The Train of Peril

"This train flies and it's taking no passengers

-This train will be taking no passengers- By Augie March

Important note
I got the inspiration for this story after listening to the song: This train will be taking no passengers, as it is in a way, a dark song that is incredibly epic (you should seriously listen to it) So I somehow came up with a dark story about a train. So yes, enjoy.

The story
Chase Williams was a lonely man.

All his life he had had the best of everything. This gave him a severe case of affluenza. He eventually began to lose all value of things in life and could not place enough value or importance in anything for it to sustain him. Therefore, he lived a deplorable life, never being able to appreciate anything. Because of the snobbishness brought on by his affluent status, he had not only gained no friends in life, he also became a bad person that no one would be willing to talk to.

Yet, his wealth did benefit him as it had given him control of one of the countries most luxurious and finest train: "The Conquester" (it's meant to sound cheesy). So even though he was a miserable man, being in control of the countries greatest train gave him a sense of valour. However, it would prove to be his ultimate undoing.

It was on a fine day that he eventually commited a most heinous crime. The sun was out, peeking through the shining clouds. A great day for hope and good fortune, but for Chase, it meant something horrific.

It was Valentines day. And that meant, of course, that hundreds of love-struck couples would be boarding his train to cross the desert to the forest of Evendor to warch the sunset over the scorched Earth and see the sunrise over the lush hills. A true romancer's dream, but his nightmare. For now, he would be forced to endure lovestruck couples all day. And the one thing he hated above else was love.

You see, when you have everything, you really can't value love, as you have no time or care for it. It never gave Chase anything, so why should he be bothered to feel it? And besides, love was a futile thing. It would never last, he often thought to himself without mirth.

So in the drivers seat he sat that day as hundreds of happy and gossiping couples boarded his train. It was going to be a long trip.

The train set off at roughly 1:30 in the afternoon, just as the sun was starting to drop from the sky. Chase focused on operating the train, but he could not stay focues, as the couples were talking so much!

Onr pair was gossiping away at what their friends latest status's were on facebook, another were wondering what they would buy if they won the lottery. One pair were making endless baby talk at each other, making a disgusting constant stream of gooey names for each other. And at least four couples had brought babies with them and they were crying at the top of their lungs and the parents were screaming even louder in baby talk to calm them down. But what really bugged him was that one couple had brought a five year old boy, who obviously was way too spoilt. He was thundering around the carriage screaming at the top of his lungs that he wanted more lollies and kicking random people in the leg and screaming at them to 'stop looking so yucky and old'.

Oh yes, all of this culminated into absolute rage in Chase. He tried to bottle it up, but the screaming and the baby talk overwhelmed him shortly, so he decided he'd take a short break up the back to gather himself and calm down.

However, on a train crowded with over-emotional couples, this is impossible to do.

Just as he was passing a couple who were locked at the lips, he accidently brushed up against the screaming boy. They instantly snapped at him.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO BILLY?" the father screamed at Chase.

"Nothing. I was just-"

"You were freakin trying to hurt our precious little child weren't you?" the mother chided him. 'Precious' wasn't the first thing that came to his mind.

"I'm sorry, he was just-"

"Oh you idiots are always trying to push blame on our children aren't you?" the father said with rage.

"Listen, I did not mean to bump into him! He was-"

"You're a big stinky head!" Billy screamed with hostility. And with that, he kicked Chase swiftly in the shins. The sharp pain stung him.

"That's right Billy! You shw that nasty man what you're made of!" the mother said with flase mirth.

Chase was not going to stand for this. He took a deep breath and just walked away.

"Hey, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" the father yeleld to his back, "I'm not done with you!"

Chase paid him no heed and proceeded to the next carriage, all the way, earning filthy glares from all the other couples.

Mutinous thoughts whirled around in Chase's head. Oh how he'd love to just push them all out of the train, just do something truly horrible to them to make them pay for falsely persecuting him.

It was while he was pouring himself a warm mug of coffee that it occured to him that there was no one driving the train. His fellow driver had conveiniently developed a bad case of influenza, sparing him from the over-emotional couples. Chase wondered if he even was sick. Anyway, the point remained that no one was driving the train, leaving it susceptible to crash. A nice bit of panic for everyone would only satisfy him momentarily. No, he had to create the perfect plan to exact as much damage to the couples as possible. With that, the gears in his brain started ticking away, forming dastardly plans only a cold heartless person could bear to bring forth.

Fortunately, Chase was both. Unfortunately for everyone, this was true.

After recuperating in the gallary, Chase slowly and purposely walked back to the front of the train. He smiled as he passed the couples. They had no idea that no one was driving the train. He thought it was high time to 'enlighten' them.

Right on cue, the exasperating couple from before dragged him over to them.

"Listen mate, we've got some bones to pick with you!" the father said menacingly, "you've got some explaining to do about hurting my kid!"

"Yes, talk you scoundrel!" the mother said furiously, "We can sue you out of your job!"

"Listen, I'd love to stay and talk, but I've got a train to drive." Chase said calmly.

"You mean theres no one driving the train?" a nearby blonde woman shrieked.

"No, there isn't." Chase said with evident mirth.

"WELL GET ACK THERE AND DRIVE IT!" a nearby man said with obvious panic.

"Ah, but I'm enjoying talking to all of you!" Chase said with glee, "Why don't you tell me what you all had for lunch? I had an egg salad sandwich, what about you?"

"Dude, drive the train!" a nearby man in a suit said, "don't you know that this is the cliffy part of Akaramn?"

"Why yes I do. I got a nice shiny B+ on my geography test. What did you get?"

One woman finally had enough of his lollygagging and got up, "You are going to drive this train, and I'm going to make you!" She then shoved him into the drivers room. All according to plan.

"Ok, now do something driver-ish! Drive the train!" the woman said with obvious worry.

"Oh I'll drive the train all right." Chase said. He grabbed the lever that adjusted the trains velocity. He pulled it right down. The train started to speed up.

"Are you mad?" the woman said in worrying tones. Chase smiled.

"Why, yes I am!" He then broke the lever off and hit her swiftly over the head with it. She fell instantly. Realising he would be held responsible for this, he covered up his tracks by hitting himself with the bar and covering his head with tomato sauce that he convieniently stored behind him.

"Help help! There has been trouble!" Chase yelled out to the couples.

A man came running towards him, "What happened here?" he said worridly.

"I was trying to get the train to work again, but this woman *he pointed to her* went crazy from me taking so long to get it working that she yanked the lever of the velocity transistor. That made the train speed up. Then she hit me over the head for taking so long. I fiught back by grabbing to bar and hitting her in self-defence!"

"That woman!" the man yelled, "Now look what she's done!"

"Perfect!" chase thought sinisterly.

The train picked up more and mmore speed. It started shaking ominously. Soon, a great CRACK was heard and the caboose snapped off from the train and started to slide back down the mountain. Chase would not miss them, it was only a highschool class doing some geography work in the desert

"One down, five to go!" Chase thought.

The second carriage from the back was wired to the rest of the train through an electrical wiring. If the circuit was broken, the carriage would unhinge, sending those lovestruck couples to their doom.

The wiring for it was in the kitchen. All he needed now was an excuse.

He apporached a random couple, "Would you like me to go get you some tea to calm your nerves?"

"Shouldn't you be driving the train?" the woman asked.

"I can't, since the controls are busted. I'll go consult the mechanic. He should be able to fix it."

"Then yes, we would love some tea. Are you ok? that sore of yours looks terrid!"

She pointed to his head.

"Oh yes, it does hurt indeed. It sometimes throbs like hell! Like-AHHHHHH!" he clutched his head, "Ahh, it hurts like hell at random intervals. It's really bad for concentration."

"Oh I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"No, don't worry. I'll be right." Chase then walked off to the kitchen.

He wasn't really experiencing random throbbings. He just needed an excuse.

The wiring to the last carriage linked through a power box in the kitchen. A quick interference with it would send the carriage down.

Chase prepared the tea, and when he finished, he made sure to open the hatch to the power box, make the tea extra hot and leave the lid open. He picked up the tray, and then all of a sudden:

"AHHHHH!"

He lurched forward and sent the tea flying into the wires. There was a massive spark and a big explosion outside. Then there was a great CRACK and the second carriage broke away.

The advantage of the wiring was that not only did it link the previous carriage to the train, it also help strengthen the reinforcements to the next carriage. Now, they would be severly weakened. All they needed was a little encouragement.

Chase took out his desert eagle from his massive jacket, "It's time for some high flying action!" he said with the most darkest of tones.

Of course he put the gun back. He would get into trouble if the caught him wielding a gun on the train. But ever so carefully, he walked over to the last carriage. He needed to scope out what exactly the bolt linking the carriage looked like and what condition it was in, so he could do the right amount of damage to it.

Just at that moment, one of the waitress' on the train came to him.

"Oh Chase, something terrible has happened!" she said breathlessly, "The last two carriages have broken away!"

"Well, the last one wasn't very strong, so the increase in velocity must have ripped it off, and something must have happened to the wiring to make it snap off. Of course, if something happened to it, the supports to the next one must be weakened! This is bad!"

"Oh, what are we going to do?" she asked in panic.

"Don't worry, I'll go check to see what the condition is. I'll see what I can do. Hopefully we can fix this problem before the train gets too fast."

"Oh thank you so much! And are you going to do anything about your head?" she pointed frightfully at the mark on his head.

"Ah that? It has its moments. This is not- ARRRRGH!" he lurched forward and hit his head on the cupboard, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just try to keep the patrons calm."

"Will do." she walked off, leaving Chase to plot his sinister plan.

He planned to destroy the link on the next carriage by shooting it. However, to escape suspicion, he needed another scapegoat. He believed if he provoked one of the overly-emotional partners in the carriage, he could aggravate them to a state in which the could be blamed for shooting someone. Of course, this required a sacrafice on his part.

He patted his left arm, "I never really used you anyway. Besdies, what I can get out of this is far more satisfactory than anything it could do to me!"

He walked towards the last carriage which was painted pink for the romantic festivities. How disgusting.

He glanced inside the carriage. If he thought the previous couples were getting lustful, that was nothing compared to these guys. Some were full out sucking face and others were making such pathetic whiny baby talk to each other, the glass was sure to break. This in his opinion was complete abuse of love.

Now even though Chase did not necessarily believe in love, or hold any value for it, he had set aside some beliefs on how it should be put forth. He held the assumption that love was a thing meant to be respected and upheld, even if he didn't believe in it, he believed others that did should at least have some modesty and respect towards each other.

In short, he was disgusted with their lustful behaviour, and this only strengthened his desire to send the whole carriage plummeting. Now, he just needed the right scapegoat...

He entered the carriage to loud music and moaning all around. Now was the perfect time.

"Listen up everyone! I have an important message to deliver!"

Everyone ceased their activity and focused on him. Now he needed to provoke them.

"Due to the obvious hazards of keeping you all together, I have decided to segregate the males from females to end all promiscous activities and-"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" a particularly muscular man from the back of the carriage yelled, "YOU WANT TO SEPERATE ME FROM MY GIRL? NEVER!"

"I'm afraid sir that this is our new policy. So if-"

"THERE IS NO FREAKING WAY YOU ARE SEPERATING ME FROM MY GIRLFRIEND!" he yelled back with obvious rage. Something about him was familiar to Chase.

"Hang on? Your name wouldn't happen to be Bret Jackson would it?"

Bret Jackson: the very definition of jock in Chase's opinion.He was strong. And fast. And very muscular. e got all the girls for being the schools star player and for his alleged looks, although many a subordinate begged to differ. He was also incredibly stupid and dim-witted. He had yet to get over 30% in any school test and never understood what the teacher was saying. He often got the good-looking girl, but he always mistreated her as he had no respect for anyone other than himself. A quick glance at him now proved that times had not changed.

"Yeah, my name IS BRET! YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH..." he faltered, "Hey, you're that Chase nerd!"

"Yes I am that 'Chase-nerd'" Chase said sardonically, "Do you have a problem with that?"

The sarcasm was driving Bret insane. Another well-placed insults should send him over the edge.

"SHUT UP YOU! I'M GONNA KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!"

"Please, you don't even know where my vital organs are. You would miss and hit the wall and everyone would laugh at you like I am now." With that, Chase laughed his cold cruel laugh. This drove Bret over the edge and he charged at Chase. Chase jumped out of the way and Bret crashed into the wall as Chase had said. The rest of the people in the carriage all laughed at him. Inside, Bret's spirit was crashing down all around him. He had never been laughed at in his entire life. And now, he was going to take Cahse down with him.

He picked himself up off the floor and stared furiously at Chase. "YOU..." he breathed menacingly, "ARE... DEAD!!!!!!"

With that, Bret chased Chase out of the carriage and onto the platform outside. Bret slid the door shut.

"Now no one will have to watch me kill you!" Bret said with a false sense of enthusiasm.

Chase felt quite good. Now was his chance to exact the revenge he had dreamt of exacting on Bret for all of his school years. Now, he had the chance to kill him.

"You want to kill me? Well what are you waiting for? Bring it on chump!"

Bret charged without warning. He caught Chase off guard and threw him against the guardrails on the outsides of the carriage. Chase felt the strong sense of pain surge through him. He decided now was the time to act.

He let out a massive scream of pain. That alerted the attendants to the ongoings. It also gave Bret a great sense of accomplishment.

"You see this?" he held up his fist, "This will be the last thing you see before you die! Any last words?"

"As a matter of fact I do have some last words... For you."

Chase took out his desert eagle and pointed it at Bret, "You see this? This will be the last thing you see before you die!"

"You don't have the guts!" Bret yelled, "You don't have the-"

Chase fired two quick shots at Bret's heart. He fell down instantly. The man that had tormented him for all his life was now dead. He felt a great sense of victory. In the carriage behind him, all the occupnats cheered.

"Thank you for your cheers, but they will be of no use to me!" Chase said mirthlessly. With that, he fired another two shots at the link, breaking it and sending the silently screaming passengers to their doom down the cliff.

To finish things off, he shot himself in the arm. He did not scream. That would ruin the illusion.

The waitress came back to Chase. when she couldn't see the carriage that used to be there, she became worried.

"Chase, what has happened? There used to be a carriage there!?"

"Well, I went there to tell them to calm down about the trains mishaps, but that man over there  would not be calmed and actually physically threatened me. He then grew worse and this culminated in a fight. He shot off the link to the carriage so that he couldn't be persecuted by witnesses. He then shot me with that desert eagle twice  and moved in for the kill. I then acted out of self defence and knocked the gun out of his hand and shot him once and he fell down dead."

"This is bad!" she said worridly, "If this keeps up, the whole train is going to break!"

"Listen, I will do anything in my power to stop the chaos before anything more happens!" Chase reassured her, "Now, lets get things under control!"

She seemed reassured enough, but there was still something wrong.

"I'll just move this body to prevent any passengers from freaking out." she said flatly.

Chase went back inside the second carriage. He now only had two carriages left to detach before his revenge could be exacted. Things were moving along great.

Now... The second carriage was bloted down heavily. Not only was it held in place with an electric deadlock, there were several supports, a guard and to top it off: lasers and magnitic fields. This was going to take some serious doings.

"Or maybe." Chase thought while pocketing the trains schematics and codes from the electronics locker, "This is going to be easier than I thought!"

Chase decided to approach the problem as a microwave cooks food. Work out from the outside and eventually reach the inside. He needed to act fast as the train was picking up pace and there was very little track left up on the cliffs. He decided to start with the guard. Just why this link was so important was beyond him. He decided the guard could be used as another scapegoat.

He proceeded to the next carriage where the guard was stading next to the door with a fierce glint in his eyes.

"What do you need driver?" he asked in a lifeless tone.

"I just came to see how you were doing and I need to check the controls at the drivers area to make sure they work properly."

Just at that moment, he felt the sudden updrft of heat from the lasers. He used this time to scope out the schematics of the link in the flesh.

"Do we really need lasers?" Chase asked the guard, "I mean, lasers?"

"Management said we need them." the guard said casually, "End of story."

"I see."

Chase walked into the next carriage. If he was to do anything there, he needed the guard out of the picture. The only thing that could draw him away would be to start another fight. However to avoid suspicion, he needed to make sure he did not get involved in any fighting.

A young man walked up to him, no doubt on the way to the toilet.

"Hello there" Chase said pleasantly to the man. He smiled.

"Oh hey dude." he seemed a little nervous. "Just trying to prep myself for my first kiss!"

"Ah really?" Chase saw an opportunity unfold, "You best get to the bathroom and have a nervous pee and I'll help you out afterwards."

"Cool! Thanks dude!" he scurried off to the toilets. The trains kitchen housed many sauces and Jams. Chase found the very one he was looking for.

"Ah, luscious strawberry!" Chase said with particular delight. He slathered the jam on the numb fingertips on his left hand and awaited the return of the young man.

With a quick swift noise of a distant toilet flushing, Chase moved in for the kill.

"Your back! Ready for the main event?" Chase asked the man genially.

"Ready as I'll ever be." he said nervously.

"Hmm, your collar looks a little scruffy though. Here let me fix it for you." Chase then straightened the mans collar, taking extra care to manipulate his fingers in an incriminating pattern.

"There you go! Now you look the part!"

"Thanks dude!" the man walked off with a spring in his steps. Chase took the time to go over the schematics of the link. From what he could make out, the magnets were in between the links and the re-inforcements. If the polarity was reversed, not only would the magnets destroy each other, they would blow off the supports, exposing the electrical wires to the lasers, which would fry each other and nullify their defences. That left the link exposed, which would allow him to swiftly take it out. All he needed now was a way to reverse the magnets.

It was just at the moment when he realised the magnets were vulnerable to sonic interference and energy distortians, a massive scream was heard followed by an angry womans voice.

"YOU... I CAN'T BELIEVE I TRUSTED YOU! I WILL KILL YOU!"

Chase turned round to see a livid woman screaming at the man he had talked to only minutes ago. His plan was working.

And to make matter better, the arguing escalated into a physical fight. The guard immediately left the carriage to go break them apart. Now was Chase's chance to act. He had to reverse the magnets polarity to rip the carriage apart.

According to the schematics, what he needed to do now was to go to the end of the carriage and reverse the polarity by accessing the electronic panel. However, the change required the use of an algortihm that he didn't know. He knew something that could help him though.

Just as he was about to go, the waitress came back.

"Chase, theres another arguemnt going on, whats happeneing? This is meant to be a valentines trip and we have people arguing and carriages detaching!"

"Look, I have no idea how all of this is happening! This seems to be abysmally bad luck on our part. I reckon someone is stirring up trouble here on the train! We need to find them and stop this!"

"We shall see." she walked off the try and ply the couples off each other.

Chase went out to scope the link again. And then he noticed something.

He glanced at the spot where the guard usually stood. Etched into the ground was some random numbers and letters. To the untrained eye, it was nothing more than say, the serial number of a fuel tnk or something. But underneath it in fine print was the message: AGRTM PLRTY 2 MGNT 1-2This meant that it was the algorithm for the magnets that would reverse the polarity. Just why this was here was beyond Chase. all he knew was that this would be very useful.

With this in mind, he went to the back of the train to orchestrate everyones eventual doom.

Or at least the back of what remained of the train. He suddenly thought of how ridiculous the security measures were if one component of the security mechanisms could destroy the rest. The train contructors probably assumed the guard would fix everything and that no one would guess what the algorithm was.

How very wrong they were.

At the back of the second carriage was the main electricity panel. Opening it, he saw a mess of wires and switches. However his days at engineering university had defintely paid off as he found the section that dealt with the electric deadlocks on the carriages. On that panel was a computer screen that told him about the state of the locks. below it was a keyboard where commands could be entered. With a grin of success, he enetered the algorithm in.

He waited for the data to enter the computer. Not taking any chances, he strolled out of the carriage before he got caught in it. As he did so, he passed a couple that were curious about his actions.

"Excuse me sir, what were you doing with the electricity panel back there?" the woman asked apprehensively.

"Oh, just a routine electrical check." Chase said genially.

"Oh thats ok then. I just thought for a moment you were engineering our destruction." she said casually.

Chase did a double take in his mind. Somehow, he thought the woman was onto him.

"No, I'd never do that." Chase lied through his teeth, "Everything will be fine."

He then walked out of the carriage, just waiting for the moment when the supports would break.

The only problem was, they didn't. It was a full two minutes until Chase realised that it was only the first half of the algorithm. The second half was on...

"THE LAST CARRIAGE!" he thought furiously. Now he never would be able to finish the algorithm as even if he did manage to find it, the patrons would grow suspicious if he returned to the panel again. No, to solve this problem, he would need to get creative.

He thought hard. He knew that the whole train was elctrically wired. However, with three carriages missing, the wiring would be all messed up. It would take ages to sift through it to find the current that went to the links. He needed to find it fast. Time was running out.

Just at that moment, the guard returned from his duty in the carriage. There was lipstick and scratche all over his uniform. Chase didn't want to know where those came from.

"What happened to you?" Chase asked against his will.

"Never you mind." the guard said gruffly.

"Well, can you give me a hand? Since the carriages have been disabled, the electrical wiring has gone kapoot. Can you help me figure everything out so I can get this train back on track.

"I'll help you." came a voice from behind him. They both turned to see the waitress standing at the door.

"You do that." the guard said simply.

"If I were the boss of this company, I'd have that guard promoted for his cynicism" chase thought gleefully.

The waitress and Chase went into the kitchen, where the circuit board for the train was.

"You see this wire? That is the one that connects the second last carriage to the third. Yet inexplicably, something singed it."

Chase started to get really uncomfortable. It seemed as though people were seeing through his deception. He had to act fast before people caught onto him.

"But here is the wiring that keeps the carriages attached. Make sure you reinforce it before something bad happens."

"I will."

She walked off. Chase then spliced the wire, so that the magnets polarity was reversed. All of a sudden, a great BOOM was heard as the magnets blew each other and the supports off. Without these implements to keep it in place, the laser shot off and destoryed the wiring, which destroyed the deadlock.

Of course, this did not escape suspicion of the guard. He came into the carriage and saw Chase. He made to grab Chases arms, but before he hecould, Chase drew out his desert eagle and shot the guard in the chest. He feel out of the carriage. Taking careful aim, Chase shot the link to pieces, causing that carriage to tumble off the cliff.

This may seem like an incredibly rash descision made by Chase, but in actuality, it was very cunning. Now that there was only one carriage to go, there would be less people to witness him. This time, he didn't have a scapegoat, but he did have an excuse.

"Trauma never was anyones friend until now!" Chase said vondictivley.

With that, Chase let out a panicked scream. He fell to the ground and dropped the gun. the started mumbling to himself with an insane ramble.

With that, the waitess ran over to him. She saw the empty space where the carriage once was and assumed the worst.

"Chase, what happened?" she yelled. She saw the gun next to him and panicked. "Chase did you detach that carriage?"

"Yes, yes, it was all me!" he said in a failing voice, "I couldn't stand the thought of the killer detaching another carriage and out of sheer determination to stop him, I beat him to the carriage. I was hoping I could catch him. But he was too smart. He never got here. And I killed all these people out of vain hope he would appear. I was so determained to get him, yet I didn't. And look what I've done! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Chase fell to the ground and started writhing with (false) unendurable mental agony. This managed to convince the waitress that he was not the killer, but a desperate man who wanted to stop things before they got worse.

"Come on now, lets get you up. I'll make you some tea. I'm so sad that all these people have died, but with only one carriage left, we should be able to narrow down who the killer is."

Chase stopped writhing and slowly lifted his head.

"Thank you. I'll go see if I can do something with this engine."

He then walked off towards the control room. Of course he was going to do something with the engine. He was going to make sure that the train crashed, even at the expense of his own life. Because if he lived, he could be held accountable for the tragedy and Chase hated coping the blame.

The passengers in the front were abnormally quiet. The news that the other carriages had been broken off by some psychopath had left them all feeling very paranoid and they were all scrutinizing their fellow passengers in the vain hope that the killer would reveal themselves so they could get the whole ordeal over.

All of this suspucion was giving Chase an immense sense of satisfaction.

He went to the control room to see the engine in an abysmal state. The high speed it was going at was giving the engine a massive workload. It was only a matter of time before it exploded. Using his meticulous mind, Chase calculated that the train only had about 25 minutes left before the engine over-loaded and exploded. He thought about when the perfect time would be to detonate it.

He went to the drivers seat and looked out of the window. They were in the highest section of the cliff. The cliff walls arounf them were incredsibly steep. Looking further, he could make out Evendor forest. He theorized to himself that it would only take 20 minutes to get there at this speed. He needed to find a way to detonate the engine earlier.

He thought to himself. In about 3 minutes, the jug would have finished boiling and the waitress would bring him the tea. He couldn't use the old "lurch-out-of-pain-and-spill-hot-water-all-over-the-wires trick" anymore becuase he was not dealing with a flimsy carriage link. Now he was dealing with the trains engine.

But could he use to speed up the train even more? What could possibly make the engine detonate when needed?

"Aha! IED's!" he said to himself.

"What was that?" asked a concerned voice from the previous carriage.

"Oh nothing. I'm playing scrabble on my iPhone." chase said casually.

IED. Improvised Explosive device. Chase was going to construct his own explosive. He only had 15 minutes to do it becuase he needed to fit it to the engine and make an impressive final speech befroe they all died.

The question was "how do I do that?"

The answer came to him when he looked in the cupboard and saw a bag of fertilizer.

"This problem is about to grow much much worse!" Chase said with very evil mirth. He then groaned at his terrible joke.

Yes, fertilizer was a very volatile substance when mixed with diesel. It would make the perfect explosion. The fertilizer must had been there becuase when the couples got to Evendor, they would plant tree's so that "they would grow as qiock as their love". Chase suppresed the urge to vomit.

Utilising a nearby toolbox, some spare fuel, several large cups of fertilizer and other nearby chemicals from the emergency medical kit, Chase had contructed a makeshift bomb. Using nearby string, he constructed a fuse.Baing, very careful to make it resemble the toolbox it once was, Chase prepared to go to the engine room to plant the bomb.

As he walked through the door, he ran into the waitress again.

"Oh hello again Chase. What are you doing now?"

"I'm going to perform some maintenance check-ups on the engine. If I don't do something soon, it'll blow up."

"Well, you better go then... say, your toolbox is leaking."

Chase's heart skipped a beat. He needed to make a cover fast.

"Yeah. I've been meaning to clean that oily rag for ages. Sorry about that."

"Never mind. Just fix this engine before it blows up!"

Chase was starting to get nervous. It was almost as if people knew what he was up to. He glanced at his watch and realised he only had 15 minutes left. He had to act fast!

He placed the bomb very carefully in the centre of the engine. With that, he left the room quickly and went back to the drivers seat to await the moment when he would destroy them all.

Time went slowly

And slowly

Very very slowly

And then suddenly.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

There was a massive blast that blasted a massive gap in the carriage. Chase went out to see the destruction. What he saw made him smile like never before.

All the couples had been blasted towards the crumbling wall. They were all on the verge of death.

"What... who did this?" the man who had so annoyed Chase earlier groaned.

"You want to know what really happened?" Chase said softly, "I did this. meticulously orchestrated your ultimate destruction for you mortals ever abuse your misguided concept of love. You don't know whats good and whats bad. So I'm sending you to your demise."

"Mummy, thats that naughty man from before." a little boy whined to one of his parents.

"You won't get away with this you villain!" a woman yelled.

"Really?" Chase took out his desert eagle and shot her in the chest and then the last link to the carriage, "I beleve you are wrong. I've already gotten away with it!"

With that, the last carriage fell off the cliff and to everyones inevitable demise. Knowing that Chase would be pinned for all the blame, he stayed in the remaining compartment: the drivers carriage and awaited destruction.

Or at least thats what would have happened had the waitress not held him at knifepoint as he re-entered the carriage.

"Suprised to see me?" she asked furiously.

"What... What are you doing?" Chase groaned angrily.

"You really thought I didn;t know about your scheme? I knew it every step of the way!"

"PROVE IT!" Chase yelled in sheer defiance.

"PROVE IT??? OH I'LL PROVE IT! I first realised something was wrong when I checked your job credentials. Apparenlty your teachers made a note to say you "had a severe lack of empathy". That made me believe there was a potential killer in you. This was proven after I saw your mutinous look that refused to wear off after those lovestruck parents harrassed you.When you claimed you got hit in the head, I didn't see an indent on your head and that 'blood' was too gelatinous to be authentic. So I knew you were bluffing there. Therefore, your excuse of lurching out of pain had to be a fake. Then, when you claimed you killed that man out of defense, I made the excuse of hiding the body so I could investigate. I heard four gunshots, one of which broke the link. Yet there were two shots in the man, akin to your claim you copped two shots. The man was searched when he got on the train and did not have a gun. This meant that you were the weapons carrier who initiated the whole thing. As for that next carriage, when I noticed the schematics were gone, I knew you were up to something. Almost like you were a magnet for trouble. When you asked me for electrical help, I told you waht was what and watched to see if you'd take the bait and detatch the carriage. Once you did that, I had solid proof you were the one behind it. You even admitted you detahced that carriage. With only one carriage left, I knew you'd get real crafty, so I kept a very close eye on you. I had previously looked at the engine, since I knew that would be you'd strike next. So I made a careful note to watch you whenever you went in there. When I heard you sau IED, I knew you were going to plant a bomb and when I saw that fertilizer-tained oil drip out, I knew it was only a mattaer of time before we all blew up. So I waited in here until the moment when you'd come back so I COULD GET YOU FOR THIS!"

Chase recoiled at the revalation of all this. He could npot believe she had been on to him for tha long. Yet inexplicably... something didn't add up.

"I don't get it. If you knew what I was up to all this time... why didn't you dob me in? You had enough evidence to lock me up for good. So why?"

"Why? Why did I not stop you in your heinous plight of terror? Why did I not prevent any innocent lives from being taken? Why did I not stop you from your misguided sense of liberation?"

"YOU HEARD ME WOMAN, WHY?!!!!!"

"WHY? Because... Becuase I love you."

Chase could not believe it. He had been hated, even by his parents from his entire life and yet this complete stranger not only showed a friendship, but intentions at a relationship too? It was too much for him He fell to the ground.

"It... it can't be. No ones ever loved me... no one."

"Well times change don't they."

She knelt down beside him and with a furious stare at each other, they locked lips and embarced, just as their carriage exploded and flew down to the unforgiving forest below...

It was sunset.

Chase opened his eyes, remarking that he was still alive. Glancing down at his chest, he saw a great metal shard right through it. Yet he could not feel the pain. He knew death would come peacefully.

Looking around, it became apparent to him that "The Conquestor" was in ruins. There were no distinguisable pieces anywhere. It was then he thought he no longer cared. It was only a material possession after all. The thought made him feel better.

To his right, he saw the body of the waitress. She did not make it. She lay dead upon the ground.

Suddenly. Chase froze. There was something inside of him, something that had been suppressed for so long. The beautiful pink, red sky, the loss of his only love, the beautiful forest and the lives of all the people he killed finaly got to him and he could not take it anymore.

Bursting forth from his eyes, came tears that had so long been withheld. Chase cried and cired, for he could not stop. He finally felt what it was like to care, love and to lose. He finally knew empathy. And as he slowly died in this beautiful forest, he finally felt hapy at last.