Dreamland

Underground Railroad

I'm tearing down a gravel road "Dukes of hazzard" style in a beat up 70's vintage Mercury station wagon. I'm being chased by "The Authorities" (police? detectives? I don't know...) for some crime. What it is I'm not sure, but I do know if they catch me I'm in deep shit.

I've got a pretty good lead on my pursuers when I take a corner a little too fast. I sideswipe a phone pole, lose control, and slide the car into a ditch.

I'm not hurt. I jump out of the car and start looking for a place to to run. I spot a railroad track about fifty yards up on a rise that parallels the road. It leads to a tunnel in the side of the hill. I run up the hill towards the tracks.

I get to the top of the hill, look down, and see the Authorities pull up next to my wrecked car. they spot me as I'm running into the tunnel. I figure I've got at least a couple minutes head start on them, hopefully I can find a place to hide.

Inside the tunnel I see a huge cast iron boiler/generator type machine. I'm not sure what it does, but there are two black men next to it shoveling coal into the fire. I'm ready to run past them, further into the tunnel. I can see daylight in the distance at the end of the tunnel. The older, heavy-set man says: "Hey! Hold on there, boy! Where you runnin ' to?"

"Gotta keep goin' they're after me!" I gasp, stopping to catch my breath.

"We can help you out." he says, and he pulls on a large steel lever next to the boiler.

The boiler groans, creaks, and shifts backwards, revealing a steep dusty tunnel, half filled with ashes. "Get goin' boy, this'll take you to the river!" the man says. "Yeah, it's thuh unnerground railroad!" his partner says, and they both laugh.

I duck into the tunnel and start crawling down through the ash. I hear the boiler slide back into place behind me, they must've pulled the lever. The tunnel widens, and I see daylight in the distance. I exit the tunnel on the side of the hill.

I look back up the hillside, and see that some of the Authorities have exited the tunnel. They're standing next to the tracks, about a hundred yards up the hill. They spot me and start shooting. I start running. There's heavy forest cover on the other side of the river, if I can make it there without getting shot I should be able to lose them.

There's a barbed wire fence blocking my way. I grab the wire with both hands and pull myself over. The rusty barbs cut the palms of my hands as I fall to ground on the other side. Bullets are bouncing off the nearby rocks as I jump in the river and start swimming.

Bullets are flying past me, and it's hard to swim throught the icy water in my waterlogged clothes. Gotta keep moving, gotta make it to the forest on the other side. It's my only hope...