Here's chapter four, people! Let's find out here what going to happen to Percy!
Percy was still frightened as he continued to rove backwards up the line, pushing his train of trucks behind him. Fifteen minutes had gone by since he'd started to run away from the tunnel. He'd picked up speed over that time and had no way of stopping himself or seeing where he was going. But the fact he was in danger of crashing had not crossed his wee little mind.
"I'm not going near that tunnel!" he wailed to himself. "I don't want the horrors to get me! I'd better convince the Fat Controller to close off that line! Then I'll be saving my friends from the fate which engine who never came out of the tunnel suffered!"
Percy was just thinking of what a humble hero he'd be to convince the Fat Controller to do such an action - when he suddenly lurched around to his right, still going backwards. He let out a startled cry as he did so, having not realized how fast he was going. It took him a few quick glances around to fine out he'd just been switched off the main line. He tried to take in the moving surroundings that were drifting away from him, but it wards far too dark and misty for him to recognise where he was.
What he did manage to realize - to his alarm - was that there was no crew in his cab.
"Oh no!" he cried. "I've left my Driver and Fireman behind! How am I gonna stop?"
He found out - much sooner than he expected.
To his surprise, Percy felt himself lurch over another set of points. These ones led him onto a line which ran right alongside the one he had left. What he couldn't see was that he was actually on a siding which stopped dead before a thick hedge. A set of buffers had been bolted down on the end for safety - but they were not prepared for the heavy momentum that was about to strike them.
With Percy unstoppably pushed his trucks backwards towards the end of the siding, the brake van hit the buffers hard, shattering them to pieces with one blow. It burst through the hedge and bumped across what the ground beyond it had been made into. As the trucks followed the van in its path, the noise they made told Percy he was in for an accident. With no way of stopping himself, he rolled off the rails and through the gap the brake van had made in the hedge. Still afraid, he felt his wheels bounce across the uneven ground, then let out cry as they ran through something squelchy. Percy could also feel some small objects bursting underneath his wheels. He was just looking down to find out what it was - when his back wheels fell down a small dip in the ground.
That managed to stop Percy immediately. It had also saved him from crashing into his trucks, which had all piled up behind him. Their loads were everywhere and several of them had broken. There was fortunately no damage to Percy, but there was something horrible and sticky clinging to his wheels, running board, buffers and the sides of his boiler.
The moment he looked down, Percy immediately saw what the objects he'd been running over were. He was about to make a disgusted comment - but what stopped as he felt a beam of light cast onto him.
Percy's words stopped dead in whatever he had instead of a throat. His eyes flooded with fear again as he peered up towards his left, where the light was coming from. He saw a thin silhouette standing in the dark. They remained where they were for a few seconds, then began to make their way silently towards him. The night had camouflaged their appearance too well for Percy to catch a detail on what they looked like - but it hadn't taken him any time at tall to come a silly conclusion on who they were.
"Go away!" he cried in alarm. "Leave me alone, you horrible spook! Haven't you got a party to go to at the monster burger bar?!"
But as the figure stepped into the beam from Percy's lamp, his true identity was revealed - as was the frown on his face. Percy took a long look at him, then breathed a thankful sigh of relief.
It wasn't a spook at all. It was Farmer McColl.
"Percy, what have you done?!" he snapped. "You've ran right through my lovely pumpkin patch!"
Percy looked down shamefully at what he'd done. He and his trucks had made a big sticky mess out of what had once been an impressive batch of hundreds fresh pumpkins. He felt very bad - due to what he automatically assumed the pumpkins had been for.
"I'm sorry, Farmer McColl," he apologised. "Were these pumpkins to go to the children's Halloween party?"
"No! They were my harvest for me to sell! Now I'm not gonna make that much money this year! Especially from the Fat Controller, as he always buys at least two dozen every year!"
Farmer McColl was very unhappy, but Percy was feeling a little less ashamed. At least he hadn't ruined anything for the children. Ruining a farmer's harvest and wrecking his field didn't have much of an affect on him.
With a sigh, Farmer McColl began trudging away from Percy, stepping over his squashed pumpkins to head to his farmhouse. "I'd better call the Fat Controller to send an engine to get you out of this field.
A little later, Percy was still sitting in the pumpkin batch, wondering if those who were going to buy Farmer McColl's pumpkins would consider purchasing some squashed ones, when he heard an engine's whistle. As it was a whistle he recognise, he was not dumb enough to automatically assume it was the whistle of a ghost train. He peered through the mist towards the line that ran alongside the field, looking out for the engine who had come to rescue him.
Thomas puffed slowly into view. He stopped in a huff beside the field, a deep glare on his face. He was in a far worse mood than he had been since Percy had left him at the sheds. His cab was overcrowded - especially due to the size of one passenger he had aboard.
"See, Thomas?" said the Fat Controller as he stood on the footplate. "I told you there would probably be a job for you to do later!"
Yeah, but I didn't think it would be carrying you, Thomas thought sulkily as he felt the great weight step down from his cab. He looked towards the pumpkin field - and immediately found himself stifling a snicker at the sight of Percy in it.
The Fat Controller marched up to the hedge that ran alongside the field. He took a few moments to silently survey the damage (which mostly consisted of squashed pumpkins), then he turned to Percy.
"What are you doing, Percy?" he boomed. "I heard from your Driver that you ran away when you came to the tunnel!"
"Because I didn't want to go in it, Sir!" Percy protested. "I didn't want the horrors to get me!"
The Fat Controller blinked, puzzled. "Horrors?"
"Yeah! It's full of ghosts and monsters! An engine went in there years ago, and he never came out again!"
"I'm afraid Percy has been more dim-witted than usual tonight," said his Driver, who was just stepping down from Thomas' cab.
"He seriously believes there are monsters in the tunnel we were to go through," added the Fireman, who was following his colleague.
The Fat Controller glanced at the crew, then he led his head fall into his palm as he shook it in disbelief. He was beginning to wish he had bought one of the other tank engines on sale in the workshop where he'd purchased Percy years ago.
A little later, Thomas had pulled Percy back onto the rails. The little green engine stood behind his best friend on the siding. Orange goo was still clinging to him while his crew back aboard his cab.
"It's a good thing we built that siding there recently," said the Fat Controller, "or who knows where Percy would have crashed?"
Farmer McColl frowned scornfully. He didn't agree on the siding being outside his pumpkin field to be a good thing; it had been what had caused Percy to wreck what would bring him a ton of cash.
"Now, Percy," the Fat Controller boomed, "I want you to go back to that tunnel and go straight through it!"
"But, Sir, the horrors will be waiting to get me! If I go in there, I'll never come out again!"
"Yes you will. Because there's no horrors in tunnel. It's perfectly normal, just like any other tunnel. Now it's time you started acting normal, just like my other engines..." The Fat Controller paused, then corrected himself. "Or at least, most of them."
Percy looked down sadly. Then he looked up at the blue tank engine . "Thomas, will you please come with me?"
"Of course I will, Percy," Thomas smiled. He had now suddenly gone from being in a hostile mood and now had a determined urge to help his best friend. "Please, Sir! Can I go with Percy to show him there's nothing to be scared of?"
The Fat Controller pondered. "Hmm ... even though it would be completely pointless and would waste more coal ... yes, Thomas. You may go with Percy. I'll meet up with you both at Knapford Station later."
"Woohoo!" Thomas cheered, whistling and bowling steam in his abnormal happiness. "You'll see, Percy. That tunnel doesn't really have any horrors!"
Percy smiled, thankful that Thomas would be with him. He still wasn't convinced that Horrors' Tunnel was just something Diesel had made up, but with his best friend accompanying him, he felt more certain he would be able to conquer it.
"Er - hang on!" Farmer McColl said indignantly, pointing to the pile of wrecked trucks in his pumpkin patch. "You can't just leave my field like that! You've still got some work to do!"
It was no good. He was completely ignored as Thomas and Percy puffed off the siding, disappearing together down the line and into the mist. The Fat Controller had already wobbled away, leaving the irate farmer with the huge mess in his field.
So Percy is going to face his fear - with the help of his best friend, Thomas! Awww! Ain't that sweet? Nah, not really.
I supposed you could say this is a bit of a spoof on HiT's take on the show, due to how they constantly try to use the episodes to shove lesson's down little kids' throats (although I will say the episodes from the recent seventeenth season have been so much better). I do hope you're getting a laugh out of this, though.
Especially for what it's in store in the upcoming final chapter. :P