The passenger steam train chugged forward at full speed through the windy great
plains, traveling to its ultimate destination, Boston. All men and women were socializing
upon this train, conversing and having a good time, except for one man. This man
happened to be the most important person on the train; Hector Marville was the train
conductor. He sat upright in his large chair at the corner of his small library in the front
train cart. Hector could smell the incinerating coal as he carefully turned each page of his
leather bound book, Hamlet, trying not to pry open the book too far so as to damage the
binding. Hector scratched the pale scar running down his long neck. Hardly did it ever
irritate him, besides the fact that he was mute. Hectors inability to speak was his main
excuse for not being socially active; his life was his books.
“To be or not to be, that is the question” read Hector silently as the train progressed
through the plains. His eyes were beginning to strain, so he tore his face from the book
and stared through the window connecting to the next train cart; an average
setting…people talking…for a second Hector experienced a hint of jealousy when his eye
caught these happy men and women talking with each other. Suddenly something caught
Hector’s eye – it was so vague he hardly knew what it was, when he returned his glance
to a man looking down to everyone in the cart. There was something on his arm!
A tattoo! A memory seeped up from the deep caresses of Hector’s mind; the tattoo was in
the shape of a serpent….The Serpent! Hector’s already pale face sank into an even more
deathly pallor. He leaped to the floor, trying not to be seen, and opened a small chest
under his chair. Hector lifted out a short but heavy gun that caused him great effort to
hold up. The weapon felt warm and sweaty in his grip while his eyes wandered around
the cabin. -Oh God! I’m not ready for this!- thought Hector, -this can’t be the end! It can’t!
Then, without thinking, he jammed the gun into his pants and climbed out of the
side window, onto the top of the speeding train. Wind crawled up his back as he toppled
over train cart, after train cart until he was at the end. His body was shaking like an
avalanche, and before he knew so, he swung into the window for the last cabin and furled
out his gun. Women were screaming and protecting their young while men took cautious
steps back. All was silent. Then Hector pointed his gun into the sky and fired. Everyon
stormed out of the train cart like a herd of buffalo and Hector opened up the floorboard
and cranked a lever, then the last train cart detached itself from the rest of the hurtling
train. After five minutes Hector’s cart was stationary while he saw his entire home fly off
into the golden distance….
Hector sat down on the floor and placed his hands on his face –I can’t believe they
found me- he thought. Hetor had not a phone, nor any means to contact the outside world.
–Now I’m stuck in a vast plain- he thought once more.
“Well, was that really necessary?” came a voice from behind Hector, as if straight
from his thoughts. He leaped up and turned around when his eyes widened. There was a
man dressed in the train’s steward clothes that Hector vaguely remembered hiring.
“Call me Donny”, the man said, “you might remember me…I certainly remember
you…now, sir, why do you have a gun? You certainly don’t look like the terrorist
type…if anything you look like an old man.”
-Oh yes, the chatty one- thought Hector stubbornly; he rolled his eyes. “Oh yaaa!”
exclaimed Donny, “You’re mute, aren’t you? Maybe we can talk with a note-pad” Donny
quickly opened up his steward pouch and pulled out a pencil and notepad, with which he
handed to Hector. “Now why?” said Donny “did you release us from the rest of the
train?” Hector stared coldly into his eyes then slowly began to write: They want my
voice. “What?” mumbled Donny, his big libs trying to form words “How-wha-who-
ya…” he looked up from the note pad and saw Hector no where in sight. Donny ran out
of the train cart and leaped into the majestic wild where he saw, waving like a golden
ocean with the sun directly above, the Great Plains. “Mr. Marville! Oh! There you are”
bellowed Donny amidst the ravaging wind, scrambling and screaming in random
directions. Hector was picking up pieces of wood and tossing them into a pile. “O.K.-ya-
lets just make a bon-fire to signal help. Uh…I’ll get you a flare to light it.” Donny said as
he retrieved a small flare and handed it Hector, his legs were started to get irritated by the
grass. Hector crammed it in his pants then froze silently. His eyes widened staring right
into the opening of the train cart, Donny looked at that point and saw, climbing like an
average passenger into the train cart, a lion.
“Oh my god…,” mumbled Donny in a high pitched whimper, “Oh…my…god”
Hector nudged Donny in the side; the lion had heard his whining and stared out the
window with a ravenous look in its eye as it held a seat cushion between its jaws. It
dropped the cushion and stepped slowly out of the vehicle, showing its full golden brown
color and its feet forming craters in the miserable grass. The two men stood petrified in
fear, realizing they were the monster’s next victims.
Suddenly, from the sky, came a thick rope, dangling for their rescue. They looked
up into the sky and immediately recognized a massive oval in the air, connecting to the
rope. A blimp! With haste Donny and Hector struggled up the rope, just before the lion
pounced upon them.
The two men hurled themselves over the blimps windowsill, falling to the carpeted
floor and panting like dogs. “Nice of you to join me…” came the voice of a manstriding
towards them “It seems I couldn’t perceive you on your beautiful train, but, at least I have
you now…”
Hector looked up into the eyes of the greatest man he feared, who he could only
recognize…with the serpent tattoo. Donny and Hector got onto their feet and realized
there were at least 50 other men surrounding them…each with the serpent tattoo. “And
what,” questioned Donny “is your name?”. He said “Rimsky Karteran. You’ve just happened to stumble onto our innocent totalitarian blimp base” he protruded a wicked smile “Hector and I have some unfinished business to attend to. Ralph!”
“Oh, yes sir, I’ll do it” said a hunched over man; a midget in comparison to Rimsky.
He attached a bundle of cords and wires to Hectors neck while others constrained him.
Rimsky held a small microphone up to Hector’s mouth and yelled “Speak, you fool!”
“Never!” mumble Hector, spit drooling from his mouth. Hector Marville spoke. A
strange shockwave rocked the blimp while a hum rolled through the valley. “Well, Mr.
Marville, thanks to you, we have just caused a complete obliteration of all technology
throughout the United States, great job.” “What just happened, Hector” Muttered Donny
frightfully.
“I-can’t I…I can’t explain” Hector replied in a soft but craggily voice. “You must!”
yelled Donny forcefully “who are these people. What have you done?”
“Thirteen years ago,” sighed Hector “I was a prisoner to these totalitarian outcasts.
They… forced me to create a device that would wipe out all American technology, so
they could sell technology and become the dictators of America. So I created this device,
but made it voice activated by me, and then I removed my vocal gland and escaped the
prison. I never thought they would find me.”
“But we did!” added Rimsky smugly and close enough for Hector to taste his putrid
breath, “And I will give you the option to either die…or join us in our take-over of
America.” The two men thought hard, contemplating their decision, when Hector noticed
a plaque on a table they were standing by that read: Hydrogen blimp, built 1836. Hector
smiled, “You see Rimsky…I would never join you, even if you had good intentions. It’s
because, Rimsky, you never learn from histories mistakes; Democracy is good, and
Hydrogen…is flammable.”
Suddenly Hector pulled out a flare, struck it on a table, and threw it at a red curtain,
igniting it into flames. “It’s gonna’ blow!” yelled one man. Another said “He’s going to
pull a Hindenburg on us!”
All was a blur as Rimsky knocked down Hector…, and Donny grabbed a parachute and
leaped out of the blimp. Shortly after, flames gripped hold of the oval in the sky and
ignited the flying machine into a puff of smoke and fire. The hum in the air stopped
rumbling, and technology once again became free to America. Donny slowly hit the
ground while Hector and the totalitarians careened into the Earth, within an everlasting
inferno.
Epilogue
Donny rode swiftly in the helicopter four hours after his rescue from the plains. He was
staring at the pilots when he noticed something, something so slight…it was hardly
noticeable. Tattoo serpents on each man’s arm. Donny almost choked on his own saliva-
“It’s too simple-they must be all over the country!” he thought. When, rising over the
horizon was the city of Washington D.C.
- It was in flames.
Gender:
Points: 1228
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