the brakes and didn’t see the lever I’d seen in trains when I was a kid. The old trains all had them, but I’d never been on one this new. For all I knew, there was an app that controlled the damn thing. The distance was closing quickly and I jammed at a button on the dash in a wild last-minute effort. A loud train-whistle sound bolted out of a horn, blasting our arrival to anyone within twenty miles. Cursing, I hit the button next to it, and we jolted forward as the emergency brake took hold. The brake grabbed the metal rails and slammed us forward, hard.

The car slid and scraped, and I picked myself up off the ground, rubbing my head where it hit the dash. We were going to hit! We all braced for the impact, and time paused as we were about to make impact. I looked at Natalia, who was now bleeding lightly from her forehead. Magnus’ face was scrunched up in an animalistic snarl. Then time started again and we smashed into the car on the tracks. The lights flicked off as we went tumbling. Thank God we found the e-brake, because we couldn’t have been going more than ten miles an hour when we hit.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead and leaned back against the wall. “Just like I planned it.”

“Yeah, Nat, next time we do take the copter. You know how to land one of those.” He placed his huge hand on her back and rubbed it lightly. He moved in close and whispered something in her ear. It was a tender, touching moment in this time of stress and pressure, and it reminded me of my wife, but this time a comforting reminder, not a desperate feeling of loss. Maybe all of this was making me grow as a person.

“Let’s get moving. Still a ways to go to get up to the top. And in the dark, no less,” I said, walking back to the second car and out the side entrance. My bag of food was heavy on my shoulder, but I was happy to have some rations again. There was a small fire at the front of the trains, and I thought about putting it out in case someone would see it from the sky. Then the urgency took over and I just wanted to get to the top to do what we had to do, if only I could determine exactly what that would be.