Back in August 2022 I happened across a competition on vocal.media to write a story about a Runaway Train. That’s all there was to the challenge – write a story between 600 and 5000 words about a runaway train and you could win $10,000! Alright, so specifically they said “Write a story about someone who wakes up on a train. They have no ticket and no memory of how they got there. Oh, and one more thing: the train shows no signs of slowing down“, but left things quite open in my view and for some reason I found it an inspriing idea to write about. Anyways, what with various other things happening around the same time and getting the closing date slightly wrong I never managed to finish by the deadline, but I continued writing my story and finally, well over a year later, finished it today!! So if you’re really bored for an hour or two and fancy something to read here it is (all 15,500 words of it).
The Runaway Train or “An Honourable Journey”
Wake Up
Edward woke up, blinking. He looked about himself with a grimace, where was he? The first thing he heard upon waking was a continuous click-clack sound, the tell-tale sound of moving along railway tracks, which made him assume he was somehow on a train. Glancing around confirmed this, he was indeed lying on a chair, in a 4 person cabin, onboard a train carriage, but that made no sense to him. The last thing he could remember was the bar and drinking that first pint of beer at the meeting. So how did he get here? Where was the train going? The cabin was decorated with wooden slats and the seatings were made of felt. There weren’t any motifs, maps or posters around to give any clues as to his location or destination. The seats with their blue background and scarlet stripes bordered on the hypnotic and after a few moments of staring at them Edward rubbed his eyes. He stood up and turned the cabin door handle. He peered outside and then stepped into the narrow corridor.