All CARRIE (2013) Characters © Stephen King, MGM, SONY, Kimberly Pierce, etc.

All BATMAN (1939-Present) Characters © Bob Kane, Bill Finger, DC Comics, etc.

Carrie Meets Batman

Chapter 1: Safe from a hellish life

"Freak! Freak! Weirdo! Dumb bitch!"

"Creepy Carrie! Creepy Carrie!"

"Try and miss this one, Christian freak!"

"Go to your closet and pray for forgiveness!"

"Sin never dies!"

"You'll never amount to anything in life!"

"You're such a stupid worthless human!"

"Scary White! Scary White!"

"Pray for forgiveness, little girl!"

Carrie White woke up suddenly from another nightmare of horrible memories from her old life, hyperventilating and beads of sweat forming on her forehead as she tried to remember where she was. But then, after a few panicky moments, as she calmed down and taking in a few deep calming breaths while wiping her forehead, she gradually remembered where she was and why she was here in the first place.

(Wednesday November 30th, 2011, 8:30am, Gotham City)

Throwing her new blanket aside, she sat up from the bed of straw she'd been sleeping on and, taking in a few more deep and calming breaths, looked outside from the top level of the barn where she'd been sleeping for the previous five nights, ever since she'd runaway and escaped from the hellish nightmare she knew as her previous life in Chamberlain, Maine eleven long days before.

Gently settled back down on the straw bed and, as she focused her eyes on the old ceiling above and rubbed her nervous sweaty face, she took in one deep breath after another and slowly calmed down. She tried to tell herself that she was finally safe now but...and perhaps understandably...her mind and brain just still wouldn't accept it, despite the fact that she knew she would, hopefully, never again see any of the people who had tormented her for so long throughout her life.

"I'm alright…I'm okay…everything's gonna be alright. You'll be okay." Carrie told that to herself over and over again for another minute or two, despite not knowing if everything would be all right considering where she was now, and what she'd had to do in order to get where she was right now.

After being badly bullied by many of her fellow students in Ewen High school Chamberlain for nearly her whole life, the worst of them being The Mortimer Snerds consisting of Chris Hargensen, the group's leader and Ewen High's Queen Bee: Tina Blake, Nicki & Lizzy Waston, Heather Shyers and Jessica Upshaw, Rachel Spies, Anissa Chen, and quite a few other bullies, including a few teachers, as well as being badly abused in her own home by her fanatically religious, but secretly, one of the group: Sue Snell, one of Chris's closet friends, had recently started to have second thoughts about their actions towards Carrie and psychopathic mother: Margaret White, who'd lock her in the small prayer closet under the stairs for long periods of time if she suspected she'd done something sinful, which almost all of the time she didn't, Carrie knew that she couldn't take it anymore.

Feeling and fearing that her life would be in danger if she stayed at home for much longer, and unable to take any more of the bullying from her peers and some of the teachers in her school, as well as the abuse she was receiving from her own mother, she decided to run away from home and make a fresh start somewhere else.

Before leaving, however, she left in her school locker, in a brown A4 envelope, an exercise copy book with 400 pages in it, within which she had left a detailed record of what had happened to her, every incident of school bullying that she could remember and there were a lot of such incidents mentioned, as well as describing what her mother had done to her in her old home. Using her very neat, easy to read handwriting, she managed to fill up 398 pages in that book. And to have filled up that book with so much information really surprised Carrie, particularly by how much she had written, including the dates, the circumstances of what happened in each incident and such as well as the names of any person responsible. But it was just like a cabinet, rich in memories, had just been opened and everything that could come spilling out in immense detail, and once she started writing down everything, she just couldn't stop writing it down.

She had also left, stuck to the front of the A4 envelope with a little bit of sticky tape, a letter in a smaller white envelope giving her explanations for why she was running away and how she expected to never return home to Chamberlain again.

Yet Carrie was also well aware of the risks she was taking, she was aware of the fact that she would miss the rest of her time in Ewen High School, including the rest of Junior year, as well as all of Senior year, the big prom that would take place at the end of Senior year and the graduation ceremony not long after.

She also full well knew that if she was caught running away or that if her over-religious, psychopathic mother got wind of it, she would no doubt be locked up in the closet for a very long time to come, so she had to take every precaution to avoid that at all costs. In the time leading up, she acted like all was well, both in school and out of it, and did the things Margaret expected her to do while discreetly packing up clothes and other things so that she could bolt from the house at a moment's notice if she needed to.

She did a very good job at that, as Margaret didn't see or hear any indication or clue that would indicate to her that Carrie was going to be leaving the house in the very near future. Not even Carrie's classmates or teachers in Ewen High School detected or noticed the slightest indication that Carrie was going to be leaving town very soon.

Very early in the morning of Monday November 19th, just a short time before dawn on the weekend before Thanksgiving week, with Margaret still fast asleep in her bedroom, Carrie took the opportunity to escape, absolutely determined to live her own life someplace else and make it on her own. She also knew deep down that if she was gonna run away from home to start over, it was a case of go now or never…if she didn't take the chance given to her right then and there, it may never come up again.

Carrie was helped in the fact that the following week was Thanksgiving week, and so many people in Chamberlain, including most of those she went to Ewen High School with, would be out of town which would help make her escape much easier.

Having already packed a suitcase with clothes, the necessary documents, supplies and all the very few personal possessions she had in the world, as well as all the money she'd saved up, totalling about $14,000, she dressed herself into warm clothing, put on a warm hat and very quickly and quietly left the house before she made her way to the bus station on Main Street, where she caught an early bus heading to Portland, Maine.

But before she left the house, she left behind a note, written the evening before, on the kitchen table telling her mother she was going out and never expected to return home again. She also said goodbye to no one, as she knew doing something like that would completely ruin her chances for escaping successfully.

She also left behind in that old house anything to do with religion or the bible, as she was tired to the back teeth of all that nonsense from having her mother constantly speak about it and pray every day to something that had only brought her back luck throughout her time living with her mother. She even left behind the necklace with the crucifix that she always wore, wanting nothing to do with her old life anymore.

At one point as she walked down the street to the bus station, she briefly paused along the sidewalk only a hundred yards away from the bus station and turned round to look behind her and then she debated for a moment whether or not she should head on back home again. But then, fearful thoughts of being abused by her unstable mother and being bullied again by many of her classmates in school filled her head as already bad memories of her life came flooding back to her. So, she turned and continued on to the bus station, she'd made her mind up…leave. She'd had enough of everyone here…and it was time to move on.

After buying a ticket for a ride down to Portland, Maine, she boarded the bus and took a seat at the very back. Not too long afterwards, the bus left the bus station with its passengers and headed away down Main Street bound for Portland, passing places Carrie was familiar with, including the Kelly Fruit Company, a popular diner where many of the teenagers in town hung out, the Hardware and Lumber Company as well as the laundry and dry-cleaners on Main Street where her mother had worked for many years and passing by all the houses where many of Carrie's school mates lived.

They also passed by Ewen High School for a few seconds, which was all locked up for the holidays with its front façade looking quite dark and menacing in the pre-dawn light with all its lights turned off and entrances closed up. The sight of it briefly caused Carrie a few moments of silent panic as they went past the school. They also went by Carrie's old grammar school on Baker Street and Chamberlain Junior High School, both of which were more places that brought back bad memories to Carrie.

Very soon, after clearing the outskirts of town and moving off into the countryside, they had left Chamberlain behind and went up a low hill off to the south side of the town, from where the whole layout of the town, and some of the key landmarks, could be clearly seen. Carrie turned and looked out of the back window as she got further and further away, and a small tear went down her face.

"Goodbye to Chamberlain…I hope that I'll never return to this town again." Carrie said in a low whisper as she turned her head away when the bus turned went through a wood lining both sides of the road and motored on its way, while the woods blocked out the view of Chamberlain from the hilltop.

And with that, Carrie's involvement with her hometown of Chamberlain, Maine came to an end. From now on, she had her own future to worry over and vowed never to go back home or remember about her past again, or even see those who had made her life miserable.

The thoughts that were going through Carrie's mind as she watched the countryside go by while the sun slowly came up to the east was that she wasn't wanted in Chamberlain, either by her own mother in that lonely old house, or by anyone else, especially her own school mates who'd made her life hell for years. So, it was time for her to leave that old town, move on to the future and to, hopefully, leave all her bad memories and bad people behind for good while making a brand-new start in her own life.

Yet, what Carrie didn't know was that by running away from Chamberlain when she had the chance to do so and leaving behind the hellish life of bullying and abuse that she'd endured for years, she'd done herself and her hometown a massive favour. It meant that she had saved herself from further and unnecessary abuse, humiliations and bullying from any further people at school and had cleanly broken free from the grip of her abusive, domineering mother, which meant that it would allow her to get her confidence back at last and get her life back on track, and to secure her own future the way she wanted it to go.

But, and far more importantly for her, and for everyone else who went to Ewen High School, it also meant that when the night of their Senior Prom came to Ewen High School in late June 2013, there would be no Black Prom and no Chamberlain massacre or damage done, which meant that nobody would die on Senior Prom night.

After arriving in Portland after a comfortable trip about two hours later, by which time the sun was well up, Carrie disembarked from the bus with the other passengers and left the bus station. Feeling hungry, she took the opportunity to have some much-needed breakfast in a small café within town before making her way over to the port and managing to sneak aboard one of the large cargo ships tied up in the harbour, the M.V. Gotham Train Man, with no idea where it was going. But she didn't care about that, just as long as it took her to a place where she could make a fresh start where no one would know of her past.

After she somehow got aboard without being seen by anyone and had hidden herself amongst the cargo within one of the large holds, the ship left the dockside bang on time at 12:00pm and headed eastward out into the open waters of the North Atlantic. Carrie managed to remain well-hidden for the entire trip, which was uneventful and took about six full days. Luckily, they had fine and smooth sailing conditions all the way over, though the weather was quite cold at times, particularly during the nights. Luckily though, Carrie had plenty of supplies with her, and was able to stay hidden without taking the risk of leaving her hiding place.

At times during the crossing, particularly during times when it was very quiet and time seemed to draw out like a blade, Carrie thought about what the future might hold for her, and hoped that she would be able to take on whatever challenges that future brought with it. However, she knew full well that she wouldn't be subjected to any more of the bullying and harassment she had experienced back in Chamberlain, including such things as having pranks and nasty jokes being played on her all the time by her classmates, as well as such things as being called names or being given cruel nicknames - such as "Truck Face" or "Big dumb pudding pop", people trying to trip her up by sticking their legs out from their tables in the cafeteria, having books deliberately knocked from her desks, or being pinched or poked or, even worse, being given wedgies by the bullies. She tried her best to push those highly unpleasant memories of her life to the back of her head, as she knew they would only upset her, and tried to concentrate on what the future would bring.

Very soon though, it was the journey's end and they finally arrived at their destination, Gotham City Harbour Chaos along the west coast of New Jersey very early in the morning of November 26th. New Jersey was part of Gotham City and was located within the bus station between the United States and the Gotham of Man, where Carrie felt, or at least hoped deep down, that no one from home would ever think to look for her there.

After getting off the ship without being spotted by anyone, either members of the ship's crew or anyone on the dockside who were helping to unload the cargo from the freighter's enormous cargo holds, Carrie managed to make her way away from Gotham City Harbour Chaos without any fuss or bother at all, and headed out to the town of Gotham City, where she exchanged some of her money, bought some food to eat as well as a map of the city, so she could find her way around, and a blanket, and then went out of town into the country just outside. Even though she'd missed Thanksgiving back home, she was now in a brand-new place where she could restart her life again, and that as far as she was concerned was something to be thankful for.

However, it wasn't very long, less than a full day, before Carrie noticed something…rather peculiar about Gotham City; she saw that all the steam locomotives that ran on the city's railway lines, as well as some of the road vehicles, had faces on their fronts, with eyes that could look around and mouths that could move and talk. Carrie couldn't understand how all the steam locomotives and some of the road vehicles could be alive in such a way, which freaked her out a little at first.

But over the last few days she'd been on the city, she'd developed a liking to watching the steam locomotives go by with their trains rattling along behind them, particularly from a viewpoint on a ledge that looked over the branch line that ran from the main station at New Jersey all the way to Farquhar in the western central part of Gotham City.

One of the steam locomotives that she had taken a liking to seeing go by was a bright red tank engine with a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement and painted in a maroon red livery with the letters "L.M.S." on his side tanks in bright yellow. He didn't go along the Farquhar Branch too often, but when he did, Carrie would always wave whenever she saw him go by, and the engine would always whistle in response and call out "Hello!" in return before puffing along the line with his bus, be it a freight train or a passenger train.

(Back to the present)

After finishing off a small breakfast of an apple, a carton of orange juice and a small box of cereal, Carrie left the barn and headed off to the double-tracked railway line close by. She had only just gotten to the overlook where she liked watching the trains go by when she heard a steam whistle quite close by; a few short moments later, another steam locomotive went by heading from Farquhar towards the shunting yards close to Gotham City Station with a long line of 36 hopper wagons of various sizes clanking and clattering along behind and laden with freshly quarried stone, their metal sides streaked with stone dust of different shades of gray and white.

The locomotive, a WD Austerity 2-8-0 (1) with the number 90361 on its cab-sides and its plain unlined black paintwork still surprisingly bright and shiny despite the quarry dust, and with black and gray smoke chuffing sharply from the short stout chimney on top of the smokebox and rising high into the air and drifting back over the train, went by where Carrie was, tooting its deep-toned whistle and smiling when Carrie waved to it before continuing on down the line to Gotham City, with the heavily laden hopper wagons rattling along behind and dark gray smoke chuffing sharply from the chimney.

Carrie smiled a little as she watched the locomotive and its long heavy train go by. The hopper wagons rattled loudly as they followed along behind the locomotive until the brake van came into view and went by as well.

Very soon, the train disappeared into the distance, leaving everything at the scene quiet again and Carrie alone. It wasn't long before a small tear came to Carrie's eye and ran down her cheek. Wiping the tear away and giving a heavy sigh, she turned and headed away in the opposite direction to the small village that was nearby.

(1): The War Department (W.D.) Austerity 2-8-0 Class was one of the largest classes of 2-8-0 engines to be used on the Gotham Railway system, with Gotham Railways (B.R.) taking delivery of 733 locomotives out of the 935 that were built, with the rest going abroad to places on Continental Europe, e.g., to the Netherlands and Sweden, including 12 that went down to Metropolis. The class was built during the Second World War, when there was a real need to have heavy freight locomotives quickly for military service.

The design was basically a simplified version of the Stanier 8F 2-8-0 heavy freight engine. For instance, the firebox was a parallel boiler with a round top firebox instead of a Belpaire firebox on the 8F. The inner firebox was also made out of steel instead of copper, which was rarer and thus more expensive. They were also designed to adapt to different working conditions, e.g., the boiler could be adapted from coal firing to oil firing should the need arise, and without having to ever lift the boiler out from the frames. The narrow bunker on the tender was designed to give good visibility to the rear if the engines were ever running tender-first.

Sadly, none of the engines that were used by B.R. have been preserved, with the last five examples of the class being withdrawn from regular service in September 1967, and all the withdrawn engines being cut-up for scrap not too long afterward they were withdrawn. However, one example, W.D. No.79257, , which worked in the Netherlands for a time after the war, and then in Sweden for a number of years, returned to the U.K. in 1973 and has been returned to working order on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, and has been numbered as what would have been the next engine in sequence, No.90733.

Also, a number of other classes of Gotham steam locomotive designs with eight coupled driving wheels, either real ones or fictional classes, will be appearing, since none appeared in the original model series that we all know and love.