Steel & Bone

Casey’s eyes seemed to roll uncontrollably for a few seconds, and she closed them tightly before trying to focus them again. She rubbed them as if to wipe away the fog. As the room finally stopped spinning, she became aware of the roaring sound and intense vibration. Where am I? She asked herself rhetorically. Well, sort of. She recognized the unmistakable sound of a train racing down the tracks, but she had no idea where she was or how she got there. She anxiously massaged her throbbing temples in a desperate attempt to draw the memory from her brain. Nope. Nothing. Hell, she was so disoriented she wasn’t even sure of the time of day…or even the day for that matter. She took a deep cleansing breath and began to feel somewhat normal again. Glancing out the window, she saw nothing but the impenetrable darkness. It may as well have been a portal into the abyss. Well, at least she knew the time of day. Confusion flooded her mind as she wondered how she got there – and, more importantly, how the hell she was going to get home?

As her mind began waking up, Sarah’s engagement party was the last thing she remembered. She had toasted with champagne, as one does, but now she was certain it had been drugged. She would never have more than one just-to-be-polite glass. Some asshole must have roofied her! She tried to sense any unusual sensation in alarm; everyone knew why women were drugged. Nope. Nothing. She was certain nobody had…touched her inappropriately – thank goodness. She sighed in relief. Okay. So how did she get her and why did someone drug her and put her on a train. Any remaining dizziness quickly dissipated as her adrenaline-fueled anger increased. Who the hell did this to me!? She was beyond incensed. She reached to grab her purse which, by habit, she always had to her right. Growing more concerned by the minute she searched the small seating cabin only to turn up no purse, nothing other than the seat and a dark charcoal blanket monogrammed SB. That offered no clue. Her mind raced trying to think of anyone with those initials. Nope. Nothing. Since her purse was nowhere in sight, she quickly felt her pockets just in case. She didn’t have her cellphone on her person. She didn’t even have a ticket to tell her what train she was riding. What the hell? She groaned in frustration. Satisfied there were no clues left, she decided to try her luck elsewhere. There’s gonna be hell to pay when I find out who did this! She vowed as she clenched her teeth and slid the cabin door open.

Casey didn’t want to intrude on anyone in the sleeper cabins and quickly made her way down the narrow corridor until she came to the end of the car. She could see the dining car through the windows and hoped she’d find answers there. As she moved across the gangway connection to enter the dining coach, the roar and vibration validated her instincts that the train was at or near full throttle. Trying to shake off the sensation of impending doom, she entered the car. She hadn’t seen anyone dining but assumed patrons were either seated near the window or just out of her field of view. They weren’t. Beautifully appointed dining tables looked to be abandoned midway through the meal. None of the golden upholstered dining chairs were pulled back, indicating nobody had pushed back from the table to evacuate.

Crisp white linens lay in the dining chairs as if the laps beneath them had vanished. The gold rimmed white dinnerware still displayed partially consumed meals, piping hot with steam still rising from perfectly cooked steaks, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Casey had to admit the meal looked delicious. The sight of fine wine and the smell of fresh coffee was also most tempting. Determined to find out why she’d been kidnapped, she pressed on. When she first glimpsed the empty dining room, she had been distressed; by the time she’d crossed to the other side, she felt like she was trapped in the Twilight Zone. Just as before, she came to the windows and peered at the empty lounging cart ahead. Nope. Nothing. Nobody. What the hell? Casey was no longer obsessed with finding out why she was on the train, how she got on the train, or how put her on the train; she wanted to know where the hell everyone had gone. From the looks of the dining car, it had been packed. Where were all the passengers?

The parlor car was empty too. Brandy and various digestifs still lay in their glasses. No bartender, no staff. Just like the cart before she was the only sign of life. She decided to search every inch of the train. Somebody had to be somewhere! She decided to backtrack and ran the way she came, all the way to the observation car at the back. She didn’t find a single soul. Working her way back to the front of the train, she abandoned timidity and opened every sleeper cabin. Nope. Nothing. Nobody. She found clothing and personal items about the rooms, beds mussed, but no people. She even investigated the sex-scented private cabins yet found no presence of copulating couples. It just didn’t make sense. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she was sleeping, and it was all a vivid nightmare. Upon her return to the dining area, she felt certain that there had to be a crew somewhere. She entered the kitchen. Stock pots smoked with the aroma of burnt potatoes after boiling dry. Once beautiful cuts of meat lay desiccated and blackened on the grill. The kitchen staff were derelict in their duties. She pressed on through the remaining cars and, to her surprise, found that not only did she have access to secure areas but there were no staff anywhere. She came to what she was certain was the last unsearched car, the engine car and found the door opened immediately. Just as the rest of the train, there wasn’t a soul onboard other than hers. Not even an engineer. The train raced forward at a breakneck speed. She could only stare out the large windows at the track as it plowed through the darkness. She stood in abject hopelessness, sobbing at what she instinctively knew was her pending doom. She didn’t have to wait long. She was helpless to see where she was heading but felt the train drop beneath her feet, pitching down, down, down, until it hit with the deafening sound of twisting metal and the crushing of bone. The abyss gave way to blinding light and agonizing pain…then nothing.

Seth bent over to kiss Casey on the forehead before nodding to the doctor and gathering his wife in his arms where they wept together. He knew Casey wouldn’t want to live like on life support — the husk of his beautiful girl artificially alive because of machines. He’d never imagined having to bury his precious angel. She had just arrived back home for the weekend to celebrate an occasion with an old friend from high school. The police said they weren’t sure why her car had been in the path of the train. They couldn’t say for certain if she had misjudged crossing or if her car had stalled. Casey’s body had been crushed inside the wreckage of her car and it had taken hours for the emergency crew to cut her out. It was a miracle she’d survived at all; it was a curse that hopes of her ultimate survival was doomed.