Chapter 13: THE TRAIN IS LATE!
I walked back inside after a few more minutes of letting that kiss sink in. By the time I got back to our compartment, everyone was already awake.
"Hope! There you are." Toadsworth greeted, stretching his arms up and overhead with a lengthy yawn. "Oh, I must say that this is exactly what this old bean needed. A good long rest in somewhere more comfortable than… well, I'll spare you the gruesome details." I've a vague feeling that he was about to mention something about Bowser's insides, and I'm thankful that he decided not to.
"I see you have been out and about a bit. Everything all right with you?"
"Oh fine." I lied.
"Splendid!"
"Glad you got a chance to walk around a bit," Toadbert said. "Stretch the ol' legs after being cramped and cooped up during your time in hiding, eh? What I'd do for that kind of exercise, by boogity!"
I didn't pay him any mind; I was still thinking of and watching Kory. He sat on one of the seats and looked out the window. It looked like he was thinking of something. I remember automatically assuming that it was about the kiss and of me, but boy would I be wrong. I let him sit there and stare uninterrupted.
"So what is the plan once we get to Old Bowser's Castle?" Toadbert asked me. That's something I could hardly ignore, and it caught me off guard.
"Wha—?"
"You know, Hope. Once we get to the old castle, we need to have a plan of what to do after that. Had any thoughts of what or where they'd be?"
At first my mind was drawing a blank. Surely there had to have been some idea of where to go next. Something— anything would have been better than the static that ran through my head. I was trying to remember what it was I was told in those dreams, but at the time I was unable to.
"Well, no worries. I'm sure something will come up in due time." I gave a fake smile. I don't think he saw, though, since we entered the tunnel at that point. Everything became dark for a few seconds before the lights automatically lit up. We all looked around, a bit confused as to what happened.
"The Fawful Express has to take a dark tunnel through the mountainous areas of the Mushroom Kingdom to get past Old Bowser's Castle and on to its final destination." We all looked over to Kory as he said that. "The lights are a feature unique to the Fawful Express. They're sensitive to the darkness of this tunnel, and when the train enters they automatically turn on so that the passengers can see inside."
"My boy, have you taken this journey before?" Toadsworth asked.
"Yeah. My dad used to take this commute when he worked out in this area. I got to go with him a few times when I was little."
"How fortunate! Then you know exactly what to do once we get close enough to the train's refueling station."
"Well, that's the thing. The train also has a breaking system that activates when the lights do, partly to save power. The breaks also help slow the train down so that it doesn't miss its stop. They didn't activate though." He turned away from the window and toward all three of us. "I don't think they're stopping the train."
"What would cause you to say that?" Toadberd asked.
"They know we're here."
I gasped and put my hands over my mouth. It dawned on me then that the last part of my dream wasn't lucid dreaming, but it really happened. They all looked at me as if I held the secret to some sort of ancient civilization.
"What is it, Hope?"
"I… uh, I kinda had a… well, a dream, but not really a dream. You know that kind of dream where you know you're dreaming but you're not really dreaming and it's actually happening in real life? Not lucid dreaming, but… well, anyway that's not the point. There were these two guys talking over us and saying something about that they had found us and that they were going to keep on going without stopping the train. I thought it was just a dumb dream because when I woke up no one was around and the door was closed and everything was undisturbed and stuff so I brushed it off and didn't really think about it in case you're wondering why I didn't say anything at first." I think, up until that point, I hadn't rambled on like that ever in my entire life.
"You… you WHAT?" Kory suddenly burst out. There was no time for that though, because there was a knock on our cabin door accompanied by an aggressive voice.
"We know you're in there! You've no chance. Come out and we'll see to it that you're treated with care until we get back to Toad Town."
"Oh no!" I squeaked. "It's them! That's one of the voices I heard. It's the conductor, I think."
"And you better not give me any bullshit story about you sleepwalking and falling in your pool again. I won't fall for that kind of stuff again." I squeaked again and ran over to Kory to hide my head in his chest. He didn't push me away, which was a good sign.
"Well friends, it looks as though we may have to turn ourselves in." I was surprised at Toadsworth for that, but there would be more surprising things to come from him later on. "We've no other choice." I pulled my head away from Kory's warm chest and saw him wink to Toadbert and I remember wondering why he'd do that. I'd find out soon enough.
We gathered ourselves up and opened the cabin door to face our fate. The conductor commented on how we were good criminals for realizing that this was the only way. Toadbert and Toadsworth lead Kory and I out. As the conductor and the engineer, who accompanied him, were about to handcuff them, someone shouted, "NOW!" and before I knew it, Toadsworth had jumped up onto Toadbert's mushroom cap and they started twirling around in the air. They somehow also moved forward into the pair and spun them around in the whirlwind they picked up. After they landed safely, we took that opportunity for all of us to run the Underwhere out of there.
There are only so many places to run away to on a train, so we naturally headed towards the front; we were situated all the way near the back of the train and wanted as much distance from them as possible. We had to jump out of the way of luggage and food carts and even some night owls straggling around the dining car. We even had to avoid the crazy Bumpty chef with a butcher knife! That was something else for me. I nearly screamed and ran into him! I was nimble enough to jump out of the way at the last second, luckily. He didn't go chasing after us.
Sometimes the lights flickered, too; I've always had a sneaking suspicion that it was due to the lack of breaks and power conservation. I never did find out though. They did make certain parts a challenge for us, especially the dodging. They flickered off and on for seconds though. Nothing too bad for us.
"Don't look back!" Toadsworth shouted back to us. He continued to lead while Toadbert and Kory followed. Me being the natural flunker of running, I took caboose. Yes, I did plan that pun out. The conductor and engineer were already running after us, and catching up to me specifically.
"You won't get away this time!" he shouted to me. My heart was racing and I was running out of breath, but I had to keep on running. I couldn't let something like this stop me from moving forward.
We finally reached the front of the train. The engine was somewhat advanced for its time, but now with all of today's modern technologies and even further advances it wasn't as state-of-the-art anymore. The good news is that there was a door we could lock.
"Kory, the door!" One of us shouted, I can't remember who. He did take care of the door though, closing it right as the two came through the door opposite us in the car behind. He gave the control panel that controlled the lock a mighty punch, disabling and malfunctioning it to pieces.
"Looks like my self-defense classes finally paid off a little," he weakly chuckled. The two men right outside started swearing profusely and doing all they could to bust through the double-reinforced automatic steel door. This essentially trapped us, too.
"Now what do we do?" I panicked. "We're trapped here now."
"Don't be scared, Hope." Toadbert approached me, putting his hand on my shoulder. "At least this way we can stop the train now."
"We can't even get out of here now!" Kory shouted. "And stopping the train with the breaks at this speed when we're still rapidly approaching the stop is gonna be really risky. Those breaks aren't just for the lighting and distancing, they're for safety. Going this speed inside of a tunnel in a train built like this is super dangerous as it is. Now you're adding on a sudden stop? We'll be toast!"
"Toadbert, I believe the lad has a valid point this time."
"Refueling station in three miles." A computerized female voice in the room said. "Less than one-eighth tank of fuel left. Consider slowing down." Our options were getting very limited and time was running out. None of us were thinking very straight with all this pressure on us. That might have been the reason I very carelessly made a suggestion.
"The roof…"
"Hope, now you're not making sense." Kory barked.
"No, think about it! If we go up to the roof, we'll have a clear path towards the back car. If we get there, we'll have a chance to disconnect is and slow it down with its own breaks."
They all just stared at me.
"Look, we absolutely have to make it to that castle. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This is the only way that we can do it, so what are you gonna do about it?"
"How shall we escape though? Our only exit is blocked off." I looked around in a panicked frenzy. Then I saw it.
"There's a window! It leads out to the side of the train! C'mon!" I ran over to it whether the others would follow me or not. They ultimately did after seeing I was right… and that the conductor and engineer recruited the help of the chef who was now hacking away at the door with all his might. He was starting to get through to us.
"Hurry!" I called out to them before climbing through the open window. One leg, two legs, then my whole body. I stepped out onto the thin platform that allowed for walking alongside the train. We were still going pretty fast, and I was near the edge of the wall, so I took extra caution while out there. Short, deep breaths powered me on through that scary venture. I finally reached the steps leading up to the roof. Thankfully there was more than enough room for even Kory to comfortably run upright.
"This way!" I had to shout over the roaring echoes of the clang-clanging underneath and the roaring engine behind once we all were up there. They followed my lead. We jumped over the gaps in between cars; it was easier since we were running in the opposite direction of the train. Our footsteps on the metal roofs only added to the cacophony of noise and made it impossible to think about anything.
"I take back what I said earlier about wanting to get out and stretch my legs!" I heard Toadbert complain. It made me chuckle slightly, I'll admit. A few seconds later, though, and I heard additional sets of footsteps; that could only mean that the conductor and engineer had climbed up onto the roofs and started chasing after us again.
"YOU WON'T GET AWAY!" the conductor screamed. He started catching up to us, but I think the engineer started to lose his breath and gave up. Toadbert and Toadsworth and Kory all caught up to me… and passed me. Again.
"Seriously?!" I shouted in disbelief. Nevertheless I kept on running. Pretty soon we reached the end of the train again, so it didn't really matter all too much. The tricky part was getting off the roof. Kory found it simplest to fall in between the gap of the two cars. Toadsworth and Toadbert both agreed to take control of the breaks on the other side of the car, so they jumped the gap. I was about to slide on down and fall into Kory's arms, when I felt a tug on the back of my shirt.
"Gotcha!" I heard, the voice dripping with menacing satisfaction. I hung suspended in midair as the conductor clutched onto my shirt with all his strength.
"Kory! HELP!" I screamed. I tried to hit the conductor off of my shirt, but my reach didn't go out far enough.
"Don't worry Hope! Hold on!"
"TO WHAT?!"
Kory climbed up onto the ladder attached to the caboose. As he did that, sparks started shooting out from under the wheels; the two Toads in the back already forced the breaks on. The screeching was really loud, but the whole thing did manage to slow down the train ever so slightly. I also started to swing at this resistance, and the conductor started losing his grip. Kory reached out one of his hands to me and I tried reaching for it. Each swing was a new attempt, and we finally got it. A slight ripping sound was audible over all the screeching and clanging and screaming going on around.
"Kory, my vest!" I shouted to him, hoping he'd understand that it was tearing at the seam. It didn't look like it and I never felt like reminiscing about this with him, so I think he still doesn't know what I meant. He kept trying to pull me in. The conductor started groaning, doing everything he could to keep me with him.
My vest let Kory win in the end. It ripped straight on the seam and I fell down onto the caboose's gangway that connected it to the car in front. Nothing broke, thank goodness. After getting myself straightened out for a second or two, I remembered the thing that needed to be done: Disconnecting the caboose. It was harder than you'd think it would be, what with the sparks flying everywhere. I managed to figure out how, and with a metal groan, the couplet opened up and released us from the train. It kept going on, and I remember seeing the conductor fall slightly forward and off the roof. He managed to hold on and keep himself on the train, but that was the last time we saw him as he sped onwards into darkness.
Our caboose started slowing down for real now. Kory slid down the ladder and huddled in close to me. The sparks started shrinking until there were none left at all; we had finally stopped.
Toadsworth and Toadbert joined us up at the front, wondering 'what in the blazes' happened, so we told them.
"Wow!" Toadbert exclaimed. "That must have been really exciting!" Even I gave him a slight scowl along with Kory.
"So anyway," Kory started, "Did we at least make it? Are we at Old Bowser's Castle?"
"You better come have a look." Toadsworth said. We followed him back to the viewing platform on the back. There we saw a big open room lit with torches and massive piles of treasures from all around the world. Weird that train tracks would run through something like this.
"If I'm not mistaken," Toadsworth said, "this used to be Bowser's treasure hold. I remember hearing him talk with a group called the Monty Brothers about a project that ran through, but now that I see it I still don't believe it."
"Well, this is where the train would have ordinarily stopped, so that's good."
We all hopped over the railing and onto the tracks, walking around a bit.
"But why is it through a treasure room?" I wondered aloud. I didn't get any sort of answer, for misstep I was tackled to the ground by something. I screamed and tried to fight it off; the boys were all running toward me to help me.
"GET OFF OF HER!" Kory yelled at it, eventually punching it hard enough so that it fell off of me. It groaned and thudded to the floor. I collected myself off of the floor and ran over towards Kory.
"What in the worlds was that?" I asked, scared half to death. Toadsworth inched closer and closer to the mass on the ground.
"You'll never believe this, but I do believe this is Prince Peasley!" We corrected him that he became king.
END ACT I
The train is indeed late, and so is the chapter by a few hours. I spaced out a bit, my fault. XD Anyway, yes. This is the end of our first Act. I'm very proud of the story so far and I can't wait to start posting Act II later. About that though... I don't have much of it written at the moment, so there will be a small hiatus for that. Now that I'm out of school and enjoying the pleasures- well, most of the pleasures of summer, I will have more time to write which will mean less of a wait for you.
In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for reading so far! You've been very kind and very supportive. Even only reading it is enough for me to know that you like it. Last month I almost hit over 500 viewers from the United States from this fiction alone! Thank you all so much. I'd like to know what you think of the story so far, so please leave a comment (or two if you want to leave one for another chapter XD). In exchange, I promise not to take so long in writing. LOL
See you all next chapter!