A long trail of black smoke drifted over the gently rolling hills of the northern Great Plains. The ground shook slightly, as a black locomotive hauled a line of green and red train cars down the lonely tracks. The rhythmic hiss of steam and clanking drowned out the buzzing of insects and the cries of hunting hawks. Mammals, large and small had already fled the area, leaving the surrounding countryside empty, save for swaying grass and scattered wild flowers.

Robert sat in a gently rocking train car, number five from the engine, staring towards the back. His blue-gray eyes slowly slid over the crowd of his fellow passengers, looking each face with care from behind the disks of glass, which where perched on his nose. He could feel he was close to his quarry. For the better part of the past two days, he and his posse of Pinkertons had been riding this train, closing on Twitchy Joe. They had slowly searched up through the train cars, getting off at very stop to watch the crowd and to move to a new car.

His eyes narrowed slightly, as he found a smallish man sitting in the middle of the car. Skinny and lanky, the man had a balding head of greasy black hair, which seemed to wobble slightly. The man looked just like the wanted poster, which was stuffed in the carpet bag, along with boxes of shells, his coach gun and some spare clothing, that was sitting next to the Pinkerton.

As Robert reached into the deep pocket of his duster, his fingers brushing over the grip of his Smith & Wesson Model 3 revolver, something unexpected started to happen. The train’s engineer stared down the tracks, at a shimmering patch of light, which had appeared above the tracks. The man didn’t reach for the break, knowing that it would be to late to slow the train and convinced that he was seeing some sort of heat mirage. However, it didn’t go away as the train raced towards it.

As the cowcatcher touched the patch of light, there was a blinding flash, which surged forwards, enveloping the entire train. Within a second, the steel wheels of the train met soil and grass. The engine shook side to side, almost tipping over several times, as it surged forwards. Finally, with the aid of a large rock, the locomotive flipped over on it’s left side and skidded to a halt, when the cars it had been pulling, smashed into it.

Robert groaned, as he opened his eyes. He could hear weeping, others groaning or moaning and what might be the crackle of flames. He couldn’t remember what happened. The last thing he could recall was standing up, getting ready to arrest Joe, when there had been a flash and then, nothing.

Zella had been sitting just fidgeting with the hem of her dress when this strange thing happened. She held onto her seat as th train hit the ground. As soon as it stopped she groaned in pain, despite holding onto her seat, she had hit her head pretty bad, she could smell the strange scent of blood. But she imagined it couldn't have been too bad, considering she was still awake. She looked around to see what had happened to everyone else, "what has happened?" She asked herself.

She saw people flailed out in different ways everywhere. "What happened? Did we flip off of the track? I don't understand." She thought to herself. She had seen the bright flash of light, but she thought she just imagined that from when she had hit her head. She rubbed her head and looked at her hand and it was bleeding, just as she thought, but it wasn't bleeding a lot, so she ignored it, still trying to figure out how this could have happened.

All Rocky remembered was looking out the window of the train at the plains, when suddenly everything started spinning, and he was thrown out of his seat, bouncing off the walls.

Now he was crawling through a cracked window to the outside plains, but they weren't in the same place. They couldn't have. There were no tracks... but how could the train be here if there weren't? Rocky sprawled out on the long grass, and spat out a tooth. Looking back, he noticed his bloody leg, many crying or even dead people lying down, and the train on it's side. "I couldn't have survived this... I'm dreaming... I'm dreaming." Rocky thought, and his head dropped to the ground and he attempted to forget everything, assuring himself it was just a nightmare.

A while later he woke up, and looked around. He saw once again his bloody leg, many people lying down, and a train on it's side. "No! I'm not dreaming! I'm gonna die."

Nicole gazed out the window of the carriage. Idly she tapped her index finger against the metallic plating of the wall as she hummed a tune softly. It was calming; watching the scenery roll by gently matched with the idle chitter chatter of the passengers beside her. Nicole could only imagine what the future held for her. There was so much promise. She finally felt like she was on her way to accomplishing her dreams of becoming a doctor. Crossing her arms across her chest, she leaned back into her seat and closed her eyes. A smile formed upon her face as she imagined all that she'd encounter once she met up with her father's old friend. She imagined that...

She felt it before she heard it. That old feeling that causes tingles to run down your spine; an odd feeling you get when something bad is about to happen. Her eyes jerked open as the first impact came. She fell off her seat as had many other passengers. Screams filled her ears as a second impact came and this time she flew to the opposite seat and her arm smacked against the cushioning. Was the train crashing? Was it derailing? What? A million thoughts ran through her panicking mind and then nothing.

....................................................................

Nicole groaned in pain. Her head hurt and her body felt sore. She didn't want to open her eyes, she didn't want to face what was out there because if her body felt this battered, she knew not what awaited her. But she had to see. She opened her eyes slowly, adjusting to the light before glancing around. What she saw brought her up into a seating position so fast that she felt dizzy. As she brought herself unsteadily to her feet, Nicole took in the sight around her. Chaos. Small fires burnt everywhere, seeming to merge up with larger ones. Bodies...bloodied bodies were all over the place mixed in with the rubble. She had to get out of here. Her eyes stung of the smoke that filled up the broken carriage. As she carefully but quickly made her way through the carriage, she called out in case there were other survivors. "Hello! Is anyone here? Anyone?" She coughed loudly as smoke filled her throat. She had to get out of here but not without any survivors that could be stuck here. She tried once more. "Is there anyone here?" She shouted as loud as her aching throat would allow.

Robert rubbed the back of his head, he felt like he had fallen off of a horse, which had come back and trampled him. Peering around, he found that the train car he had been riding in had tipped over and he couldn’t find Joe. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the carpetbag and stumbled over to the door. Grabbing the handle, he yanked several times before the door popped open and nearly knocking him to the floor. Smoke seeped in, stringing his eyes.

Throwing his bag out, the Pinkerton pulled himself out of the door and glanced around. It looked like a nightmare out there, dozens of people wondered around the trains or lay on the grass nearby, limbs broken, blood covered or just simply dazed. Dropping back into the car, he planned to start searching for the murderer he was hunting but he was stopped by a young man grabbing his leg. The fellow’s leg was defiantly broken, as there was a shattered piece of bone sticking out of his flesh.

After hauling the man out of the car, all the time listening to him screaming, Robert jumped back inside, just in time to hear a woman calling out and walking towards him from the other end of the car.

“Over here Ma’am!”

Zella was heard the woman yell out, "Is there anyone here" and she looked in the direction of the voice and she saw the woman walking in her direction. She got up and looked at the woman then heard a male yell "over here ma'am." She looked to him, and since she saw the other woman walking in his direction, she went too. She headed towards the man and she felt a bit dizzy, maybe she had hit her head harder than she thought she did.

As she walked towards him many thoughts went through her head. Where exactly are we on the train route? what time was it? What caused this? How many people were dead? These and lots of other things troubled her at the moment. She made her way over to the man, noticing he was standing beside the door. She just wanted to get out of this metal trap. She figured, with how bad the impact felt, that some people had to be dead or dying at this very moment inside the train. She felt, at that moment, that she was walking through a giant metal coffin, she didn't like this feeling.

Still on the ground, Rocky heard hollering coming from inside the smoking train. There were living people. If Rocky wanted to survive, he knew his only chance was the others inside, so with all his heart he got up. His leg was killing him, but he kept going, and peeked in a broken window.
"I'm here too!" Rocky called into the train. "But I think I broke my leg or something." He hoped it wasn't as bad as it currently seemed, because if it really was broken, he might not be able to do anything to get it healed.

Nicole bit back another cough and tears welled in her eyes from the smoke. She almost gave up on finding any survivors within the cabin when she heard two different voices.

"Over here ma'am!"

Nicole jerked her head towards where the voice was coming from and realised it was from outside the carriage. Taking the few steps back, she grabbed her bag that was tossed under rubble. Pulling it out, she made her way towards a gaping hole in the carriage. Nicole caught sight of a younger woman making her way out. There were more survivors. It was then that she heard a soft sound, almost muffled from the other end; "I'm here too." It sounded like a boy. Slinging her leather bag around her shoulders, Nicole shouted out to the Pinkerton who had shouted back at her before, "There's someone in there. I'm going to go see if he needs help." Covering her mouth with the back of her hand, Nicole braved her way through two carriages, bloodied bodies and small fires before she found the boy she was looking for. She winced when she saw his leg. "It might be broken," she mumbled to herself. But she wasn't sure. She had to clean away the blood and feel his bones to know for sure.

Turning to the young lad, she said, "Come on, put your arm over my shoulder. I'll help you out." She was slightly taller than him but she managed to bend alittle so that he could place his arms over her shoulder for balance. "The faster we get out of here the better," Nicole coughed and said.

Nettie felt the cars rumble ominously seconds before the crash hit her. She was in one of the cars near the back, and the lead cars had accordioned up on each other. She heard the screams of steel and death before it hit her. Clutching Hana in terror, Nettie threw herself on the floor under her seat, covering her daughter with her own body. She saw nothing as the car hit the one in front of it and started to skid sideways. Her head and shoulders hit the seats and she was jostled around, but she clutched Hana and remained firmly wedged in her tiny safe spot. Overhead, she heard her window break and smelled pine and smoke.

Once the train car had skidded to a stop, Nettie tried to stand. She was blocked in by a large pine limb coming through her window. Still clutching Hana, she soldier-crawled her way across the floor - harder now, because the car had been slung around and peoples' satchels were spilled willy-nilly. Finally breaking through into a bit of sunlight, she frantically checked over Hana. The babe seemed safe enough, although she was screaming uncontrollably. Nettie did her best to soothe the child, but was quickly screaming herself.

"Rose! Rose!" Her friend had been sitting behind her, but Nettie saw nothing but pine boughs now. "Rose, where are you?" She felt warmth oozing down her back and right shoulder, and she glanced back to realize that her gown had been torn and the pine limb had scored a nasty gash down her right side. She was dizzy as well, and suspected that she'd hit her head harder than she realized. She coughed, waving at the dust in the air. "Rose! Please, where are you?"

Hana still screamed, but Nettie could only think of finding Rose. She began rummaging through the debris, looking for her friend. The car shifted again, shaking, and Nettie finally realized that it might not be safe. The fact that they'd crashed began to sink in. She wanted to cry, but refused to. "Rose?" she called weakly, one last time, before trying to clear her way to the nearest door.

Rocky was greatful when one woman came to him and offered to help. She seemed to be a doctor according to her wisdom. She said Rocky's leg could be broken and his hope dropped a bit, but then she slightly bent down and told him to put his arm over her shoulders for support.
"I can't tell you how thankful I am!" In Rocky's mind, there was a spark of hope as he hopped up on his good foot and put an arm over the woman's shoulders. His leg was getting numb, but he realized that as long as he survived he would be happy. But only now had he realized how the crash effected the other passengers. He was especially saddened when he saw a woman clutching a baby a few seats down that had a tree sticking through her window, and she seemed to be calling for a friend. But what if that murderer Rocky was running from had somehow caught up to him as they were crashed behind a rock? He hoped it wouldn't happen.

The first woman Robert had seen, the one that had been calling out, turned away, looking for more survivors in the wreckage of the overturn train car. He didn’t not have to wait long though, for someone else to come along. Another woman, this one skinny as a rail, although he couldn’t tell much else about her through the smoke and his now dirty glasses. She didn’t say much, actually nothing at all and looked to be in a daze (who wouldn’t though, given the situation? He had been daze for a bit.).

After a moment of silence, the Pinkerson took a step forwards and looking politely ashamed, became somewhat familiar with the young lady. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he held her close, as he climbed up to the door and set her on the side (which was now the top) of the train car. Mumbling something that might have been an apology, he dropped back into the smoking wreck, just in case the first woman managed to find someone in need of help.

It was a good thing too, as he get his feet settled on the twisted and smashed wood of the train car’s side (which was now the floor), he could hear the cries of a babe and the screaming of third woman from somewhere in the wreckage. Peering into the smoke, causing his eyes to water and his throat to burn as he breathed, the quasi-lawman searched for the source of the noise.

“This way” called Robert, “The way out is this way!”

Nettie heard someone calling. Thank the good Lord! There were others alive.

"This way! The way out is this way!”

She turned around, but everything was lopsided, smoky, and dusty. "Rose? Are you here? We've got to get off the train!" She tried to pull the limb back and see if Rose was pinned, but she couldn't do it one-handed. She just didn't seem to have strength anymore. Hana screamed even louder, pulling at Nettie's dress. Nettie squeezed her close. "Hush, darling." Reluctantly, she turned and began making her careful way towards the voice she had heard.

There was the man who had sat beside her. He'd walked off earlier, seemingly to flirt with a lady three rows up. He lay broken in her way, and Nettie gasped. His neck seemed broken, with his head at an odd angle and a large chunk of scalp missing. Nettie blinked at him for a moment, then turned and vomited. She rubbed her eyes wearily, and it slowly began to hit her that most of the passengers were dead.

"This way!"

"Rose?" She knew she would need help to move the tree clear. She couldn't check the back rows at all. Nettie vaguely remembered watching out the window, enjoying a rather clear view from the tracks. There had been no trees that she recalled. None close enough to have skidded into. Where on earth had it come from? She was incredibly lucky that she'd thrown herself to the floor.

Swallowing uncomfortably, she stepped over her seatmate and headed for the voice. She could see light beaming down the aisle (wall?) and pushed towards it, ignoring the heaps of bodies until she was forced to move one to make it through. When she reached the door, she was finally crying. A man was silhouetted in the door. She gratefully accepted his hand, though she refused to pass Hana off to anyone else. Once outside, she blinked in the sudden brightness. "I can't find Rose...and, um, the gentleman from Chicago is dead. So are others, but I don't know who."

She glanced around, realizing that it didn't at all look like what she'd expected. She had indeed swung sideways into a tree, whose branches were now sticking straight out of the window where she and Rose had been sitting. "How did this happen?" Nettie's voice was shrill, and she realized she was losing control but was unable to stop yelling. "Where is the constable? How far is the nearest town? We need some help here! We need...we need axes, and water and medicaments, and somebody needs to help me find ROSE!" She stumbled to a nearby rock to sit, her legs feeling too wobbly to support her. She looked at the wreckage of the train. It was a twisted mess that had gauged a deep hole in the local terrain. Nettie's head swung as she looked ahead and back again. Her mind cleared ever so slightly. "My word! Where are the tracks?"

Once the man had put her on the top of the train safely she coughed a bit. She hadn't really paid much attention to the smoke, she had just wanted to get out, but now that she was out in the air she could feel that she had taken in smoke.

She looked in through the door but couldn't see much now, "i wonder how many people are still alive." She said to herself.

She stood and looked around and saw no track near or around the train in any direction. This confused her greatly, how could they be this far away from a track. And to top it all off, she felt like something was wrong, like the train crashing wasn't the only strange thing that happened to them. But she couldn't put her finger on it at the moment. She waited at the top of the train to see if anyone else was going to make their way out.

"I'm just grateful that there are more survivors," Nicole replied to the young lad. Supporting his weight, she shuffled her way through the rubble on the ground. The smoke was starting to irritate her eyes and she was thankful when she heard the voice of a man, guiding them to an exit. As she and the young lad made their way towards the exit, Nicole saw that the man was assisting a woman and her child out of the carriage.

"Damn it,"Nicole cursed in an unladylike fashion under her breath as she realised that the exit was now above them. Bringing herself and the boy to a stop, Nicole looked up at the man and said, "If you could assist him out. His leg is injured pretty badly." She took the opportunity to bring her bag further up her shoulder. She needed what was inside more than ever. By god's grace, she did not have a physical injury as bad as the boy and she would need whatever equipment she had in her bag to help others who might be equally injured.

Bracing her weight on her right foot, she supported the boy under his arm and awaited the man's assistance. She badly wanted to get out of the overturned train, away from the copper smell of blood and the gory sight of bodies. But she was not sure if she was ready for the sight beyond.

One young man was being dragged from the train. His leg or foot was injured, it looked like. Nettie realized that her own head was still fuzzy. She tried to focus and think clearly.

She only saw three or four people. Surely there had to be more survivors! "Where is the constable?" she asked again, weakly, feeling strangely unsettled since she saw no tracks, nor roads, nor so much as noise or smoke or anyone close by. People would have heard the screeching, massive wreck. Help must surely be on the way.

"I'm Nettie," she called out, making eye contact with another young woman. She looked for the man who had helped her from the train, but she wasn't sure where he was. "My friend Rose is somewhere on there, maybe unconscious. I need help finding my friend. We need to find and count any survivors. Is there a physician or a constable here?"