Sodor: Left for Dead

Early Days

There are a lot of times where you begin to question things in life. Am I a bad person? Have I properly fulfilled my purpose in life? Well today I ask you the question "what went wrong in this horrible world?" It's times like this where I wonder where that magic the Reverend Wilbert Awdry bestowed to us. I'm sure you are wondering who I am or why I'm writing this damn thing. If you're not then I don't care. I stopped caring about most things a long time ago. You see, before everything went to hell this little island was a beautiful place. Sodor was always a great place for vacationers and tourists. From the beautiful green forests to that sweet salty ocean air. However what most people came to see were our engines. You see while most of Britain uses diesel power we here on Sodor still used steam locomotives and this wasn't all. Our engines were alive. Living and breathing beings, however now I bet they wished they weren't. I was actually a driver of one of them. The number one and his name was Thomas. We primarily worked along the Ffarquhar branch line pulling some old, but kind coaches named Annie and Clarabel up and down the line. At times we would also collect stone from the quarry or some goods to take down or up the branch. There were a few other engines who we worked with on the branch and their names were Toby, Percy, Mavis and Daisy. They all usually got on well together, but Thomas, being hot-headed, always found a way to get under their skin or frames I guess I should say. The only engines on the railway he ever really got along with were Edward and Toby, boy do I miss them...

One night as we pulled into Elsbridge to drop off some workmen we noticed Percy sitting in the goods shed. This was strange because normally he would have long since left with the nightly mail train. Greg, the station master and long time friend of mine, walked up and told me that Percy's safety valve had burst. I looked at Ted, Thomas' fireman, and by the look on his face we knew where this was going and, with a long groan, we buffered up to Percy and began pulling him down the line towards Crovan's Gate.

Initially I was annoyed with the fact we had to take Percy to the works and deliver the mail across the island, however after a while I finally took in the nighttime scenery. We hadn't pulled the mail in months and rarely ever pulled trains during the night and I gotta say it was refreshing to say the least. It was almost peaceful. Almost being the keyword there as Thomas and Percy argued the whole damn time. Honestly if you watched the TV show then came to see them in person you'd think they're different engines. As we pulled into Crovan's Gate we quickly shunted Percy into the Works Shed and just before we could leave the yard we were flagged down by the station master.

"Due to the delays the kipper and express are running late so you'll have to stay put for the night."

"But I want to go to my shed!" Thomas exclaimed irritably.

We didn't put up any fight and just backed Thomas into the works shed with Percy. As soon as he hit the buffers the two were in a full fledged argument. We quickly jumped from the cab and left. I prayed that Percy would still be asleep when we left the next morning. I really didn't want to deal with their shit.