A nuclear war from the view of a train engineer. It uses alot of railroading terminology. |
((Taking off from the end of the previous story.)) Both of the men aboard the train looked in awe and shock knowing that a long road lay ahead and that the future is uncertain. "What now?" Said John finally. "I don't know..." Said Wayne while starting to realize his face was burned from the nuclear explosion. They both took a minute to gather themselves before finally deciding to get off of the locomotive, knowing it would not get them anywhere they wanted to be. "I have to get home and see my... family." Said John after the fear and worry started to set in. "We have to stick together and be careful, alot of bad things can happen to us." insisted Wayne who was a operation desert shield veteran and knew a thing or two about survival. They both took a minute to examine the surroundings around them, they knew the city fairly well having run locomotives through it a good number of times. Wayne finally said "We might as well use the train as a shelter until we get some information." They both climbed back up into the locomotive and watched the mushroom cloud in the distance as it spread out and was starting to get carried south by the prevailing winds... Right in their direction. "4474 to dispatch, can anyone hear me?" Said John as he used his radio to try and contact the dispatcher to find out what has happened. After repeated attempts to contact anyone who might be listening to the radio John finally gave up and decided to try again later. Because of their distance from ground zero the fallout was minimal as compared to a few yards closer to the bomb site. The sun started to set as the sky was covered in a mixture of radioactive dust, smoke and clouds from the bomb. Fatigue set in on John and Wayne as they worried about their families. It was 11 PM when John realized he had his turned off cellphone in his overalls pocket that was pressed up against his plastic sandwich wrapper from his lunch earlier. He took it out and began to dial his wife Anne. The EMP from the nuclear bomb had disabled all the cellphone towers in the area so to much avail he could not reach anybody. Sighing, he put the phone away and fell asleep. |