Chapter 1
Carmel
"Do have everything you need?" my mom asked us. Jesse, Gina, and I are going to L.A. for a weekend by ourselves. Jesse has a medical conference and, of course, I wanted to go with him. Gina wanted to go too, before she got weighed down with responsibility. Even though she is eight months pregnant, her doctor said it was safe for her to travel.
"Yes, we do," I said for all of us. We're going by train, because (1) Jesse doesn't trust air travel, and (2) it was the cheapest way of transportation. (A/N: I don't know if this is true)
"Okay, well have fun," my mom replied.
"We will," I assured her as we headed for the train.
Los Angeles
"Cee Cee, are you sure this is the best way to travel," David Ackerman questioned Suze's best friend, Cee Cee Webb, as she, he, and his girlfriend, Shannon, boarded the L.A. train to Carmel.
"It's so much better than flying, and you'll be able to see the landscape," Cee Cee explained sitting down.
"If you're sure," David said a little worried.
South-Bound Train
"Jesse, are you okay?" I asked him as we found our seats. Jesse was looking pale so I took his hand in mine.
"I'm fine," he tried to reassure me, but it didn't work.
"Then why are you squeezing the blood out of my hand," I pointed out laughing a little bit. He blushed and loosened his grip. "You're so cute when you're embarrassed." I leaned over and gave him a kiss. He kissed me back, passionately. He opened his mouth for me, and I enjoyed the taste of him.
"Getting a little ahead of ourselves, are we?" a voice replied from the aisle.
We pulled apart and I looked up to meet the eyes of Paul Slater, "What are you doing here?"
"I have an internship at a law firm in L.A.," Paul explained, "And Kelly here wanted to come too." He draped his arm around her, pulling her closer and making her smile reach her eyes, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, Jesse has a medical conference in L.A., so we," gesturing to myself, Jesse, and Gina, who was sitting in the seat across from me and Jesse, "decided to make it group trip."
North-Bound Train
"I'm going to go to the bathroom before the train starts moving," Shannon announced as she stood up moved to the aisle.
"Okay," David replied kissing her cheek before she left.
When Shannon left, Cee Cee moved to Shannon's seat from her seat across the aisle. "Suze told me you're in college," Cee Cee said, "How does it feel to be a seventeen-year-old college student?"
"It's easier than I thought it would be, but it's still challenging," David answered as he pulled his laptop out of his bag. As he opened the laptop and powered it up, he asked, "Where are you coming from?"
"A medical conference," Cee Cee explained, "It was for all nurses in medical school, there is another one tomorrow afternoon for doctors in medical school."
Just then Shannon came back from the bathroom. Cee Cee stood up to go back to her seat and nearly fell over when the train started moving.
"I got back just in time," Shannon replied.
South-Bound Train
"Hope you don't mind that we're sitting across the aisle from you," Paul said to me, his smile never leaving his face.
"Why would I mind? You can sit wherever you want," I told him, rolling my eyes. Then not even a minute after the train started moving, they started making out like crazy. I glared at them, burning holes in the back of his head.
"Just ignore them, querida," Jesse advised taking my hand.
"How can I when I can hear them all the way over here," I pointed out. Then I stopped ranting and realized what I was doing. What do I care if they make out the whole trip. Big deal.
North-Bound Train
The train was twenty minutes out of the station, and in ten minutes will be approaching the tunnel between Carmel and Los Angeles. David was on his laptop, typing a report due in three weeks. Shannon was asleep in her seat next to David. Across the aisle, Cee Cee was going over her notes from the conference.
Suddenly the train seemed to pick up speed. Cee Cee figured the conductor was just trying to make the tunnel before nightfall, so she went back to her notes.
The train continued to pick up speed and David looked up to see if Cee Cee felt the change of speed.
"I'm going to see what's going on," Cee Cee stated as she started walking to the front. David followed close behind. When they were outside the conductor's station, the train seemed to be going fifty miles above the speed limit. "This train is going way too fast," Cee Cee pointed out.
They opened the door and found the conductor passed out over the controls with a beer can clutched in his hand and five others on the floor.
"Nice time to get drunk," David groaned as he moved closer to the conductor, "I found the problem. The conductor pushed that lever forward when he passed out. We have to pull the lever back now."
David and Cee Cee placed both their hands on the lever and on the count of three they started to pull.
Then Cee Cee looked up to see bright lights through the window, "We're going to hit that train! We have to go back!" Cee Cee exclaimed.
"You go!" David shouted over the roar of the two trains.
"But–"
"Go!"
Just as Cee Cee got back to the passenger car, the two trains collided. Cee Cee fell in the aisle and felt debris fall on top of her.
South-Bound Train
The sudden force of our train hitting another on took us all by surprise. I felt Jesse's hand slip out of mine, I tried to grab him again, but he fell into the aisle, out of reach. I tried to call him, but before I could I fell to the floor of the seats and basically everything fell on top of me to block my vision.