[DL] (fiction) RAIL WARS

[Brom Clancy <spleen23@webtrolls.com>]

RAIL WARS:

You all know this story, This is just another telling 
of it.

Part I “It was a dark, dry night.”

	Nights in the west can pass by with nothing 
to hear but the rustling sounds of the wind blowing 
sand and tumbleweeds across the hard dry ground.  
Most nights there is also nothing to see but the star 
lit night stretching over all of creation.
Not this night.
First theirs the rattle of the rusting steel rails on 
the bone dry wooden tracks that rest atop the parched 
ground. Then theirs the thundering sound of gunfire 
and the scream of a steam whistle echoing across the 
night. At the edge of sight coming down the tracks 
are the swinging yellow lights of the oil lamps 
lighting the way for the great iron engine rumbling 
up the tracks, belching great billows of black coal 
burning smoke. In the engine the crew works with coal 
stained faces furled in fear and determination as 
they stoke the fire for every bit of speed they could 
pull from the straining engine. The long heavy train 
rushes pass, until the last car in the train came 
into view, bullet ridden and smoking.
	Even as the last car passes, a great black 
behemoth of a engine roared into view, white ghost 
rock smoke twisting and screaming like dammed souls 
above the towering smokestacks, and a blinding white 
light shines from the ghost rock filament lanterns 
onto the tracks before it.  Two massive gattling guns 
mounted to the front of the engine let loose with 
another volley of bullets into the fleeing train, 
before the black engine surged ahead with a burst of 
speed and rams into the rail car before it, showering 
splinters and falling wreckage to either side.  Two 
long metal grate with sides shaped like grinning 
dragons drop from the engine and fall onto the 
wreckage of the last car, the sharp claws of the iron 
dragons dig deeply into the wooden floor securing the 
ramps to the car. From behind the bright lanterns 
shadowy figures begin to inch their way along the 
narrow walkways on the sides of the engine, creeping 
their way towards the newly bridged gap between the 
two trains.

Inside the passenger car of the lead train lights 
swing wildly over a scene of chaos. Passengers argue 
and shout as they struggle pass each other in search 
of safety while others drop to their knees in prayer. 
Through the milling crowds a handful of rail agents 
force they way with to the last car and take up 
positions with their guns draw.
Pushing his way thought the crowd is a tiny 
determined man who uses short sharp blows from his 
elbows to clear a path, following him is a dapper 
black man who keeps up a constant series of apologies 
to each person he is forced to squeeze by in the wake 
of his small friend.
	“Excuse me, A thousand pardons, If I could 
just squeeze by, Pardon me, Oh where did he go now” 
asks Theodore Peel as he steps past the last of the 
crowd, just in time to see his fellow employee Arty 
Dainty receive whispered instructions and a packet 
from their employer Ms. Laura King. Theo had been 
glad to take the position of secretary with Ms King 
the month before, few people were willing to hire a 
black man for a white collar job, and Theo had been 
almost broke. In the last few weeks Theo had used his 
talent for languages to translate Ms King’s stories 
into the many languages of the various paper that 
published her work, as well as translating the hand 
signs of her mute photographer Arty Dainty. But Ms 
King’s stories had made her a few enemies, among them 
the rail baron Kang whose men were currently shooting 
up the back of the train. During the 5 weeks of his 
employment Theo had been in 3 fistfights and now shot 
at for the fourth time and his was getting a bit 
tired of it. Theo had decided that he no longer 
wished to be dragged willy nilly in to danger and 
wished to share his decision with his employer. Theo 
walks quickly down the passage calling out for Ms. 
King attention but she swiftly steps out the door to 
the luggage car. “Was that Ms King, what did she give 
you? Oh, where are we going?” asks Theo as Arty 
whistles and waves for Theo to join him next to the 
open passenger car door. Theo steps sharply back at 
the sight of the landscape rushing by.  Arty Whistles 
and makes a diving motion with his hand towards the 
open door. “Jump! You must be mad, I’d rather take my 
chances with Kangs men” said an aghast Theo. Arty 
sighs and grabs the much taller but lighter man by 
his coat. “What are you doing? Don’t you dareeee…” 
screams Theo as Arty flings him out the door. After 
watching the taller man strike the ground and roll to 
a stop unharmed, Arty nods in satisfaction and leaps 
after him.
 
As the last Rail agents takes up his position and 
draws his pistol, the first of a horde of wild eye 
hired guns begin to leap from the hulking engine now 
anchored to the last rail car. The men are a strange 
mix of sword waving chinamen and pistol packing 
saddle trash. The rail agents meet their first wild 
screaming charge with a series of careful aimed 
shots. The first row of the thugs falls in a welter 
of spraying blood and tumbling bodies. With a single 
shout all of the other fall to floor as the two 
gattling guns mounted onto the front of the engine 
begin to spin and rain death into the handful of rail 
agents huddling behind the all too feeble cover of 
wooden partitions and upholster seats.  Wooden 
splinters and bodies are thrown back by the force of 
the flying bullets until the Gattling at last run out 
of ammo and the mob leaps up with a roar to swarm 
over the last surviving agents.

Inside the baggage car Ms Laura King listens without 
expression to the sounds of gunfire and screams in 
the distance. It is only as the first of the raiders 
begins to try to force the door to the baggage car 
that she steps behind a partition, kneels and snaps 
together the mechanism of a clockwork gattling 
pistol. A tattooed, bare-chested man bursts into the 
car with a hatchet in each hand, he is met with a 
burst of bullets that riddles his body with hammer 
like blows before dropping him dead to the floor. The 
other thugs quickly step back and out of view before 
shouting to each other in Cantonese. Laura moves to 
kneel behind a steamer trunk.
From outside the car Laura can hear a voice shout “We 
will have to rush her, the master wants her alive. “ 
Suddenly a mob of screaming china men surge though 
the door, Laura greets them with a frown and a single 
burst of bullets meets them before the complex 
mechanism of her pistol makes a sad “Snick” sound and 
jams. Laura has only enough time to glare at her 
pistol before she is overpowered.
As Laura struggles in the grips of a large bald 
headed thug, other raiders charge pass and seize the 
engineers, dragging them from the engine to join her. 
From out of the gun smoke swirling in the air of the 
baggage car steps a tall gunfighter dressed from head 
to toe in black, a neckerchief covers his strangely 
flat face while tinted goggles hide his eyes.  A 
grinning china man by the door stands up straight and 
announces, “ Lord Raiden has arrived”. Raiden first 
looks down to meet the cold glare of Laura before 
slowly turning to silently regard the white-faced 
engineer. Drawing in a heavy rasping breath Raiden 
speaks in a deep booming voice  “You should have 
stopped when ordered. You will not make that mistake 
again” with a single hand Raiden lifts the frightened 
figure of the engineer high into the air by the neck 
before slowing crushing his throat with an audible 
crack. Laura jerks free from the grip of her captor 
and glares up at Raiden “That was unnecessary, all of 
this was unnecessary, I don’t have anything you 
want”. Raiden turns to Laura and looks at her for a 
moment, before leaning over to speak directly into 
her face “You know what I’m capable of, do not waste 
my time with useless lies” Laura pales, but tries to 
look brave. “Very well, but you will nothing from me” 
Raiden stands up to his full towering height “That, 
Remains to be seen.”

Several miles back, the sad figure of Theodore Peel 
staggers aimlessly across the cracked dry ground. 
Pacing ahead of him is the energetic Arty Dainty who 
strides ahead in bursts of speed and then stops to 
look around and wave to Theo to hurry up. Theo stops 
and glares at his small partner, “OF all the asinine 
things to do, throwing me from a train. Its not like 
Kang's men would have harmed up, we just work for Ms 
King” Arty turns and whistles while making a series 
of hand gestures. Theo’s eyes widen in alarm “ She’s 
what! A member of the Agency, oh my buttons, Kang’s 
men will kill us all” Theo turns and rubs his 
forehead, Arty runs along Theo side whistling and 
trying to get Theo to look at his hand gestures.
“Plan? I don’t want anything to do with any more 
plans. You just go right along with what ever Ms. 
King sent you off to do, and I’ll go my own way.” 
Theo points in the direction that Arty was 
travelling, Arty begins to walk off with slumped 
shoulders, turning once with hope in his eye, only to 
have Theo again gestures to the horizon. They both 
begin to walk in separate directions.

Coming soon.
RAIL WARS: Part II “Lost in the desert”