Gordon shoved his way through the crowd, plowing the way for Sir Topham Hatt and Rebecca to ambitiously tail behind. The sweat beaded around his eyes as he blinked furiously trying to see. His hands jostled passengers and workmen aside as he feverishly tried getting any vantage point to take in what had happened.
"Gordon WAIT!" Sir Topham boomed from behind him.
Stopping abruptly, Gordon turned quickly, sending molecules of perspiration flying into the sea of people. The controller was stopped facing perpendicular to the row of platforms across the terminus. Gordon followed his eye line and saw the hulking visage of Number 3 cockeyed, off the rails, and at a near tipping point had it not been caught by the platform itself.
Gordon's heart seemed to beat relentlessly as his feet began moving of their own accord. Jumping down to the track bed, he sprinted toward the derailed engine as he saw Henry stumble from the cab and double over retching. Expelling everything in his stomach, the man crumpled to the ground in a motionless heap.
Emily opened her eyes and immediately experienced the taste of iron from a busted lip. She was slouched to the controls of Number 12 and steadied herself upright as she held her head. Pulling out her dark green handkerchief, she dabbed her lip and pressed for pressure to stymie the bleeding.
"What happened?" She thought as she raised her head carefully to look out upon the train.
"Lassie! Are yeh alrigh'?!"
Donald had appeared at her cab side with a swelling lump beginning to show on his pasty forehead.
"What happened?" Emily asked bracing against her gauges to help remain standing. She felt weak, everything was spinning.
"Aye si' down. We've had a crash." Donald put his hands on his hips and tried to catch his breath. "Are yeh alrigh'? Si' down before yeh hurt yehrself."
Emily eased herself down to the floorboards and gingerly rested her head back against Number 12's paneling. She was trying to remember. One moment they had control of the train, the next….
"Who did we crash into? Where's Douglas?" Emily asked as she took a deep inhale. Sirens had begun blazing and her head was ringing.
Any color left in Donald's face drained. "Dougie.. Emily STAYE HERE. Don'nae move." And he bolted up the line of goods toward the front of the train.
Emergency alarms of approaching medical vehicles mixed with the blare of sirens from the station. Gordon had heaved himself over platforms and finally gotten to Henry. Standing over him Gordon froze.
"Get up Henry. Henry what happened, get up."
His voice was croaking. He was trembling as he towered over his friend. He wanted to help. He wanted to wake him up. But he remained rooted to the concrete.
"Henry, you need to get up." He choked. His voice barked but he was panicking inside. He hastily ran a sleeve over his eyes which prompted him to begin to move. He dropped heavily to his knees as he reached for Henry's shoulder.
"Don't touch him. Please give us some space."
Medical personnel had arrived and were surrounding the two drivers.
"Move sir. We need to make sure he's alright."
Gordon tensed up as his hand locked onto Henry's shoulder.
"Someone, get him OUT OF HERE."
The medic had lost patience and a pair of arms hooked Gordon under his shoulders and yanked him back. With his eye contact broken from Henry, he sat back clutching his chest as he watched the staff check his friend's vitals.
Donald was panting hard. Running the length of the long goods train was its own challenge, but after having the wind knocked out you it was absolutely impossible. Donald propped his shoulder against a vent van as he saw the frames of Number 10 and Number 2 mangled ahead of him. Emergency response vehicles had arrived and were moving in to access and take over. Donald pushed himself off the van and started off again.
Two steps taken, and he saw his peripherals go dark. He was back in Number 9 about to charge through a tunnel. The color wicking away from his vision as he felt a sharp pain from dropping to his knee. He reached for his black handkerchief and lost his balance...
So this chapter was a bit of a writing exercise for me. I'm trying to see if the way I want to tell this story by working individual narratives into a larger event can be done… idk smoothly? I feel like some of my transitions are still bumpy and realistically none of the characters from the separate stories have come together yet. (I really need to try and flesh out more interaction with Gordon, Henry, Rebecca, etc.) But I think for the first 'arc' of this fic things are coming along.
Thank you Cherry Lau and RaceFanGurl for your reviews and kind words. (I appreciated the tip about Toby being more temperamental than Edward.)
And those who did, thank you for reading -REN