Sodor: Blacked Out

Chapter 7: The Salty Air (Toad's POV)

August 18th, 1984:

In front of Henry sat a diesel. The mist made it difficult to see who was behind the pair of eyes looking back at him.

"Hello? Who's there?" Henry called out.

But the engine gave no response. Their engine started up and Henry was startled.

"What's going on Mr. Henry? Is everything alright?" asked Toad.

But Henry replied in a whisper that was quieter than the engine of the diesel.

"Mr. Henry?"

"W-We gotta get out of here!" screamed Henry as he was put into reverse by his driver.

Toad's guard was now the one in control. He had to be the view for the pair as they were rushing towards Tidmouth once again.

"Mr Henry! We can't go back here, it's not safe!" cried Toad.

"We've got to go somewhere!" replied Henry, "and this is the only direction we can go!"

As they approached Elsbridge, Henry could see that the diesel was loosing the ground on them.

"If we head onto the loop line, we can change the points to set them towards Tidmouth without being spotted!" said Henry.

"Good idea old boy!" replied his fireman as he jumped off his footplate and ran towards the points.

Henry and Toad headed on further down the line as his fireman changed the points. They could hear screaming from the same direction and the oily sound of a diesel passing by.

"Mr. Henry. Was that your fireman?" asked Toad.

"I don't know Toad but I'll have to go check." said Henry.

August 19th, 1984:

The dawn was breaking as they headed towards Elsbridge again. Henry's fireman was fine, the screaming they had heard was from the stationmaster trying to shelter the fireman as the diesel approached.

Henry decided to rest at the yard until the sun was up and the mist had fully cleared. The team formulated a plan to take some empty fruit vans and carry any survivors along the line. They would head up towards the Mainland to try and get off the island as a whole and save those who were with them.

Toad's cab was also where the fireman would stay during the night for lookout so Henry could stay in sidings with the Driver.

As the group neared Wellsworth, they could see scattered trucks across the main line, as if another engine had knocked them out of the way to get out of the sidings.

"Why would an engine be at Wellsworth. It's never a place for anyone to stay but Edward." questioned Henry.

"I've never been to Wellsworth before Mr. Henry so I wouldn't know." said Toad.

It was clear that there was something going on around Wellsworth, but Henry couldn't tell. He decided to keep on moving to avoid any other dangers like they had the last night.

Toad's Guard heard the strange diesel engine noises returning from behind them. Whatever had followed them the night before was back.

"Mr. Henry.." called Toad, "We better get moving!"

Henry whistled as they set off down the line to try and escape the mysterious diesel.

Gordon's Hill was a big challenge upon setting off. Although the vans were empty, having to climb the hill helped slow down the train. Toad could slowly see the lamp of the diesel engine from a distance. It hadn't been turned off since the last night.

Henry could see Maron in the distance, and his fireman filled his smokebox with his welsh coal. There was still a stash near Tidmouth, behind the sheds where it was relatively unknown. He had been filling up on it since it was still being slowly supplied every month, but was undocumented.

His tender was slowly running dry of the coal, and during the chase his fireman needed to use extra to keep his firebox at maximum capacity. They raced through Maron without a second thought and quickly raced towards Cronk. Hopefully they'd be able to lose the diesel heading up the Peel Godred line.

There were many derailed flatbeds of scrap and trucks filled with goods around Cronk. It appeared as though an engine had crashed into them and was subsequently rescued from the rouble. 

They didn't have time to think about that. Henry's fireman clambered across the empty vans to Toad's cab. He stood waiting for the diesel to catch up to them. 

Salty blared his horn as he rounded the corner. Henry's fireman grabbed his hidden pistol from his belt and shot at the diesel's face. Bullet holes littered his paintwork and buffer beam. As the last few rounds were fired, Salty's face began to fall. A dark liquid oozing out of the holes that penetrated the gray skin around his engine. He slowly came to a halt as the white returned to Salty's eyes. 

"So long me'hearties. It was nice sailing with you." Salty said, as his eyelids closed over his reformed eyes. 

The black liquid that had left Salty's face swarmed around his body and chassis, covering him from head to toe.

At last the liquid floated into the air, leaving behind an empty shell of an engine. A rusty, grimy, red Class 07. Without a face.

Toad couldn't believe what he had seen. He witnessed the killing of an innocent engine right before his eyes. He had to stay strong, this wasn't the time. He called for his guard to apply the brakes to stop Henry. 

"Mr. Henry, we can't go any further." demanded Toad.

"Why not? We need to go further to see who's alive on this line." replied Henry, confused at Toad's request.

"This red diesel," said Toad, "he's gone, not the same engine he was before your fireman shot at him. I won't go any further if your fireman is willing to harm innocent engines like him.

I request that you take another brakevan besides myself."

"Toad I hope you know that without an engine, you aren't guaranteed to be safe from engines like them. I'm willing to take you further as long as we can go down this line." said Henry.

"No. Leave me behind. I'll see you another time." huffed Toad, upset with the current situation.

Henry left Toad outside the station at Killdane, and left down the Peel Godred branch.