And now for the long awaited chapter 5. The continuation of this series has been far too long in coming but it is finally here! I present character five of the Dawn of Freedom: A Hazard on Wheels.

Enjoy!


Bang! Thomas crashed into the line of trucks he was shunting. Fortunately neither of them were derailed, but both were jarred badly. Thomas was starting to feel sick. His new driver, Jonny, had no idea what he was doing. Nether did his new fireman, Sam, who was also dabbling with the controls. Thomas lurched forward, then backward, then forward again. It was like learning to shunt all over again.

Stafford and Stanley, the other two shutters in the yard, stared with mouths gaping open at the ridiculous seen before them. This was certainly a sight they had never seen before.

Thomas was starting to get embarrassed. This was not how he had envisioned the day going. Of course that was earlier that morning, before the whole fiasco of getting a new crew had played out. But just when Thomas thought things couldn't get any worse, they did.

Johnny, glancing at Thomas's water gauge, noticed it was only 3/4 full. So he he decided this would be the perfect time for a quick refill. Thomas lurched forward under the water tower, coming to a stop way to fast causing Sam, the fireman, to go flying out his cab and hit the ground with a thud. Johnny stuck his head out the cab window looking like a stunned deer in the headlights

"Yo good Sam?" Asked Johnny.

Sam looked up grinning with a near toothless smile. Blood dripped down his lips indicating he had broken some of his teeth. Thomas was discussed.

"I'm great!" Sputtered Sam' "Never been better!"

"Your clearly not." Started Thomas, "your bleeding all over the place. We need to get you to a hospital."

"Shut your trap." Said Johnny. "We don't a dumb engine telling us what to do!"

"Yeah!" Added Sam as he stood up and stumbled toward Thomas.

Sam clambered up into Thomas cab while Johnny went to connect the water tower's hose to Thomas intake valve. He did it wrong of coarse and had to ask a yard worker for help. Finally the hose was attached properly and Thomas started refilling.

Johnny thought that this would be the perfect time to run and grab a coffee while Thomas was filling up. So he left Sam with Thomas to get a couple expressos for the two of them to share.

Sam stood in Thomas's cab, waiting for Johnny to return. Blood was dripping from his mouth as he wiped it off and smeared it all over his clothes. It without saying that this was a huge health hazard.

Johnny returned, carrying 4 large coffees, two in each arm. As he hopped up into Thomas's cab Sam lurched forward grabbing a coffee from his hand.

"Are you sure you should be having such a stimulating drink when your injured?" Thomas said questioningly.

"Timmy!" Johnny started, "I told you to shut your trap!"

"My name's not Timmy!" Thomas said exasperated, "It's Thomas! How many times do I have to tell you!?"

"Whatever." Said Johnny, not caring in the slightest.

Sam and Johnny slurped down their extra large coffees. In between swigs they joked about Sir Topham Hatt, and how fat and ugly he was. Thomas found their conversation quite inappropriate, but he was unable to anything about it.

Water started seeping out of Thomas's intake valve. His boiler was full and overflowing. Johnny and Sam were so busy gossiping that they barely noticed what was going on around them. Thomas tried to get their attention but to no avail. Finally a yard worker noticed, ran over and shut the hose off. Then he proceeded to scold Thomas's crew for being careless. Sam and Johnny to no ones surprise we're not amused by a lowly yard worker telling them off in such a way. They yelled at the poor yard worker, screaming obscenities and calling him various colorful things. As Sam flailed around yelling, blood from his mouth and clothes flew off in all directions. It got on Johnny, in the open coffee, and on the innocent yard worker. The man watched in horror as blood splattered on his face, on his shirt, and in his mouth. He ran away screaming and slobbering all over the place trying to get the blood out of his mouth.

Thomas just stared, watching the whole thing go down. The seen before his eyes had filled him with shock and horror. Johnny after finishing his coffee placed his hand on the throttle and released what he thought was the brake. What he actually pulled was the sand lever, which would pour sand on the rails to help with traction in the winter months. Johnny, realizing his mistake, reached for another lever. This time he got it right and Thomas lurched forward, heading to the shed to collect Annie and Clarabel for a run on his branch line.


Thomas pulled into Knapford station with Annie and Clarabel in tow. The passengers started boarding train, chatter and commotion was everywhere. The two coaches noticed Thomas was being more quiet then usual this morning, but before they had a chance to say anything the guard blew his whistle and Thomas jolted out of the station.

Thomas ran down the line, taking corners too fast and not stoping properly for signals. He was a hazard on wheels. Sam was now sitting in a puddle of his own blood on floor of Thomas cab. He was clearly not doing well. Since no one was stoking the firebox they began to slow down. Johnny became impatient.

"What's that matter you ya rust bucket!?" Yelled Johnny, "Why are going so slow!?"

"Oh I don't know." Said Thomas sarcastically, "Maybe it's because there's no coal in my firebox!"

"Sam! Wake up!" Said Johnny. "You're supposed to be stoking the firebox!"

Johnny shook Sam but he was unconscious from losing to much blood and did wake up.

"We need to get him to a hospital!" Thomas said concerned.

"Oh be quiet!" Johnny retorted, "He's just a heavy sleeper."

"Are you crazy!?" Yelled Thomas, "The man is clearly unconscious and BLEEDING to DEATH!"

"Oh is that donut shop!?" Said Johnny, sticking his head out of Thomas cab

"What!?" Screeched Thomas, flabbergasted that someone could care more about food at a time like this.

Thomas came to an abrupt stop as Johnny applied the brakes way to hard causing Sam to slump forward into the open firebox which he had neglected to shut earlier. Sam instantly woke up and screamed.

"AhhhhhhAHHHHHH! Shrieked Sam, pulling himself back from the burning coals, then instantly passing out again from shock and loss of blood.

Johnny hopped out of Thomas, completely ignoring Sam in his critical condition and marched briskly over toward the small town shops. Thomas could believe his eyes. How could anyone be so stupid and fill of them self that they don't care and neglected such obviously incompetent things? If there ever was a competition to see who was the best at traumatizing an engine, Johnny and Sam would be world class champions.

Fortunately, several people in the town heard the commotion over by Thomas and headed over after Johnny had hopped out. They were horrified to see the condition that Sam was in. Someone immediately called an ambulance, another called the police. The people started to question Thomas on what had happen. Some people when hearing the story though didn't believe him and thought that Thomas was the one who harmed Sam. Still others tried to point out that theory didn't make any sense logically and before long a heated argument had broken out between everyone.

The ambulance arrived within a few minutes and they soon had Sam on a stretcher and somewhat cleaned up. It was at that moment that Johnny came waltzing back with a large box of donuts in one hand and yet another coffee in the other. As he got close he noticed the crowd and wondered what was going on. By this time the police had arrived and were investigating the whole situation.

"What the hell is going on here!?" Johnny demanded.

"Sir where do come in here?" An officer asked.

"I'm this here train's driver!" Screeched Johnny. "And that man you're shove'n into the back of that suspicious look'n van is my partner!"

"Uhh that's an ambulance," The officer said, "Their taking him to the hospital, he's severely injured."

"What!? You can't do that! Demanded Johnny, "We were going to eat these donut together!"

"Sir are you on something?" Asked the officer questioningly.

"What who me?" Sputtered Johnny, "What makes ya think that?"

The officer took Johnny aside for an illegal substances test while the ambulance whisked Sam off the nearest hospital. It turn out that Johnny had definitely been using weed, and to seal his case even more he still had some on him! Johnny was arrested and shipped off to the local police station for processing. Thomas was now without a driver or fireman so the police called up Sir Topham Hatt to inform him of what was going on. Sir Topham Hatt was furious to say the least.

"I'll be right down there as soon I can!" Sir Topham Hatt said over the telephone.

Thomas was nervous. What would Sir Topham Hatt do and say? Would he blame him for all this mess? It was hard to tell.

Around a half hour later Sir Topham Hatt roared up in his little blue car. He got out and walked over to the police officers who were over by their cars talking about the incident. He spoke with them for a few minutes then walked over to Thomas.

"Well Thomas," Said Sir Topham Hatt, "I've heard some disappointing things about you."

"Yes Sir, sorry Sir." Thomas said humbly, trying not to be rude and make things worse.

"I'll sending you to stay in the shed for few days to think about what you've done." Boomed Sir Topham Hatt. "I don't have any replacements for your crew anyway. Ryan will be here shortly to shunt you back to Tiddmouth." With that Sir Topham Hatt turned around, got back into his car, and left.

Thomas felt terrible. Deep down inside he knew it wasn't his fault, but Sir Topham Hatt was upset with him, and that was enough to make him feel awful. He did it will all his engines. Thomas knew it was a way he used to guilt trip them into behaving and not rebelling. It was a cruel and demoralizing method. And there was nothing Thomas could do but comply.