Light returned to Mike's vision, as he rolled out of the coal, into the engine room of the train. Mike looked around, and stopped in his tracks, upon seeing Clara in the seat reaching up to a chord coming down from the ceiling.

"You!?" Mike asked, shooting to his feet. Clara jumped and turned around. "I thought you got thrown off because of me! And… Now you're driving the train!?"

"They put me in charge." Clara answered, kicking her legs. "The engineer had to check the light."


"The light, careful…" El said, reaching up for the bulb that Will held, holding onto the front of the train.

"Here…" Will held it down. "Careful…" He slipped, and the bulb went flying.

"I got it!" El jumped out to grab it, grabbing onto Will's leg to pull herself back.

"Ow!" Will screeched.


"How!?" Mike asked, walking towards the many levers and valves.

"It's easy!" Clara replied. "Here, I'll show you." She waved Mike over. "This big lever here, that's the throttle. This little one here," She pointed to the little gold lever, "That's the brake. These are the pressure gauges. And this rope is the whistle."

Mike glanced back at her. "The whistle?"

Clara nodded. "You wanna try it?"

A smile overtook Mike, as he reached up, and yanked the cord.


"AUGH!" Will screamed, as the whistle went off right next to his ears.

"Hold still, hold still!" El said, feet on the front surface of the train, hand still clutching Will's leg, as she shoved the bulb into the socket, closing the glass over it.

"El, let go of me and look!" He pointed to a speck of light in the distance.

El dropped, landing upside down, as Will slammed into the bell.

"Gah!" Will clutched his head. "This was a bad idea!"

El stared into the distance. She gasped, seeing the silhouettes in the distance.

"Stop the train!" El frantically screamed to the cabin, "Stop the train! Stop!"


"What are they saying?" Mike questioned, leaning out the side.

"They want us to stop the train!" Clara recognized.

"The brake!" Mike scurried back. "Which one's the brake!"

"This one!" Clara pointed to the little gold lever.

"Who told you that?" Mike frantically asked.

"The engineer."

"What about this red one?" Mike asked. "It looks like a brake!"

Clara shook her head. "No, the engineer said this was the brake!" She insisted, pointing to the little gold lever.

"Are you sure!?" Mike asked. When no response came, he repeated; "Are you sure!?" The girl stayed silent, as Mike grabbed the red lever, prepared to pull it.

"STOP! THE! TRAIN!" El called from outside.

After a moment's pause, Mike grabbed the little gold lever, and pulled it back, the train instantly shuddering in response as the wheels locked up.

The train slid to a stop, and the situation calmed.

Momentarily.

"For crying out loud!" The Doctor yelled, climbing down into the cabin from the top of the tender. "You two know we have to be at the North Pole by midnight, or-" The Doctor stopped, wind taken out, "Oh, Clara. I'm sorry, I forgot they left you in charge." He turned to Mike, eyes widening. "What're you doing up here!?"

"Look!" Clara pointed outside.

The Doctor's head shot over, and he marched over to the window, leaning out. He gasped. "CARIBOU CROSSING!?"


As the Doctor led the other two to the front of the train, Mike caught sight of the girl standing there, and his heart fluttered.

"El!" Mike exclaimed, running into her arms.

"Oh!" El gasped in surprise. "Hi. Didn't expect to see you up here so soon… Can you let me go, it's kinda hard to breathe."

"Oh, right, yeah." Mike sheepishly pulled away. "What is it?"

"Look at all of them!" El gestured out at the massive sea of caribou blocking the tracks. "There's gotta be a million of them! It'll be hours before we can go again!"

Will shook his head. "Didn't realize caribou lived this far north."

"We are in," The Doctor grunted, coming down the steps onto the front of the train. "Some serious jelly."

"Jam, more like." El corrected.

"A tight spot." Will agreed.

"Up a creek." El continued.

"Up a tree!" Will continued.

"Lost in the grass." El shook her head.

"I'll tell you what's grass, our as-"

Mike slipped, accidentally grabbing onto the other boy's leg.

"Ow!" Will screamed.

The caribou hollered something in response, after Mike sheepishly released Will's leg. "Sorry, Will."

The Doctor frowned, shaking his head as he placed his foot on the low railing of the front plow. "Hello, you look like an important one. Can you and your friends move out of our way please? We've got somewhere we've gotta be, pronto."

"What's he doing?" Mike whispered to El.

"Negotiating."

The lead caribou replied loudly.

"I understand this is your sovereign territory," The Doctor replied, "But you're still standing on train tracks."

The lead caribou screamed.

"No, we can't just go in reverse." The Doctor explained. "We're expected."

The lead caribou huffed.

"Santa Claus, of course."

The lead caribou screeched, the ones behind it moving off the tracks.

The Doctor bowed graciously. "Thank you, your majesty." He turned to the others. "Well, crisis averted." The Time Lord tugged on his waistcoat satisfactorily. "All ahead, slow!"


El pulled the whistle twice, as Will shoveled coal into the firebox.

"Ow…" Will painfully rubbed his leg. "I just recovered from the Mind Flayer, I didn't need this on top of that…"

"Shouldn't have chosen to sit on top of the engine, then." El replied as he pulled the brake back out, setting the throttle into position with her mind, and the train began to move again.

"The Doctor said it was safe!" Will replied. "He modified this thing to be completely safe no matter what, he said, even if we jump off ourselves!"

"Safe doesn't mean it was a good idea."

The train passed the caribou by quickly, moving swiftly before the animals could get back in the way.

El attempted to pull the throttle back, however, the mechanism jammed, and the speed did not let up.


"I have a question." Mike turned to the Doctor, him, Mike, and Clara standing on the front of the train.

"Shoot." The Time Lord replied, turning to him.

"A passenger loses their ticket, so you pretend to throw them off the train." Mike began. "Only to take them onto the roof and lead them to the engine to let them drive?"

"Well, there's a very good reason for that." The Doctor replied, looking at the boy. "It's because shut up!"

The train rattled as the wind blew into their faces, trees passing by quickly.

"Uh… Are we supposed to be going this fast?" Mike asked.

The Doctor frowned, turning to Clara. "Tell the engineer to slow down."

The girl nodded and hopped on the stairs on the side. "Slow down!" She yelled to the cabin. "Watch the speed!"


El gave the throttle a mental pull with all her might, only to be sent to the floor, holding the broken throttle in her hand.

"UH OH!" She gasped. "The pin broke off the throttle!"

"What!?" Will turned towards her, the pin bouncing off his cap.

"The pin!" El repeated, as the little bit of metal recoiled off a valve.

"Where!?" He shouted, as the pin smacked against the flux capacitor.

"There!" She pointed, as the pin bounced off the floor, landing in the grate.

Will and El looked at each other. "Oh no." They chorused each other.


"They can't hear me!" Clara turned to the Doctor.

"They can't!?" The man anxiously asked, gulping as he read the signs not far into the distance.

'DANGER! 89° grade! USE LOW GEAR!'

"I don't like the look of this… Quick, behind the safety bar!" The Doctor instructed, sliding into the space between the bar, and the front face of the engine.

"Is everything alright!?" Mike asked, him and Clara following the Doctor's example. "Wh-What do we do!?"

"Well," The Doctor pulled a strip of cloth out of his coat, tying one end on one end of the safety bar. "Considering the facts; We have lost communication with the engineer." He gave it a tug to make sure it was secure, and pulled the other end tight, so it was pressing them up against the safety bar tightly. "We're standing totally exposed on the front of the locomotive. The train appears to be accelerating uncontrollably." He tied the other end, and gripped the bar, the two young humans following his example. "And we are rapidly approaching Glacier Gulch, which just so happens to be the steepest downhill grade in the world… there's only one thing that we can do! …SAY WHEEEEEEE!"

The other two screamed as the Doctor laughed, the 2200-ton train plunging into a drop like that of a Six Flags ride. They were pressed down against the floor, as the train moved back up the other end of the dip. At the top, they were suddenly thrown forward again, as the train took another plunge.


"THE PIN!" The two shouted, as it came flying out of the grate, with the inertia of the train. They jumped, flailing around in the air, trying to grab it.

El tried to catch the pin with her mind, before she caught the pin with her teeth, and the train leveled out, the girl landing back against the floor.

The train dropped again, and El gasped, as she was thrown up…

The cotter pin came careening towards her mouth. El threw up her hands, and the pin went flying out the window.

The train quickly leveled out again, but there was still a problem. No pin… no way to put the throttle back.


"OH MY GIDDY AUNT!" The Doctor shouted in alarm, spotting the lake frozen over the tracks. The ice squealed as the train came speeding out, sliding off the tracks onto the frozen water, groaning and screeching.


The pin landed prongs down in the ice, and the surface of the frozen lake began to crack.


The locomotive hit a spike of ice sticking out of the ground, and the train was sent on its side wheels, still speeding ahead.

Clara, thrown off-balance, almost fell off onto the ice, being caught just in the nick of time by the Doctor before she could fall.

Mike noticed the man's foothold going, and quickly grabbed onto him to assist, but he began to slip as well.

Just when it looked like Mike was about to slip, and all three of them would go crashing onto the ice, something caught him.

Mike whipped around, gasping, as the hobo from before grinned at him. He was about to say something, before the man made a shushing motion.

Jack pulled them all back up, the three quickly regaining their footing.

The man grinned, pointing, before he vanished in a bolt of lightning.

"Brilliant, Mike!" The Doctor complimented. "Brilliant!"


El looked anxiously out onto the ice, biting her nails, as she quickly patted each one of her pockets. Finding the right one at last, she pulled out a space cotter pin the Doctor had instructed her to grab just in case something like this happened. It floated up, throttle moving back into place as well, and she pulled it back, the train swinging around as it rolled back on the ice, coming to a stop.


The locomotive rocked, the three on the front struggling to stay on, before it hit the ice one last time, settling.

"Well," The Doctor tugged his waistcoat. "That's more like it."


"You two!" The Doctor pulled open the hatch above the cabin. "What's going on!? Are you two okay!?"

"Fine, dad…" El rubbed her head.

Something in the distance cracked, grabbing Mike's attention. "Look!" He pointed.

The Doctor looked up, seeing the ice split. "Worry later!" He resolved, looking back down. "Just get us the hell outta dodge!"

El pulled back a lever, and the train began to move, away from the widening fissure at the highest reverse gear it had.

"Now!" The Doctor looked back in. "Turn this baby around!"

The wheels locked, and the train accordioned, the people on top staggering. Then, in what Mike thought had to be the biggest violation of the laws of physics he had ever seen, the locomotive swung around, before El pushed the throttle forward, the train proceeding away from the cracking ice as fast as it could, straightening out.

"ARE WE DRIFTING A TRAIN ACROSS A FROZEN LAKE!?" Mike shrieked, looking around.

"We're not doing anything!" The Doctor replied. "They are!" He pointed down to El and Will.

"What's that!?" Clara pointed at the small divide in a cliff wall in the distance.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes, trying to look. "Tracks! Nicely spotted, kid!" He beamed. "Dead ahead!" He directed into the cabin below. "Right!" He guided, the train shaking as the wheels switched up. "Left!" He called back down, the train shuddering as El did as instructed. "Right!" The Doctor instructed as the train began to drift too far to the other side again. "Hang a Louie! Toss a Ritchie! Port astern! Hard starboard!"

"QUIT TRYING TO SOUND COOL I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!" El bellowed.

"Whoa, my slipper!" Mike said, as the wind began to pull off his slipper.

"You're going to lose your ticket!" Clara shouted over the noise of everything else.

"It's not my ticket, it's yours!" Mike responded, narrowly catching the slipper as it came flying off, and the ticket began flapping around in the air in front of them.

"It's mine!?" Clara repeated.

"Yes!" Mike answered, the two of them trying to grab it out of the air.

"Alright, keep up with me!" The Doctor shouted down, El below pulling levers even faster now. "Left! Right! Left!"

Mike and Clara desperately tried to grab the ticket, as the train kept switching directions every few seconds, the cracking ice getting ever closer to the train.

"Right!" The Doctor ordered. "Left!"

Mike and Clara grabbed the ticket at once, the ice finally cracking, the cars in the back sinking into the water.

"Look out!" The two screamed.

The Doctor turned around, a concerned look on his face. "BRACE YOURSELVES!" He screamed, hitting the deck as the ice underneath the locomotive finally cracked.

Instead of being resigned to Davy Jones's Locker, however, sparks flew under the locomotive's wheels, having landed on the track just below. The train pulled itself out of the water, and proceeded along perfectly fine, away from the icy lake.

"Oh, that's a tremendous relief." The Doctor let out a relived sigh, as he jumped down into the cabin.

"Thank you!" Clara beamed. "Thank you so much! I can't believe you found my ticket!"

"Excuse me?" The Doctor popped his head back out of the top like a gopher. "Did someone say they found their ticket?"

Clara nodded minutely.

"Well, in that case," The Doctor produced the ticket puncher, clicking it. "Ticket, please."

The Doctor took the ticket from the girl's outstretched arm, and began quickly punching it, spitting out a little bit of scrap that had gotten in his mouth, before handing it back to her. "Thank you, ma'am."

Clara took it back, the Doctor receding back into the cabin, as she examined the letters on it. "L-E?"

"Hey just like that know-it-all!" Mike laughed.