Last Train To Nowhere

Chapter 5: The Wolf of Caledonia

I rapped my knuckles against the door, my ear pressed close to the wood, alert for the sound of activity within. Not too close, mind you, I’d taken a door to the nose before under such circumstances, so I knew to give myself a bit of breathing room, to avoid a repeat of that particular blunder, on the off chance that some doors open outward, which wasn’t the case for my own cabin. When no response was forthcoming, I knocked a second time, a bit harder now, just enough for my knuckles to really feel it. When there was still no answer, I gave it up as a bad job, and went to the next door to try again.

There were three sleeper carriages in the Fort William section of the train. Each carriage contained ten rooms: six of them boasting individual rooms with en-suite facilities, my own being an example here, and the remaining four featuring a more humble arrangement of bunk beds and shared bathrooms. Together with the Club Car for drinks and dining, four carriages in total were accessible to me. A fifth carriage contained those too cheap to rent a room, and opted for regular seating instead. Supposedly, the chairs were better than a typical commuter train, reclining considerably and with a guaranteed table for each passenger, and that still sounded pretty awful for a thirteen hour trip, so I’d never travelled in such a way before, and never planned to.

The second and third rooms were also a bust, either empty or their residents ignoring me, but when I tried the fourth room, someone finally acknowledged my knocking and opened the door.

“What do you want?” An elderly gentleman asked, squinting at me through thick rimmed spectacles that suggested he was all but blind without them.

“Sorry to bother you, but would you happen to have any cocaine, or similar stimulants you’d be willing to part with?”

The door slammed in my face, not literally, but you know what I mean. A shame, really, as the old man’s disgusted expression was quite funny, in the brief moment it was visible to me. Yes, I was going door to door, looking for something extra strong to keep me awake. Why not? After all, even though I’d left the drugs at home, some people must take them on the trains, otherwise there’d be no need for there to be sniffer dogs at the station. I just needed one passenger willing to part with the goods, on three carriages that between them could carry up to sixty passengers, so I considered my odds of success to be reasonable.

Regrettably, it seemed that either I was getting quite unlucky, or the train was far from full capacity tonight, because the next two doors were also a bust. Counting my own, that was all I’d get from the en-suites, so there was nothing to it but to try the four shared rooms. The first opened promptly, bringing me face to face with a pair of university students, complete with matching college jackets. Unfortunately, they bucked the typical stereotype by being both strait-laced and studious: they didn’t even have any ritalin or adderall with them, for God’s sake.

The next room had someone inside, but I never learned anything about them besides that their voice was quite deep, on account of the creative obscenities he shouted at me through the door, which I won’t deign to repeat. The third door was quiet, completely so, and I chalked it down to another empty cabin, and as for the fourth. Well… The man who greeted me was definitely on something strong, his bloodshot and glassy eyes told me as such, as did the strong scent of alcohol and tobacco on his breath. That was without him even saying anything, even! So, on the bright side, he had what I was looking for. On the downside? He also had a mean right hook, and was apparently completely happy to sucker punch a stranger.

—

I woke up again, one minute after midnight, with a phantom pain at the bridge of my nose, which gradually faded as I pulled myself out of bed.

“Huh. Apparently you really can kill with just one punch.”

Well, that was what I assumed, at least. He might have simply knocked me out, long enough for the reset to happen, or piled on multiple hits after I was gone, but it was cooler to imagine that he’d done it with a single punch. Not that the cool factor would prevent me from repaying him, of course. But first, I headed out again, skipping all the rooms that I’d tried already. Whilst I could barge into that last room and make a grab at his stash, I’d want a weapon in hand first, since he clearly outclassed me physically. That was assuming I didn’t find someone more cooperative first, in one of the other two cabins. With that possibility in mind, I pressed the button to open the door between carriages, and took a single step out into the Club Car.

“What just happened?” I muttered, ignoring the curious stare of the nearby steward.

I stepped back the way I came, and found myself back in my own sleeper carriage. I made sure it was mine, even heading back to my cabin for a bit to confirm as such. Then, I repeated the trip, and once again, a single step took me back to the Club Car, where I continued to stare blankly ahead.

“Are you alright, sir?” The Steward was quick to approach, this time. “Need a bit of water, or something for motion sickness?”

Well, at least the service was good.

“I’ll be fine, thanks,” I replied, getting a sceptical look in return. “I’ve not been getting much sleep lately, and it’s finally catching up to me, I think. That said, are we running a short train this journey? I thought there were usually more carriages on the route.”