The Shattered West: The Tale of Colt Marsh - Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven: Runaway Train

Nation of Deseret: May 8, 1869 - morning and only a few miles from Salt Lake City

Some passengers were frantic and others had already leapt from the train as well. Others just sat in their seats and cried or tried to calm their families and children as the train appeared to be now going at an incredible and dangerous speed.

They reached the engine and were appalled at the sight. The engineer and fireman were dead, eyes wide, and heads turned in unnatural angles. Colt spied someone shimming along the handrails just outside the window, headed for the front of the locomotive. “I’m going out there after whoever did this,” and was out the window before Gabriella could protest.

The wind was howling with their speed and it made it hard to maneuver let alone see who it was. Where were they going? Colt pressed on. He felt the train lurch forward, turned and saw the rest of the train begin to slow behind them. Something about the way the man ahead moved, agile like a cat, seemed oddly familiar.

Reaching the front, he was astounded to see a man he never thought he would again...Hong Zi. Faster than Colt could react, faster than he’d ever seen Hong or any man move before, Hong snatched him by the throat and pulled him close. Colt’s limbs went numb and felt an other-worldly drain on his soul. “Good to see you again, brother!” he shouted, barely audible above the roar of the train. “I’d love to stay and watch the crash, but my new master needs me… Bai said goodbye and he wanted you to have this,” and he jammed something into Colt’s front shirt pocket. Then Hong snapped his fingers and was gone in a wisp of smoke, leaving Colt to scramble for footing on the front of the train.

He managed to drag himself back to the cab somehow and Gabriella helped him back through the window. “Someone has sabotaged the controls!” she had to shout over the roaring engine. “I can’t make it stop!!”

So many thoughts and emotions were running through Colt’s mind and his body ached still. Nothing came to him...no memories to aid him now… “I...I don’t know what to do or how to save us!!!” he shouted, feeling defeated.

“Don’t worry,” Gabriella said, “I do,” she could only mouth. The engine was making such a horrific sound Colt was sure it would explode any moment. She reached down to the bag she’d had with her before and pulled out a weird looking shotgun of sorts. But sticking from the barrel was a harpoon. She slung the bag around her shoulders and clasped a fastener securing it to her. Pointing the gun out the back of the cab, she fired it at an outcropping of boulders they were passing. “HOLD ON!!!!” she screamed and grabbed hold of Colt, dropping the hand-cannon.

Over Gabriella’s shoulder Colt saw the rope connected to the harpoon go tight and yank them from the cab. Flying up into the air, surely to their deaths, Colt dreaded seeing his folks in the spirit lands feeling like he’d disappointed them. He grabbed onto Gabriella tightly, not sure what else to do. But then they were somehow caught in the wind and swaying. He was so disoriented he hadn’t noticed the strange cloth jet from her bag and how it caught the wind like a sail.

The drifted down to the ground and landed with a thud. Neither moved, the shock too much but when there was a huge explosion not far ahead of them they let each other. The engine had exploded. Shrapnel flew everywhere. Far away they could see Salt Lake City. A few more seconds and this would have happened in town.

“Wh..what?...H..how?” was all Colt could mutter at first.

Gabriella stood and offered Colt a hand up. She dusted herself off. “Simple science my friend. Whoever sabotaged the train, and you can tell me what, if anything, you saw when you left me alone to see to the controls myself and decouple the cars from the locomotive later, rigged and then broke the controls to continue accelerating slowly as a train would and prevent it from de-accelerating. I merely forced it to do so faster than they had intended.”

“An...And this?” Colt asked, referencing the sail and rope around them.

“An invention of my own design of which I’m glad to see it worked,” she said clearly pleased with the outcome.

“It hasn’t worked before?” Colt asked, puzzled by her answer.

“I’ve never tried it before but the theory was always sound,” she answered. “Oh look,” she said pointing down near the explosion, “people from town are coming to see what happened. Time to explain we caused the heroic outcome!” And she headed off with a big smile on her face.

Never tried it before was all Colt could think...