A Train of Choices

Max Haymont squinted his eyes, he had a pounding headache jolting through his skull and he seemed to still be in a daze. A sudden bounce and a clunk woke him up completely as he tried to catch himself on the wooden floor. He looked around frantically; it was dark, but he was able to quickly realize he was in a train car. The car creaked as it rocked back and forth on the track, metal clanging could be heard around him. The train car had a dusty and industrial smell to it, all was the common environmental of train freight car. Max heard a groan next to him, he looked over to find Reggie sitting next to him on the floor. Reggie Bronson wore his typical Oakbend High letterman jacket, a model athlete that had been friends with Max since pre-school.

“Where are we?” Reggie said as he rubbed his forehead suffering from similar struggles as Max. Max stood up, he brushed off his sweater-vest as he tried to remember the last thing that had occurred.

“A train,” Max answered.

“No duh, glad you’re the smart one among us,” Reggie shot back sarcastically. Reggie shot up as well, trying to balance himself as the car bounced around. There were no seats in the train car, it was completely empty save for a laptop sitting on a crate. Max slowly walked over to the crate and tapped on the laptop. “We were walking from your house, weren’t we? Yeah, with Kate and your brother… Yeah, Charlie was being pretty annoying as usual,” Reggie joked as he looked over at Max.

“Yeah,” Max simply said dividing his focus as a video loaded on the screen. Max knew something was wrong, he just needed to figure out what it was that was wrong. The video began to play when a man showed up on the screen, Max recognized the man immediately as the nefarious Doctor James Nolcroft. “Nolcroft” Max muttered as the man began to speak.

“Of course… another encounter with the Illuminati,” Reggie replied letting out an annoyed sigh.

“Not quite the Illuminati… whatever it is,” Max added as he watched the screen intently. It was not the first time the teens had encountered the devious fiend. Dr. Nolcroft wore a button up vest and gold-brim glasses, he had dark golden hair with gray spots that garnished his temples.

“Greetings again Haymont, you are probably wondering where you and what is going on,” Nolcroft began as he pulled the glasses from his face to polish the lens subtly.

“Got that right,” Reggie interrupted breaking into the short period of silence that Nolcroft had left before answering his own question. Max didn’t take his eyes off the laptop screen.

“You are aboard a small freight train as even you and your friend could have figured out. Killing you all would have been too easy this time around. I have decided that it would be more entertaining to conduct a little experiment on you, one of philosophy and psychology,” Dr. Nolcroft continued with another period of silence, a grin came across his face as he returned the glasses to his face. The train bounced again as Nolcroft continued with his ploy, the car shifted with some more metallic rattling. “At midnight, you will be forced to live with the consequences of a choice that you will make. You can take comfort that I am watching you through a series of cameras, notes for academia of course. At midnight, either little Charlie will go up with a boom or the gracious Kate will… how do I put this, get hit by a train,” Nolcroft revealed with a chuckle. Max froze, his heart was pounding as he thought about the possible outcomes. “You can go out the front door to the front of the train to stop it or through the back door to stop the explosion. You two can only go through one door, as the others will lock once you have decided. Either way, one dies and one lives… and that is on you,” the mischievous doctor said before the screen went dark.

Max ran his hands through his brunette hair as he thought to himself and let out a frustrated sigh. His hands were becoming sweaty, he felt sick to his stomach. Reggie was pacing back and forth, not sure how the two would proceed. Max looked down at his watch, revealing it was 11:18. Max’s eyes slowly left his wrist as he looked up at the camera that was watching the two from the corner.

“Nolcroft has got to be getting a kick out of this one,” Reggie said breaking the silence. Reggie picked up the laptop and threw it against the wall of the car. “Well, now what?” Reggie shouted.

“We’ve found ourselves in predicaments before, we will figure this out,” Max said trying to calm himself down. He brought his hand to his chin, looking down at the wooden floor of the car. Reggie could tell that Max was out of his element, he was being forced to choose between his brother and Kate. Reggie suspected that Kate and Max had feelings for each other, something neither would admit. Max was paler than usual; he was trying to act calm as part of his attempt to seem stoic under pressure. Max wasn’t fooling Reggie.

After a few minutes of silence, Max looked from one door to the other. Reggie watched in anticipation thinking that Max would make a choice. Reggie had his own mixed feelings on the matter but wanted to leave the decision or planning to Max. Max walked toward the front door but stopped as he did an about-face towards the other door. Reggie continued to watch, becoming nervous as he left the decision to Max. Max turned around again, walking toward the front door. Reggie turned his head quickly thinking Max was about to come up with a plan to get them out of the situation. Max stopped again; Reggie looked down at his watch almost as a nervous tick at this point from the stress. Max had rolled up the sleeves of his light blue shirt which complimented his khakis, the typical style of Max who thought of it as his own trademark.

“You know we are kind of running out of time here,” Reggie said, his voice revealed more than he thought.

“I know, I’m thinking… Kind of a bind we are in you know,” Max shot back, Max let out a sigh forcing a burst of air through his nostrils. Max stopped again and let out a short huh, a sign that he might have an idea.

“What if we go through the doors at the same time,” Max replied, surprised he didn’t think of the simple solution himself.

“Yeah… yeah, that might work,” Reggie exclaimed as he ran toward the other door. The two were filled with excitement, both gripped the handles of their respective doors.

“Ok on the count of three,” Max’s heart was racing, “three… two…one!” Matt shouted. The two pushed down on the handles, nothing happened. The doors felt locked. “Three… two… one,” Matt shouted again. They pushed the handles again, nothing happened on the doors. There was a chime on the laptop, which now laid in the corner of the car. The screen was cracked from the powerful throw from Reggie, surprisingly it was still working. Max clicked on the envelope icon.

Did you actually think I would let you two go separate directions? There would be no fun in that. You two are together, so that I can observe your interactions in this rather important decision. I would hurry, time is running out.

Respectfully,

Dr. James Nolcroft, Ph.D

“Does he got some kind of satellite dish attached to this car or something?” Reggie fired surprised that the computer was getting messages and the camera was able to transmit its feeds.

“Must,” Max simply said looking up to spot any cables from the ceiling.

“Well, so much for that great idea,” Reggie said. “He’s right, we are running out of time,” Reggie added as he looked back down at his watch. It was approaching 11:30. Max sat down on the crate to think, he put his hand back on his chin.

Around three hours earlier…

Reggie was leading the way; he had a football tucked in one arm as he marched forward. Closely behind were Max and Kate, the two were joking slightly with Charlie trailing behind in a lime-green T-shirt. A rather odd grouping of kids, their friendships had formed since they were really young and were further strengthened through the adventures, or misadventures, they would share.

“What are you two laughing at now?” Reggie questioned as he turned around for the two to catch up.

“You and your football, you’ve been dragging that around all night,” Max remarked nodding toward the football.

“I’m training, perfecting my hold for the big game,” Reggie replied. It was an off-week from the busy game schedule, making it a rarity for the friends to be spending a fall Friday night together.

“You’ll be fine,” Kate said with a flip of her hair.

“Well, if we don’t hurry, Blockbuster is going to be closed,” Reggie remarked looking at his watch.

“Do they even close?” Kate said with a laugh.

“All the good movies might be taken,” Charlie said catching up to them. The younger Haymont seemed genuinely worried about this predicament.

“It’s going to be passed your bedtime by the time we get back any way,” Max replied.

“It’s Friday… Mom and Dad said I could be up late,” Charlie remarked.

“Ain’t that all that and a bag of chips,” Reggie joked doing a mock handoff of the football to Charlie.

“Sure, if you can make it that far,” Max laughed as he continued to walk with Kate. Reggie and Charlie looked at each other, sensing the attraction between the two who were too afraid to admit. Max and Kate’s hands rubbed up against each other, the two blushed as they quickly retracted their hands. Charlie and Reggie rolled their eyes, letting out a snicker. The night was cool, with a slight summer breeze. It was a full moon, light reflected off Kate’s blond hair. Off in the distance, the squealing of tires could be heard. It felt as thou the group had a little normalcy in their lives for the moment.

Their minds were transfixed on getting to Blockbuster, a van pulled up behind them without them noticing. Charlie looked over his shoulder slightly, but it was too late. Someone grabbed him, putting a cloth over his mouth. Reggie quickly turned but suffered a similar fate. Max felt something was wrong, he turned around with Kate’s head following. The two were saw two men right behind them; one man raised his hand putting a cloth over Max’s mouth. Max tried to struggle, but soon everything became a haze as he helplessly watched his feet while being dragged away before he went completely unconscious.

Back in the train car…

“I can’t let Charle get blown up,” Max cried out. Reggie nodded his head in agreement, leaving the burden of deciding to Max since his relationship with both was closer. “But we can’t let Kate get hit by the train or whatever,” Max continued. Max buried his head in his hands as he tried to think. “It’s not fair to Kate that she keeps getting pulled into my problems,” Max added.

“It ain’t fair to me either,” Reggie added as he shrugged his shoulders. Max slowly looked up at his friend, having nothing to say in the moment. Reggie looked back at his watch, trying to subtly signal to Max that he had to come up with a plan very soon. It was funny how time seemed to pass ever so quickly when it was needed the most. Max looked back down at the floor, lost in his thoughts. He was silent for a minute, Reggie tried to come up with his own plan as well. Finally, Max stood up as he realized he might have a plan.

“I got an idea,” Max exclaimed putting one finger in the air.

“Ok,” Reggie simply said hoping that Max would reveal his plan.

“We will rescue Charlie first…” Max began.

“And leave Kate to die?” Reggie interrupted.

“No, Charlie will know what to do, how to stop the train,” Max said with his hands out as spoke with a sense of hope.

“Your eight-year-old brother is going to stop the train?” Reggie said doubtfully.

“Yes, he’s like obsessed with trains, he knows them inside and out,” Max said feeling like it was a possible way out of their current situation. A way to beat Nolcroft’s little game.

“He’s also obsessed with that dinosaur movie…” Reggie added.

“Jurassic Park,” Max said naming the movie. Max thought about the promise he had made to Charlie to see the new movie that would be coming out soon in theaters. It was up to Max to make sure that he could keep that promise to his little brother.

“Yeah, that doesn’t make him a paleontologist,” Reggie said still not convinced in his friend’s plan.

“Trust me, he will have an idea. It might be our only way to save both of them,” Max said with some faith that they could all make it out of this situation alive. Max ran towards the back door with Reggie trailing closely behind him. Max threw the door open, the two stared out at the next car. The screaming wind blew in their faces; Max’s hair flew in the air. The tracks rumbled beneath them passing by; they could see the coupling connecting the trains and a couple of hoses dangling. Max looked back up across the way at the other metal train car that was slightly rocking along the track.

“We got to jump,” Max said loudly a little fearful. Reggie looked over his shoulder.

“It’s a little jump,” Reggie said. Max wasn’t convinced, he took a gulp as he watched the tracks beneath them. Max backed up, he bent his knees a couple of times and let out a few deep breaths. “Are you going to do it?” Reggie questioned, making fun of Max’s fear about the jump.

“Yeah,” Max said annoyed that is friend was rushing him. Max backed up again and jumped across the gap between the cars. He flailed his arms in the air quickly grabbing onto a bar that was next to the door catching himself before it was too late, he got his balance as he stood up with his white sneakers creaking against the small platform. Reggie made the jump with ease and patted Max on his shoulder to signal for them to keep moving. Max slid the door open of the gray metal car, it screeched open to reveal an empty car.

“He’s got to be in the next car,” Max said disappointed not to find his brother in their current car. The two quickly crossed the car, their footsteps echoed on the wooden floor. They slid the back door open, finding themselves in a similar situation as before with the wind blowing in their faces.

“You think you can make it?” Reggie questioned raising his voice with a slight snicker. Max only shook his head as he backed up and made the jump across the gap between cars. Reggie was closely behind him. They slid the door open to find Charlie tied to a chair in the middle of the car. Max sprinted toward him; Reggie looked around the car spotting the bomb. Reggie ran toward the bomb with Max being distracted by the reunion with Charlie. Reggie looked at the bomb that was latched to the floor of the car.

“It can’t be that easy,” Reggie muttered to himself. Max looked up as he scrambled toward the bomb. The bomb was a box of explosive material attached to a digital clock as the trigger. The digital screen had a few buttons, one of which read “DISARM.” Reggie looked over at Max not expecting that it would be that easy to disarm the bomb.

“It wasn’t about disarming the bomb, it was about the decision,” Max said as he pushed the button. The digital clock stopped at 14:36, Max looked down at his watch which revealed 11:45. Max ran back over to Charlie, he swiftly retrieved his lucky Swiss Army knife from his pocket and cut the bounds around Charlie. Charlie looked up; his light brown hair was a mess with his blue eyes revealing innocence.

“You came for me,” Charlie said with a smile not knowing the whole situation.

“Of course,” Max simply said. Reggie walked over to the two holding a note, he handed it to Max. Max read over the note:

You choose your brother over your friend, now hang on as the train continues on. All other doors are locked. Midnight marks when you will lose the other; but fear not, as you will arrive at your destination shortly after.

Yours truly,

Dr. Nolcroft

Max turned his attention back to Charlie after crumpling the note into a ball, he put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “Listen, we need to stop the train,” Max said to his younger brother.

“Just go the locomotive and pull the brake lever, duh,” Charlie replied.

“It’s locked,” Reggie interrupted.

“Why’s it locked?” Charlie asked.

“Long story,” Max added.

“Well, that’s not good,” Charlie said.

“What else can we do?” Max questioned frantically, giving his brother a slight shake. Charlie put his hand on his chin to think, Reggie rolled his eyes at how similar Charlie was to his older brother.

“We’re running out of time,” Reggie shouted becoming impatient and frustrated with the hopelessness of their current situation.

“I’m thinking,” Charlie shot back. Max tried to come up with an idea as well, he stood up and looked over at the bomb. He slowly walked over with Reggie joining him. Charlie was slouched over in the char as he tried to come up with an idea based off of his limited experience and fascination with trains.

“Maybe we can blow the locomotive, that will stop it,” Max said as he looked at the bomb.

“It’s bolted to the floor… plus, I don’t want to touch that thing. Thing kind of scares me just looking at it,” Reggie said as he stepped back.

“I got it!” Charlie exclaimed, Max and Reggie rushed over to the youngster.

“What?” Max said with his hands on his brother’s shoulders.

“We cut the brake pipe,” Charlie answered putting his finger up in the air similar to what Max had done earlier.

“No, no, no, we want to stop the train, not make it go faster,” Reggie said disappointed in the idea.

“I knooooow,” Charlie said annoyed by the interruption.

“The train will have an air brake system based off the Westinghouse design. If we cut the brake pipe, it will release air and the pressure will drop causing the brakes to be set,” Charlie answered proud of his train knowledge.

“What does the brake pipe look like?” Max asked knowing they were running out of time and had to do something.

“It’s more of a hose than a pipe, it runs along the whole train. If you cut it somewhere, it will release air from the whole system causing a chain reaction,” Charlie replied putting his hands up in the air. “Train reaction,” Reggie muttered with a laugh, Max gave him a darted glare before turning back to Charlie. Charlie pointed to the door of the car. “You should be able to see part of the hose between the cars,” Charlie added. Max sprung up, rushing towards the door. Charlie and Reggie followed behind him; Max threw open the door again, Charlie snuck between him and Reggie. “That one, that hose is the brake pipe,” Charlie said as he remembered a book he was looking at about trains.

“Your lucky Swiss Army knife,” Reggie said patting Max on the shoulder. Max drew out his knife and laid flat on his stomach. Charlie got excited seeing the lucky pocketknife at work, a slight smile came over his face.

“Your lucky Swiss Army knife,” Charlie repeated under his breath.

Max laid on his stomach as he grabbed onto the hose that Charlie had indicated. The hose seemed heavy, the rubber was grimy to the touch with dust and other build-up. Max brought his pocketknife to the hose with the blade out; beneath him, he could see the tracks moving ever so quickly with the repetitive clunking sound. Air blew across his face; he could hear the screeching of the wheels against the metal rails and the roaring of the engine from the locomotive. Max began moving his hand back and forth in a saw-like motion as he cut into the hose. The knife was slow to cut through the stiff rubber hose, Max knew that time was against him in these desperate moments. Max’s heart was pounding even faster, feeling that he was in a rather vulnerable position. He continued to cut with Reggie and Charlie hunched over him to watch in anticipation. Max could feel the blade getting closer to the hollow interior of the hose, he twisted his hand stabbing the knife blade into the hose. With a slight jerk of his hand, he had broken through the hose which let out a loud hiss. Max could see a burst of pressurized air escaping the hose. Suddenly the wheels screeched, and he was hurled forward from the abrupt stopping of the train; Reggie grabbed onto Max.

“Got ya there,” Reggie said as he helped pull Max up to his feet. Max dusted himself off, his hair was a mess and his face dirty.

“We are stopped,” Max said with a laugh and slight smile as relief came over him.

“Coooool… it actually worked,” Charlie said with a wide grin. Max and Reggie looked at the youngster with nothing to add. Max peered out the door frame down the track, before pushing off to look at his watch. It was 11:56, four minutes too late and Kate’s fate may have been doomed. Max nodded for them to make their exit to go find Kate; he jumped down between the gap of the train that he had feared so much while the train was in motion.

“You little nerd,” Reggie joked to Charlie, always enjoying messing with the younger Haymont.

“As if,” Charlie remarked as he jumped down from the car, dust kicked up when his feet hit the ground. Reggie was close behind them, he looked back in the car.

“What you think we should do with that?” Reggie questioned nodding toward the disarmed bomb still aboard the train.

“We sure aren’t moving it… we figure that out after we’ve found Kate,” Max remarked signaling for them to move down the track. Kate couldn’t be too far down the track. The mood among the three boys was a little calmer, but Max still had some anxiety knowing that Kate wasn’t completely out of trouble yet. Max was almost speed walking, the familiar sound of footsteps against wood could be heard with every step over the tracks.

“Uh oh,” Charlie said, both Reggie and Max froze.

“What?” Max questioned, he turned back towards Charlie with his eyes wide open in fear.

“If we didn’t make it to Blockbuster, we’re going to have a late return,” Charlie said.

“All this and you’re worried about late fees?” Max fired back before turning back around to continue his path to find Kate.

“Yeah,” Charlie simply said. Reggie was laughing knowing how easy it was for Charlie to get on Max’s nerves sometimes, especially when Max was stressed out about something or focused.

“We don’t even know what happened to the movie,” Reggie added remembering that they had dropped everything when they were kidnapped.

“Don’t worry about that now,” Max said with his mind on the task at hand. Off in the distance he could make out a figure on the track.

“Aiight,” Charlie simply replied shrugging his shoulders relieved it wasn’t his problem. Max picked up the pace, he took off into a sprint as he got closer to the figure. He found Kate tied up on a metal and plastic school chair, her mouth had been taped shut. Max knelt down and slowly pulled the tape from her mouth.

“Oh my god, am I glad to see you,” Kate exclaimed, Max embraced her in a joyful hug. Max drew out his lucky Swiss Army knife and swiftly cut the bounds from Kate. Max tried to catch his breath.

“You have no idea how glad we are to see you,” Max was finally able to reply.

“It’s a long story,” Reggie added on. Max stood up, cleared his throat.

“It’s a complicated story,” Max returned trying to think of how he was going to tell his decision-making process on the train.

“What is all of this about?” Kate finally asked as she stood up.

“Nolcroft,” Max simply said.

“Of course,” Kate said rolling her eyes as she could now confirmed the kids had been pulled into another ploy.

“But we are all safe now,” Max said putting out his hands around his friends.

“Booyah,” Charlie said pumping his fist in the air. The night was cool, with a slight breeze.

“Well, how we getting back to Oakbend?” Reggie questioned as he clapped his hands together.

“That’s a pretty good question,” Max simply replied.

“You mean to tell me that Max Haymont hasn’t figured that out yet?” Kate joked.

“There’s a lot I still have to figure out,” Max said as he ruffled his brother’s hair.