Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #20 November 2015 | Page 9

No sleep doesn’t help a man wake up well the
next morning and I found the others in much the same
mood as I was. We gathered around the nearest fire,
drank coffee and agreed to say nothing about the train.
Of course we wanted to get up the hill and have a look
but we didn’t do that either. We knew what we’d see
and fear of that kept us away so we got through the
day with shaking hands and jangling nerves hoping
the folks would leave us to ourselves and they did.
And then the Sun went down and we waited for the
train to move off and find somewhere else to stay but
it didn’t. And I remember another weird thing about
that day. Not one train passed by. It was like we were
in some kind of bubble of unreality. And we knew
why too, it was the train doing it. If we hadn’t gone
to have a look the night before we’d be like everyone
else going about our business as if nothing was wrong
but we’d seen it and maybe broken that spell I dunno.

Lou said that there was nothing good going
to come out of this and if we had any sense we’d be
making tracks, putting as much distance between us
and that infernal engine as we could. As if that was
possible I said, if we know it’s here then likewise it
knows we are and it would hunt us down. There was
something evil about that train, I didn’t know what it
was but whatever it was it knew we were there and
it wanted us and our running wouldn’t stop it. That
day everyone did what they did but it was different,
it was like something was controlling us. We were
robots that day that’s all, just robots and someone was
pushing our buttons and making us move.

I’d just got into my bedroll to sleep when up
from the hill came a blast of a train whistle. I rolled
out and got into my boots and when I came out of the
tent Lou was standing there like he was hypnotised.
The wind had died to nothing and I could hear as clear
as a bell that something, maybe more than one thing,
was coming down that slope towards us. Lou just
stood there. I shook his arm but it was like grabbing
a wax dummy. I shook it and when I stopped it just
dropped to his side and stayed there.

As I stood there next to Lou I saw everyone
else doing the same. They’d come out of their tents,

and huts and were just standing there. Man, woman,
child, and I felt a chill that made my hair stand up
on the back of my neck. I watched them all standing
there, some were dressed and some weren’t. They
were standing there naked as jaybirds and I knew that
they couldn’t feel a thing. I walked past a few, Elmore,
Sandra Watkins and her kid Ruth; she was a treasure
that child, never knew her without a smile and she
had those little pigtails that bounced when she ran. I
walked past Johan and Hattie and they all the same
faces, blank. They stared and when I waved my hand
in front of their eyes they never even blinked.

I swear to God it was like they was statues or
worse. They might have been dead for all I knew, dead
only nobody had bothe ɕ